My E30 "Build"

[E30M42cab]

Just though I'd do some kind of build thread for my coupe. I've never really put enough work into an e30 until I bought this one a year and a half ago. This is a replacement for my winter beater E34 525i which was sideswiped by a truck on the 409 in February 2009. I picked it up from Thorold Imports in April of 2009. 275,000kms on it, and fresh brilliantrot paint. They were nice enought to deliver it for me as I was just a couple months out of knee surgury, and didn't really feel like driving to Welland and back again. Here she is the day I got her!:



Filled it up with gas, only to find a pin hole in the top of the tank. Thorold Import paid for a brand new tank, which was great, and I installed a new pump, filter and pretty much all rubber lines in that area, including all the overflow lines and filler neck tubes. I quicky went to work on it, putting some Tokico shock and Eibach springs to lower it a little,and swapping the Dinan chip from the vert. A BMPdesign E34 525i short shift kit, and a new clutch pack. Little things like E28 M-technic front and rear seat badges, early E30 M3 shift knob, and some matching rear headrests with OEM mounting hardware. Also found another set of yellow 100w H3 highbeams by Autopal, which I also have on my vert. Rims were a sad story. I have this set of Eagle Alloy 5 star 15"x6" rims that I've used on three of my previous E30's, including my vert, and my two 325e's. I've had these damn things for about seven years!! Threw in a super nice Blaupunkt and called it. This is pretty much how I left it by the end of the year for 2009:



2010 was a pretty good year for me to find parts and rims. I picked up a set of 15"x7.5" Ronal LS from a fellow Max member. I barely had them on the car month until I decided that they were too heavy. I threw them on my Mom's E30 instead. She likes them, and they look better on her car in my opinion as well. Here's a pic with the Ronals:



Over the winter I had loaded up on parts as well. I did a simple Hella headlight conversion to get away from the sealed beams. Trying to keep things as OEM as possible, I installed premium package speakers on the rear shelf, and beside the mirrors. Wired up factory heated seats to the terminal block on the firewall. Maplight rearview mirror with harness running down the inside of the a-pillar and plugged into factory connector. Converted the silly crank sunroof into a power unit. No cutting and pasting wires for me! Even brand new OEM rubber floor mats. I ended up picking up another set of rims. Originally they were to go on my vert, but diff problems were keeping her in storage longer than I thought. Instead I threw them on my coupe. They are a rare set of BBS Junior Line rims. 15"x7" ET24, 4x100, 57.1 bore. Slightly heavier than a Euroweave at 17LBS, I couldn't resist buying these!!



Speaking of Euroweaves (BBS RZ 332's), I rescued a set off a Honda in Kitchener in the spring. Bent all to hell, but with caps, and no real curbage, I had them straighted and had the lips machined and cleared. Fresh rubber to finish the job. I had also found a set or OEM "is" skirts for cheap, with all the mouting hardware included. Fiberglass rear lower valence and skirts were painted to match, and came out fairly well. Anyways, I think that's about it for 2010. I'll spend the next several months beating this thing around the back roads to ski hills, and salty 401 commutes. I should have a few more cool OEM bits and little tricks by next spring. Until then, I'll beat the crap out of it at Auto-X.



This is a pic from this weekend when I was up in Tobermory with Rob (nonlocal). We beat around gravel backroad slowly, and ripped around some nice paved roads. We ended up in Sauble Beach on sunday, and snapped a few shots on the beach. Dirty, beaten, and over 308,000kms later, it still looks like half decent machine IMO.


That is all... thanks for reading... or at least looking at the pics.

[EuroSpec_92]

did a little reading and looked at all the picss

A++

[HavocSteve]

She's pretty

[Ceeker]

Nice Job Scott! like the side skirts!

[craz azn]

Awesome car

[E30M42cab]

Originally Posted by EuroSpec_92

did a little reading and looked at all the picss

A++

Thanks Aaron. You've seen it in person anyways...

Originally Posted by HavocSteve

She's pretty

Thanks Steve

Originally Posted by Ceeker

Nice Job Scott! like the side skirts!

Trade you your glass sunroof for them!?

Originally Posted by craz azn

Awesome car

Trade you my car for yours?! Fair trade. They're both red. Both have map lights and euroweaves. I think that might be the only similarities now that I think about it, haha.

[nonlocal]

That picture on the beach turned out nice. I like the hoonage evidence in the sand, heh. I still think I should have launched my car off that ramp in the background into the pond.

Nice car. We need to hack up a way to keep the caps on those Jr. Lines, they look so nice with the caps on.

--

[Blackedout95]

Car looks really good!

Thorold Imports, great garage, Vincent is a good guy and that old guy Michael is ok too.

[E30M42cab]

Originally Posted by nonlocal

That picture on the beach turned out nice. I like the hoonage evidence in the sand, heh. I still think I should have launched my car off that ramp in the background into the pond.

Nice car. We need to hack up a way to keep the caps on those Jr. Lines, they look so nice with the caps on.

--

Yeah, they all came out really nice... I wish we had time to clean them off. Too bad the sun was only out for 19 seconds. I left a nice smooth peel out when we left that made me wish that winter was here! I looked at that ramp. Yours wasn't close enough to the water! You should have at least tried to get the car up on its side on two wheels... with the dog on the roof!

I talked to BBS USA and they were no help, which is f--king lame. I do like them better than all my other sets too, but without the caps on, they just don't present themselves nicely.

Here's a few other pics from the beach for ya... none with your car in it... sorry:




Oh, and believe it or not, this pic was taken on the second weekend in May just south of Collingwood.

[E30M42cab]

Originally Posted by Blackedout95

Car looks really good!

Thorold Imports, great garage, Vincent is a good guy and that old guy Michael is ok too.

Good guys indeed. I want to see their 2002ti touring!!

[E30M42cab]

Just a little update from the end of the "fun" season as to what I did to her over the summer. Interior wasn't touched too much; just a Husco armrest, leather ebrake boot and handle, and a cassette holder in the console. Threw in a glass moonroof that migrated here from California, and a German 6 button face plate on the OBC. Also threw a spare Euroweave in the trunk. Wouldn't want to roll on a 14" spare, heaven forbid.




Exterior useless crap like euro grills and plate filler were thrown on so that I look like all the other cool e30's out there, and an OEM Pheba "Aerodynamics Package" trunk spoiler that I scored, to set it apart a little bit.


Anyways, that's about it for 2011.


2012 (if it survives the winter) will hopefully have a few more thing in store for me to change. Nothing too special. I think if all goes well, I'll throw some Hartge skirts and a Hartge trunk spoiler on, but that's a maybe. Rear window sun blind and a ski pass rear seat are in the works as of late, but hitting some snags for now. Thats it for now. Winter tires are staring at me now.

Cheers!

[noodles101]

ur interior is super nice man
+ i like how ur car sitsss .

btw what beach is that?

[cormier]

Ya lovely seats for sure nice car

[desmo]

This E30 has a story. Very Nice