325i Sport Light Resto Project *Rust Pics 10/5/13*

[Chris_B86]

Thought I'd better start a build thread as progress is finally starting to be made.

So I bought the car, a 1990 325i Sport, in July last year for £2400. It was unmodified, but has seen a lot of paint. It had done 145k miles, with a huge stack of history and 23 stamps in the service book...




Tyres were as old as the sun, so I picked up some burger king reps with good tyres for £100




Tried my luck in the Retro class at a car show and went and won (after 13 hours cleaning)




Then I put it off the road for the winter and that's where it stayed, but unfortunately suffered a paint reaction, presumably due to poor prep in the past, so in the next few weeks there are plans to have a full kit off, rust removal, respray



After Xmas, I got giddy, and the post man turned in to Santa, bringing me H&R Cup Kit, H&R ARB Kit, and poly bushes, as well as a Pipercross panel filter






In addition, I've also got front and rear discs and pads, hand brake shoes, hand brake cables, rear back plates, rear wheel bearing, track rod ends, and Lemforder control arms

The work all started last weekend, stripped the back end down, now have it half built back up...

Total trail of destruction...


Rear ARB...



Rear Suspension and new back plates...



And that's where I am, once all the components have been fitted, it's going to the body shop for the rust hunt and respray, then when it's painted, I've ordered a staggered set of these...



Which should look something like this but lower...

[G-Bear]

Nice.. good bit of progress...

[matt86]

Nice one Chris, seems a good buy for 2400 and tidy, hopefully you wont find too much rust lurking under the bodykit, like the wheels too they are different.

[Chris_B86]

Cheers fellas. I hope so too, but I've already found a few bits lurking. Just come back from my usual bodyshop, told him what I want, ie kit off, go on a rust hunt and attend to it properly with metal grafts and welding, full respray. Ball park figure no more than 2 grand which I thinks more than reasonable. Told him it can stay there as long as it needs, so they can take their time. It will be a job that isn't rushed so will be attended to when it's quiet

[G-Bear]

Make sure you get down to the bodyshop and get pics when you can..

[Rascal]

That will be a lovley car when all done, good luck !

[Chris_B86]

Make sure you get down to the bodyshop and get pics when you can..

I'm going to give them a camera and ask them to take pics of the progress and what they find then I can post it on here

Cheers rascal

[Chris_B86]

So just a bit of an update from my progress this weekend, only got one day of tinkering but here's what I got done...

Burnt out old trailing arm bushes pikey style



Fitted the new poly bushes, would have liked to have had the arms powder coated, but I'm being rushed to get the car back together so I can move it



Freshened up the rear calipers with a lick of silver



Fitted new shoes and hand brake cables to the back plates I did last weekend



And put everything back together



This is how it looked once I dropped it back down, will just need time and a drive to settle down I imagine




After I put all my tools and spare goodies back in the boot, it dropped a bit, lucky I'm dropping to 16's and won't be carrying all that weight in the back



Next week it's time to tackle the front end

[Chris_B86]

Update of things I've done this week, not really touched it for a month.

Fitted the following new parts...

H&R front dampers and springs
H&R front anti roll bar with poly bushes
New drop links
Control arms and ball joints
Track rod ends
Poly lollipop bushes
New front top mounts
E92 top hats
Pwerfelex bump stops
Front back plates








And thats as far as I got, thanks to CP4L not delivering my wheels bearings when they were supposed to.

Next on the list to finish is...

Wheels bearings
Paint calipers
New discs and pads
Bleed up the entire brake system

Home stretch now, soon as these little bits are done it can go to the bodyshop

[goosiegander]

Good work there Chris!

[Chris_B86]

Cheers pal. Getting there slowly. Started off as replacing a couple of worn bits, but everytime I do one bit, I decide to do some more, and it's ended up with practically every suspension component, bushes, bearings etc replaced with new items. Should drive tight as you like when it's done.

I've been toying with a 24v or S50 swap, but to do it properly is going to cost Brewsters, and I don't want to do it on the cheap. I've been eyeing up dbilas ITB's with a cam instead

[goosiegander]

Cheers pal. Getting there slowly. Started off as replacing a couple of worn bits, but everytime I do one bit, I decide to do some more, and it's ended up with practically every suspension component, bushes, bearings etc replaced with new items. Should drive tight as you like when it's done.

