Coming back??? (Looking at a 325i Cab)

Post Tue Sep 12, 2006 1:17 pm

Hello again you lot!

Been a while since i was last on here, having sold my beloved 325 Tourer a few months back. (Has anyone seen the new owner pop up on here - i did highly recommend the site to him!) Trouble is, i'm missing it and desperate for some 6-pot RWD old school style again. Got my eye on a cab now as it's a good time to buy them and i've always admired the look of the rag-top. Dont have any experience of them though having only had a tourer previously.

So, who can tell me what to look out for on a cab? I remember someone saying the roof mechanism can be a nightmare to repair if broken. Are they all electric hoods?

How do these handle compared to the hard-tops - do they flex much round the bends? I can only imagine there's a lot of additional metalwork in the chassis to stiffen them up, so i guess they're a bit slower off the mark than a standard 325.

Anything else you can tell me that might be of interest?

Post Tue Sep 12, 2006 1:23 pm

Rot rear arches cabs were more common to have mud flaps
Hood's can be lectric, hydraulic if you are lucky.
Hood mechanisum (Sh*te spelling) right pain in the arse as it's the motor tops shear and the hood frame can easily bent
Scuttle shake not to bad but need strut brace uprated anti-roll bars just as good as a hard top trust me i had my cab for 3 years
can get my hands on an original Motorsport convertible if you are interested Pete ?? only prob Auto

Post Tue Sep 12, 2006 1:27 pm

Hi Ben,

That was a quick reply! Thanks for the tips. I remember your white cab well, having taken it for a nice detour around the Hampshire countryside en route to the RR day!

Strut brace and ARBs sound like a sensible upgrade to stiffen it up. I'm not a mental driver, but i so loved throwing my Tourer around roundabouts.

Motorsport cab sounds expensive and i'm on a limited budget - plus i'm not sure i could live with an auto. Thanks all the same though

Post Tue Sep 12, 2006 1:27 pm

there is extra metalwork oh yes
silly looking sills,

a big frame in the boot behind the rear seats,

a few extras in the engine compartment

and another strip of metal behind the dash (ask MrLee30)

but manual hoods are common (and recommended by me - I've had both)

apart from that - I've seen one that had a stuff up the rear; you could see a ripple above the rear wheel-arch, and the bodywork didn't sit quite straight - watch for that; look for accident damage like any other car

Post Tue Sep 12, 2006 1:33 pm

yes the white one is in a scrap yard dead got a tourer now and a tech 1 sport sport may be getting sold ??

Post Tue Sep 12, 2006 1:33 pm

fowler wrote:Rot rear arches cabs were more common to have mud flaps
Hood's can be lectric, hydraulic if you are lucky.
Hood mechanisum (Sh*te spelling) right pain in the arse as it's the motor tops shear and the hood frame can easily bent
Scuttle shake not to bad but need strut brace uprated anti-roll bars just as good as a hard top trust me i had my cab for 3 years
can get my hands on an original Motorsport convertible if you are interested Pete ?? only prob Auto

I thought all cabs had front and rear ARBs from the factory, and the 325s have the 25mm ones, same as the M3? What size have you put on?

IMHO the strengthening that BMW did in the factory is as good as an aftermarket strut-brace...

Post Tue Sep 12, 2006 1:40 pm

when i put my strut brace on it stopped the car flexing quite alot on front as it would twist quite a bit
it just stops the body roll as the tend dip and sway at the rear end and skip on the front combined with 35mm drop
i put poly bushes and ket std rear arb uprated the front to alpina one of german egay cant rember the size
oh and that lup of metal in the back CRAP no decent sounds

Post Tue Sep 12, 2006 2:08 pm

all 325i cabs came with a 22mm front roll bar rear was standard 2.5 affair around 14mm

Good to see u back Pete! i still have those touring cover thingys for u!

If u find a chariot u want to look at i'll gladly come with u if u want for an extra eye lol

Post Tue Sep 12, 2006 2:09 pm

Simon, I thought cabs came with 21mm front bars.

Sal

Post Tue Sep 12, 2006 2:11 pm

Don't know about the smaller engines, but IIRC the 325i cabs have 21(?)mm arbs - slightly bigger than the equivalent tin-top anyway.

edit: Just a tad slow there! :lol:

Post Tue Sep 12, 2006 2:13 pm

it might be 21 one of the 2 for sure. Standard 2.5 saloon is 18mm right?

