Bringing a Ohio E30 back to life**now on bay shave

[gart]

Made some progress. Nothing exciting picture wise. E36 rack is in, new tie rods, sway bar bushings and shackles, end links and all new hardware are in subframe and in car. Motor, and trans mounts are in. Just waiting on my FCABS to come in today or tomorrow and new control arms will go in. Deck lid is shaved, cut in and will be painted sometime this week. Now to get on the phone and order wheels. Those will be a 5-6 week wait so should be just in time for summer.





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[gart]

Small update, trying to keep the progress rolling. While waiting on parts to arrive I've been knocking out some random paint and body work. Got the face lift bumper and valence repaired and painted.




And got the deck lid stripped, ugly 3rd brake light holes patched, and a little body work and that will be ready for paint.



More to come soon.


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[gart]

Bringing a Ohio E30 back to life

So I finally got to spend some time on the car. I moved since I got the front end painted which took a lot more of my time than expected, yada, yada, adult stuff, we all have it going on. Well that's done and the car has a home for the winter where I can work on it. Now to the fun stuff, I only really got to spend a day on it so far but here's the progress. Got the front end torn down. Stripped everything off the subframe, reinforcements are in and subframe is all Por15'd. I'll be picking up the Z3 rack this weekend, and ordering the rest of the front end components (control arms, tie rods, fcabs, sway bar bushings and end links) already have motor and trans mounts along with a x-brace. Next is to figure out suspension and I guess wheels. Now to the pics, bonus pics of some of a new friends kick ass car collection. Sorry for the crappy iPhone pics.





And how it's sitting now

[gart]

neato. verts are always beat on it seems like

Sadly this ones no exception.

I've got my parts list together for the front end and the only thing that's going to be upgraded is the cabs (condor non offset), e36 rack, and I will probably get in on the CAtuned group buy for the standard set of coilovers. I told myself I didn't need the subframe reinforcement bits, but now the "while you're in there" mentality is creeping in. This thing will not be a daily and most likely never see the track. Opinions/experience?

[Chinampa]

neato. verts are always beat on it seems like

[gart]

Finally got my hands on another e30 after a few years and figured I should have some record of all the headaches this thing is going to give me. Sadly I never got to finish my other cabrio. Long story. Recently picked up a well used 89 cabrio, it needs a lot of work but I'm going to try to take it on piece by piece this winter. When I bought the car it had no fenders on it, and that was honestly one of main concerns. I know from my last one that those are hard to find in decent shape. The front bumper was bent up pretty good, interior is toast, broken headlight, big dents in hood, missing rocker trim, leaky 3rd brake light, terrible suspension, missing shift knob, exhaust was just hanging. This car has definitely had a rough decade or so. With all that said it wasn't a rust bucket and that's hard to find in the rust belt, it ran, and it had a new top. Pic with the junkyard fenders thrown on, and primer on the hood dents.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/137794314@N02/38x9nM

Lucked out and found a set of fenders at a local yard the day after I brought it home that weren't too bad. Had to make a small patch on the passenger side bottom. Fixed all the dents in the hood and got the fence and hood prepped for paint. Turns out brilliantrot is really expensive even at my cost so I decided to do a color change. It was in my mind anyways and this just made it even more justified.

As of now fenders and hood are painted, I've sourced parts for the plastic bumper conversion and the cars is at a friends shop getting the motor and a few other things looked over.

My plan is to leave the m20 until I have the rest of the car sorted. That is unless there is something majorly wrong with this one. Once I have it back its time to start on the front end. Going to refresh what ever I find but planning on springs/struts possibly coils, new rack, tie rods, control arms, sub frame bushings, hubs and whatever else comes up. Bentley manual will be here soon. I will continue to update as I make progress.