1988 318i

[alpine318]

I had a 1989 325i well over a decade ago, I've always wanted another e30. Over the Christmas break, my girlfriend's dad passed away. When we were visiting the family, it was mentioned they were putting his e30 up for sale. It's a long and complicated story but I had never seen the actual car although I knew he had it. I went to the local workshop were it was being stored and had a look at it. I loved it and really wanted it. After a lot of talks with my girlfriend I decided I wanted to buy it, but a big problem was that I didn't have the money. I didn't want to miss getting it so made the decision to sell an old Suzuki Gsxr project that I had, lucky it sold within a few days. I managed to agree a fair price with the family and picked the car up last week.

It's a 1988 318 in alpine white. It's an automatic, it's got mot till the end of the year and has covered 78k and has got a lot of service history. The interior is very nice, the bodywork is mostly good but the arches are going to need some attention long term. It drives nicely but seems quite slow, seems to me to be the auto box and it's ratios. It's on steels with wheel trims but there are another set of wheels. They are in a shipping container and all I know is they were took off the car when her dad bought it, apparently he didn't like alloys, so there could well be a set of alloys in the container. I should have the wheels in a week or two once the container is sorted out.

Anyway I'm so happy to finally have another e30 and my girlfriend and the family are really pleased it's stayed in the family and gone to a good home. Here are a few pics.

[blimmer86]

Looks sweet what you plan to do with it ?

[Captain_Birdseye]

That's looking good.

[andysheep]

Nice story ,good luck,and thats why out of three e30s my daily will allways be loved the most,because i got and worked on it with my passed father in law still years later i hear him saying "oh your going to do it that way ,not the proper way then" lol,looking forward to your plans

[alpine318]

Looks sweet what you plan to do with it ?

For now I just want to drive it and use it, I've missed going to shows and meets. Long term I'd like a manual box, I don't like autos much. Very long term maybe put a six cylinder engine in.

[BenHar]

The wiki says it should be a three speed box.
http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... #Automatic

Ben

[darkchild]

The wiki is wrong. Only very early E30s came with the 3 speed slushbox.

[ah]

I wouldn't mine your car for the number,my initials.Very tidy 318.

[alpine318]

The boot of the car was rammed full of stuff that belonged to her dad. I've been sorting it out today. I can't believe how much stuff was in there, 3 motorcycle helmets, boots, gloves, a brand new drill, an umbrella, and loads more. The rear quarter cards were in the boot, I've just removed the rear seat to refit them, under the back arches it's going to need some welding on the drivers side. The trays from under the glove box and under the pedals have been removed too, not sure why. The car has a mini disc player and a pile of mini discs were in the passenger door holder, I've never used mini discs before so I'm not even sure how they work.

The spare wheel is one of the bottle top alloys, so there's a high chance the wheels in the container are the matching set to this one.

[jimbom30cab]

Nice story and super nice car also.

I'll be following the progress

Cool

[TPS]

Nice Car

[darkchild]

Interesting thread.

MiniDiscs were awesome...in 1998! They're redundant now due to MP3 but were pretty cool in the 90s. You'll need a MiniDisc deck to record onto them from CD (or any other musical format). They were quite nifty - you could name tracks, move them, delete them, merge/combine them etc. They, and DAT (Digital Audio Tape), were popular with radio stations due to their versatility and sound quality. Sony used to make separates until recently but finished manufacturing them a few years back. I've got literally hundreds of the things but they're too much like hard work in a world when you can connect your iPod or plug in a USB! In a world of cassettes though they were once the future.

[Blitz]

I've still got a Brand new boxed E39 head unit with MiniDisc