BMW e30 Daily/StanceMachine? **Warning** Picture overload!

[danielpak_ek9]

So I haven't been working on the e30 much lately but i started working on the rear bumper for fitment and trimming the sides

20170214_200850 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170214_211326 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170214_211333 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr


here just made a straight cut right where its marked
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shortened about an 3/4 in or so

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fitment is perfect, so i started melting the pieces together

20170214_231031 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

from the inside i reinforced it with metal paper clips welded into the plastic. Cant break it if i wanted to. I seen people gluing it with just a sheet of fiberglass repair but i dont think its as solid as actually plastic welding it. Once i fully melted the plastic just sanded down smooth


20170215_000804 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170215_001422 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr


test fit #1

20170215_002146 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

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20170215_003424 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

and same idea is being done with the trim


20170215_185456 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr


Annnnnnnnnnd this will be the color im planning to finish the car with. It looks so goooood! My brother is the painter at our shop and I found the color chip of the paint i will be using. We also added a stage of glacier pearls after the base coat. So it will be a tri-stage paint. I cant stop looking at the test panel he shot. In the sun it looks amazing in person.


20170215_210444 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr


That is for now, will be updating as soon as i can! Peace out R3v

[danielpak_ek9]

Quick update: My late 325i parts car didnt have a transmission and i had no way to test the motor to see if it runs or anything i just took the risk and took the previous owners word for it. So i installed the tranny today and gave it a few cranks and VROOOOmm! sounded very good idle is smooth. Very surprising as it has been standing for about 3 or 4 years with the trans out the car. Next thing im doing is pulling the motor out and refreshing everything on it. Seals, belts, clutch etc and will be painting the engine bay soon... Most likely will be painting the car blue. Im looking around for a certain shade of blue and all and so far the bmw Estorial is on top of the list.

20170207_202209 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170207_202214 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170207_202229 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

[danielpak_ek9]

I can see them now. Looking good. Sub'd so I can see what she turns into. Great progress!

Awesome! Thanks!

[Razor1981]

Hmm... they seem to be working for me. ill look in to it.

I can see them now. Looking good. Sub'd so I can see what she turns into. Great progress!

[danielpak_ek9]

Alright so not much has been done since the last update because of the weekend and had some work need to be done but here is just a pic of the M3 we have finished the front end paint on. Looks lovely! still needs the bottom grills, trim, and fogs installed.

I am thinking on spraying the e30 Estorial blue just like this m3 possibly but still thinking on it. Thoughts? Let me know what you guys think.

20170206_144728 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170206_144736 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

So i took out most of the stuff from the engine bay so i can pressure wash everything with some pinesol degreaser

20170206_174128 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

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can finally see the original paint

20170206_192036 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170206_192042 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr



starting to take apart the parts car

20170206_203704 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170206_203707 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170206_203710 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr


removing the rear diving board and will be installing the late model bumper

20170206_212022 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr


Small update but thats it for now

[danielpak_ek9]

Gottta get the pics showing up. I can't see them at least.
Really interested I have a 87 325E that I'm finishing a M50 swap in.

Hmm... they seem to be working for me. ill look in to it.

[Razor1981]

Gottta get the pics showing up. I can't see them at least.
Really interested I have a 87 325E that I'm finishing a M50 swap in.

[danielpak_ek9]

Thanks man! And yeah check out my FS ad

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=371804

[badwella]

Awesome. Looking forward to your progress.

Do you have any photos of your old e30?

[danielpak_ek9]

Subscribed.

Thanks. Im looking forward to see where this goes!

[Mad Max]

Subscribed.

[danielpak_ek9]

How's it going r3v? I used to be on this forum daily when i had my first e30.
After i sold my first e30 which was a m50 swapped 318is that i have restored i wanted to do the same thing and restore and build another and i will try to keep this thread updated daily or as soon as i can.

