bchalks Street Legal Track Prep Build

[bchalks]

Hi all, I wanted to start my own thread so I can document my build. I'll update this thread as I go.

The E30 will be used as a street legal HPDE track rat for the next few years until it becomes a full blown racecar. I was tired of beating up my 2012 135i at the local track so I decided to buy an E30 for track duty and to teach myself some things along the way.

Details:
1990 325i M20b25 5spd Alpine White II

The car had been sitting in the POs front yard for a year or two, but when I went to look at it, it started right up and ran/drove great. The chassis is super clean, engine had 175k on it, all original everything including the tools in the trunk. It was definitely a neglected commuter and hadn't had any maintenance done to it for quite some time (or ever...). The tranny had "a bad 3rd gear synchro" so I knew I would have to replace or rebuild the G260 at some point. The engine, tranny, diff and underside were completely covered in oil....but I'm not complaining because this basically made the underside of the car rustproof! Other than needing new tires, it was ready to go!

I'll add some pictures below and post updates periodically.

Here's the day I got her:

[808ETA]

Nice! Looking forward to updates.

[bchalks]

The following weekend, I cleaned the whole car inside and out. It was astonishingly "clean" for being 30 years old. Very few signs of people removing bolts or bastardizing the car in any way. Needless to say, I was a happy camper.

Engine Bay Before:





After:

[bchalks]

The car had been sitting for so long and all maintenance (besides oil and filter changes) had been neglected. I wanted to freshen things up before driving it hard. I started by doing the timing belt, plugs, filters and some other odds and ends.



And of course, this turned into a "while I'm in there" type of project...so I refreshed virtually the entire cooling system next.



These cars are so cheap and easy to work on, I love it! Here she is all put back together.



The engine sounded healthy and was running well (more on this later) but the exhaust sounded awful and was super rusted out so I decided to try and build my own for cheap. I have a basic Harbor Freight MIG welder which is capable of making decent welds. Mine, however, looked like they had been done by a primate. But it was functional and a lot lighter than the oem exhaust. I used 2.5" piping and a $30 ebay muffler.




This setup sounded better than stock, but was so raspy and tin-cany that I ended up replacing the muffler a few months later.

[bchalks]

Before I could safely drive her on the street, I needed new tires. The ones that came on the car were dry rotted, mismatched and 15+ years old. The basketweaves were also in such bad shape I contemplated throwing them away along with the tires. In the end, I decided to paint the wheels gold (embracing my inner ricer) and throw on some cheap 195/60/14 Federals. Not bad for $200. I'll get new wheels and tires eventually.

[bchalks]

Now that the car was safely running and driving, I decided to experiment with some body work. The closest I've come to doing body work before this was plasti-dipping the trim and emblems on my mercedes... Lets just say I learned a lot by making a lot of mistakes. The biggest mistake was buying the wrong color! I assumed Alpine White only came in one flavor, so I ordered some paint online using the VIN from my 1 series. As a matter of fact, the 135i is "Alpine White III" and the e30 is "Alpine White II"

Prepping the hood and fenders:





The passenger side fender had a fist-sized dent that was poorly fixed at some point. Perfect time for me to learn what the heck "bondo" is! First I took the fender off and pounded the dent out as best I could. The rest is history. I'm pretty pleased with the results as I don't intend for this to be a show car.

[bchalks]

Body work continued:



"It was at this point he realized, he EFF'ed up." Notice the different shades of white? Also notice the dripping clear coat...




I also ran out of paint when doing the hood (another mistake, didn't order nearly enough paint or clear coat) so I actually went to Sherwin Williams and had them mix me up some cheap Alpine White III. The hood is rougher than a stucco bathtub and has the same texture as the interior walls of my house. Looks great from 20' away!