Some will give it a glance. Some will look away. There are those who won’t notice, and those that will know right away. To some, it’s just meant to take them from A to B. Just a regular mean of transportation; We’ve all been there. Then, at one point or another, our path crosses that of some old Bavarian box. From then on, the game changes. It’s about the joy, the engagement, the feedback you get. Call it what you want, but in the end, we all get that same grin on our face when we hit that apex and power out of that curve.
Meet Erica.
She was purchased on June 6th, 2011. Previous owner had it for about 10 years or so, and it was supposedly not being driven in the winter. Odometer was working and showed 139k km, or 86,400 miles. She’s a 1988 325is, black on black, sporting Hartge front valance and side skirts, as well as a Racing Dynamics rear apron.
Sorry for the big pictures, it's been a long time since I used photobucket and I'm too lazy to relink every single picture
When I bought it, it looked like this:
Looking good from afar, but far from good. So I drove it for about two years, and our Canadian winters didn’t help at all. In May of 2013, a friend offered me his garage for what was supposed to be a 6 to 8 weeks fix. To give you an idea, I’m expecting the car to be running in 2 or 3 days, and then I still have the bodywork and paint to do.
Here I will take you on my 18+ months journey, and I will include a few things that happened along the way, which were not directly related to my E30. Disclaimer: I have never done any mechanical work on anything except for oil change and tire rotation. I changed my bike’s handlebars, air filter and exhaust, but nothing else. Never used a die grinder, welder, etc.
So the floors were crap. PO had spot welded in some 3/16’s steel on each side, with like 5 spot welds for each. He hacked the job thinking water wouldn’t come in afterwards. Well, silly guy, water, like everything else on this earth, is affected by gravity. It’s coming in from a leak of some sort, which has to be higher. To prove my point, both front drains for the sunroof were shut, and the elephant trunk was blocked by various things.
I proceeded by purchasing a die grinder and cutting out everything that was rusted. To be honest, I didn’t expect there would be that much.
At this point, I was thinking about scrapping the car. After a few days of (not) thinking it through, I did what everyone with half a brain would do... Found myself a welder and got at it.
Terrible idea. I sucked. So I had a few bits tacked, and hired a “professional” welder to finish everything. Let’s just say that with a few weekends of practice and a spool or two, I’m sure I could have done a better job. Anyway. The process I went through for every patch was as follows:
Cut rust, cut new metal from 8x4, 18ga sheet, sandblast floor and prime with zinc primer, grind sheet metal down for proper adhesion, zinc primer. At that point, I welded, cleaned up and sandblasted again. Primer and black coat went on afterwards.
Process and results before the so-called pro came in:
Proceeded to remove the subframe. The driver’s side bushing wasn’t in too bad of a shape, but the passenger side was moving around but about 3/4’s of an inch. Both mounts were also oxidized/stuck to the frame, so I used a 3-jaw puller to rip the rubber from the mounts. Too stupid to thread a bolt through, I broke the passenger mount in the frame:
Everything looked bad. Original shocks and springs were dead as well. You’ll notice from most pictures that there was a lot, and I mean a lot of oil. PS pump was leaking quite a bit, and I’m sure the PO just kept topping the reservoir off. To prove my point, when I removed the plastic tray from below the engine, there was about half an inch of oil residue. The bitch clip was a pain. Yes, I did try to find the radiator hose pick, but those don’t seem to exist around here. I went around with a few pictures on my phone, and no shop had ever seen that...
At this point, life happened, and there was barely no motivation from August to December 2013. So in late December, I had my stuff somewhat back in order and wanted to work on the car. The garage has some isolation, but it’s not heated, so when it’s -35F outside, it’s not much fun.
When temperature was back up, I started working again, and kept at it until I was finally done tearing everything out and making the parts list. What was left on the car was the dash, steering column, engine, transmission, booster/abs unit, and that’s pretty much it.
So over the course of a year, I proceeded to disassemble the car and made a list of parts that I would be ordering. Here it is; To my vendor’s pleasure, it was 139 lines. Part #’s were removed for the sake of the picture; I’m not that cruel.
Lots of trim, clips and other misc stuff. The bigger improvements are: Condor bushings (subframe 12mm risers, trailing arms, diff, offset control arms, engine, transmission, and aluminum PS delete), complete cooling refresh kit with all hoses, gates timing belt, water pump, z4 shifter, dssr, koni yellow’s, H&R Race springs, 22mm/19mm sway bars from UUC. Extras were cherry tails, euro smileys, rear deck and rear headrests.
