The Blunderwagon - 89 325iX touring 3.1L stroker

[kronus]

I wanted to buy this so badly, will be worthwhile when everything is said and done.

I hope so! an ix touring definitely been a (pipe) dream of mine for years. looking forward to seeing it realized.

Oh and the rust told me to tell you to stop being a bitch
-lol

that fucker is going down

List seems about on par with my old 325ix. Good luck dude!

all your photos are dead

---

yesterday I unpacked the car. Some goodies came with it -

a husco armrest, in good shape. unfortunately mounted to the center console at a 3rd-grade level. will be for sale since it gets in my way because I own elbows.



a DOT-R ix trans that came from 002 salvage a few years ago. Paint pen markings indicate that the trans was two years from new when pulled and sold, which fills me with hope. It's good that I don't have to hunt for this, since the trans in the car is absolutely toast and they're not so common.




on to the car itself, looks like there's a new starter -



and a new muffler section -



and a decent-looking front giubo -



and, uh some coolers? the back one isn't connected to anything. It was probably for the auto trans.



the front grills are off in that photo because I removed the eyebrows. I will mail them to anyone, for free, if they write and post a 5-paragraph essay explaining how exactly they've managed to go so wrong in life as to appreciate e30 eyebrows. I'm extra-angry because these were attached with several feet of butyl tape and it was a bitch to get off.




more evidence of previous hack-jobbery started to present itself here. For some of these, I have no idea how it's even possible to accomplish something with so little skill applied.


the transfer case mount was just tightened until it basically tore the bushing. they could have just slid the mount forward by a centimeter and not fucked themselves (and me) over, but no.




home depot exhaust hardware. this is also in the manifolds. sigh.




the trailer hitch is cool and all, but it was installed by people that should not be allowed near tools, or hands. it's made by Westfalia, apparently. I'll probably take it off and sell it, I have a giant van for towing and don't think the touring would make it far anyway.



weird takeoffs from the rear lights - this ties the trailer lights into the system but there's almost certainly a cleaner way to do it.



spliced to the euro connector. the wires are taken through the back panel behind the bumper, and the hole is jagged and rusty. yay.




I don't even want to know what happened here. it does look like they forgot to finish painting it.




took the trunk trim out and apart because it's all really poorly reupholstered. I am having trouble coming up with scary enough words to describe how bad it is.




the rear inner trim panel and the plastic cover piece were attached to the back sheet metal via a baseball-sized amount of silicone, and self-tapping drill-screws. it hurt me to write this sentence. it's all removed now.






it'll be fine. i'll be fine. definitely haven't started to drink more.

[Chrisbike]

I wanted to buy this so badly, will be worthwhile when everything is said and done. Since it’s a iX you get to ask the “is it iX specific” question, and on many parts yes the are, namely suspension, driveline, and steering.

As for the shifter, it is iX specific, personally I’d just recommend a Z3 1.9 shifter, I have a DSSR from garagistic and it needed a lot of clearancing (still does) and it’s offset weird. The front brakes are not iX specific. Just girling and yes they have slide pins.

Now for the fun part. It’s not only a iX but it’s a iX tourings and what that means is the rear brakes are specific to the iX touring. I’m quite certain these can be converted but it has all been covered in the iX subforum.

Oh and the rust told me to tell you to stop being a bitch
-lol

[Julien]

List seems about on par with my old 325ix. Good luck dude!

[wworm]

yeah holy crap thats a big list.

[kronus]

I found a half hour to poke around inside and under the car, and wrote up a list of things I'd like to address. It is here:

things that are bad

driveline
horrible noises from transmission
rusty flywheel, questionable clutch condition
worst shifter ever wowie
rusty brakes
rusty clutch slave, clutch makes weird noise
terrible clutch master-slave hardline

motor
doesn’t start anymore
unknown condition of valves
unknown timing belt mileage
oil level light on check panel

interior
rear seats uneven
horrible trunk trim reupholstery job
lots of missing trim everywhere
center console has holes in it
door seals not staying put
missing rear inner sills
garbage floor mats
cluster doesn’t work a lot of the time
driver’s window inop
windows have power to them when car is off (whole fuse 19 circuit? radio?)

