Oz10's Ghetto Fabulous e30 Build Thread

[Oz10]

So I finally bought an e30 a few weeks ago. I found a 1989 325i with a few problems for a damn good price. Here's some pics from the day I got it...






Peep the Grave-Digger status of the front wheel wells! lol

The rear wasn't as bad, but still needed work.


So that's what I had to work with. The paint was in pretty good condition considering the car is 20 years old. The driver's side front fender, front door, and rear fender had all been repainted. The lip spoiler on the back had faded to a gross purple color. The tranny whines pretty bad, the throw out bearing is loud as hell when idling, and third gear is pretty much hit or miss. So I plan to replace the tranny soon. LMK if you've got one or know someone who will give me a deal.

Here's a quick and dirty list of things that I want/need to fix:

-paint spoiler
-shift boot
-tach not working
-gauge lights not working
-interior lights not working
-dash clock not working
-trunk/glove department lights not working
-needs front lip
-paint faded chrome window trim
-needs to be lowered with the quickness
-needs new tranny!!
-AC needs recharging
-needs cd player
-needs rear speakers
-grip tape pedals
-low offset wheels
-pin-stripe needs to go
-driver fog light is cracked and both don't light up.

Thats all I can think of now. The next few posts are what I've done so far...

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So I read on a e30 forum that the lip from an early 90's volvo would fit an e30 if mounted upside down and trimmed down a little bit. So I figured I'd give it a shot. So I went to pull-a-part and found one in decent condition and bought it for 10 bucks. Here are a few pics of my funky fresh fabrication.



There a few holes on the outside of the front bumper that I figured would be a good place to mount it. So I drilled a few holes in the lip.

I test fitted it to see where I would need to trim it. It turns out that little tab on the bottom lines up perfect with the edge of the front bumper. Unfortunately it too a few tries for me to figure that out. :

Here's my last test fit. I ended up drilling a small hole in the middle of the front of the bumper and the lip because there was no where to mount it up front. I bolted it up there and zip-tied it on the sides.

In the pic I just had it on there loosely. So it fits up a little more snug than that.

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I got kinda lucky and found some bavarian autosports lowering springs on craigslist the day I bought the car. So I bought them and put them on a few days later.

Rear springs installed


Front springs installed


Teaser pick from when we finished


BEFORE:


AFTER:


The rears settled nicely as well.


I'm pretty happy with the new ride height. You may have noticed the pin-stripe is gone now too.

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:banana:Here are a few random things I've done.

The rear spoiler look MUCH better painted black instead of weird reddish/barney purple


A piece of the sound deadening had chipped off and I couldn't believe how heavy it was. So I ended up stripping all the sound deadening from the trunk.
Before:


After:

When I was done I threw all the sound deadening in a trash bag and weighed it. There was 35 POUNDS worth of sound deadening in my trunk.

I put some grip tape on the pedals. Check out my supa sweet hell-toe downshift strip on the gas pedal.


I got bored one day and decided to go all martha stewart on my torn up leather shift boot. I went to Joann fabric and bought some fabric for like 3 bucks and whipped out my mom's sewing kit and did work.

I was actually pretty surprised with how well it came out. I figured I might as well try something different. When I get tired of it I can buy a leather one. But it's definitely better than before.

[88e28]

Car looks great, Looks like your doing it the right way. Love the Shifter Boot.

[Oz10]

(07-25-2009 04:43 PM)88e28 Wrote:  Car looks great, Looks like your doing it the right way. Love the Shifter Boot.

Thanks! I'm glad you like it. I painted the faded chrome window trim black a few days ago. I'm been meaning to wash the car and take some pictures. Hopefully I'll have some up later today.

[awestun]

you stole my grip tape idea. looks good though.

[Oz10]

(07-29-2009 01:27 PM)awestun Wrote:  you stole my grip tape idea. looks good though.

haha I did that in my subie too.

