The Laguna Green e30

[HerbReal]

Awesome!! I love this color and wanted to check that car out when I saw it posted. Glad it went to a good home.

5 speed plans?

[UlrichFennec]

I love how more Laguna Green cars are popping up. Sub'd. Keep up the great work!

[pilotskillse30]

Great work bringing her back

[Mike36]

Nice job!

[KIRIEIW]

Thanks guys!

Alright so long time no update! I got the car back on the road officially just yesterday. I would have had the timing belt done in about 3hr 1/2 hours or so but ran into some serious complications due to the previous "mechanic" that worked on this thing. I had the old belt off in only an 1hr 1/2..

SO, the main issue was the previous guy who put the car together forgot to reinstall the timing belt tensioner spring/ pin.. Completely missing! To make things worse, in the past I've ALWAYS ordered a new pin, and have thrown the old ones in the trash. For this car, I figured I'd never seen a e30 with wear on that pin so I'd save myself the $4 and just reuse it/ install a brand new spring. WRONG, totally should have ordered that stupid pin because mine was missing.

Fortunately, a nice e30 enthusiast about 40 miles from my house had one and gave it to me as a freebe! Having to go out of my way for a $4 pin set me back so far on time that I just didn't have enough time left in the day to finish the car in 1 afternoon like I planed, but at least I had the part I needed. The good news was I had everything reinstalled before dark excluding the cooling hoses so the following day was easy.

I did a little extra labor then usual and flushed the cooling system with some free cleaner I get from work because the old coolant wasn't looking too pretty, put in some genuine BMW coolant I also got free from work with distilled water, and off to SF I went! Put on some miles and got the car smogged, all in all it was a successful day.


I did a little more then just replace the timing belt/ tensioner including;
-New Throttle body coolant gasket
-Thermostat
-Mostly new coolant hoses
-Water Pump
-Camshaft seal (one of the main oil leaks on the car, you can see it
running down the entire front of the engine block before I cleaned it up)
-Belts, left the AC belt off. I doubt the AC even worked but never tested it
-Air Filter
-Flushed the cooling system/ Back flushed radiator
-New Front timing cover clips
-New vacuum hose for the fuel pressure regulator

















And the exact moment I saw the stupid pin/ spring was missing..

[KIRIEIW]

Ok so like I said earlier, I took the car for a drive to San Fransisco about 15min after I got it running. Seriously though, I bleed the cooling system, drove strait over to my co workers house, and we cruised all the way over to San Fransisco to take some pics of the car and have a little adventure I suppose. We probably put on about 150miles at least, I'd need to look at the trip meter. Before I get to far ahead, she also owns a e30, unfortunately not running since she let it sit for 2 years. I drove around our area, but handed her the keys and let her drive basically the whole drive in SF, I think she's a fan of e30's again. She daily drive's a really sweet e92.

Oh ya, I've never gotten so many complements on a car before in a day. TONS of people stared which was kinda weird, but there where at least two or three people that scremed out "Nice Car!" when we drove around or even just parked.

















































And her e30/ e92 along with a few pics she took

[KIRIEIW]

The Laguna Green e30

Awesome!! I love this color and wanted to check that car out when I saw it posted. Glad it went to a good home.

5 speed plans?

Small world! Ya funny enough she still has it posted on Craigslist. I really regretted buying this thing for the first week but now with the new interior it's not that bad of a car at all. Have to ask.. Would have you passed on the car seeing the condition it was in before? I almost parted this thing out..

[jeffnhiscars]

Great save, Kevin. Reminds me of the black cabrio I found in a shipping container after the owners pit bull ate the back seat (among other things).

Keep up the good work and good to see you back

[KIRIEIW]

Great save, Kevin. Reminds me of the black cabrio I found in a shipping container after the owners pit bull ate the back seat (among other things).

Keep up the good work and good to see you back

Thank you! You know, it's amazing how badly some owners will let there cars go and how accepting they are about it. Even if your not an enthusiast, you'd think people would care somewhat about there cars interior since there in it nearly everyday.

