E30 Zone

Hello chaps,

I thought I'd start my build thread from day one as I've own my E30 for 6 months now. I've always wanted one, and make a 90s throw back with an OEM touch, with the hope of going for 24Vs in the near future

I picked this little gem up in the summer '13, a lovely 325i not sport, low mileage (98,000) completely rust free, sport seats, Z3 short shift, grooved discs front and rear with Goodridge braided lines, an LSD (unsure which one) and got it polly bushed before I got it too. Swapped the plate then the fun started





I work abroad a lot so got a few things ordered up for the next time I came home. My wooden Nardi looked out of place so ordered this (a rep sadly) it's a temporary measure until I find something I like



Also got these fitted, with project silver camber adjustable top mounts



Next up was to get the arches rolled, with the newly bought heatgun ready for the BBS RS264s wrapped in 195/40 and 215/35 continental tyres



You can just about make out the beautifully crafted G23Engineering adaptors in this picture



BBS Fitted



Then over the Christmas holidays I got smoked clear indicators on the front and sides, cut the front springs in prep for the new shorter ones which are arriving this week (don't worry I don't drive it like this, it's just so the car is mobile with the winter wheels on it, as they catch the springs at the current height)





These are the winter wheels, 17x8 et20 TSW Hockenheim Rs. I got them in a rough condition, with a home brew refurb and another set of Continentals all round (same sizes as the BBS set up) they look pretty good, a throw back to the 90s



90s fog light shot



I don't have any pictures but got the Nakamichi head unit all wired in and my audio in the boot, sadly they are still in the boxes.

That's about it for now, I'm on the look out for some Recaro Pole Positions or SPG to trim in the factory material and the E38 brembo set up to run on the front.

looks

tell me more about the porker

Cheers bud

That Porsche.... thats a mates 924, early spec. He's kept it mostly original with some modern upgrades... Gaz coilovers, 17" Fuch wheels, and a retro cassette deck with a hidden iPod install. Its in this months RetroRides magazine if you want mor details

Got this months mag & I have to say that Porsche is stunning, nice to see something other than a 911 getting some love.

There's more on that Porsche here:

http://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/94057?page=11

and here:
http://www.dailydrivermagazine.co.uk/re ... ring-2013/

That rear-engined air-cooled one looks intriguing...

Nice car, what colour is it?

Mexico beige, by the looks of it:

http://www.danielboros.com/924colors/

oomz1975 wrote:Nice car, what colour is it?

Are you talking about the E30 there? As everyone else seems to be fascinated with the Porsche...

The E30 is Cirrusblau I think its called, looks grey most of the time

This is nice mate good work

Thanks Mani

Just bought some more wheels, they seemed to cheap to leave alone whilst drinking Rum & Cokes last night

16x8" and 9" BBS RS, they need building up and tyres, so thinking about the finish I want on them as I really like the oldschool faded gold centers my other friend has for his 924.

Tyres are going to be a hard choice too, I'm getting too old to be running rubber bands.

Anyway, enough of my rambling, here's a picture along with new wheels for the beige bastard

Very Nice Indeed

Thanks TPS


A small and pointless update, should keep the thread ticking over though.

My new 5" AVO springs arrived whilst I was away, should help me raise the adjustable platforms about the tyre but still keep the same amount of suspension travel



I sent the 16" BBS barrels to the guys at Flatout Valeting to be stripped and re-powdercoated in bright silver. With the weather the way it was I decided to spend the whole of Sunday day fettling with the E30

1st job was to start experimenting with this new product evryones be raving about, Plastidip... The brand new IS chin spoiler was sprayed up, and came out quite well, a factory finish and that rubbery feel to touch. Very impressed.

So with that finished I spent the next few hours carefully masking up the window trims, the previous owner had made a right hash of painting the chrome trim black.



Everthing was going well, the finish look great once again. But, and its a big but... The Plastidip had formed such a good, smooth thick layer on the window trims that when i came to remove the masking tape, it ripped all the sprayed black wrap off too, making the trims look even worse, GUTTED!!!

This lead to my downward spiral of enthusiasm, 3 hours wasted re-texturising the window trims needed a pick me up. So I decided to test fit my 16" RSs for a bit of eye candy to brighten up my day, before changing the brake pads all round for EBC Black stuffs and painting the calipers.

