E30 Zone

Purchased March 2010 by a drunken ebay bid after getting in from a night out, I woke up the owner of my first BMW and perhaps the best car I feel I've owned to date.




First thing I went and got was some 15" BBS to replace the bottletop's



Got an Mot and tax and the car was on the road a month later. Got some Laminex to tint the headlights, had some leftover and did the indicators as well.



About July now, b20 out, b25 in



Lowered 60mm all around.



Chav tube added back for the 2.5 lump to aid with airflow, but now replaced with a full 325i system.



Dented wing and rotten valance replaced


Had a small accident before winter '10 in the wet causing the wheel to buckle and the rear subframe to bend so new subframe and all new bushes with rear disc set up was added. In feb I had electric windows replaced and gave Danthe a hand fitting them (He did most the work I'm ashamed to say!) At some point Mtech II spoiler purchased and added. Sports interior also added to replace to gash worn out, shabby poverty spec one.

Number plate surrounds added, also replaced indicators with actual tinted ones rather then ones with bits of laminex here and there. Front shocks replaced with SPAX RSX coilovers. Sparco front strut brace also added.
Foglights added at somepoint as well.



E36 328i purchased





Boom m52




Build thread:- http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... c&t=198935

I've put a hell of a lot of hard work keeping this on the road and it has caused much spilt blood, sweat and tears. Although no car has ever given me the satisfaction this has from driving it, seeing it and even as sad as it is talking about it. I've lost my patience a lot sometimes and been close to throw in the towel many occasions... but she's a keeper and I will keep her on the road and going for many a year to come!

Of course there's the dreaded to do list, some more serious then others.. some purely cosmetic.

Rear n/s arch replacement
Misc rust scabs and dings to be sorted
O/s Sill to be replaced
Proper tinted headlamps with cross-hairs + poss HIDs
Rear red tinted indicator bits
16" Hartges would be ideal
Spoilerless bootlid
Tech II kit
370mm tech II steering wheel
Fix the sunroof for summer and convert to electric
Black headlining
LSD 3.73/3.91
And to keep it mechanically maintained of course!

Not to everyone's taste but I keep it fairly OEM+ as I feel it's the best way to go about things. Opinions and questions are welcomed, we all like a bit of constructive criticism

Looks a nice car,
Planning on similar with mine (eventually !!)

Nice car mate, seriously cool photo thread.

That "to do list" looks expensive! That's E30 ownership though isn't it

Great transformation, really like the unused petrol station pics.

Cheers for the positive comments there guys

@Duke, too right it is.. but over time it shouldn't be too bad I hope!

Had my exhaust fitted once again today but isn't perfect and I really don't have the cash to throw at it. I want to fit one of these at the customer downpipes as apparently they make the exhaust more efficient?

I raised the front up 10mm today, I will probs take it another 10mm next week but now I can get my fingers under the arch easier. It was scrubbing on the crud shields, coilovers got a good clean as well.



I've ordered some 205/50/15's that I'm expecting next week, they're Nankang NS2's and should be better then the smooth inners I have currently
Going to take them to my college for fitting and tracking if I can, should be free at least

nice sleeper.

good work Mr Green

Wanknangs just in time for the weather when you need decent tyres..

did you use laminex to tint your front lights ?

Very nice job fella

Cheers fellas glad it's not getting too much bad press

@mani I did use laminex for my headlights, been on there for over a year and a half now so not bad really. Although does look like I've killed a big month on one of them which has but a small burnt mark on them.


Got my "wanknangs" fitted yesterday and the car feels a lot better to drive with new tyres, and jhonno so far I've not spun furiously out of control into a ditch on fire I'll update if that does change though!


Got my spoilerless bootlid in the post and popped it on, it got a bit damaged but still looks alright at a glance and I think I need it on for a bit to make sure I'm 100% sure I like it. So here's some before and after pics, let me know what you think is better






Just looking over them again, it looks a hell of a lot better with no spoiler I think

Tech2 spoiler FTL

Everything else

bin the spoiler...

except that looks ace

Anything that looks good with a spoiler, always looks ten times better without one.
Nice car by the way...

Niceee!!

Looks exactly like mine when it has bbs wheels on it

nice car, you're getting there.
oh, P.S. centre caps... centre caps ... centre caps!

Cheers guys Yeah definitely staying spoilerless now, the spoiler just ruins the lines. Oh I've seen the error of my ways now it's gone!
Will take the bootlid into college to get the damage from courier fixed and resprayed.. although might just save that for when I get the n/s/r arch done.

@Aj Our cars are cousins for sure haha Suprised you've not seen me around Mk at all (apart from that time I was at work lol), saying that I've still never seen you about either!

@Adit I really would like come caps for my wheels but I'm so paranoid that some council scummer will nick them Although it would make the car look 10 times better with them (and a refurb).

I've got a few small niggly issues with the engine at the moment as well as tax due at the end of the month so not a good month for my wallet

Got a nice wash and partial polish on the upwards facing panels yesterday to get all the dirt off from the road.
No real updates cosmetically apart from exhaust is now fitted with BMW brackets but still needs adjustment with a hammer on the bends.



Really itching for some centre caps, I hate being part time at work now.

Nice car man.
Looks cool, i think an iS lip would be the cherry on top of the icing on the cake.

nice looking car, dgrey

sits very nice!

what is tyre dimension?

Cheers guys, as for an IS lip I'm not 100% sure as it would be too low to the ground. Although a 325i oil cooler grill would complement it better then the blanking plate currently there I think.

@Cro320 Tyres are 205/50/15

If it was me, I wouldn't go for an IS lip

Green wrote:

For a plastic E30 that looks great! Its charm is its subtly, IS lip is not needed!

Quality effort

Looks properly smart. This is pretty much the look I'm after for my iS. The height is spot on too Definitely, agree with the grille though, and in this case the lack of iS lip is a bonus, and I never thought I' say that!

What spring/shock setup is it running in the last photo posted (post above this) and how does it ride?

Any chance of a few all-around shots of the car as it is currently?

Not really much updates apart from using this as my daily and some maintenance.

My Gmax rear shocks were replaced with lovely new AVOs and the sagged 60mm (more like 80mm now) were replaced with some slightly more practical 50mm springs.

DIY'd my own tinted headlights and fitted them in.





And some needed welding I decided to give a go, not entirely sure I should have personally never have taken on anything like this before.



It was bad as after I made a cut on the top I was able to just pull it off from underneath!






Was going to coat it with some waxoil or similar today but it's been raining which I weren't expecting.

Also welded up a hole in my drivers footwell that was larger then the size of my hand! Also thanks to these holes I manage to VAX out 4ltrs of dirty water from the foam in my carpet

Whats the plan, body wise? tech2 or IS spoiler with se skirts..

Sweet ride, going from a 325i to a 328i huge difference? or just the same but a tad bit faster?