They told me E30s were played out

[gnmzl]

Hi Stance|Works, my name is Grisha and I'm a caroholic.

I like all kinds of cars, as long as they are pre 90's and fun to drive. How did I end up owning the most overhyped BMW of all times then? Well, I accidentally bought one and ... kind of fell in love for what it trully is, the pure driving pleasure machine they claim it is. Not knowing anything about the model, except there is a pre- and after- facelift version (duuuh), I went ahead and bought a stranded little e30 coupe from a guy for roughly $200 back in 2007. No motor, no interior, no suspension, rotten shell. I was looking for a RWD pre 90's car to build as a DD, so didn't care much about the condition. Took about 6 months to source out the parts, engine, fix the bigger holes, not fix the smaller holes, paint it, f*ck up the paint and generally screw around until it was ready for inspection and going road legal again. Then immediately after that I took my first long trip with that car and instantly fell in love with it.



But that's not the car I am going to tell you about.

I'd like to tell you about the second e30 I decided to buy. Several years had passed since I fell in love with that little BMW and I decided the engine is simply not enough ( a 4 banger 1.6L ) and started looking into engine swap options. Had to be a BMW engine, had to be big, but affordable, possible turbo options for it blah blah, the list with "I wanna" was long enough. I decided I want a m20b27 for it because #reliable, because #milage, because #available. Or I thought it was available. Turned out it was not easy finding a m20b27 in my part of the world, which actually made me want one even more.
An idea slowly crawled through my empty head - buy a whole car, what could possible go wrong. Even if you buy the biggest POS, you can keep the engine and suspension (the suspension in my first e30 was the "sissy" option) and then junk the shell if it's really bad.
So it is, I start looking at some ads from Ze Germanland, I scroll and I drool, but nothing quite does it for me.

Then one day, October 2011, I see an ad for a white 325e with far too many km on the clock, looking forgotten in a yard, dirty engine bay, no options whatsoever, except for ABS and heated locks/nozzles/mirrors plus a tilt/slide sunroof. I effing **** white cars. And that's why my brilliant brain said it must have it.
So my dad helped me sort out the towing of the car all the way from Germany to my sweet homeland of Bulgaria (yeah I know you haven't heard of it) and I had a first actual look at it. You can clearly see me being an amazed balkan monkey inspecting a properly engineered vehicle:



The engine bay was filthy, and it remained filthy for the next 3 years or so:



When I drove it to my secret concrete safehouse for e30s:






First inspection showed:

The bad
Rear bumper rotten to hell
Several rust spots on usual e30 places (by the time I already knew them, oh yes)
Holes on the damn floor (didn't care)
No tires (expected)
Runs uneven (quick fix after removing some stupid eco add-on gizmo)
Exhaust shot (fell off on the way to road inspection, passed anyway like a boss )

The Good
Straight body (minor dents on roof and on rear quarterpanel)
Clean interior
Billies all around
Engine pulls strong
Gearbox shifts smoothly
Everything works, lights, switches etc.


Soo I registered it and started driving it for a while, until my brother's car decided to take a dump (don't buy Alfa Romeos in Bulgaria), so I stepped in and let him drive it for about 6 months.
He was kind enough not to break it, so I actually decided to partially strip it and check what's the condition of the shell.
Me trying to figure out a ghetto repair (one out of about 459 898) and my dad removing the remains of an epic audio system (I disapprove of loud stereos in cars)



Me started on ghetto repairs, my dad disapproving. You can spot one of my awesome patchworks on the valance.



Battled the holes on the floor a bit:



Decided I am not giving a flying rat's ass:



Fortunately I don't have a picture of the uglyness I created out of it, but please be patient, later in the thread I will show the result of it.

All ready, chilling with my DD, notice both have the desired truck status:




After that I took it to the city where I work (for our small spot on the map 420 kms are a long drive. Noticed a severe lack of power, when I really step on it. Again, decided against giving any mating ritual movement and dug into the head (sorry for the crappy pics):



Head cleaned, checked for leaks and decked, valves all done ( 2 were bent, replaced and seated all of them):



Head assembled, ready to go in:



Had some problems with rich mixure and small leaks, because #whocaresabouttighteningclamps, but in the end of the day with a help of a friend, I got it running, changed all brake discs with Ate Power Discs, Ate brake pads, new oil, all that superinteresting maintenance stuff and actually started enjoyng my car!

