New member, new E30, new story: Meet Lily

[helloThom]

Okay so hello everyone. Pretty new here, I've lurked for a few months, but I've always wanted an E30. It's been my "decade dream", if you will, as I've wanted one for 10+ years. The stars aligned, and I was fortunate to come across one from another R3v member, car_gal_jenni.

Please meet Lily, formerly Lorelei. I'm keeping everything Jennifer did so far, so not much will change with that. If you're interested to see where the car was at as of when I purchased, take a look at her build thread: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=378983.

Lily is a Zinnoberret 1989 325i, built on the 28th of September, 1988. I am (approximately) the 9th owner, and I hope to be her last owner. Her name is shared with my late German Shepherd, who was also black and red. Lily loved life, going on adventures, and when she ran after a stick or a ball, she was fast as f**k (foreshadowing?) I have her old collar tag hanging with the E30 key, so I can always have her with me.

My plans for Lily are an almost complete restoration. Interior will be brought back to factory look, with maybe a little customisation in subtle areas. The exterior will have the sap stains addressed, and I'm confident a wet sand and buff will take care of them. If not, then a respray is going to happen. The window trim will be reverted back to chrome, for a more classic look. 16" wheels will be added, and I'll be keeping the bottle caps for my winter treads.

After the cosmetic is taken care of, she will be taken to a reputable shop for advisement. I don't like the idea of just slapping on a turbo, so I'll be consulting with a few tuning shops here in PDX to see what the best setup is going to be. Who really knows, one turbo, two turbos.... Guess you'll all just have to find out.

So, without further adieu, here are some photos of Lily.

[car_gal_jenni]

I'm so glad that you took Lorelei, now Lily. She's in great hands. I miss her dearly, but I know she'll be loved. Once she gets all shiny again, we'll hafta get together and do a shoot/cruise with Lily and Maria.

[helloThom]

I'm so glad that you took Lorelei, now Lily. She's in great hands. I miss her dearly, but I know she'll be loved. Once she gets all shiny again, we'll hafta get together and do a shoot/cruise with Lily and Maria.

Aw well, whenever you miss her, just shoot me a Fb message and I'll run out and snap a pic for you! I've been toying with the idea of getting her wrapped in the interim, just to protect the paint so there's as little additional work as possible when the sand/buff or respray happens.

[101]

Don't be so quick to throw away the idea of keeping the blacked out window trim. My $0.02 - on a plastic bumper car it looks correct.

On a diving board car - yeah - bright aluminum looks better.

[Powling]

I feel you on the dog love man, don't know what I would do without my dog.

[MrBurgundy]

Dogs are dope

[car_gal_jenni]

I second the black trim! Haha

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[helloThom]

I think I misstated my intentions. I'll be replacing the aluminum trim that is around the outside, not around the windows... I don't know if this is making any sense, so I've attached a photo! Found it on the Googles.

Edit: I also don't want it to look "busy", so down the road, the black trim around the sides and bumpers will be resprayed to factory body color.

[IceWhite]

Welcome!!

Glad to see this car staying in the R3V community. All the best with your future plans with the car. Post up as you progress, and don't forget to take pictures along the way.

Oh, and love dogs too!

[car_gal_jenni]

The chrome window trim usually looks best on early-model cars. I'd keep it shadowline. And body color matched door/bumper trim won't look right at all. Just my .02.

[mike.bmw]

Edit: I also don't want it to look "busy", so down the road, the black trim around the sides and bumpers will be resprayed to factory body color.

My $.02...

Your car looks great! I love red e30s. The wheels compliment it nicely.

Respraying the rockers body color will look good. You may consider picking up factory side skirts as well, but simply painting the rockers (assuming the paint will match) will look great. I've seen this in person on a red '87 325is and liked it.

The black trim on the bumpers and doors do a good job of breaking up the body color so it's not so monochromatic. I wouldn't recommend painting the black trim.

I like both the black window trim and the chrome. I don't think you can go wrong here either way.

[helloThom]

Update! :d

So, I've owned Lily for about four weeks now! I hadn't settled into the idea of a build thread until a couple weeks ago, so I apologise, but there are very few photos currently...

Purchased: 3/18/2017

Weekend of 3/25/2017: took her to a local Cars & Coffee. Turnout was low, but she got photographed and videoed a couple times!

