New auction project: ‘87 325iS

[Nowayman]

Rock that cowcatcher! you can get repro brackets for it, hopefully the long bar is there...

also some of your pics arent working

I just bought new side brackets for mine and the book it came with showed that they make a replacement bar as well. I’ll snap a pic of the book when I get home maybe it’ll help someone out.

[paynemw]

I'm in because I have the same car. Yours is MUCH cleaner than mine.

[Conrad311]

Got some stuff done this week, I've been sick with the plauge i think.

Tuesday I went to Killeen and bought an 89 parts car, needed some wheels and tires while I repaint these Bayerns and get new tires on them. I made a parts thread in the for sale section.
I got some decent weaves with tires and swapped them on


meanwhile my wife started buffing on the trunk to see how well this paint will clean up. Might not look too bad. Really needs to be block sanded to 2000 then buffed out but not knowing anything about the paint, im hesitant to do that.



Also skid steers are sweet! Sold the sheet metal to another forum member from Dallas area.

[paynemw]

You need to tighten your rear shocks unless the rubber mounts are messed up. If you read through my thread, I dealt with the same thing. You can get E46 RSMs or you can get solid or poly mounts. The key is keeping them tight. If you buy a rear shock tower brace and the reinforcement plate you'll be fine.

[benwalsh91]

not sure if you noticed or the route that you took, but i recently just came back from Austin/Houston and when i was driving between the two there is an early model black e30 coupe sitting in a field near the highway next to another white bmw may be an e36 but i was focusing on a)not crashing and b)staring at the e30.

[Conrad311]

Not a ton of progress lately. I’ve been waiting for paperwork from the state before I can get it registered.
The main problem is that the vin tag is missing from the dash. It came with a swapped dash and I took the incorrect tag off, but I need to have a new one made. I’ve seen that BMW used to sell a kit with a new one but I couldn’t find it on realoem. Anybody have a part number or info on this? Hopefully I can get one made once I get my new title.

Anyhowfor some actual progress, I found a ton of water in the trunk and found the lid out of adjustment. I also parked uphill from then on but still got lots of water again. Turns out some former half-assed body work reared it’s ugly head and the drivers side trunk hinge spot weld had broken through and was funneling water into my trunk.

So I ground it out and filled the spot weld, and then welded the end of the hinge bracket to the sheet metal. Did the other side too as it had a rust blister on top of the spotweld too.

I ground it out and sprayed it with gloss black rustoleum. Looks fine for now. There will be a bunch of body and paint work in this cars future. I also found a big kink by the battery tray from an old rear end. Some ass hat decided not to fix that.

I also fixed my map light mirror. Someone ripped it out at some point and broke the wires off in the stem. Can’t get them out. Seems to be sealed in with something. So I rigged it with new wires out the back and heat shrinked them. Looks ok I guess.




Also got around to painting the needles in a spare cluster I had while I refurbish the original. I’ll be replacing batteries and capacitors on the SI board, adding black rings and red needles to that as well. Thinking of adding a voltmeter and oil pressure gauge.

(EDIT) I now see two issues, my gas gauge is not centered and I forgot to paint the econometer. Scheiße!

[Conrad311]

I also got sick of waiting for a reply from either of the guys 3d printing cow catcher brackets and decided to make my own again. I couldnt stand not having it on the car, and since I'm on break from college, why not. $20 in aluminum barstock at Home Depot and were off to the races. Made a template after glueing all the pieces i had into an almost whole and traced it.


Heated the bar with MAPP gas and bent in the vice with a hammer until it matched the drawing.

full set. They're not the prettiest but they'll do. I'll still propably buy a 3d printed PETG set. May need to make another one tomorrow, the first one was not nearly as good as the next 2, then i riveted, drilled and test fit.


Tomorrow I will powerwash the oil and dirt out of the cow catcher and epoxy the side bracket that pulled off and mount it up.

[mike.bmw]

Nice work on those brackets. What are the originals made form? Plastic? (I've never seen a set of originals)

[Conrad311]

Thanks, I’ll probably get the 3d printed ones anyway when they’re available. The originals are plastic and designed to snap on impact to save the valence from being destroyed. I did not rivet in a cross brace so these will collapse if I hit something.

these are the 3d printed versions:

[Conrad311]

Well it’s raining today and I can’t do much. My land lord has a sweet garage but it’s full of his vehicles today since he doesn’t want them wet. But in between showers I got out to See how it fits.



And it works ok, my valence was so Fubar’d when I started (see old post with valence folded in half in the trunk) that I need to take it all back off and tweak it a bit more. I just finished overhauling my aux fan, so it has to come off to reinstall that.
Ive got a spare drivers fender to replace the damaged one on it, that I am going to repaint black so I’ll probably do the cow catcher as well since it’s so scratched. Some one tried to roll the lip of the fender and gaffed it pretty bad so replacement seems best.

So for now I’m off to organize my tool box and sort my parts bins. Maybe my order from FCP will come with some odds and ends.

[paynemw]

I had the exact same issue, was this on the driver's side?

[agent]

87is > *

Looking good!

[Conrad311]

I had the exact same issue, was this on the driver's side?

Yup drivers side. The passenger was not too far behind.

87is > * Looking good!

Thanks! I’m thrilled, the ‘87 is has always been my favorite e30. Well maybe tied with Euro M Tech 1 :] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Conrad311]

Well I’ve been slammed with a ton of mechanic side work for my landlord between semesters so I’ve been making little progress but hey, gotta make that cash while I can. E30s are an expensive hobby. Lol

Bought some things off a parts car that was super local. 87 325es, stupidly i didnt look at the LSD, but it was probably a 2.xx and I just didnt have time.
I got t some window trim to paint black so I can swap the bright aluminum back on in the future if I want to go original again.

Got some 3m Acrylic green putty from Amz $21 or so, absolutely the best for small dents, and sands/ feathers very nice. Use it all the time. Had some dents on the upright door trim.


and I know Fiats used to be rear engine but something seems off... I smell a stroker in the near future. maybe. still tossing around a 2.7 turbo or s5x. basically got it in exchange for helping the dude get another engine and trans mounted in his 325es.

i do seem to have a propensity for hauling m20s in wildly inappropriate vehicles...

block seems to be in decent shape.

[Conrad311]

After nearly three months I was finally able to get this thing registered and on the road! So stoked to be driving an e30 again.



As usual I found a bunch of stuff that needs addressing once i got over 40mph.

Rear axles are smoked, nasty decel vibration, and clunking as its loaded unloaded.
IE rear sway bar links are shot, and $95 for a set i hope you can get just the adustable eyelet/sperical bearing pieces.
Subframe and RTABs are pretty soft and will need changing.
Trans output seal and/or selector shaft seals are leaking badly.


Exhaust is banging around and needs new hangers and the trans support bracket since this was swapped from an auto.
wheels need balancing

on the upside, it does not have a s4:10 like i thought, it has the S3.73. I swapped in a late model cluster and i need to put the coding plug from the old one in it, speedo is off by 10 mph and tach doesnt seem accurate. SI batts seem to be failing.

I pulled out the trailing arms and subframe from my parts car, and removed the bushings and am prepping them for some paint.



Disassembled the axles from parts car, and cleaned them in a bucket of gasoline and am awaiting new boots and grease along with a bunch of other crap from FCP