Hey, my names warren and I’ve never really done this before but I’m mainly doing this for my own future documentation and more than likely so I’ll have something to look at to remind myself to never do this again lol. A bit about me, I am 23, I own a fairly profitable flooring contracting business and I am a certified transmission tech. I’ve got a 3 year tiny human with a princess attitude and I thouroughly enjoy working on things. So, here we go.
on January 23rd of 2018 I had one of my crews working on a kitchen remodel out in the middle on nowhere in Indiana.. we were loading supplies into a shop when I noticed a car under a cover.. I asked the owner about it and he said it was “an old piece of shit” he inherited. He said we could take a look, he pulled the cover back and underneath was a car that, at the time, I had no idea what it was nor had I ever even seen one before...but somehow I was strangely attracted to it at first sight.. The body was so boxy? Yet it somehow had sexy body lines, like what I imagine my future ex-wife would have.. under the cover was a ROUGH 1987 325is, and after imagining this car in its glory days, I wanted it. I asked what it would take to bring her home and the guy kind of looked at me like I was crazy, which I am, my current ex-wife called me an asshole and crazy everyday, so that didn’t bother me. I knew at the time there were more than likely many of these in better condition someonewhere decently close... but I didn’t care, I wanted to save this one. With the intentions to fully restore it to its former beauty, even though I had never even seen one before, the man looked at me even crazier when I offered him $1000 for his “piece of shit”. He kindly told me that $500 would be just fine if I agreed to carpet his stair case with the material left over from a previous job. My crew got to work while laughing at my addiction (they’re enablers) as I headed home to grab my car trailer and 3 hours later, Im smiling as I push it off the trailer right next to the corvette that’s also old enough to date my mother..
Just days after buying the car I realized it’s true potential and dropped the stock restore idea and decided to build a tire spinning street/drag car with a complete interior restore and a custom widebody kit. Knowing nothing of the M20B25, I googled it, aaaaaaand yup, it’s getting swapped. I immediately knew what power plant was going in the car that weighed as much as 13 golf balls when I found a 1999, 14,000 mile (no, it’s not a typo! DOCUMENTED!) 2JZGTE about 200 miles away. When I do things I don’t do them small, so the vision of a cocaine pearl white, full frame reinforced, stock interior roll caged, custom 1 of 1 widebodied, QUAD DIGIT horsepower, 3.4L stroked, big single turbo, 2JZGTE/CD009 swapped E30 started swirling in my head. So I made contact and a week later I made the drive and bought the little neglected imported goddess. I tore it down that night just to make sure it really had low mileage and it was MINT. Then I mentally prepared myself for the tens of thousands of star spangled freedom papers I was about to spend over the next 2-3 years..
As of today my E30 currently sits an 85% torn apart, compressed tinfoil looking, bare shell. I’ve got a tiny bit more rear disassembly to do with a bit of cut and weld rust repair to do, then it’s getting completely coated to prevent future rust and then onto piecing it back together!The 2J has been hot tanked, bored, resurfaced and is sitting wrapped on the shelf ready for a 3.4L stroker kit with forged pistons/rods.
I have exstensive custom auto body fabrication experience so I’ll be designing and moulding my own widebody kit, I’ll be starting on that this weekend. Also, If anyone is in the southern Indiana/western Kentucky area and needs help or knowledge on anything let me know!
As far as capability, I’ve been a part of building high horsepower drag cars and restoring classic cars since I was around the age of 11. It’s something I love and it’s somthing I take seriously. You can actually look forward to seeing real progression if you decide you want to follow this build! I’ll be posting pictures as soon as I figure out how to over iPhone, I’ve never messed with forums before lol. If I can’t, I’ll bring out the laptop! Look forward to posting more updates/pictures!
When she first arrived at the shop
Picture of the poor M20B25s last day in the E30
Complete front end strip
Interior 90% stripped
That low mileage beauty
Getrag260 torn apart, FLAWLESS. Going to rebuild and probably sell
Decided to completely rebuild the M20 and keep as a backup motor or sell cheap to a good home.
Eventually all interior will be moulded and a perfect fiberglass WHITE interior will be put back in.
