Hey all,
I've been lurking for a while so I felt it was time to put up a post about my E30.
Here it is in its current state:
And here it was almost three years ago:
One of my girlfriend's relatives had it for the last two decades and had kept it in fairly good condition during that time. However, recently, it had been sitting in the garage because of this:
The PO didn’t feel the need to keep the car around so one day, after dropping a few hints about wanting it, I was able to bring it home with me.
For the most part, mechanically, it was in good shape. However, I soon realized that Oregon doesn't really do the whole smog thing. So after changing out spark plugs, the O2 sensor, replacing a cracked vacuum hose, and doing a quick oil change, the car passed smog and I was able to get the car registered in California.
This was also around the time I got my tax refund and bonus, so that means it was time to address the whole crushed door thing. I was able to find a shop in the area who would do it as well as a full respray. Here's some work in progress pictures:
Original doors pulled off
Side sill pulled out and b pillar replaced
Paint being put on the sills and doors
Donor doors fitted, car being sanded down
And right after I drove her back home from the shop:
Now that the body was in pretty good shape, it was time to address the rest of the car. One of the first things I did was repair the foglights. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures but imagine me taking out the old, cracked glass, replacing it with new glass, then Frenching the lights with some LaminX.
I also took the time to replace the old sealed beam headlights with the Hella H1/H4 replacements.
I also cleaned up the grille and blinker covers and applied some 303 to bring some life back into the parts.
The center console area was looking a bit worn and plasticy so I replaced the cracked shifter boot with a new boot off of eBay.
And the e-brake got the leather treatment as well with a new e-brake boot and handle cover from an E36.
It was around this time I learned that my shift knob was broken as well. This only came to light as I was in traffic and the whole knob came off while shifting. Fun stuff. So I replaced the old shifter with the ZHP weighted shift knob. However, I wasn’t a fan of the M badge on the shift pattern, so I took the shift pattern off my old knob and placed it on to the ZHP knob for a cleaner look.
I decided to replace my stock steelies & hubcaps and “upgrade” to bottle caps. I sourced a few rims for a full set on the cheap and repainted them to hide some of the scuffs and scratches.
Went to Tire Rack and got them wrapped with some new rubber.
Compared to the old hubcaps, these looked much better.
Since I only had 1/4 center caps, I found some generic plastic center caps, got a couple of cheap Chinese BMW logos, slapped them on the rims and called it a day.
Made the car look just a bit tidier.
I felt that the back of the car looked pretty… blank. So I got a Euro plate filler from marc55 and slapped it on the back of the car. It made the back end look a little better put together.
I was fairly lucky and the shift wasn’t too sloppy since, I assume, the previous owner wasn’t too crazy with the shifter and kept it fairly well maintained. But I felt that there was still some room for improvement. So put in some new Redline transmission fluid. Strangely enough, the Getrag 240 takes D4 ATF, so that’s what I gave it. I also threw in a Z3 1.9 shifter so shorten the throw. Overall, I’m happy with the new shift setup. It’s smooth and feels good. Some time in the future, I’ll probably throw in a DSSR and some new bushings, but I’m happy enough with the current setup that it’s not high on the list of things to do.
At this point, I was pretty happy with how it sat and it ran reliably. It was a great daily driver.
neighborhood cat
Unfortunately, as winter approached, it started having issues starting. Instead of starting right up, it took a few more cranks to get it going. Eventually, it just wouldn’t start. I tried to diagnose the issue by replacing the coil pack with new Bosch coils and putting in new spark plug wires.
Eventually, I just took it to a shop where they found it was the crank position sensor that had gone bad. With a new OEM replacement, the E30 was back on the road again.
During the car’s downtime, I started to collect parts. The sport seats were unfortunately way too gone. The only salvageable things were a few foams and the headrests. The frames had rusted and broken in a few places and the cloths covers were all torn.
I had also contacted Sskoda around this time and got a set of Euroweaves from him. The rims on the other hand were in pretty good shape for 30 year old rims. A very tiny bit of curbing and the paint looked a bit tired, but nothing too bad.
