After irish44j had me hooked taking his 318 through it's paces in rally, and helping build/drive spoth's chump car, I clearly had no choice but to find my way into a E30.
So the car of choice is a 89 325is with 200k on a working odometer. In 09, two owners before me, someone replaced the gas tank, oil pan, put it on Eibach Pro-Kit Springs, replaced some other miscellaneous rubber bits, and installed HIDs which I'm going to take out because they aren't really my thing. The PO before me installed a Z3 shifter and drove it on dealer plates a couple miles a week to and from a shop he worked at. He only had it for a couple months. It sounds like he was going to do the work it needed but realized he didn't have the time. At some point since 09, someone has overfilled the diff so the gaskets are shot and it has fluid caked all over the side of it from the breather. The RMS has died and there is a mess of oil covering every square inch of the transmission/rear of the engine. The hard lines for the rear brakes looked suspect and there were holes in the floor from our wonderful NYS winters, which the car appears to have seen every one of.
I've had it for ~2 months now and upon further inspection, discovered a lot more needs replacing than originally anticipated (naturally). I originally thought I would keep it stock and have a fun car for the summer. I saw it as something I could slowly learn about as I made it more fun to drive a couple years down the road. However, I've raced spoth's E30 since then at Summit Point and at a autocross event so I have the itch for this E30 to be quick as well. This seems like the perfect opportunity to go crazy since it's already torn apart.
The PO had a set of Euroweaves without tires that I opted for instead of the rims he had on it as they weren't my style and I wanted a more aggressive tire. The following two photos are from his for sale ad.
Once it ended up in my garage, I returned the wheels and up on jack stands it went.
The rims need some serious loving, but that's all part of the plan.
Spoth and I discussed that I paid a little more than I should have for the car but it has a nice interior so that's worth something to me. Even if it is vinyl.
I wasn't going to put everyone to sleep with another thread about frustrating rusted bolts/nuts, horrible rear subframe bushings, or PITA wheel bearings, so what you'll see next is two weekends worth of work summed up by three photos. Spoth is also the reason this disassembly went so well. I'd still be PB blasting everything waiting for it to just fall off.
I have to pull the hard lines for the rear brakes still, and gently clean the frame rail where I had to drill out one of the bolts for the lollypop. It was the first bolt we went to remove and used a little bit too much "ultra violence" according to spoth. Does anyone have insight on how to clear the threads? I'm thinking carefully with a tap.
As for where this thread is going...
I have the following waiting for me in the garage once I find some more time:
UUC front and rear sways
Z3 1.9L steering rack
A whole boat load of rubber for trailing arms, rear subframe, differential, shifter, motor and trans mounts, RMS, if it's rubber, it's getting replaced.
Wheel bearings front and rear
IrelandEngineering oil pan baffle and crank scraper
Right front fender to replace the rusty one that's on there.
I'm sure I'm forgetting something but can update the thread as I remember.
I'm torn on what to do with springs. I'd like to run H&R Race's but I live in the boonies where the roads aren't great so the practical side of me says I should put H&R Sports on and save my engine. I haven't ordered them yet, but I'm thinking about running ground control camber plates up front and getting a camber/toe adjustment kit for the rear. I plan on mostly driving it on the street with autocross events and a random track day thrown into the mix here and there. This seems like a decent setup for my purposes based off what I've been reading on here.
That's all for now, come rain on my parade.
So the car of choice is a 89 325is with 200k on a working odometer. In 09, two owners before me, someone replaced the gas tank, oil pan, put it on Eibach Pro-Kit Springs, replaced some other miscellaneous rubber bits, and installed HIDs which I'm going to take out because they aren't really my thing. The PO before me installed a Z3 shifter and drove it on dealer plates a couple miles a week to and from a shop he worked at. He only had it for a couple months. It sounds like he was going to do the work it needed but realized he didn't have the time. At some point since 09, someone has overfilled the diff so the gaskets are shot and it has fluid caked all over the side of it from the breather. The RMS has died and there is a mess of oil covering every square inch of the transmission/rear of the engine. The hard lines for the rear brakes looked suspect and there were holes in the floor from our wonderful NYS winters, which the car appears to have seen every one of.
I've had it for ~2 months now and upon further inspection, discovered a lot more needs replacing than originally anticipated (naturally). I originally thought I would keep it stock and have a fun car for the summer. I saw it as something I could slowly learn about as I made it more fun to drive a couple years down the road. However, I've raced spoth's E30 since then at Summit Point and at a autocross event so I have the itch for this E30 to be quick as well. This seems like the perfect opportunity to go crazy since it's already torn apart.
The PO had a set of Euroweaves without tires that I opted for instead of the rims he had on it as they weren't my style and I wanted a more aggressive tire. The following two photos are from his for sale ad.
Once it ended up in my garage, I returned the wheels and up on jack stands it went.
The rims need some serious loving, but that's all part of the plan.
Spoth and I discussed that I paid a little more than I should have for the car but it has a nice interior so that's worth something to me. Even if it is vinyl.
I wasn't going to put everyone to sleep with another thread about frustrating rusted bolts/nuts, horrible rear subframe bushings, or PITA wheel bearings, so what you'll see next is two weekends worth of work summed up by three photos. Spoth is also the reason this disassembly went so well. I'd still be PB blasting everything waiting for it to just fall off.
I have to pull the hard lines for the rear brakes still, and gently clean the frame rail where I had to drill out one of the bolts for the lollypop. It was the first bolt we went to remove and used a little bit too much "ultra violence" according to spoth. Does anyone have insight on how to clear the threads? I'm thinking carefully with a tap.
As for where this thread is going...
I have the following waiting for me in the garage once I find some more time:
UUC front and rear sways
Z3 1.9L steering rack
A whole boat load of rubber for trailing arms, rear subframe, differential, shifter, motor and trans mounts, RMS, if it's rubber, it's getting replaced.
Wheel bearings front and rear
IrelandEngineering oil pan baffle and crank scraper
Right front fender to replace the rusty one that's on there.
I'm sure I'm forgetting something but can update the thread as I remember.
I'm torn on what to do with springs. I'd like to run H&R Race's but I live in the boonies where the roads aren't great so the practical side of me says I should put H&R Sports on and save my engine. I haven't ordered them yet, but I'm thinking about running ground control camber plates up front and getting a camber/toe adjustment kit for the rear. I plan on mostly driving it on the street with autocross events and a random track day thrown into the mix here and there. This seems like a decent setup for my purposes based off what I've been reading on here.
That's all for now, come rain on my parade.
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