Project Daily: The Tale of Two E30's

[ATL_E30]

So yesterday leaving work she fired up and stumbled a little bit, but recovered. I was able to make the 48 mile trip back home with no issues and after pulling into the garage I let her idle. She didnt stumble again until after I shut her off and then did another crank, but even then she just had a little bit of a rough idle and did not stall out. I drove the Calypso into work today (left at 4:30am to avoid ATL Traffic) and will probably do that until I have some time to dive into this.

Start with the basics. Clean the ICV, replace the coolant temp sensor and check the crank position sensor. I've done the first two. Haven't done the last one yet

Thanks for the advice I'll check these things first.

While you're working this out, pull and reseat your fuses, check your battery terminal connections, and make sure your grounds are good. An intermittent electrical problem can create the type of problem you're experiencing, and you may have nudged something while you were working on the car. It could also be a failing sensor such as the camshaft or crankshaft position sensors, but those are harder to check in a parking lot.

Yea, I while I was sitting at my desk yesterday I started wondering if it could possibly be the battery. Going to check all the fuses tonight when I get off and then also check the battery.

Appreciate all the help! Just another reason why I love this place! Cheers!

[djlicious]

Yea, I while I was sitting at my desk yesterday I started wondering if it could possibly be the battery. Going to check all the fuses tonight when I get off and then also check the battery.

Appreciate all the help! Just another reason why I love this place! Cheers!

I had a similar problem- replacing the fuel pump relay seems to have helped.

[ATL_E30]

Update!

Quick update! Life comes at you fast! Moving into a apartment closer to work and finishing up projects for work before the year ends hasn't left much time to work on the cars. Did get a few things done though, but was unable to snag pictures because my phones a POS and just snagged a new one the other day.

On to the car!

Alpine
If you've read this thread you know i've been having some trouble with this one. So I ordered some stuff and waited for it to come in:

• ECS Stage 2 Rear Suspension kit
• Timing Belt Kit
• Water Pump
• Multiple hoses
• 70mm studs from VAC Motorsports

While the girlfriend was away for the weekend I started work on replacing the Timing Belt, Water Pump, and a few hoses. After a long weekend of taking her apart and buttoning her back up I fired her up. She started, but was still running rough so I decided to do a smoke test... Smoke everywhere coming from all sorts of area. At this point I was about to go on a week long work trip so I decided if I wanted to get back to driving this car anytime soon I'd have to take it to a shop. So I took it to a Bimmer and Mercedes shop that my Dad had taken his to before and they loved the car. Left it there for the week while I was away for work and when I came back they had her running like a top.

Things they did:

1. Adjust and set the throttle and cruise control cables to allow proper signal from idle position
2. Replace mutiple gaskets and seals after they performed a smoke test
3. Perform Valve adjustment
4. Replace leaking breather pipe

Was planning on putting in the studs and starting the suspension refresh this weekend with a buddy, but unfortunately we got some snow and that's no longer happening. Probably shoot for between Christmas and New Years when i'll have a few days off.



Calypso
So the Calypso has been doing a whole lot of nothing. Only thing i've done was ReShadowline the window trim as it had some chips. I bought some Euro Bumpers for her, but I think i'll be posting those up for sale here in the next day or so after I get some better pictures. Sorry for the lack of pics, shes slumbering the garage during the winter storm.

[ATL_E30]

New Bumper!

Calypso
Pending Sale, Buyer doesn't want the Style 5's so I went ahead and threw them on the Alpine! The story of this car will soon be coming to a close within this thread.


Alpine
Been quite for a bit, but a couple weeks ago I picked up a really clean Alpine Front Bumper from E30Riley. He did a great job wrapping it and quick shipping got it to me in a little under a week.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to install it right away, but today I was able to get around to it and I must say i'm very happy with it. Haven't decided if I like the Hood Bra yet.



I know... needs MOAR LOW... That'll probably be the next big thing, but need to do some research. It's raining and dark out so i'll try to snag some better pictures tomorrow.

Cheers!

