The Swagger Wagon

[320icar]

alright, so lets make my first few posts here nice and strong. lets start with the car. a while ago i picked up a 1988 touring from a buddy for a great price. its got alot of problems... alot... the biggest one being rust. so keep in mind while reading this that this is NOT going to be a nice oem restoration. i haven't been in bmw's for a while now since my old '88 535iS kicked the bucket. lets remind ourselves of its beauty (see below)





i now currently daily drive a 1990 mazda miata. but its 100% rust free, and i didn't want to subject it to canadian winters. last year i just shared my room mates car, but i dont want to have to do that again. i dont want to push my luck. so i decided to get a nice winter beater. lets see the miata in question.





i'll go into detail about the touring in the next post. but here are some teaser shots for now.

[320icar]

so the touring is an '88. has about 235k KM on the clock. and its rough. and i mean, pretty rough....

as jeremy clarkson would say it, SITREP
- fuel gauge
- economy gauge
- license plate lights
- power mirrors
- front right turn signal
- rear hatch lock
- central locking
- stereo is absolutely fubar
- rear fog lights
- rear defrost
- rear hatch gas-strut
- starts hard when cold
- blown suspension
- brakes dont work
- etc etc etc...... its a project.


so with all those things adding up pretty quick, i decided to go the route of my e28. i want to have fun with this car, but also keep it looking fairly good. so far on order i have

- jom coilovers (touring kit)
- eastwood fender roller
- e90 drophats (already received)
- 4.5" bbs lips

hopefully from that list you'll get an idea of where i plan to go with this.... brb loading up some more pics.

[320icar]

to give you an idea on how rough this car is... i was driving it around a few days after purchasing it, and on a smoooooth highway, i heard a big BANG and then a real loud THUD. Turns out the passenger side front spring has snapped. you can see it near the bottom.




sadly im waiting for all the suspension stuff to come in, so i decided to start working on the roof rack. i currently have one from a previous car build. 2 horizontal bars that have a basket mounted to the top. its ~30" square. on a normal car it looks fine but on a touring it is wayyyy too small. so i've ditched the basket and started making the custom roofrack. i will utilize the horizontal beams, and i cut lengths of wood and stained them a rose colour. need to finish drilling holes and mounting, so pics will be up of this on monday.

here are pics of something similar my buddy did. im copying his design.





here is what it looks like currently. ever since the spring snapped its just been sitting at my buddies place. i've had no time to dedicate to it so its just been a month sittin there all sad....

[320icar]

so, finally today after almost 2 months of ownership, i was able to roll my sleeves up. not only did i get to almost complete my roofrack, but i also went crazy on the interior. this car has alot, and i mean, alot of rust. so i spent a long time POR-15 painting all of the floorpan. i also had to patch a hole in the passengers side footwell. it was about 7" across... yeah... when i bought the car it had almost no interior. but this is where the build gets a bit more interesting.

it was originally tan. but has since had black door cards swapped in, a grey centre console, and new grey carpets. oh yeah, and suede sport seats and touring specific rear seats. only thing it doesn't have is the grey cargo area carpet. but theres a set for sale local to me so hopefully ill pick it up eventually.



so i've only ever really driven the car like this. its loud, rough and just not a comfortable place to be. and if you didn't have the passenger side floor mat in, rocks would come shooting through the hole.





i'd say that looks alot better. i have matching rear headrests as well but forgot to put them on for the pics. i took it for a spin around the block once all the carpets and sound deadening and foam got put back in and HOLY SHIT is there ever a difference. its quiet and relaxing and feels more like a car. now only if the car was mechanically as nice....

[320icar]

and now comes the really fun part. i know i will have to modify the JOM coils to get as low as i want to in the rear, but im aright with that. but the big problem is going to fit my up and coming wheel and tire setup. theres a reason i ordered an eastwood fender roller. i picked up some cheap xxr's for the miata to sit on in winter storage. and i'll be swapping the BBS RM's over from the miata over onto the touring. but not in their current spec.

i built these up from stock less than a year ago, but now that my miata has changed colours, i feel i need to do the same to the bbs. so im going to split them and rebuild them. currently they are 15x9 and 15x9.5. but i've ordered another pair of 4.5" lips that ive been waiting nearing 2 months for.

future specs are as follows
front: 15x9.5 -6 (3.5" lip)
rear: 15x10.5 -19 (4.5" lip)
tires: 205/50/15 falken rt-615k

i've decided that i'll keep the mint chrome hardware on there. im going to paint the centres a gloss white (possibly with a rainbow flake clear) and i'll order some of those black forest industries billet RM half caps. i hate the stock plastic ones.

its gonna take alot of work to get them to fit. but it will be soooo worth it. i cant wait to see how it all works up. if i get my parts in time, i'll try to build it for a leavenworth drive happening at the end of the month... but we'll see.


here are some pictures of the 9,5" test fitted in the rear. note the suspension has not settled as it was just jacked up. also note that the 10.5" rears that are going on will poke out a further 1". those are 100% stock fenders so i have alot of room to play with.






i will get them to fit. oh yes, i will get them to fit...

[defaultName]

Good luck with the project!

I love the colour. Malachitgrun?

Are those MC Hammered's old seats?

[Andyman746]

very nice. I like the writing on the tire very RWB-esque

[CrusherCurtis]

I love how you list problems like hard cold starting and brakes not working properly and the first things you order are:

jom coilovers (touring kit)
- eastwood fender roller
- e90 drophats (already received)
- 4.5" bbs lips

Seriously tho nice e30. Fix it right and then find another car to be your winter beater.

[evandael]

it'd take a damn miracle to get those wheels to fit without looking like ass.

[F34R]

Started off great till I got to the Mexi-poke, get smaller lips man...sell those massive ones to a VW kid. OR buy smaller barrels to fit the lips.

[320icar]

Haha after having a Miata I could never keep an e30 as my fun weekend car. No offense intended so don't take that personal. And evandale, give me 3 weeks and it will be fitted real nice!

You guys jump on the mexi poke instantly and I haven't even got the lips in yet. Where is your faith? I'm not some Honda kid, nor is this my first e36 shitbox. I also owned a turbo'd e21.

[lambo]

That Miata is sick!

[Brilliantrot 318is]

I love that Green!!

[Mr. Tasty]

I need some NA miata in my life... I like the miata minus the color/wheel color combo.

[freeride53]

wtf i named my volvo the swagger wagon.


cool e30T though.