[KIRIEIW]

Ok so I got one other small thing done during my 3 day weekend, I removed all the sun faded trim pieces and repainted them with SEM trim black paint, probably the best stuff on the market for restoring trim. It's a perfect match to brand new trim, and dry's to the touch in minutes. It's hard to find in stores because it's made for professional use, but you could get lucky like I did and find it at automotive paint store.

















And I looked at the trip meter, we put on 134 miles yesterday :D

[KIRIEIW]

So today I brought the car into my work and did a pretty good inspection/ oil change during the after hours. One interesting thing my shop Forman noticed was one of the diff bolts was missing. Interesting enough, the diff was replaced UNDER WARRANTY 20 years back, who knows maybe this bolts been missing for the last 20 years. For those interested the work was done at East Bay BMW in Pleasanton, CA.








And just for my reference when the oil change was done:

[warshark]

nice car clean that baby up it was a good find plus it is my favorite color on a e30 good luck with the car

[Mike36]

Oh ya, I've never gotten so many complements on a car before in a day. TONS of people stared which was kinda weird, but there where at least two or three people that scremed out "Nice Car!" when we drove around or even just parked.

Yeah, I noticed this too after I cleaned mine up and gave it a good polish & wax. I think an IS lip would definitely set yours off just right.

[wilholl]

Oh ya, I've never gotten so many complements on a car before in a day. TONS of people stared which was kinda weird, but there where at least two or three people that scremed out "Nice Car!" when we drove around or even just parked.

It's a clean Laguna vert!!
We would get the same comments driving around in ours...
Sure do miss it after looking at your vert
Great job!!

[KIRIEIW]

Thanks guys! Yup the cars defiantly grown on me over the past 3 weeks. Its funny, green cars where always at the bottom of my list but e30's seem to pull off this green quite well. It's defiantly a interesting color you don't see everyday, especially on a e30.

Ok so much like every weekend has been going, I dedicate today completely to the car. Sunday I actually had to install a short shiftier on my buddies e30 but today (Monday) I was free to do whatever and woke up deciding the car needs a suspension refresh. I've had a box of H&R Super Sport springs, e90 top hats, and KYB shocks in the back room for who knows how long. Bought the springs brand new during a Black Friday sale and never got around to installing them on a previous build. I figured this car was well overdue for a suspension tune up so on they went! Also, I had some brand new control arms in the back room I tossed on, some polyurethane control arm bushings from my buddies car (he upgraded back to OE Lemforder bushings) so on those went too. I'm actually glad I saved them, I tossed them in the trash with his other suspension bits but decided to take them off just in case I'd ever need them at the last minute.

Everything went smoothly, until what normally happens when you modify cars.. Problems. The top hat bearing on the passenger side was bent, or at the very least the bearing was so worn that it was crooked and there was no way in hell I was going to reinstall that thing. Actually if I knew I was going to lower the car I totally would have bought brand new top hat bearings like I normally do when doing suspension but this was just a "wake up in the morning lets do this" kinda deal.

Anyways I called numerous places in the area, non had any in stock. I thought I was going to be screwed and it was staying on jack stands for the next week until it hit me, my work gets a discount with a aftermarket parts supplier which was local to me in South San Fransisco. I called them up and sure enough, they had URO and Lemforder top hat bearings in stock! Knowing me of course I went with the lemforders for only $8 bucks more each, best of all the company delivered the parts to my work in about 20min when I hung out chating with my parts department.

Not only did I lower the car/ do control arms, I even bleed the brakes, chamfered the brake pads, and lubed them back up since they where already apart. PLUS during the work week I brought the car in and really gave the engine bay a scrub, looks really pretty now.

All in all it was a successful day, sure glad I was able to source those top hat bearings. Now the car needs new tie rods and a alignment and the suspension will be perfect!











































































And a before picture I found from two weeks ago: