Black 320 - Financial Ruin

[Mk4_Briggs]

So my BMW urge has finally lured me away from the VW world. I had been tempted for an E30 for a while, and then this popped up for sale. 1 owner from new with 83K on the clock and picked it up pretty cheap too.







As you can see the car is pretty clean so i don't plan to mess around with it too much. I picked up some standard BBS wheels for it a couple of weeks ago, they are currently in for refurbishment.

Does anybody know where i can get the BMW badge for the centre of the wheels from?

I have also picked up a new cam cover ready for re-painting before i begin to clean up the engine bay.


Also if any one has a spare heater fan going then let me know, as mines packed in not nice in the winter!


Dan

[bss325i]

BMW sell the badges for the wheel caps.

Car looks very tidy and gloss black when nice is a stunning colour for an E30.

Any other plans for it?

[B7]

That do look a peach.

mild drop, the BBS, is lip, job done!

[Jhonno]

That do look a peach.

mild drop, the BBS, is lip, job done!

This!

Looks lovely..

A B25 providing the pedal power would be a nice addition also..

[Ranchero]

Very nice. If it were mine I wouldn't change it much, if at all.

[Duke137]

Looks good, does it have a sunroof? I can't tell on the pics

[E30BeemerLad]

Nice original specimen there, welcome.

What were you rocking about in when you were in a VW?

[peterrigby123]

Alright dan! Thought i recognised the car from somewhere before i looked at your username! shes looking good

Im currently after buying a set of these from america but i reckon they'd suit yours even better being a black car ... http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/8586/77319104.jpg

[capri_rob]

Nice early facelift car this.

Are you sure its the fan motor thats at fault ?

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... nly_on_Max

They can seize up if not used but as you have it out of the car you can un-seize it, stand it on end and drip oil into the bearings, let it soak in, move it around and then connect it to a power supply and make sure it runs freely before it goes back in the car.

[Mk4_Briggs]

When i first got the car the fan was squeaking quite a lot, then it gradually got worse until it totally seized up. I have tried to free it up, but its still very stiff.

I only plan a 40mm drop Pete so im not sure i could pull off wheels as fat as those! They do look sweet though.

Duke - no sunroof im afraid, but at least thats less rust to worry about!
BeemerLad, i had a Polo before

[Jhonno]

No sunroof is a positive!! Especially in a nice gloss black shell..

[Duke137]

No sunroof is a positive!! Especially in a nice gloss black shell..

This ^^^

I thought it was non sunroof! Awesome find!

[Mk4_Briggs]

A big thanks to Paul for sending me a fan. I got it fitted this afternoon, however it turns out the resistor has also gone. So i know have a fan that works, but only on full wack. Better than nothing i guess.
Unfortunately i uncovered some rust behind the access panel....


Over the last week I have been having trouble with front brakes binding on. A quick look through the service history shows its had both calipers and brake hoses replaced due to binding brakes in the past. I got lucky this time however has all that was needed was good clean up, the sliders were pretty stiff, and the general state of the carriers wasn't exactly helping things!

[Coops90]

Looks a good base dan

[Mk4_Briggs]

So today i have finally managed to get one of the wheels finished. Its come out pretty nice, but its slightly darker than original.


When i was collecting the new wheel centre badges from BMW spotted this tucked away in the corner, it was stunning.

[Mk4_Briggs]

This weekend i FINALLY managed to get my wheels finished and fitted. But before popping them on I decided to scrub and clean under the arches as they was in a bit of state, came out pretty well though.
Before:

After:






I have also got my rocker cover finished. God knows when il get to fit it yet though, and there is still a HUGE amount of work to get done in the bay.



Dan

[spook]

Good stuff dude,and a very nice E30.

[Mk4_Briggs]

Progress is slowly being made. General cleaning and tidying of the engine bay has started, with the 1st job being the insulation on the inside of the bonnet as it was totally screwed.





£45 from BMW, but worth every penny i think, looks hell of a lot better!

Me and a friends took advantage of the good weather returning, gave the cars a good scrub down and got a few shots too.

[scott180gtb]

Love this gloss black colour on a E30. Non sunroof shell as well

[csl]

As above,gloss black looks stunning!

[Mk4_Briggs]

So after a trip up to Deutsch Connection a few weeks back, my exhaust decided to rot itself away. A quick call to BMW made the solution simple; stainless it was! BMW wanted £280+VAT for the centre section alone, so instead i opted for down pipe backwards stainless for £300. Got to admit, I'm well chuffed with it!



And a couple in front of the weird plane at DC!


Dan

[SpookyBandwagon]

Very nice!

[Speedtouch]

Toothpaste to clean a brake caliper?


Do you find the exhaust nore is louder/more resonant with the new stainless exhaust fitted? I bet it sounds great at high revs!

[Mk4_Briggs]

Nah, i reserve the toothpaste for the occasional tooth clean.
I had a choice of how i wanted the stainless, and i just went for "quiet". It's probably still louder than standard at idle, but much quieter than before when it was full of holes! From about 3000 RPM it really starts to rasp though, for the first few days after i had it fitted i spent most of my time above 3k
Seeing as i didnt go for a sports system, i was still quite pleased with the small performance gain too, makes me tempted to get stainless manifold and down pipe now.

[Speedtouch]

Nice. New exhausts, particularly stainless ones, tend to be quite resonant, until they fill up with some soot to dampen them down a bit.