The One That Didn't Get Away [100K Mile E30 325is]
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I've wanted an (running and driving)E30 for quite some time.
This is how it starts
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Cleaning/detailing has begun.
Rented a carpet cleaner to take care of the gross carpet. Initial thought of mold/mildew was incorrect(thankfully). Think someone spilled something on the carpet/just dirty in general. Shop doesn't have hot water right now, so I snagged some near boiling hot water from the Kwik Trip just down the road. Carpet look pretty good minus a couple spots that are still dirty a bit. But, I have new floor mats that will cover most of the still problem areas. Water that came out of the machine was pure brown.
With the seats out, did a full leather conditioning. I really like the Griots Garage products so I chose their Leather Care. I'm sure theres other possible better options out there, but for how readily available their products are and how well it performs, I really like them. Returned some good shine, leather feels supple, and took care of the dry cracking areas. Pulled the steering wheel cover off and did the same. Mtech 1 is in great condition.
I washed and claybared the whole car this afternoon. Decent enough day for it, fair amount of overcast so not a ton of direct sunlight. I'm partial to Meguiars products for exterior detailing. Again, possible better stuff out there, but for my level of detailing and intended outcome, fits the bill.
Wanted to see what I could do about the paint. Good news is that I think it will come back great, just a lot of time needs to be spent doing so. Started on the trunk to just get an idea of what I was getting into. Meguiars Ultimate Compound and medium grade pad on my rotary wheel. First picture below was just my first initial pass to get an idea of cut amount and wheel speed. This red is kind of hard to photograph.
Pretty big difference right away.
After the compound pass.
After using the Meguiars Ultimate Polish. Decent, but could be better. Might try a coarser pad for the compound and some more speed to get some more cut. Trunk, roof, and hood are always the most difficult.
And then just a pass of the Ultimate Wax. You can see the difference between the trunk and the quarter.
Parked in the shop.
More work tomorrow, maybe can finish the whole car. Don't think I'll cut the front quarters or hood as it was repainted. I'll just do a light polish on it.
Should I put the smoked smileys on this car or leave the ellipsoids?
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Stock headlights until it sees aftermarket wheels
More paint correction. Found that compound was a little too abrasive for the sides as I faded a couple inches of my pinstripe on the driver side. Went with just the polish and it brought back the paint to level I was satisfied with. Single stage old paint is difficult to work with and I'm not comfortable pushing further for that extra 10% I want to achieve without possible wrecking the paint. New cars are much easier to work with paint wise.
Before look at the rear quarter:
After polishing:
Better, but as you can see, could be better. I don't know if this is just the quality of the paint or if I might need to go at it with a finer grain pad and some more speed.
I have used a rotary buffing wheel for the longest time. I bought a rotary for personal use after I stopped detailing cars for Bergstrom because it was what I was used to. They are not as forgiving and do not have any safety features built in. I bought a 6 inch DA from Harbor Freight during their parking lot sale today. For $60, this is really all you need to get good results from paint correcting. 8mm of travel, edge safety feature, and 2" smaller surface than my rotary are much better for my use.
I got the roof, driver side rear quarter and door done today, shit takes a long time.
Pictures out side.
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@B C this paint is really difficult to take pictures of.
So. Whens the S52 swap coming? I have one for sale
Clean S52 swapped E30s are pulling some hella numbers. Ask
@wasnt m3
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So. Whens the S52 swap coming? I have one for sale
Clean S52 swapped E30s are pulling some hella numbers. Ask
@wasnt m3
This is going to stay M20 for the foreseeable future.
Coming along nicely! You can always use some 1/4" tape to protect the stripe. If you want the stripe gone, oven cleaner works well without damaging the original paint of the car.
Was considering covering it, but would have been a huge pain to cut down a bunch of large painters tape to cover. I love the stripe.
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you can use a full piece of painters tape, but you'll have to do two passes.
tape to the top of the stripe and only cut above it. remove the tape. tape to the bottom edge of the stripe and cut below it.
Dan
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Driver side window does indeed work. I just swapped the window switch from the Calypso car onto this one and saw that the switch was illuminated. Don't know if I ever checked if the other one was illuminated or not. Regardless, glad that it works.
Swapped my euro grilles from the Calypso car onto this one and removed the weird headlight bubble covers. I'm missing a headlight bezel on my passenger side high beam, will have to try and find one of those.
Got my shift boot and Nardi knob installed. Think the boot is low key enough without being gaudy while still adding some flavor. This would have worked better in the S52 car however. I like the Nardi knob as it isn't the ZHP that everyone does(for good reason though), however, it is a little light, so the shifts feel a little "airy". I'm wondering if changing up the shifter and shifter linkage might help that a bit.
Picture of the fleet. Poor choices as far as the eye can see.
Not sure if Airdropping the pictures from my phone to my Mac, then uploading here really cuts down the quality, but these seem to be much lower res.
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Not sure if Airdropping the pictures from my phone to my Mac, then uploading here really cuts down the quality, but these seem to be much lower res.
Yeah they are tiny. I'll look into the settings.
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Posting this here to remind me what fuses to check for half the cluster not working:
The fusing for the E30 cluster is fuses 10, 12, and 21, all of which are 7.5A, brown standard blade fuse.
If this is not the case, I'll check the coolant temp sensor to see if that is operational. Tach reading is pulled from the flywheel right?
I'm also thinking that I am going to take the suspension off the Calypso car and put it on this one. Started pulling the drive train from the Calypso car last night. If you want a fully refreshed S52 with never used pressure plate, fly wheel, and clutch. 16" spal fan, CSF radiator, OBD1 intake and fuel rail, Kassel tuned ECU, etc. for $1500, let me know.
Also, the shell is for sale. Brand new fuel system, M3 steering rack, smoked smiley Depos, Mtech1 rep wing, etc. I'll be making an official posting for these once I get everything pulled. Hoping to have it done this weekend.
Getting gas last night in the red car.
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How many miles on the s52?
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I know this isn’t the right thread, but doesn’t seem worth it to revive the old one. Motor should be out tomorrow, everything is disconnected, just sitting on the motor mounts. Don’t have anything going on, so should have all day to work on it. Going to try and swap the suspension tomorrow.
Current shop status:
I don’t know why the quality of pictures is getting butchered when I upload them.
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Swapped the suspensions on the cars last night. Took awhile as I was essentially doing the job twice. Ball bearing separator is a tool everyone must own, best $20 I’ve ever spent. Think the height is just about perfect, need to get a spacer for the rear, maybe a 5 or a 10. Running a 5 in the front, having a little bit of running when turning going over inclines so will need to roll the fenders as I do not want to raise it.
Found a little pool of oil under the car this morning. Knew it was leaking a little bit from looking under the car, but must have loosened it up a bit when I jacked the car up. Guessing it’s the oil pan gasket based on how it looks.
JOMs ride pretty well for the couple of times I took it up and down the frontage road. Planning to run these for next summer and maybe the following as this car won’t be getting a ton of miles out on it and I’m not gonna be setting any hot laps soon. Money can be better spent else where at this time.
@YoungCR, picture quality looks good. Thank you.
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