Delphin 1987 E30 M325i

[Tobias01 64]

After 10 months of ownership and fairly constant wrenching on the car I thought I better start a thread to document and discuss the on-going project. Shout out to @Sammo and his thread for the inspiration!!

My first car was a Lachssilber 1987 M325i so have always had a soft spot for the Mtech 1 e30’s. Would have been a lot cheaper if I had kept it rather than selling it for $6k back in 2014… crazy how much the market has changed since then. Side note, if anyone has any info on that car I would love to hear where it’s at and how it’s going. Rego was NF9539.

Current goal with the car is to use it semi daily / on going project. I have already done a fair bit to the car over the last 10 months which I will list below. The plan is to document as I tick jobs off the list and will also be posting breakdowns of work I have already carried out along with photos.

Things completed:

Engine / Trans:

• Cambelt / water pump / tensioner / cam seal / accessory belts / air filter
• Valve cover gasket / Valve adjustment / spark plugs
• Engine mounts
• Oil filter / oil pan gasket 
• New OE fuel lines / filter / pump / fuel regulator
• Clean and rebuild injectors
• New OE coolant hoses / coolant reservoir / level sensor / thermostat
• New OE vacuum lines / intake boot
• New OE Distributor Rotor / Distributor Cap / spark plug cables
• New gaskets: intake manifold / throttle body / thermostat housing etc
• Z3 shifter
• Manual Transmission Mounts
• Shifter cup / Washers for Shifter Linkage
• Derlin rear bushing carier / Derlin shifter bushings

Suspension / steering:

• New Bilstein B8 Sport dampers / Eibach Pro-Kit performance lowering springs
• Shock housing refurb / hubs / brake pads and rotors
• Purple tag rack / custom power steering lines
• New control arms / tie rods / bushings / drop links / sway bar bushings
• Front subframe stripped and repainted

Exterior:

• Window seals
• Repaint shadow line trim / grill / plastics
• Brand new OEM tail lights
• 15" basketweave refurb: paint stripped / lips cleaned up / repaint
• Centre caps: paint stripped / repaint (New BMW emblems yet to be stuck on)

Interior:

• New OEM style shift boot
• New driver door handle / surrounds / sunroof crank

Lots of things to come with the car, most notably a full new interior re-upholstery. Have the kit ready to be installed (in all its OEM houndstooth glory)

 

 

Edited August 6 by Tobias01

[m325i 709]

Quote

rather than selling it for $6k back in 2014

I'm with you! Interesting you have 'gone back' - not sure I could do it. 

Car looks sick. New plates would set it off!

[Tobias01 64]

Yup, had my first one when i was 16 so didn't have the money to make it nice so always wanted another one to put some time and effort into. 

Thanks, original number plate from new. Cool that is has 325 in it. You recon black plates over the white ones?

[deedub 32]

Nice to see you've started a thread. Ride looks slick.

Where have you been getting your parts from? 

Edited August 6 by deedub

[Tobias01 64]

Bulk of initial orders I got from FCP but mainly Schmiedmann as of late. Find their prices a fair bit cheaper and super quick coming from Europe. Quite a few aftermarket options on there so I avoid them and stick with genuine bmw parts. 

[Sammo 2544]

Looks stunning - hope to see it about in one of the spring / summer meets!

[deedub 32]

On 8/6/2024 at 10:58 PM, Tobias01 said:

Bulk of initial orders I got from FCP but mainly Schmiedmann as of late. Find their prices a fair bit cheaper and super quick coming from Europe. Quite a few aftermarket options on there so I avoid them and stick with genuine bmw parts. 

Thanks. I noticed quite a few aftermarket parts on Schmiedmann as well. I'll get genuine parts from them and checkout FCP as well.

 

[Eagle 1662]

Spareto.com are far better for aftermarket options(and cheaper). Schmiedmann dont have much selection and their aftermarket brands tend to be the lesser ones.   

[Tobias01 64]

Car came with 2 sets of wheels, some genuine 16" bbs rs's (which have been sold) and the original 15" basket weaves that I think fit the car perfectly. Only other wheel I would look at are the 16' alpinas but think they are more suited to the mtech 2. 

