My 87 325is $700 Project

[96Formula6spd]

Hey guys I finally am going to get started on my 87 325is build. Plan it is to become the daily driver. Car has been sitting for a year or two. Anyways saw the ad for it for $700. Said it did not run. Showed up tapped the starter and jumped it off a good battery and it fired right up. So here are the plans for it.

Things to do:

- Timing belt and water pump
- All other belts
- Fluid Change in the motor and fresh coolant
- Check all the suspension bushing
- New tires, they are either bald or over 10 years old
- Fix the problem with the car not going into reverse and 5th gear. ( Eta trans and shift linkage in is car)
- New Battery
- Give it a good clean and put the interior back together.
- Fix the broken odometer.
- Find a front valance for an 87 325is
- Some new leather for the seats
- Paint all the plastics on the car

Here are some pictures of the car.

On the way home


Sitting in the yard waiting to be worked on




Interior



Trunk full of stuff free of charge


Engine Ready to go

[King Mufasa]

Thats a good start, working from the inside out. But it deserves a good pressure cleaning, engine bay as well.

Hope to see it nice and sharp :p

[96Formula6spd]

Well pulled the radio today and got the factory code. Bad news is it does not work. Seems to be a problem with the old ones. So pulled it out and it will be chucked into the trash. I have a new radio to go into the car at some point.

[96Formula6spd]

More stuff to update. Since all the interior was apart in the car I went and got all the interior screws that I needed. So I hit the local pick and pull to hunt Also pulled a lot of interior switcher and other things. Also scored something on the list since there was a fresh 87 325is on the lot.

Hello a 87 Front valance for $32. Has some small cracks but can be fixed.


Also needed a drivers door weather stripping $2 later


Also ordered all the timing parts I needed to get the car running. All seems to be coming together.

[MattAvino]

87is!

[agent]

87is!

[96Formula6spd]

So more work done on the car today. Bolted in the cluster and played with the non working drivers side window. I could hear the motor move then quit. So was looking at the window lock switch and found its pretty bad off and was half engaged. Got it free and bam both windows now work. Also played with the electric mirrors. A little motivation and they moved on there own now. Last was the door lock. Seems not that the window is working the drivers door lock is now working. Will be taking it all apart to grease everything up. Happy I don't have to get new parts.

[96Formula6spd]

Well after some free time showed up went back out and got the timing covers cleaned up and back on. Got a new rotor button and cleaned the distributor cap sanded and cleaned. I think it was time for a new rotor button.



Also did the plugs and a valve cover gasket as it was leaking. Plugs looked pretty good. Under the valve cover looked clean. Some crud but the car has around 200k so not to bad otherwise. Will do a valve adjustment another day. Valve cover is just loose. Some of the rockers sounded loud when I had it running.



Last on todays list was taking the tires off and checking the brakes. Front pads could use some work. Looks like a great time to buy some $12 pads from pep boys. What yall think?

[dougie30]

dat duck tape..

and damn that rotor button looks long past due lol

[BROKINBIMMER]

That reminds me, I need some $12 brake pads...

[XW70]

strangely enough these are my favorite kind of builds to read. nice work with getting it back to good health

[96Formula6spd]

strangely enough these are my favorite kind of builds to read. nice work with getting it back to good health

Thanks they are fun to watch. So far I have enjoyed the car. Cant wait to drive it.

[96Formula6spd]

More work today. Hit the pick and pull to get what I needed. Also found on the car I was working on a brand new set of front brake pads. So nice score since they were free. Also got to fire the car up. No tach or mpg thing. I think the batteries are dead on the si board. However here is a video of its first start after the timing belt with very old gas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJhI4ydcTcE&list=UUfj8I4ik2WaGMNtTBGt8rkQ&index=1

Also brand new free pads. :)

[96Formula6spd]

So after some more work I found that the transmission that was put into this car has some syncros that decided that they don't want to work anymore. So $108 at the pick and pull landed me a neused transmission with all the shifter linkage to revert back to the late style shift linkage. Also found in the trunk a whole bushing kit that is brand new. So should be able to rebuild the whole shifter for free now. Man this car has a lot of good parts in it.



Also hidden in the back seat was this gem. Its a MOMO Anatomic with BMW colors. Talking to some people its old and rare. Should clean up nice. At least now I don't need to buy a new shift knob. More and more nice things about this $700 car.

[phenryiv1]

Are those 14" or 15" wheels?