87' vert progress thread

[jhaurimn]

I bought another e30 :)

Its a 1987 325i vert. 112k miles, 2 owner, original panels other than the fenders.

Its late in the season and I don't expect to drive it much before winter storage, but I do plan to go through all the suspension first, and hopefully figure out a battery draw that drains the battery after about a week of not being driven.

Anyways, picture time. I'm going to just post interior/exterior pictures from after I cleaned, then post more stuff about how it got to that point.

















Driver seat bolster is pretty f'd


Rear seat has also seen better days.

[jhaurimn]

So, lets talk about the car a bit.

Husco armrest. I've never had a e30 with one of these, and I need it in all my cars now. It's so nice!


I immediately pulled the seats to do a good cleaning. Found about $1 in change, and some stains on the passenger side.


Thankfully it came out pretty easily.


PO used some random rivet clips for the knee panel...and they were a PITA to take out without ruining the panel.


When they finally came out, I was met with a cool little amp. I plan to pull all the radio stuff, but for now ill just keep it. I'm hoping this is whats causing the battery draw.


Gotta love the hose clamp on the shifter, lol. Will be replacing with a zhp knob in the near future.


As I was washing the car today, the clutch stop I ordered arrived, and I immediately put that in the car.


Crack free dash :)


Timing belt was done less than 2,000 miles ago


Car is still pretty original. Had all the trunk stuff.




Question for you guys. When the trunk shock is attached, the left side of the trunk doesn't go all the way down. What causes this?

[jgilber0]

Nice starting point! Love the red on black.

[Mike36]

Congrats! Great looking e30, I vote for euro bumpers being your first mod.

[Cha Ching]

Question for you guys. When the trunk shock is attached, the left side of the trunk doesn't go all the way down. What causes this?

Mine does the same thing. I'm thinking it might be trunk-shock related or needs some shims under the mounting bolts.

[jhaurimn]

After learning some lessons from my first e30, I decided to invest in the suspension immediately. Heres everything together, and it should all be in this weekend. I already started taking some stuff out. The control arms were pulled and are absolutely destroyed, ill post more on those on my next post. But heres what we got. Same setup as my coupe, which I love.

-Vogtland springs
-KYB shocks (for how cheap these are, they seem to handle minnesota roads just fine, and feel good after years of (ab)use.)
-Lemfoerder control arms (I snagged one off blunttech steve that was used and apparently a slightly altered, older design. which is why they look slightly different. I dont expect it to affect anything)
-Garagistic 'treehouse' style control arm bushings/brackets
-Lemfoerder tie rods + new boots
-Sach front and rear mounts
-Karlyn front sway bay bushings
-I have some very good condition rear sway bushings from my 325 when i went to the ST sway setup then I will put in this car that are not pictured

[Das Delfin]

the deal with the trunk is that the convertibles use gas shocks to support the trunk lid instead of a torsion bar like the hardtops. They put one shock, a 300nm shock, on the drivers side. It took a couple years before they figured out they should put 150nm shocks on both sides. So the fact that your trunk does that lean is good because the shock is in good shape, but it's of course an oversight in design. You could replace it with one of the later ones, but then your trunk wouldn't stay open in certain situations, like if you were parked on a hill, and it certainly wouldn't open on its own by just pressing the lock

the permanent fix is to befriend someone who welds and make your car like one of the later types. e30ic.com has more info on changes through the years

[KIRIEIW]

^Exactly what this guy said. The earlier model verts used only one shock on the driver side while the later (maybe early in 88'+?) went to two trunk shocks. Sadly you can't really convert your car to two shocks since you don't have the extra set of tabs on the passenger side for the shock to clip into like the duel shock cars have. Nice car though man, loving the red on black combo.

[Reichart12]

Looks super clean. Im planning a similar front suspension overhaul for this winter too.

[jhaurimn]

Front suspension is done. :)

Control arms were in really good condition...probably didnt need to replace /s


Strut assembly pulled


This is always really fun and totally not nerve racking....


The vice is a neccesity


And ofcourse, a big fucking pipe wrench. This thing is a life savior for struts and tie rods, and is very cheap from harbor freight. Had a little trouble with the passenger side as the strut nut was just round. PB blaster and a torch helped persuade it off.


All installed. Cleaned up the strut housing a bit too while it was out.




Old struts were....not great.


Back in the car. I was actually going to see how the car drived with the old tie rods...but that was before I fucked up the driver side tie rod threads going into the strut housing knuckle trying to separate it I didnt get any pictures with the new tie rods in as everything was taking longer than expected and I wanted to get the front on the ground before the end of the night. New front sway end links went on as well.


Back on the ground :)


Hoping to get the rear end done today.

[jhaurimn]

Rear is done :)

Shocks were very much blown.


As were the mounts


Car sits nicely now.

[Cha Ching]

Those bottlecaps look minty sweet.

[jeanhules]

Great looking vert! I too just bought a vert...It's white and I am also in MN. My build is out in Long Lake, but I live in Uptown.

What else do you have planned for this?

[jhaurimn]

Great looking vert! I too just bought a vert...It's white and I am also in MN. My build is out in Long Lake, but I live in Uptown.

What else do you have planned for this?

Nice, I’m in uptown every now and then gettin ramen from Tenka ramen.

Plans for the spring are to replace the bad fender, replace the door mounding (already have the piece to replace) and possibly look into redoing the seats. Eventually i will 24v swap the car but I’ll drive the m20 for a bit before that.

[me_john85]

Did you find vogtland convertible springs? Or did you use regular e30 springs?