Lacey, the Lachssilber 325iS - oem+ 5spd. swap daily driver build

[vtechnik]

My New Year's resolution is to start documenting more progress on my cars, every time I finish a project I regret not taking the time to document.

So with that being said, this build thread is about my daily driver 1988 325iS I just picked up on October 30th. First let me show you the cars I dailyed before.



this was my first car. "Crayons" was her name, if you own a mk4 you know why lol. I owned it from 2014 to 2017. At the time i thought it was a fun car because it was a manual. Retrospectively speaking it was a good thing it had the 2.slow, kept me out of trouble and never broke down on me... somehow.



Eventually I got tired of Crayons. I traded the 2005 Jetta for this 1992 Civic dx, "Le Hoonda". Most say it was a terrible trade but for me it was the best trade i had ever made. The civic opened my eyes to another world of dailying fun cars instead of boring commuter cars. The dx wasn't only faster than the Jetta but got 2x the mpg too. I regret getting rid of the Civic all the time.

But then I simply remember my new E30 and then I don't feel so bad :)

Meet Lacey:

















I've had 2 e30s before this one but this one is pretty special. I always wanted a post facelift silver e30, and to finally be dailying one is just too cool.

When this 325iS popped up on CL I had to have it. I saw the ad within 20mins of it being posted and wasted no time going up to Bothel to buy it. As you can see in the pics it has four dents, one on the trunk, the driver qp, driver door, and passenger fender. Other than that the car is pretty clean, no clearcoat flake yet, crack free dash, and no modifications. She ran pretty well despite trying to overheat, leaking coolant, and oil . it was a silver 325iS so I looked past that, plus its a BMW so that's kinda given lol. the guy owned the car since 1991 but didn't have much documentation. It is an auto but that's going to change before the picnic.

Overall I wanted the car but the guy didn't budge much on price, I had to bite the bullet and pay the full whopping price of $1050 :D

I think I got it for a pretty good deal, my wallet didn't agree because I had $10 in my account after the transaction

This is what made me sell Le Hoonda, it was rough but such is life.

I currently daily Lacey. I have done a bit of work to her since and I will be updating this thread throughout the week but for now it's nice to have a starting point done. Thanks and stay tuned

[gdrumm93]

Looks like a decent starting point. What are your plans for it?

[TFJR]

Welcome! Nice starting point. I remember seeing that car briefly on Craigslist. Congrats on the purchase. Always great to have another '88 Lachs in Western Washington! Looking forward to seeing it at this years picnic in June.

Cheers,
Toby

[Metallated]

Welcome! Nice starting point. I remember seeing that car briefly on Craigslist. Congrats on the purchase. Always great to have another '88 Lachs in Western Washington! Looking forward to seeing it at this years picnic in June.

Cheers,
Toby

Squad :D

Congrats on the purchase, you won't regret selling the civic for long.

That dent in the quarter panel should be pretty easy to push out from the trunk if you femove the side carpet. Just try to be gentle to stop the paint from breaking, and other than those dents the paint looks excellent.

1k is a great deal for that car! Best of luck with your build.

[e30austin]

If for some odd reason, you would like to part with the natur sport seats, please let me know. I have a car in need of some natur tan sports and they are a little more uncommon to come by these days. I probably could dig you up some black sports to trade, if that piques your interest.

Nice purchase. Welcome to r3v! Enjoy your stay.

Austin

[vtechnik]

Looks like a decent starting point. What are your plans for it?

The car is definitely going to be an OEM+/mostly OEM build. I will be tracking it eventually but I also want to be able to road trip the car, so there's going to be a lot of compromising between sport and comfort. I've done quite a bit of work to Lacey so far but I just haven't gotten around to posting pics and descriptions.

As of now the plans are as follow, (if it is not listed, you can assume it will be kept stock, rebuilt or replaced with oem parts)

Suspension:
- H&R's / Billy's
- braided brake lines
- rear and front strut bars
- E46 rack eventually (z3 rack seems to tight for my goals)
- maybe x-brace?


Interior
- Schroth 4pt. asm harness
- garagistic weighted oem shift knob
- Oem style 3 gauge cluster pod by ash tray mod

Exterior (other than fixing dents)
- im going to put some plastic bumpers on since its an 88
- maybe euroweaves?

Drivetrain / Engine
- 5spd swap
- rebuild head with HD rockers
- maybe a z3 short shift kit? probably not though
- maybe a catback? probably not though

Thats about it. I'm really trying to preserve this car and not go off the deep end. Minimalism is the key here.

I'm open to suggestions but before i start even considering things like sway bars and other suspension mods I want to track the car to get a feel.

That dent in the quarter panel should be pretty easy to push out from the trunk if you femove the side carpet. Just try to be gentle to stop the paint from breaking, and other than those dents the paint looks excellent.

