Hey people, I’ve owned this car for the better part of a decade now and I feel it’s time I finally made a real thread. This car is my project and daily driver, and is quite possibly the only thing keeping me sane with my 50+ hour a week job. Behold my noble steed!
Here's how she looked when I found her:
It’s a 1986 325es coupe, manual, in Alpine/Pacific Blue. It’s my second e30 – I hard-parked the first one into a curb and was too inexperienced to know what to do with it, so I let it go. Biggest regret to this day. My dad and I bought this one in 2010 for $250 in semi-running condition it but needed a transmission, so we dropped in a mystery-Getrag from Craigslist and she’s been (basically) running ever since.
Right after bringing her home:
Sometime in high school I thought it would be a good idea to spray up the front quarter… But I'm pretty much sick of it and I think I’ll be getting rid of it pretty soon :?
It stayed pretty stock for about 5 years while I went away to college, but now that I have a job I’ve been able to throw a lil bit of cash at it finally.
First thing I did after getting back from college was to take care of some long-overdo maintenance like timing belt/water pump, new coolant hoses, clutch master/slave replacement, etc.
Had the shift linkage rebuilt and added a 1.9 lever and ZHP knob which improved the driving experience 1000%. Also cup holders because functional racecar.
She looked like this for a while.
Then I found out what the inside of my oil pan looked like:
That was a huuuge bummer, but not wanting to lose 2 e30’s to curb-related incidents, I had it towed to my guy in Oxnard and a few days later had a new oil pan, sub-frame, control arms, and bushings. Good as new!
The fart-cannon muffler was cool for a while but the piping totally rusted out, so I replaced it with a much more sensible stock system. Although I miss setting off car alarms in parking garages :(
Then I installed JOMs:
They ride alright for DD purposes, although my car's low enough that I scrape the cat when I drive into steep ass underground parking structure.
Didn’t want to bust another oil pan (had bad enough luck at stock height) and my radiator support is too bent up for a red46 skid plate, I threw down for the HIK severe duty plate (the one welded to the frame). It's suuuper low so I smack it around a lot, but I feel pretty invincible and I'd rather bash up a skid plate than my oil pan.
Recently acquired these cool OZ Routes:
They’re 15x7 ET12. Had the fenders rolled since they were rubbing the rear arches. 3mm spacers in the fronts to clear the struts, might space out the rears a bit (10mm or maybe 15mm).
Now I guess I’m pretty much in the beautification stage. I have an ES air dam with OG brackets/fogs and a new valance ready to install. Scored a clean dash too, but I'm on the fence about installing it any time soon, or even at all.
She’s a constant work in progress but I’m really happy with how everything is shaping up. I have a huge ultimate to-do list, but short-term goals are to install the air dam, re-spray the rockers black again, and hopefully improve the sound system (only running front speakers now).
Eventually I'd like to get the body totally straight, reupholster the seats/improve the interior in general, then fix up the driveline (diff whines/leaks, engine ticks a little, shifting is still a littttle sloppy despite the linkage rebuild).
Here's my other bae ;)
Looking forward to keeping this updated with my progress turning this into a respectable automobile! She's not the prettiest car around but I’ve put a lot of effort into keeping her on the road and it’s always nice to get my hands dirty and learn something new working on her.
:early:
Here's how she looked when I found her:
It’s a 1986 325es coupe, manual, in Alpine/Pacific Blue. It’s my second e30 – I hard-parked the first one into a curb and was too inexperienced to know what to do with it, so I let it go. Biggest regret to this day. My dad and I bought this one in 2010 for $250 in semi-running condition it but needed a transmission, so we dropped in a mystery-Getrag from Craigslist and she’s been (basically) running ever since.
Right after bringing her home:
Sometime in high school I thought it would be a good idea to spray up the front quarter… But I'm pretty much sick of it and I think I’ll be getting rid of it pretty soon :?
It stayed pretty stock for about 5 years while I went away to college, but now that I have a job I’ve been able to throw a lil bit of cash at it finally.
First thing I did after getting back from college was to take care of some long-overdo maintenance like timing belt/water pump, new coolant hoses, clutch master/slave replacement, etc.
Had the shift linkage rebuilt and added a 1.9 lever and ZHP knob which improved the driving experience 1000%. Also cup holders because functional racecar.
She looked like this for a while.
Then I found out what the inside of my oil pan looked like:
That was a huuuge bummer, but not wanting to lose 2 e30’s to curb-related incidents, I had it towed to my guy in Oxnard and a few days later had a new oil pan, sub-frame, control arms, and bushings. Good as new!
The fart-cannon muffler was cool for a while but the piping totally rusted out, so I replaced it with a much more sensible stock system. Although I miss setting off car alarms in parking garages :(
Then I installed JOMs:
They ride alright for DD purposes, although my car's low enough that I scrape the cat when I drive into steep ass underground parking structure.
Didn’t want to bust another oil pan (had bad enough luck at stock height) and my radiator support is too bent up for a red46 skid plate, I threw down for the HIK severe duty plate (the one welded to the frame). It's suuuper low so I smack it around a lot, but I feel pretty invincible and I'd rather bash up a skid plate than my oil pan.
Recently acquired these cool OZ Routes:
They’re 15x7 ET12. Had the fenders rolled since they were rubbing the rear arches. 3mm spacers in the fronts to clear the struts, might space out the rears a bit (10mm or maybe 15mm).
Now I guess I’m pretty much in the beautification stage. I have an ES air dam with OG brackets/fogs and a new valance ready to install. Scored a clean dash too, but I'm on the fence about installing it any time soon, or even at all.
She’s a constant work in progress but I’m really happy with how everything is shaping up. I have a huge ultimate to-do list, but short-term goals are to install the air dam, re-spray the rockers black again, and hopefully improve the sound system (only running front speakers now).
Eventually I'd like to get the body totally straight, reupholster the seats/improve the interior in general, then fix up the driveline (diff whines/leaks, engine ticks a little, shifting is still a littttle sloppy despite the linkage rebuild).
Here's my other bae ;)
Looking forward to keeping this updated with my progress turning this into a respectable automobile! She's not the prettiest car around but I’ve put a lot of effort into keeping her on the road and it’s always nice to get my hands dirty and learn something new working on her.
:early:
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