At the urging of some friends and family, I have elected to start a project thread. To this point, most of my posts have been in either the For Sale or Group Buy threads and after about 3 years of lurking, it's probably time to get that post count up.
A little background...
I used to have a bike. A 2004 Kawasaki Z1000. It was fun to blow off steam and I even rode for 6000 miles on trip with some buddies through the southwest. But I lived in Fort Worth, Texas and traffic was not pleasant to ride a motorcycle with. That coupled with keeping my fiance at the time a nervous wreck just made it an experience that was not so pleasant. She would rather have me on 4 wheels and surrounded by metal. I can't really say that I was against the idea so we both agreed that I would sell the bike and look for a project car with the full understanding on her part that the financial implications would be much higher than a bike...i.e. it's gonna cost waaaaaay more money. She agreed, we sold the bike and the search was on.
What to get though? Oh there was a lot of stuff I wanted. An early 911 with a 993 motor stuffed in the back. An Alfa GTV. I thought about reliving my days right out of college and getting another Mustang Cobra Quad Cam. No ultimately, I think I wanted something boxy. A Datsun 510 would be nice but so would an E30 M3. Mental exercises commenced on both counts and I ended up leaning towards the BMW. The cost of entry for an M3 is steep and given all the stuff I wanted to do, I decided it might be best to look for a 318 or 325. A colleague at work (rcko) had a 325 that he liked so I focused the search on BMW's.
After a while of searching, I discovered a friend of a friend who was selling his 318is. After looking it over, it didn't have too many problems. The suspension had just been redone including the dreaded sub frame bushings. The suspension was using the Bilstein BTS coils and dampers. The two biggest issues were an impact in the back (more on this later) and an oil leak on the M42 (more on this sooner). We shook on it and I drove home my new project/toy/money pit/emotional release.
The canvas:
The first thing that needed to be done (other than fixing the passenger side seat belt so I could annoy my wife) was fix that oil leak. The car dripped from under the steering rack but I would later find that the oil simply pooled up from its various sources. Many gaskets were replaced at the front of the engine. Each time one leak was fixed, I would find another one somewhere else on the front of the engine. This was disheartening and not the pleasant experience I was hoping for. The car was drivable and even a joy to drive but what wasn't fun was the pool of oil it would leave in my garage. Luckily, Christmas was around the corner and my wife got me something to cheer me up.
Yep, they're Rota RB's. It seems that these are hated almost as much as SportsMaxx. But I like them. I think they look good in the E30 Racecar Thread and part of me still misses the Datsun 510 that could have been. Specs on the wheels are 16x8 ET20 and the good folks at 18racing.com were very helpful with my wife when she called to order them. For tires, we went with Hankook RS-2's in a 245 section width. Yes, I know this is completely unnecessary with an M42 but I like the beefy tire look and I hoped I would have more power someday. The fenders out back were rolled flat and the front fenderwell was massaged a bit to get the wheels mounted:
A little background...
I used to have a bike. A 2004 Kawasaki Z1000. It was fun to blow off steam and I even rode for 6000 miles on trip with some buddies through the southwest. But I lived in Fort Worth, Texas and traffic was not pleasant to ride a motorcycle with. That coupled with keeping my fiance at the time a nervous wreck just made it an experience that was not so pleasant. She would rather have me on 4 wheels and surrounded by metal. I can't really say that I was against the idea so we both agreed that I would sell the bike and look for a project car with the full understanding on her part that the financial implications would be much higher than a bike...i.e. it's gonna cost waaaaaay more money. She agreed, we sold the bike and the search was on.
What to get though? Oh there was a lot of stuff I wanted. An early 911 with a 993 motor stuffed in the back. An Alfa GTV. I thought about reliving my days right out of college and getting another Mustang Cobra Quad Cam. No ultimately, I think I wanted something boxy. A Datsun 510 would be nice but so would an E30 M3. Mental exercises commenced on both counts and I ended up leaning towards the BMW. The cost of entry for an M3 is steep and given all the stuff I wanted to do, I decided it might be best to look for a 318 or 325. A colleague at work (rcko) had a 325 that he liked so I focused the search on BMW's.
After a while of searching, I discovered a friend of a friend who was selling his 318is. After looking it over, it didn't have too many problems. The suspension had just been redone including the dreaded sub frame bushings. The suspension was using the Bilstein BTS coils and dampers. The two biggest issues were an impact in the back (more on this later) and an oil leak on the M42 (more on this sooner). We shook on it and I drove home my new project/toy/money pit/emotional release.
The canvas:
The first thing that needed to be done (other than fixing the passenger side seat belt so I could annoy my wife) was fix that oil leak. The car dripped from under the steering rack but I would later find that the oil simply pooled up from its various sources. Many gaskets were replaced at the front of the engine. Each time one leak was fixed, I would find another one somewhere else on the front of the engine. This was disheartening and not the pleasant experience I was hoping for. The car was drivable and even a joy to drive but what wasn't fun was the pool of oil it would leave in my garage. Luckily, Christmas was around the corner and my wife got me something to cheer me up.
Yep, they're Rota RB's. It seems that these are hated almost as much as SportsMaxx. But I like them. I think they look good in the E30 Racecar Thread and part of me still misses the Datsun 510 that could have been. Specs on the wheels are 16x8 ET20 and the good folks at 18racing.com were very helpful with my wife when she called to order them. For tires, we went with Hankook RS-2's in a 245 section width. Yes, I know this is completely unnecessary with an M42 but I like the beefy tire look and I hoped I would have more power someday. The fenders out back were rolled flat and the front fenderwell was massaged a bit to get the wheels mounted:
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