Fair enough, that's understandable. Nonetheless looks on point! Maybe lower the front a little or you keeping it stock?jas025 wrote:Cheers - can't say really how much it was as done by a friend of the family - I got a great deal on it though.Tanveer wrote:Cool project and yeah those camera angles definitely make it seem like its a diecaste lol.
How much was the respray if you dont mind me asking?
325i Convertible auto - SI Board fixed
Moderator: martauto
1990 - 316i LUX Coupe[/size:364a72de04]
Lowered a car before and hated the ride but i guess it's all about shock / spring choice and I've read a fair amount on here about good combinations to maintain the compromise.Tanveer wrote:Fair enough, that's understandable. Nonetheless looks on point! Maybe lower the front a little or you keeping it stock?jas025 wrote:Cheers - can't say really how much it was as done by a friend of the family - I got a great deal on it though.Tanveer wrote:Cool project and yeah those camera angles definitely make it seem like its a diecaste lol.
How much was the respray if you dont mind me asking?
It's at the back of my mind but possibly a 2013 thing. Car's booked in next week at spit and polish for a wheel refurb first.
This week it was off to Spit and Polish in Tonbridge for a wheel refurb. Some nice posts this week around different colours on the bbs rims gave me an issue in terms of which colour I went for and whether I went for a polished lip but played it safe in the end and just went standard (much like the rest of the car).
Read around about having a polished lip - some of the results people have here look great but was a little concerned about how long the results would last - asked today when I booked it in and the feedback was that it wouldn't last as well and they wouldn't warranty the work for as long if I chose that finish so decided against it in the end.
Anyway - well pleased with the results.
While I was dropping it off I decided to try out my nexus 7 tablet running google navigation. The centre console in front of the gear stick is perfect for it - used my phone as a hotspot to get the connectivity and full colour satnav comes to the e30!
Also removed the tweeter pods and prised out the old nokia tweeters thanks to some posts on here.
New tweeters part of the Alpine component set that I bought removed from the default pod that they come with.
There were quite a few different pods that you could use to install - chose the one for flush fitting and then got some araldite to glue them in place.
Tweeters then click into place.
Not installed them yet - one crossover is in place, got to install the other one on the drivers side and then wire them up at the weekend.
Sound from the little pioneer amp that I found is already a great improvement but the sound stage is a little rear focussed because of the lack of treble currently at the front. Looking forward to hearing this when the tweeters are in place!
Read around about having a polished lip - some of the results people have here look great but was a little concerned about how long the results would last - asked today when I booked it in and the feedback was that it wouldn't last as well and they wouldn't warranty the work for as long if I chose that finish so decided against it in the end.
Anyway - well pleased with the results.
While I was dropping it off I decided to try out my nexus 7 tablet running google navigation. The centre console in front of the gear stick is perfect for it - used my phone as a hotspot to get the connectivity and full colour satnav comes to the e30!
Also removed the tweeter pods and prised out the old nokia tweeters thanks to some posts on here.
New tweeters part of the Alpine component set that I bought removed from the default pod that they come with.
There were quite a few different pods that you could use to install - chose the one for flush fitting and then got some araldite to glue them in place.
Tweeters then click into place.
Not installed them yet - one crossover is in place, got to install the other one on the drivers side and then wire them up at the weekend.
Sound from the little pioneer amp that I found is already a great improvement but the sound stage is a little rear focussed because of the lack of treble currently at the front. Looking forward to hearing this when the tweeters are in place!
Tweeters in and connected up - brings the sound stage nicely forward and sounds great.
Everything's in the standard positions, people are often asking about cabby installs / speakers so here's the spec:
Blaupunkt Woodstock DAB54 head unit (had for a long time and moved from car to car)
DAB standard aerial adapter and Blaupunkt auxilliary line in
Alpine SPG 13CS component fronts (£80) powered from Pioneer GM-620 amp
Alpine SXE 1325s 2 way rear (£25)
Being picky I'd like a little more bass - the frequency response on these starts a little high
- 65hz vs something lower but it seemed that this was fairly common on component speakers - the mounting depth might have something to do with it.
Anyway - more than good enough for me!
Everything's in the standard positions, people are often asking about cabby installs / speakers so here's the spec:
Blaupunkt Woodstock DAB54 head unit (had for a long time and moved from car to car)
DAB standard aerial adapter and Blaupunkt auxilliary line in
Alpine SPG 13CS component fronts (£80) powered from Pioneer GM-620 amp
Alpine SXE 1325s 2 way rear (£25)
Being picky I'd like a little more bass - the frequency response on these starts a little high
- 65hz vs something lower but it seemed that this was fairly common on component speakers - the mounting depth might have something to do with it.
