Hi everyone, I've been on the forum for a bit now, but don't usually post much. I thought I'd share the adventures of bringing this e30 back to life after being harassed by my friend zwill23 to do so.:roll:
The back story:
I was looking around the marketplace and saw this e30 on the market, got in touch with the owner and went down 2 days later to see it. Here's a couple pictures from the add.
This is a 10/88 build date 1989 Bronzit 325i sedan.
I purchased it from the original owners back in August. My initial intentions were to get it running quickly and cheaply to keep another e30 on the road and save it from the junkyard, possibly making a small profit to help fund some parts for my other project.
It hadn't been registered since 2003!
It wasn't running when I bought it, but was told it just needed a new fuel pump. It cranked over fine at their house so I figured we'd give it a go as it was super clean and unmolested. I'm a sucker for originality.
zwill23 came with me to help get it home, couldn't have done it without him! When we went to get it loaded, we couldn't get the right rear wheel free and figured it was due to automatic transmission. We tried putting it in neutral but the selector wasn't doing anything. Not knowing much about automatics, we decided to undo the axle from the diff so we could let it free. Knowing what I know now, I could have just crawled under the car and moved the selector rod myself. Live and learn, never dealt with an automatic before. It turned out that the parking brake was seized to the hub anyway, and didn't break free until being dragged several feet with the come-along.
After a couple hours of messing around, we finally got it loaded up on the trailer and headed back to my house! Big thanks to the previous owners for providing us some water, it was damn hot! It was an emotional day for sure, they were very sad to see it go, they had a lot of memories with it and told us some great stories. They were a really cool couple for sure!
So we got it home without any issues other than it being a pain getting into the garage as it wasn't wanting to roll that easily. Big thanks to my wifey for letting me kick her car out of the garage and hold both the e30s! She's damn awesome.
She's so awesome, she said she wanted to keep it and make it hers! This threw a wrench into my plans for a quick fix/flip. If she was going to drive it, I wanted to make it safe and reliable. All the rubber was trash and needed replaced. So I started to look it over and figure out what it needed and what it didn't. This is one of the cleanest e30s I've ever seen. It is as stock and original as can be, the diff even still had safety wire from the factory on it, I didn't even know they did that. The underside was like it rolled off the factory, albeit like it sat in the desert for 10 years. Everything is caked in dirt.
Zwill23 called it from the get go, saying the gas tank was going to be a rusty mess and probably the cause for the fuel pump dying. He was correct, it was a mess! So, I ordered up a new tank and pump and once they came in, zwill23 helped me drop and install the new tank.
Replaced all rubber with new as it was all trash and installed a new fuel filter as well.
Hauled away the old tank to the recycler with the wagon
While I had the tank out, I decided to drop the subframe to replace all the bushings. Cleaned everything up too while it was out.
Shortly after buying goldE, I took a new position in my company that takes up much more time than my old one. It's definitely cutting into the project time and we also went on vacation out to Portland. It ended up turning into a road trip down the 101 as the forest fires were raging at the time. Luckily we turned it into a good time and saw some great sights on the way down to one of our favorite cities, San Francisco! It was a great time.
Stopped at an air museum out of pure luck. They had the damn Spruce Goose!
Drove through a tree
Stopped at Crater Lake, it almost looks fake
Heading back to Portland
Cool B5 "s3nd it"
When we got back from vacation I eventually got back to it, but it's been a slow process. More updates to follow!
The back story:
I was looking around the marketplace and saw this e30 on the market, got in touch with the owner and went down 2 days later to see it. Here's a couple pictures from the add.
This is a 10/88 build date 1989 Bronzit 325i sedan.
I purchased it from the original owners back in August. My initial intentions were to get it running quickly and cheaply to keep another e30 on the road and save it from the junkyard, possibly making a small profit to help fund some parts for my other project.
It hadn't been registered since 2003!
It wasn't running when I bought it, but was told it just needed a new fuel pump. It cranked over fine at their house so I figured we'd give it a go as it was super clean and unmolested. I'm a sucker for originality.
zwill23 came with me to help get it home, couldn't have done it without him! When we went to get it loaded, we couldn't get the right rear wheel free and figured it was due to automatic transmission. We tried putting it in neutral but the selector wasn't doing anything. Not knowing much about automatics, we decided to undo the axle from the diff so we could let it free. Knowing what I know now, I could have just crawled under the car and moved the selector rod myself. Live and learn, never dealt with an automatic before. It turned out that the parking brake was seized to the hub anyway, and didn't break free until being dragged several feet with the come-along.
After a couple hours of messing around, we finally got it loaded up on the trailer and headed back to my house! Big thanks to the previous owners for providing us some water, it was damn hot! It was an emotional day for sure, they were very sad to see it go, they had a lot of memories with it and told us some great stories. They were a really cool couple for sure!
So we got it home without any issues other than it being a pain getting into the garage as it wasn't wanting to roll that easily. Big thanks to my wifey for letting me kick her car out of the garage and hold both the e30s! She's damn awesome.
She's so awesome, she said she wanted to keep it and make it hers! This threw a wrench into my plans for a quick fix/flip. If she was going to drive it, I wanted to make it safe and reliable. All the rubber was trash and needed replaced. So I started to look it over and figure out what it needed and what it didn't. This is one of the cleanest e30s I've ever seen. It is as stock and original as can be, the diff even still had safety wire from the factory on it, I didn't even know they did that. The underside was like it rolled off the factory, albeit like it sat in the desert for 10 years. Everything is caked in dirt.
Zwill23 called it from the get go, saying the gas tank was going to be a rusty mess and probably the cause for the fuel pump dying. He was correct, it was a mess! So, I ordered up a new tank and pump and once they came in, zwill23 helped me drop and install the new tank.
Replaced all rubber with new as it was all trash and installed a new fuel filter as well.
Hauled away the old tank to the recycler with the wagon
While I had the tank out, I decided to drop the subframe to replace all the bushings. Cleaned everything up too while it was out.
Shortly after buying goldE, I took a new position in my company that takes up much more time than my old one. It's definitely cutting into the project time and we also went on vacation out to Portland. It ended up turning into a road trip down the 101 as the forest fires were raging at the time. Luckily we turned it into a good time and saw some great sights on the way down to one of our favorite cities, San Francisco! It was a great time.
Stopped at an air museum out of pure luck. They had the damn Spruce Goose!
Drove through a tree
Stopped at Crater Lake, it almost looks fake
Heading back to Portland
Cool B5 "s3nd it"
When we got back from vacation I eventually got back to it, but it's been a slow process. More updates to follow!
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