The "I finally bought an E30" Build Thread!
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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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If this guy didn't want the price of gold for his, I'd buy them.
Five lug swap time!
Those wouldn't fit under the stock body.
ARC8's look quite good though! -
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.
Would you be available this weekend for pick up?
Edit: Actually would you be able to PM or post some pictures of the two?
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Decided to take the seats and center console out so we could start cleaning the inside of this thing.
Something was definitely living in here...
Now, to keep the red interior and carpet... or strip everything out, bedliner the floor and put some eBay race seats in?
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Nice! It'll be intersting to see what happens with this. If I donate an M50 swap can I drive it at the track?

If you try to take the dent out, you'll want to start at the edge of it and work towards the center. Trying to push in the center to "pop" it back out will almost definitley make it worse.
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Nice! It'll be intersting to see what happens with this. If I donate an M50 swap can I drive it at the track?

If you try to take the dent out, you'll want to start at the edge of it and work towards the center. Trying to push in the center to "pop" it back out will almost definitley make it worse.
Thanks for the advice on the door dent. This is definitely something we are going to be discussing with people that have more body work knowledge before we make an attempt to fix it.
We didn't get any pictures of the interior after, but the carpet cleaned up really well (Jake will post some later). We pulled the center console and back seat out to make sure we got everything with the vacuum. I washed all of the center console parts. I was able to clean up the trunk pretty well but this dude must have spilled a whole box worth of nails in it because they were everywhere.
We are in the process of pricing out all the gaskets, seals, fluids, and parts for the engine rebuild. The goal is to pick up a transmission next week and then pull the engine and start the rebuild process. Hopefully start it that weekend?
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I vote gut it and make it a fun car. Use funds that would've went to making it pretty to making it gnarly
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I vote: Race seats and harnesses suck
Unless they plan to track the crap out of it
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Nice! It'll be intersting to see what happens with this. If I donate an M50 swap can I drive it at the track?

If you try to take the dent out, you'll want to start at the edge of it and work towards the center. Trying to push in the center to "pop" it back out will almost definitley make it worse.
Thanks for the tip. I would love to put an M50 in it if it's free. You can drive it either way!
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Just to clarify, we're not "rebuilding" the motor. We're freshening it up with new gaskets, seals, timing belt, water pump, etc. We won't be cracking it open. As far as the interior goes, we're still up in the air about it. I'd love to track the crap out of it and shed some weight. We'll see.
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+1 vote for gutting it
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Thanks for the advice on the door dent. This is definitely something we are going to be discussing with people that have more body work knowledge before we make an attempt to fix it.
We didn't get any pictures of the interior after, but the carpet cleaned up really well (Jake will post some later). We pulled the center console and back seat out to make sure we got everything with the vacuum. I washed all of the center console parts. I was able to clean up the trunk pretty well but this dude must have spilled a whole box worth of nails in it because they were everywhere.
We are in the process of pricing out all the gaskets, seals, fluids, and parts for the engine rebuild. The goal is to pick up a transmission next week and then pull the engine and start the rebuild process. Hopefully start it that weekend?
Let me know what parts you need and I may be able to help with some pricing.
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Let me know what parts you need and I may be able to help with some pricing.
This is what I'm looking at on RMEuropean.com right now...
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This is what I'm looking at on RMEuropean.com right now...
Just sent you a message. I only included parts where I could beat the pricing. By my calculation it's about $20 less than RMeruopean even with the shipping price included in my estimate.
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Had a half day at work today. So I headed to Jake's right after so I could continue to remove the rest of the interior. It was a hot and humid one today and the E30's resting place as of now is in the driveway. Luckily, the garage felt like it had air condition in it, so I made trips continuously between the two. Was able to pull the rest of the interior minus the dash, carpet, and seat belts. Pulled the headlights, kidneys, and headlight grills to be cleaned and repainted. Removed the IS trunk lid to be repainted and to make buffing the car easier. Pulled out the tail lights to red out the amber turn signals (these need to be wet sanded and polished). When I pulled out the dead battery I was greeted to a fuckin colony of ants living under this thing. Quickly grabbed the shop vac and vacuumed up as many of them as I could. When Jake got back from work we tried hammering out the dented side because it had been sitting under the sun all day. It looks better than where we started, but its still not very good. We cant be too upset given the condition we got it in, but it does look better. Will probably revisit this later. He also polished the area after to remove some of the paint transfer. I will be attempting to buff and polish the car tomorrow weather permitting.









Dented side

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Another hot day today. Thankfully, there is some really good shade cover from some big trees on the road in front of Jake's house. Was able to keep the E46 and E30 cool all afternoon. It was probably an easy 20 degree difference being in the shade and being in the sun, would not have worked today had I not been in the shade. Just ran a long extension cord across the road to get power for the rotary wheel. Also just used buckets of water to wash the car on the side of the road as the hose did not reach. I only cut the car today, so the car still has swirl, but the depth was really brought back out. I will be hopefully polishing and waxing it tomorrow to finish up the paint restore. It has cleaned up pretty well. Some areas will need to be revisited, but overall I am happy with the outcome. Buddy from Bergstrom stopped over with some metal polish and helped me with the bumpers and window trim while I finished buffing the car.







Hoping after the polish and the wax the car will really shine.
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Finished the paint restore today. Was much cooler out so that made being outside a lot more enjoyable. The paint came back really well and I am happy with the result. The products I used for the restore were Meguiars Ultimate Compound, Polish, and Liquid Wax. I didn't test it, but the paint should have a really good bead. I'll ask Jake to take some pictures with the DSLR so you guys can get a better idea of how it came out. The iPhone pictures will suffice for the time being.
This is after polishing, before waxing

Compounded vs. Polished

These are all polished and waxed pictures






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