Revival in progress

[h82crash]

My daughter did a fantastic job destroying the front of her car in Dec. I finally got the motivation to work on it and it's almost back. It's an 87 325. Since I had to replace the front end I decided to do the plastic bumper facelift. I got a good deal on all the replacement parts (the neccessary motivation) and went to work.

[Turf1600]

Props man. That car was totalled.

[So Live]

Holy shit dude! thats amazinggg. keep it up!

[h82crash]

I got some Turner J Stocks and Bilstein sports installed last weekend. The ride is not as hard as I was expecting. I've been in race cars and this aint bad. I just got a line on a 325i parts car (4 door auto) and if the motor is good, should have a donor for the eta.

Thanks for the encouragement.

Tom

[h82crash]

A little progress....

Springs and shocks installed, bargain wheels until I can afford somthing else. They are 16x7 so, better than the bottle caps. Handling is awesome on the TMS/Bilsteins. No photo, but I installed a crack-free dash I scored at the pick ur part as well. Oh, I added an IS trunk spoiler (10 bucks at the yard)

[Jean]

Nice!!! If you don't mind me asking how much was the front radiator support and did you do all the work yourself replacing it?

[Van Westervelt]

Nice save! Tell me you are not giving this thing back to the daughter that wrecked it after all this work?! Should be a nice little weekender for you though.

[h82crash]

Did the work myself. I got a deal on all the parts to do the repair or I wouldn't have done it. $350 for the hood, fender, radiator, rad support, a/c condensor, aux fan, valance, bumper, but I had to remove all the parts myself from the donor car and it took all day. I think Ecology Auto wrecking wouldn't charge more than $50 for a radiator support. Just bring your hacksaw.

In fact, I am letting her drive it for now (it was her car) to get to work. I did find a 325i sedan that I had to do a bunch of electrical repairs on and as soon as I get current registration on it, she drives that. I got it for the engine to swap out the Eta.

[johnwoo]

man that is some great work. kudos to you. on a side note looking at your pics made me think my rear bumper is hanging off. the corners of the bumper are sagging off a big. how did you get them to sit so flush? is my mount not attached or what is the deal? thanks for your help. i made an arrow on your pic to show where on my car the bumper is sagging.

[h82crash]

This is a plastic bumper conversion. If yours is too, you have to ditch the stock side mounts and trim the bumper to fit. I used 2" long bolts and drilled the bumper through the same spot as one of the old bumper mount holes. I loctited (is that a word?) the nut on the bolt so the bolt is a semi-permanent fixture of the bumper. I spun on a couple more nut to act as spacers and then guide the bolts through the existing holes in the side of the fender. Then washer/nut on the inside of the trunk. I made the bolt in this semi-permanent fashon so once the trim is back on I won't have to hold the bolt while tightening the nut in the trunk. You can see the head of the bolt just forward of the marker light hole. Hope that made sense.

Most of this is covered on the plastic bumper facelift thread, but there are 2 techniques to trimming the bumper. One is to cut out a section and glue/fiberglass it together and the other is to trim off the end to fit (what I did). Both methods require the trim to be sectioned and glued.

And if yours is a stock, late model, then I wasted a lot of typing...:) Yup, I should have looked at your avitar, You should be able to adjust your bumper-theres a write-up on e30 diy. http://e30.bmwdiy.info/bumper-adjust/index.html

[h82crash]

I've been working on an engine for my car. I got a bottom end from an 88 528e seta and I pulled a whole i engine at the wrecking yard. I could take my time this way. I scored with the i engine as the head was just rebuilt. Just getting to putting the bottom end together. I also grabbed an M30 AFM but still need 19 lb injectors. I'm hoping this 2.7i has alot more power than my eta.

[george graves]

Nice work! BTW - that drive way is titties...

[Edev]

man this is amazing. its like, you brought it back from the dead. i really, really hope she drives this e30 with pride!

since you put in so much work. looks good!

[h82crash]

Got her 89 325i sedan smogged and registered so my lil red e is mine again. I found a 3.73 LSD and installed it. Acceleration is good but I miss going 80 at 2500 r's.

TKS for the props on the driveway, installed that myself with help from some friends. 13,500 pavers resulted in tendonitis in my elbow. The garage was my project in 05.

[h82crash]

My 2.7i

I didn't take a bunch if in progress photos we've all seen before but here's a shot the the engine almost ready to go in. I bought a seta block and complete i engine to do the build so I could still drive my car.

Seta bottom end, i everything else. 19lb injectors and M30 afm going on.