I thought I'd go ahead and post this here with my fellow E30'ers: Hello all, finally got around to getting my BMWCCA membership (had the E30 delivered to me back in March). My name is Buddy, currently I'm a Technical Writer for L3 Communications, Westwood Corporation. I decided to buy a "fun car" to build up after a nasty off at Hallett on my sportbike, Grade 3concussion + a couple months of Post Concussion Syndrome and 18 months later a still numb upper right thigh. So I decided on a boxy sedan, as I have always loved the lines of the E30 and Datsun 510. The car is an '88 Bronzit with now 127k miles, purchased with about 121k. The car currently has the GC track kit with Koni SA's, Eibach sways, Sparco strut bar, GC control arm bearings, GC camber plates, Zimmerman X-drilled rotors and Axxis pads and (EDIT: got the 19lb injectors and MarkD chip in absolutely blows away the Dinan chip that was in the car), along with ho-hum BMP RS-1 body kit, but at least it isn't diving boards! With the exception of the injectors and chip the car is nearly how I bought it back in March except LOTS of maintenance, euro grills, black kidneys smoked turns and removed the fog lights so I can put in brake ducts and interior swap have been done. Here is a pic of the car the day after it was delivered from Florida. Here is the car as it looks now, its awfully dirty in this pic. This was after a near 900 mile roundtrip from Stillwater to Shreveport, LA and back to get an all black leather sport interior for the car. As you can see the 16 x7 SSR comps were ditched for 17 x 8 Works Emotion CR-Kais, mainly for better street tire selection. The car is currently wearing some cheap Nexen 215/40/17s until spring, when I'll be putting a nice sticky 235/40/17 all the way around. The car also has a fresh driveshaft and I swapped out the 3.73 rearend for a 4.10, . FUTURE PLANS: In the very near future, I'll be installing the header I have, also new subframe mounts, trailing arm bushings and rear shock mounts. Then a BBK up front, rebuilt calipers and fresh rotors/pads out back, then.................... Long enough introduction post?
Have some faith man, I don't have one yet, but count at least me in - I love e 30's!!!!!! You know I might not have thought much of your color at first, but you have that car looking great! The beige balanced with the black wheels, windows and grill is great. Great attention to detail and great vision on your part to execute the look. It looks smooth and clean, I like it alot. Tim
Y'know Buddy, I apologize for not welcoming you to the club and forums on your first post; I saw your post originally but got sidetracked, and fully expected some of the others to extend a welcome - sorry you seem to have slipped through the cracks! So, better late than never... welcome to club & the forums, man! I like your car a lot, (I think the body kit looks great, but then I also liked the silver wheels and center grill a bit more than the blackout-look; vive-la-differénce though ) Your paint appears infinitely more pristine than mine! Was it a 'is originally, and what did you change about the interior?
Yes, it is a real is. When I bought the car it had a black leather Sparco Milano seat in it with a worn out beige interior and stained beige carpet. Also so found some rust by the gas pedal and in the door frame once the interior was removed that we patched up. So I purchased a full interior swap from a guy in Shreveport, grey carpet, black doors panels and rear cards, black leather sport seats that are in great shape and a black leather ski pass through rear seat, a reupholstered black rear parcel shelf with two tone black with beige grills for the rear premium speaker pods. Although it still has the crappy, cheap eBay ricer steering wheel on it, but that will be one of the last things to go. Unfortunately, the last few 10 days or so of cold weather in OK have not been kind to my dash. I went from a crack free pristine dash, to one with a 3 inch crack on the passenger side and a giant V shaped crack that starts at the top of the instrument cluster down to the base of the windshield.
MAN! Sorry to hear about the dashs cracks. (http://bmwcca.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3555). The car looks extremely very cool. Very interesting. Glad to hear it worked out. I just put a Dinan chip in my new 1991 318i (which has a multitude of dash cracks BTW) and thought that it substantially improved things (power as well as low RPM smoothness).
I've got a couple of very small cracks in my dash. My intention is to buy a used one, have it redone by www.justdashes.com and then hold on to it until something happens that requires me to remove the dash. At that time, I'll make the switchout. Here's my E30.
Maniac--I'm not usually a fan of bronzit but that paint is in great shape and it looks great. Congrats on the car, welcome to the forum, you've done some great things with the car.
Thanks. I've already made pretty good progress on the car I think, but I've still got a long to go to get where I want it to be. I'd really like to get another one to make into a slightly more comfy, nice DD/cruiser type and let this one evolve into something more sinister. All in due time I suppose.
Welcome! You are among friends here! And yes one E30 usually leads to two, then three, then ....... I want to get a cabrio and an ix at some point. GR
