Hi, I've been posting on a BMW specific forum but thought I'd share here also.....here we go;

In July 2008 I finally realised a bit of a dream and purchased a black e30 coupe, manual, with a six-cyl motor............Just like the ones i saw race at Bathurst as a teenager (well.......not quite, but hey...close enough).This wasn't my first E30, I had a sedan as a daily for a couple of years, however this was the one that was going to get me back into motor sports after a few years away.

Initially I did all the basics....new bearings, brake rotors and pads, springs, shocks, fuel lines, filters, vacuum hoses, intake etc etc just to make it a nice car to drive again. And...it was nice.

Then...........in May this year, in the middle (end?) of a romantic cruise with a girl I hardly knew.......smoke and flames belched forth from under the dash and engulfed the car with a few short minutes.This kind of sucked.

Call me a ******** (as many times as you like really) however, no extinguisher and no insurance meant a complete restart for the project!!!!! BUGGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last week........after a fairly absurd buying experience dealing with a private seller 3500km away and a costly pre-purchase inspection I am now the proud owner of another E30 coupe....in white, manual, no sunroof. Feels terrible that the freight from Sydney to Darwin was slightly more than the purchase price of the car however this is the price we pay to live in a tropical paradise(?) where E30's a fairly thin on the ground.

So........after doing a few years in an IP Datsun 180b followed by a couple of years sprinting an MR2 I now plan to return to Hidden Valley in early 2010 with a tidy, nice handling and braking, but possibly not too quick E30!!!!

Just sprinting for the time being but working toward Improved Production in the future.

So please feel free to follow my progress on this journey.....it should be errrrmmmm....interesting?

Cheers, Steve.

The Car Has Arrived

It was not without some trepidation that I climbed aboard the taxi to go and collect my new project car from the freight company. Not because of the slovenly, beer bellied and frankly, scary looking cabbie, but because I was about to collect a car that I had paid a decent wad of cash for two weeks previously but had never seen. The potential for disaster was huge!

The vehicle inspection I had organised suggested it was old but generally ok. Great!! But what did that really mean? Would it have rust hidden in out-of the way places? Had it been pranged? Did someone die in it?

To be honest my initial reaction when I saw the car for the first time was......well, not good. Quite obviously it has been subject to some fairly amateur attempts at "restoration" including the use of of some kind of brush (broom?) to paint over where there had previously been scratches with obviously sickening results. Additionally, the bumpers have been "painted" black without even the benefit of masking........not nice.

Throw in a few dents here and there, a damaged rear valance panel and general untidyness and you get the general picture.....really not nice.

My first driving experience did little to add to my enthusiasm.....after coughing and farting and stalling half a dozen times in peak hour traffic (ok...so peak hour Darwin style) we finally arrived at Chateau Steve where a more thorough exterior inspection and a reversal of my previously not-rosy outlook took place.

To sum it up;

The Bad Points;

- It has patchy paint and probably needs a new rh front guard.
- It runs crap although it did seem pretty good when all cyclinders were firing.

The Good Points;

- I have an E30 again!!!!!!
- It is not burning.
- It is a late model coupe.
- It has no sunroof
- It is manual
- There is no rust...not even in the battery box or rear wheel wells or around the boot opening.
- It has power windows
- There is no evidence of a prang
- The interior is average but good enough
- It has pinstripes, mudflaps, funny rubber things around the wheel arches, and the original tape player (!!!!!!!) which suggests it is a "granny" car rather than something that has been flogged to death by some over-eager 17yr old serial-masturbator.

So, after realising that the good points far outweigh the bad I am now a lot happier. I guess i had been expecting a tidier body due to the (low-res) photos I had seen but all in all I'm content with what I have for the minimal outlay....even including the 100% cost increase due to freight.

And just on the freight issue....I bought Google into the equation and had two options at the top of the search page being CEVA and Compare-Quotes.com. Subsequently I received a quote ex-Sydney from CEVA for $1850 and Compare Quotes.com offered the service for $1400. Now having some idea with regards to economics and mathematics I craftily went with the cheaper quote (duh!).......... Imagine my surprise when I recieved the confirmation email from Compare-Quotes advising me to have the car delivered to CEVA headquarters ready for transport!!?? Wow....that is a huge agency discount!!