This went a bit down hill too... The offsets are a bit too low on the rears with my current adaptors, so I'm going to have to get the centers filled and redrilled to 4x100. That way the rears should sit absolutely bob on



I also trail fitted my friends 17" OZ Futuras, the ones in the previous pictures. The looked pretty sweet, I'll try and get hold of some of his pictures for the next update.

This is the only picture I have of that fitment (Instagram'd I'm affraid)



All this bad luck drained my oomph for working on it, so decided to leave the pads and other niff naff until another day. Put it all back together, 15" RZs back on and off for a wash and a Sunday evening drive.

I rcognise that 924! Retro Rides Gathering last year? I had the "methlab" motorhome and sent you some pics. I too had a thing for 924s and took my S to RRG 10!

Poor car

Mechagran wrote: I rcognise that 924! Retro Rides Gathering last year? I had the "methlab" motorhome and sent you some pics. I too had a thing for 924s and took my S to RRG 10!

Thats my friend Bens car, not mine.

I think he's talking about selling it if you're interested

Blitz wrote:Poor car

Whys that Blitz?

what have you done with the original set of BBS'?

They are still on it for the moment

I actually prefer the car with the OZ's on it

Blitz wrote:Poor car

Whys that Blitz?[/quote]

Looked nice before you got hold of it. 2 door 325i's are so scarce now, and nice ones need preserving. Once you got the arch rollers out it was game over for the car. It will just be another stanced up 24v conversion.

Blitz wrote:Looked nice before you got hold of it. 2 door 325i's are so scarce now, and nice ones need preserving. Once you got the arch rollers out it was game over for the car. It will just be another stanced up 24v conversion.

Apart from rolling the arches nothing I have done cannot be un-done. The arches are't flared at all, they still have the stock lines.

I've toyed with the idea of 24v-ing the car, but to be honest the amount I use it I doubt that will happen. Ive covered 250 miles since July.

I guess everyones entitled to their opinion, so cant really argue with you on that point. I like to think I am preserving the car, and giving a bit more love than it had in its past life.



On the plus side, I've ordered a new boot carpet, tailored mats and upgraded speakers to fit behind the stock grills, It will all be sound deadened before the summer and the road trip to Austria

Thought I'd add a little update to this, as its fallen behind

upgrading the speakers

To my surprise I found these in the front kick well



They were tested and left in position.

Then to replace the rears, the 25 year old original hanging paper speakers have had their day



Replaced with some well spec'd cheap Kenwood items



Pretty chuffed they fitted under the stock retro covers too...

Replaced the front pads for EBC Black stuff, just normal street pads, finally



Painted the calipers blue



Snapped my breaker bar



Painted up the pooty window trims a bit better, until I fit the shadow trim I've stored somewhere



Bought a Kenwood new headunit as the Nakamichi was past its best. Also some new E34 engine mounts, hopefully should raise it enough to clear the sub frame


And, onto the road trip at the start of the summer...


Through many trials and tribulations the old girl got me around Europe and home again (4,600 miles in total)

Where do I start, Friday morning... Got the car back with fresh aux belts and wheels balanced at 10am and with a boot packed to the rafters, we set off for Dover to make our rendezvous with the guys from Club Golf IDF, just outside of Metz, France. The car ran faultlessly, reasonably comfortable cruising at 70-80mph and nowhere near over heating. We decided to stop at Reading services on the M4 for a few road snacks, which turned out to be a fatal floor (or blessing in disguise). The fuel pump refused to work after a few Greggs pasties and bottles of pop were purchased.



This AA guy was a legend! Followed us from the M4 to the local GSF, to try and get us on our way. We had the back seat off its mountings and used the onboard hammer to shock the pump into performing.



After trying 4 places for an in tank pump at 3pm on a Friday afternoon, we decided to change the filter to maybe give the pump an easier life and get on our way back to South Wales. Baz at DB Autos managed to source us a new pump and was being delivered in the morning.

The pump struggled on until Newport, just before the tunnels... Stopped in the outside lane at first, then wouldn't get going again so had to use the slight incline to get us across to safety. Gutted!!! 20 miles from home!!!!