[Mistaken]

Very cool. Great thread.

[ATL_E30]

Better View

Still been rainy lately. As soon as things dry up going to spray the underside with some rubberized coating.

Potato phones takes potato picks. Gonna take my Nikon out and get some shots next time I head up into the North Georgia Mountains.

[ATL_E30]

Memorial Day Update!

Popping in for a quick update. Been quiet lately as been extremely busy with work and havent had much time to work on the E30, but i've slowly been collecting parts to build a stroker. Unfortunately some things have been discovered that is going to put that on the back burner..

First let me start with the Calypso. After a couple flaky buyers I eventually sold it to a guy south of Atlanta who was looking for a project for his son. He came up and snagged it late one Sunday and she drove off into the sunset.

With the Calypso gone, I could start focusing on making the Alpine the true daily driver I wanted.Engine was running a bit rough, but after swapping the O2 Sensor and cleaning the ICV she was purring like a kitten.

Rolled over the 150k milestone!


I then started working on some cosmetic things, which led to some discoveries that are putting the Stroker build on hold. I'll go through the good and then we can look at the bad... :(

New Roudels for the Front and Back


I'm pretty forgetful about taking before and after pics so i'll just list the things I did and you can kinda pick them out.

• Picked up some SEM Rubberized Coating to spray the underside and give it a little more color contrast
• Front and Rear Euro Trim
• Clear Turn Signals (not pictured)
• E36 Antenna base and Antenna as the original had long been worn out

Before:


After:




(notice rust spot on rear valance...)

After this the E30 started to take a back seat as I picked up a new toy and started to enjoy this X5 MSport. My gf picked up a nice Nikon camera and took this picture when we first got it. No clue why this is the only picture she took, but i'm planning a photo with the E30 soon.


First Picture together! Not great I know, but couldn't pass up taking a picture.


So fast forward to this weekend. I picked up a grey/black carpet and some black door panels and figured this would be as good as any to put them in. What I came to find really put a damper on the weekend.

RUST What I thought was a relatively rust free car proved otherwise. I first noticed it on the rear battery tray which I know is a common place, but when I pulled out the back seat to start putting the rear side panels in I found this....


No Bueno


So I pivoted from the cab to the trunk and started pulling the carpet and sound deadening crap out. This is what I was left with which looks worse than it actually is. Most of this cleaned up with some goo gone.


But this Fuel Evap hose/pipe is toast!


Back in the cab I finished pulling the carpet out and found tons o' fun things that will need fixing. The passenger side of the car actually isn't too bad, just this small section up towards the front wheels well.


The passenger side of the car actually isn't too bad, just this small section up towards the front wheels well.


Drivers side on the other hand....

Yikes!


Kill me now

I went to town on the drivers side with my dremel and wire wheel bit to get as much surface rush as possible and then also hit the Fuel Evap pipe cause that made me nervous about how far it went. Was able to get a good bit of it off, but like I said earlier that pipe was toast!


So that's about where I left off earlier today. I'm gonna try to enjoy the rest of the weekend and not let these findings get me down. The good news is that from what I've read and seen on the Facebook R3v page all of this is fixable. The bad news is I don't know how to weld and seeing as how I want to get this fixed ASAP i'm probably gonna be shopping around for someone with some experience. If anyone knows anyone in the Atlanta area hit me up!

Hope everyone has a safe and eventful Memorial Day Weekend! Till next time!

[ATL_E30]

Rusty No More!

Hey guys, hope everyone had a good 4th of July! Last update was Memorial day so felt like 4th of July week would be a good as time of any to post another since I've made some substantial progress.

I shopped around for a couple weeks trying to find a place that would take on my rust problem. I spent one of my off days driving between four or five shops and all turned me away as they didn't have the time to take this project on. I was driving back to my parents, where I had been storing the car, when about 4 miles away from their house I came across a place called Rusty Classic Restoration.

