Timewarrior Introduction - Dunedin

[timewarrior 3]

Hi fellow Bimmer enthusiasts,

I recently bought a 1984 BMW 323i with a 2.5L Vanos conversion. Attached is a picture I took today after giving her a wash.

This car has been being raced competitively up North since its conversion so has a lot of interesting mods (some of which I'm going to put back to stock) but at the moment I'm just stoked to have got an E30 Coupe in such a nice red and the 2.5 is great!

I also have a 1994 VW Golf VR6 and I'm a member of VASK and the Otago VW Enthusiasts Club, the VR6 will remain my daily driver as it has 5 seats and 4 doors and a boot that locks and it doesn't leak and it's headlights work and it can get onto parking building ramps (just).

So things will slowly happen with the BMW as I can afford it. First thing is the exhaust, it has 2.5 inch piping and custom headers and is really loud but the main issue is the middle muffler is so low it touches the road if there is any curvature, and it's scraping the hell out of my driveway. Looking under the car it looks like it can't get any higher, diff in the way? Might have to go smaller muffler and smaller piping so it doesn't get any louder?

Next thing is the sunroof was removed to put the roll cage in and a carbon fibre panel has been fitted to fill the gap. The problem is when I drove it down from Wellington to Dunedin it leaked the entire way and the interior got a bit swampy. I'm planning to remove it and get a tinted safety glass panel in its place. Maybe get a system where it can pop up in the same way as the rear windows in the coupes. Does anyone know of somewhere in Dunedin or Christchurch that does that sort of work? I found this and the Pop Top 100 is the sort of thing I want: http://www.rve.co.nz/sunroofs.html

I'm also in the market for new wheels, the 18s that are on it aren't really my taste. I have a spare set of wheels so the 18s will be on Trademe for $1 reserve as soon as I find out the offset.

The race seats which are pretty much brand new will be going on Trademe too since I'll be trying to get some nice Recaros for it.

If there's any E30 owners in Dunedin who want first dibs on these bits let me know. Also for sale will be the angel eyes that are on it now. I want to put OEM lights on and do some yellow tinting.

So if anyone made it to the end of this post, thanks and hello again!

Cheers,

Dave (Timewarrior)

[Lucan 196]

I saw this on Trademe, seemed like a good deal cost wise as doing all the work would've cost more than it was advertised for.

Welcome.

[euroriffic 607]

Welcome, and good to see another local member. Make sure you come to our next meet in afew weeks so we can have a wee looksy at the e30

Looks like a nice car but agree with wheels and headlights.

[Gaz 1060]

Welcome.

There is a build thread on here somewhere but I don't think he finished the thread off.

[_Matt_ 42]

Looks like a transformer.

[timewarrior 3]

Looks like a transformer.

Hahaha, she does!

[MD13 494]

Colour is fantastic! The headlights make her look angry...

[antil33t 90]

Welcome, please feel free to come to my Barbecue on may 9th. I'm told there will be some mini bikes....

[euroriffic 607]

Got the tyre so will be getting her all up and running tomorrow

[pldubs 308]

What up dude, Saw you blasting up past gardens New World a couple nights ago, sounded sick.

Def pop by the bbq on the 9th will be good to have some more quality chat

Flick me a txt on 0297733266 for details

Chur

[Arma 134]

Welcome, that's a angry + neat looking vehicle!

[timewarrior 3]

Thanks everyone. Still coming to terms with RWD and no traction aids, it's a bit like learning to drive again but it'll be worth it! I'll flick you a text tomorrow about the BBQ.

[euroriffic 607]

Wait till have 300+rwhp with no aids, Then its a blast!!!

And turns out I forgot it's the misuses birthday on the 9th so don't think il be making it

[timewarrior 3]

So I should have some pictures up next week at the latest. She has new rims on the way, OZ Superturismo 17s. The bonnet has been painted to match the car, the tail lights have been put back to stock (they were black before and looked sh*t), I've swapped the angel eyes for factory 'smiley' projectors, the seats have been replaced with Momo buckets and the wiring will be redone tomorrow. More of the interior has been stripped out.

So far it has been a bit of a journey. Being the first car I have owned that has had mods done by the previous owner it has been... an experience to say the least. The Golf was stock when I bought it and all the mods I have done have been done properly, by the book and, when I lack the experience, done by the pros.

I have had a few issues with the BMW.

1. The first is that when the sunroof was removed and replaced with a carbon fibre panel it wasn't sealed right and has leaked like a sieve from day one. There is almost always a puddle in the passenger footwell and I bail it out after every rain shower.