Nei bother, with spirits still high and laughing and joking about the situation the next day (Saturday) we got the new pump fitted



Took the opportunity to refit the wooden Nardi wheel and the new USB/CD player (which as it happens was a complete God send)



The pump turned out to be a nightmare, first the little seal in the assembly twisted and stopped the pump flowing at its maximum, so anything over 3k and the engine would splutter. So using my engineering skills =-) I used a small Allen key to podge it out and have an all or nothing pump. This in turn made the pump super loud with less than half a tank of gas, but heyho it worked and the car was back on the road

Our ferry was rebooked for Saturday evening, which was a breeze this time. Cruising along the M4 with an old Saab 900 turbo for a while was ace! We managed to get on the truck level to stop the underside of the car grounding out on the higher decks



There weren't many pictures taken at this point, but we thought "Flat Out" was going to be the plan to get down to Austria before supper time, to make up for the two or three day delay.

France, Belgium and Holland was much of a muchness really, although the highways were alot smoother than the UK equivalent. Almost forgot... We hit a contraflow somewhere in Belgium and found an upside down hatchback in the outside lane, pretty scary stuff! The passengers had obviously been ok as there wasn't anyone to be seen, so squeezed passed and carried on. Germany was epic, 100mph on the clocks and slowly munching through the huge mileage that still lay ahead, beautiful sunrise in the mountains and the new head unit churning out chilled out beats!



We bought a 10 day Austrian road tax pass and proceeded through the mountain roads





By this time I was completely ball bagged! No sleep from Saturday 8am, fixed the car, sniffed what felt like a gallon of petrol in the process, driven through the night and it was now around 3pm Sunday. A 10mim break was needed, a euro RedBull and pesto sandwich refuelled us for the final push!!!!

Worthersee is definitely a trip I'll be doing again!

We finally arrived at Velden around 6pm ish, and met up with The guys after a well deserved beer. I was totally in shock with the calibre of cars driving about and parked up around the town. After a bit of food and a shower we set about fitting in and seeing the sights.





Next problem...

A little issue I should have resolved before the trip bit me in the ass half way through the week, rear brake pads! I spent a day driving around with the flickering warning light and finally gave in, having to return to the local BMW dealership twice as they supplied the wrong pads first time. An €85 expense I could have avoided if I wasn't so lazy before hand as I still had the EBC black stuff items in the shed

Pic of the best out of the four





The last day we spent chilling out, making the most of the scenery and generally having the time of our lives. Cars, climate, company, what more could you want???

A clutch pedal on the floor at 4pm on a Friday? Yes please!!! This car has tested my patience to breaking point. With the help of Flo I nursed the car back to the dealership (again) to get fixed over the weekend. Only to find out the workshops don't open until Monday morning. With no other choice we booked more accommodation in Klagenfurt so we could be within walking distance of the garage and the lake...

Monday afternoon arrived and with it a call from the Head Mechanic with the good news that the car was fixed. A blown master cylinder seal caused the flat pedal.

Rejoice Rejoice, Praise The Lord !!!!

We then carried on with the road trip through Lake Garda, Vernona, Bologna, Modena, Imola, San Marino, Riccione, Tavullia, Coriano, Florence, Mugello, Munich, Hamburg and finally back to blighty...

Here's some random snaps of the journey

more updates

I flew home for a friends wedding and had an hour spare so unwrapped boxes of deliveries

20m of heat wrap, S50 injectors (a straight swap from what I've been told. Run quieter and more efficient) and a whole new pump assy (to replace my noisy one)



Diff mount, LSD oil and a new power aerial



The new manifold, I know its not the best, but it'll be better than the cast one that's on there



Fitted chrome kidney grills and fixed the boot lid central locking. I bought a new boot lock unit only to find the pin had dropped out. So that was an easy fix, and I have a spare.



New rocket breather



Manifold gaskets, LED replacement bulbs and finally a set of locking wheel nuts



A new PAS reservoir to hopefully cure the weeping



And a pretty bloody good condition mtech1 spoiler to be painted up when the car goes in for a full repaint



A shiny exhaust fitted all the way from front to back. Decided to go for a standard note, nothing loud and a set of RS4 style tips instead of the usual twin round choice most e30 owners go for



The car was then dropped off at 1st Choice for its MOT, passed with flying colours once again.

I fitted a new breather hose between the rocker cover and throttle body. This gets clogged with emulsified oil/water, so well worth the £12 to swap

Old vs New



I tried to get the LED filaments in, but unfortunately the heads are too big for both dipped beam and fog lights. GUTTED!

