85 325e cleanup

[Chanceoneill]

Back at the junkyard, I was able to grab carpet, a rear parcel shelf, and some other miscellaneous pieces like the check panel, rear seatbelts, and hvac trim. I plan on doing tan carpet, but I’m having a bit of trouble sourcing some. (Something about red on tan e30s makes me feel things) Figured someone may want to trade for this black carpet. I’ve also never seen a leather parcel shelf before. Not sure if that’s original or not. Heading to Florida today, so I won’t be making any progress for the next week. Anxious to jump back in when I get back. Still have to clean up the passenger seat and finish restoring the RS’s, but this is making me excited for this car. It’s looking like it may actually end up being pretty cool lol

[Chanceoneill]

A nice package from Hungary showed up. Not in perfect shape, but I was able to afford it for a reason I suppose. Will make a nice addition to the car regardless. Spent a bit of time redying the leather and shining it up. I grabbed these RS’s a couple of months ago with intent to refinish them and flip them, but I think they’ll be better suited for this car. They’ve never been split prior. Just painted poorly. They’re 5x114 unfortunately. They also do not have flat backpads which is even more unfortunate. The good news is that they’re 16x7+24. So with a decent size tire and adapters, they should fit pretty well.

[Chanceoneill]

Both tail lights have chips in them unfortunately. It did come with an extra passenger side light that’s pretty clean, but I’ll need to grab the left one at some point. The nice thing about everything being taken apart is that I can clean everything thoroughly before putting stuff back in.

[Chanceoneill]

Started cleaning up the door panels. He set this one on top of the extra diff during transport. I’m scrubbing with basic upholstery cleaner (Adams in this case) and a microfiber. Then going over again with a magic eraser. This helps remove hard scuffs and discoloring. Then a final pass with leather and vinyl conditioner, and a final buff with a clean micro fiber. I’ve repeated the process with all of the interior pieces so far. Missing a couple pieces i was able to get from the yard, but seem to be okay mechanically. Didn’t come out perfect, but much better than it was.

[Chanceoneill]

I was able to grab some absolutely disgusting trunk carpet from my local junkyard. So much rat crap it’s not even funny. Vacuumed everything up Then hit it with the bissel Everything looks pretty good now! Cleaned up this mess Even shined up the spare Was also able to grab the battery cover from the junkyard Looks pretty decent all together!

[Chanceoneill]

I’d been in the market for another e30 for the last month or so. I decided to expand my search and ended up finding a gutted, non running 325e about 7 hours from my house on Facebook marketplace. After messaging the seller, I realized he was someone I’d known for the last few years on Instagram. So I gave him a call, and we agreed on $1,100 for the car, and he would even tow it down for me! It’s got a clean title, roughly 200,000 miles, and it’s been sitting on non op since 2014. It’s even got the original blue plates, which was a huge plus for me. I’m not sure if I’m going to keep this car, or if I’m just going to clean it up and sell it down the line, but I figured I’d track the progress here regardless. Luckily it’s always been a California car and there’s no rust. It’s had some parts resprayed, as there’s faded clear coat on the hood. There’s also so pretty decent sized dents in both doors that hopefully my pdr guy will be able to address. The interior has seen better days. It’s been stripped of pretty much everything from the dash back. It does have brand new bilstein shocks and h&r springs, as well as new stop tech rotors and pads that came with the car. He threw in a couple of other things like a trunk spoiler and an extra diff (which will be for sale here in socal shortly lol) He also threw in a couple of extra bottle caps as well as a set of 14 inch weaves. His friend up north was selling some interior pieces and I was able to work out a deal with him prior to delivery of the car. I was able to get tan leather sport seats, tan door cards, the bottom rear seat (still looking for the back piece), and a center console for the ebrake surround.