1k is a great deal for that car! Best of luck with your build.

Yeah I just took hot water and a plunger to the dent a week ago. I'll try to get pics up soon. It made it a lot better but it still has a crease. I looked on the inside and the qp was apparently hit twice because someone already used a stud gun in that area :(, it's gonna need proffesional attention but for now i can live with it.

And thank you all for congratulating me on the purchase, I'm excited to be documenting my first real e30 build

[AWDBOB]

This was a great buy, and seems like you have solid plans for the car. If I may, from my experience:

1) Bilsteins ride a bit rough for my taste. You may be happier with Konis if you can swing the few extra bucks.
2) Definitely get the Z3 1.9 lever when doing your 5sp swap.

This car in OEM+ configuration will be a blast.

[vtechnik]

*beep beep beep*
Incoming Photo Dump

So naturally one of the first things I had to do was get here cleaned up...

BEFORE:


AFTER:












Annnnd.. the bad side lol:





Overall though a pretty clean car and solid one at that for $1k

P.S I only had 3 center caps lying around so I only use them for pics. I just don't want to be that guy driving around with 3 center caps lol. I'll keep searching for the 4th or if someone wants to donate one to the Lacey project let me know so we can work out a deal. Thanks again and for the support and stay tuned

[bruner]

Whatup bro. She's lookin good. Shame on you for owning so many hondas. It's about time you came back to the e30 game

[vtechnik]

This was a great buy, and seems like you have solid plans for the car. If I may, from my experience:

1) Bilsteins ride a bit rough for my taste. You may be happier with Konis if you can swing the few extra bucks.
2) Definitely get the Z3 1.9 lever when doing your 5sp swap.

This car in OEM+ configuration will be a blast.

Thanks Bob

1) The car currently has Bilstein's so I'm just gonna run them till they blow. The rears are done already so the fronts are bound to go soon anyway. I have a set of koni's on my 87 that i may swap over someday

2) Yeah i may, I'm not a huge fan of short shift kits but the z3 kit is all oem so it probably feels better than most ebay junk

[vtechnik]

Whatup bro. She's lookin good. Shame on you for owning so many hondas. It's about time you came back to the e30 game

Right back at you bud

[vtechnik]

More cleaning the week after on the seats. I know for a fact im going to replace the seat upholstery so right now I'm more or less polishing them to look presentable and to preserve whats left.

Paint thinner, spray paint and Griot's Garage leather conditioner always works well for me on "restoring" leather. I know people are going to have mixed feelings about this technique and say how bad it is for the upholstery but I've yet to see the downsides of doing it plus I'm going to be replacing the leather in the future anyway

step 1: apply paint thinner to rag
step 2: apply spray color matched paint to rag
step 3: wipe seat, "rub" solution into cracks and worn spots
step 4: add more as you go
step 5: let it dry, and add Griot's Garage Leather conditioner to seats
step 6: enjoy results :-)

NOTES: the leather was really bad so I wasn't expecting miracles but I am pretty satisfied with how much softer the leather is and how much better the side bolstering looked comparing before and after. Before you can see all the cracks and worn spots and after most of the cracked spots are blended in and softened with the conditioner.

BEFORE:









AFTER:













Like I said I'm mostly just putting a band aid on the real problem but they do look a lot better in person. The passenger looks roughly the same but the drivers side looks significantly better. Its been about 2 months of daily driving now since I've cleaned them up and they're still holding up really well.

[wworm]

Lacey, the Lachssilber 325iS

I have what I believe to be a set of lachs plastic bumpers (unsure on the actual color but they match my faded lachs sedan) trim, clear indicator lenses and shocks if you’re interested.
Decided to go with euros

Shoot me a PM if you’re interested


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[vtechnik]

I have what I believe to be a set of lachs plastic bumpers (unsure on the actual color but they match my faded lachs sedan) trim, clear indicator lenses and shocks if you’re interested.
Decided to go with euros

Shoot me a PM if you’re interested


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I appreciate the offer but I already have a set laying around that I'll be using

[vtechnik]

On to the major dent, amazing what a plunger will do to a small impact dent.
The only thing I used to do this was a plunger I bought at the dollar store, and boiling water. For $1 and 15mins this was pretty satisfying.

BEFORE:







AFTER:







There's still the crease near the wheel well as you guys can see but overall its much easier to fool people who look at it at a glance. I couldn't get the rest of it out because directly behind that dent someone used a stud gun so its pretty firm there. I tried using boiling water and a deadblow from the inside but it seemed like it was gonna crack the paint before popping back in place. I can live with it and I'm hardly noticing it recently. I guess it just gives me an excuse to park next to people with that side facing them since both the door and qp need work on the driverside lol. I'll post a pic from the inside the trunk later today