1987 BMW E30 daily driver

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yotah1

Well-known member
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Aug 22, 2011
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I thought I should share a bit what I've done on my other car :)

So the Twingo that you all know by now has moved from being a daily driver fully stock to being a track car fully modified pretty much ...
So i bought a bike to go to work : Kawasaki Z750. That didn't stay stock for very long either...

And then came the need for a car, as I had to go skiing, see the family, carry some stuff around, etc. And one day my colleague told me he was selling his E30 again as his buyer, a student, fell through. It was relatively clean, was running pretty well but needed to pass the french MOT.

We went down to the parking at work, I looked at the car, loved it and paid for it the next day. Insurance 2 days later and there I was with a "new" car.

So here's a little break down of what it was like :

1987 (November) BMW E30 with the M10 engine, so it's a 4 cylinder 1800cc carburated engine, initially putting out 90 crazy horses. It's actually quite decent given that the car weighs 1040kg with a full tank of petrol.
It's Alpineweiss, got the small rear diff, drum brakes at the back, 260mm (or 280mm I must check) non ventilated front discs on single piston floating calipers.
It's pretty standard, but had a relatively recent re-spray of the body, although there were signs of rust in the rear wheel arches.
My mate had it for a few years but didn't really take care of it, so I had some work to do on it.

The shocks were dead, like bike pumps, you could actually push them in just by hand and they wouldn't even extend back again! 30 year old hydraulics lol.

So that's how the car was when i got it, the first night :

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14" wheels with 20 year old chinese tires, worn out bushes everywhere (well, no more bushes would be more accurate...), but it had a cool steering wheel! :lol:
The interior was from a 318is and is in pretty good shape so i had little to do to it.

Next step was to give a new life to the suspensions and brakes.
 
Then I cleaned out the engine bay which was filthy.

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Next to my Z750 :

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Then i took the front driver side seat out of the car for a bit of work. E30s are known for having cracking frame issues and mine was no exception. In the corners, the backrest of the seat would move left and right, and back and forth when accelerating / braking. Not a "feel safe" feature for sure.
So I took it apart, fixed the broken bracket, cleaned all up and put it back together. It's holding pretty well but next month I'll be at my parents' place with a welding machine so I'll fix it bulletproof style this time, and take that opportunity to refurbish the fabric in some areas, put a new "leather" skin on the backrest panel, clean and re-paint the frame rails and put new foam in the seat.

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After that, I received my suspensions from Germany : 50mm drop front and 40mm drop rear.
I also got new wishbones, steering rack ends, rotules, roll bar droplinks, and Powerflex front bushes.

It took me about a full day messing around to fit it as absolutely everything was stuck or rusted enough to be a nightmare to remove.

Before :

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After :

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And well, hum, "during"...

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They have settled down a bit since, but I find the front too high as the wheel arch gap looks bigger than on the rear, so a few weeks ago I found some 80mm drop front springs and I'll fit them next week. I also changed the front top mounts as the bearing was dead and dry.

I also plastidipped the shark fins on the front as well as the top part of the chrome surround of the windows and the chrome lip around the windscreen (i hate chrome on cars from this era).

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Then came the new wheels. Rota Grid V "Classics" in 16", offset 20 (makes the car about 60mm wider than stock) with stretched tires. Bronze finish looks really cool. People like it or hate it on the bimmer, but I really love them.

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I then fitted a very low front lip, was too low as I smashed it several times and it finally gave up in a ditch at the Nürburgring during the 24H ...

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Yellow front lights fitted :)

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New custom stainless steel exhaust. I'm getting it upgraded again today as the middle silencer was rubbing the floor sometimes on speedbumps and so on so I removed it.

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I removed the heat insulation on the bonnet as it was falling apart. New one in place.

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At the Nürburgring :

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Then it spent 4 weeks at the shop for a new rear end. Full diff overhaul, new rear frame, Powerflex bushes all around, adjustable bolts and a full setup of the rear suspensions. While taking it apart, we found a lot of rust in the rear arches so I'll take it all off next month, put new sheet metal and re-spray it.

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I then found E30 Thule roof bars for 5€ (when people ask 200 for them!) and got bike rails for 30€. I can now get all my bike on the roof and go on bike weekends, finally! I'll later do a roof plate on the driver side with wood parts and fitting points to put the toolbox and other shit on the roof as well :)

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Stanceworks logos :mrgreen:

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And I got it out for a little photoshoot one evening.

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Last weekend we took the engine mostly apart, changed the seals on the top engine cover, the front crank case, the oil pump, the water pump, the exhaust manifold and intake manifold, the oil sump, cleaned the battery tray and re-sprayed some parts, cleaned the engine bay again, put full new engine coolant and oil.

What is left to be done on the car is a re-spray of the bumpers in white, full re-spray of the car, cleaning the electrics inside the car, putting new sound system to finally have a proper music system :).
We'll get rid of the rust, lower the steering wheel which is a bit too high even for me. I must change the rubbers on the gear lever to get rid of the play it has right now.
We've also re-done the clutch and box, put new carpets in it, cleaned the rust in the trunk area, cleaned the fuel system...

That's how far it has been for now.
 
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