Less rust and hopefully some reliability- the Midwest Daily iS

[AWDBOB]

Looks nice!

thanks for keeping the forums alive!

Keep it up. Always enjoyed your posts.

Thanks, gents. Excited to get her refreshed a bit and cruising proper! And re: the forums.... there is nothing on social media that will compare to a build thread. It's becoming a lost art, really.

I spent the rest of the day checking the car out, inspecting things, and finishing the paint correction/ceramic coating. Good for 12mo, and it looks so different compared to how I got it. The paint has more depth, albeit still a poor paint job.

Some notes/thoughts:

-This wing is hideous. Searching for a "drivers quality" E28 MT1 wing since this trunk lid has various non-oem mounting holes already. Send me a PM if you have one you want to get rid of.
-The passenger front outer ball joint has play
-Strut housing gland nuts are destroyed from someone trying to remove them and failing
-Steering rack has some play
-CABs are worn
-Drivers rear door is torn apart for a fix. It's the only door that doesn't lock, so I'll need to figure that out sooner than later since it's a daily.
-Head gasket is leaking from the passenger front where they normally do. I'm going to deal with that after the first of the year.
-Rust encapsulator is ordered. I'm going to polycarbide down the areas that need attention and seal it the best I can to stop the rust from spreading.
-Left turn signal works but doesn't illuminate from the dash
-Both rear windows are inop
-At the house I have belts, vacuum hoses, timing belt/wp/tensioner/etc, cap/rotor, plugs, various gaskets/seals, etc. I'm just going to have to add the head gasket to the mix, which isn't too bad.
-I HATE comfort seats. I have a decent tan drivers sport seat I'm going to toss in until I find a pair of black sports seats.

I'll take care of the engine first, which is an easy job. And then I'll accumulate parts for the front suspension and do all that at once.

After coating:

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr


I put some 303 on the minty dash:

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

And started putting the interior back together:

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr


Dirty engine bay. This will get freshened up when I address the above issues.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[amcp]

Keep it up. Always enjoyed your posts.

[paynemw]

thanks for keeping the forums alive!

[Slybeanx]

Looks nice!

[AWDBOB]

*Pages 1-3 Cliff notes* Project Daily started out as an iX and I found out it was swiss cheese underneath before I invested too much into it. Fast forward to page four.

I've been itching to daily an iX forever, but all of the ones I've had were too nice to put through winter months. I need a van for various reasons, so I will no longer need my Forester.

This means.........I can daily whatever I want.....which of course is an E30.

I was originally searching for an '88 iX since they're fully loaded, manual coupes, but I'm too cheap and they're hard to find so naturally, I settled.

The universe delivered me the perfect car: a rusty low mile '89 cream puff winter machine. I was scrolling through the Vintage page on FB, and saw a post asking if anyone had interest in "a project 325iX in the midwest". That was exactly what I was looking for. Turns out, the owner of a BMW shop in Ohio (and avid enthusiast) had been using this 325iX as his winter car up until he unfortunately passed away in the Spring. I sought out more information, and struck a deal.

When I picked up the car, we were checking out the registration expiration and it ended up being on his birthday. The wife, who was so pleasant, despite the situation, said that meant that I was supposed to have the car. It was a nice experience.

Anyway, she's got 130k on the clock, and runs great. It was repainted poorly, has rust in all of the normal places, but everything structural was taken care of. Crack free dash, no lights, everything works, etc. It has brand new blizzaks on it, too (and iX weaves with caps).

They replaced the starter, battery, fuel tank, pump, lines, repaired brake lines, rebuilt the rear suspension with eccentric TA bushings, etc.

They also had a body shop weld in new rear spring perches, which is nice.

Plans:

I have no plans to make this a super nice car. I just want to drive, maintain and enjoy it. I'm going to grind down and seal off the existing rust to prevent it from spreading further. It needs a timing belt and a tuneup. The head gasket leaks a bit of oil, etc.

I know the forums are dead, but I thoroughly enjoy posting my progress up on here with my E30 endeavors.

Anyway, here are some photos. The paint was so contaminated I had to clay it twice (first time I've ever had to do that). Should've used ironX but I didn't have any.

So far I just washed and clayed the car, and polished the hood- I'll finish the rest of the car soon. I bought myself a Rupes machine for my birthday and it makes polishing a treat. I'm using a meguiars microfiber cutting pad with Rupes medium polish. Sealed with the new TurtleWax Hybrid Ceramic OTS stuff.



Pre-wash (look how dark the paint is)

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2hZdDHk]


Post-wash and clay:

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr


Working:

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr


The hood all sealed up:

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr