A Distraction of Sorts: My 1991 BMW 318is

[CubbyChowder]

A part of me is saying that I should've never bought this 318is in the first place, strictly because it takes focus off my other BMW, a '73 2002 Roundie which is up at my dad's house completely disassembled, awaiting labor and love.

My other half tells me this was a great decision, for a few reasons. Not only does my 1998 Honda Civic (which I bought mainly as a commuter while I build the 2002) provide zero sense of pride in what I drive, it completely misrepresents me as a person. The faded forest green paint, accompanied by "altezza style" tail lights and "JDM style" headlights (which I can confidently assume were purchased off eBay categorized under "price+shipping=lowest"), as well as oversized tires and a CD player that was probably manufactured before I was even born just don't really mesh well with me. Don't get me wrong, it's been dead reliable since I bought it 6 months ago and is ultra efficient, but something is missing.

it's also a perfect candidate for me to gain some experience in automotive painting. I plan on repainting this e30 myself in preparation to paint my 2002 sometime in the near future. I will stick with the original DiamondSchwarz Metallic color, which happens to be one of my favorite BMW colors.

Anyways, here it is. Near mint black vinyl interior (minus a cracked dash) and a healthy engine/drivetrain. Since it will be my daily driver, I want it to drive comfortably. I plan on replacing all the suspension bushings, rebuilding the shifter, performing general/preventative maintenance and I want to eventually build a set of coilovers and get a nice set of wheels to finish it off. Enjoy!






Shea Butta snuck in on the last shot

[Bronzit]

That interior....

[G535]

Interior looks great, exterior not so much - but nothing major

Id love to daily such an E30, especially cause its a 318!

[99sil-teg]

That interior....

I know right.

[FSUjbp]

....Anyways, here it is. Near mint black leather interior ...

It's vinyl. Nice though.

[CubbyChowder]

It's vinyl. Nice though.

Oops, my bad.

[jacbo]

You make a damn good case for buying yourself another project.

Car looks solid as hell and I bet it'll be perfect for what you're planning.

[willis]

I will allow this, but the 2002 still better be done soon.

[bensin]

Looks great as it is. In my opinion you should only lower it a bit, put on some nice shiny rims and give it a paintjob! Cars like these deserve to be well preserved.

[CubbyChowder]

I will allow this, but the 2002 still better be done soon.

Thank you willy

Looks great as it is. In my opinion you should only lower it a bit, put on some nice shiny rims and give it a paintjob! Cars like these deserve to be well preserved.

That's pretty much all it's going to get. It's going to be clean and simple

[Rob&co]

should be sex...!

[CubbyChowder]

Not much action yet, still waiting to sell my Civic until I can put some money into it. Still figuring out what suspension setup I want to run, it gets pricey really fast with these e30's. Pretty much any coilover option that I'm interested in will cost me about $1000 give or take, which isn't really how much I wanted to invest, but I'll just save up for a while and it'll be worth it.

I called my local paint supply shop and they have a pretty killer kit deal running right now, $225 for a gallon of base coat and a gallon of clear coat. I'm going to buy the "upgraded" clear which apparently yields better results, so it'll be about $260 total. This is about half of what I was expecting to spend, so I was pleasantly surprised by this. The guy said mixing the original DiamantSchwarz Metallic color will be no problem, and that the color will match nearly perfect. I'm stoked! I can't wait to repaint this thing.

I'm also awaiting my odometer gear repair kit, should be here within the next few days and I'll have a working odometer again. The odometer went out 3 months ago at 170k, so I want to get it fixed so it'll stay closely accurate. It's seen maybe 2k miles since it went out.

Yikes, I'm rambling.

Anyways, this is first real purchase I made for the car. A keyless entry system by German Engineering with the flip blade key fob's. I'm a former MKIV Volkswagen owner (which use the exact same flip blade design), so these fobs hit home. I had to have them. Can't wait to get this kit installed!

[Clun9]

Keys look good! Interested as to how it would work.

[Tom Cruise]

Nice find! I'm also interested to see how you make the key work.

[CubbyChowder]

The keyless entry system is designed for an e30, so it's just a matter of wiring it in and having the keys cut