So, photos you ask.... here we are, one hour into ownership.

The First Weekend

Ok.... so I put in a massive effort this weekend and spent about a whole 20mins removing the pinstriping and ugly rubber things from around the wheel arches!! Coming off a week of nightshifts doesn't tend to make for productive days-off however spending nightimes awake allows plenty of time for internet shopping.

A fair while back I started to build a TA22 Celica for IP, I bought things as I needed them and had future purchases lined up in priority order. What I learned from this is that this is the most expensive way to build a car.

This time, i am keeping $$ in the bank and buying the things I want or need when they come up cheap with the end-goal being to combine the parts with the car within 12 months to end up with something special. If i buy bits cheaply that then end up sitting in the shed for 6 months....well that's ok, I've saved $$.

So, with that in mind and also considering this needs to become a tidy road car before it becomes a race car (it's my only vehicle) I have obtained the following;

- Koni Sport Adjustable front strut inserts
- 51mm Gland Nuts (BMA - Thanks for the tip DJS325)
- MTech gear knob as the existing one is from a Toyota
- New shift boot as the existing one is farked
- Two new badges for boot and bonnet
- Dashmat to hide the cracks
- DTM rear spoiler that I will be hacking to bits and rebuilding into something nice

In a neat coincidence, the guy that I bought the strut inserts off on Ebay also advertised a set of indicator lenses. On the posting for the indicators he mentioned that he is wrecking a 1988 320i so I sent an email inquiring as to if he had a straight front guard i could buy. The Ebay location listed was for Sydney however the guy sent me an email back apologizing for not updating his Ebay details and explaining that he was actually in Darwin and would assist me with freight!!!!

A win!!!! I've since spoken to the bloke and informed him that I'm also in Darwin and will subsequently be going around to have a look at his car tomorrow night. Opportunity knocks!!!!!!

During the week ahead I'll be looking at some new plugs, leads and filters to try and get the car running well enough to pass a rego inspection.

All coming together nicely!

Add to that list of purchases a set of brand new E30 M3 offset strut tops for $150.00....Ebay is my friend. I cannot believe there were no other bids on either these or the brand new Koni inserts...just lucky I guess.

Have I No Self-Control?????????

I had today all planned. Go to work, do work, go home, go to guys place and purchase straight R/H front guard from the 320i he is wrecking, come home with guard for minimal outlay, be happy and content.

Did this happen?...Well no. Two reasons. Firstly, I am the complete fool when it comes to shiny things and have no self-control,

Secondly, the "320i" turned out to be a 320i convertible in reasonable running condition apart from a broken engine mount and stuffed centre support bearing and a few fairly minor cosmetic issues.

Standing their looking at it I just couldn't imagine myself initiating it's ultimate demise by starting to remove panels and such. For farks sake, it's a complete car only needing love, time and a few spare dollars to restore it to it's former beauty......how could I possibly live with myself if I was the one to ensure that's it's Coke-ad like days of fun and good times in the sun were over?

So I bought it.....the whole car, all of it!!

In truth, I'd always liked the convertibles. I would never have bought one instead of a coupe because I like racetrack stuff but yep, I'd often thought I'd have one of those one day. And for better or worse, now I do.

Strangely, this bodes well for the racecar project. It won't take long to get the convertible into sufficient shape to serve as my daily chariot which will then allow me to take a less compromised direction with regards to converting the coupe into a track weapon.

Almost immediately I will be able to remove things like aircon, heater box (in Darwin? pfffft), interior, power steering etc. All of these things that would have stayed for at least another 6-10 months had I been using the car as my daily/trackday car.

It also means that I'm prepared to do the paint and bodywork myself. I've bashed, bogged and sprayed a bit previously and am confidant I can do this with sufficient quality to suit a racegear......but a road car is that next step and I'm not THAT confidant.

Oh.....and having the convertible will be nice to. It already has a fairly good looking BBS bodykit and just needs a tidy-up and a part replaced here and there and it will suffice....without draining $$ that could be going toward the coupe'. In addition, I have a complete m20b20 and manual box spare that was left over from a wreck I bought to assist with parts for my now-deceased black coupe.

What strange days are these?

