My E30 Project

vince

vince

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Just finished up my little e30 project. My neighbor rented his ADU to a young professional and it was his daily driver. One day, he showed me the car. Since it's a 325e, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it had a cloth interior with sport seats - all in very nice shape. For two years, I would admire the car when my wife and I would pass by to walk our dog. One day, It showed up on Craigslist. I ran into the owner that afternoon, he told me he was going back to school and he wanted something more reliable with working AC. Even though, I didn't need another car, it ended up in my driveway the next day. Up to that point, I'd had 19 BMWs but never an e30. The car was amazingly straight, with all original single stage paint, and absolutely no rust. Plus it had that very cool interior. The car has extensive maintenance records and and in the last couple of years the car had a new timing belt, brakes, clutch, control arms, etc. It still needed and few things and paint was pretty oxidized. Even though he added the euro bumpers, the front valance was still for a US car and was pretty beat up. Over the last few months I've done a ton of work to it including adding the correct euro front valance and a rare MTech rear spoiler (I bought both from fellow member GK-E30M3) Also, I found a set up NOS 15x7 BBS RAs for a more period look. The car is blast to drive and it turns heads. It's been a fun project but I already have too many cars and my wife wants her garage spot back so I'm going to list it on BaT and see what happens.
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Damn that’s a good looking car! And with cloth seats which are so much better than the leather ones. Love it! Good luck with the auction Vince!
 
i remember seeing this car in Sellwood for a very long time. it was someone's daily driver when i was in high school. it was totally bone stock, down to the bottle cap wheels, but my memory seems to recall it had the cloth sport interior. sharp looking car; i wish i could bring it home. best of luck finding it a new caretaker.
 
That's a nice ride. I've noticed down here in Southern California there is a group of young people getting into the 3-series from the '80s. They're hot rodding them and changing things up.. the 4-door variant from '86 seems particularly in demand. I recall seeing an entire group of them at Woodley Park in Van Nuys during the SoCal Vintage BMW show.
 
Stan said:
I hope nobody was hurt!
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Thanks Stan. All good, low speed affair, my wife was driving it and got hit from behind. Now the perp's insurance is lowballing the value. This week my wife's Golf was hit on the door, the perp's daughter is questioning the repair estimate.
See, the problem is the rest of the world, not me.
 
Stan, I see a pattern with white cars and reddish interiors...
 
Vince - I'm curious how the "e" version of the 2.5 feels. I remember they were emphasizing efficiency with the "e" versions, but details get fuzzy after that.
 
coupedegrace said:
Vince - I'm curious how the "e" version of the 2.5 feels. I remember they were emphasizing efficiency with the "e" versions, but details get fuzzy after that.
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In all these years playing with BMWs, I've never had an e30 and I have never driven an 325i/s so I can't really compare how the 'e' differs. The 'e' had more torque but far less horsepower, this car has had the diff swapped out to a 3.25 LSD which wakes it up. I really like driving this car, it reminds me of my old 02s but a lot more comfortable. It's my go to car now, I drive it to the gym every night and run errands with it on the weekends. Last Sunday, my wife and I took it Cosco, Petsmart, and the store - it has a huge trunk. A guy flagged us down just so he could get a better look at it. I'm waffling now on selling it, I don't need it but I really, really like it.
 
Stan said:
I was thinking of selling my cabrio E30 but a set of golf clubs fit in th trunk and none of the modern BMW convertible's have enough trunk space!
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Good point. I do not play golf but being able to say fit a Jimmy Hoffa is handy.
 
vince said:
In all these years playing with BMWs, I've never had an e30 and I have never driven an 325i/s so I can't really compare how the 'e' differs. The 'e' had more torque but far less horsepower, this car has had the diff swapped out to a 3.25 LSD which wakes it up.
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Yes, I thought it was more torquey. I remember BMW having some maintenance issues as they became more popular in the 80s (yuppified as it were) that were partially caused by people driving them the same way they drove their cars with big, torquey, low-revving American engines. A high-revving motor with HP at the top end was literally foreign to many drivers at the time. Making an engine with more grunt on the bottom end probably catered better to the American market.
Arde said:
Good point. I do not play golf but being able to say fit a Jimmy Hoffa is handy.
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I think you're confusing the actors. Danny DeVito did not play Jimmy Hoffa in the movie. Jack Nicholson did. I'm sure you could get DeVito in the trunk, but I'm not so sure about Nicholson.
 
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