325ix

[GJ@GA_US]

Previous owner here. Julien, hats off to you. Super thankful for your ambition and patience to see it through. Great Job!!

[Julien]

Leave the wheels stock color..black would be too much

Sent from my Samsung Note 4

Yeah, I would stay stock color. However I think the steering wheel would look better with a black center.

Previous owner here. Julien, hats off to you. Super thankful for your ambition and patience to see it through. Great Job!!

Thanks Glenn! Luckily a job change gave me a two week window to get a lot of this work knocked out!

[kmushu]

I almost bought this car

Julien, this looks incredible. Was going to try and pick this up in ATL if you passed it on, but the work you've done looks much, much better than anything I could have hoped for.

I've got a white 4dr IX right now that I was dreaming about swapping into that 2dr, very glad to see that you've got it all sorted the right way with the transmission.

[Julien]

some progress...

Wet sanding


1500 grit before, during, after. After section has not been polished yet, just cut


Then I decided to finish off the wetsanding with 2000 grit to get rid of some minor scratches


turns out I was waffleswaffleswaffleswaffleswaffles-footing the buffer. After RTFM'ing the bottle of megiuars m105 it turned out I had to hit it at 1500-2000 rpm, versus the 750ish i was doing

selfie:


Overall, I must admit I HATE wetsanding- lol. Results are ok, but I'll go back to a few areas when I get free time.

Also installed euro bumper trim:



I forgot to mention, I pulled the tint off last weekend because e30 = fishbowl ftw.
Door trim and several other goodies are coming in very soon :)

[fresh_TD]

No tint is the right look on e30s..good job on the car btw, looks good.

Sent from my Samsung Note 4

[rzerob]

Where did you get the door trim? Is it the one with the chrome strip? I like your IX and thanks to you making this build thread I am now aware I can easily swap the front of my manual and automatic transfer cases. I am now glad I never got rid of the automatic transfer case.

[Julien]

Where did you get the door trim? Is it the one with the chrome strip? I like your IX and thanks to you making this build thread I am now aware I can easily swap the front of my manual and automatic transfer cases. I am now glad I never got rid of the automatic transfer case.

I got my black door trim from someone on here who was parting a 2 door IX. The IX trim is different than the normal trim because of the body kit.


No problem, glad you're enjoyed the thread :)

[jeenyus]

I called my BMW Motorcycle dealer here in town when I was putting back together the driveshafts and they just said they use a mixture of anti-seize and moly-grease. So i just mixed some up and put that on mine. Figured it would be fine. It's so easy to check those splines and re-lube them if you need to, especially the front.

your car is looking so good considering where you were when you got it!

[nando]

Yeah.. I wouldn't trust that.

The biggest reason is it will tend to oxidize and wash out. When it does that you have metal on metal and the splines will turn to dust. It can take as little as a year to happen.

Get the proper grease - its not expensive, but a new driveshaft, or worse, front output sprocket is like $300-$500.

[Julien]

Lowered her last night using a less conventional method:
(i'll fix the overspray at some point)


bam:


also tossed on some 14.5mm rear spring pads and euro smiley headlights:

[audiquattrot]

Awesome! Love the new height!

[Julien]

Put in some more work today. I did belts, fuel/air filter and engine/transfer case mounts. The later where a bit of a challenge.

Motor mounts:
I unbolted the mounts and jacked up the motor from the oil pan using a 2x4 to spread the load on the pan.
Taking the old ones out wasn't all that hard, but as you can see they had settled a bit:


To get the new ones in I removed 3 bolts from the motor mount arms and loosened the 4th, which allowed me to sneak the mount in. It may be possible to do them one at a time and get them in, but I was past that point.

Now onto the transfer case mount. I removed the exhaust for clearance and pivoted the drivetrain down. Using a ball joint tool I rented from advance auto and a gland nut (same OD as bushing) from my struts I had laying around I pressed the old bushing out (I did use a 2 prong for the last 1/2ish inch):



I guess someone had tried hacking at the old bushing before me:




oh and took the rack off since I'm taking her on a road trip tomorrow:


Doing all this to get her sorted since I'll be daily driving her for a bit while my 335d is in the shop. I did spot this little guy at the body shop, not every day you see one:


Getting fully restored. And I thought this e30 was a project!


Happy Holidays Y'all :)

[stonea]

Man, I've found 3 new ix threads today! Also amazing looking car, my car definitely needs more low in its life.

[bradnic]

SUB'D! love the build and the lazurblau. almost bought a cali car in the same color - it was seriously beat though.

can't wait to get back to my IX project.

[kronus]

damn, so this is what you've been doing while not eating waffles. well done! come color sand my 318!