Looks like this one but with a bit of a kit and not as tidy;

CSH!!

i looked at the pics first and saw the blue coupe. Wondered what you were talking about, the pic made it look MINT! lol Nothing better than having 2 cars, means you don't need to stress about how you are going to get to work the next day if one is in pieces.

Exactly!!

Also expands the optiond for number plate creativity; Jekyll/Hyde, Friday/Sunday, Wkdayz/Trkdayz???????????

csh brah, get it right.

Congrats on an awesome thread!.. Seems out of place on boost to have somone acutally discussing thier car! I'll be watching with interest.. keep it up!

Prob the first thread on boost where i have read the whole thing, keep the updates coming

E30 M3, 2.3ltr engine convo. Sounds great Steve.

Thanks for the positive comments.....I'll be sure to keep the thread updated.



Nice idea however the S14 motor is getting a bit rare these days. There is some possibility that an E36 M3 S52 conversion may happen but we'll see how things pan out.

As are the cars Steve, Im trying to hunt one down that is RHD and reasonably priced, ie, not $40k.

There was a white factory RHD one for sale at one of the classic car dealers in Sydney a month or so ago for $35k. Possibly "The Toy Shop"? Your best option may be a Hong Kong import although most of these are also LHD.....strangely enough.

Also, keep an eye out here;

http://forums.eurocca.net/vbclassified.php

and here;

http://www.dtmpower.net/forum/aus-classifieds/

Cheers.

Thanks for the links Steve.

Im building a "group a" garage minus the taxis.

csh

This guy!

My garage is 100% Group A.

group ghey

get it right Adam.

You are correct, of course. If it hadn't been a turbo car it wouldn't have the ghey factor.

Or to alleviate the problem you could put a Nissan in there to degheyify your garage.

Jus sayin

Problem's already solved - turbo has been removed from the car so it's no longer ghey... or running.

hahaha

At this point I'm in a quandary.....sounds a little like quagmire and if I think too much about the scale of what I'm trying to do I guess it feels much the same too.

The absurd situation is like this.....I own two E30's and am still riding a bicycle to work. Both cars need work for rego and having exhausted the cash reserves buying the cabriolet I simply don't have the $$ to do much of anything.

Additionally, I don't yet have the Cabriolet at home so am unable to do a detailed inspection and begin to prioritise tasks or assign dollars toward getting at least one of the cars on the road........frustration plus!!

See......that's what happens when you think about it all too much. The answer?? Be more patient and focus on the small picture......just one job at a time instead of trying to plan and control every aspect of the project(s) while still at the startline.

However....I seem to have re-discovered LIFE itself now that I have a car(s) to play with again!!!!!!!!!!! The days after the toasting of the black coupe were dark indeed and I'll never forget waking up on my first day-off after the fire to realise that I wasn't going to go downstairs and tinker, clean, polish, modify and improve the pride and joy in the garage......a terrible feeling....and boring!!

But now I have plenty to do!! With a rego inspection looming I'm not to keen to begin stripping the coupe (much better if it retains that granny look) but there are dozens of little jobs to be done.

Firstly, I removed the poxy pinstriping, rubber things around the wheel arches and the mudflaps. Luckily things came off cleanly without leaving a whole lot of glue residue and without taking any paint off with them. The small amounts of gummy crap etc were quickly removed with a spot of prepsol and the appearance of the car was greatly improved.

The next improvement came from experimenting to see which marks in the paintwork were keepers and which would come off. To my great surprise the massive number of tiny brown spots all over the car were not oxidization but probably tree-sap. A soaking wet rag, some buffing compound and a little karate-kid style rubbing of the entire panels resulted in a much cleaner and whiter car. Additionally, I now know that I will only need to respray one door, the boot, the bonnet and a front guard as the rest of the car is ok.......I might still respray the whole thing but seeing as this is intended to be a track car I might just settle for it looking good from 30 feet away. With a professional buffing it would come up fine.

As part of the getting-to-know-you exercise with my new love I popped her up on some ramps to take a peek under her skirts. Generally, she is clean and unmolested with everything in place and intact. A fairly disgusting and slimy couple of hours spent with a scrubbing brush, some petrol, a fan and some safety specs removed a lot of the roadgrime from the diff and rear subframe resulting in an underside that will hopefully impress the rego inspection guy.