The wheels were in pretty rough shape, needing to be stripped back to metal and lips skimmed down and repainted. Powerstrip Industries in Onehunga did a great job at chemically stripping the wheels (for only $65 per wheel) and had the lips cleaned up by Alloy Wheel Repair in Grey Lynn. I painted the wheels myself and they came out better than I could have hoped. I've painted things before but not wheels... let alone basket-weaves. I primed and did 3 coats of base colour and a couple of heavy clear coats.

I used VHT wheel paint (i think aluminium colour) and i'm pretty happy with the result. Maybe not quite as bright as original but I haven't compared side by side to a set of originals. Clear coat had plenty of time to cure as I was doing the whole front end servicing of the car at the same time so didn't see any road use for a month or so.

Have since bought a 5th matching 15" basketweave that will get the same treatment and used as the spare wheel (as the car didn't come with one)

 

Edited August 17 by Tobias01

[BMTHUG 1057]

On 8/17/2024 at 1:22 PM, Tobias01 said:

Car came with 2 sets of wheels, some genuine 16" bbs rs's (which have been sold) and the original 15" basket weaves that I think fit the car perfectly. Only other wheel I would look at are the 16' alpinas but think they are more suited to the mtech 2. 

The wheels were in pretty rough shape, needing to be stripped back to metal and lips skimmed down and repainted. Powerstrip Industries in Onehunga did a great job at chemically stripping the wheels (for only $65 per wheel) and had the lips cleaned up by Alloy Wheel Repair in Grey Lynn. I painted the wheels myself and they came out better than I could have hoped. I've painted things before but not wheels... let alone basket-weaves. I primed and did 3 coats of base colour and a couple of heavy clear coats.

I used VHT wheel paint (i think aluminium colour) and i'm pretty happy with the result. Maybe not quite as bright as original but I haven't compared side by side to a set of originals. Clear coat had plenty of time to cure as I was doing the whole front end servicing of the car at the same time so didn't see any road use for a month or so.

Have since bought a 5th matching 15" basketweave that will get the same treatment and used as the spare wheel (as the car didn't come with one)

 

Love the thread bud! love the car too! SJ from Apex here she sure is a beauty 

[Tobias01 64]

Some interior goodies ready to be installed. Kit was sourced from Lithuania. Quality of fabric looks and feels great and stitching looks top notch. Going with all original fabric to the car (0211 anthracite). I assume the shaky frames of the sports seats are going to require a fair bit of work to get feeling nice and solid so not going to be a quick job. Have all new seat struts to install while seat is taken apart.

Current state of the seats are pretty bad. I looked into just replacing just the pieces that need doing but ultimately decided to go full kit as the seats would have faded a lot over time so wouldn't match the new fabric.

 

 

[Sammo 2544]

Awesome - will look so good!

Shocks in seats will help a bit, but possibly frames could need a little welding - my drivers was sheared in two spots at the base as well as the more common rear tab where it connects the back.

[Neil McCauley 394]

Just seen this, looking awesome!

Good OEM+ mod would be changing to FL ellipsoids in the flavour of your choice to replace the sealed beam candles the PFL's got from factory.

[Tobias01 64]

A bit of work I did when I first bought the car. Took the front subframe out and got rid of the surface rust and resprayed. Got new Lemforder control arms and fitted a purple tag while I had the subframe out as well as custom power steering lines from LPSR in Aussie. Running the e46 inner tie rod and Lemforder e36 outer tie rod with the purple rack.

While I was in the states I filled up a check in bag with new Bilstein B8 Sport dampers, Eibach Pro-Kit performance lowering springs, new strut mounts and all other front suspension related bits. Had the brake shield and shock housing sandblasted and resprayed, very satisfying job reassembling and installing in the car along with new front wheel hubs. New rear shocks and springs went in at the same time. Old shocks all rounds were trashed, previous owner had installed shocks for the smaller non 325 shock housing...

Very happy with the way it feels with the new suspension.

Edited October 1 by Tobias01

[Eagle 1662]

How your rear toe?

