Tidy30

Ok, it makes sense to me, thanks for your response. How are you going with potentially lowering your own cabrio Andy? I did see you recommend H&R springs in another post.

Thank you for all your responses Chris, I really do appreciate it. I think given the situation I am going to consider the original chrome trim. Ballpark price figure?

Hi all, Been investigating options to lower the E30 cabrio. My friend has the exact same 320i model and has been running the H&R Sport Cup Kit for over 2 years now. Doing a bit of amateur sleuthing on the internet has revealed to me that H&R spec only the Touring Cup Kit for the cabrio models. Some more looking has shown a tunersports listing for the H&R Sport specifically saying they're NOT for the cabrios, as they're for "51 millimeter front strut O.D only". Are the specs just being conservative? I'm relatively confident in his knowledge and believe him when he says they're the Sport kit instead of the Touring, but there does seem to be a bit of information about the Touring being specifically for cabrio models. This discovery also highlights the fact that cabrios (given their weight?) may require different springs and shocks than the standard E30 bretheren. If so, I may need to be a lot more selective when hunting for a good set of lowering springs and shocks! Any knowledgeable members able to chime in on the unique requirements for cabrio models? Thank you,

PM'd, my friend!

Whoops! My semi-rushed typing in the original post seems to have caused a bit of misleading! What I was meaning to say was that I am definitely considering a few mods (I've got myself a Tech1 spoiler to put on sometime, and a lowered Lola on stepped 16's is definitely on the cards) but have found myself really enjoying the stock look for the time being, since I don't see so many around. It's a bit of a "vocal minority" thing, I see significantly more E30 cabrio's on the internet than real life, and people don't really post "original" E30's very often. In reality I've only seen 2, 1 is another pure factory, 1 is lowered fantastically on BBS LMs. The car has just cleared the 196,000km mark, and has just come back to me from a service with Ernst at Bavarian Motorworks. Had the fanbelt changed, rusty coolant flushed (was in storage for a while, topped up with tap water!) along with other things like bled brakes, wiperblades etc. Fixed the valve clearances, so there's no more slight "clicking", and had the half moons replaced so hopefully the weeping oil from the top of the engine would have stopped now. She still surges a little when idling on a sloped surface, and when driving up my supremely steep driveway to park in the garage (#1 argument against lowering Lola) if I ease off the gas 4/5 times he engine will stall. A bit annoying and concerning, since each time it stalls it takes 2-3 goes to start her up again so I can reverse her all the way back down for another attempt. Heater core is also disconnected, probably due to a leak which a previous owner decided not to fix. Engine is due for an oil flush sometime in the next 10,000kms and the lower thrust bushes are a bit old. I'm thinking I'll have found some lowering hardware and new rims by the time the bushes need replacing, so I can have it all done with a single wheel alignment. Other than that she is in pretty good nick. Soft top is in great condition, (although a bit of reading indicates they usually stay looking great, but can sometimes be pretty worn) and there are no problems that we can see looming ahead. *I've still yet to decipher what this smiley actually means. Windscreen surround is something which niggles at me when I see it. Any suggestions as to nice ways to recolour it? You seem to have a lot of bits and pieces that I am interested in etwenty! Any more information on these weaves? However, given my steep driveway, my practical side is leaning toward putting her on 17 BBS LM reps and reducing the wheel gap with an H&R kit instead of purely putting her closer to the ground. The only thing wrong with dropped verts on big wheels is that all the ones I see aren't mine! Thanks for the all comments though! I am amazed how well the detailing turned out, and am still in the phase where I'd check the car over for 1-2 minutes everytime I get out after driving with my quick detailer and microfibre cloth in hand! Drove the merc to work yesterday and had a whopping big splat from a passing bird as I turned left down the Harbour bridge southbound, thanked my lucky stars I didn't drive Lola and hosed it down as soon as I got home. The big session was quite a killer though, I'm not looking forward to the next one as much as I was for the first!

