New auction project: ‘87 325iS

[Conrad311]

^^ believe me, I would like to. The tag says it will be towed today, but from what I've seen, that means some time in the next month. When my land lord/ friends dad gets back with his truck and enclosed trailer I may see what I can do. The hardest parts are that the RR wheel is stoved in sideways which will make dragging very difficult. Maybe a HF moving dolly under the right sides would be sufficient to get it up the ramp.. We'll see.

I picked it over pretty well and already have a closet full of crap from my part out but its a shame to miss out on more free parts. Sadly all the interior is totally trashed and I need new visors and header panel.

[paynemw]

So many little parts could be used! Drag it home!

[Conrad311]

Aforementioned abandoning.
actually this is the car I got the b27 from..

[Conrad311]

Anyone know how to fix the orientation on these photos? Its starting to piss me off. I save them and rotate and re-upload and they're still sideways

Been checking things off the list one by one. My goals for the week were:
-install new wiper pivot grommets
-swap aluminum door trim to new black pieces I prepped a few weeks ago
-order new tires for the black Bayern wheels.



I got all that done but the wiper grommets turned into a quasi-restoration of the blower housing. I had to take the cover off to unbolt the transmission and remove that and found the squirrel cage had chewed through the shroud. The linkage attachments for the recirc doors were broken off as well. I fixed the doors with epoxy and the shroud with foil tape and fiberglass cloth/epoxy. No more squeal from the blower and the recirc will work well for the A/C this summer. The doors got new foam HVAC tape so they seal well.




There was a guy parting out an 86 325es nearby and I went to see if he still had it but found the car abandoned on the side of the road with a sheriffs tow tag on it. I texted the guy and asked if it was up for grabs and he said yes so i grabbed the sport seats, windshield and premium speakers. Unfortunately thats all that would fit in my Fiat 500. My buddies truck is currently in California helping his parents move so I have no way to tow the whole car. Its missing a wheel and the right rear is caved in badly. Otherwise I would take the 2.91 LSD out of it or whatever they came with. I’d like to have the low revs on these 80+ mph roads around Austin.

[Conrad311]

Where did you buy the boots?

pelican parts, good deal for a budget fix but best if you are ordering a bunch of stuff, shipping wasn’t cheap since it wasn’t enough for free shipping. I had just ordered everything else I needed from fcp though.

[paynemw]

Where did you buy the boots?

[325isman]

Good buy

[Conrad311]

Got my cv boots in today. Unfortunately one was missing the outer clamp, but whatever I can zip tie it till the replacement shows up.

I don’t know if it’s common knowledge or not but the inner/outer cv boot kits are stupid, it’s the same boot, the inner just comes with the flange for no reason and more money.

I needed to do it on the cheap so my wife didn’t kill me for spending a $100+ on axle boots. I bought 4 of the $8 Empi kits from Pelican and off we go. If they only last a couple years oh well, I’ll replace the axles since these have Some wear in them but 1/10 as bad as the originals. From carfax reports this car had 206k mi in 2006 and then dropped to 154 and now is who knows how much over 186k where the odometer shit the bed.

ready to build:


And and hour and some paint later:

[Richter]

Looking good so far! High five on keeping the diving boards!

[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

[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]

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

[agent]

87is > *

Looking good!

[paynemw]

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

[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.