I pulled in and met the two proprietors who we're both retired Firefighters who had a passion for old classic cars and bringing them back to life. They didn't necessarily have much experience working on BMW's, but they had worked on a few Volkswagen and felt comfortable and confident about taking on this repair. We hit it off and they waived the consultation fee and said they'd get to work. The plan was to cut out all the rust in the floor pans and battery tray and weld in ones from a donor car. After getting the car up on a lift they found some other area's of concern that I had them fix.

I'll spare you anymore details and just provide ya with some pics (which of course I didnt take any of the floors before putting the interior back in....)

Battery Tray Before:




After:




As I said earlier they found some other area's which included the front driver side fender and the jack points/pinch welds we're bent upward sometime in it's life. All was repaired and straightened out and the kick panels we're repainted.





While the car was in the shop I got to work on the interior that was going in once the car was back. I picked up a grey carpet and had been planning on dying it black. Reading a couple threads I decided to go wit the VHT Satin Black. Waiting on the goods to arrive I went ahead and steam cleaned/vacuumed the carpet.





It was pretty damn dirty....


The VHT arrived a couple days after I got the car back... Because i'm a noob I forgot to take interior pics of the floor pans, but it looks cleeeeeaaan! No more rust and he even put a layer of POR-15 from the looks of it. Anyways here's progress on dying the carpet. Put down a coat and then brushed out, waited for it to dry and then repeat. I put two coats on which took 6 cans total. Turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.

Dye'd compared to Original


Finished!


And back in the car


Lighting looks a little weird in this pic, phone camera is potato.


Well if you've made it this far you're in for a treat. Snagged my gf's nice Canon camera and did a little photo shoot in the parking deck at my office. She's in need of a good bath for sure, but I wanted to snag some decent pics for the thread. These also make up for the potato photos I took in the last update of the Euro Trim, Clear Turn Signals, and painted kick panels.






So that's the progress made so far. Previously in the thread I discussed keeping the car OEM+ but now with the rust work that has been done does it make sense? I'm starting to lean away from that since the car isn't as mint as I originally thought.

I'm thinking suspension refresh (coilovers?) and brake job all around is next, but i'm itching for more power! The Super Eta is a snail to drive around town. So the stroker/S52 + 5 speed swap idea that R3v has incepted deep into my brain is starting to grow.

So what do you think R3v? Let me know your thoughts!

[ATL_E30]

Hey R3v

Dropping in for a quick update. Been slowly acquiring parts and coming up with a game plan for what I wanted to do with this car. OEM+ Daily Driver

Snagged a set of e21 Recaro's to replace the comfort seats. Not exactly OEM for the E30, but I like them and they are semi period correct so i'm sticking with them.


Driver side in


Found a set of BBS RS wheels on my local Facebook Marketplace for a pretty good deal so snatched them up. Plan is to have them sent off to Paul Ehrlich at ewheelworks to be refinished. The previous owner still had the original packaging which I thought was pretty cool.


Picked up a full brake refresh kit from FCP Euro as I have no knowledge of when they were last done.


I decided that i'm gonna stick with the M20 with this car. It's a solid engine and easy to work on. I found an M20 semi-local (bout 2 1/2 hours in South Carolina) out of an 89 325iS. Come to find out it's out of RobertK's old car (RobertK's Build Thread). Going to start ripping into the engine soon and will probably snag an 272 cam for it, but havent decided if I want to swap out the whole engine or just slap the 325i head onto the SETA block and send it.


Before I can do either of the two things above i'll need to do a 5 speed swap so that'll probably be the next big update.

Thanks for looking!

[2mAn]

I think with that ride height you need a bit more tire, so a 15" wheel could work a lot better

[ATL_E30]

I think with that ride height you need a bit more tire, so a 15" wheel could work a lot better

I am looking at lowering the ride height, but the BBS wheels are 15s so probably keep em that way.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ATL_E30]

2019 Update

2019

Been awhile since my last update, but I’ve completed a lot of things on the car in the past 8 months so figured it was time for an update!

