1990 325is - Restoring the Smiles

[TC|Photography]

love whats going on in this thread!! I went through the 5speed swap last December. I felt your pain :
The next picture shows the result of a lot of stupid work I had to do because of my "garage" setup.

1. Pull transmission under car
2. Pull transmission jack under car
3. Lift edge of transmission onto jack
4. Slide jack forward while pulling transmission up and back
5. Take a break and realize how much it sucks that I have to do this laying down
6. Yell at it, seems to get more power that way
7. Celebrate transmission being on the jack by laying on your back by 5 mins
8. Realize you put it on the jack the wrong way and figure out some way to rotate the transmission 90 degrees on the jack
9. Celebrate for real and take a picture


lol what a great feeling it was after getting the transmission up.

[JinormusJ]

Dude.. 5-Speed swaps are definitely "fun" to get the transmission in there. Lets just say, a very muscular build is needed, and even then you'll get pretty tired lol

Good on ya B
Keep it up. My 5-Speed is set for July!

[benyen soljax]

Good news and bad news today.


Good news:






Bad news:



Don't think she will be seeing the road anytime soon :(


Now to find a rear diff cover...

[JinormusJ]

Thread needs more updates

[dude8383]

Well that just sucks. How'd that happen???

[dwight]

Sodium attack

[warshark6]

we]] done got some of the same thing to do

[benyen soljax]

2/12/14

I got tired of the community here and ran out of time/money, so I just lurked for a couple projects which I have found cool.

Also the house I was renting got foreclosed so I had to close up shop and move to another place. At my new place, one of my roommates consumed the garage when his business partner stopped paying rent on their shop and then he moved all his contractor supplies into the space where I need to work on my car (so new shop was out of commission). To top all of this off, the midwest has been too cold to work outside since late December, and the new garage is much more drafty, so it's been impossible to do any work.

Enough of the excuses, and onto updates on the car.
- I got a new rear diff cover and installed the S3.73. In the summer you could usually find me sideways coming in hot to the driveway at work.
- Trunk still leaks from a botched repair job on the driver's rear quarter
- I filed down the bad welds on the interior from said botched repair job and spray painted behind the back seat to prevent any further corrosion. It's not POR-15, but it's on the inside behind the seats so you can't tell the difference
- I then ran out of money for repairs and so I just drove the car for a while
- Odometer stopped working even though PO replaced the gears shortly before I bought the car
- I drove it less
- I finally tore open the cluster and fixed the gears, one of the gears partially broke and that piece jammed up the system. Didn't need new gears, yet.
- For christmas I bought a set of Bilstein Sport shocks with H&R Sport springs, they are sitting in my living room because of said cold weather and shitty garage situation

I'm not sure the future of the project, mainly because of my living situation, but I am not in financial trouble so I don't need to sell it. Worst case is I just have to delay some repairs until I can get a better garage situation lined up.

When I get home I will upload some part-porn since that's about all I can do, and maybe a few pics of my Dad's new red BMW toy that I almost wrecked (2012 Z4 sdrive35i).

[Roysneon]

once the driveshaft is removed, undo the tranny mount off the chassis and let the trans hang down, it hangs like 5 inches lower and lets you get to the trans bolts easier

Kinda rough on the motor mounts, though isn't it? One way is to get some subframe bolts that are a bit longer and thread them in, having them support the subframe allowing the engine to sit lower while still being supported. If you don't go far enough to pull on any of the wiring or hoses then it will gain you some room.

[benyen soljax]

4/29/2015

Well, it sure has been a while since I updated. I've moved a couple of times since the last post, and that can be hectic for finding a place and time to work on the E30. I still managed to get a substantial amount done last year so I will summarize in pictures:

Fixed this:




Got a set of these:




Found a leather seat for sale locally for the back:




Spruced up the inside with some subtle leather items:




Put in a new accelerator cable:




Adjusted these to reduce the clacking:




Replaced the thing in here:




Fixed this again:




Then came some big repairs/upgrades:






Four new boots:




It doesn't look like it, but this is new:




Got rid of the rotted spoiler:




And here she sits today, in front of my latest acquisition, a permanent roof over her head. I finally got a house of my own, so that has taken up a bit of my time...




And the stable is growing too:





So the goal is to be better about documenting the progress. That is also hoping there is some progress I can make this year since last year was a big one for my project car spending account.

Oh yeah, the best part is the E30 qualifies for antique plates this year. They are on order, so when they come in there will be a fun update!

[doorman]

Looking good fellow Chicagoan!!!

Hope to see you around town at some events this summer.

[IzzY_325is]

This is a nice car and great build.