I took the rims to a powder coater and got them refinished. They came out looking amazing.
Got a set of Yokohama S.drive in 205/55R15
Had a tire shop put the S.drives on the Euroweaves and slapped it onto the E30.
The Euroweaves look great, but did make the car look a bit lifted as it was still on stock suspension. But it was nothing compared to the Raptor…
As for the center caps, I took them apart in order to send the metal parts off to the powder coater to get them refinished. However, after hearing the quote for powder coating them, I decided to pass…
So I ordered a can of Wurth’s silver wheel paint. I heard this was pretty close to the OEM color so I figured this was the best option to go with.
Sanded, primed, then painted the centers.
A coat of clear…
After all that, I would say it’s pretty close to matching the rims. Not perfect, but close enough.
I purchased new emblems, then reassembled the whole center cap.
And here they are on the rim. In some lighting, it’s easy to see that the centers have a brighter shine to them. But overall, it doesn’t bother me too much.
Since I didn’t want to keep the monster truck ride height, I decided it was time to look into lowering the car. I thought about the tried and true H&R/Bilstien combo, but I didn’t like not having the adjustability. Then I looked into coilovers. That’s when I learned that Ground Control was about 25 minutes away. So I paid the shop a visit and picked up some new suspension.
Based on the suggestion of one of the Ground Control employees, I had John at HMB Motorwerks install the Ground Controls on my car. John has a hell of a shop with a lot of cool stuff in it. If anyone in the Sacramento area needs work done on their BMW, I would recommend his shop.
Here’s some of the pictures John took of the progress:
And here she is right after John got it all dialed in
The first time I saw it with the new suspension, I was like, “Damn, is this really my car?” I had to do a little amateur photoshoot with a few of my buddies’ bikes afterwards.
The muffler was a bit droopy so I had the original muffler replaced with a 18” Magnaflow.
A video clip of the muffler can be found here: https://flic.kr/p/FYod3x
Pretty happy with this stance.
I was also blessed with a new E30 buddy at work.
After daily driving this around a bit, I wasn’t too impressed with the Hella H1/H4 headlights that I had put in. So I decided to put in some Depo smileys to try and get some better throw on the lights (and for the looks).
hello again neighborhood cat
The stock head unit that came with the E30 had some issues since I had got it. The volume knob didn’t work well, the slider was finicky, and it didn’t have enough power for the speakers at higher volumes. So after looking around for a bit, I saw that Matt Farah had put in a Clarion M508 into his Porsche. I liked how clean it looked compared to a lot of other stereos, so I decided to use that to replace the old head unit.
I also threw in some Polks in the front to see if it would improve the audio quality. It kinda sorta did, but it didn’t really blow me away. I did leave the stock 5.25” speakers in the back though since it’s hard to find any modern 5.25” speakers with decent bass.
Here’s how the M508 looks like when it’s installed. It blends in well with the dash, but it does stick out a bit and the LEDs are white, instead of amber/orange. Besides that it’s a great little head unit.
I had also been looking to replace the stock comfort seats with some sports seats. A buddy mentioned one day that there was a parts car for sale the had decent looking sports seats in them. So I picked that thing up. It was a 1985 325e that had gotten into some pretty bad front end accident.
It almost made it to 300k miles…
However, it did have sport seats in them and a bunch of nice little E30 goodies.
And the sport seats in question. In fairly good condition, but it seems the shocks are blown and the ratcheting mechanism is a bit gummed up. I’ll see how everything else is once I take it apart.
After seeing a post here on R3V where someone placed some stickers onto their plate to emulate the late 80’s/ early 90’s California art plate, I wanted to do the same. I found a seller on eBay who manufacturers replicate plates out of metal, so I purchased some from them.
A bit of re-drilling of the mounting holes and I got the plates on the car. (By the way, if needed, AAA will give you the month sticker for your license plate for free)
For now, I’m pretty happy with where the car is. There are always improvements to be made to the car (such as replacing the bushings, getting a quicker steering rack, etc.) But all I want to do now is drive the thing.
