e30ftw

https://m.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1659415685006102/

You won't find a rolling coupe body that easily unless someone is abandoning a project. And if you expect to find one without rust, you're dreaming. They all have rust now. Only exception are mint examples that have been garaged their entire life. If anyone tells you it's rust free it's either been repaired (and you never know how good) or they don't know where to look. Your best bet would be just look out for a 316i/318i coupe and go from there. In the last couple years they have been going for around 7-10k. But definitely expect rust, it's just how much you are willing to deal with.

2.5k upwards.

You're better of going with a 316/318i and m54 swapping it. The price on m20b25s these days is ridiculous. You can pick up an m54 half the price and have a more modern engine with a better power band that is more than enough for an e30.

I feel like the demand for them has fallen off a little and they have narrowed more to a niche market for those who like the BMW classics. They're too pricey and old now. All the younger kids are jumping onto the E8X and E9X chassis. Even some long time E30 owners I've noticed have decided to sell on and move on to something else. Probably the difference between those of us who grew up with E30's on the roads and you could pick one up for a dime, play around and learn some mechanical skills because they are a great car to learn on. That's somewhat moved on a little now as they've become expensive and there are more modern options flooding the market with high HP and a modern chassis, with a small element of tinkering to them (Bolt ons, wheels etc).

I had a 135i N55 DCT for about 5 years. Awesome car, pretty reliable. Bought it with 85,000kms and immediately I had the HPFP go out, one of the issues inherited from the N54 on the earlier models of the N55 (2010). Same with the electric Waterpump, but that was at 95,000kms so nothing out of the ordinary from a usual waterpump maintenance schedule. DCT was great, never had issues. I used to push it pretty hard. I did the usual Stage 2 stuff quite early in ownership with the upgraded intercooler and charge pipes, catless downpipes, Stage 2 MHD tune and used it as my daily like that for 4 years without a single problem. The N55 is much more reliable than the N54. I sold it at about 125,000kms.

Yeah I found reference to it on E30wiki: https://www.e30zone.net/e30wiki/index.php/Drivetrain#Manual The ratios you quoted look like the Getrag 245 ones on there

Source? I've never heard of different G260 boxes on the e30 M20 so I'm curious.

Yeah I wasn't talking about panel by panel reproduction, I was referring to the original posted link where they recreated every panel of the chassis and sell it as a complete body panel set Toyota AE86.

I've bought some of the smaller panels from E30 Garage and they are very good quality. Far better than some of the other reproduction panels that come from Thailand that are thinner metal, stamped poorly and jagged edges. I wouldn't be surprised considering the investment they have made to produce tooling to stamp M3 panels that they would eventually have enough to make a complete chassis almost. I wonder what the original manufacturers think about it.. does it cross into their patents/trademarks selling an entire reproduction chassis

The belt will make that noise if you got coolant on it. I did that recently and had the exact same noise. You can either try cleaning off the belt with some electrical cleaner (doesn't leave residue), in my case this helped a little, or suck it up replace the belt again like I ended up doing. I'd just finished replacing the pump, thermostat, belts and tensioners too so that was fun doing the belt again..

Weird when you run the Vin on it, it comes back as a Sedan not Coupe.

Yes the lift pump is just to prime the external pump and is only a very low pressure pump. I don't know if it's supposed to be 5V though. Have you tried bench testing it with 12V?

That is the lift pump. It feeds the external pump and reads tank level. Either it's dead or the plugs missing as you mention there wasn't a plug.. Item 10 and 11 is the newer revision which is the in tank pump and fuel level sender, separate units, on a cradle. I'm pretty sure if you get a cradle you can switch to the newer style and use in tank fuel pump instead of the lift pump and external. You will need to do some wiring though.

Curious why it would need to be modified to fit a vert? Looks like you'd be able to fit your fist between the guard and sump now

What ECU do you run it on?

Yes

Looking for an M50 oil filter housing, with the metal cap.

Got the entire fan base of the Ti in NZ, all of 3 people, in here defending it's boot space.

As if a Ti has any practicality lol

Pre facelift and UK import.. it'll be rusted pretty hard. I've seen enough pre facelift firewalls over the years, they rust HARD compared to facelift models. Won't be the only spot either I bet.

Nice. Glad it helped someone else out too. I was also looking at disabling the Drivers wish input on mine but require clutch input to disable it. I've since found I can ground the DME clutch input signal so I need to test it out and see what different that makes. Sounds like its worthwhile, hopefully mimmick more of a cable throttle behavior.

@Sammo It's both. The racks steering spline position is closer to the engine block / headers so you have clearance issues and a slight difference in length because of it. Also the E46 rack also uses a different spline, which is why the linkage uses the E30 UJ at one end (for the steering column) and the Barina end spline is the same as the E46 rack spline. You wouldn't be able to fit E30 spline on E36 / E46 rack.

Schmiedmann has the KLOKKERHOLM ones. 395nzd landed. If you aren't fussed on quality for a racecar seems like a decent price. https://www.schmiedmann.com/en/bmw-E30/3053-new?product=41341924868U

On the topic of repro panels.. I bought the Facelift KLOKKERHOLM from schmiedmann that is a repro and it's pretty sh*t tbh. Thinner metal, poorly stamped and rough edges that would need alot of cleaning up for the taillight cutouts. Since I was going to all the effort of cutting and replacing and paintjob I went for an OEM one and when I had both next to each other it was night and day the quality comparison. Metal thickness alone was probably like 1mm vs 0.8mm.