Here are some of the pics of my first e30 I have restored
DSC07133 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

DSC07072 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

e30 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr


Well, I found a 87 325e on CL a little over 3 weeks ago with a had a bad headgasket for a decent price. I though, why not? As it was the only good one in my area with not too much rust as some get here in the Midwest. So i went ahead and picked the car up with plans to make it a clean daily for now. My plans as of now is to clean everything up and start on the body and try to get the motor fixed up.



The day i brought the car
Wheels need to go asap!
20170120_185742 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170120_185749 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170121_181901 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr



Dont mind the mess in the shop. e36 m3 getting some body work done.

20170120_185801 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

Started pulling everything out from the interior. Curious on how the floor pans look. Hmmm.....

20170120_185810 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170120_185815 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170120_201824 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170120_201834 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr




So after about a few days I was on CL and i came across another e30 that i thought i could use for parts especially bits and pieces of the interior i was missing and most of the body is straight. I picked it up for dirt cheap almost nothing.

20170123_151747 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

the dash was faily clean only about 1 or 2 tiny cracks which is surprising

20170123_151708 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

could possibly part this car out for anyone r3v users on here needing some parts just pm me!

20170123_151717 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr




EWWW! found a rust hole right were the pedal is mounted...just great. well i guess it could have been worse. Time to cut off all the rust and patch the floor.

20170126_175616 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr


found some holes here and there and some minor surface rust in a few places but theres nothing a wirebrush cant remove

20170126_175618 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170126_182842 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

Boom! floor pan welded in and added sealer to cover up the welds.

20170130_184155 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr


Alright so now the the floor is done, i had to make a bracket to hold the pedal down so i just made 2 L brackets and attached it to the floor and to the pedal.

20170130_184211 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170130_180701 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170130_183845 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr


Pedal is in! finally doesn't look like a deformed automatic pedal assembly.

20170130_191654 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr



Surface is all cleaned up and sanded down.

20170130_193141 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170130_193205 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170130_193452 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr




Good as new

20170130_193503 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr




Alright now that that has been done, I figured its time to work on the motor. Motor didnt fire at all when i was first buying the car which was a bummer as he told me it ran before i even got there. So i thought it has to be something minor as it did have fuel and spark and good comp. But what i didnt realize is that the spark was very very weak and upon changing the coilpak thats mounted on the rh shock tower.. the car fired at an instant and ran very good. So after all that i decided to change out the HG and all the "while you are there" type of parts.

20170127_202644 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170127_202651 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr




took of the cylinder head

20170128_184208 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170128_184232 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr


painted intake mani and valve cover wrinkle black and will sand down the raised markings.

20170128_184239 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170128_184248 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170128_184301 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170128_184308 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr


Sooooooo...... BAD NEWS. so upon taking the head off and inspecting it with a straight edge and a feeler gauge, everything looked ok. even the smallest shim barely went through.. I though, well it isnt tooo bad. But i didnt want to risk just putting the head back on with a new gasket i decided to take it to a shop and have them inspect it and mill it down if nessesary. Turns out, the head is toast. With a huge crack right underneath the cam. Well i was a bit disappointed after and was sort of out of options for the car.


here is when the head was brought back from the shop after finding out its busted.


20170202_175126 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr




I had plans to just get a 325i head and make it a 2.7 stroker so after upon looking on CL again for anything in my area. Well, I found another parts car. Its a late 325i with the plastic bumpers(which i was looking for as well) and has way more useful parts than the other parts car i had. So i went ahead and just bought the entire car for cheap considering it has a running m20b25, full interior and the plastic bumpers i wanted that are kinda hard to find in my area.

20170206_144902 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170206_144913 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr

20170206_144921 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr



So next thing i did was pull the motor out of my 325e with the bad head

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Problem?

20170202_201535 by Daniel Pak, on Flickr



All this was in a span of about 3 weeks, I just decided to document my story of this car and i guess only time will tell where itll take me. Again, I will try to keep this thread updated as much as possible and load it with as much pictures as i can. Because well, Im sure i bore you guys enough with these short stories and pictures speak louder than words.