Sadly, still as a monster truck, but hey I took it to mother nature:



When I bought the car I quickly realized it is far superior to the e30 I already had, so I changed my focus and decided I want to build this particular car. As much as I dislike white cars, this car has a direct red phone to my heart and is able to boss me around like nothing else on this earth, not even my mother.
My initial plan for it, as I was convinced I will get a totally rotten piece of crap from Germany, was to actually rust the whole body and drive it untill it falls apart, then rob it of his engine and suspension. Yeah you guessed it, I admire Mr. Burroughs for his creations and wanted to follow him into the adventures of owning a car, that doesn't make any sence.

I will tell you what actually happened in my next posts.

[TeckniX]

[Meeve]

Interesting read! I can't wait to see whats next for this story!

I own a car that doesnt make any sens. It's fun

[gnmzl]

I approve of cats

Let me show you some moar pictures.

So, I had a very good picture in my head of what the car should look like and what the engine should be like, and how it should ride/handle ... like I said I had a dream and god damn not even jelous girlfriends were going to stop me.

During the almost 4 years now of ownership I gathered some rare parts for my car, which I wanted to build to my own spec. Meaning: no power steering (already from factory ), no power windows, no power sunroof, no seat heating, no sound insulation, certainly no sissy air conditioning, stiff as a brick in terms of suspension, as low as I can possibly get it and actually drive it fast, and damn outright mean. All out pure driving machine, nothing to distract you.
Ofcourse to achieve exclusivity, one must also purchase bling. So I did. By a miracle I found a set of genuine Mtech 1 front/rear valance + spoiler. They came with a pair of recaro seats with the horrible looking (to me) plaid cloth. Traded the recaros on the same day for a pair of Mtech skirts and cash moneyz to finally achieve this:



Made people jelly around me by NOT installing it right away, but hiding it in my closet and acutally acquiring ANOTHER mtech 1 full kit minus spoiler, but with a steering wheel instead. Don't mind hideous colour:



It came with a M3 spoiler, which I sold for more money I paid for the whole kit



Down the road I am going to mix both kits to achieve maximum perfection and strightness.
Next in my scope, a houndstooth recaro seat set appeared:



Passenger's seat is good, driver's not so good:




I have since then mixed those with those:



As you notice, I like houndstooth. I flipped the passenger's Recaro LS to be a driver's seat and used the passenger's seat from the sport seats pair and made me a mixed interior. I am a bit tall and fat in the gut, so the Recaro LS is a perfect fit for me. Plus, it's awesome.

Ebay.de gave me opportunity of acquiring a set of the awesome Star Tec tailights, so I made use of it:



So I was finished with the "flashy" goodies and turned my attention to more important stuff. like suspension and brakes.
Doing the 5 lug swap for me was something natural, mostly because it is so much discussed and stuff, kind of a challenge. I had observed countless options and none of them were cutting it for me. The M3 / e36 parts combo was something I wanted to avoid at all costs, since the wheel position was so nasty.

So I went ahead and designed my own setup for the suspension and brakes, ofcourse by stealing other people's ideas. Is there another way? I think not.
I used a spacer thingy to fit an e36 hub onto the e30 spindle, a custom nut to hold it in place and the result was that:



Spindles with spacer crap:



My custom nut:




* Note: if anyone interested I can provide information on what I did and why I did it. But I am ditching that setup and designed a new one, which I will explain in my next posts.


For the rear I decided on a rather unusual solution, an e87 hub with the whole emergency brake assembly from the same model, modified e30 parking brake lines and custom dust shields. Also, a small modification to the trailing arm was required, because of the usage of said parking brake assembly:



Test fit for the whole rear assembly:



made the custom shield two piece, so it is detachable without having to remove the hub and ruin the bearing:



Now, for the brakes I went with a set of calipers that came off an e34 540i. Front discs are redrilled MB SL500 discs, the moron machinist didn't obviously understand "make it an oval" and just made new holes, resulting in crappy job, then tried to WELD the hole for the retaining bolt ... which resulted in bent discs. Whatever, I still used them for mockup.
For the rear I went with a rear disc for an e46 328i touring (interchangable with other e46s as far as I know).