chassis
rust in a bunch of places
mangled trans hole
caved-in driver’s side sill

exterior
damned eyebrows
caked-on trims
faded window trims
missing gutter
fucky repaint
missing euro indicators, empty hole in driver’s side fender

things that need done

remove exhaust
- pull rear section
- pull cat section
- empty it of water, see if elements are in good shape
- pull manifolds
- media blast, maybe ceramic coat these

address transmission noise/functionality
buy:
- throwout bearing
- pilot bearing
- shifter (use UUC one? does it work in iX?)
- selector rod (check for wear)
- shift knuckle (check if long or short kind, 89 is crossover year)
- clutch?
- transfer case mount
- clutch hard line
- clutch soft line

do:
- pull f/r driveshafts
- pull transfer case
- verify transfer case bearings are tight
- replace transfer case mount bushing
- pull shifter assembly
- pull transmission
- clutch+flywheel r&r
- replace pilot bearing
- replace throwout bearing
- replace slave
- replace hard line
- replace soft line
- verify master and pedal box are bolted up correctly
- weld up mangled transmission hole
- replace transmission
- install better shifter assembly
- install transfer case
- install driveshafts

clean up & reinstall exhaust
buy:
- hardware for joining manifolds and pipes
- rubber donut things for hanging zorst

do:
- recondition pipes if possible
- use real mounting hardware and mounts :|
- reinstall exhaust

unfuck motor
buy:
- coolant
- oil
- radiator hoses
- maybe tb/wp kit
- valve cover gasket
- radiator lower/upper mounts
- maybe oil level sender
- maybe various rubber boots
- fuse box lid

do:
- dump fluids
- pull radiator
- pull front covers
- inspect water pump shaft for play, maybe replace
- inspect tensioner bearings
- inspect, maybe replace belt
- install E36 radiator, new water hoses
- reroute fuel lines to not touch steering linkage
- remove extraneous trans cooling lines
- remove extraneous cooling loops (what are these even)
- valve adjustment
- fix no-start condition (fuel? electronics?)
- fix inop oil level sender
- clean up motor outsides, look for leaks
- inspect rubber intake boot and vac lines for cracks/wear
- smoke test the mofo

rebuild brakes
buy:
- caliper rebuild kits
- are these iX specific? do they have guide pins?
- caliper paint
- SS lines
- front rotors?
- rear rotors? (unobtainium, find a place to turn them?)
- rear parking brake shoes

do:
- pull calipers
- pull rotors
- disassemble calipers, soak in WD40
- blast calipers and brackets
- replace rubber bits
- grease + reassemble sliding mechanisms

fix driver interface problems
buy:
- odo gears
- SI batteries
- replacement OBC
- radio
- replacement forward console (3-hole? 5-hole? put heater buttons in while rear doors stay wind-up?)
- replacement rearward console
- shift boot

do:
- pull cluster
- replace kph gauge for mph
- reflow solder on SI board
- replace SI batteries
- reinstall cluster, verify functionality
- replace fucked 6-button OBC
- figure out what the rear window harness actually goes to
- remove auto trans harness
- plug random trans tunnel holes
- hook up reverse harness correctly
- install new shift rubber surround
- uninstall crappy radio
- install forward center console (maybe one without a big chunk taken out of it..
- install rearward center console (maybe one without giant holes)
- install shift boot+knob
- find and fix electrical issues that make windows operable while car is off

fix other interior problems
buy:
- all the trunk trim
- rear door sills
- POR-15
- seat adjustment knob

do:
- replace missing glovebox pin
- replace missing seat adjustment lever
- make rear seats sit evenly
- pull carpets up, check how bad floors are
- cry
- replace missing sills
- make interior lights work
- replace or reupholster all that horrible trunk trim

fix exterior problems
easy, short-term
- repaint window trims with SEM
- get the damn eyebrows off the grills
- replace is lip with i lip
- straighten front valence
- texturize, repaint rear valence

hard, long-term
- strip the whole goddamn thing and get it repainted by someone that doesn’t have asses instead of arms
- move into hole vacated by pile of money required to do the above


i'm trying to not look at the whole list at the same time.

[rzerob]

Subscribed.

[vtechnik]

(p.s. 2mAn, no, the white car will never ever be finished)

I lol'd

That's a sweet looking touring you got there.

[ahrensNW]

Mmm that purple mtech cloth

Sweet rig lol

Ronal teddies wood bang

[kronus]

Plans? Dreams? Desires?
Get it running and go from there? Full restoration?
Scrap it all and work on the white car?

establishing those at the moment. I think I'm going to get it mechanically solid before pursuing cosmetics too much. Going to fix the interior garbage, though, cause it's poorly done and bugs me. Anyone able to order touring parts? :D

[wworm]

Plans? Dreams? Desires?
Get it running and go from there? Full restoration?
Scrap it all and work on the white car?

[FredK]

In.

[MPLFoster]

Even with all the issues it has, I’d hit it. Like a hot red head with a choking fetish. You know it’ll be fun until something goes wrong and she tries to kill you.

[kronus]

update: the blunderwagon no longer starts

[Julien]

Sounds like you bought yourself a problem. A good looking problem at that.

[TheRob]

Holy crap that's awesome! There was a guy in Noe Valley who had a 325ix touring, I used to see it on my test drives from the shop I was working at, I'd always take that route to get a look at it. Congrats on the purchase man.