Hello. My name is Matt, and I like spending money

MattY

I'm throwing my hat into the Alpine arena.

It's a CALIFORNIA (!!!) 1990 Alpine 325i Sedan. Automatic, and the M20 has about 260k miles on it + a leaking head gasket. But these are perfect conditions for a M50 5-speed swap.

We picked up this guy around the end of December before Christmas, however with the fact that we have two E34's to attend to and the calypso e30, my project schedule was pushed back a bit

The driver's side of the valance is forked pretty badly, so I'll be swapping that with a brand new one. Other than that, this body is pristine. I don't have any solid pictures of the interior but it has gray cloth seats, which the driver's seat is a little tattered but nothing horrible.

Let's get up to speed:

Dec. 20th, 2016

We found the car on a farm outside of Verona sitting under snow, which we had come to learn had been sitting for quite some time since the guy had a lot of other project cars. But to our disbelief, there is zero rust on the car and it started up immediately after wiping off the snow. Somehow this car sat on Madison Craigslist for two weeks without anyone even coming to check it out?? I swear I thought it was a scam, it was quite literally a Christmas miracle.

Chris survived the drive back on probably the baldest and rotted set of spare tires I've ever seen.

Cleaned it up to get rid of all the salt, cause it'll never be seeing a winter again.

Dec. 22nd, 2016

Since Ben was home from SC for the holidays, we pulled the M50 from a parts 95 E36 325i we had sourced a few weeks prior, which was put out of commission due to the hood flying up and smashing the windshield while driving. The motor was running a week before it was picked up, however it's believed the starter went out, which doesn't matter since I need a new one for the swap. Removing it was a breeze with four people and the core supports sawzalled off. that e36 is mega scrapped by now.

Feb. 19th, 2017

The E30 twins currently sit together. I took this the day we got the Calypso M20 running.

Forgot to mention around this time I scored some side skirts from Dan, which you can see leaning on the wall next to the E28.

Mar. 18th, 2017

The M20 pull has begun. Andy stopped by to drop off the set of 15'' Weds Bavaria 4x100 rims he no longer wanted. I think they look fresh as hell, and are a perfect fit for the Alpine.

I'll be looking into powder coating them in the future, but for now they're in perfectly acceptable condition to run. I found a thread on E9 Coupe that pointed out that 68mm BMW center caps fit these guys perfectly, so I ordered a set of them. Very excited to see how they look on the car.

I also picked up a pressure washer today. Hoping to get a good engine bay wash going once the motor is pulled.

Here's my WIP parts list so far if you're curious of my plans. I'd tell you that this is for you, but it's actually for me.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1g5PsFmSzEas-rl7x8jwDGZs5WF2SzdOdVU6ErX8QxGI/edit?usp=sharing

KaiserRolls

Nice thread title. Looking forward for progress

YoungCR

Photo evidence of @andyhundley working on a e30. Bravo!

MattY

YoungCR said:

Photo evidence of @andyhundley working on a e30. Bravo!

in his flannel, nonetheless. damn hipsters wanting to look like they live in cardboard boxes

m42b32

Glad to see you picked up the Weds!

i_love_cars

I knew Hundley would be in a flannel, if I knew nothing else
I like E30s
Plz find me a 2002 in a similar fashion to this new E30 kthx. cash in hand

straight6pwr

LOL @ thread title. if you actually know the reference, many internet cookies for you. nice update

Jdesign

Yissssss. Very nice. I like that you made an chart to keep yourself organized. That is the key to the beginning of a successful project in my opinion.

One small detail I must point out though....

YoungCR

Jdesign said:

Yissssss. Very nice. I like that you made an chart to keep yourself organized. That is the key to the beginning of a successful project in my opinion.

One small detail I must point out though....

Damn I missed that. #Craigslistfail

MattY

Jdesign said:

One small detail I must point out though....

i have failed you and the sullied the repertoire of the M50 dynasty. Truly, I am not worthy.

MattY

i_love_cars said:

Plz find me a 2002 in a similar fashion

Last pristine 2002 I saw ran for like 20 grand pretty sure. I'll just keep reminding my dad of that, since his 2002 was his first car and didn't hold onto it

MattY

Now that the calypso is running I can focus on this guy.

I sourced a manual driveshaft from this totaled 88 (will be sending to texas for a rebuild), as well as possibly a 3.25 LSD (VIN claims it does, waiting on confirmation). I know the optimal ratio for an M50 is a 3.46, but this guy should be close enough and the LSD is worth the trade off. I had them pull it out of the yard and get it up on its new throne, because screw getting under any car that's jacked up on wet mud.

The sedan is still down to the head on the M20, as the pull was put on pause to work on the Calypso subframe. Hopefully we can start up again on that soon.

Jdesign

Did they want a deposit to move the car? I need to pull some under car parts there and have been avoiding it because I do not want to crawl in the mud.

Also what did you pay for a driveshaft and why are you sending it so far away? There are driveshaft specific shops in Madison..

Earl

If he is sending it where I think he is, the Texas shop is absolutely killer and their pricing is incredible=P

http://www.driveshaftspecialist.com/Import html/BMW.html

MattY

Yeah, a lot of people have recommended their service to me so I thought I'd take advantage.

Also that car was at Schmidt's, they don't charge extra labor for moving stuff but they make you pre pay for the part you need pulled. They told me $100 for the driveshaft and $300 for the LSD, so I hopped right on that.

GunMetalGrey

I wish I would have seen that you were having a driveshaft rebuilt. I have one sitting in the shop that I would have sold you for half of what you paid.

Earl

But does it have a fresh black paint job?

GunMetalGrey

Earl said:

But does it have a fresh black paint job?

No, but it would have been a half priced core to send in to be rebuilt.

MattY

GunMetalGrey said:

I wish I would have seen that you were having a driveshaft rebuilt. I have one sitting in the shop that I would have sold you for half of what you paid.

my bad, i should've specified earlier!

MattY

chris keeps bitching at me to update this thread even though the only thing i've done is spend money on parts.

Just received my RHD M20 flywheel, looking shiny as ever:

Using this guy alongside a brand new sachs kit from ECS. i REALLY like the stock e30 clutch so this should be amazing. also ordered a hydraulic alternator tensioner, aluminum thermostat housing, and completed my short shift setup with a turner shift arm bracket and a zhp knob. Stage one of the project is essentially getting the M50 reliability upgrades in, redo gaskets, and assembling the trans and shifter to get it all ready to drop in at once.

also i started assembling the weds. will be running these on the calypso for the time being, they'll be mounted shortly. bask in their glory:

WIBIMMERS

Hello. My name is Matt, and I like spending money