Oh...just one thing. I spent two hours sniffing petrol and at no time did I feel any inclination to spear someone, break into a house, crash a troop-carrier or have an illegitimate child!!

The next job on the list was to see if i could make the out-of wack-front bumper sit properly. The heavy scrunge mark on the right bumper cover and the fact that the rear of the bumper was pushed into the bodywork indicated some damage to the mounts behind. On removal of the bumper I discovered
some slight damage to the end of the rail where the bumper shock-absorber bolts to despite the mount itself being straight. Due to the body of the bumper sitting too far back the plastic cover has come away leaving the indicator recessed and the tip of the bumper poking out beside the front wheel arch....a matter not assisted by the plastic mounting panel at the side having slid out of it's spot inside the bumper cover.

To remedy the situation I inserted a couple of thick washers behind each of the bolts on the bumper mount resulting in that side of the bumper moving forward about 5-7mm which allowed the plastic cover to return to it's original position. Still not 100% perfect as the bumper itself is slightly twisted however a great improvement and nothing that wouldn't be fixed by an M-tech front bar in the future.

The next area for improvement was to replace the tattered and torn shift boot with the non-genuine-Mtech-genuine-leather Ebay boot that cost me a whole $20 shipped from the UK. These are actually really nicely made and a great bang for your buck enhancement despite being a little ricey
(Bratwursty?).

Now having to wait until payday to order up some plugs and leads (got a spark from side of lead #3 into finger #4) but I'm sure I'll find more to do in the meantime.

Cheers.

Good to hear Steve mate

What you up to these days anyways?

End up doing anything with that licence of yours matey?

G'day....yep, now working for ISS Security. Just became permanent full-time a couple of weeks back. All good!!!

Oh...I love it when i find one of those parcel delivery notes in my letterbox. The genuine OEM E30 M3 offset strut tops arrived today!! Apparently not available from BMW anymore so to score a brand new set for about the price of a set of standard one's was a bit of luck and good timing.

With the genuine gearknob and strut tops I feel less guilty about the fake gearshift boot......lol.

Liar.


Doesn't everyone ALWAYS feel like spearing someone or breaking into a house? The only good thing that can be done with a Troopcarrier is to crash them (...and build some weird lightweight turbodiesel V8 buggy/go-kart thing with the drivetrain).


As for not wanting to have an illegitimate child - are you gay?


Anyway, good work on the coupe - looking forward to seeing on the track in the (hopefully) near future.

I meant like birthing one out of my arse.....

I have Gland Nuts!!

What a saga this has been. About three years ago I bought a set of 325i Jamex strut inserts second-hand with the intention of installing them in the 318i sedan I had at the time. A classic newb mistake.....I didn't realise that the 318i had smaller struts than the 325i and subsequently ended up with strut inserts I couldn't use.....doh!!

When I bought the black coupe it needed a front-end rebuild so I thought this was the opportunity to put some fat struts in and finally get a return on my investment in the inserts. I managed to buy some good struts from a wrecker and all was going well until I needed to buy some Gland Nuts.

So off I went to the local BMW dealer where I was subsequently quoted the grand total of $280.00 each!!!!!!!! OMG!! I resisted the temptation to slap the parts guy and left the dealership knowing that I just couldn't live with myself if I paid almost $600 for two nuts. Holy crap....that would be like some dirty little secret that I could never admit too.

So I called wreckers......no help, asked guys advertising cars on ebay being dismantled.....didn't have a clue what I was talking about, thought about getting them custom made....yeh, well.

When the coupe burned I put the project on the shelf and resolved to finally get these things when I had an E30 again.

To finalise this tale of woe, it was thanks to DJS325 and his advice earlier in this thread that led me to BMA Parts (USA) where I was able to purchase two Gland Nuts for the grand sum of $60aud including freight to my door. BMA were superb to deal with and the parts arrived within six days of the order being placed.

Pheew!!...Mission complete. The Gland Nuts shiny and new!!



Moving on..........While awaiting replenishment of my bank account I have been doing the little (costless) jobs on the coupe with removal of the crappy, scratched up window tinting being my latest project.

