My Sebring Grey Motorsport

[ben9040]

Hi, I am pretty new to the zone, and just want to say high and thanks for the help so far, great site!
I bought this car about a year ago my first E30 although I also have an E46. It was from a fellow zoner I think although I saw it through ebay. It had some work done to it by him but I have done a few bits since including;

- Inspection 2
- New steering rack
- New brake pipes (old ones were original according to the garage that replaced them!)
- New shadowline electric aerial
- New overmats
- New battery
-Repaired drivers seat. If you look in the picture the seat looks slightly lighter in the middle on the base. This isnt as obvious in real life. I had to hand sew the leather strips back to the base using needle and thread but it is totally repaired now. I found the closest colour grey upholstery thread for the grey I could.
- Reset OBC as was stuck on PPPPP. Took me a while to find out how but sorted it now.
- Replace plates (had German ones on before) and remove mtec surrounds (werent for me)
- Repaired electric mirrors - new switch did the job
- Adjusted roof and got rear electric horseshoe working so it locks down. Still waiting on new top motor casing to come into E30 centre in Birm before get that done and get electric roof fully working.
- Replaced missing warning triangle, jack and other tools
- Really good clean and leather feed inside, clay bar and polish outside.

Basically I want to get it back to the condition it was in when it left the showroom in 1991!

Its been garaged over the winter but I have got it back out, taxed and MOTd so its ready to go over summer.

The bodywork is mint except for a tiny bit or rust around the rear licence plate lights and rear plate screw fixings. Underneath looks amazing, the guy at the MOT centre couldnt believe it. Came out with the classic "is it for sale". I told him no!



Photos as follows;



























Any comments welcome.

Still to do

- I want to get the engine bay cleaned up. Not too bad but will take a while - something to look forward to over the summer!
- Get roof repaired with new motor casing plus needs new rear screen.
- Full underseal to keep it rot free.

Cheers Ben

[ImysE30]

WOW, stunning cab, lovely colour

[he30]

Nice ride fella

[csl]

Nice mate

[bobbin1982]

im jealous

[bobbin1982]

how much did you pay for it if i may ask

[ben9040]

thanks for the comments guys. I paid around £4,500 if I remember correctly. Not cheap but because it was in such good condition inside and out I thought it was a bit of an investment really, especially if can get it fully mint again with the roof working.

[ImysE30]

Good price at 4.5k IMO, it's lovely

[ben9040]

One thing I'm not sure about... added the M badge to the front grill (genuine E30) which I like, but not sure whether to add a 325i badge to the back, quite like the look it gives but not sure if it is better without.... any thoughts?

[ImysE30]

Keep it de-badged, look's better IMO

Mine is de-badged and people think it's a 325i

[M7GHR]

Superb car you have there, would be good to find out if it was de-badged when it was ordered, especially as your after it being close to original as possible. most people de-badge when they have a smaller engine but you can wear yours with pride.

[madaboutthe30]

Nice one mate, got the same one but in Macau blue. Dont forget to register it in the e30 register

[Lennerd320i]

Request the optionlist with your vin number... It seems to me that this is one of those limited VFL cabs with origin m-tech2 bodykit... If I do see your interior with the very rare seats, real leather doorcards etc.
Nice buy!

[ben9040]

I got the option list from the dealers, it is a genuine motorsport edition 798 with leather, auto and electric hood, no additional options were listed (although it did come with just about everything available at the time being a motorsport) but it didnt have factory debadge listed so must have been removed at some point.
Wasnt sure about the leather at first but the bubble stuff has grown on me now, especially now it is repaired and hopefully should hold strong. Was a nasty job to sew myself, had to have the seat out for about a week and spent a few hours a night doing it in the living room!

[greentouring]

Yep, I love it!!!

[shazE30]

Very nice cab...gotta say I love the motorsport interior

[Motorsport_325i]

lovely cabby mate was bought from stoke if i remember rightly belonged to a freind of mine he is also a zoner

[Theo]

Lovely car, definitely one to be kept standard.

[baur320]

Ben, there's a gathering at the Lakeside (just off the South Shields road from White Mare Pool) on the 6th May. Fancy bringing it along?

Mick

[GC318]

Really nice, well done fella. Rear headrests would finish it off a treat.

[ben9040]

yeah from stoke originally, would like to come along to any meet in the north east, have you got any more info?

[baur320]

Meet is on the first Wednesday of each month. It's not just for E30s, cars range from a 2002 that does rallies to current models. Theres a few from here who go. Website is www.bmwclubne.co.uk but is getting revamped soon.

Mick

[ChemicalAl]

Beautiful!

[pac1982]

Thats looks great matey, possibly one of the mintest interiours i've ever seen on an E30

[maddogg]

Looks very tidy indeed. I'm very jealous of you interior. My bubble leather was too far gone and had to be replaced with normal grey leather. If anyone know where there's a nice grey bubble leather interior (seats only) please let me know...

[madaboutthe30]

Looks very tidy indeed. I'm very jealous of you interior. My bubble leather was too far gone and had to be replaced with normal grey leather.

Can bubble leather be repaired? I heard you cant?

[ben9040]

Can bubble leather be repaired? I heard you cant?

I did with mine as it was only just starting to go on the drivers seat base. The threads starts to wear away meaning the leather strips come up. Took it to an upholsterer but they wouldnt touch it so ended up doing it myself. I basically resewed the threads holding the leather strips to the seat base where they had worn away and it came up pretty well. I will try and get some close up pics on to show the repaired part in more detail.

[madaboutthe30]

Cool, I wonder why the upholsterer wouldnt touch it though