2. The fog lights never worked thanks to bad wiring, so when I picked it up and the headlights were way out of adjustment I had no backups and had to tail-gate cars with good headlights all the way back to Dunedin from Wellington.

3. The fuel pump stopped working after about a week. Again, bad wiring was at fault.

4. The temp gauge in the car stopped reading and the car came bloody close to overheating in traffic. Again, bad wiring was at fault.

5. The windscreen wipers stopped working. Again (you guessed it), bad wiring was at fault.

6. It had a flat battery one day so I put the one out of the Golf in and overnight that battery (bloody good expensive battery) was flattened and hasn't been the same since.

7. Tried to put a new battery in with an isolator and the negative terminal clamp was broken and the positive was corroded onto the battery so badly that the terminal almost broke off the battery before the clamp came off.

8. The angel eye headlights were fitted before the oil cooler and the inlet pipe for the cooler was threaded through the wiring for the passenger side headlight so that I couldn't remove the headlight without taking the copper bits out of their plastic plugs and then taking the wires out of the copper and then reassembling. PITA

9. The mounting bracket for the battery in the boot was retarded, a one-year-old could have thought up a better system. Taking it out almost caused a fire.

10. I thought the battery mount was retarded until I removed the passenger side tail light. The rubber seal had evidently failed and rather than buying a new one it had been sealed up with silicone. Which had effectively glued the light to the body work so that the paint was all pulled off when I changed the tail light. Of all the cheap-ass solutions to a problem this has to take the cake.

11. The first time I had issues with the car not starting I tried to read faults... the port wasn't connected during the engine swap (or bad wiring).

12. ALL the wiring for every accessory the car has ever had is still there. Also, the whole stereo has been rewired and all the old wiring remains. Pulling up the carpet revealed about 15 wires with cut ends that don't go anywhere... and I wondered why the battery has been going flat.

So far all the issues have been with wiring and clumsiness and sometimes stupidity but with a rewire on the cards tomorrow I should be right. The really shitty part is that even though the car seems mechanically sound, the stuff I've seen has left me with no confidence in the builder. It's first warrant is coming up and I'm going to be having nightmares about it soon!

Photos to come.

[pldubs 308]

That sounds like a horrible time dude,

I feel ya on this one..

" so when I picked it up and the headlights were way out of adjustment I had no backups and had to tail-gate cars with good headlights all the way back to Dunedin from Wellington. "

Mine are so pissed

Real keen to see photos but super bummed its been a hassle!!

On a side note..

16x10's anyone?

[euroriffic 607]

Dude, that sucks Sooooo much! Seems like the previous owner got sick of the project, 'just slapped it together to get it going then make it someones elses problem. If you need a hand gives a shout, I've got full wiring diagrams for e36s so least that should help with the engine side of things and I'm sure Mike (antil33t) will have many e30 diagrams for ya to figure out the rest.

[timewarrior 3]

A few updates on the E30. I had the carbon fibre bonnet resprayed in HSV Red, while the carbon weave looked cool it was out of place on a car from 1984. The 18 inch wheels (for sale) have been replaced by 17 inch Oz Superturismos in 4x100 ET37 with 25mm spacers that gives a final offset of 12. In person the stance looks perfect.

The eyelids were removed (for sale, Kaz has first dibs) and the headlights replaced by factory smileys (thanks very much Kaz). The blue RX7 brakes were resprayed silver, may redo these as it was a bit of a rushed job and I did them in situ.

The KW seats (for sale with 5 point harness) were replaced with Momo fixed back buckets and rails fitted.

Blacked out tail lights have been replaced with the factory item and I'm awaiting factory indicators front and guard and a boot lock and key from JKSE (thanks).

The sunroof was removed to fit the cage and I am in the process of pricing up a Newport popup-type sunroof to go in in place of the leaky carbon fibre panel. If anyone wants to get in on this I'm getting the Auckland distributor to give me bulk buy prices before they are shipped from Australia.

I will probably recycle the carbon fibre as blanking plates in the interior so this won't be for sale.

I'm getting the whole car looked at and all the shoddy stuff tidied up, so far it's booked in for a total re-wire as the dash was a fire waiting to happen. Everything is poked and there are live wires all over the place earthing and shorting on each other... yuck. While this is being done it's going to get a Mega Squirt ECU so that it can have diagnostics again (yay) and give me tuning options. The plan at this stage is to supercharge it when funds permit.