Fortunately I've been down this road before and was well prepared for the task at hand. I'm sure there are other, possibly better, ways to do this however for anyone that never removed tinting I hope this helps.

Firstly, I removed all the door trims being using a flat scraper in behind the trims to carefully lever out the plastic studs without damaging either the studs themselves or cracking the chipboard backing.

Once the trims were removed I assembled my weapons of choice; a packet of single-sided razor blades, vice grips and a bottle of Nail Polish Remover (also known as Acetone).



The reason I use vice grips and not a proper scaper is that with the razors secured as per the above the blades are able to flex to suit the contour of the glass thus preventing scratches. Additionally, you can also slide the edge of the blade in behind window rubbers to get at all of the tint.

However.....razors will become blunt and will definitely break occasionally. I broke seven this time.

From this point I use the corner of the blade to cut razor-width lines horizontally across the tint and one vertical cut in the centre of the window. These aren't hard cuts through the tint as the object is only to create tear-lines as the tint is scraped off. By doing this, you are then able to insert the blade into the tint at the vertical cut and push all the way to the edge of the window, removing a neat strip of tint in one single motion.

When all of the tint is removed I clean the horrible sticky, stinky gluey residue off with the nail-polish remover and give a final clean with window cleaner. Result.....much nicer looking windows and a cheaper quote from the tint guy should you choose to re-tint!!

Job Done, the next little job will be replacing the cracked and glazed Instrument Panel with a much nicer one I have in the shed. All good so far!!!

mate I know everything you are feeling with this project (well minus the 1st car burning)...

Ive owned about 7 E21s (the best car in the world lol) and the time spent pulling apart, finding the hidden nasties, fixing previous repairs and THEN once all done actually spending money to get ahead is not for the faint hearted. BUT at the end of the day the older beemers are fantastic, they sound awesome, handle well and are easily modded with results.

Now I know deep down an S14 would be great, last one I saw for sale was a bare block for 8k!!!! The other hand you can go a 2.7L stroker although for money spent they just dont have the speed, torquey motors and fun to drive but arent going to scare anything much quicker thana std commodore. Then there is the M30 motors but that starts getting into the expensive and hurting handling . If it was me Id be going Motec and sourcing a cam locally (Schrik cams go for around 1k mark!!! crazy), find an lsd and then work the suspension.

If you ever fall on the bmwe21.net forum the site owner Jeroen has a 4door which he circuit races (in europe) and is rather successful in its class. He shares pretty much everything Id say have a look.

Also picking up you have a genuine convertible!!! To see one and not a Baur is pretty rare around here.

Keep us posted, and good luck

oh and ebay USA will be your friend for BMW parts

Yes...we are becoming buddies already. Soooooo much cheaper than buying local. And thanks for the info.

With regards to the motor it's looking like an stockish m20b25 initially which would then be rebuilt at some point with the Ireland Engineering 3.0 stroker kit, Schrick 280' cam, 10.5:1 forged pistons and headwork, injectors, throttle body etc etc etc etc etc.

I figure if the guy who raced an e30 at Supercars this year (we're on the same forum) can do mid 1:24's with a fairly mild 2.5L boasting only 140rwhp then the above should be sufficient to be on the same lap as the faster IP cars.....and that's enough for now. We'll see how the $$$ work out......could still be an m50 or m52 conversion in the pipeline???

In the meantime I'll be doing suspension, brakes and diff so I can at least enjoy thrashing the crap out of the little 1.8 in Lapsprints.

This is Great Hypermania,

I LOOOOVE Bimmers, E30's and E28's are my poison. I Had an E28 528i that I was restoring and spicing up a couple of years ago... Got given it as it was pretty sick engine wise. So I resprayed the whole thing in Cherry Red, Cleaned it all out, degreased the underside and drivetrain (i didnt chuck any spears either) took all the plastic trim off the car and resprayed it all in Panther Mica (a Dark black green with mica flakes, looked trick) and was putting the engine back in the car when the GOD DAMNED FUEL PUMP CAUGHT FIRE ...... and up went my hard work in flames....

In hindsight i think the next door neighbour was responsible as he was a mercedes enthusiast...

Good to See someone actually workin on BMW's in darwin! keep it up and ill be following this one with interest!

