E30 Zone

I realise that compared to you lot that having my 2nd E30 isn't much of a mile stone but here it is:



I purchased it from fellow zoner 'thetomc' who is a great chap am I am dead chuffed with it. I have been itching for a clean road going version of the track car for a while. I always felt bad I pulled my other iS apart to make it a track car so I'm going to make up for it with this one.

It came with the most amazing set of history paper work, being a sad sod I've been really interested to go through it all.

Same colour as the track car, Brilliant red, very clean indeed, only bit of bad paint work is the driver’s wing which has been badly re-sprayed. The colour is a tad dark and the finish is very flat with no shine. By a stroke of luck, about 2 years ago I bought a perfect drivers side wing from 'Magpie' for the track car but never used it! There's the usual small dings in the doors but its all character! As can be seen it's also got a very clean set of 15" bbs cross spokes with centre caps and there's also a brand new spare 15" cross spoke and tyre in the boot!

On the inside it has full black leather interior which is in very good condition, also has 13 button on board trip computer. The dash is quite cracked though so will be looking to replace.

Any hoo some pics:














Nice extras:

Original hand book:


Unused BMW first aid kit:



The first thing I did when I got the car back home was to get the wing changed over. The puritan in me didn’t want to remove the original wing but it just looked toss being the wrong colour so it had to be done. I had stored the spare wing on the rafters in the garage since I bought it so I fetched it down and gave it a dammed good clean and polish to bring it up to speed.

Here's some before and after shots:






And during:








Much much happier with it now, the whole side of the car is the same colour and has a lovely shine to it. Just need to give it a proper hard core polishing and a wax to finish it off.

Aside from the wing there is little else wrong with it! The wing mirros are a bit manky so I'll change them and as I mentioned the dash is cracked quite badly so I will look to replace it with the uncracked one in the track car; and then do sad concours stuff like change the 'BMW' HT lead cover for a new clean one and fit the plastic caps to the front top mounts

I can’t wait to get the car to some shows and just look after it! My goal is to drive it to the factory and museum in Munich.

So there it is

Thats stunning mate, very jealous, should be a nice drive to Munich.

Nice motor. What's the plan with the slightly wrong coloured wing ? Also up in the rafters do you have a drivers side wing by any chance willing to sell ?

it's in good hands this one


nice purchase Rich.

Nice car rich, thus one coming to the pod? We need to sort a northern convoy, are you camping?

What a superb looking car mate!!!

Looks ace with that wing sorted mate. I miss it already!!!

Thanks for the comments

bumpygt wrote:Nice motor. What's the plan with the slightly wrong coloured wing ? Also up in the rafters do you have a drivers side wing by any chance willing to sell ?

I'll likely keep it for the track car as it's good to have spares for that sort of thing I'll let you know if I change my mind though

appletree wrote:Nice car rich, thus one coming to the pod? We need to sort a northern convoy, are you camping?

I've litteraly in the past couple of weeks moved back down to Wiltshire dude, the tenancy on my flat came up for renewal and I fancied a change of scenary and job lol. I've looked at my diary too and although I can't complain, I'm going to be at Spa that weekend with a race team so I can't come to the pod

thetomc wrote:Looks ace with that wing sorted mate. I miss it already!!!

Was quite a stroke of luck I had it really, fate I recon Keep me updated with the E21 and we'll organise a track day or something

How clean is that !

I rang the insurance company today and transfered the insurance from my other car to this one and went on my first proper drive in it! It's a very different place to be compared to my modern daily but I've just had a massive grin on my face the whole time, prob look like a right loon

I also gave it a pressure wash when I got home. Having never had a sun roof before I made an epic n00b error. After washing it I went out to take some photo's, got to a junction, sun roof open, braked to stop and got soaked by all the water that was left on the roof



















I'm off to Cheddar gorge tonight so will hopefuly get some good photo's there

Needs an iS front lip. Strange that the lower rear valance has been painted red, too. Maybe a set of colour coded SE side skirts and an iS lip would tie it all together better?