My adaptor for the rear:




So, you may have noticed, I did all of this in my kitchen, mostly in the middle of the night, ignoring the bastard neighbours. It is a common feature here in Bulgaria to live in giant concrete establishments with countless idiots like yourself on both your sides, up and down as well. Nevermind, result for the front:



Koni Sports adjustable all around, with H&R race springs, supposed to deliver a drop of 60/40.

I had previosuly used my daily as a lab rat and managed to get it pretty low for our standards, decided I'd do the same to this car, sold the suspension off the daily so I can afford all new bling for that one. Here's how the daily sat with said suspension:



But things ofcourse never go as planned. I will tell you more in the next posts.
Hope you like it so far.

[gnmzl]

So, my technical inspection was due and I decided to do that first before starting fiddling with suspension. While on the brake drums, the hard brake line leading to the back wheels burst and I lost pressure in the system. Luckily the inspection guy is from the local e30 chapter, so I passed somehow. The journey home (15km) was a real rollercoaster ride, not having brakes and having a yapping terrified girlfriend in the passenger seat. Made it home, jacked it up and just squshed the brake line with the pliers. So no rear brakes, who cares right, I'm swapping everything with new anyways.

Next day I get my excrements together and assemble the front struts, go to my buddy's shop, because he has a lift and get cracking.

As I said, it was all done in the kitchen, on the table:





Last pic as a monster truck:



I noticed in this picture that I had already added the rear pop out windows (rare in my part of the world). The sticker on them says "Second annual E30 meet". That's an event my local e30 chapter is hosting, me helping with whatever I can, mostly spreading the word and talking to not so important people to sponsor us.

Up on the lift, next to a mint 535i E34:



You can see my buddy sweeping the floor and in the foreground his fully built Alfa Romeo 75 with a hybrid 3.0L V6 engine. It's an icon of badassery. Ignore the honda, customer's car.

Get rid of old struts ASAP:



Install new ones even faster:



Adapter plate for the brake caliper and biefier antiroll bar with Powerflex bushings:



Disc on and some more Alfa porn in the background:



Just look at that caliper:



Big calipers usually require big ass master cylinders, so out with the stock:



In with a megamassive e32 Girling booster and master cylinder with an inner diameter of half a mile:




Second foto is a bit foggy, because we had a small break and had some fun with another buddy's m52b28 swapped e30 inside the shop... yeah we are not exactly bright:



So, after some fiddling with the brake pedal position, finally got it right and took it out of the shop, but THE FRONT WAS TOO DAMN HIGH!!!!!



Gave it a big thought ... we agreed that 3 things led to that auful wheel gap:
1. Brand new top mount bushings
2. Too high bump stops
3. Springs not low enough.

Bad thing is we only had 20 days until the national e30 meet. I just had to be ready until then. So what would captain Planet do?

Of course, win a set of the lowest static springs ever produced for an e30. Unfortunately stupid @ss me left the pictures in my old phone, I can post as soon as I find it and evacuate them pics. Anyway, they were a custom set of GM -80 front with a progressive rate and Reuter Motorsport triangle conic (wut?) -60 in the back. While I waited for them to arrive from Vaterland, some of the guys from the local e30 chapter decided we need to drive in the mountains. I said yes, what could go wrong without rear brakes, let's go. So here's some pictures from that beautiful day:




Awesome twisty roads always put a smile on my face.
So, shortly after my springs arrive and I get motivation to get the rear end ready on the table:




Yes, that is an LSD dif I assembled in my kitchen. Problem, housewives?
Off to the lift again, sorry no pics of removal, we had only 8 hours to do the swap till the shop opens for business:



$ex:



We didn't have the time to install the new springs in the front, so I didn't change the ones in the back either. Well, looks better, but still GAP (sorry for worst pic in the universe):






As you notice, the 16x8 style 5s from an e38 don't fit as they would with an e36 rear hub/axle. That is because the e87 hub narrows the track width by 11 mm, or 5,5 on each side.Explanation why will follow in my next posts.

Then I got all excited and actually put the springs on the damn car:



Ofcourse, as any sane person would do, I had purchased a set of e90 hats for the front and changed the bump stops, which gave me a total drop of 95mm. Now the exxhaust was hanging pretty bad, 1 inch clearance at its lowest point. Needless to say, when I got around fixing that just 2 days later I had sheered off flat one of the screws, so we had to cut. Zero amount of sexual intercourse given anyway. No pictures of said exhaust, because it was a quick repair anyway and looked like crap.

