Alpine e30 progress/build thread
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Made more progress, while I am waiting on parts to finish the work on the car I have been working on my wheels that have been sitting half done for months.
I finally got the first wheel center down to bare metal and half pf the second one is now stripped:
My original plan was to polish the lips to a shine but there is some decent curb rash and a number of dings in the lip that just aren't coming out right with sanding. My new plan is to sand them to a reasonable surface finish and then paint them the same silver as the centers with the backs of the barrels being black. This should allow me to hide the various imperfections a bit better than a mirror polished lip. They will also be a bit easier to maintain.
I have also wire wheeled all of the bolts and will be painting them a gloss black which should look nice against the silver centers
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Car is back together and done! Cooling system is bled and once the car warms up it sits right below the center line of the temp gauge. With the cleaned and rebuilt injectors, cleaned intake ports, and new fuel filter it starts immediately on the turn of the key and revs much quicker than before. With the cleaned ICV it idles much smoother as well.
With everything cleaned up it looks much nicer under the hood as well, pretty happy with how all this work turned out
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Can't wait to see the wheels finished.
Me too, I've had the dang things for over a year haha. They definitely won't be done until the summer though as I leave again (until May) this weekend...
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Well I'm back in the area for good! Which means no more long breaks between car progress.
I have put about 850 miles on the car in the last week and runs so much better after all the work I did, the idle is smoother and it starts up much quicker from cold. It feels a bit pepier too!
Things that need to happen now: tie rods and tires. The tires I have now are flat spotted and horrible, but I don't want to buy 14" tires so I am trying to refinish my wheels soon unless someone wants to buy them (I want some spec e30 wheels like dforce LTW5's or something like that).
On a fun note, I found a partout of a 318is on craiglist and managed to snag a number of goodies, I'll update soon as I get things installed!
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Picked up a bunch of good stuff the other day!
First job was to finally upgrade my broken hella H4's with some nice new US ellipsoids, I also picked up a nice kidney grille to replace my broken blacked out one:
I also picked up one of the things I've been trying to do for ages, carpets! Installing them wasn't too hard at all, and it turned out extremely nice.
What was left of my nasty old carpet:
New black carpet in:
Its amazing how much less noise I hear coming through the floors, and also how much cooler the interior stays with the windows up. It used to get really hot really fast without all the insulation.
Some other things I picked up: a set of low-mile bilstein sports and vogtland springs, and a sparco style strut bar (not sure if its a sparco since it is black and not red). I also ordered a skid plate from a guy on r3vlimited today to keep my oil pan in once piece once I lower the car
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Installed my new suspension yesterday, Bilstein sports and vogtland springs. I was given e90 drop hats when I bought the suspension and didn't plan on using them but once I set it on the ground the first time I decided I wanted them in so I ripped everything apart again and installed them.
I love the way it sits, I should've taken a before picture for comparison. It handles like it is on rails now too, I was laughing all the way around town. It is super dirty right now so once I get it all cleaned up I will get some good pictures
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Awesome! Shine 'er up for Scooter's on Saturday
I wish...
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Cleaned it! I love the way it looks now, all it needs are euro grills, a euro plate filler, and those wheels that have been driving me nuts for two years....
On a slightly sad note, my (shockingly) crack free dash has developed a few tiny cracks, probably from sitting in the sun all the time. I bought a sunshade to keep it a bit cooler in the car so hopefully that helps.
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Once it cracks it's all down hill
I have a few hairline cracks on mine too. -
I am making slow but steady progress, I really am hoping to get them on the car soon! Seeing them in gold makes me want to do the same...
let me know if they have a price!!!!!
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Regardless of specs. Those are pretty cool wheels
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