Does look to be in nice condition though... enjoy!

super !! looks lovely condition and the black leather suits the red well as much as i adore the is check cloth, as is lip and maybe a tech 1 spoiler would finish it off, with the black rubber of the tech 1 giving the boot a bit of the red/black contrast of the rest of the car

lovely

a z3 1.9 quick shift and 370ml tech 2 wheel, are superb aditions for an is aswell

I would like to get an iS splitter and tech 1 spoiler for it, just a case of waiting for one to come up and also the funds to allow

I went for a run to Cheddar gorge last night with a few friends. Haven't been there for a while, some epic roads and scenary!










After that we went to Weston Super Mud and took some photo's on the beach:






I am really enjoying driving it. There's lots of windy country roads where I live so it's a nice area to take it out with the sun roof open and enjoy the sun and fresh air!

excellent shots, love that last one !!!

gave my interior a good clean last night, a good tip for is owners.. autoglym interior and exterior vintyl rubber

http://shop.autoglym.com/rubber-plastic ... -care.html

is brilliant, best stuff ive found, for the is interior, if really dirty/1st time used, give a wipe with a wet cloth and dry before hand, then spray this over door card vinyl, sport seat backs, all centre console and dash, head lining , it looks all milky and a bit of a mess, just leave for 5-10 mins , then wipe/buff it with a clean microfibre cloth, and it comes up absoloutly on the money, really a big difference over other products ive tried in the past, and also it really lasts aswell, couple of months its good for, with a good hoover of the seats and use come good foaming upholstery cleaner/wipe with damp cloth after, it makes the car look and feel like new and a pleasure to sit in

that vinyl rubber care is also fantastic on all exterior rubber and makes it nice and dark and black again , but apply via spraying little bit at a time on cloth

very nice,

i hope to get my is looking as tidy and clean as this

Cheers for the info Polsta. I need to find some cleaner for the leather, I'm lead to believe it needs special stuff to stop it cracking up? Any one recommend any products?

The other day hauled the track slaaag out of the garage and took some photos:















The paint on the track car does come up pretty well with a polish. It's a shame that it is covered in scratches and stone chips but there's 'out I can do about it being a track car, I can't be too motherly with it lol!

I've wanted a pair of E30's like this for a while so it's great to be 'living the dream' lol

Not much has happened with this trusty stead. It has been safely stored at my dads work for nearly 3 years crazy how time flies. Weekend just gone I gave it a bit of a look over, going to order a few services bits and bobs; ARB drop links, hand brake shoes.... nothing major. I've got a new set of tyres to fit up and then take it for MOT. I've spoken to a friend of mine who has a body shop and he's going to sort out the few small inperfections in the paint work and bring it up to scratch. Looking forward to giving it some attention now I've stopped pouring money into the race car

Are you making the trip to any shows with it?

Errrrrr, maybe.... during the summer break with work, Ergen have their track day/BMW meet at Castle Combe. Might be nice to drag both of the wagons there

Fitted up a new set of tyres today. Going to get the wheels painted when the car goes to paint so I left them off the bead so they can get around the lip properly:

Today I loaded the old girl onto a trailer and took it over to a friend of mine who is going to make her look like new again https://www.facebook.com/NHautoworks1

There are a couple of scuffs, flat spots, dinks etc that have been bugging me so now the race car is all but done I can turn my attention to this. As mentioned above I'm going to get the wheels painted the standard silver colour too so should be looking lovely when it comes back

Nice trailer

It's one of my neighbours. It has been rather handy for hauling the fleet around

Cant wait to see the new pics!

I was very excited to receive a text message from the paint shop to say the car was ready. I arrived there to see the car gleaming in the sun looking amazing. I had an MOT booked at a place near home so I could drive it back. I took out a day insurance policy, should be easy right”¦.. nah it’s never easy. Went to start the car, cranked and cranked but nothing, wouldn’t start. So began the diagnosis. After not too long traced it to a faulty fuel pump. The tank was very low on fuel, basically dry because the car had been stood, so this is more and likely the reason for the pump seizing. Very annoying but my own fault. Next problem; I was half an hour from the MOT place/home, and the MOT was in an hour”¦. I had a spare fuel pump from my race car that would get me out the shit. Thankfully the MOT station rang the guy in the slot after me and he agreed to take my slot so I could have his later one. Much back and forth and with the ”˜new pump’ got on my way. At the MOT I expected it to fail on the handbrake, but to my surprise it didn’t fail on that because the average between the two sides was sufficient. What it failed on is the wipers don’t work for some bizarre reason. The motor moves and the linkage between the blades works, it’s just there is something not right in the middle for some reason So my next task is to pull all that apart and see what’s going on there.

