The Interislander

[Forrest 35]

Finally convinced Dad to pull the trigger on a E30 after 3 years of trying.

Picked it up at Turners for $500, will sell the interior and a few bits and it will pay for the car already.

SA FL 325i Sedan

Royal Blue Metallic

Auto

183k

The good:

Full SA large tool kit and trim surround

Motor pulls great

Blue Recaro Leather interior

Heaps of potential

Absolute bargain for the price

Mint foglights

The bad:

Autotragic (looking for a manual conversion)

Drives like a boat (forgotten what this feels like)

Needs bonnet, bootlid, roof and guards repainted (also looking for some at a wrecker(s) in Royal Blue)

sh*t 320 holy exhaust

No sump guard

The car will be gutted and caged over the summer with the same Race Series suspension, urethane bushes and brakes as my car (think he wanted to convince me not to cage mine by building his own).

He is building it for the intermarque series/classic racing, might even convince him to drive it in the open class/I'll drive it.

Hoping to have it completed by March.

Should be good fun, after the last one I said I would never buy another E30, looks like I didn't need to now I have another one to play with

This car reminds me a lot of what Ashkan started with, hopefully it will turn out as sweet as his race car did.

Comments are appreciated.

Cheers, Nathan

Edited April 4, 2011 by Brams

[3 SERIES 93]

Good buy! The interior alone would be worth more than the purchase price wouldnt it?

I need a deal like this one

[Forrest 35]

^ Yup. Along with the toolkit and foglights thats easily $800 ish.

[flake 0]

haha good stuff mate i bet your looking forward to this. let me know if/when you want a hand to gut the interior.

should have a LSD right?

Edited November 30, 2010 by flake

[Forrest 35]

Ha you know it.

No LSD sadly, on the hunt.

[APT 194]

Another Royalblau to join the ranks, Good work Nathans Dad!

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2956]

Nice find there Nath, great starting point for a race car.

Wish my Dad was that cool

[Silver Fox 43]

Nice find there Nath, great starting point for a race car.

Wish my Dad was that cool

And that you had a big brother, eh Jon.

[_BRS_ 209]

Nice Nath! Will be following its progress closely!

[Nobimmer 694]

Sweeeet

[deeveus 81]

Bloody cheap at $500 is it WOF/REG ?

[Forrest 35]

^ WOF till Jan and unsure about REG but got one. Was a great deal I agree, will be ripped apart in a matter of weeks anyway so it isn't really relevant.

Within two days sourced a LSD and a manual conversion, have this done in no time.

Edited December 1, 2010 by Brams

[kerry 10]

good score, hope he has alot of fun in it like you have been in yours

[huff3r 347]

Sounds mint. I may be able too give you a hand making that interior dissapear at some stage . Never had recaros before haha.

[Forrest 35]

Can a mod shift this to projects, first load of parts arriving in the next day or so. Ta.

Paul, interior is yours if you want it after this gets a WOF in the next month, I'll PM you some better pics tomorrow.

Edited December 6, 2010 by Brams

[huff3r 347]

Cheers bro but I really probably shouldn't. As usual I'm broke haha.

[Forrest 35]

Right so bit of progress already;

Manual conversion courtesy of Kerry (= top man) should be here by Monday

Have ordered all the front half of the car part wise first (aside from the brakes which can be done later), mainly because the balljoints need replacing for a warrant while the rest of the car is sweet, so will do this half then pull the rear of the car to bits do that along with the manual conv. and interior strip etc. Want 6 months warrant on it so we can drive it around still for wheel alignments etc.

So with thanks to Paul at Interpart have ordered and should be here tomorrow (ish)

King Spring Race Series spec 320 front springs

Race Series spec Koni front shocks

Offset urethane control arm bushes

New complete control arms with new balljoints included

Koni bumpstops

Urethane front sway bar bushes

Tierods

Rack ends

Should be enough to keep me entertained for a week or so

Edited December 7, 2010 by Brams

[Nobimmer 694]

Good stuff, brings back memories

[Forrest 35]

G260 Manual Gearbox conv. thanks to Kerry at Mosens and Dutchy for dropping it off.

Fitted a brass selector knuckle sleeve already, just needs a Z3 shifter and some pressure plate bolts and it's good to go.

Front suspension bits thanks to Paul at Interpart.

Won some King Spring superlow (race series spec) rear springs on trademe, thanks to Dave (Silverfox) for letting me win

Picking up a 3.64 LSD tomorrow.

After new years some real action will begin, Dad's tossing up whether to do the rear suspension at the same time along with the manual conversion (don't need a cert for a manual conv. do you?) car is registered as a BMW 325i not a 325i/A4 etc thankfully.

Exhaust will be done in the new year, current one is a catalic convertor rusted single pipe 320i POS, think for now it will be a factory exhaust manifold (cheaper in the long run to M52 etc than buy headers for rattly M20 anyway ) Dad is going to get the exhaust on mine copied - factory exhaust manifold then basically 2.5 single pipe with a coby in the middle then a resonator at the end, sounds good, probable green sticker according to my cert guy...no gunning it around cops

So on the hunt for a set of 15' weaves if anyone wants to sell any and a Z3 shifter and plastic bush also.

Cheers

Edited December 14, 2010 by Brams

[Silver Fox 43]

Figured you wanted them more than me, but next time I may not be so kind.

[APT 194]

Hey Nath apparently you need a cert for manual conversion, read it in the new performance car mag. But i dont think many people would be able to tell the difference ? - I didnt get mine certed until recently.

[_ethrty-Andy_ 2132]

i remember looking on the LVV website and, iirc, if it using a gearbox that the engine came from the factory with, in the chassis the engine and gearbox came in, then you dont need it. you do need a cert if you were using a toyota box on the back of your M20 or whatever

[APT 194]

^^ Thats what i thought as well till i read the latest PC mag..Hence why i didnt get mine certed for over a year or so, No one can really tell anyway.

[Top Secret 2]

I heard that you need to have it certed if you use any non-factory parts, ie. modified crossmember. E30s have no real telltale signs that they've been converted, unlike some other cars with auto gauge clusters etc.

[Forrest 35]

Bit of a new years update:

Process of/picked up race series rear springs, Z3 shifter, 15' Weaves.

Doing a rear suspension order in the next few days/week then time to start ripping it all apart.

Pelican order will come this week then going to do cambelt, tensioner, water pump, thermostat (what do I actually need to order when overhauling all this?) etc whilst the motor is out (will do a test run on this car then do my own E30 ha).

Started stripping the boot today along with removing the hideous Jap plate holders in order to remove boot sound deadening, anyone have any tips for removing the long range fuel tank and converting it to just the standard tank? Is it as easy as pulling out the Y piece and plugging in the standard one?

Broke the rusty exhaust the other day so will pull that off and get the one off my own car replicated.

Does M8 X 16mm sound familiar for pressure plate bolts anyone?

Car is now called the Interislander because it handles like a boat, I get motion sickness from driving it.

Pics to come when interesting stuff happens, hopefully still going to have this buttoned up and knocked together by March.

Edited January 3, 2011 by Brams