The "I finally bought an E30" Build Thread!
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I've always felt like an outcast with my E46 and E82 because WIBimmers seems to have a chub over late 80's and early 90's BMWs.
This has been causing me to lose sleep lately because I just feel like I don't fit in.
I was cruising Craigslist yesterday morning (with no intentions of buying a car) and stumbled across an ad for a "BMW E30". Started texting the guy and shared the ad with two of my friends (SteelBlue and GunMetalGrey). I jokingly asking if they'd want to chip in and have a random project car to share. Ben (GunMetalGrey) has too many E30s already and wanted nothing to do with it. But Eric (SteelBlue) said he'd go halfsies on it with me. We both have wanted E30s for a while now, but haven't ever had the opportunity to buy one.
Treat by Jacob Spence, on FlickrWhat you want to know: 1987 325is with 190k and some sort of red interior. Kentucky car so it isn't completely rusted away. Has a cool looking steering wheel and the dash is only cracked in two spots. It's a complete car but doesn't currently drive.
What you don't care about: The transmission and driveshaft have been pulled because the trans broke. Currently in search of a transmission for an M20. Or a T56 for an LS swap. Oh, and there is a massive dent in the passenger side that we'll try to pop out. There's a good chance we'll fuck that up and make the dent look worse.
Immediate plans: Learn about E30s. Get a transmission. Put it in. Hope the car works. If so, do a burnout. Sleep that night dreaming about it loping at idle with a cammed LS under the hood.
TDLR; I finally picked up an E30 in hopes that I'll be accepted among this community. It's half mine and half Eric's.
...that's a lie and the real reason we bought this is because we've both always wanted an E30. I now own 3 BMWs, this might be a problem.
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Like Jake had stated, I had no idea that I would be purchasing an E30 later that night. Glad we did however, as this is a pretty good car for the price we paid for it. Obviously with it not running is less than ideal, but our intentions and expectations were not to buy a perfectly fine running and driving car. This will definitely be a project, but something both Jake and I will look forward to working on. It's the first time for me, and for him to some extent, that we can work on a car with no worries of having to be able to drive it the next day or not.
Massive dent might be an understatement, dude backed a truck into this thing. We should be able to fix it to some extent, we aren't expecting anything perfect. A little TLC is going to take this car a long way. Has a cardinal interior that is in pretty good condition, the worst offender being the driver seat that might be salvageable.The paint is in pretty good condition given the age of the car. I plan to do a paint correction on it that should really clean up the overall appearance.
This dude definitely lived out in the middle of fuckin no where. He was a nice guy, also had his dad help us push it up on the trailer so that was a big help. Dude also had a techno violet E36 M3, definitely didn't expect to see that there. Once again, good thing Ben was with us as neither Jake or I knew how to tie down a car to a trailer properly.
Also big shout out to Jakes neighbor for lending us his tow rig. Pulling that thing with a dolly would have been horrendous. Super nice trailer.
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Congrats on the purchase! looks like a great car for the price.
I've always felt like an outcast with my E46 and E82 because WIBimmers seems to have a chub over late 80's and early 90's BMWs.
This has been causing me to lose sleep lately because I just feel like I don't fit in.
...
TDLR; I finally picked up an E30
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Congrats on the purchase! looks like a great car for the price.
Thanks! I'll post some more pictures this afternoon. Like Eric said, the passenger side is pretty bad right now.
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Yes!
About time
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So, how do you like t56 prices?
I'm not a fan. It's domestic... it's supposed to be cheap!
LS swap is a pipe dream at this point, but you never know...
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I wouldn't even consider putting one in a car without going through it right away unless it had a recent rebuild with proof. They're really not that tough of a transmission and have many wear items that should be upgraded. If you were thinking about the swap, plan on an honest $10k if you're not cutting tons of corners. No exageration.
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I wouldn't even consider putting one in a car without going through it right away unless it had a recent rebuild with proof. They're really not that tough of a transmission and have many wear items that should be upgraded. If you were thinking about the swap, plan on an honest $10k if you're not cutting tons of corners. No exageration.
This car will remain cheap. If we swap anything, it'll be on a budget with some ingenuity. I think Eric and I are both happy to have something at our disposal that we can feel out and have fun with. I want to auto-x this thing and get 100 smiles per gallon when driving it. Neither of us will have to worry about fucking up a nice BMW with this one.
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I wouldn't even consider putting one in a car without going through it right away unless it had a recent rebuild with proof. They're really not that tough of a transmission and have many wear items that should be upgraded. If you were thinking about the swap, plan on an honest $10k if you're not cutting tons of corners. No exageration.
I think a 24 valve swap is a lot more likely.
If the M20 is a no go.
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Awesome!
johnprusinski has a getrag 260 for sale. You may try contacting him.
Thanks! Just PM'd him about it.
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I'm in same boat as you guys. Except mine needs an engine, lol
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Did you guys order ARC8's yet? Glad this went to a good home! Figured this would make for a good track car. At that price you can easily get your money back too if it goes south.
If this guy didn't want the price of gold for his, I'd buy them.
http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/wto/5589874349.html
We're hoping for the best, but bought it because I don't really think it could go to waste at that price...
I'm in same boat as you guys. Except mine needs an engine, lol
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Nice! If shit hits the fan, we can combine cars and make one proper E30.
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Nice! If shit hits the fan, we can combine cars and make one proper E30.
Sounds good to me!!
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Here are some "before" pictures. Just aired up the tires and unloaded it from the trailer. Not even washed. This is what we're working with folks.
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cool!
i have two of the same color front sport seats (in nearly the same condition) if your going to try and fix those they would be good for parts, and you should get two whole decent seats out of the 4. you can have them for free.
Dan
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I also have a bunch of sport seat parts left over from when I rebuilt the ones in my e21. If you needed anything that straight6pwr's seats couldn't give ya. Free as well.
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