Post Tue Sep 12, 2006 2:18 pm

I thought it was 20mm tbh, but I've never had one so I'm really not sure!

Post Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:04 pm

stand by for Fireworks....

in this thread Sal, you recommend AVO springs

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... suspension

Post Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:21 pm

yep an extra brace under the front window, caused me no end of grief trying to fit a coupe dash

my manual roof has never let me down, but heard horror stories about the elecrtro/hydraulic ones. personally would leave em alone.

if the roof on the car you are looking at is tatty then BAS-international.com will sell you a nice new roof for about 350 quids plus a couple a hundred to fit, use that as a good bargining tool to knock down a potential buy. and if you find a hardtop violla you have a coupe with rear windows, perfect for your winter nights.

as for the strut brace i simply cannot see how that would make any significant differece to the cars handling, and i personmally noticed no dramatic difference between my tech1 sport and my cab (except cab is a 320), if you see the size of the cross member under the dash you would realise that a strut brace is useless, unless you are using it for trackdays. but in that case the whole brake system.suspension system etc etc is not up to scratch.

Cabs also have additional cross member under the rear seat bench, main pain in the arse about a cab is the lack of easy places to put speakers, but that is solvable with custom door pods and a big sub-woofer.

mate grab a cab and never look back at yout estate (sorry touring) days again!!!

and for the nay-sayers here is the cross member (under the windscreen and above the demister air outflow.

Post Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:44 pm

Karan said
325i sport and m3 arbs.... i have both and they appear to be the same diameter.... of course the front arrange,emt on the m3 is different cos of the droplinks attaching to the struts

that's one place where I got my ARB point from - I just believed Karan which I think is reasonable

I'm sure someone else said the 325 cabs had the biggest ARBs that BMW made for the E30 - well it makes sense so why wouldn't they?

I'll measure mine tonight

Post Tue Sep 12, 2006 7:01 pm

Pete I know of a 325 cab manual hood and manual transmission, full black leather, OBC etc. Tax and ticket but needs a bit of work to make pretty. Price is good though

Call me if you want.

Iain

07810 650 395

Post Tue Sep 12, 2006 7:42 pm

Jeepers - this place is certainly still buzzing isn't it??!! Great to see such an enthusiastic response already. I'm greatly encouraged that the handling of the cab isn't compromised that much due to the extra stiffening and ARBs. I just think they look so cool - with or without the hood up.

Iain - Hi there - sounds interesting - can you PM or email me further details please? Hopefully going to see one this weekend, but i'd like to keep my options open.

Post Tue Sep 12, 2006 10:56 pm

Pm on its way

Post Wed Sep 13, 2006 1:24 pm

Thanks Iain - i'll go take a look in a mo.

Simon - forgot to respond to your reply above: I dont need those covers anymore as i sold the Touring a few weeks back. I dont think i gave you any money for them did i? If you're out of pocket though, let me know. As for your offer of help looking at a car, i may well just take you up on that thanks

I'll let you know when i can go see it.

Post Wed Sep 13, 2006 6:58 pm

ok mate let me know when the time comes. u didn't owe me any money for them i just collected them for u a few months back at Ace cafe.

More space freed up in the garage then!

Post Wed Sep 13, 2006 10:58 pm

cab sounds good pete, but after getting out of the touring boy can you notice the difference. lots of flex

Post Thu Sep 14, 2006 1:36 pm

I've heard that a loose exhaust makes them flex more, but it also depends highly on the road surface and speed.
There is a weight in the boot on the RHS to counter flexing oscillations too. If you take this out the whole car feels like the back and frot are joined together with a giant spring - unless you have dead flat roads.

I just accept it as part of the character, as the chassis is a bit floppy you may want to steer away (swerve?) from stiffening up the suspension as I suspect it feels better when the suspension gives (which is damped) rather than the chassis, which is not particularly damped.

If you want a convertible that feels infinitely stiff over all surfaces at all speeds, the Porsche Boxter delivers, but it does cost about twenty times more

As for mechanical hoods - mine has one and it is great but takes time to put down. Putting back up is fairly quick. It is very reliable though, I think if I'd got an electric one I'd just remove the mechanism so it was manual again - I value reliability over the odd couple of minutes doing the job by hand.

I wrote an article in the ICE section about fitting for sound - the original holes in the rear bracing section are in fact big enough to fire a 10" subwoofer through and now I get plenty of bass with only a tiny impact in boot space.