Met my cousin’s husband during a weekend in June. He’s a profesionnal racecar driver, but it turns out that he’s a BMW enthusiast as well. Here’s one of his toys, a Eurospec E36 M3:
Had to take a break from all the E30 stuff, so I made a one-day solo roadtrip to Americade in Lake George, New York. Lots of bikes, met some nice folks and not a single km on the highway. I’ve since fallen in love with Vermont; The road I took to get me down to Lake George was just awesome.
I found a single parking spot on the main street
On to the important stuff. I had every package sent to the border.
Here’s half of the stash. Christmas in September!
Can anyone guess from who I ordered? So much care into not making me look like a suspicious pedophile in front of the border agents.
The one and only, Blunt.
------
Alternator bracket needed to be replaced:
Some citric acid to clean the expansion tank:
Valve cover off; quite surprised:
I also rotated the filter housing and replaced the gasket while cleaning everything up. Much easier to access the filter for oil changes. AC was removed for now. I might reinstall it over the winter.
Back on after some VHT wrinkle paint and some BBQ time. Notice the grime on the block. It looked that way all around:
Cleaned up:
Obligatory bay shot
Great products
Water pump and timing belt went on (it didn't stay that way, I obviously tightened it afterwards):
Brake lines needed to be replaced... First time at it, turned out pretty good.
So did the diff oil:
Another good news:
Changed the adjusters on the newly acquired headlights:
As well as odo gears from garagistics. The odometer was still working, but I was ordering a few things from them, so got the kit anyway. Peace of mind.
Rear deck before I used some duplicolor on it to make it black (couldn’t find a picture of the finished product):
At this point, I was poor (and still am). My shoes had almost given up, so I fixed them while keeping my budget in mind:
I was able to source some 900x male connectors. Instead of hacking my wiring to fit the OE smiley wiring onto the existing stuff, I’ll hack the extensions instead so that the headlights are plug and play, but US ellipsoids can still be used in the future.
Engine was done, time to put the rest back on:
Notice the rotated filter; Much more room:
Black timing belt cover
Seat and steering back in, mainly for motivational purposes.
One more box showed up with brand new fuel lines, amongst other things
Rear headrests:
Dropped the struts to my mechanic:
Subframe awaiting diff. Reinforcements were tig welded by a friend. It came a long way:
redneck subframe lifting device. Diff was not painted because I wanted to keep the S that's painted on the case.
Bought this hoodie:
The swaybars were adjusted, it’s back on its feet with the old OE springs in the rear for now; Getting the chassis reinforced before installing the higher-rate H&R.
This is where I am right now. Started pouring coolant in the tank, and there’s a slight leak near the thermostat housing. Hoses weren’t loose, so either the housing (which I didn’t replace because it was fine, or so I thought) that cracked on me, or most likely me that didn’t install the thermostat correctly, preventing the cover from seating properly. If it wasn’t for that leak, the car would be driveable.
I try and find pictures of my cherry tails (and the process). They came out extremely great and I’m really liking them.
I will try and update as I go along, but I only have about 4, 5 weeks at most to do the bodywork and get it painted. Not always easy to keep up with pictures with when you don't have a lot of time. Luckily, my friend that is letting me use his garage is friends with a bodyshop owner, and that guy is letting us use his shop on the weekends to shoot the car. My friend also has many years of experience in bodywork and painting, and owner will also be helping.
Plans for the next 12 months are E46 330i ZF rack, getting the seats reupholstered, new windshield and possibly new wheels to replace the current Ronal set. Ronal LS or some style 5's are what I have in mind.
This little guy will be the last thing to be installed, in due time.
I would like to end this initial post by thanking the following people from this community for posting about their cars, progress and builds. Motivation comes in many forms, and they were all really helpful in their own ways. Simon S and his Zen build, Brian (xworks) and his minor rust repair, Neil1138 with his Hotness and creamy bokeh kept me focused on making my car as photogenic has his, along with inspiration for my own shooting. Not to forget F34r’s polly and Jgood’s Marrakesh sedan. Also, Lambo’s Stella has always granted instant motivation, so that was my quick fix. Aaron Hill has also saved my ass on my broken vibration damper, as well as a few tips along the way. Just the time these guys took to put their threads up for everyone to read... Really inspiring, thank you.
Last but not least, Steve from Blunttech. He’s got himself a lifetime customer. Very knowledgable and always there to help. Not to mention the great prices and the fast shipping to beaver-land. I’m not trying to talk down any other vendors/sponsors, but I would seriously recommend you do business with Steve. I know I will, again and again.
I will also dedicate this to Erica, stolen from a well-known Canadian... Because racecar ;D
We can walk our road together, if our goals are all the same.