Stay tuned for the things that happened next.

[loekaaz]

Damn I like this one. It looks exactly like one of my friends'....

I also noticed your English writing skills. You must be doing something international for a living, aren't ya?

[gnmzl]

Damn I like this one. It looks exactly like one of my friends'....

I also noticed your English writing skills. You must be doing something international for a living, aren't ya?

Touché, mister! Also, thanks for the kind words.

Let me tell you some more then, before I go to bed, because tomorrow I have to get back to my international job and earn money to throw at this magnificent car of mine.

Two days after that awesome drop I achieved, the municipality decided to do some road works, resulting in me not being able to get out of my neighbourhood, because it only had two exits, and both were under construction. If any of you has been to Bulgaria, you must have seen how they do roadworks here. They rip EVERYTHING off and leave it like that for weeks, with 3 inch sharp edges. So, for me to be able to actually go to the e30 meet, I had to swap the rear springs back to the H&Rs:





It actually looked better IMO, and drove better as well. So I decided to leave it like that and enjoy it the way it is. And boy did I...

The meet I am blabbering about was a total blast. We have hundreds of pictures, I'd like share some of them with you:




My car is missing from the group shot, because I was discovering I was a track day monster:







I won a drag race!



Then I lost a drag race



Took one of my mates for some laps in the passenger's seat:




Then gave it a rest, because realized I was alone on the track, the other guys had either overheated or faded their brakes:




Although I was on shitty tires up front and literally bald tires in the back, I managed to put down a decent time for a stock m20b27 in a street car. Actually I lied, it's Dinan chipped up to the beyond light speed 5100 RPMs.
After the meet we went to a nearby motel and had one of the funniest evenings witnessed by a miserable e30 owner. Midnight redline revs, burnouts, the lot:




I was happy, the car was performing very well, I had my mates all cheering me up to continue the insanity, because they liked what I did to the car so far.

So that leads us to the events of the past year. Which I will expose the next time I post.

[OsckR]

Чак на края на темата видях ,че колата е с бургаска регистрация Надявам се да я видя на живо някъде из бургас

[jbginger]

Don't be fooled, they are. But I like yours.

[K-Line]

i like this, super jealous of euro bumpers and MT1!

[gilpmren]

Interesting read! I can't wait to see whats next for this story!

[Nystad]

Nice work, never get tierd of the e30

[iKarolis]

You are some inspiration that leads me to my garage Great job done!

[99sil-teg]

Well this escalated quickly, can't wait to see the progress, off to a good start already.

[gnmzl]

Thank you all for the kind words! I shall then proceed bringing the story up to date.

Чак на края на темата видях ,че колата е с бургаска регистрация Надявам се да я видя на живо някъде из бургас

От Бургас съм, но рядко се прибирам за съжаление. А колата можеш на живо сигурно едва след няколко месеца да я видиш, обяснението ще намериш по-надолу
Не пречи да се запознаем като си дойда накрая на този месец.

Soo let me continue the joke.
Found my old phone and dug up the comparison pictures of the springs I used, next to the H&Rs previously installed.



Next to a stock one, the rears are on the right:





Soo after the e30 meet, I didn't actually do much to the car, just drove it like that and really really enjoyed it. Changed the rear tires from 215/40/16 to 215/45/16 and lowered it back again on the -60 springs, but then the battery started moving around the trunk. Cut the rear bump thingies on the spring perch and "fixed" that issue.

However, since I moved last September, I had to find a new garage to rent, had to be near me and since most of them are underground, the car had to be able to get over the ramp without scraping. I found one and quickly made a deal to rent it for a year. Moved all my stuff in there (spare m20b27, spare trailing arms and front struts, the lot). Unfortunately, rainy days came upon us in November and a pipe broke, resulting in me having a flooded garage and some damage to the paint was done:



I quickly took measures and did the best I could to repair it, polishing and whatnot. Those actions made me take a closer look at the paint and overall condition of the chassis. I had done some repairs in the past, as you can see in the above picures, but they were all so ghetto, that I am actually ashamed to show to other people. So a decision was made (actually three decisions):

1. Move the car to another garage.
2. Abandon flooding garage. Find an actual workshop with mate andrent it.
3. Start actual work on car in new workshop.