I've been toying with a 24v or S50 swap, but to do it properly is going to cost Brewsters, and I don't want to do it on the cheap. I've been eyeing up dbilas ITB's with a cam instead

Welcome,

This may sound a little harsh but by the time you have messed about with the whole ITB business and getting the best out of the M20 a bit at a time you could have bought a rough e36 m3 and had the engine breaking the rest to fund the conversion, biggest cost will be the manifolds but buy all the bits up and do it in one hit, job done

[Chris_B86]

I see your poiny. My only though on costs was rwading a thread on here saying it can cost in excess of 5k to do an m50 swap. I do know where theres a 328 going for scrap value though for an M52 swap

[goosiegander]

Hmmm,

S50 swap done DIY is going to be 4/6k depending on how anal you want to be, BBB did a fantastic job with mine,

A genuine sport is going to be devalued with anything less than its original engine or an s14/50/54 in my opinion,

S50 starters:
Clio servo
Manifolds
Loom
Sump & dipstick
Engine mounts
Prop
other sundry bits...

Why not treat yourself?

[Chris_B86]

This was why I thought about just fettling with the M20 a little bit, at least its mostly original, and if I painted the rocker cover black and polished the writing, the dbilas itb's would look pretty factory.

An M5* swap if I'm honest would be purely for aesthetics.

An S50 swap would just be epic. 300-320bhp in an e30, plus the satisfaction of seeing m power when you pop the bonney....

[zd3bx]

Great work on replacing all the bits and pieces, reminds me that I need to do that too

And mega-sexy choice re wheels! I love the look of those 3sdms, but have never seen an E30 with 0.05s, so would be interested to see how it's going to look.

I was thinking of getting the same wheels in16 8J all around, but not sure about the 8J width?

Even an M3 had only 7.5J...Don't know if that would make a world of difference in handling/performance, but I wouldn't want to sacrifice the driving factor just for the sake of looks

[Chris_B86]

Cheers pal. You won't have seen one on those wheels because there isn't one 4x100 isn't out yet so I've got them on pre order.

Fitted my front bearings and hubs last night. Easiest thing in the world!

[Rtaylor2208]

When replacing the lolipop bushes and trailing arm bushes what method did you use? All looking good by the way.

[Chris_B86]

Lollipops, I used hammer and chisel to get the old one out as it has a metal ring around it, poly ones don't have this ring so used fairy liquid and roughly 16 stone of pressure (I stood on it) to push it in.

Trailing arms, I used a blow lamp and burnt the old ones out, the poly ones split in the middle, so just slid the two halves in from either side with a bit of grease

[Rtaylor2208]

Hmmm, interesting. I had held off doing these as I didnt have access to a press. Post back how it drives once its done a few people have said polys make the ride harsh.

[Chris_B86]

To be fair, there's a few things added together that could give that effect, 70mm drop, 22mm arb, boly bushes. I'm not expecting it to be all that comfortable.

However having said that, the bushes I bought, are of a density more similar to standard, but made from poly for durability. They did two types, normal (red) and sport (yellow) which are harder

[Rtaylor2208]

Do you have a link to them at all? This sounds like a much easier way of me getting mine done.

[Chris_B86]

Do you have a link to them at all? This sounds like a much easier way of me getting mine done.

Here you go mate...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280886783557

[polsta]

Cheers pal. You won't have seen one on those wheels because there isn't one 4x100 isn't out yet so I've got them on pre order.

Fitted my front bearings and hubs last night. Easiest thing in the world!

lookins super enjoying the thread

[Rav335uk]

Nice work Chris.
I take it all the backing plates were through BMW then?

[Chris_B86]

Nice work Chris.
I take it all the backing plates were through BMW then?

Yeah dealer only unfortunately. Cost about £135 for the four

[Rav335uk]

Nice work Chris.
I take it all the backing plates were through BMW then?

Yeah dealer only unfortunately. Cost about £135 for the four

[Chris_B86]

Nice work Chris.
I take it all the backing plates were through BMW then?

Yeah dealer only unfortunately. Cost about £135 for the four

Tell me about it

[Rav335uk]

How much were the wheel bearings?

[Chris_B86]

Rear ones were about £20 each from gsf, front ones £77 a pair delivered from cp4l with discount code. I ordered the cheap orbis ones, I got Lucas ones

[Chris_B86]

Think there's going to be a change in wheels Got the suspension all done, and I just don't think it's going to be low enough to pull off the 16" 3SDM's, so thinking about the Dare D-RS reps in 17x7.5 front and 17x8.5 rears, et35 all round

[Rav335uk]

Decisions decisions

[Chris_B86]

Think it's going to have to be the 17's, gutting really, but it just wouldn't look right, I'd have to put fat tyres on the 3SDM's to fill the arch. I thought with 60-70mm drop on the front it would be enough, but the arch gap is still offensive even with the burger kings on

[Rav335uk]

Regardless of the size of the rim, the rolling radius has to be the same to keep the speedo in check.
On 16" wheels, the correct sizes are 205/50/16's front and rear, or 225/45/16 rears.
Om 17" you'll need to drop the profile further to 40/s.

[Chris_B86]

Not particularly worried about the speedo, it's for the aesthetics of it. I'd have been running 40-45's on the 16's