Lachs Silver 1988 325 Sedan

[TFJR]

Hey Everyone! I have some significant updates to share on forward progress with the car:

• Purchased a complete 5 speed manual transmission swap from SpiDmang here locally in Seattle! This will go in next month in January
  
• I've been having some intermittent issues recently at WOT with the car. I've had S3 Designs here in Seattle help me out in diagnosing and replacing items. They think they've finally tracked it down to a bad connection point on the wiring harness at the TPS. I also replaced the Crank Position Sensor which was out of spec, and threw in my spare Bosch 173 DME. The car was already running a 173 prior. They also installed a known good AFM. If anything, the car feels a lot more sprightly all over the rev range. All the work certainly helped and it only chokes on itself every once in a while now. I have a thread going here if you have any insight: https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/sho...d.php?t=418153
  
• Purchased Bosch Euro Smilies from the Netherlands. I believe they will arrive next week. They cleared customs yesterday!
  
• Purchased matching lachs silver side mirrors. I'd love to shadowline my trim too.
  
• Joined BMW CCA - Got the obligatory grill badge. I'll stick it on after I get to spraying my euro grills with SEM trim paint.
  
• Purchased some misc. swap parts for the transmission swap. This shift boot was custom done for me by Stitchedwheels.com. I also got a ZHP knob, leather e-brake handle and leather boot.
  
  
  
  

More to come soon!

[AC_Schnitzel]

sweet update. i'm waiting to put in a MT on my e30 as well.

Info about the lights? Looking to get a set my self... who was the seller?

[TFJR]

sweet update. i'm waiting to put in a MT on my e30 as well.

Info about the lights? Looking to get a set my self... who was the seller?

Thanks! Light's just came in - pretty happy with what I paid for them. I'm going to re-paint the trim rings, and run a 4500K 35w HID setup in the low beams with them. I purchased them off the FaceBook R3V Group. It was a gentlemen named Christopher Janssens in Den Hout, NL.

[TFJR]

New Year Update

It's a New Year - 2018 is the year I get my E30 dialed-in to what my vision for the car is. My manual transmission swap is taking place in just two weeks. I will never buy another non-manual transmission E30 with plans to convert it. It is spendy gathering up everything needed to do a proper swap. I've been making consistent headway with the car and am optimistic about the coming year.

• Picked up an 885 "i" Cylinder Head from Austin! down in Portland. This was the last piece I needed sans a SSSquid chip for my i cylinder head conversion. Still debating to refresh this head or turn to Bimmerheads for a Touring head + 274 cam gear. I'd like to get this done before the picnic.
• Purchased a glovebox flashlight...
• Picked up lots of goodies from Garagistic. I went 80a & splurged on their suspension refresh kit. The rear subframe will really benefit from new RTAB's, subframe bushings and diff bushings. I'm also going to do the rear endlinks + sway bar bushings at the same time.
• I purchased a new Z3 shifter, shift boot, Delrin shifter & carrier bushings, and clutch stop also from Garagistic (been very happy with them)
• Purchased a bunch of goods that were needed from Blunttech for my manual transmission swap. That included a new sachs clutch kit, G260 reseal kit, flywheel bolts, Redline fluids, trans mounts & bitch clip. I'm debatting on purchasing a new clutch master cylinder for the swap. Insert your opinion here... This will all go nicely with the ZHP knob I purchased and the Stitchedwheels shift boot. Should be crisp.
• Purchased new E46 Vert black floor mats. They fit decently well, but not a perfect solution now that E30 mats are NLA & Coco mats are just out of my budget

I hope everyones year is off to a great start! Once the rear subframe is completely refreshed along with the manual trans swap I'll be repainting a mint rust free trunk I have, mirrors, and my iS sideskirts. Cheers all

[2mAn]

Im getting anxious for the 5 speed swap also. What have you done with the flywheel? Did you just do a resurface and balance or did you take any weight off of it? Im not sure which way to go yet since its a daily

[TFJR]

Im getting anxious for the 5 speed swap also. What have you done with the flywheel? Did you just do a resurface and balance or did you take any weight off of it? Im not sure which way to go yet since its a daily

I'm taking the flywheel to a transmission shop near my house just to have resurfaced & balanced. If I do decide to take any weight out, it'd be pretty nominal as I want to keep this thing comfortable enough as a daily driver.

