My Hoopte30 Project Attempt #6 - the painless way to earn cash back every day

[AWDBOB]

Still truckin' away on the '87 4dr. I treated floor rust, got the carpet back in, made one good cluster out of 4 not so good ones, swapped the hood release cable, swapped a throttle cable, made some sedan door seals out of mediocre coupe seals I had off the orange car, got license plate lights going using my brother's repair inserts for rusty cars, installed his OBC phone mount, and drove the car around the lot for the first time!

I went to wire up a spare tr7412ub-or I had and do a trunk amp delete and discovered that '87 premium sound harnesses (1381719) only had a single radio output ground wire, so I ended up repurposing the four + speaker leads at the head unit that run to the trunk as rear speaker +/-, redirected to the rear speakers at the trunk amp connector, and just ran separate front speaker wires to the deck.

In this harness the red/green that is almost always constant 12v was 12v headlight on, aka dimmer, which I found super odd. Swapped what I had wired to orange and yellow and all was happy. I then remembered that I had a super nice set of four Polk 5.25" mids that I installed, and the whole setup sounds great. Really caught me off guard as I was quite proud of hoopties fresh premium sound with a class d head unit amp, and now it's got me questioning all the things.

I need to button up the glovebox area, put some hardware in the front splash shields, toss a passenger seat in this thing and start whipping it. The brakes feel not great despite being good components, so a further bleed may be required with two people vs the "stick bleeder hose in a bottle of brake fluid" method I tried.

I have a Momo Cavallino I'm going to run for the finishing interior touch.

Hopefully we'll see winter turn right about when I'll have this thing road worthy for some daily duty until someone wants it more than I do.

My goodness I love hoopties.

Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr
Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr
Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr
Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr
Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr

[AWDBOB]

New shoes got mounted on slightly cleaner 14" weaves today. Tried to buy some all seasons and ended up with a 320aa summer tire somehow.

Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr



Proof nothing in life can just be simple:

Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr

[AWDBOB]

This shit drives me nuts with flickr as well

Back in the day I used to manually copy each link but gave up on that a long time ago. They're trying waaay to hard to be a social platform. We just want to host photos homies

BOBS WEINERS AND WAFFLES GODBLES!!!!!!!!!!


(forgot this forum doesn't allow all caps so my boomer sentiment is lost, lame)

hahahahhaha i saw the caps when i quoted the post, not all was lost

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Got the motor all buttoned up tonight. Stuck with the early model cooling system because it all seemed fine. The VC gasket was the worst I've seen on an E30. Hopefully that and the cam seal/oring solve the oil leaks. Power Steering needs work, the orange car came with some fresh looking used parts in the trunk, if I get sick of leaving a puddle I'll toss that stuff on.

Saleri water pump, new intermediate shaft gear to replace the stamped piece (pained me that I didn't have a used one even tho new ones are sub $40), conti belt/tensioner, new plugs and a very lightly used bremi ignition setup. Car seems very happy. I found some old euro grills under my sandblaster today, may toss them on if I'm feeling frisky

Once I can get the brakes bled and some tires on it I can finally take this thing for its maiden voyage, so in the meantime tomorrow I'll probably focus on some interior efforts.

May drive, may sell, gotta feel out how motivated I am to maintain a 5th older vehicle when hooptie and the M3 would probably be a better use of my attention.

Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr

[e30austin]

BOBS WEINERS AND WAFFLES GODBLES!!!!!!!!!!


(forgot this forum doesn't allow all caps so my boomer sentiment is lost, lame)

[Northern]

It drives me crazy that it auto copies the Flickr account nickname in the bbcode unless I manually delete it each time, so I’ve side stepped from bobsbimmers to bimmertown. I’m going to try bobsbratsandbiscuits next

This shit drives me nuts with flickr as well

[AWDBOB]

Brodego LOL Never heard that one before

That ones fresh, rolls right off the tongue too 😂

time to take one last trip.... to BIMMERTOWN

It drives me crazy that it auto copies the Flickr account nickname in the bbcode unless I manually delete it each time, so I’ve side stepped from bobsbimmers to bimmertown. I’m going to try bobsbratsandbiscuits next

[e30austin]

time to take one last trip.... to BIMMERTOWN

[808ETA]

Brodego LOL Never heard that one before

[AWDBOB]

you seem to manage getting a ton of shit done while i have managed to do absolutely nothing. nice work, brother. keep it up.

Thanks brodego, I've been trying to hustle so as to not prolong the process of getting the tangarine30 out of my life. That's the ultimate motivation lol

I got the brakes and suspension done on the '87 4dr, fixed the drivers side window regulator that was mysteriously stuck, and started on the timing belt service tonight.

I need to bleed the brakes and finish up tbelt/water pump/tstat/cam seal/valve cover service tomorrow and get some tires and this thing should be rippin.

It still needs a radio wired in and I need to replace the windshield but those things don't keep it from going down the road.

Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr

[e30austin]

you seem to manage getting a ton of shit done while i have managed to do absolutely nothing. nice work, brother. keep it up.

[AWDBOB]

I think subconsciously you really enjoy the hooptie surprises and are actually happy going through countless e30s of dilapidated conditions.

My rusty original rear brake T is still attached in my car despite me adding fresh lines routed around it. Glad it just wasn't me.

Nope, rusty T's must stay to serve as a reminder of what once was

When the balance is right and I strike the right arc of purpose and motivation, it's super fun, and feels engaging and nostalgic. On the other side of that coin lie the cars that don't make the cut and have to be dealt with. Those stress me out a bunch, because I pay up for them hoping to trade $$ for some time back, which rarely (see: never) works out, so on those I'm stuck parting a car I paid more than parts car money for, or overextending trying to make them something they weren't destined to be.

