E30 Zone

Posted: **Mon Nov 25, 2024 9:22 pm**

Maybe foray is the wrong word but it rhymed

In a way I class this as my '3rd' E30 (simply not true) but because it is A: red and B: hopefully staying in the 'fleet' for the foreseable, I'm going to run with it. It's my 3rd 'keeper' red E30, lets put it that way.

Having always owned plastic bumpered 318iS (the two other stalwarts of the collection are just this) I had a hankering to change it up. I have always enjoyed the more retro classic asthetic of a chrome bumpered car. Having the two tin tip cars I wanted to dabble in the realm of the drop top and why not go the whole way with an M20 6 pot motor. Now as much as I wanted an M20b25 in the front, the prices (at least for red ones) for up together models were madness. The people selling them I think are in for a bit of a shock as I've watched the same over priced cars for 6 months now and they haven't shifted. So I started to set my sights on the M20b20. For what looks to me to be the same car but with a different engine, for half the money (litterally in my case) it seemed the most cost effective way to get 90% of what I was looking for.

If you're still with me, thank you. Some pictures,. I'm using the pictures from the advert as they are frankly very good. This is Rosie, my brilliant red, 320i, manual, chromie, cabriolet with sports uberkaro seats, crack free dash, with only 73k miles on the clock.

Underneath she is solid. The tyres are from 2007 so they are going in the bin. I'll be putting a set of 15inch cross spokes I have already refurbished on along with new brake discs and pads all round and a birthday service.

Posted: **Tue Nov 26, 2024 4:07 pm**

Hell of a nice looking car Rich

Welcome to the club so to speak lol.
It`s a different world with no top on !!!

Mart.

Posted: **Tue Nov 26, 2024 8:23 pm**

Welcome.
With a cabrio a 320i is perfectly fine as it’s a cruiser!

Posted: **Mon Dec 02, 2024 10:49 pm**

Very smart indeed. My first two E30s were chromey 320i versions, albeit tin-tops (1984 more-door followed by a 1987 2-door).

Lovely smooth engine, the M20B20, and less of a head-gasket worry than the 325i.

What colour is that one?

Posted: **Tue Dec 03, 2024 7:13 am**

Very nice cab!

too few Chromies around these days. 15" cross spokes would be my go-to also but there is something about a Chromie on bottletops that is cool, shame they were never 15" (although a few have had them made into 16" bolted split rims which although not original do look good)

Nothing wrong with a B20, same amount of work to turn it into a 2.9

Maybe it's the photograph and the sun but it looks Hennarot to me?

Good find

Posted: **Tue Dec 03, 2024 12:13 pm**

Yes, I was wondering if it was Henna Red, same as my first E30...

Posted: **Tue Dec 03, 2024 5:05 pm**

I can reveal she’s actually brilliant red, conveniently the same colour as my 318iS fleet. Only one colour code to remember

I got the tyres fitted to my refurbished wheels today and the new brakes arrived. I bought the tyres while at Le Mans this year, so happened they were much cheaper on the continent. I was going to put them on ‘Poppy’ but since changed plans there. Calling fate. I’ve never had my luck with buying used cars and anyone ever having given a sh!t about the condition of these two vital areas of the car

I think it’ll be a nice Christmas break job to get out of the house to change it all over.

Posted: **Tue Dec 03, 2024 8:52 pm**

Lovely looking car! Looks superb in red.

Posted: **Sun Jan 12, 2025 11:39 am**

Over Christmas I mamaged to slink out and do some bits on her. I changed the brakes and put the 15 BBS on her. There was a classic car meet locally so took her out to that. The fan blower stopped working which made for a chilly drive

Then some time to do some work on her.

Found that a bill for £450 in the history for a clutch and hydraulics changed in July this year which upon further inspection was merely a slave cylinder. The master was leaking like a sive. I also popped a new fan blower in as it had failed like they do. I also decided to put a new rocker cover gasket on as it was showing signs of causing a leak on the side of the engine. At 35 years old it was probably due a change.

The most annoying thing which happened on the drive is the odometer stopped working. So I popped it out and took it home. Looks like it failed rather dramatically. I have a spare I'm going to use to repair it.

Thankfully all the work I've needed to do so far has been quite straight forward. Fingers crossed for a cruisey summer

Posted: **Sun Jan 26, 2025 10:18 pm**

Gorgeous car you've got there!

Reminds me of my old mans Red baur he had when I was a teen.