[cheffy30]

you're killing me.
can't wait to see it.

let's go skiing.

[ScottSneed]

Nice! Looking forward to how the swap comes together, in the middle of doing mine as well for my lachssilber sedan.

Also, does that flashlight fit an e30? It resembles an e46 flashlight and mine with its charger doesn't fit the glovebox.

I do however have an original flashlight.

[Metallated]

It's a New Year - 2018 is the year I get my E30 dialed-in to what my vision for the car is. My manual transmission swap is taking place in just two weeks. I will never buy another non-manual transmission E30 with plans to convert it. It is spendy gathering up everything needed to do a proper swap. I've been making consistent headway with the car and am optimistic about the coming year.

Incredible update and ambitious plans, can't wait to see your progress.

Let me know if you need a hand with the 5-speed swap, I did my 318's clutch and just finished the m52's transmission, they're a pain to do with the engine in the car, but once you learn where the torx bolts are, (and collect enough socket extensions) they get easier.

Best of luck!

[TFJR]

Nice! Looking forward to how the swap comes together, in the middle of doing mine as well for my lachssilber sedan.

Also, does that flashlight fit an e30? It resembles an e46 flashlight and mine with its charger doesn't fit the glovebox.

I do however have an original flashlight.

Sadly, I don't even have the factory plugging/wiring into my glovebox. It's about as helpful as a pack of dead batteries at this point lol. It was dirt cheap, like $7 so I'm not all too worried about it.

Incredible update and ambitious plans, can't wait to see your progress.

Let me know if you need a hand with the 5-speed swap, I did my 318's clutch and just finished the m52's transmission, they're a pain to do with the engine in the car, but once you learn where the torx bolts are, (and collect enough socket extensions) they get easier.

Best of luck!

Thanks Zephyr! I appreciate the offer.

[vtechnik]

Wow, I put off reading this build for too long. Without realizing it my e30 is following in your footsteps. I hope my e30s paint looks like your's once it becomes sunny again. Really nice work, and thanks for the support on my build. If I have questions along the way I know who to ask now lolol.

[TFJR]

3 Pedal E30

Big Update - The transmission swap is complete! Big thanks to S3 Designs Garage in North Seattle. These guys are awesome, and all E30 owners themselves. These guys handled the entire swap and got it done quickly. All it needs now is the detents in the transmission replaced as the springs have gone bad. The effect is that it's easier to find reverse than first gear and the shifter is a little sloppy. Hoping that will get done next week.

The weekend previous to the swap I did a bit of paint work on the car. This included:

• Wash with three bucket method
• Griots Garage Paint Cleaning Clay Bar
• Griots Garage BOSS Correcting Cream
• Griots Garage Poly Wax

Here are some horrible pics of some of the swap components. The shop has terrible lighting that isn't conducive for iPhone pics.







Got the single mass flywheel resurfaced and very minorly lightened (which isn't pictured)








Ordered some other goodies for when I get to the rear subframe. These will compliment the 80a Garagistic pieces that can be referenced in earlier posts









Got in a ZHP Shift Knob from ECS Tuning. The Hartge knob I got wasn't exactly as described... speaking of Hartge, I pick these up on March 3rd!











.... Bye Felicia!

[2mAn]

man, is mine the only auto that doesnt have the "S" ... another reason to throw this thing in the ocean...

congrats on getting the 5 speed swap done!

[TFJR]

man, is mine the only auto that doesnt have the "S" ... another reason to throw this thing in the ocean...

congrats on getting the 5 speed swap done!

AFAIK the "S" is only "3". It miiiight help to hold gears longer, but sure as hell doesn't feel like it. It just locks out overdrive. This is just my perception, but driving it, the only difference I could feel, spirited or not, was the lock out of overdrive, no other characteristics changed for me.

[2mAn]

I never noticed there was just no "3" haha clever BMW marketing! Im going to drive around in 3 from now on