Panici's '87 325is E30 - Boosted In Bronze

[Panici]

I saw some pics that Delta Park posted a few weeks back, and I was wondering (hoping) it was your car because it looked damn good. Glad it turned out so great!

It does look great in the pics! I still haven't seen it in person yet, but the bodyshop must be pretty close to finished by now. The glass is back in, and I bought all new seals and trims to make sure the thing stays watertight for years to come. Going to check in with them this week.

Bahama Beige could be ordered with Nutria interior. Will you install a brown interior?

Wow I've never seen that interior colour combination before, it does look good.
That said, i'm very happy with my houndstooth interior, and can't see myself changing it for anything else!


Speaking of interiors, I had Delta Park Auto run new sunroof drains while the headliner was out. We decided to run the fronts out the side of the car (behind the front fenders) rather then dumping into the rocker panels which just invites rust.

Since the glass was out, they also put in a new CAtuned black headliner that I bought (the stock one was looking past it's prime). Hopefully the black ties in well with the rest of the interior, but I won't really know until I get it back together.


EDIT: Finally went to see the paintjob in person. Grabbed a few phone pictures, but going to need the good SLR camera to really capture the colour!



























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In other news, I needed something to keep me busy while the E30 is away at the spa!
So I bought two scrap E36 sedans and combined them into one good car!
I invite you to check out my most recent project which i'm calling Project Canyongrun - E36 Revival.

http://e36.panici.ca

https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/for...forum/10033072

[Vincenze]

Bahama Beige could be ordered with Nutria interior.
Will you install a brown interior?

[Northern]

I saw some pics that Delta Park posted a few weeks back, and I was wondering (hoping) it was your car because it looked damn good. Glad it turned out so great!

[Panici]

Your thread title revision delivered.

Wow! That shade of metallic brown is a great choice.

Wow I love that color

Thanks guys, I love it too!
I still haven't seen it in person yet. Hopefully soon.

on point man. Isn't there a fly e30 from europe with the similar color?

I've seen a few in BMW Marrakesh Brown. I was strongly considering that colour before I found the Audi one.
Marrakesh Brown looks pretty similar to Audi Ipanema Brown in pictures because everyone either uses Instagram filters, or Photoshop to up the Saturation and make the gold flake pop.
IMO in person, Marrakesh doesn't look nearly as nice as the colour I chose.
To my knowledge, none of the photos the bodyshop took of the new colour on my car were edited.

Great color, but sad to see lachs go. :(

Lachs definitely grew on me over the years, but silver is still my least favourite colour on a car.
At least I have 25 pages of build thread pictures to remember the old colour!

[moatilliatta]

Great color, but sad to see lachs go. :(

[CubbyChowder]

Wow I love that color

[paynemw]

on point man. Isn't there a fly e30 from europe with the similar color?

[Reichart12]

Wow! That shade of metallic brown is a great choice.

[roguetoaster]

Your thread title revision delivered.

[Panici]

We Have Paint!

Here is our collective first-look at the paint colour!
I have yet to see the car in person, but it looks fantastic in these pictures the bodyshop sent over today!

[Panici]

Updates From The Bodyshop - Ready For Paint


Went to see the car last week after the guys at Delta Park Auto have been putting in some serious bodywork!
As you can tell, the rear quarter panel replacement went well. Can't even tell that it was hit now.

Rob (IG @the_wizard_of_rob) has been doing a great job at taking care of all my fine detail requests like stripping the original seam sealer and reapplying OEM BMW stuff nicely. I've always been of the mindset that all these little things add up to a finished product that is something special.

I don't think I've ever seen this car so straight, not a ding or line out of place on it.

Also decided on a colour. Going with a variation of Audi Ipanema Brown Metallic (IPANEMABRAUN).

[Panici]

Motor Almost Back Together

It's been a while since I've updated, here is some progress for you guys!

Polished up some rough spots on the cams and caps (have a spare head if these fail). Installed the cams, and new exhaust manifold studs.
Cleaned out all 24 valve seats. Carbon that was shoved in there from the head being hot-tanked was hanging a few valves open.

Cleaned and installed a modified timing cover with turbo oil drain bung. New timing chain guides, new front crank seal, new timing cover gaskets.

Head is back on with a Cutring headgasket and ARP headstuds. Also rebuilt the single VANOS unit with new seals and an anti-rattle kit.

Timed the motor from scratch and installed new upper timing chain guides, main timing chain tensioner spring, vanos gasket, and valve cover gaskets.


On the home stretch now with the engine assembly!


( Oh, and since you liked the Miata update, here is one more. I threw a (mostly) eBay turbo setup on it! Build thread for that is http://miata.panici.ca )

[Northern]

Liking the E30 updates, and the miata is also a breath of fresh air

[Panici]

Engine work is the "final frontier" that I haven't really had the confidence to mess with, and luckily I haven't needed to (yet). Really cool to see you tearing into it and learning as you go. Also, super exciting to see the car on the flatbed getting ready to be all prettied up!

Taking it apart was the easy bit! We'll see how putting it back together goes.

Thankfully there are tons of resources these days with facebook groups and YouTube videos in addition to the forums.
Nice benefit of the M52 is there are a ton of E36 guys running boosted setups, so easy to find help when things come up.

Love the crank holding tool. Some big changes coming!

Haha perhaps it was a bit excessive, but it certainly did the job!

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Just a few pictures to post this time. Has been slow going unfortunately.

It's been a job by itself trying to figure out and sort all the parts I need, things constantly out of stock or backordered it seems.
Still waiting on a bunch of motor, trans, rear diff refresh parts from PelicanParts, but I think I have everything ordered now that I will need.

I have big bag of AN fittings which is exciting as I've never used them before. Wherever possible I'm going to use black AN line and fittings to keep things clean.
Also changing the (imo overkill) AN line setup for the dual wastegates/boost solenoid that the previous owner of this turbo stuff was using to a more traditional black silicone and brass fitting setup.

Think I also have everything ordered I'll need to fab up the recirculate piping from the dual gates back to the main exhaust. It'll be a tight fit but will be way better then atmosphere dumps in the end!

Going with a Rallyroad Billet fuel rail, but keeping my E36 FPR valve. So there were more AN fittings to figure out for that. Also have all the electrical connectors and crimp tool for the ID1050x injectors that i'll need to put onto my wiring harness.

I spent some time degreasing and scrubbing the ZF320 trans, so that is all ready for seals and detent repair when the parts come in.
Also did a couple rounds of degreasing and wire-wheel on my new 2.79 LSD. Going to need some more work before getting new seals though.

I did clean up the pistons and block deck. It's not a mirror finish or anything, but it's smooth and flat and will seal with the cutring headgasket.







Have some updates from the bodyshop as well. They've swapped the rear quarter panel with the one I cut from another car.
They pulled the glass and headliner, and I figured while it's apart I should splurge on a brand new black headliner from CAtuned.
So far I'm happy I have the car with the guys at Delta Park Auto. I asked them do as much work in metal as possible/minimize bondo usage, and so far so good.













Off-topic, but I've also been playing around with the not-so-serious project Miata. Added some black accents to the rear end, and replaced the wood block holding my driver's seat up with something more substantial. 😂 Have a bunch more planned including a real/functional roll bar, custom shifter setup, and Speeduino-based standalone ECU.
More in my miata build thread if you're interested at http://miata.panici.ca

[moatilliatta]

Love the crank holding tool. Some big changes coming!