I've been lurking for a while so I felt it was time to put up a post about my E30.
Here it is in its current state:
And here it was almost three years ago:
One of my girlfriend's relatives had it for the last two decades and had kept it in fairly good condition during that time. However, recently, it had been sitting in the garage because of this:
The PO didn’t feel the need to keep the car around so one day, after dropping a few hints about wanting it, I was able to bring it home with me.
For the most part, mechanically, it was in good shape. However, I soon realized that Oregon doesn't really do the whole smog thing. So after changing out spark plugs, the O2 sensor, replacing a cracked vacuum hose, and doing a quick oil change, the car passed smog and I was able to get the car registered in California.
This was also around the time I got my tax refund and bonus, so that means it was time to address the whole crushed door thing. I was able to find a shop in the area who would do it as well as a full respray. Here's some work in progress pictures:
Original doors pulled off
Side sill pulled out and b pillar replaced
Paint being put on the sills and doors
Donor doors fitted, car being sanded down
And right after I drove her back home from the shop:
Now that the body was in pretty good shape, it was time to address the rest of the car. One of the first things I did was repair the foglights. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures but imagine me taking out the old, cracked glass, replacing it with new glass, then Frenching the lights with some LaminX.
I also took the time to replace the old sealed beam headlights with the Hella H1/H4 replacements.
I also cleaned up the grille and blinker covers and applied some 303 to bring some life back into the parts.
The center console area was looking a bit worn and plasticy so I replaced the cracked shifter boot with a new boot off of eBay.
And the e-brake got the leather treatment as well with a new e-brake boot and handle cover from an E36.
It was around this time I learned that my shift knob was broken as well. This only came to light as I was in traffic and the whole knob came off while shifting. Fun stuff. So I replaced the old shifter with the ZHP weighted shift knob. However, I wasn’t a fan of the M badge on the shift pattern, so I took the shift pattern off my old knob and placed it on to the ZHP knob for a cleaner look.
I decided to replace my stock steelies & hubcaps and “upgrade” to bottle caps. I sourced a few rims for a full set on the cheap and repainted them to hide some of the scuffs and scratches.
Went to Tire Rack and got them wrapped with some new rubber.
Compared to the old hubcaps, these looked much better.
Since I only had 1/4 center caps, I found some generic plastic center caps, got a couple of cheap Chinese BMW logos, slapped them on the rims and called it a day.
Made the car look just a bit tidier.
I felt that the back of the car looked pretty… blank. So I got a Euro plate filler from marc55 and slapped it on the back of the car. It made the back end look a little better put together.
I was fairly lucky and the shift wasn’t too sloppy since, I assume, the previous owner wasn’t too crazy with the shifter and kept it fairly well maintained. But I felt that there was still some room for improvement. So put in some new Redline transmission fluid. Strangely enough, the Getrag 240 takes D4 ATF, so that’s what I gave it. I also threw in a Z3 1.9 shifter so shorten the throw. Overall, I’m happy with the new shift setup. It’s smooth and feels good. Some time in the future, I’ll probably throw in a DSSR and some new bushings, but I’m happy enough with the current setup that it’s not high on the list of things to do.
At this point, I was pretty happy with how it sat and it ran reliably. It was a great daily driver.
neighborhood cat
Unfortunately, as winter approached, it started having issues starting. Instead of starting right up, it took a few more cranks to get it going. Eventually, it just wouldn’t start. I tried to diagnose the issue by replacing the coil pack with new Bosch coils and putting in new spark plug wires.
Eventually, I just took it to a shop where they found it was the crank position sensor that had gone bad. With a new OEM replacement, the E30 was back on the road again.
During the car’s downtime, I started to collect parts. The sport seats were unfortunately way too gone. The only salvageable things were a few foams and the headrests. The frames had rusted and broken in a few places and the cloths covers were all torn.
I had also contacted Sskoda around this time and got a set of Euroweaves from him. The rims on the other hand were in pretty good shape for 30 year old rims. A very tiny bit of curbing and the paint looked a bit tired, but nothing too bad.
