And then there was Bella

[Julien]

After a brief stint away from e30s after selling Betty I got into a Volvo that I subsequently traded for a Subaru with blown head gaskets that I fixed and sold as I didn't like it. Right before the Subaru acquisition, I moved back to the bay area. This meant I got to spend a lot of time with Kronus at his awesome shared shop space. This is where I saw Bella. A buddy had bought her a few years prior and spent a considerable amount of time and money on her mechanicals. Rebuilt M20, Gearbox, the list goes on. After not getting everything running the way he wanted, he ran out of steam on the project and decided to sell it.



The car, however, needed some cosmetic work. It had M3 seats (SCORE!) covered in cheap vinyl and some pretty rough paint. First step was to get her back to running shape (the timing cover was off when I found her). This didn't take too long but I wanted to make sure she had everything working for my future work commute.



Washed her for the first time in years, followed by claybar and polish:




Got a good shine out of her:


Everything sorted-ish, time for smog


(dtm tips, bruh!)

passed with flying colors - wheeee!

Then I went to Paris alongside my girlfriend for her work trip.


She was nice enough to swap seats with me for a few hours as I was in coach. OMG FIRST CLASS

Did usual Paris stuff.. Went to the Louvre, saw my namesake:


(My middle name is August)

Hung out with the first lady, Brigitte Macron


and of course.. Eiffel Tour


Saw an e30


During my Jetlag hours (ie 4am) I bought a bunch of e30 parts. More on that Later.


To be continued...

[Julien]

First purchase was a set of Ronal LS wheels to replace the Rotas on the car. I found these on vortex for sale as a set of track wheels a guy had on his Jetta. It's only about 2-3 days after buying them he told me they came with BMW logos already on them- sweet!



Second purchase was new upholstery for the car. Pics when it lands.

Third purchase was 3 new old stock, still in box BMW steering wheels. I bought these form a small shop in Brussels that had purchased the inventory of a BMW dealer that went out of business. I later sold the Nardi Sport wheel but still have the two Nardi Woodline wheels.


After a long trip home my bag (with all the steering wheels) got lost :rippedoff: Luckily it just got stuck in Munich with my short connection. About that connection, first class passengers got transferred in a Porsche!


No GF with me on this leg, so I took the bus!

Anyways, the luggage showed up a day later *whew*

Installed my parts!!

(Found a matching shift knob from an e46 on ebay)

Mounted the Ronals:


Car had multiple amps in it. Decided to remove all but one, and fix the wiring (one of the channels was cancelling)



Fixed the broken frame of the sport seat:
forgottotakeapicture.jpg

Fixed the driver side door lock:

(don't make fun of my shop keys )



Next step was to remove the universal fit Remus (2.25" in to dual out)


Annoying bit was that there was no longer the factory flare joints, so I had to buy them on ebay and weld them on.



(not the best welds, but hey.. no leaks!)

Kronus helping me out.

Saw this on a Lemons e30, had a bit of a laugh

[Julien]

Jean (John like Sean) came over with his BEAST of a V8 e30

(He hit the tire!)

At this point I was using the car to drive back and forth to my new job across the bay. I decided to fix a couple more issues that have been lingering. The car had an extended crank and then when it would fire would smell very very rich! Diagnosis was leaking injectors. Because it's 2004 in my mind, I bought a set of refurb'd 19# Ford Mustang Injectors


Pulled the valve cover to install them, super happy how clean it was in there:


After a little adjustment, the car started purring, pulled stronger and so far hasn't had issue starting! She also got a set of euro grills:


A roofrack:


And the neighbors of the shop space I work at were nice enough to wrap the trunk lid for me. The lid had been repainted and the clear that was used was fading badly.


Came out pretty nice! Still on the hunt for a replacement as this one has been de-badged.. Meh.


I called my buddy Alex who does PDR to remove some of the more annoying dents on the car.

Look ma, no dings!


And this brings us to today. Rebalanced the wheels, greased the backside of the PFC 08 brake pads (they were squeaky) and finally fixed an exhaust leak at the slip joint for the cat.




More to come as I deprive my bank account in the name of e30s :devil: Hopefully doing up the interior over Thanksgiving.

[Cablanedo]

cant wait to see what comes next

[D.Martijn]

Car looks great, nice updates!

Btw, could you share the name of the shop in Brussels? :)

[D.Martijn]

double post..

[mike.bmw]

Looks great! Lots of progress!

[Jean]

Car is looking great dude ! And she drives so nice ��

[Julien]

cant wait to see what comes next

Hopefully not bankruptcy :nice:

Car looks great, nice updates!

Btw, could you share the name of the shop in Brussels? :)

Haha, I've cleared out their inventory :devil:. I found them on 2ememain, keep an eye out.

Looks great! Lots of progress!

Thanks!

Car is looking great dude ! And she drives so nice ��

Really focusing on making a nice daily driver out of this one. Come back and have Mexican with us again!

[2mAn]

Are you going to keep these one or is another Vulva in your future?

BTW My buddy is driving down today to pick up an E30 ... finally... if those Rotas are still FS I think he is finally ready to buy. He was hesitant to buy wheels without a car yet #newb

[grid]

Great photos and writing. Hoping to find something like this car in CA soon so I can join you!

[Jean]

Really focusing on making a nice daily driver out of this one. Come back and have Mexican with us again!

Added my e34 to FasTrak ;)

[Julien]

Are you going to keep these one or is another Vulva in your future?

BTW My buddy is driving down today to pick up an E30 ... finally... if those Rotas are still FS I think he is finally ready to buy. He was hesitant to buy wheels without a car yet #newb

sorry, I sold them last week... and maybe on the volvo. 850r manual wagon on craigslist

Great photos and writing. Hoping to find something like this car in CA soon so I can join you!

Thanks!

Added my e34 to FasTrak ;)

YIS

[kronus]

finally there's a thread jeez

it's gonna be a good car

[Blackout]

nicely done. This car is what i mean when I tell people to buy the best car you can find and make it better.