Aloha ya’ll! Long time lurker of R3Vlimited finally became a member not to long ago, and I want to take you on a journey through the build process for my first E30, what was once destine for the scrape yard is getting a new lease on life and a whole bunch of goodies, enjoy!
It all started on a sunny day back in October, it was another normal day at work until a little after lunch. I was taking a look at a co-workers daily driver with some interest; it was set to be my first encounter with an E30. I spent the rest of day dreaming of ways I could find myself behind the driver’s seat; never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine looking to buy a BMW. Later in the week I had the honor of driving said co-worker home after a injury that left him unable to drive home, I was handed the keys and told to drive very very cautiously and that any moment or fast right hand turn the car would fall apart. With fair warning I drove really slow… The drive was nerve wrecking, there was so many pops, clunks, and eire sounds that made me think real hard about asking to buy it. Somehow the question got thrown up in the air and the owner said he would let it go for $500… I had to make sure he didn’t say $5000. I had to make sure he didn’t tell anyone else, so I drove like hell to get the bank and got the $$, but the owner had to think about it for a night and the next morning we did the deal.
Here she is the day I bought her. Drove hard, put away wet just the way I like it.
1992 BMW 325iC, sport package, and a slush box. WIN!
With the car officially in my name, I knew I had some work to-do. First order of business is to get the vert on a rack and give her a real good once over. With all the sounds she was making on the first test drive I can say at almost all the suspension/drivetrain parts need some attention without even looking underneath. This E30 comes with the sports package which includes the Sport seats; power everything, 13-botton OBC, and LSD in the rear, a dam awesome little car. The exterior paint has been in decent condition most of its life; it lived in under a roof in a garage until the most recent years when the previous owner started parking it outside. The interior did not fare as well with the carpet being heavily stained while the rear seats were torn in various locations, the front seats for some reason have held up better cosmetically but as I found out soon enough had some major problems. The top was the worst thing about the whole car, it was originally a electric top and worked rather well until the day the owner ripped out the electric arm and made it manual for preventative maintenance (aka didn’t want to pay the $$ to fix it when it was going to break). The top itself is in need of some loving itself, there are 4 small holes that were pointed out to me and all have been “fixed” by the previous owner with silicone pray to keep the water out… great. Last but not least is the rear window that seems as though it was at the bottom of a lake for 10 years, defiantly need some new plastic, all the more reason to just keep the top down :)
Interior
Beautiful engine shot (it leaked out of everything rubber)
And the best of them all the under shot.. good lord
It all started on a sunny day back in October, it was another normal day at work until a little after lunch. I was taking a look at a co-workers daily driver with some interest; it was set to be my first encounter with an E30. I spent the rest of day dreaming of ways I could find myself behind the driver’s seat; never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine looking to buy a BMW. Later in the week I had the honor of driving said co-worker home after a injury that left him unable to drive home, I was handed the keys and told to drive very very cautiously and that any moment or fast right hand turn the car would fall apart. With fair warning I drove really slow… The drive was nerve wrecking, there was so many pops, clunks, and eire sounds that made me think real hard about asking to buy it. Somehow the question got thrown up in the air and the owner said he would let it go for $500… I had to make sure he didn’t say $5000. I had to make sure he didn’t tell anyone else, so I drove like hell to get the bank and got the $$, but the owner had to think about it for a night and the next morning we did the deal.
Here she is the day I bought her. Drove hard, put away wet just the way I like it.
1992 BMW 325iC, sport package, and a slush box. WIN!
With the car officially in my name, I knew I had some work to-do. First order of business is to get the vert on a rack and give her a real good once over. With all the sounds she was making on the first test drive I can say at almost all the suspension/drivetrain parts need some attention without even looking underneath. This E30 comes with the sports package which includes the Sport seats; power everything, 13-botton OBC, and LSD in the rear, a dam awesome little car. The exterior paint has been in decent condition most of its life; it lived in under a roof in a garage until the most recent years when the previous owner started parking it outside. The interior did not fare as well with the carpet being heavily stained while the rear seats were torn in various locations, the front seats for some reason have held up better cosmetically but as I found out soon enough had some major problems. The top was the worst thing about the whole car, it was originally a electric top and worked rather well until the day the owner ripped out the electric arm and made it manual for preventative maintenance (aka didn’t want to pay the $$ to fix it when it was going to break). The top itself is in need of some loving itself, there are 4 small holes that were pointed out to me and all have been “fixed” by the previous owner with silicone pray to keep the water out… great. Last but not least is the rear window that seems as though it was at the bottom of a lake for 10 years, defiantly need some new plastic, all the more reason to just keep the top down :)
Interior
Beautiful engine shot (it leaked out of everything rubber)
And the best of them all the under shot.. good lord
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