Had it for a couple of years then bought my 1st e30.
It was a 318i again for obvious insurance/fuel related reasons. I had this one for about 6 months before unfortunately spinning it off the dual carriageway at 70mph. (May have been due to welded diff + bad tyres + rain) Which brings me to my current e30. I did want to get away from the m40 engine which had been in my previous cars, but I couldn’t find a cheap 318is and still couldn’t afford a 2.5. My girlfriend now had a seat ibiza 2l 16v gti which I could get my speed thrills from anyway. After a lot of searching found a something that was perfect. A lachsilver 318i coupe with 107k on the clock for £750.
It was perfect, 2 doors and no sun roof (I had a lot of problems with the e36 sunroof). It had already been lowered on ”acoilovers”a which I thought would save me money as I would probably put some on it anyway. The bbs ra wheels were good for the euro/old school look I wanted as well. It also had a tech1 steering wheel. Apart from that it was standard. Only 4 owners from new, one of which only had for a month. Considering my last e30 was on about 13 this reassured me a lot. It still had original service manual etc. and had seemed to have had a pleasant life. It ran much better than my previous e30 and there was no body kit to hide rot! There had been a few obvious touch ups on 2 of the archs and under the boot lid but what could I expect? The 2 hour drive home was fine, the Ibiza caused more trouble as the engine was being run in after a rebuild. I found plenty of opportunities to give the e30 a little blast, which was fun as my last one wouldn’t rev above 4500!
That was about 5 months and I have made progress with tidying it up. I had quite a few parts that I had nicked off of my previous 2 bmws. The white one I still have in my garden!
I took loads of pics of the most of the things I did but my old phone died which is really annoying. Will try get some more pics soon! First to go was the drivers seat which had seen better days. The bottom had rips in and the back was leaning to one side making it feel horrible to drive. I swapped in the passenger seat from my old e30.
The black and grey comfort seat doesn’t really match the horrible blue interior of the new e30 but no one has noticed yet haha. Only people who try and get in the back as it was from a 4 door.
I put tinted front repeaters on from the previous e30. The jvc head unit, small tv screen and infinity speakers had been in all 3 bm’s. Keeping it looking standard-ish I didn’t want to cut holes in the parcel shelf so only two 5 inch round speakers made it into the front. I also added a sub that had been in the other 2 cars. It sounds fine in the front which is all I care about. Although apparently in the back all you can hear is bass because of the lack of speakers.
On my old e30 I had tinted the rear indicators and the reverse light but I didn’t think this would suit the old school look of this one. So I bought some red tint spray of ebay and did the whole rear cluster red for a nice euro look. It turned out 10 times better than I had expected. It looks as if it could have been like that standard. Will have to get some more pics!
I re-painted the grill black and thought about painting the window trim. On this car though I like the chrome trim at the moment, helps with the old school look. Interior wise I swapped the plain gear knob for a leather one I had lying around. I also changed the gear gaitor and handbrake gaitors for leather ones from the white e30. I even pikeyed the windscreen wipers! The panel surrounding the radio was cracked so swapped that. Added little bmw door lock pins that came from the 36.
The first major problem came when I took the mirrors off for repainting. Where the passenger side mirror attaches to the door there was basically no metal left! The mirror had been stuck on! Luckily having an old e30 in my garden and a brother who can weld helped a lot. We cut out the triangle and welded it into the new one and the mirror surprisingly lined up perfect. After a new lick of satin black paint they were good to go. Unfortunately I snapped a bolt inside the mirror and again after drilling it out! So it is at present held on with only 1 bolt which causes a bit of wind noise.
I forgot when I bought the car the backbox wasn’t actually attached to the rest of the exhaust! On inspection it was pretty knackered. Luckily I had a powerflow standard replacement backbox that had come off my white one when I had opted for a twin exit. It fitted perfect and my bro welded it up for me. I did think about a twin pipe but this def suits the look I’m after.
To add to the list of parts nicked from the e36 came a k&n panel filter. I had grown out of noisey exhausts (for the moment) but after the backbox was fixed I could barely tell it was running. So I decided to get a poor mans induction kit i.e. drill the airbox. This gives it a nice intake noise when you accelerate hard which I love. So far about £5 spent on the car and a fair amount done!
Here is a nice pic a mate of mine got on the way to a local vw meeting.
And a pic I got on a foggy night.
More to come. Advise and comments welcome!
. They were off a Honda and are very jap style wheels but who cares? Suited the retro look down to a t. Only problem is no colours suit lachs silver except silver and dark grey imo. So the bright red might have to go! They cost more than half the car so the budgeting had gone out the window.
Your ginger we don’t like your kind around here.