[greyis89]

very very pleased my dear friend! shifter boot is off the hook and grip tape will be great when your shoes are wet lol, there's nothing like slipping of the brake or something when it rains. youll be so glad you have all this documented when we're older bro. see ya round buddy!-phil

[Oz10]

(07-31-2009 12:21 AM)greyis89 Wrote:  very very pleased my dear friend! shifter boot is off the hook and grip tape will be great when your shoes are wet lol, there's nothing like slipping of the brake or something when it rains. youll be so glad you have all this documented when we're older bro. see ya round buddy!-phil

Thanks man! I appreciate it. It is going to be cool to look back over this thread later on. I've never made a build thread for any of my other cars.

On a side note...

The old tranny is coming out as we speak. And the new one is going in tomorrow.

I also bought new roundels, a spare grill, and a foglight to replace my cracked one.

[Jack-ATLBimmer.com]

Fantastic thread! I love these type of build ups, the Volvo lip looks the part! Ballin on a budget.

[Oz10]

I've been kinda busy lately and forgot to update this thread. I painted the shadow line a week or so ago. Here a few pics I took during the progress and a few from after I finished.











I replaced the transmission as well. I bought one for $400 from Strictly German. I could have bought a cheaper one, but decided not to go cheap on something so important.

While I was working on the transmission I painted my spare grill black and replaced the cracked foglight.

[88e28]

Looking good on the Shadowline. I did my Bumpers on my e28.

[Oz10]

Here's an update on what I have done from my original list so far. The things I've done/fixed are in red.

-paint spoiler
-shift boot
-tach not working
-gauge lights not working
-interior lights not working
-dash clock not working
-trunk/glove department lights not working
-needs front lip
-paint faded chrome window trim
-needs to be lowered with the quickness
-needs new tranny!!
-AC needs recharging
-needs cd player
-needs rear speakers
-grip tape pedals
-low offset wheels
-pin-stripe needs to go
-driver fog light is cracked and both don't light up.

Damn I've gotten a lot done. I'm still debating what to do about the AC. Since it's an older car it still uses R-12, which is hard to find and very expensive. Another option is to convert my system to R-134a. But I would probably want to have that done by professionals. I'm going to have to do a little more research, but I need to do something about it.

[Oz10]

I bought some tan leater sport seats today! My interior looks SO much better. My old seats were completely thrashed.

[88e28]

Boy that was a big list to fix. looking good.

[JC Bimmer]

O M G it looks sooo much better with a drop. now u need rims lol

[roscoe]

looks great! u kno the spec'd drop for the springs? i bought mine with cut springs and i'm lookin to replace with some actual lowering springs

[caseyfoster]

Damn man, im not gunna lie. I like every mod you have done to that car, and it looks sporty at the same time. Very impressed. And all for very cheap too. Good job

[Oz10]

(09-10-2009 11:24 PM)caseyfoster Wrote:  Damn man, im not gunna lie. I like every mod you have done to that car, and it looks sporty at the same time. Very impressed. And all for very cheap too. Good job

Thanks! I really appreciate it. Here are a few more recent pictures. A few things are different, the kidney grills, the not cracked foglight, I transplanted uncrackedheadlight lenses from a e34. (its all i had), and I took the spring pads out in the rear to even out the ride height a bit. I took these last weekend...

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I'll hopefully have side skirts on soon too. And I need a back seat to match the fronts! haha I've been rolling without a back seat and people have been asking me if its a race car. haha

[88e28]

You did a hell of a great job!!!

[greyis89]

(09-15-2009 11:57 AM)88e28 Wrote:  You did a hell of a great job!!!

for sure my friend. need a nice set of wheels to finish the look. 5 spoke in my opinion haha! great job and i hope to see it soon too, been too long and i have more parts for u. im lowering the new car now and working on fixing a few things meantime. does my heart good to hear of the e30 in ya, hope school is going well but stay in touch bro, im always around. later on. phil.