Anyway - more than good enough for me!
So a bit of slow progress finally something done.
After some reading around and lots of different opinions I decided to stay standard and changed the suspension for MTEC shocks and springs. Bought them over a couple of months to prevent myself from realising how much I was spending and got them fitted this week.
Changed the droplinks at the front at the same time.
Before:
After
It is lower - honest.
Have only driven it a short distance but it feels tighter and the ride is good. It doesn't creak as much as it did either which is nice.
Still got the old springs and shocks - the fronts look like they'd been replaced at some point. Not sure if there's any value in them.
Next on the list is an iS lip which is on order and then I'll get it painted black trim colour not body colour (although not entirely decided on that).
After some reading around and lots of different opinions I decided to stay standard and changed the suspension for MTEC shocks and springs. Bought them over a couple of months to prevent myself from realising how much I was spending and got them fitted this week.
Changed the droplinks at the front at the same time.
Before:
After
It is lower - honest.
Have only driven it a short distance but it feels tighter and the ride is good. It doesn't creak as much as it did either which is nice.
Still got the old springs and shocks - the fronts look like they'd been replaced at some point. Not sure if there's any value in them.
Next on the list is an iS lip which is on order and then I'll get it painted black trim colour not body colour (although not entirely decided on that).
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Gert_8
- Married to the E30 Zone
- Posts: 11304
- Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 11:00 pm
- Location: In your back passage faster than a rat up a drainpipe!
After pics look much better. The gap between the front tyre and arch looks massive in the before pics
PONY, 2013 - "Anyway span 360 degrees hitting the kerb and giving the old man two fingers as I was spinning like Michael Schumacher would
First time this year with the roof off!
Drove it in to Aldgate through south London and really happy with the way that the suspension feels. Still able to straddle speed bumps and the ride feels similar to the 520d M Sport and 120d Sport that I had (and current Merc C Class Sport).
All the creaking has gone out of the suspension, no opportunity to test any handling in the 12 miles that takes an hour but I'm pleased it retained the practicality.
The weather was glorious on the way in - temperature was fresh but who cares with a good coat and the heater on
Lip spoiler is away being sprayed, most likely get it back in a week or so.
In the meantime, another purchase arrived. From bmw-mad, gave it a clean and some leather food and it's ready to go on.
So it's steering wheel and new bowden cables for the horseshoe to fit this weekend.
For those that asked, the guy that did my bodywork is in the process of building his own oven and will be building his own business up in due course. He's a bit busy at the moment working on pre-delivery repairs for the March new deliveries - must admit I'd be gutted if I found out I'd bought a new car that had already had paint and even panels replaced prior to delivery. Will share his details when he's ready.
Drove it in to Aldgate through south London and really happy with the way that the suspension feels. Still able to straddle speed bumps and the ride feels similar to the 520d M Sport and 120d Sport that I had (and current Merc C Class Sport).
All the creaking has gone out of the suspension, no opportunity to test any handling in the 12 miles that takes an hour but I'm pleased it retained the practicality.
The weather was glorious on the way in - temperature was fresh but who cares with a good coat and the heater on
Lip spoiler is away being sprayed, most likely get it back in a week or so.
In the meantime, another purchase arrived. From bmw-mad, gave it a clean and some leather food and it's ready to go on.
So it's steering wheel and new bowden cables for the horseshoe to fit this weekend.
For those that asked, the guy that did my bodywork is in the process of building his own oven and will be building his own business up in due course. He's a bit busy at the moment working on pre-delivery repairs for the March new deliveries - must admit I'd be gutted if I found out I'd bought a new car that had already had paint and even panels replaced prior to delivery. Will share his details when he's ready.
So bowden cables fitted and roof shuts much nicer (pic in a separate thread).
Wheel fitted and torqed to the correct setting - it's quite a bit smaller than the sport one that was on before.
Still waiting for the splitter to come back from paint but as ever with this car there's no real rush
Another piece of good news in that the left wing mirror decided to start working again - there must be some loose wire somewhere but I'm not really sure why that happened.
Bad news with the alarm but I'll post that separately as well.
Wheel fitted and torqed to the correct setting - it's quite a bit smaller than the sport one that was on before.
Still waiting for the splitter to come back from paint but as ever with this car there's no real rush
Another piece of good news in that the left wing mirror decided to start working again - there must be some loose wire somewhere but I'm not really sure why that happened.
Bad news with the alarm but I'll post that separately as well.
