Econti's Lazurblau 318is twin builds

[Tzantushka]

Angle grinder now has fire coming out when I use it.
That brings the total E30 kill total to two rabbits, a Makita angle grinder, numerous abrasive wheels, a few tyres, a truck driver's insurance premiums and one relationship.

Brought home the spare grinder from work.

Aaaalmost there....
85h total.

The E30 killed the relationship?!?!

[econti]

The E30 killed the relationship?!?!

With my previous partner, yes it did

[econti]

TAFE (tech school for trades) wasn't on today so I had a rare day off.

Passenger side rear wheel well almost done.
They coated the wheel wells very very thick so it takes ages to do.




I then had an incident with the grinder.




The grinder I'm using doesn't have a handle. I don't like it but it's the only one I have available at the moment while the good one gets fixed.
It was late in the day, the wheel bit, and spat out towards me.
Fortunately I was wearing gloves and overalls which saved most of me.
It ran up my right arm, across my chest, and down my left arm. It pulled the sleeve back, and as I rotated my left arm and grabbed the grinder with my right it pulled the skin off. Not the most fun experience.
Thankfully my reactions were fast enough to minimise damage to myself. Still hurts a lot however. So that put paid to doing any more today.


Still questioning how I'm going to get into the places like this picture. Might get the paint scraper out.




89 hours so far.

-p.s. I know these updates are boring as fucc but I'm keeping a diary for myself so I can read back when it's done.
If the car doesn't kill me first.

[Jokester]

Paint stripper and a paint scraper might be the easiest route. Unless you want it bead blasted, which would be much easier.

[econti]

Paint stripper and a paint scraper might be the easiest route. Unless you want it bead blasted, which would be much easier.

The coating just laughs at paint stripper, I got the most intense one available that was suit up with rubber gloves and mask spec and all it did was remove the black grime and leave it clean.

Due to it being rubber like, bead blasting doesn't work as apparently the beads just bounce off. Nobody in my area will touch it.

[econti]

Recently I haven't actually had a registered car. I only owned the E30, one registered bike and one unregistered bike.
This wasn't an issue as my mrs worked at the local Ford dealership so had loan cars. Between brand new Fords of every variety that I limiter bashed with complete disregard, and her E34 530i (total piece of shit) I was ok.

She recently parted ways with that company and so I panicked. I looked around for cheap E30s and found a few gems. Looked at a 318i sedan that was cheap as fuck, as I didn't want to spend much.

I was at home having sad nibba hours looking at pictures of my car when it was driveable. Jumped on Gumtree (aussie Craigslist but more bootleg) and found almost the exact twin of my car.
Lazurblau, 318is, sunroof, shitty interior. Only thing different is it had wind up windows. It was way more than I wanted to spend but how often do you get to buy the exact twin of your car?

90 build and complied 318is. 180,000km but a broken odo. Needs work. Bit of a shake in the wheel at speed. Suspension is pretty clapped out too. But that's fine as I have most of the parts needed to make it good just sitting around that I may not use in the old one once it's done. E46 rack, 4.1 medium case LSD, etc.

It is going to be hard to differentiate them in conversation. it's been suggested I should refer to them by the entire VIN.


First photo. Shortly after this I slid a roundabout and bashed limiter. It's a good M42.





Grainiest photo of all time




Back home






Few issues. Rear bumper is ok as I have the old one from my first.




Spoiler is a little haggard




Does have a SWEET M badge though.




So there we go. 4th E30 for me. So stoked to be back in one

I LOVE THESE LITTLE SHIT CARS

[Tzantushka]

The men of E30 - Blue Steel meets BMW
March edition

[jsta1109]

I was at home having sad nibba hours looking at pictures of my car when it was driveable

This resonates with me...

[e30RS]

Great thread. Love that blue. Well worth the flight and awesome drive back.

[econti]

First few things tidied up today.

Swapped the rear bumper from the other car on just as a temporary one. Took the god awful M badge off too.




Found the boss kit from the old car buried under other shit in storage, slapped that and the 330mm Nardi on. Feels more like a car than a bus




Got it up in the air and found the front control arm bushings were beyond fucked. Slight bit of twist with a screw driver and they separated like this.
Once more into the parts bin, and some spare lollipops with Superpro bushings were fitted.
The balljoints are pretty bad so control arms are being bought ASAP. I don't piss around with wasting time.




Swapped the intake boot over as the original was full of holes. Still need to do the mess under the intake, I'll make some fittings up at work on the lathe to adapt the various hose sizes through the week, and also get one of the plastic coolant flange pipes as a preventative thing.

They do look ever so good with the bonnet up





Took it for a drive to my father in law's house where it promptly bucketed with rain and uncovered a few leaks. Got to get them sorted.

I also have an odd thing where the wipers will stop as soon as I release the stalk. Can only assume the position sensor in the motor is stuck. I'll regrease that soon.

Hot damn it feels good to be back in an iS though.

[econti]

Gradually working my way through the list of things wrong with the new car.

Got new control arms as the balljoints were literally falling out of the old ones.
Found some H&R springs under the house from one of the previous cars along with some Bilstein B6s so put them in, as the originals were sagged to oblivion and the shocks were finished.
Swapped a taillight as the backing was cracked and all the water was coming inside.
Swapped the wiper motor as it was broken.
I did the mess under the intake cleanup and fit a strut brace as well. Full coolant flush too, as I also changed the plastic water flange under the intake manifold.

Buying another one of the exact same car is so good. Almost everything I've fixed just off things I've had under the house from one of the cars I've parted or the original 318is. Makes it cheap!

Took it out last night for some rolling shots as we had nothing better to do.
Some came out ok. I need to get rid of the yellow number plates ASAP however.

No we are not professional photographers, we do not claim to be good, spare the criticism as we know why they suck etc etc etc. It was just having some fun.









E39 camera car makes an appearance

[econti]

The new layout sucks ass and my preferred image hosting site is shutting down. I can't be bothered to re-upload all the images so this will likely be my last post here in this thread.

I had the old car bead blasted but am not happy with the result. I'll finish the fabrication stuff for diff mount and strut towers and have it blasted again and primed properly this time.
I'm not sure what timeframe this will be in, as I found out in early April that my dad has brain cancer. As a result I'm all but running his business (at age 24 and not qualified in the trade yet) so that sucks down all my time and money.
Progress will be very very slow from here on out I suspect.

The new E30 is up for sale as well. I don't drive it enough and it isn't as much fun as the old one. A sad result for it.

If anyone is reading this in the future then send me a message, I'll respond there. I am also on the facebook group too.

Thanks for the reading, r3v. It's been very fun.

[mike.bmw]

I don't think the new layout is that bad, but I'd be devastated if my image hosting company went away. I wouldn't have the time or patience to fix all the image links.

Very sorry to hear about the rest of it. Best of luck to you.