Next on the list was to fit the new trim clips and new genuine IS chin spoiler which have been hanging about for a while





That's about as far as the mods/improvements have gone thus far. It's back on the 15" BBS for winter, whilst I gather parts for the body shop.

I'm on the look out for a mint rust free sunroof panel, boot lid and passenger door. If anyone knows of any can they drop me a PM?

Thanks

Some Pictures that were taken by Ben (The beige 924 owner) pre-Worthersee trip

as my photography skills are tripe!











and one a friend posted from an Austrian pap

FANTASTIC PICS. we're doing a similar round trip ourselves, mechanical failiures are always the result of limited local use turning into 2000 odd miles over a few days. we went to the le mans classic in a 1967 911 and it had been perfectly german for a couple of years til it got spanked across France. dead fuel pump, melted points and out of balance carbs became 4 days of sweat and filthy hands, idea was to camp next to the track for 3 days but we were mainly faffing about and worrying if our cobbled together car would make it home. takes the edge off the trip a little.

Nice one!

I like to think its part and parcel of using an old car for these trips.

+'s you get the nostalgic feeling, and smiles off locals

-'s the constant worry that something is going to go wrong

It's that time of year again... Wörthersee!!!!

Learning from last years dramas I came home a few days early to give the car a good once over and run it about to find any little problems after being stored over winter.

To my delight there was a few.

Within a few hours of arriving home the car looked like this



So I could replace these in the morning



The wishbone bushes were left out as I have polyflex items going on

Once it was all fitted and tightened up, off to get the alignment sorted



A new battery was ordered, the cold weather had killed the previous one.

Then onto the fuel pump (again) Where as the last replacement did its job, it was noisy as hell, so I went about fitting a new all in one item.

After a few miles on the new bushes balljoints and tracking I decided it was time to make the old bugger look half about again, so new rear tyres were added to the big BBS's



And a new electric aerial was fitted



diff oil changed



With all this work done, the IS spoiler will get clipped on for the journey.

The old 15" BBS basket weaves will be going up for sale.

I've got a set of E38 Brembos for up front and E34 ATE calipers for the rear, so I'll need something a little bigger for winters.

Good read, dispite the issues every cloud has a silver lining!

Guess what, it's worthersee time, so that means the annual update of my build thread.

I don't think that there's too much to report this time as I've been away 95% of the time with work.

New wheels for winter, I think I prefer them to the RSs. They are 17 x 8 & 9 with 195/40 on the front and 225/35 on the rear.



Got a set of E38 730i Brembos and E34 540i rear calipers





Which were stripped powder coated and rebuilt. All this is going to get fitted with the 300mm.de bolt on kit. The clio servo and 750i m/c are tucked away somewhere at the moment, but will be fitted to help move more fluid around the system.





Only have the fronts on so far...





The bumpers and mirrors were sent off to paint as they had seen better days, with various stone chips and general wear and tear.



I took advantage of having these stripped down to order up all new rubbing strips and side markers.



Also got the rear lights and indicators off to give them a scrub to get rid of all the crud and condensation from ill fitting seals





The motor is ticking quite loudly so it was decided to upgrade the injectors to the m50 type, after buying and fitting a rebuild kit.







Once everything was back together to make sure I didn't break anything, we whipped the rocker cover off to check the valve clearances, and to paint it up to get rid of the hideous white.



Much to my dismay they were all within tolerance. So slightly thicker oil and a new filter has been ordered to try and make the engine a smidgen quieter.

Right then...

Got the E32 master cylinder on to deal with the extra braking force needed.





Had to replace this little bugger... weeping over the belts causing a nasty squeal and the obvious loss of coolant.



And after 2 days of hard work the rears are on and bled... Alot of cutting and reshaping of the splash gaurd and hubs, retapping all of the threads the powdercoaters filled and all new brake flexis and fluid.



Whilst being Bled



a few close ups....





Just a few more little bits and pieces to finish off before Worthersee woohooooo

Spring in austria....

All the difference in 2 days....

looking good and encouraging to see that the old car handles the road trip after sitting for a bit too. Did you ever get rid of the ticking?

the new plastic bumper strips must make a big difference in the freshen-up.... mine are looking their age.

I just sat and read through the whole thread and i enjoyed every bit of it!

I love the idea of a road trip and would also like to do it one day!

Keep up the good work!

For sale yet...?