Gio_SA's baby

[Gio_SA]

Hey Zoners

So I have already introduced myself ions ago and thought I'd introduce my baby to you guys also.

So my baby left the factory floor as a 232i Chrome bumper coupe back in 1985 and quite sometime after that the owner decided that the M20B23 motor needed to be tossed aside for some or other reason and slapped in a M20B25 motor (not that I'm complaining ).

Anyway some more time went by and the car changed hands and I finally saw it and convinced the new owner to sell to me and this is what she looked like when I got her (less the Hockenheims)



Than a my worst nightmare happened and I ran into a Nissan Sentra (long story ) and this is how she ended up...



That's when the quest to bring her back to her former glory started. So I stripped of the chrome bumpers, sent them in for fixing and re-chroming and when they came back the place that did the business did not include all the parts needed to assemble and mount them back onto the car so I am driving around bumperless at the moment (but no hurry)

Now I hear that she has a piston slap and it's going to cost me an arm and a leg as I need to rebuild the motor and I start to wonder if she is worth the trouble.....

Anyway, so I do what I usually do when I'm feeling down and mad at her..... I spent some time with her by giving her a good foam bath...















So now, you guys tell me....... how can I stay mad at her when she looks this good when clean?????

[gooner1]

Looking good Gio, but how are you managing to drive around with no front
indicators ? Btw, i may have just bought some front Bumper Mounts by mistake, it,s the rears i need. If you are interested, and will cover the Postage, i can let you have them,
for whatever i end up paying for them on Ebay.
Not sure how the spares availability is out there.

[Rav335uk]

Nice car, whats with the Electric Fence

[essexgirlracer]

Nice one hun..... will look sweet when finished x x

[Gio_SA]

Looking good Gio, but how are you managing to drive around with no front
indicators ? Btw, i may have just bought some front Bumper Mounts by mistake, it,s the rears i need. If you are interested, and will cover the Postage, i can let you have them,
for whatever i end up paying for them on Ebay.
Not sure how the spares availability is out there.

Yo gooner1 that is very generous of you buddy and I will appreciate that very much. Are those brackets for a chrome bumper though?

Let me know, thanks.

As for the front indicators, well I do not drive the car around alot so that is how come I can survive without them and when i do I am very carefull to ensure that people see when i want to turn and also very careful to stay clear of the fuzz....

[Gio_SA]

Nice car, whats with the Electric Fence

My baby needs all the protection see can get Rav335uk....

No buddy, that is a normal sight over here in SA (better save than sorry I suppose), but not to make it seem like SA is a war zone or so crime ridden that you can hardly walk the street, but you do need to protect yourself and the E30 bimmer is a sought after jewel over here.

But, like I said it's not all that bad, it's more a case of prevention being better than cure... If you catch my drift....

[Gio_SA]

Nice one hun..... will look sweet when finished x x

Thanks ESG...... you are too kind.

It will definately look schweet when complete (if it will ever be complete)......

[kerrie]

Nice ride Chom!
Electric fence brings back memories!, I was from KZN, been in UK 2 years, Those hockeniem's looked quiet sweet!
Cheers

[gooner1]

Looking good Gio, but how are you managing to drive around with no front
indicators ? Btw, i may have just bought some front Bumper Mounts by mistake, it,s the rears i need. If you are interested, and will cover the Postage, i can let you have them,
for whatever i end up paying for them on Ebay.
Not sure how the spares availability is out there.

Yo gooner1 that is very generous of you buddy and I will appreciate that very much. Are those brackets for a chrome bumper though?

Let me know, thanks.

As for the front indicators, well I do not drive the car around alot so that is how come I can survive without them and when i do I am very carefull to ensure that people see when i want to turn and also very careful to stay clear of the fuzz....

The Brackets, if i end up winning them, are indeed for a chromie Gio. 3/4s of the Driving population, over here,
seem unable to use indicators anyway, and when they do they turn the opposite way to what they are indicating.
Sorry, pet hate of mine.

[Alex]

looking good

Rav you need an electric fence over there, my uncle used to have two sets of electric gates a huge wall with spikes on and a massive shutter on the bottom of the stairs

Not the safest place in the world, corrupt police force etc lol

nice country though i want to go back and see my cousin but the flights are

[Gio_SA]

Hey Zoners

It's been like forever since I was last on the forum, let's just say that life happens and leave it at that.

I'm embarrassed to publicly admit that not much has happened with regards to my "so-called restoration" of my baby . Again I'll chalk it up to "Life happens"

Anyway, enough sob stories for now. I'm back and hopefully I'll be bad this time around....

Since my last update I had found out that my motor had a piston slap and would require a pretty penny to rebuild or find a replacement unit (which at the time was scarce). After lots of hunting and seeing what people wanted for BMW motors I decided to go a route less traveled, at least when I decided to go that route it was the less traveled one, that's not the case anymore.

I settled on buying a 1JZ GTE VVTI motor for less than what I would have paid for a M20B25 but with almost twice the power.



Yes, I know lots of guys here are thinking "WTF", I have been stoned already for putting a Toyota motor into a BMW

So we did a test fit, just to see what it will be like:



It looked good I must say and so we started prepping the engine bay for the new heart....





Rubberized the whole engine compartment:









And this is what she looked like afterward:



Anyway, enough for now. I will continue with this saga soon.

Laterz peeps