And then there was Bella

[laidback93]

Nice write up. Can't wait to see that interior finished!

[Jean]

Sexy interior !

[blizzard]

Got some Garagistic love in the mail recently!

Did a quick alignment check with my buddy Dirk's tool. Pretty cool gadget for sure, uses mirrors to check front toe. Mine was right at 0 degrees (somehow) so I left it for now.

Zero degrees was what I liked on track at the time that I did the alignment.

[Julien]

One final update for the weekend.

I finally got around to installing the Walbro I bought on eBay. Taking my fuel pump out, I was surprised to see if was original and still running fine!


(Clamp got replaced by a zip tie as it wouldn't fit in the tank opening )

I fixed up and installed a black 325is trunklid I bought off Mike36. Finally no more shaved look.

Needs an emblem.. I know

And last but not least... the passenger seat!


This side had a crack in it that had to be welded:


My welds usually aren't pretty


I did not get the covers to fit as nicely as the driver seat. According to Auto Custom leather I got some "belly" leather. I'm guessing old girl had stretch marks. They'll send me new pieces but for now this works.

Put the back side out in the sun for a bit.

And... Done!


His and hers:


Hopefully a few days in the sun/heat will flatten out some of the smaller wrinkles. Eagerly awaiting for the back seat and door panels to arrive

It's been a long thanksgiving weekend :yawn:


Cheers.

[freeride53]

Lovely progress! Looks great, can't wait to see it soon!

[Mike36]

I wish you would've seen that crack in the seat a bit sooner, I had like three seat bottoms I just threw away over the weekend.

[Jb325is]

Looking great! Are those 205/50/15's? I just bought a set of Ronals too and can't decide what tires to go with

[Julien]

Looking great! Are those 205/50/15's? I just bought a set of Ronals too and can't decide what tires to go with

yep, on the fence about going back to 205/55r15 but tire selection is :down:

[Jb325is]

yep, on the fence about going back to 205/55r15 but tire selection is :down:

It's so bad! I'd like to buy the Continental EC sport in 205/50, but the car I'm picking up is an early model and I think they'll look small. Almost pulled the trigger on a set of 225/45 BFG Rivals before that, but pretty worried about driving around on those over the winter. Car comes with 225/50/15, so I guess I'll try those but they look huge

[Julien]

It's so bad! I'd like to buy the Continental EC sport in 205/50, but the car I'm picking up is an early model and I think they'll look small. Almost pulled the trigger on a set of 225/45 BFG Rivals before that, but pretty worried about driving around on those over the winter. Car comes with 225/50/15, so I guess I'll try those but they look huge

225/50R15 - same rolling radius as 205/55R15


205/50r15 early model


Some people also run 195/55R15

[BUDNUNTA]

im into 195/60/15s at the moment

lots of options and I like the way a e30 feels with the narrow tire

[Julien]

I've been pretty busy the last few weekends, so progress has been a bit slower than usual. On the flip side, we had a great turn out at the e30 meet I hosted and I did get to go to Lake Tahoe!





In the meantime I did buy a bunch of radios online. I ended up with two of my favorite e30 radios of all time, the Blaupunkt Toronto RDM 126



Unfortunately, the top radio has a bad lcd but a good key card, and the bottom radio has no keycard but a good but faded LCD:



I bought a keycard on ebay, found the code on a Lithuanian website and also found a shop (radiomanrepair) that said they can fix the display for $250 I went ahead and pulled the trigger because I love these decks, they match the interior perfectly and they have aux-in. Waiting for them to let me know when it's fixed *Fingers crossed*

I also bought two CM5908s hoping to do Cantaloupe's Bluetooth mod. First radio was unresponsive to code supplied by the dealer :( so I changed the code with these instructions:






But still nada Not even a beep

On the second radio, I got a code to work! Dead LCD backlight (but good LCD), One Channel dead and other misc small issues. That's when two radios became one. Motherboard from radio 2, cassette deck, LCD, and buttons from radio 1:

Even the magic finger function works!

As a test I swapped buttons from radio 2 back to radio one and figured out key 2/3 weren't working well originally, hence the code issue!! My plan is to reflow both circuit boards, rebuild the one amp and order backlights for the good display


More on that later.

At some point I waxed up the spare trunk lid I purchased off Mike36, didn't come out perfect but matches the patina of the car nicely :D
Before:

After:

(Sorry, pic is mediocre..)

I found some spare time last Sunday, so I decided to swap in the crack-free dash that came with the car.


Click Image to see time lapse footage of the removal:

Two dashboards:

If you are careful you can pop out the plastic rivets that hold the VIN plate in and swap that over too.

Swapping in some new bulbs:


Finished!


I also installed new 205/55R15 S.Drive tires. She's no longer scary to drive in the wet! (Replaced 7 year old Z1s!)


When I'm not working on it, the car is on daily-driver duty. I cross the bay with it everyday. I'm amazed how pretty this place is every sunrise and sunset.


Last, but not least.. I finally tackled the big job I've been putting off. Huge thanks to Kronus for the help! I'll let the pictures do the talking:









And... BAM! THAT was a chore! I can no longer feel my fingers but super happy with the results.




Happy Holidays to everyone!!

[rzerob]

Very nice. I am dreading doing a headliner as well. Where did you get the new one? And is the sunroof cover different material? It looks like a different color from the rest of the headliner.

[wworm]

holy moly thats a lot of work in such few photos.

[Julien]

Very nice. I am dreading doing a headliner as well. Where did you get the new one? And is the sunroof cover different material? It looks like a different color from the rest of the headliner.

The headliner was used, got it from Austin! Yep, sunroof panel is a bit different, shrug.

holy moly thats a lot of work in such few photos.

Less pics, more work!