Wow....the 5-series sounded like it would have been an eyecatching and unique cruiser....what a waste!!!. Would you agree that a fire is about the worst possible thing that can happen?? Goddamm....I can still smell it now!!

This is actually my sixth E30 and the convertible my seventh....I should hopefully get it right this time.

I'll be keeping this thread updated and things will start moving at a more rapid pace once I get at least one of the cars registered......stay tuned.

Oh....and today, I spent two hours discovering that Series 1 instrument panels do not work in Series 2's..........bugger.

Grrrr yeah it was gonna be real nice hey... i had some 17 inch BBS racing rims and they looked sooooo good on the car *sniff* im gonna cry

The E28 was my first foray into BMW ownership but i wave the fav marque flag high

I am looking at purchasing an E30 Turbo if its still for sale in a couple of months ( need to sort out monies and get my life back in order after owning a commonwhore that like my wallet) from a guy down in Melbourne, its a 325 4 door that looks mint! link here:

http://www.carsales.com.au/all-cars/privat...bo&trecs=10

Its got an AC Shnitzer Turbo Kit running a T3T4 hybrid... makes decent power apparently. he rekons he scared his mates GenTT powered SS commodore the other day by sitting next to it and then passing it eventually

When the two E30's are closer to completion i would love to come and perve on them, permission willing of course

That car looks sweeeet!!!!!! The fact that the turbo is an AC Schnitzer kit possibly indicates that the car has been done right....rather than jumbled together....hope you can get it.

You'd be more than welcome to come and have a look, it'd be nice to speak to someone in German rather than Japanese....lol

Bratwurst and Sauerkraut rather than rice and raw fish ey? LMFAO

haha there are a few nice E30's for sale with SR20DET transplants for sale at around the $7K mark if this one falls through, I might just accquire one of those... the only problem is that i am a purist so it kind of seems like a "Bastard Love Child Sex Object" Rather than a "Pure Sweet Married Relationship Sex Object"..... so it would always bug me a little bit but it would still be sweet.

what i really wanna do is buy an E28 M5 as they go for fairly cheap nowadays (about the $4K to $6K mark) and respray it in cherry red with panther Mica trim highlights and NOT set it on fire this time. Alas this will have to wait as the wallet wont let me. The other reason is the horrendous prices on Genuine 'M' parts... enough to turn a tomato green. Im suprised that the E28 M5 is cheap cos they are individually hand made and they are just as quick as the E30 M3 tho not as nimble. the E34's go for ridiculous prices but they arent as fun to drive as the E29 M5... great car but they lack the harshness of the E28..

I do know this cos i used to work in a BMW dealership in melbournbe as a concierge and i drove just about every BMW model under the sun.... including the first aussie deliveredM6 convertible.... yum yum

Fire sucks. i hate it..

ill have to take you up on the offer for sure mate

dream E30 aye. is it a 325i?

my mate has a silver e30 318i coupe 4 spd auto. Its soo fucking slow! its not funny.

2jzgtte swap soon tho. ill keen in contact.

Yep... I've never been that much into cross-breeding either. One of the things I like about BMW is the ability to make them go quick while still retaining a lot of factory parts....albeit from other models in the range.




Sadly no..318i that wouldn't pull your dick out for a piss. Only until I've done the brakes, suspension and a few cosmetics though......motor early next year hopefully.

Thats true and you need to invest a shite load of monies to get them there... i tolerate the bastardisation of works of art in the interest that the work of art will be better... kind of like buying a van gogh, that dude was nuts but he still put out some interesting paintings

any progress on the Bimmers? got the convertible home yet?

After waiting for the previous owner to return from military exercises....I finally have the convertible home. I think I like it a lot despite the multitude of tasks required to make it pretty again.

Damn shame the immobiliser key thingy is stuffed which means that i couldn't turn the ignition on and wind down the windows.





Sweeeeeeeeeet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

if you leave the windows up your hair won't get blown around.

Haha.....nice comment!!!!

Fortunately my head is a slipstreamed, mega-aerodynamic, low-friction, highly complex piece of performance equipment. As a trade off for the phenominal speed advantages it obviously offers it is unfortunatley, like carbon fibre and dracula's, ultra sensitive to damaging UV rays. Nightime topless cruises will be nice though.

get it dimpled so that there is less drag. like a golf ball. Dr Nick will do it.

always are

OMMMMMGGGG!!!!!!! *cleans monitor after stacking pants*
OMGGGGG! *repeats action*

Wow Hypermania she is certainly shmexy and if you get her on the road again i will applaud as you would have saved a sexy machine....