We can run alone and free, if we pursue a different aim.
Let the truth of love be lighted.
Let the love of truth shine clear.
Sensibility, armed with sense and liberty.
With the heart and mind united in a single, perfect, car.
Meet Erica.
She was purchased on June 6th, 2011. Previous owner had it for about 10 years or so, and it was supposedly not being driven in the winter. Odometer was working and showed 139k km, or 86,400 miles. She’s a 1988 325is, black on black, sporting Hartge front valance and side skirts, as well as a Racing Dynamics rear apron.
Sorry for the big pictures, it's been a long time since I used photobucket and I'm too lazy to relink every single picture
When I bought it, it looked like this:
Looking good from afar, but far from good. So I drove it for about two years, and our Canadian winters didn’t help at all. In May of 2013, a friend offered me his garage for what was supposed to be a 6 to 8 weeks fix. To give you an idea, I’m expecting the car to be running in 2 or 3 days, and then I still have the bodywork and paint to do.
Here I will take you on my 18+ months journey, and I will include a few things that happened along the way, which were not directly related to my E30. Disclaimer: I have never done any mechanical work on anything except for oil change and tire rotation. I changed my bike’s handlebars, air filter and exhaust, but nothing else. Never used a die grinder, welder, etc.
So the floors were crap. PO had spot welded in some 3/16’s steel on each side, with like 5 spot welds for each. He hacked the job thinking water wouldn’t come in afterwards. Well, silly guy, water, like everything else on this earth, is affected by gravity. It’s coming in from a leak of some sort, which has to be higher. To prove my point, both front drains for the sunroof were shut, and the elephant trunk was blocked by various things.
I proceeded by purchasing a die grinder and cutting out everything that was rusted. To be honest, I didn’t expect there would be that much.
At this point, I was thinking about scrapping the car. After a few days of (not) thinking it through, I did what everyone with half a brain would do... Found myself a welder and got at it.
Terrible idea. I sucked. So I had a few bits tacked, and hired a “professional” welder to finish everything. Let’s just say that with a few weekends of practice and a spool or two, I’m sure I could have done a better job. Anyway. The process I went through for every patch was as follows:
Cut rust, cut new metal from 8x4, 18ga sheet, sandblast floor and prime with zinc primer, grind sheet metal down for proper adhesion, zinc primer. At that point, I welded, cleaned up and sandblasted again. Primer and black coat went on afterwards.
Process and results before the so-called pro came in:
Proceeded to remove the subframe. The driver’s side bushing wasn’t in too bad of a shape, but the passenger side was moving around but about 3/4’s of an inch. Both mounts were also oxidized/stuck to the frame, so I used a 3-jaw puller to rip the rubber from the mounts. Too stupid to thread a bolt through, I broke the passenger mount in the frame:
Everything looked bad. Original shocks and springs were dead as well. You’ll notice from most pictures that there was a lot, and I mean a lot of oil. PS pump was leaking quite a bit, and I’m sure the PO just kept topping the reservoir off. To prove my point, when I removed the plastic tray from below the engine, there was about half an inch of oil residue. The bitch clip was a pain. Yes, I did try to find the radiator hose pick, but those don’t seem to exist around here. I went around with a few pictures on my phone, and no shop had ever seen that...
At this point, life happened, and there was barely no motivation from August to December 2013. So in late December, I had my stuff somewhat back in order and wanted to work on the car. The garage has some isolation, but it’s not heated, so when it’s -35F outside, it’s not much fun.
When temperature was back up, I started working again, and kept at it until I was finally done tearing everything out and making the parts list. What was left on the car was the dash, steering column, engine, transmission, booster/abs unit, and that’s pretty much it.
So over the course of a year, I proceeded to disassemble the car and made a list of parts that I would be ordering. Here it is; To my vendor’s pleasure, it was 139 lines. Part #’s were removed for the sake of the picture; I’m not that cruel.
Lots of trim, clips and other misc stuff. The bigger improvements are: Condor bushings (subframe 12mm risers, trailing arms, diff, offset control arms, engine, transmission, and aluminum PS delete), complete cooling refresh kit with all hoses, gates timing belt, water pump, z4 shifter, dssr, koni yellow’s, H&R Race springs, 22mm/19mm sway bars from UUC. Extras were cherry tails, euro smileys, rear deck and rear headrests.
Met my cousin’s husband during a weekend in June. He’s a profesionnal racecar driver, but it turns out that he’s a BMW enthusiast as well. Here’s one of his toys, a Eurospec E36 M3:
Had to take a break from all the E30 stuff, so I made a one-day solo roadtrip to Americade in Lake George, New York. Lots of bikes, met some nice folks and not a single km on the highway. I’ve since fallen in love with Vermont; The road I took to get me down to Lake George was just awesome.
