Martin and the Ricer

[tak7]

She cleans up pretty good, hard to tell from the one pic though, we need many more!
Car looks ok too..

[Musij]

So found a few things here and there after giving it a good clean. Passenger side and read window seals leak. A little bit of rust creeping up the front lip of the hood, but that's about it from what I didn't know.

Obviously the metal in the oil pan is a big alarm, so I'll have to see what my options are ASAP.

Here's your typical gas stating pic after cleaning her up.

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[Musij]

Good news! No milkshake from the oil change! Bad news, the magnet caught these 2 pieces.

I have to pull the head don't I?

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[paynemw]

that looks 24V swappable! I'd say you purchased a decent car that just needs some lovin'. DITO on the fenders... have them properly rolled and you should be in the clear.

[ak-]

Solid base dude. You're right around fair with the price you paid and 318is' are starting to get really desirable.
A deep cleaning and some fender work with new wheels will do a lot.

As mentioned, those fenders weren't rolled.
The wheels are ESM's.
You have Silver Sport interior in great condition in comparison to other 20+yr old E30's.
The center console, where your e-brake is, is from an E36.

[randywalters]

...One of the PO tried to also roll the fenders, like you can see in the pictures, but did it the wrong way like an idiot. I'm hoping this can be easily rolled back into place, it'd suck to have to replace the panel.

Those front fender lips actually don't look rolled - they look like they were randomly pulled down by the tires when turning sharp when going up a driveway. I see this a lot on lowered cars with wide tires and/or wheels with too little offset. It looks fixable.

[Dj Buttchug]

car has potential. trash bin those wheels and tires asap

[Musij]

I finally pulled the trigger on a car yesterday. A 318is.

I affectionally named it Ricer because of the annoying riced out civic sounding magna flow the previous owner put on it.

The car was an hour and a half away from my house, the pictures showed the car being really dirty and yes, yes it was. But the PO also sent me a pic or two of the car after a good car wash and it looked pretty good. He also gave me his mechanic's info, a certified BMW mechanic, and the shop told me some of the preventative maintenance done on the engine that made me feel good about the car.

Once i got to the car, first impressions weren't good, it's sitting on these nasty stretched tires with this bad offset on the rears. The car also sits a lot lower than i want it to and it was very very dirty. The seats were decent but almost everything else needs care and restoration.. The previous owner was a young guy that didn't seem to care much about it, bought a new WRX a year ago and left his 318is pretty abandoned. Broken Odometer shows 136138, but the carafe shows a rollback and some weird mileage. Regardless, the engine felt well maintained.

But then i drove it, red lined it on a straight away, and knew this was the car for me. I don't think it was the best deal i could've gotten, but i have no regrets, pulled the trigger and made a deal for 4k.

So about the car

Color: diamantschwarz - metallic
Interior: Unknown grey cloth, could someone help me ID it please
Wheel: Unknown

The engine pulls strong, made the drive back home no problem. It has one small slow dripping leak, im hoping its the oil pan gasket. The lifters make a lot of noise, so i figured they're probably dirty, then i went to my buddy's shop and he asked me what i oil it was running, i forgot to even check it when buying the car. It was BONE FRIKING DRY. When we took off the oil cap a little bit of white smoke came out, so we instantly put a quart of oil in and i drove it home and parked it. So i'm hoping the ticking came from having no oil in the car, but i also worry this isn't the first time the car was driven oilless and the lifters could need replacing.

One of the PO tried to also roll the fenders, like you can see in the pictures, but did it the wrong way like an idiot. I'm hoping this can be easily rolled back into place, it'd suck to have to replace the panel.

So today I'm gonna give the car a nice wash and start pulling apart the interior to thoroughly clean everything. For now, i think i may buy a dash cover and cover up that ridiculously cracked dash, but i do plan on eventually replacing it with a crack free one.

My plans are to drive this car, i don't want a garage queen, i want to drive it all over the west coast and go on some awesome adventures with it.

My immediate plan is to do a lot of deep cleaning, get some of the smaller things done, like missing trim pieces, etc. And plan and save for a full suspension overall. I'm gonna take the wheels off and see what type they are and if there may be any grace in keeping them and slapping new tires on them, but i'm not the biggest fan of them so i might end up selling them and buy a set of style 5's.

Oh, one thing you guys might be able to help me with, the key won't go into the driver's key hole. It works everywhere else. Do you think someone broke their key in there? Do i need to take off the door card to begin finding out what's wrong?

Here's pictures from the first day.