Hey Tim, Tim..... aw, hang on a sec......

Update Time!!!!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's getting there!!!!!!!


Despite not having achieved anything substantial due to the financial committment made toward purchasing the convertible I have managed to take care of lots of the little jobs and am now almost ready to start tackling the bigger one's.


A new front lower lip has been purchased to replace the missing item. This has stopped the car looking like a spare parts car for the convertible ..... something that more than one visitor had assumed, much to my disgust.


Currently I am working on removing the overspray and repainting the front clip so that it looks tidy in addition to preparing the new lower lip for paint. I did consider leaving it in black however as I'm splashing the paint around at the moment I thought a little colour coding might be in order.


Replacment of a few bulbs means I now have working tailights and I'm awaiting my new control arm bushes so that I can complete that little job.


A lucky purchase of a set of 800km old Kumho's for $200 (BC Classifieds FTW) means that I have road legal tyres that will be fitted onto the $100 set of Speedy Hyperfangs (BC Classifieds FTW)I bought a little while back. Although not the ultimate, I'm pretty pleased with a set of 15" rims and near new tyres for a paltry $300.


As mentioned previously, the car ran like a piece of shit. While idling (coughing, missing, rough idle) in the front yard one day this then turned into not running at all. Oh how I love pushing cars with half-flat tyres across soft rain soaked grass...this seems to be becoming part of my fitness routine.


A quick check of the bits determined that lack of spark was due to a completely buggered dizzy cap and almost worn away rotor button. These parts should be here by the end of the week. Hopefully no other gremlins rear their ugly heads once that problem has been sorted.


Then.....hopefully in the next fortnight, it will be rego time!!


All looking good and once rego is done I can begin the more meaningful stuff such as fitting my 325i front struts complete with new control arms, bearings, rotors, pads and the previously purchased King Springs, Koni inserts and M3 strut tops. A good swaybar and new links will also be included.


While I'm waiting to pay for all of that I will be removing the aircon, carpet, sound deadening, roof lining, heater etc etc etc


Also in the works will be the purchase of a front right guard, hopefully I can achieve that this time without buying another whole car....... like I did with the convertible.


Speaking of which.....The convertible is also coming along nicely. I was lucky enough to have a fellow E30 enthusiast (and ECCA member) who happens to be an auto-elec randomly drop in and remove the stupid immobilizer that was preventing me from even starting the thing. In addition to that, he also did a basic tidy up of the under-dash electrics thus relieving my concerns of having a fire.....something I'm a little sensitive about oddly enough.


By the time the bloke left my place I felt like the luckiest bloke around..... I mean, like how often does someone drop in and alleviate a whole bag of concerns you had about your car in a matter of hours???


Currently I am repairing the front spoiler. As the car has an apparently very rare BBS bodykit from the correct period I wasn't to keen to replace it despite the damage.


The front spoiler had a couple of large holes (playing card size holes) and various cracks. This wouldn't have been a problem if it was fibreglass because I can do that however repairing plastic presented a whole new challenge.I decided I could bog the holes provided I could glue in some suitable backing behind the holes onto which I could apply the bog up to the level of the original plastic.


To to this I made a very thin sheet of fibreglass using a glass window louvre as a mould which I then cut into strips of roughly 10mm width. To follow the rounded contour of the spoiler I glued these horizontally onto the the reverse side over the holes using plastic-weld glue. Once this backing was set and firm I applied the bog smoothly over the front side which has now been sanded back to the level of the spoiler.


I quick test coat of paint revealed that the repair is invisible and I am in the process of sanding back the whole spoiler prior to applying primer, then spray putty, then primer and some gloss black paint.


Initially I only intended for the repair to be good enough so that I could use the spoiler as a plug from which a fibreglass mould could be taken. Fortunately it has come up so nicely that the whole moulding and re-manufacture process won't be needed ........ A win!!!!!!!!!!!!


OK.....so stay tuned for the more exciting stuff!!