Loving the progress updates. Hope to see more soon!

Posted: **Tue Feb 11, 2025 7:22 pm**

Cheers dude. She's a really great car to be fair. I think the previous owner kept getting ridiculous bills from garages (judging by the clutch saga). They'd had the si batteries 'replaced' by someone and they did a crap job of it as when I took it apart, they just fell off the board. They had lost all the screws and they didn't put the steering wheel back on straight. In got the impression with the minimal miles in that year and the short ownership they weren't up to fixing a lot of it themselves. I'm fortunate to have my unit and all my years of owning them to fix what is, with a little time and effort, small issues.

I took apart my spare Motometer cluster to swap out the whole unit and maybe (

) I can repair the damaged one some other time. The replacement was on 139,000 miles and I'd hoped a small drill may be the solution to winding those miles back to the mileage on the car, 73430.... it wasn't. Firstly rigging it up was a pain and after only trying for a short period of time, I'd knocked about 800 miles off and became very aware the plastic gears were never designed to spin that fast or for that long.

After much sitting there and trying to be patient with it, I eventually mustered up energy to be brave and 'try something'. Unscrewing what is essenitally the motor, moving it back just enough to release the pin which holds the gears, which hold the numbers in place, out of the way. I was then able to spin the numbers around. The biggest pain in the arse was lining them up again as it was possible to get the teeth misaligned and it meant it showed the number half way in the little window. Everytime I poped it back together a different number would have moved without me realising. It was a test of patience but I got there in the end. I didn't take many photos of it apart as I was more focused on finishing it late at night. But the result is this.

Posted: **Wed Feb 12, 2025 5:04 pm**

Cool effort Rich, I hope you get to use her in the warmer times to come, it`s a different way of driving

Mart.

Posted: **Wed Feb 12, 2025 9:55 pm**

rix313 wrote: ↑
Tue Feb 11, 2025 7:22 pm
Cheers dude. She's a really great car to be fair. I think the previous owner kept getting ridiculous bills from garages (judging by the clutch saga). They'd had the si batteries 'replaced' by someone and they did a crap job of it as when I took it apart, they just fell off the board. They had lost all the screws and they didn't put the steering wheel back on straight. In got the impression with the minimal miles in that year and the short ownership they weren't up to fixing a lot of it themselves. I'm fortunate to have my unit and all my years of owning them to fix what is, with a little time and effort, small issues.

I took apart my spare Motometer cluster to swap out the whole unit and maybe ( ) I can repair the damaged one some other time. The replacement was on 139,000 miles and I'd hoped a small drill may be the solution to winding those miles back to the mileage on the car, 73430.... it wasn't. Firstly rigging it up was a pain and after only trying for a short period of time, I'd knocked about 800 miles off and became very aware the plastic gears were never designed to spin that fast or for that long.

After much sitting there and trying to be patient with it, I eventually mustered up energy to be brave and 'try something'. Unscrewing what is essenitally the motor, moving it back just enough to release the pin which holds the gears, which hold the numbers in place, out of the way. I was then able to spin the numbers around. The biggest pain in the arse was lining them up again as it was possible to get the teeth misaligned and it meant it showed the number half way in the little window. Everytime I poped it back together a different number would have moved without me realising. It was a test of patience but I got there in the end. I didn't take many photos of it apart as I was more focused on finishing it late at night. But the result is this.

Brilliant work mate.

Satisfying when it takes ages but the end result is what you wanted to achieve isn't it?

Posted: **Sat Jun 07, 2025 10:23 am**

A few pics from various outings

Posted: **Sat Jun 07, 2025 12:26 pm**

Well she knows where to go alright !!!
Looking great Rich, hope you use it a lot .
It`s just a different way of driving with the top down, I have give mine so much stick so far this year.

Mart.

E30 Zone

My first foray with a cabriolet

My first foray with a cabriolet

Re: My first foray with a cabriolet

Re: My first foray with a cabriolet

Re: My first foray with a cabriolet

Re: My first foray with a cabriolet

Re: My first foray with a cabriolet

Re: My first foray with a cabriolet

Re: My first foray with a cabriolet

Re: My first foray with a cabriolet

Re: My first foray with a cabriolet

Re: My first foray with a cabriolet

Re: My first foray with a cabriolet

Re: My first foray with a cabriolet

Re: My first foray with a cabriolet

Re: My first foray with a cabriolet