I took the rims to a powder coater and got them refinished. They came out looking amazing.
Got a set of Yokohama S.drive in 205/55R15
Had a tire shop put the S.drives on the Euroweaves and slapped it onto the E30.
The Euroweaves look great, but did make the car look a bit lifted as it was still on stock suspension. But it was nothing compared to the Raptor…
As for the center caps, I took them apart in order to send the metal parts off to the powder coater to get them refinished. However, after hearing the quote for powder coating them, I decided to pass…
So I ordered a can of Wurth’s silver wheel paint. I heard this was pretty close to the OEM color so I figured this was the best option to go with.
Sanded, primed, then painted the centers.
A coat of clear…
After all that, I would say it’s pretty close to matching the rims. Not perfect, but close enough.
I purchased new emblems, then reassembled the whole center cap.
And here they are on the rim. In some lighting, it’s easy to see that the centers have a brighter shine to them. But overall, it doesn’t bother me too much.
Since I didn’t want to keep the monster truck ride height, I decided it was time to look into lowering the car. I thought about the tried and true H&R/Bilstien combo, but I didn’t like not having the adjustability. Then I looked into coilovers. That’s when I learned that Ground Control was about 25 minutes away. So I paid the shop a visit and picked up some new suspension.
Based on the suggestion of one of the Ground Control employees, I had John at HMB Motorwerks install the Ground Controls on my car. John has a hell of a shop with a lot of cool stuff in it. If anyone in the Sacramento area needs work done on their BMW, I would recommend his shop.
Here’s some of the pictures John took of the progress:
And here she is right after John got it all dialed in
The first time I saw it with the new suspension, I was like, “Damn, is this really my car?” I had to do a little amateur photoshoot with a few of my buddies’ bikes afterwards.
The muffler was a bit droopy so I had the original muffler replaced with a 18” Magnaflow.
A video clip of the muffler can be found here: https://flic.kr/p/FYod3x
Pretty happy with this stance.
I was also blessed with a new E30 buddy at work.
After daily driving this around a bit, I wasn’t too impressed with the Hella H1/H4 headlights that I had put in. So I decided to put in some Depo smileys to try and get some better throw on the lights (and for the looks).
hello again neighborhood cat
The stock head unit that came with the E30 had some issues since I had got it. The volume knob didn’t work well, the slider was finicky, and it didn’t have enough power for the speakers at higher volumes. So after looking around for a bit, I saw that Matt Farah had put in a Clarion M508 into his Porsche. I liked how clean it looked compared to a lot of other stereos, so I decided to use that to replace the old head unit.
I also threw in some Polks in the front to see if it would improve the audio quality. It kinda sorta did, but it didn’t really blow me away. I did leave the stock 5.25” speakers in the back though since it’s hard to find any modern 5.25” speakers with decent bass.
Here’s how the M508 looks like when it’s installed. It blends in well with the dash, but it does stick out a bit and the LEDs are white, instead of amber/orange. Besides that it’s a great little head unit.
I had also been looking to replace the stock comfort seats with some sports seats. A buddy mentioned one day that there was a parts car for sale the had decent looking sports seats in them. So I picked that thing up. It was a 1985 325e that had gotten into some pretty bad front end accident.
It almost made it to 300k miles…
However, it did have sport seats in them and a bunch of nice little E30 goodies.
And the sport seats in question. In fairly good condition, but it seems the shocks are blown and the ratcheting mechanism is a bit gummed up. I’ll see how everything else is once I take it apart.
After seeing a post here on R3V where someone placed some stickers onto their plate to emulate the late 80’s/ early 90’s California art plate, I wanted to do the same. I found a seller on eBay who manufacturers replicate plates out of metal, so I purchased some from them.
A bit of re-drilling of the mounting holes and I got the plates on the car. (By the way, if needed, AAA will give you the month sticker for your license plate for free)
For now, I’m pretty happy with where the car is. There are always improvements to be made to the car (such as replacing the bushings, getting a quicker steering rack, etc.) But all I want to do now is drive the thing.
- 
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