Late last year I ordered a set of CATuned Coilovers and they arrived in December. I got to work on tearing into the front end of the car and once I was in there I quickly realized that this was not going to be just a suspension refresh…

I went ahead and ordered the following:
• H&R Front Sway Bar
• Garagistic Reinforced Front Subframe
• E46 Purple Tag Steering Rack from Rackdoctor
• Garagistic Engine and Transmission Mounts
• Condor Speed Shop Treehouse Control Arm Mounts
• Lemforder Control Arms
• E30 Brake refresh kit from FCPEuro

I’m still pretty bad a taking pictures of the progress, but I’ll let the ones I did take do the talking.


Front Strut was a pain in the ass to get out… this would be consistent with everything else and much cursing took place.




Everything out!

Didn’t snag any pictures but purchased an Engine Support Bar from Harbor Freight and lifted the engine to remove the front Subframe. Threw the E46 Rack and H&R Sway Bar onto the reinforced subframe and put that into place.


Starting to come back together!


Coilovers in



Hit the brake shields and calipers with some paint


Looking good!


Car back on the bottle caps as I had purchased some new wheels that were in route from a distant land.


Slammed! Haha I’m sure back in High School I would’ve liked this…. Not much of my style now though.


Daily Vs. Weekend Toy


Somewhere along the way I picked up an E28 Mtech 1 Spoiler which I was happy with for a bit, but looked a little big. Someone local ended up posting an E30 spec’d spoiler and I picked it up as a bday present for myself.

So, this all took about 3-4 months to complete due to work and traveling, but I had a deadline… May 16th, The Vintage! My package I mentioned earlier had arrived and boy we’re they pretty.


A set of BBS RS001’s from the land down under!

Now I had a dilemma, there was no way I’d be able to have them refinished before The Vintage and there was no way I was rolling up on Bottle Caps either. I elected to have tires mounted and throw them on the car. After all I’m not looking to win best in show or anything.

That’s how she sits as of today and I’m pretty happy with the progress I’ve made so far. Next up for the car is going to be tackling the 5spd swap and then rear end refresh.

[ATL_E30]

At the Vintage!

The Vintage 2019

So, as I mentioned in my last post all of the work being done on the car was in preparation for The Vintage which is held in Asheville, NC. I got everything done just two weeks before the show and used those weeks to dial the car in before the 4 ½ hr drive through some of the best mountain roads to Asheville from Atlanta.

There are usually a ton of people who caravan up to the show, but I elected to go with a smaller group led by Connorb850 who lives about 20 mins away. Connor charted our course up through the North Georgia Mountains into North Carolina and what a drive it was. All I’ll say is if you have never been on the Blue Ridge Parkway you need to check it out!


We stopped at a lookout point and snagged some pictures of the cars. E28 535i, E30 325 (Me), E34 M5, and E30 325i (Connorb850)



Once we made it to Asheville it was BMW heaven. I’ve never seen anything like it and it cemented by love for the older vintage cars that we drive. The Clarion Parking lot, which is the host hotel is literally overflowing with cars. We walked around and saw a lot of cool cars, but in typical fashion I didn’t take many pictures. I was pissed at myself and made sure I would snag a bunch the following day.

The next day we woke up and rolled out at about 8am. The Vintage is actually held in Cool Springs, NC. which is about an hour drive from Asheville. I’ll let the pics do the rest of the talking and call out notable mentions.








Levy3Poop’s Calypso Vert


Connorb850 and I


CodyM42’s M52 Swapped 318is


Sert57’s 2.9 Stroker 88 325i


And his sweet interior


ITB’s on Sert57’s 2.9 are soooo clean… this thing is a beast






TFJR’s old 88 2.7 Stroker 325 Sedan






Calypsoooo I love this color




Zeemz’s 89 325is






I’m thinking one of these is going to be a project soon





Overall great show and I can’t wait to go back in 2020! Hope you all enjoyed the pics!

[hendrixvodu]

No one ever pays attention to us e32 guys at the vintage :( we are just the car that kinda looks like an e34 haha

[2mAn]

R3V representing at Vintage!