Hello everyone and welcome to my project thread about my 1989 E30 Touring.
This thread will document a mild transformation and restoration of a stock 318i touring, 5 speed, into a daily driver / canyon cruiser car. The car was imported from Germany and arrived at it's new home in Salt Lake City Utah towards the end of 2015.
The BMW crowd in Salt Lake City loves E30s, and we have a LOT of very very nice ones around. Naturally, this encourages us to keep building nicer and better cars. My previous car was a 1989 325i with a full respray, S50 swap, full suspension refresh, euro interior, shaved engine bay and BBS RS wheels. It was a nice car but also was a huge and painful learning experience. I am hoping my next e30 will go smoother and with less headaches.
Back to the touring because that's what we are all here for. The car arrived and was stored for a couple of months due to issues getting it registered in Utah. Turns out the 25 year rule makes it very easy to import cars to the US, but then at the individual state and city level, you may be dealing with a whole new level of pain in the ass, depending on where you live.
This has finally been sorted through, and this E30 is ready for its makeover.
This is how it currently looks in stock form:
photo credit Max Daines
I absolutely love the car. It has some flaws, and a lot of rust, but it is a perfect basis for a fun, and less common project. The plan is to build a functional car vs show car (for now), starting with a full suspension refresh and some lightweight wheels, brakes, lines and maybe a couple details here and there to make the car handle well and stop firmly and safely.
The second step would be to clean it up a bit and fix some of the things that are broken or ugly on it. Lastly, the car may get more power with a proper engine...most likely a 6cyl swap. We shall see...
To wrap up this introduction post, i'd like to share a video with you guys....my friend Max and I started a YouTube channel where we will document our builds from hereon-out. You can find the introduction episode of the touring below:
Salt City Euros / E30 Touring: Episode 1
Last but not least, for those of you who have not seen it, this is a video we shot last year, also including the white e30 of my friend Tyson....he runs the hugely successful @thedirtythirty Instagram page.
Underground E30
Will post the first modifications very soon
This thread will document a mild transformation and restoration of a stock 318i touring, 5 speed, into a daily driver / canyon cruiser car. The car was imported from Germany and arrived at it's new home in Salt Lake City Utah towards the end of 2015.
The BMW crowd in Salt Lake City loves E30s, and we have a LOT of very very nice ones around. Naturally, this encourages us to keep building nicer and better cars. My previous car was a 1989 325i with a full respray, S50 swap, full suspension refresh, euro interior, shaved engine bay and BBS RS wheels. It was a nice car but also was a huge and painful learning experience. I am hoping my next e30 will go smoother and with less headaches.
Back to the touring because that's what we are all here for. The car arrived and was stored for a couple of months due to issues getting it registered in Utah. Turns out the 25 year rule makes it very easy to import cars to the US, but then at the individual state and city level, you may be dealing with a whole new level of pain in the ass, depending on where you live.
This has finally been sorted through, and this E30 is ready for its makeover.
This is how it currently looks in stock form:
photo credit Max Daines
I absolutely love the car. It has some flaws, and a lot of rust, but it is a perfect basis for a fun, and less common project. The plan is to build a functional car vs show car (for now), starting with a full suspension refresh and some lightweight wheels, brakes, lines and maybe a couple details here and there to make the car handle well and stop firmly and safely.
The second step would be to clean it up a bit and fix some of the things that are broken or ugly on it. Lastly, the car may get more power with a proper engine...most likely a 6cyl swap. We shall see...
To wrap up this introduction post, i'd like to share a video with you guys....my friend Max and I started a YouTube channel where we will document our builds from hereon-out. You can find the introduction episode of the touring below:
Salt City Euros / E30 Touring: Episode 1
Last but not least, for those of you who have not seen it, this is a video we shot last year, also including the white e30 of my friend Tyson....he runs the hugely successful @thedirtythirty Instagram page.
Underground E30
Will post the first modifications very soon
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