[Palazzo 477]

On 8/27/2024 at 8:19 PM, Tobias01 said:

Some interior goodies ready to be installed. Kit was sourced from Lithuania. Quality of fabric looks and feels great and stitching looks top notch. Going with all original fabric to the car (0211 anthracite). I assume the shaky frames of the sports seats are going to require a fair bit of work to get feeling nice and solid so not going to be a quick job. Have all new seat struts to install while seat is taken apart.

Current state of the seats are pretty bad. I looked into just replacing just the pieces that need doing but ultimately decided to go full kit as the seats would have faded a lot over time so wouldn't match the new fabric.

 

 

Is that from the Restauto place on FB/eBay?

[Tobias01 64]

Purchased from idautoparts eBay seller. Heres some photos of the exact kit installed in someones car.

https://www.reddit.com/r/E30/comments/wjp8la/added_the_rear_seat_with_headrests_and_armrest/

 

Edited October 1 by Tobias01

[Tobias01 64]

Just some bits and pieces i've done on the car over the last few months. Resprayed all the door / shadow line trim with SEM Trim black 39143, highly recommend this paint for anyone doing the same job, perfect finish for the OEM look. 

Took out the window regulator / motor and cleaned out the track and regressed and took apart the slightly seised motor, window now moving up and down much faster and smoother. Replaced both driver and passenger door interior and exterior window rubber while I was in there. Ran into an issue getting the door card back on as half the holes had disintegrated and didn't have a solid hole for the clip to sit in, so epoxied some large washers in the place of the original holes and it worked a treat. Very solid mounting point and door card sits firm and flush.

Door was cleaned out and the vapor barrier that had mould and rips in it was replaced, I used thick carpet protector plastic that already had the adhesive backing... saw someone do it on some forum somewhere and thought it was a decent way to replicate what was there. Will see how it holds up, gotta be better than nothing.

Was battling a pretty major steering issue when turning left, steering was binding very hard. Originally I regretfully put it cheap aftermarket control arms and tie rods when I had the subframe out when I first got the car. Thought this may have been the issue so replaced them with Lemforder as mentioned in a previous post but didn't fix anything. Next I bought a second purple tag rack and installed it thinking it was the rack that was the problem but the issue still persisted. Replaced the power steering pump thinking finally that must be the issue but to no avail. At this point I had replaced basically everything on the subframe so I taped my phone in the engine bay to see if I could see anything funny happening and it turned out to be the exhaust coming into contact with the linkage when the engine leaned over when turning left (yes I have brand new engine mounts in the car). Not sure if that section of my exhaust is aftermarket or not but I couldn't find anything about this happening with others with this fairly common swap (i'm using the slim Barina linkage) so i'm assuming it must be. Ended up heating the exhaust up and tapping in a section for clearance to fix the immediate steering problem. Absolute dream now, finally get to experience the quicker rack and all the other upgrades i've done. Not too fussed with the exhaust being dented in for the time being, will look into an exhaust set up next year sometime.

Side note, still trying to pluck up the courage to take seats apart and do the reupholstery... maybe in the next week or two

[darren_mk 61]

Good work, keep it up. 

[Tobias01 64]

Time to get the welder out...

On the plus side, seats were quite a bit easier to disassemble than originally thought. New interior incoming!

[Sammo 2544]

Yup - my frame was snapped there too!

How was removing the trim peices? heard its fiddly and I still have a box of the pricey clips to do this one day.

[Tobias01 64]

Yes, seems like a pretty common place for them to go. Do you have a photo of the repair before it was all put back together?

Just the plastic trim pieces on the sides of the base? Weren't too bad. The whole disassembly was pretty straight forward despite me thinking it was going to be a complicated mess going into it. 

What clips specifically do you have? I can let you know how fiddly it is if I know exactly what you have.

 

[Tobias01 64]

Started on fixing the broken frame this afternoon. Stitched it back together and added a reinforcement piece. Happy with how it all came together considering the little welding experience I have. 


 

[Tobias01 64]

Drivers seat all done. Welded lower base as per previous post, welded one of the tabs that the backrest screws into and recovered the seat in brand new fabric. Still need to put in the new seat shocks but the seat feels fantastic. Hopefully the passengers seat doesn't involve too much welding!

[balancerider 758]

That looks superb @Tobias01