The One That Didn't Get Away [100K Mile E30 325is]
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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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Well, after a long hiatus, the car will be finally getting some attention again. Here's your dumb fuck move of the day(well, 5 months ago now). After pulling the JOMs off the Calypso car in preparation to swap them onto the red car, I broke the oil pan. In my haste I jacked the car up by the oil pan instead of the subframe. I know, stupid, I just completely over looked this and put the jack on at nearest flat spot I found to put the jack on when it went under the car.
Fast forward to now, I contacted Auto Clinic in Neenah, the place where the previous owner had the car maintained the entirety of her ownership. To add to that, the two mechanics that have worked on the car the entire time she has owned it still work there. And on top of that, the one guy is also an E30 guy(wanted to buy this car as well). I would normally do this job on my own, but dropping a subframe to replace the oil pan on the floor, on jackstands, with the motor suspended in the air above just sounded like a better idea to pay someone to do it. I've talked to this guy on a couple of occasions and had gotten a quote on the labor to do the job(will be supplying the pan myself, thanks @patsbimmer1) and was very pleased at the price I was quoted for the work. Just glad I can have the car worked on at a business that knows the car and has people who knows the cars.
To conclude this long winded post, I'm hoping to trailer the car over to them next week at sometime. Either dolly it and take backroads or have my insurance flatbed the car( @ChrisO hopefully no issues). Helps to be friends with a guy who rents them to me after hours for a "discount". I just want it to be ready for when the weather starts be nice on a regular basis.
I'm stupid.
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Well, after a long hiatus, the car will be finally getting some attention again. Here's your dumb fuck move of the day(well, 5 months ago now). After pulling the JOMs off the Calypso car in preparation to swap them onto the red car, I broke the oil pan. In my haste I jacked the car up by the oil pan instead of the subframe. I know, stupid, I just completely over looked this and put the jack on at nearest flat spot I found to put the jack on when it went under the car.
Fast forward to now, I contacted Auto Clinic in Neenah, the place where the previous owner had the car maintained the entirety of her ownership. To add to that, the two mechanics that have worked on the car the entire time she has owned it still work there. And on top of that, the one guy is also an E30 guy(wanted to buy this car as well). I would normally do this job on my own, but dropping a subframe to replace the oil pan on the floor, on jackstands, with the motor suspended in the air above just sounded like a better idea to pay someone to do it. I've talked to this guy on a couple of occasions and had gotten a quote on the labor to do the job(will be supplying the pan myself, thanks @patsbimmer1) and was very pleased at the price I was quoted for the work. Just glad I can have the car worked on at a business that knows the car and has people who knows the cars.
To conclude this long winded post, I'm hoping to trailer the car over to them next week at sometime. Either dolly it and take backroads or have my insurance flatbed the car( @ChrisO hopefully no issues). Helps to be friends with a guy who rents them to me after hours for a "discount". I just want it to be ready for when the weather starts be nice on a regular basis.
I'm stupid.
If you buy AAA they have 3 free tows a year for what 90$ a year? But you need a week for it to go into effect.
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