Another Mtech II e30 build...

[imolae30]

Hello S/w,
First off thanks for the add, proud to be part of a community with such creativity!

Now for the car! Its an 89' BMW 325i that I bought in the beginning of the summer. Car came resprayed, along with the Mtech kit, Imola red and was originally a auto to manual swap with a refurbished engine. I wanted a e30 that would be reliable with a clean body. However car had never seen stance. This is the original picture on Craigslist that caught my eye!


I took a Grey Hound to LA and this is how she was sitting after purchase, a little rough around the corners. Had plenty of seat time to get used to her on the five hour drive back.


Found a sweet band in the trunk!


Back in the Bay! Had no problems during the journey back, a healthy m20!


Had my Ground Control set up that I removed from my first e30 waiting but I wanted to get Stella cleaned up a little first.


Did a couple little things like new Roundels, the bike rack, new weather stripping around the sunroof, and I had to get a muffler. Forgot to mention the car had no muffler on the trip back, it was loud... lol




Found some rust on the sunroof so I hit it with the Rusto!


Then it was time for more low! Since I didnt have a garage I had to start building a tool collection. Found all this for $150 on Craigslist, not bad including a hand drill and vacuum.


New FAG wheel bearings and hubs for the install!


Time to get started! As you can tell I was working with limited space because we were still moving in.


Wheel bearings and hubs installed ready for rotor and wheels.


And finally on the ground!



I have a lot more photos of the build progress to come. Sitting and typing all this takes a lot of time, and hopefully this will be a good teaser! Ill post as often as possible until Im up to date. I just wanted to get my first post out of the way. Thanks again S/w fam!

Cheers!

[MGW]

Looking great man! It's so clean!!! Cheers!

[K-Line]

OH MY GOD that thing is fucking clean!

[CandySucker]

nice dude liking everything so far.

In for the updates!

[imolae30]

Now that Stella was sitting lower I had a couple little projects in mind. First was to rearrange some interior. When I bought the car it came with pretty beat up sport seats, most of the functions worked though. However, I had a much cleaner black sports interior that I took form my previous e30. I was able to rebuild the the seats to have all the functions working and shrouds in one piece!
These are the seats that came with the car.


These were my old sport seats after the rebuild and install, all functions now work and the seats are rip free! I put the matching black rear seats because I was getting tired of the hounds tooth.


Once the clean set of interior was in I used the old ones and a set of BBS RSs to make a nice seat in the garage!


After the interior was cleaned up it was time to catch up on some maintenance. All my bushings were pretty much shot since they are 25 years old.
Sway bar bushings... dead.


Decided to go with Powerflex poly bushings all round, should tighten things up a bit. Wanted to have something with more longevity too. Got new Meyle sway bar links too!


Luckily, my center support bearing decided to start sounding like a metal woodpecker so I had to do much more work than I wanted to bite off at the time. But ohh well, mind as well take advantage and replace or fix everything I can right??
Had to start off by removing the exhaust. Was easier than I thought it would be.


Removed all the under paneling and dropped the driveshaft, one bolt was seized. Nothing some PB and the torch couldn't fix! CSB squeaked when I shook the driveshaft, guibo was on its way out, and the u-joints had play.


Next step was to get the subframe out, disconnected brake lines, shocks, and popped the subframe bolts out from under the car with a sledge hammer and drowning it in PB blaster from the top. One side of the subframe bushings was stuck so I plugged the bushing from the bottom with a 5/8" lag bolt and hit a rod down the inside and the subframe dropped to the floor


Removed the subframe bushings using this puller and a torch to heat up the outside. I would apply tension, heat, tension, heat and so. Eventually it slipped out with little effort or mess! The Powerflex bushings slide right in with little effort.




Next were the trailing arm bushings. Again, used a puller and combination of heat and tension to get the trailing arm bushings out.



Took a brake away from drivetrain to focus on the short shifter. Im using a Z4 shifter, with the Turner DSSR. I also got poly shift housing bushings form AKG and all new clips, bushings, and transmission seals for the selector rod output and transmission output.


Cleaned up the transmission and under the engine, looks so shiny under all that road debris and oils aha


Got the shifter and housing in, finished off the seals, and installed e21 transmission mounts with the aluminum cups from AKG. Absolutely no slack or play whatsoever, completely stiffened things up. Throw is noticeably shorter but not too over the top, very quick shift for a daily. With the Z4 I ran into no clearance issued with the DSSR hitting the guibo, I took the harmonizer off the driveshaft so Im sure that freed up a lot of clearance. Super satisfied with how it turned out, better than what I expected!


Now back to the driveline, disconnected the open differential and began the rebuild on the 3.73 LSD. Bought a seal kit from BMA to have fresh seals, gucci Royal Purple diff fluid, and the Powerflex bushing for the cover.



Now for the new CV axles, and rear wheel bearings. My dumb ass forgot to break the axle nut with the car on the ground so I had to make a breaker bar to stop the whole axle from spinning.



I guess I didnt take pictures on how I removed the axle but I had to use some sort of axle puller to push it out, this was a royal pain... Bearing removal was just as bad, had to make this puller tightening and then hitting the back of it with a sledge hammer little by little... The hub came out with the inner race so I had to make slits in the race with a dremel and use a bearing clamp of some sort to grab it and whack it out.


Fresh FAG bearings and clean hubs, I ended up buying a bearing install kit from Harbor Freight for $100. I figured it was worth the money because the presses I fabricated were not holding up and I didnt want to ruin my bearings. I used the bearing puller to seat the hub too.


Got the driveshaft back from South Bay Drive Line they threw on my CSB, guibo, added rebuildable u-joints, and painted it along with rebalance. Great service, exceptional quality.


Time to throw it back together! Installed the subframe so I could align the diff and axles easier.


Bolted up the diff, installed the new axles and threw everything else back together. Its beginning to look like a race car!


Sorry for the crappy iPhone pic, but finally got the drive shaft in! Everything is almost ready. Just need to get the new motor mounts in and the stainless brake lines made.


While waiting around for the motor mounts and the brake lines I decided to freshen up the exhaust tips. They look 100 times better imo.

[caddydaddyoad]

Thats really starting to look spot on mate

[imolae30]

Thank you, an Imola red Mtech II e30 has been my dream car since I fell in love with BMW. Never thought I would own one so I want to take good care of her!

[BenVAG]

Soooo clean, love it!

[auriculogenesis]

YOYOYOYO, you got a 380 SL? lol

The E30 is nice too. Subbed... for the R107 :P

[JE BMW]

Beautiful e30 man

[imolae30]

YOYOYOYO, you got a 380 SL? lol
The E30 is nice too. Subbed... for the R107 :P

Haha I was detailing the 380 for someone who picked it up for $500... Needed some cleaning up.

[dillon7]

sooo clean

[meech]

Had that rally car fitment haha, glad to see she's on her way to become a beaut

[auriculogenesis]

Haha I was detailing the 380 for someone who picked it up for $500... Needed some cleaning up.

Slick! Got any pics? If you can't tell, I'm a sucker for those things. lol

btw, what was the magic number for the craigslist buy?

[imolae30]

Slick! Got any pics? If you can't tell, I'm a sucker for those things. lol

btw, what was the magic number for the craigslist buy?

Haha Sorry, I didnt take any... They are kinda the rival here