Very tempted, excellent price. (Been watching it come down for the last few weeks!) I wonder what these will look like on a cabrio? Will have a search on the Google machine

Can you please post some photos of the rear kink? I've got a slight section of chrome flaking off in my rear, so am quite interested. Thanks

Hello fellow bimmersporters! I am ecstatic to announce that after around 8 months of searching I finally found and acquired the car of my childhood dreams. Bought her from up North in Whangarei, and she is an absolute dream. She is a 1990 E30 320i automatic in a gorgeous cirrusblau. Virtually stock standard aside from the Tech1 steering wheel. (I've recently found and bought a matching Tech1 spoiler which will go on sometime in the near future). Considering a couple of mods but I've found myself smitten by the standard look. Ironically, almost all cabrio's I see are dropped on lipped 16s, and I found myself drawn to the original form. Sometime ago the side bolsters became worn and were replaced with an amazingly tasteful leather for the recaro sport seats, as well as all the headrest side faces. A few paint chips, but a respray in the last yew years has left the exterior in a largely good condition. The images below are after my mammoth 15 hour detailing session (2.5 hour wash, 12.5 hour clay/cut/polish/wax). My photographer friend applied a few edits to bring out the sharpness, but the reflections and colours were largely representative. Anyway, enough talk, you've probably skipped the text above already or have been reading this last sentence through your peripheral vision.

The original build thread can be found here: http://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/39313-e30-cabrio-restoration/

You should also edit your latest post so that the groundbreaking news isn't in the "quote" box, as it 's quite hard to see. I ended up missing it for a good 30 seconds while trying to make sense of what you were posting.

Don't tease Chris I've just got myself a little something something

Quite an amateur question here with the King springs, but if they were into an E30 cabrio, any idea the delta height they would produce? I'm looking for some slight lowering, as the driveway to the garage is quite steep. Haven't done my research yet, but gotta start somewhere. Thanks

I can't believe how low the km's are! Amazing stuff (or is it)

If it's any consolation, there's an electronic expo at Vector Arena in Auckland this Sunday. Tickets I think are just less than $20, both consoles will be there for people to play on all day. I don't really think your variables above will be any further validated by playing on the consoles themselves, but thought I'd increase my post count nonetheless. :thumb:

Thanks again. I'm sure you guys are already aware, but for other forums I used to help manage you can eliminate almost all spambots by incorporating a question or something to allow registration of new accounts. My other forum requires explicit permission from the admins before a new account is generated, although it was a much much smaller forum. We can find a happy medium by incorporation of 1 or 2 layers of other interactions.

This new interface is slick! The light text/dark background is relatively easy on the eyes, but the pages can feel a little overburdening if you get my drift. Certainly enjoying the end of the timezone error era!

I actually called him this morning, told him I'd been looking for a while, gave the prices of 4 E30 vert's that had actually sold recently and their respective specs and conditions and gave him an offer of around $6000 for what I thought was comparable (especially since there is an identical model on the same website). He got a bit mad and using some rather colourful language promptly told me to go away, that it was a rare collector's item, worth heaps more and my offer was an absolute joke. So I thanked him and went about crossing the listing off my watchlist. I'm assuming he priced it so as he was a car dealer by trade, and was used to that kind of vehicle pricing. So when offered more "people's prices" found things completely incredulous. Had to double check here to make sure I wasn't missing anything!

If by some strange coincidence you aren't able to check the "For Sale" forum: http://www.bimmersport.co.nz/forums/index....showtopic=46048

I guess I found what I'll be doing this weekend then! Out of curiosity, with this cabrio (http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/325i/auction-627882461.htm) is there something there which justifies the relatively high asking price? We are fortunate enough to have another model in the same year to compare against (http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/325i/auction-638684645.htm) and it's a third of the price. Although it has higher k's and a torn seat, am I missing something obvious to our resident experts?

Yeah, looks like another has joined the ranks of watch and waiters. Might buy something else in the meantime however, to tide me over...

Does it rhyme with Me34 Jeevan? That's the latest path, but seeing some of these cabs has had me thinking of the original dream the last week or two. Big time.

That would be much appreciated Jon. I've had 3 slip through my fingers already! 1 due to being snapped up asap, the other with the owner getting cold feet, and this one with the owner selling to someone else a day before the inspection, for less than I would've paid!

She's the one man! Snapped by before the inspection, not even a chance to counter offer

Bumpity bump? A car I was waiting on getting inspected was purchased by someone else for quite a bit less than I would've paid! Angry at myself for waiting for an inspection instead of jumping at the chance, but not really. Tidy E30 cabs for $5-$5.5k? Manual 325i's preferred! Thanks again,

Hi all%