Later that day, replaced the blower motor resistor to get fan speeds 1-3 back! WOO! Unfortunately, on speeds 1 & 2 now, there is a horrible, intermittent squealing, so I have to diag that next.

Weekend of 4/1/2017: April Fool's Day. Also the day I had attempt #1 at passing Oregon emissions. Anything younger than 1975 must pass, either through an exhaust sniffer, or OBDII connection. Lily failed, unfortunately, due to high hydrocarbons, and high carbon monoxide. Hmm...too rich...

Earlier in the week, I had removed the instrument cluster to diag an inop tach, MPG gauge, and sticky temp gauge. I'm not well seasoned in E30 electronics, so on the way home from emissions testing, she suddenly died. Good thing I pay for roadside assistance! Thanks, GEICO!

Got her back home, put her on a charger, and did my research. Turns out on the E30 (and many other vehicles) the alternator charge runs through the cluster... DOH! Threw the cluster back in, and looked for a new SI board to fix the tach and MPG's. Found one on "the 'Bay" that said verified working. So, $120 later, it was on its way. Received in the mail on 4/6/2017!

Weekend of 4/8/2017: Replace faulty SI board in cluster with working SI board from eBay. Replaced incorrect fuses in fuse box with correct amperage fuses, start her up and BAM! Tach works and MPG gauge works (temp turned out to be a loose securing nut on the back of the cluster.)

Drive to emissions testing station again. Tach and MPG work brilliantly on the way. PASS EMISSIONS WITH FLYING COLORS! WOOHOO! Drive home. Notice when I'm about halfway home, the tach and MPG gauges are jumping around... 5-10 minutes later, tach and MPG gauges are dead again, and temp gauge is bouncing around again... FFFFFFUUUUU- :hitler:

More research. Symptoms are indicative of failing SI board batteries. Dammit, eBay, you said the batteries were good! Contact Greg at Bavarian Restoration (Gregs///M) and agree to send him just the SI board for a nice solder reflow, new transistors/resistors, and new batteries. Reinstall old SI board and pack up eBay SI board.

Weekend of 4/15/2017: Second appearance at local Cars & Coffee with Lily. HUGE turnout due to the nice weather. Lily is photographed multiple times, and makes an appearance or two in some videos. Very proud! She gets looks almost everywhere she goes! Joined BMWCCA, and promptly placed an order for a BMWCCA grille badge, and exterior club stickers.

Came home and researched some particulars for no reason. Placed an order with ECS Tuning for...something (it's a surprise until a little later), and ordered some plastic expanding nuts for the fog lights. I need to ditch those zip-ties... Planning on taking a day off this week to head to DMV and get her registered. Somewhat good weather in the PNW today, so I think it's bath day for her.

Here's some of the Cars & Coffee photos I was able to find.

03/25/2017:

Photo from Ethan McKinley Photography
https://www.facebook.com/ethanmckinleyphotography/

04/15/2017:

Photo from Donkey Worx Galleries
https://www.facebook.com/Donkey-Worx...-144890372136/

04/15/2017:

Photo from Zachary P. Hill
https://www.instagram.com/zphcars/

Standby for another update later this week, or next weekend. Not sure which heheheheh!

[Appleseason]

Very nice car, can't wait to see more.

[car_gal_jenni]

Lookin' purdy. Kinda glad, in a weird way, to see that the SI board (which I replaced with a "proven working" one from eBay too...) is causing problems. Lol. Means it wasn't just me! Hopefully getting it reflowed fixes this issue once and for all! And definitely glad to hear she passed emissions the second go-round. Dumb that Oregon makes you do emissions. Don't have that problem up here in WA. Glad to see she's being well-received down there :)

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[helloThom]

Lookin' purdy. Kinda glad, in a weird way, to see that the SI board (which I replaced with a "proven working" one from eBay too...) is causing problems. Lol. Means it wasn't just me! Hopefully getting it reflowed fixes this issue once and for all! And definitely glad to hear she passed emissions the second go-round. Dumb that Oregon makes you do emissions. Don't have that problem up here in WA. Glad to see she's being well-received down there :)

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Yeah, whoever sold you that SI board wasn't truthful. It didn't even have batteries, and those are crucial for the tach and MPG gauges to work. I think the reason they worked after I replaced it is possibly because the batteries had a tiny amount of power left in them. I'm looking forward to the new-ish board returning from Bavarian Restoration and popping it in. :D