I found a single parking spot on the main street
On to the important stuff. I had every package sent to the border.
Here’s half of the stash. Christmas in September!
Can anyone guess from who I ordered? So much care into not making me look like a suspicious pedophile in front of the border agents.
The one and only, Blunt.
------
Alternator bracket needed to be replaced:
Some citric acid to clean the expansion tank:
Valve cover off; quite surprised:
I also rotated the filter housing and replaced the gasket while cleaning everything up. Much easier to access the filter for oil changes. AC was removed for now. I might reinstall it over the winter.
Back on after some VHT wrinkle paint and some BBQ time. Notice the grime on the block. It looked that way all around:
Cleaned up:
Obligatory bay shot
Great products
Water pump and timing belt went on (it didn't stay that way, I obviously tightened it afterwards):
Brake lines needed to be replaced... First time at it, turned out pretty good.
So did the diff oil:
Another good news:
Changed the adjusters on the newly acquired headlights:
As well as odo gears from garagistics. The odometer was still working, but I was ordering a few things from them, so got the kit anyway. Peace of mind.
Rear deck before I used some duplicolor on it to make it black (couldn’t find a picture of the finished product):
At this point, I was poor (and still am). My shoes had almost given up, so I fixed them while keeping my budget in mind:
I was able to source some 900x male connectors. Instead of hacking my wiring to fit the OE smiley wiring onto the existing stuff, I’ll hack the extensions instead so that the headlights are plug and play, but US ellipsoids can still be used in the future.
Engine was done, time to put the rest back on:
Notice the rotated filter; Much more room:
Black timing belt cover
Seat and steering back in, mainly for motivational purposes.
One more box showed up with brand new fuel lines, amongst other things
Rear headrests:
Dropped the struts to my mechanic:
Subframe awaiting diff. Reinforcements were tig welded by a friend. It came a long way:
redneck subframe lifting device. Diff was not painted because I wanted to keep the S that's painted on the case.
Bought this hoodie:
The swaybars were adjusted, it’s back on its feet with the old OE springs in the rear for now; Getting the chassis reinforced before installing the higher-rate H&R.
This is where I am right now. Started pouring coolant in the tank, and there’s a slight leak near the thermostat housing. Hoses weren’t loose, so either the housing (which I didn’t replace because it was fine, or so I thought) that cracked on me, or most likely me that didn’t install the thermostat correctly, preventing the cover from seating properly. If it wasn’t for that leak, the car would be driveable.
I try and find pictures of my cherry tails (and the process). They came out extremely great and I’m really liking them.
I will try and update as I go along, but I only have about 4, 5 weeks at most to do the bodywork and get it painted. Not always easy to keep up with pictures with when you don't have a lot of time. Luckily, my friend that is letting me use his garage is friends with a bodyshop owner, and that guy is letting us use his shop on the weekends to shoot the car. My friend also has many years of experience in bodywork and painting, and owner will also be helping.
Plans for the next 12 months are E46 330i ZF rack, getting the seats reupholstered, new windshield and possibly new wheels to replace the current Ronal set. Ronal LS or some style 5's are what I have in mind.
This little guy will be the last thing to be installed, in due time.
I would like to end this initial post by thanking the following people from this community for posting about their cars, progress and builds. Motivation comes in many forms, and they were all really helpful in their own ways. Simon S and his Zen build, Brian (xworks) and his minor rust repair, Neil1138 with his Hotness and creamy bokeh kept me focused on making my car as photogenic has his, along with inspiration for my own shooting. Not to forget F34r’s polly and Jgood’s Marrakesh sedan. Also, Lambo’s Stella has always granted instant motivation, so that was my quick fix. Aaron Hill has also saved my ass on my broken vibration damper, as well as a few tips along the way. Just the time these guys took to put their threads up for everyone to read... Really inspiring, thank you.
Last but not least, Steve from Blunttech. He’s got himself a lifetime customer. Very knowledgable and always there to help. Not to mention the great prices and the fast shipping to beaver-land. I’m not trying to talk down any other vendors/sponsors, but I would seriously recommend you do business with Steve. I know I will, again and again.
I will also dedicate this to Erica, stolen from a well-known Canadian... Because racecar ;D
We can walk our road together, if our goals are all the same.
We can run alone and free, if we pursue a different aim.
Let the truth of love be lighted.
Let the love of truth shine clear.
Sensibility, armed with sense and liberty.
With the heart and mind united in a single, perfect, car.
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