So, point 1 was easy to take care of - the new place I got came with a garage, but being low didn't allow me to put it there, so I used it mostly as storage and rented the one that floods. Tried with some wooden planks, got in without scraping, so the planks never left the trunk. Good jerb!
Point 2 proved to be a bit tricky. We searched for a workshop with a good location to work on our cars. I have a friend, who was at the time renting a garage in the same underground place, where I did. His flooded as well. So we decided to finally move in together <3

He found a nice place 5 minutes away from where I live, we rented it started painting and taking out trash, when guess what? It effing flooded as well. So we abandon ship.

Then he found this other place (actually cheaper then previous one), with 2 separate stalls and something like a storage room above one of them. Perfect. Rented and started moving shit. Which was nice.

Then I had to go on a business trip and had half a month to think about how I want to handle the chassis of my car. There are guys in our clique (how do you spell that word damn it) who had stripped their cars completely and done things properly. I kind of knew in the back of my head I want to do the same and I had actually discussed that with those guys, but it was always like you know .... "meeeh, let future me handle that".
Well, I was now future me and had to start working on that chassis, if I wanted to preserve it and enjoy it in the future. Thanks, past me!

So, once stupid winter was over (which took long enough), I washed her and took her out for two last night drives. Filled her up:



And took my buddy with me to help me burn some gasoline in the night. I knew I was goind to not drivbe this car for a long time and needed a motivational drive.
On the day I had planned to start the tear down, it literally started to fall apart, as if it knew and held on to that day - the clutch started slipping and the flywheel was shimming on takeoff, the radiator brackets broke off and it slammed against the fan, a halfshaft burst its booj and made a huge mess, ruining one of the wheels. Also minor other stuff like headlamp shortcircuit and the horn jamming on happened, but that's not relevant. All in one day!

So, I took her to the garage and started working, you can see the flood damage on the back side of the rocker:



Interior out, carpet out:





You can see the signs of my ghetto repairs on the last picture. As I said, not proud. Detailed pictures will follow of each spot with the repairs.

Started on the front:



For some reason, I think this picture is effing awesome, I get the chills everytime I look at it:



As you can see, rust has taken its toll on my radiator support, on the back side it was worse:



Got some stuf fremoved from the engine bay, you can clearly see the wax someone applied back in the day. I honestly think its a nice thing to do on a winter car.



Dash removed as well, not much left:



Then the windshield was removed, with the help of a friend, since I tend to crack them:



Backseat ... believe it or not, I once drove a girl home, who WANTED to sit in the back, while the rear seat was out. Go figure:



Jacked it up to get it ready for pulling the engine and taking off suspensions and stuff:



Me getting ready to pull the engine, trans is already out, I had a friend help me out.





Aaaand out on the hoist!




Please note the e28, it belonged to the friend, who helped me out with the motor and later for some dummy jigs, more on it later. The e21 belongs to the friend I share the workshop with. It's a genuine euro 323 with sunroof. We got some goodies for it today actually.

Then I took the wings off and put back the hood, so I can work on the sunroof an lining. Steering column is out as well, almost a bare shell now.



Took the sunroof and lining out, man was that a PITA. I broke some stuff, but who cares, I have spares ready to go:



Steering rack and front crossmember are on the ground on this picture, chilling with my daily <3




After I had removed everything from the car, and I mean everything, we decided to make it movable by weling wheels to some unusable crossmembers. The friend, who helped me out pulling the motor came over and started cutting and welding (I can't weld for $hit):




Once done, we put them on the car for like 10 minutes, really easy and rolled it out for the first time in 20 days!





Got camber?




I had talked to an e30 guy back in december about taking the bare shell to him, so he can fix the rust. I visited him while he was working on a friend's e30 to check on his skillz and I was very pleased and much wanted my car to be welded by him. I had told him about all the issues I knew about and we had negotiated a price ( well not really, he named a price and I just nodded ). I kept sending him pictures of the rust spots while I was tearing it down to make sure he knows what he is dealing with. He said I had pointed all pretty much all the stuff and the "surprises" were not a big deal.

So I talked to a dude, who is into shark BMWs to help me transport it to the body work guy (385 km away) and we loaded her up!




What happened next will be presented in my next posts.