Battery has been replaced as it was corroding to bits. More interior has been removed and it will be replaced with custom carpet and headlining will be replaced when the sunroof goes in. Looking to see if there's a decent ratio LSD in Dunedin, this will become essential down the track.

Short shifter kit will be installed and gearbox and other fluids will be changed.

So I'm going to keen doing 70 hour weeks to pay for this but it's a car that deserves a new lease on life so why not.

Pictures to come, phone doesn't want to play ball today.

[timewarrior 3]

Teaser:

[max 27]

Looks so much better already. Nice work!

[timewarrior 3]

Looks so much better already. Nice work!

Thanks man

[central3 31]

That is looking great - like where you are heading

[euroriffic 607]

Wow, afew small changes and looks a complete different car! Good sh*t son!

[timewarrior 3]

Wow, afew small changes and looks a complete different car! Good sh*t son!

Thanks Mate, it's getting there. I can't wait for its unveiling in the flesh to the Dunedin Bimmersporters!

[timewarrior 3]

A few updates on the E30. I had the carbon fibre bonnet resprayed in HSV Red, while the carbon weave looked cool it was out of place on a car from 1984. The 18 inch wheels (for sale) have been replaced by 17 inch Oz Superturismos in 4x100 ET37 with 25mm spacers that gives a final offset of 12. In person the stance looks perfect.

The eyelids were removed (for sale, Kaz has first dibs) and the headlights replaced by factory smileys (thanks very much Kaz). The blue RX7 brakes were resprayed silver, may redo these as it was a bit of a rushed job and I did them in situ.

The KW seats (for sale with 5 point harness) were replaced with Momo fixed back buckets and rails fitted.

Blacked out tail lights have been replaced with the factory item and I'm awaiting factory indicators front and guard and a boot lock and key from JKSE (thanks).

The sunroof was removed to fit the cage and I am in the process of pricing up a Newport popup-type sunroof to go in in place of the leaky carbon fibre panel. If anyone wants to get in on this I'm getting the Auckland distributor to give me bulk buy prices before they are shipped from Australia.

I will probably recycle the carbon fibre as blanking plates in the interior so this won't be for sale.

I'm getting the whole car looked at and all the shoddy stuff tidied up, so far it's booked in for a total re-wire as the dash was a fire waiting to happen. Everything is poked and there are live wires all over the place earthing and shorting on each other... yuck. While this is being done it's going to get a Mega Squirt ECU so that it can have diagnostics again (yay) and give me tuning options. The plan at this stage is to supercharge it when funds permit.

Battery has been replaced as it was corroding to bits. More interior has been removed and it will be replaced with custom carpet and headlining will be replaced when the sunroof goes in. Looking to see if there's a decent ratio LSD in Dunedin, this will become essential down the track.

Short shifter kit will be installed and gearbox and other fluids will be changed.

So I'm going to keen doing 70 hour weeks to pay for this but it's a car that deserves a new lease on life so why not.

Pictures to come, phone doesn't want to play ball today.

Here we go (these are not in order):

[timewarrior 3]

After a year of ownership I though I better update this thread so you all know I haven't killed myself driving the E30… It still isn't on the road, hasn't been under its own power since April 2013. The rewire turned into a massive job, very little wiring was able to be kept as it was all dodgy as hell. Mechanic was surprised that it hadn't burnt up. There is evidence of a lot of fires and the back of the cluster has been on fire in a pretty serious way.

Its coils and plugs were poked thanks to no seal on the underside of the carbon engine covers and water getting in. We have moved to remote coil pack. A few spots of rust but the major stuff has been dealt with.

Megasquirt is in but the guys working on it have been too busy to tune it. It definitely was missing a lot of horsepower when I first got it.

The dash is back in as of last weekend but still needs a lot done: short shifter, exhaust, tyres, warrant, sunroof, LSD, side strips, seats and new heater to name a few.

On the plus side it looks great and the engine is running, albeit way out of tune. The engine bay looks great and very very tidy, especially compared to the nightmare that was going on before. I stripped most of the interior and have painted the floor pan a hammer-finish gunmetal grey. Here is a wee picture of how it looked last week.

It's hard to believe that I bought this car a year ago. Apart from the drive down from Wellington I've driven it twice. I'm actually thinking about selling it now, even though that would be a total waste because I've spent so much money on it and it will actually probably be quite reliable for the next owner. It has sucked up every cent I've earned for the last year and then some and I've had no return.

Rant over, I'm sure I'll realise when I get it back that I'm lucky to have it...