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Sittingaaron gets off his butt

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    Sittingaaron gets off his butt

    Hey ya'll. I'm new-ish here. Been reading threads over the summer and a few months checking out what you guys have been up to. I have always liked BMWs, so I decided at the beginning of the summer that'd I'd look for the ever-popular E30 to start a project with. I found one fairly close, drove there with a friend, and bought it the same day. It was pretty rough at first, but I was pretty tired of not doing anything hands on like this. I've had 4 years of Automotive Technology degree-ness and nothing really came of it during my time in school. I learned a ton of theory, and I'm great at diagnosing problems and I can tell you exactly how a 4L60E(my school is in the middle of domesticville, Kansas) works and Simpson gear sets and all that jazz, but that's just no fun most of the time. So long story short, I'm going to try my hand at some fun new mechanics.

    My plans are fairly general. I wrastled briefly with a few ideas such as: LS swap, complete restoration, BMW V8, selling the car and starting with something different, a home-made 5.3 and T56 combo, and a turbo. IN that order, actually. I decided (like many of you) that the most cost-effective and interesting method is in fact a tuuuuurrbboooooo. But don't get all excited yet. I'm not quite at the financial standing to invest in a kit just yet. First I'm getting some much needed work out of the way while I save.

    Okay, on to the pictures and such. 1988 325i, odometer stopped working, so it's got somewhere between 160k and 180k on it. Everything was kept original as far as I can tell so far. The PO had some issues with it that I wasn't too worried about, but over-all he did not take care of the car.

    Here's the car as I got it. The top was literally torn apart. As a result of that and the POs lack of garage space, the interior was a disaster. The only good things left were a surprisingly uncracked dash (must be all the extra moisture it got in the rain...) an original wood shift knob, and a near rust free floor.



    The carpet was nasty. In my naivety, I threw it all away. If I had realized finding replacement carpet for a convertible would be so difficult/expensive, I would have thought twice about cleaning/dying it.

    So no carpet... BUT virtually rust-free floor pans.


    I also trashed the back seat (bad idea). Those are even harder to find.

    The car didn't run great, but it had good power. Idle was rough, but inline six motors usually have a bit of a rough idle. It had a really slow throttle response, and occasionally it took a really long time to fire up. Started with some much needed maintenance, as I had no idea when the timing belt was done last, and the car came with refurbished 17lb green top injectors, a new top, and a handful of front suspension parts.

    Old top, lots of gorilla tape repairs


    New top!


    Painted the Intake and Valve Cover


    Adjusted valves



    Installed new 17lb injectors, here are the old ones as I pulled them out





    New timing belt, water pump, distributor cap, and rotor


    Pulled the AFM and made some adjustments to the arm, as it was pretty worn on the contact strip. Didn't really help the car, but I guess peace a mind that it's not a problem, though I'm not convinced this is a great way to measure AFR at part-throttle.


    Cleaned up the front grills, and sanded off the spray paint that the PO used on the metal bumper


    Here's the car after that initial work, not much different, but it's a bit cleaner and the mechanical stuff isn't like a time-bomb anymore



    New stuff!
    Wheels, they're replicas, but I got a good deal and you gotta start somewhere. They're 16x8 front 16x9 rear


    Reupholstered seats, old vs new




    New door cards, PO drilled some super lame speakers into the doors...



    Brakes, ss lines and some decent pads


    Mtech II, not sure if I'll use this, but I traded a set of bottlecaps for them, so all in all a good deal


    Up next:
    Bought used carpet on eBay, clean, dye, install
    Shocks: Literally I can get the front wheels off the ground by bouncing the front up and down. Blown to hell.
    Possibly coil overs, new wheels might need a little moar low

    #2
    looks good so far.

    where did you get the recovered seats?

    Comment


      #3
      Looks like a nice find! Way to save a Vert.

      I would seriously consider re-doing the timing belt job and replacing the early stamped idler gear with the newer sintered gear. The stamped gears have a history of collapsing, letting the timing belt skip, and eating your valves. The gear itself is cheap new from bmw. I had to do this with both my pre facelift e30s, but it's definitely worth the peace of mind.