I can't skirt around the fact that I enjoy the madness from time to time, too haha

[Reichart12]

I think subconsciously you really enjoy the hooptie surprises and are actually happy going through countless e30s of dilapidated conditions.

My rusty original rear brake T is still attached in my car despite me adding fresh lines routed around it. Glad it just wasn't me.

[AWDBOB]

I mean it looks close enough in the pic that I didn't even question it lol

This makes me happy. The armrest is rather flaccid, so I think once I add some velcro and figure out a center mount rear seatbelt receptacle mounting location I will achieve the bliss I'm after

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I've been laying low in hoopty land, but the behind the scenes escapades have been on brand.

I'm still mainly pretending OG hooptie doesn't exist because the exhaust hits everything and is way too loud. I aborted mission standalone and bought a MarkD chip for it along side some fresh 19.9lb @3bar rebuilt injectors from a volvo. Turns out Mark had a custom tune he made for a 10:1 hartge 2.7, close enough for me. Oddly enough, I found a 2.7 super eta squid chip for sale a couple days later at a nice price and secured that as well.

While pretending I don't own the car, however, the winter e30 daily itch re-inflamed. I still have the '87 325i sedan from the last couple pages, but it needed too much to get me stoked on fixing it.

Thankfully FB marketplace solved that problem, and revealed to me that an acquaintance a state over was downsizing his shop and selling off his shitboxes. An orange rust free early '85 coupe, which I'm a real sucker for, was on the chopping block, so I made the arrangements and it appeared before me, in all its glory.

The car was a supposed rust free, rough interior, mostly redone mechanically, m20b25 swapped, just needed some final engine stuff finished off before it would run/drive type of buy.

I apparently didn't learn from texas holdem and had the car delivered, and needless to say, the car is a pile.

I'm looking at it once it shows up. EVERYthing is spray painted. Under side of hood. Dash. Floor. Full exterior was treated to a glass out spray bomb. "bilsteins" are leaky Monroes. Whole arm fits thru rust hole in passenger rear wheel well. Drivers door ratchet strapped closed because door mech failed. Sadness. (Edit: I'd like to note here that I do not associate any fault with the seller. I had the car delivered, so it is my responsibility. Most of the description was passed on from the PO before him, so there were quite a few unknowns that weren't uncovered until I started poking around, unlike texas holdem, which was grossly misdescribed/untruthful, maybe we'll say, optimistic). Moving on.

Reality starts to set in. Start looking for silver lining. None found. Panic follows.

Turned to google sheets to neutralize the noise, and it informed me that I can make my money back with low sale price expectations.

All the sudden that '87 sedan wasn't looking so bad with a rolling parts pile parked behind it, so I got to work.

Hit the brake pedal in the '87 and the rear lines exploded everywhere. Lines so rusted I couldn't even get the fittings off above the gas tank because they went from 11mm to half 4mm and half 7.3mm wrench size. So I did the ole rust belt trick, and cut the rust off, flared the factory steel line (super fun on the car), bought a new ATE brake T, followed by a caliper side soft line to the hard drivers trailing arm line (which I also had to replace), and 10.5" of parts store NickelCopper hard line to the passenger side trailing arm line (which I also had to replace). Good enough for who its for


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ugh






'87 sedan got the calipers/rotors/pads from the rotten orange. First round of lowering springs was a set of iX H&Rs. Found out the fronts are OE sports (50404.55), and the rears are slightly shorter iX springs with more spring rate. Around this time, a wire wheel plus mastercoat prolonged my spring perches and trailing arms, and I threw on some fresh rear endlinks. B8s on the rear.

Taxihoopty didn't like the rear iX springs, so I swapped on spray painted assumed normal H&R sports from the ole HIV30 with some iX spring pads I had handy. Still tall, but I'll play with spring pads later.

iX H&R after bouncing on the bumper for a while

Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr





Some other H&R w/ iX thick lower spring pad

Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr
Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr





Front OE sport/ iX H&R Crossover discovery. Installed them with KYBs up front with some genuine USMs off of my buddies perfect 37k mile MT2 car. I had a 60k mile front sway/links/bush setup from the zionsville haul that I tossed on out of laziness around this time. Also installed new control arms with E36 centered rubber CABs.

Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr



In taking this picture I noticed several new leaks I'll have to get acquainted with. Also, the new control arms don't match. Tie rods had no play so they'll stay for now.

Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr



In all its glory (still at the old shop, landlord decided not to sell the building, so even though I have nothing over there, I'll keep my lift there until it's time to go)

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Test fit some Equip 03 reps before I listed them on marketplace

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And we'll finish it out with a local $250 sport seat score! '87 4dr has torn black leather comforts in it, so these were a half point buzzer shot

Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr



M3 is still in PA awaiting some sunroof headliner repair before it comes out so I saw the opportunity to fully default in the meantime.


That's all for now, folks.

[Northern]

hahaha sorry my satire apparently didn't come through. The armrest was added by someone with sub par execution, aka the perfect M3 seat to appropriately match hoopties shitbox charm!

I mean it looks close enough in the pic that I didn't even question it lol

[AWDBOB]

did I just not know that they made skipass versions of M3 rear seats? I've never seen one before

hahaha sorry my satire apparently didn't come through. The armrest was added by someone with sub par execution, aka the perfect M3 seat to appropriately match hoopties shitbox charm!