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In very much publord fashion, the build thread post is the very first post on SW forums themselves.
I have been eyeing the front page articles for years now, but only recently (last 6 months) have been getting increasingly more fascinated by the Build Threads posts.
I myself have never been diagnosed with automotive insanity, instead I went filmmaking route while surrounding myself with drift fanatics ever since graduating high school.
The following not so popular Mitsubishi was my first set of wheels. Complete stock, soulless on the outside. Yet it's the most reliable piece of metal I have owned. 13+ years (3 of which sitting in one spot all year long) and half a million kilometers on the chassis and the engine with close to 0 issues and tons of rust (god bless the salt).
First wash in months a week ago after the last road salting down here.
I am going to truly miss it when I inevitably get rid of it, but for now it's going to stay with me as a winter daily salt warrior.
That said, I have been a fan of classic cars for forever now. What started with love for classic american lowriders ended with being overwhelmed with JDM culture.
Unfortunately, the likes of Nissan GT-R 69' and 72' are incredibly hard to come by down in East-Europe and ordering parts from Nippon is a nightmare I am not willing to indulge in.
An easy way out was looking into European classics. E12, E3, E10, 79’ Jetta, VW Mk1, W108, W109, W114, W115, even the little Hammer in form of kited W124 – all options to consider, yet still a tough process of acquiring spare parts (for most of them) of vehicles long forgotten by the centuries.
Then, after several months of eyeing one particular BMW e12 down in Germany, a friend of mine dropped a simple link in Facebook messenger with an 87' E28 ad listing nearby. A Bavarian model I had, for some unknown reason, never looked into. (it might had to do with the similarities to E30, which is the single BMW model that has the worst rep down of them all in Latvia)
I myself, an automotive illiterate, surrounded myself with a pack of 5 mechanical, electrical, drift, etc. experts and went to take a look. These were the pictures of the ad.
It was parked in a hanger surrounded with about 20 Nissan 200SX’s for the Winter Sleepover. Lights were out and it was an early evening. Armed with phone flashlights we came to a conclusion that we haven’t seen a cleaner beamer in our lives. The battery was dead, but we somehow got it running…. and it sounded o.k.
A couple of days later brought it to garage to look for bits and pieces to improve.
Front lip needs to be redone. I am not actually sure what kind of bumper that is because it does not look like original M Pack one. It looks baller enough to restore it.
Radio antenna is missing. I don’t listen to radio much, but it can’t stay like this.
Engine room has apparently been worked on with KROWN anti-rust liquid. But it’s all muddy and shit either way. Will work on it first thing tomorrow.
Short-term plans:
- Get the engine room as clean as possible.
- Fix the front lip
- Polish those cute little BBSes.
- Change the black BMW symbols to original color ones.
- Water-clean the interior.
- Get a new radio antenna.
- Fix the tachometer
- Fix the main generator
- Fix the starter
- Fix the fog lights
- Get a decent gear knob
Long-term plans:
- Coil it
- Redo seats with 2 pattern/color fabric
- Get wheels that aren’t boring BBS RS’s
- Repaint it or magically get rid of the scratches here and there
- Put a VEMs on it or drag a M62 or M60 or something in it.
If I had to guess, judging my size of wallet and experience I would say that this is not going to be a fancy thread with millions of upgrades and sexy bags over Rotiform wheels.
Yet I will try my best to not ruin this piece of not so distant history and keep it as genuine as possible with a touch of sex under it.
/brekky
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