So quick low down, both sides painted to keep the colour consistent. Dent in drivers door smoothed out. Rear valance re-stone chipped and painted. Bonnet dent and surface rust sorted and repainted. New iS splitter ordered from BMW. Wheels painted

Any way, enough waffle, here’s a couple of pictures of the car now:

A lose nut was to blame! I like easy ones like that MOT passed, happy days!

Great car! I prefer the normal facelift lip, but good freshen up on the paint work.

Cheers As it is an iS I wanted to make is as standard looking as possible

Took the car to Castle Combe yesterday to have on show next to my race car:

It's been suuuuuuch a long time since I have paid this car any attention. I recently brought it up to the workshop where I keep my race car. It's nice to have a local, safe, clean, dehumidified, heated place to keep it




Now one problem it has is that the handbrake is non-existent. Much to my shock it passed it's last MOT but it's truly crap and needs sorting. I took to picking the system apart to fine out what needed sorting.




The cables were at their limit of adjustment at the lever end and the adjuster at the axel was also maxed out. Where the nut at the lever end had been adjusted so much the nut was stuck on. In the end I had to lock the cable off with mole grips and keep turning the cable until it snapped. Not best ever but needs must Muchos scrabbling around underneath freeing the seized cables sleeves and other associated fun I ended up with this:






It makes me laugh laying under this car then looking at the underside of my race car. Maybe one day I will sort out getting it to the same level!






My aim was to get it MOT’d a month or so ago but I haven’t had time. Hopefully I can button it up soon and get it out and about.

Hand brake sorted. Car taken to the local MOT station who were very impressed with the condition of the car. Flew through the MOT.

I've been really enjoying the sunny days driving through the local villages for various pub visits etc:

cars looking lovely

Thanks

I've been making the most of the weather the last couple of weeks. First was a local motor clubs' classic car tour which took us all around the Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset country side. A great event and all sorts of cars took part.










Whilst at home I took a photo at a local village petrol station which has been closed for many years.




And a couple of photos from the BMWCC GB festival at Gaydon today. The E30 stand was sadly under represented. I took my car up for the 100year photo shoot and sadly got penned in until I left at the end of the day. Upshot is the car will always be in that photo. A nice bit of history to go with the car.

Car looks great! What exhaust are you running? Looks like the Jetex?

It's a standard exhaust with a jazzy tip on the end lol.

Another busy weekend. Saturday the 3rd was the Oxford Motor Club, 'Cars to the Claydons' classic car tour. Starting point was the Cotswold Wildlife Park near Burford. Finishing point was the Cars at the Claydons car show just south of Buckingham. It was only a 70mile route but we made it with no mistakes on the road map which was cool.










I fitted my Pukar Designs dealer replica plates too which got a couple of mentions so that was worth it. Much nicer than the hagged cracked ones that were on the car.




The following day was a small local village car show at the Sulgrave Manor. Quite a range of cars there from a vintage pedal car to a tank! The old girl received a lot of positive attention and comments from visitors. Being a 1990 'G' reg it was the most modern car there.




Fraser Nash BMW!






My star car of the day was this Triumph Italia:







Finally the 100 picture from the Gaydon Festival. My car is bottom centre of the first zero




Next event is in a couple of weeks for the Windsor Motor Clubs' Harvest Classic Tour (http://www.classicharvesttour.co.uk)

This weekend we headed down to Reading for the Classic Harvest Tour. We made a bit of a weekend of it, driving down on Saturday, having a good pub lunch on the way and spending the evening in the hotel bar reading through the road book for the first half. There were a couple of other E30's on this one. A 325i tech 1 sport and an M3, both very clean examples. There were the usual suspects, MGB GT's, Minis, Triumphs were in attendance. At the lunch break we were allowed access to Newbury town centre to have the cars on show which was cool. The car is now back at the workshop. I'll sort out a few bits on a snagging list I've put together and get it ready for more events next year













Until next time