Looks like a great project. Enjoy and have fun!

 

I've been on Craigslist looking at E30s for the last hour or so. I blame this thread

 

Doooo eeett.

This thing has been taking up all my time. I'll have a nice update tomorrow morning.

 

Nice project!

 

Thanks for all the comments guys.

Yesterday was somewhat a disappointment. I found a practically new back seat on a forum from a local seller for $30, went to meet up with him only to find out it's from a coupe and won't fit in my vert. This thing was MINT! Oh well.

Had a pretty busy weekend. Friday, I finished up the brakes. The rear now has new pads and rotors, the pins in the calipers are greased up and moving nicely. I took them apart again yesterday and everything is moving as it should.
Look at the pad difference


Finally got the car out of my dad's garage and back on the road


Saturday morning, got up real early and went to a local farm to pick strawberries. So much more fun in a vert, everyone was staring at us as we were pulling in.


After having some strawberries, I went to my friend's shop and changed the oil/filter with Mobil 1 synthetic and changed out the fuel filter.



Also, looked for where the leak is coming from, and it looks like it's from either the valve cover gasket (I hope) or somewhere by the front seal. Need to get my BMW guy to look at it to make sure. If it's the valve cover gasket, it's no big deal and I can do it myself.

Woke up on Sunday and looked at the brakes again and changed out the throttle/accelerator cable. What a PITA, but the old one had zip ties on it so it needed to be replaced. Car was still sputtering a little bit on cold start ups so I put in a can of sea foam and filled her up yesterday. So far so good, we'll see.

Got a couple phone numbers from people for body work, and have been searching and searching for new bumpers, so far the only blue ones I've found are in the UK.

 

Argh. i just sold her.

Too much work, not enough time. If it was a coupe, at least I can put the car seat in it but not safe to put my daughter in it.

Oh well, it was fun

 

Damn dude, sorry to hear that. Hey, I hope you make a couple of nickels off it

 

sorry to see, looked like a fun project

 

 

Made out fine, even made a couple bucks on it.


Problem was that the car needed EVERYTHING and I don't really have that much time to invest into it, nor do I really want to invest that much money into it either. If I find a clean one, I'll buy another

 

I hope that 3rd time's a charm

 

Dont do it! It's a trap!

 

It'll be the 5th time

It's always a trap, but a fun trap.

 

aaaaand I'm back!

Here's another one.
Picked this up mid September:
1991 BMW 318i convertible with 74K original miles on it. One owner, I bought it from the BMW dealership that sold it back in 1991. Came with the owners manual, original window sticker and maintenance records from 1991-2002.

The car was 250 miles away, I drove it home carefully and ordered tires the next day. They were about 15 years old.

I put 3500 miles on the car the first month I had it and she's been FANTASTIC. It's got a bit of a rattle from the front end (probably the steering rack) and could use a new convertible top, otherwise the car is MINT.

Here are some pics:











There is absolutely 0 rust on the car, came out of Central IL. Now it's sitting in the garage with the battery disconnected, I can't wait until spring!

 

WHOA that thing looks mint. Looks like fun!

 

Nice purchase on the 318! That looks like you really lucked out. Love the color, too.

 

I can't believe how easy it is to find an E30 vert like this that's so clean AND manual!

 

Wasn't that easy. It took me 9 months negotiating with these people to finally buy it.

In the midwest, this is extremely rare, to find a rust free one.

 

It's beautiful!

 

I would drive the crap out of that.

 

Hot hot hot! How does she drive?

 

Congrats on the clean vert! Thing looks very well taken care of

On my "Need to own this car before I die List", E30s are up there - those inline 6s sound so good

 

That is pretty awesome. Enjoy it!

 

318 is 1.8L

 

brb, hitting up craigslist to find an e30 to restore.

 

Damn, that is crazy clean. Congrats!

 

Congrats! Love it!

 

I'm aware, E30s also came with Inline 6s you know .

If I were in the market to pickup any E30, it would be a 325is.

 

Wow, that thing is clean

 

Actually quite well. I live in MKE and drove it to Chicago almost every day in September. Other than a steering rack rattle which I need to get taken care of, the car is very solid. Only thing I did was put tires on it, which were $177 for all 4 Love them 14's!

I like the power and growl of the 6cyl as well (had a 1993 325i convertible which was still the E30 body style). Maintenance on those is considerably more.

325 is definitely more powerful, but requires more maintenance. The thing I like about the 1.8 and this is my third 318 is that the power is there throughout the entire power band. You can wind that thing out and drive the hell out of it and still not be breaking too many laws.