As ever, things seem to take time on the car. Bought the lip spoiler in february and dropped it off to get painted. Between the 2 of us we forgot about it but I picked it up from paint today and fitted it.
Very easy to swap out. Replaced all the clips while I was at it.
Very very pleased with the result.
Lovely new paint
Old one off, clips replaced.
Fitted. I'm really happy with that - think it works well with the MTEC suspension.
Very easy to swap out. Replaced all the clips while I was at it.
Very very pleased with the result.
Lovely new paint
Old one off, clips replaced.
Fitted. I'm really happy with that - think it works well with the MTEC suspension.
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jimbom30cab
- Tech 1 freak
- Posts: 7634
- Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2009 11:00 pm
- Location: in the garage
Your car looks stunning, a real credit to you, nice work fella
Respect !!
Respect !!
So I can't believe it's so long since I updated this.
Moved house, bought the hairdryer and haven't used the e30 as often as I might. We moved so it now has a new home at the back of the house which has power so it's always on trickle charge.
The iS lip spoiler got really badly pitted at Cranleigh on the way out down the dirt track so I had to get that repainted. I got this done last year.
It got some Uniroyal Rainsport 3s at the front but apart from that it's been fairly quiet on the mechanical side. Flexible brake hoses and some track rod ends were replaced at MOT time a couple of years ago. All the brake hoses were done except the 2 over the petrol tank - I'm not sure how much of an easy job that is - do they ever get picked up on an MOT or do they ever split? It seems an awkward place to locate something rubber that might perish.
Also changed the radio in it for a Pioneer BT 8700 DAB unit. I was fairly happy with it but it had disco lights all over it that I wasn't keen on. There were some lights at either end which were the same colour as the illumination. When set on red it looked half reasonable so I took the face apart and painted the inside of the cover black over where the unwanted light shone through. That's made it much nicer.
Changed the optimate4 charger that I'd had (for an MX5) for a CTEK MXS 5.0 one but I've still been chasing down a mysterious battery drain that I've had since new.
I changed over the SI board batteries for the correct SANYO lithium ones but then still had the wandering rev counter issue. I read up a little further then checked the board for damage in the corner and sure enough it looked like some of the tracks had been broken by the wrong screws when either I or someone else had the cluster out.
Took the SI board to a local electronics shop last week and they repaired the tracks. Just did a test fit and the rev counter and SI lights are behaving themselves. I'll put it back together properly later but I'm hopeful that this has fixed the SI board and I'm interested to see if the battery holds out better than before - it used to last about a week.
One thing which I've always found unbelievable about the tv series "Walking Dead" is the idea that several years after the zombie apocalypse they can still find cars with enough go in the battery to start. If mine can manage a month then I'll be super happy
Next is injector clean and changing the steering rack.
Moved house, bought the hairdryer and haven't used the e30 as often as I might. We moved so it now has a new home at the back of the house which has power so it's always on trickle charge.
The iS lip spoiler got really badly pitted at Cranleigh on the way out down the dirt track so I had to get that repainted. I got this done last year.
It got some Uniroyal Rainsport 3s at the front but apart from that it's been fairly quiet on the mechanical side. Flexible brake hoses and some track rod ends were replaced at MOT time a couple of years ago. All the brake hoses were done except the 2 over the petrol tank - I'm not sure how much of an easy job that is - do they ever get picked up on an MOT or do they ever split? It seems an awkward place to locate something rubber that might perish.
Also changed the radio in it for a Pioneer BT 8700 DAB unit. I was fairly happy with it but it had disco lights all over it that I wasn't keen on. There were some lights at either end which were the same colour as the illumination. When set on red it looked half reasonable so I took the face apart and painted the inside of the cover black over where the unwanted light shone through. That's made it much nicer.
Changed the optimate4 charger that I'd had (for an MX5) for a CTEK MXS 5.0 one but I've still been chasing down a mysterious battery drain that I've had since new.
I changed over the SI board batteries for the correct SANYO lithium ones but then still had the wandering rev counter issue. I read up a little further then checked the board for damage in the corner and sure enough it looked like some of the tracks had been broken by the wrong screws when either I or someone else had the cluster out.
Took the SI board to a local electronics shop last week and they repaired the tracks. Just did a test fit and the rev counter and SI lights are behaving themselves. I'll put it back together properly later but I'm hopeful that this has fixed the SI board and I'm interested to see if the battery holds out better than before - it used to last about a week.
One thing which I've always found unbelievable about the tv series "Walking Dead" is the idea that several years after the zombie apocalypse they can still find cars with enough go in the battery to start. If mine can manage a month then I'll be super happy
Next is injector clean and changing the steering rack.