      I have coilovers, and love them, but for a Vert I would consider h&r springs and bilstein shocks. It's a proven comfortable, compliant, and low setup, and if your watch for good used pieces, can be done for much less than coilovers.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by shootnjunky View Post
        looks good so far.

        where did you get the recovered seats?
        I purchased them from a local shop that had gotten some E30 parts in. I have no clue where they were redone. They're vinyl now.

        Originally posted by Andy.B View Post
        Looks like a nice find! Way to save a Vert.

        I would seriously consider re-doing the timing belt job and replacing the early stamped idler gear with the newer sintered gear. The stamped gears have a history of collapsing, letting the timing belt skip, and eating your valves. The gear itself is cheap new from bmw. I had to do this with both my pre facelift e30s, but it's definitely worth the peace of mind.

        I have coilovers, and love them, but for a Vert I would consider h&r springs and bilstein shocks. It's a proven comfortable, compliant, and low setup, and if your watch for good used pieces, can be done for much less than coilovers.
        I had not heard of any issues with the cam gear, thanks!

        I think H&R/Bilsteins will serve this car well for the time being.

        Comment


          #5
          Welcome to the board.

          Sent from my 831C using Tapatalk
          sigpic
          Rebuilding since 07/06/2016

          Poorboyz Parts For Sale - Updated 01/20/17 - Will be updated soon - Have many parts to post

          Poorboyz Feedback Thread

          Comment


            #6
            Hey I seen this car for sale. Glad to see it went to a good home. I seriously thought about grabbing it but didn't want to dd a vert.


            1989 325is l 1984 euro 320i l 1970 2002 Racecar
            1991 318i 4dr slick top


            Euro spec 320i/Alpina B6 3.5 project(the never ending saga)
            Vintage race car revival (2002 content)
            Mtech 2 turbo restoration
            Brilliantrot slick top "build"

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by ThatOneEuroE30 View Post
              Hey I seen this car for sale. Glad to see it went to a good home. I seriously thought about grabbing it but didn't want to dd a vert.
              Yeah, it was a good deal. I've always wanted a vert, and I have an F150 that I daily drive so no problems here!:D

              Comment


                #8
                Cleared out all the carpet, pretty clean. Dusty though.


                This is what the PO did to the door cards. And yes, he cut right through the inner door skin. Like a lame-ass


                And here's the new(used) carpet I found. Found it for $150 bucks shipped! Pretty great deal if you ask me. Plan on cleaning it some more and dying it. Anybody have recommendations on dye?


                Tomorrow I'll probably clean the inside, maybe make some rust repairs/paint, and maybe do the rear brake lines in SS fashion.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Awesome progress!
                  '90 318is

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Nice work on the rescue! In for more pics :)

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Got some more work done on my day off...

                      First, I cleaned out the rest of the interior to prep for new carpet.



                      After that I cleaned the carpet itself, as well as the center console and some other interior stuff. Ended up repainting those anyways.

                      The carpet came out clean enough that I decided against dying. I couldn't really find a great match anyway, so worked out for the better.




                      New seats in! Interior looks brand spanking new!



                      Started ripping the speedo apart because my ODO wasn't working. Found the problem... new gears on the way


                      found some extra wiring all around the dash and doors, now I have a bunch of this s*** to clean up. It's everywhere. I'm surprised things aren't constantly grounding/shorting and giving me trouble. This is the wiring from the speaker...



                      Odometer gears, shift carrier bushings, and some other interior parts on the way. Still looking for suspension.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Keep up the good work! It's looking phenomenal!

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Can anybody say 4X4?





                          Also, can somebody give me a hand on my options with front bumpers? I really want the lower section that's missing, but not sure how it all will go together. It seems that the last one was ripped off (I assume because it looked better off than mangled, or something). There isn't much left of it, what I'd call the valance, so is there any saving this? Am I looking at a new valance and bumper? Oooor can I make this work somehow with some kind of bracket? Here's some pics:

                          Driver side:





                          Passenger Side:





                          Any help is appreciated!

                          Comment


                            #14
                            if you have some cash why not get your self an alpina valance.

                            sigpic

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Opie how are your HPS pads doing? Mine are super squeally, on the brakes or not. They stop nice, just extremely noisy even at low pressure.
                              1989 BMW 325is | 2019 Ford Ranger FX4
                              willschnitz

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