Bought my first E30, made sure to get an awful one

[inertiaticism]

I bought this 1987 eta, and I'm planning on building it into a fun daily driver.
I tend to daily drive cars that aren't well suited at all to daily use, and I don't plan on this being any different.



I've got a 2011 Mazda2 to fall back on for now, but I'm giving it to my wife when this thing gets drivable so this needs to be a solid driver that I can have fun in, for next to no money. I know this car well, it's been around for close to 5 years, when a friend i worked at a VW dealership bought it as a project for $300.
He never even touched it and sold it to my old roommate and he used it as an autocross beater for a few years. I did nearly all of the work on it, some of it ghetto, the important stuff was done well.



The car was gutted pretty aggressively and we did a rough job of it, we pinned the hood and gave it a terrible paint job that is mostly sanded off now.
Then it changed hands twice more before another friend sold it to me.
It was basically ridden hard and put away wet for years, it was a sort of communal hoon mobile at our house and I've driven it for months at a time.
So when it came up for sale, I had to buy it and do something fun with it.



It's got a conforti chip, tokico blues and cut tokico springs (garbage), Ireland strut bars, ST sways, almost new Azenis, a race bucket and a momo wheel.
And a good 4:10 LSD, a good engine/trans, with a recent TB and WP, and a recent HG and clutch. My goal is really just to make it better for as little money as possible, so I'll be fabbing, refurbishing, and reusing everything I possibly can.
I just want to make this car a fun, not-serious project that ends up being awesome even if it never really is a nice E30 ever again.

[stamar]

that is cool

the very worst part is the last part you said that they downgraded to tokico springs.

so he put the springs from an accord on his auto cross car.

Id have to deal with that whats the point of a sport sedan with a accord suspension. For as little money as possible sucks too so you need some stock springs from a junkyard car

[sinep]

cool project! More pics of the defender 90!!!

[CrusherCurtis]

Is that your defender?

[inertiaticism]

that is cool

the very worst part is the last part you said that they downgraded to tokico springs.

so he put the springs from an accord on his auto cross car.

Id have to deal with that whats the point of a sport sedan with a accord suspension. For as little money as possible sucks too so you need some stock springs from a junkyard car

They're not as bad as you make them sound, I've driven stock cars and these are better. Not good by any stretch, but not too stiff and not so low that they bottom out.
The tokico stuff is crap though, my last car (an S13 hatch) had Koni DAs in the front in sectioned strut tubes with AFCO sleeves and custom upper perches.
Planning on doing something similar with this car, just with shorter dampers instead of a sectioned tube. I think VW Rabbit Konis fit an E30 strut tube and have a shorter stroke.
Is there a cheaper way to do rear coilovers than GC? I'd really like to just run a true coilover in the back instead of adjusters and springs in the stock locations. Do I need to reinforce anything in the rear strut tower or control arm to do that?

The D90 belongs to a good friend of mine who lives above me, wrenched on it quite a bit over the years. It's a 1995 NAS D90 with Safari Gard 3 link, 4" lift springs and remote resivoir Bilsteins. 37" Wrangler MTRs on true beadlocks.
It's a beast, and it's getting a frame off resto with a new tub this coming year, with coilovers and possibly a non-rover V8.

[Turf1600]

All kidding aside - that's one of the worst project cars I've ever seen.

[nates 87 325is]

I think you should do an eBay car! Just every part you replace get it from eBay.

[89 e30]

You paid money for that??? I would have asked for money to take it. Excited to see it when its finished good luck

[cagedbunny]

Chris! I saw the Mazda and knew it was you. So excited to see you back in another poor decision :p The new car looks like it's going to provide some great entertainment, I'll have to swing by and check it out some time!
BTW, tell John I'm still dailying the Outback, and loving it.

[inertiaticism]

All kidding aside - that's one of the worst project cars I've ever seen.

Hahaha, I wanted a project to keep busy with. I could have gotten a better car, but this one had most of the crap I'd end up wanting to buy for it right away. And I know it's mechanically strong for the most part.
I'm going to try and bring some order to the underdash wiring shitfest tomorrow.
Basically, nothing on the dash worked at all. Not even the radio.
I'll get the harness done and the dash in tomorrow, hopefully.

Chris! I saw the Mazda and knew it was you. So excited to see you back in another poor decision :p The new car looks like it's going to provide some great entertainment, I'll have to swing by and check it out some time!
BTW, tell John I'm still dailying the Outback, and loving it.

What's going on, Adam? That M3 you have for sale is beautiful!
Hopefully this thing will start coming together quickly, I can't wait to drive something rwd again.
It should be a blast. Come by anytime, I'm off of Queens Rd near Elizabeth. I'll PM you my number.

[stamar]

What I like about your car is you dont have to get out of the car to change a fuse. You can just reach right through.

[motors4me]

bwahahaha....mmmmm.....hahahahah.......(sigh).














J/K

[Bearmw]

Much rust? If not, then worth the $300 IMO. What's with the 4.10 though...on an eta? This car has the large guibo right? That wiring nest looks like fun to me...hopefully the useful wires are still intact.

I like these kind of DDers sometimes (when it is not me having to bring them back from the dead. Well I actually have an E28 like this but too many other projects are ahead of that one).

Looking forward to your progress.

[drumad]

that wiring clean up will be fun

did you used to post in 240sxforums.com/nico? I remember there was a guy from charlotte who had the same suspension on his S13.

[inertiaticism]

Much rust? If not, then worth the $300 IMO. What's with the 4.10 though...on an eta? This car has the large guibo right? That wiring nest looks like fun to me...hopefully the useful wires are still intact.

I like these kind of DDers sometimes (when it is not me having to bring them back from the dead...)

The rust is kind of weird, the car has rustfree sills and underbody.
I think the battery well is even solid, I've not checked yet but I need to take pics.
It's a hole on the firewall behind the dash. I think it's right behind the cowl vents and rusted from sitting water or something. The cowl drain was clogged.
Is this common?
It's an NC car but it spent some time in the mountains..
I did the wiring today, basically removed all of the OEM stereo wiring save for the factory 12v,12v sw and ground wires. It was so shitty and ghetto tape spliced together that it wasn't even worth keeping.
I need to take the check control wiring out, the unit is long gone and I don't really care if I have one or not. Same goes for OBC, which I took out of the harness altogether.
It hailed this afternoon, so I was inside trying to make the best of the interior I already have with the car.
Also cleaned a lot of the exterior trim, side mouldings, window trim, I'm going to strip it all and prime/paint it correctly.


Dash came out okay for how worn out it is, the center stack had a bunch of holes drilled in it from where a switch panel was riveted in. I covered that whole side with a little blank made out of textured black plastic laminate. I'm I cabinetmaker and have tons of it around. Contact cemented it in place so I at least don't have an gaping jagged hole in the dash.

I'm not sure what you mean about the diff, it's a 4:10 lsd from the case markings but I did not put it in. I understand it came from a 318is, do 4cyl cars have different pumpkins? A PO installed it and it is a lot more fun than the stock eta gears.