Completely rebuilding the m20 head, down to valve guide replacement. If I end up selling the m20, someone’s getting a sweet deal! ($3400 total engine rebuild)
And lastly... (the red circle is just a small widebody implement) this is the basic look I’m going for in the end, not basing my end game off of someone else’s work, mine will look entirely different. Just like the overall ruggedness of it. When someone sees it at a stoplight I want them to stank face and think OH GAWD DAMN! It’s the ugliest, prettiest, weirdest thing I’ve ever seen...
on January 23rd of 2018 I had one of my crews working on a kitchen remodel out in the middle on nowhere in Indiana.. we were loading supplies into a shop when I noticed a car under a cover.. I asked the owner about it and he said it was “an old piece of shit” he inherited. He said we could take a look, he pulled the cover back and underneath was a car that, at the time, I had no idea what it was nor had I ever even seen one before...but somehow I was strangely attracted to it at first sight.. The body was so boxy? Yet it somehow had sexy body lines, like what I imagine my future ex-wife would have.. under the cover was a ROUGH 1987 325is, and after imagining this car in its glory days, I wanted it. I asked what it would take to bring her home and the guy kind of looked at me like I was crazy, which I am, my current ex-wife called me an asshole and crazy everyday, so that didn’t bother me. I knew at the time there were more than likely many of these in better condition someonewhere decently close... but I didn’t care, I wanted to save this one. With the intentions to fully restore it to its former beauty, even though I had never even seen one before, the man looked at me even crazier when I offered him $1000 for his “piece of shit”. He kindly told me that $500 would be just fine if I agreed to carpet his stair case with the material left over from a previous job. My crew got to work while laughing at my addiction (they’re enablers) as I headed home to grab my car trailer and 3 hours later, Im smiling as I push it off the trailer right next to the corvette that’s also old enough to date my mother..
Just days after buying the car I realized it’s true potential and dropped the stock restore idea and decided to build a tire spinning street/drag car with a complete interior restore and a custom widebody kit. Knowing nothing of the M20B25, I googled it, aaaaaaand yup, it’s getting swapped. I immediately knew what power plant was going in the car that weighed as much as 13 golf balls when I found a 1999, 14,000 mile (no, it’s not a typo! DOCUMENTED!) 2JZGTE about 200 miles away. When I do things I don’t do them small, so the vision of a cocaine pearl white, full frame reinforced, stock interior roll caged, custom 1 of 1 widebodied, QUAD DIGIT horsepower, 3.4L stroked, big single turbo, 2JZGTE/CD009 swapped E30 started swirling in my head. So I made contact and a week later I made the drive and bought the little neglected imported goddess. I tore it down that night just to make sure it really had low mileage and it was MINT. Then I mentally prepared myself for the tens of thousands of star spangled freedom papers I was about to spend over the next 2-3 years..
As of today my E30 currently sits an 85% torn apart, compressed tinfoil looking, bare shell. I’ve got a tiny bit more rear disassembly to do with a bit of cut and weld rust repair to do, then it’s getting completely coated to prevent future rust and then onto piecing it back together!The 2J has been hot tanked, bored, resurfaced and is sitting wrapped on the shelf ready for a 3.4L stroker kit with forged pistons/rods.
I have exstensive custom auto body fabrication experience so I’ll be designing and moulding my own widebody kit, I’ll be starting on that this weekend. Also, If anyone is in the southern Indiana/western Kentucky area and needs help or knowledge on anything let me know!
As far as capability, I’ve been a part of building high horsepower drag cars and restoring classic cars since I was around the age of 11. It’s something I love and it’s somthing I take seriously. You can actually look forward to seeing real progression if you decide you want to follow this build! I’ll be posting pictures as soon as I figure out how to over iPhone, I’ve never messed with forums before lol. If I can’t, I’ll bring out the laptop! Look forward to posting more updates/pictures!
When she first arrived at the shop
Picture of the poor M20B25s last day in the E30
Complete front end strip
Interior 90% stripped
That low mileage beauty
Getrag260 torn apart, FLAWLESS. Going to rebuild and probably sell
Decided to completely rebuild the M20 and keep as a backup motor or sell cheap to a good home.
Eventually all interior will be moulded and a perfect fiberglass WHITE interior will be put back in.
Completely rebuilding the m20 head, down to valve guide replacement. If I end up selling the m20, someone’s getting a sweet deal! ($3400 total engine rebuild)
And lastly... (the red circle is just a small widebody implement) this is the basic look I’m going for in the end, not basing my end game off of someone else’s work, mine will look entirely different. Just like the overall ruggedness of it. When someone sees it at a stoplight I want them to stank face and think OH GAWD DAMN! It’s the ugliest, prettiest, weirdest thing I’ve ever seen...
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