YetiX here, aka Scott from San Diego. This is my first e30 but is the latest in a long line of BMW's, both bikes and cars. I currently have this car, an X5 (wife's) and an F800GS which is my daily driver.
The F800GS:
First, why "YetiX" you ask? I was nicknamed "Yeti" when I was in the Marines during mountain warfare school and it's stuck ever since. When I joined my first BMW forum, some dickweed had already taken Yeti so added the "X" since I was into AutoX at the time.
So onto the e30. It's a 1991 318i, 5 speed, Alpine White II with tan vinyl interior. I bought it from a friend, who was the second owner, when it had 283,714 miles. He bought it from the original owner. The original owner was a pilot so he maintained it meticulously and kept incredible records. I have records of just about every service it has ever had, including the original window sticker. He bought it for just over $20k.
The good: For over 284,000 miles, the car is in awesome shape. It's 100% rust free and the paint is in pretty good shape. The interior is great except for one small crack in the dash. My buddy installed US elipsoids and Bilstein front struts and gave it to me with a bunch of spares. Finally, another friend had a set of bottlecaps with R comp tires on them that he gave me for race wheels!!
The bad: Right before he brought it over, my "friend" topped off the oil and forgot to replace the oil filler cap. When he got to my house oil was pouring off the engine. Yeah that was a mess. The stereo didn't work. It had tint on the side windows but it was old, purpled and bubbling so badly it made my kid car sick to look out the window when we were driving.
Finally, even after cleaning out the engine, it still leaked oil. :mad:
So here it is the day I got it with the Steelies, orignal stereo and all:
And the interior:
After I cleaned most of the oil out of the engine bay:
Of course I had to autocross it before I did anything else
:p:
Since then, I have:
- Put in a good stereo with nice speakers
- Put in an Mtech 1 steering wheel
- Put in non-airbag turn signal and windshield wiper stalks
- Replaced the ignition switch which was broken and left me stranded
- Cleaned the interior and replaced the floor mats
- Removed the tint and had really nice 3M tint put on all the windows
- Got the 14" weaves refinished and put some Bridgestones on 'em
- Replaced the SI board
- Replaced the cracked oil pan and checked the torque on the upper pan bolts (all were fine)
- Replaced the worn out shift knob.
Here it is now:
Next Monday, I'm doing a TON of work including new CSB bearing and guibo for the driveshaft, SSK installed, 4.1 LSD, new differential bearing, synthetic fluid in the tranny, new engine mounts, new tranny mounts, new rear wheel bearings, install the foglights and an iS front lip.
I'll take some pictures when that's all done.
I also have IE Stage III springs to install and just need to get Bilstein rear shocks and I'll have everything to fix the suspension and ride height.
Supposedly a friend has a set of tan vinyl sport seats that I may be getting this weekend too so that should help.
Overall, my goal is to make it a really cleanly restored 318i daily driver, something that looks INCREDIBLE but still almost entirely stock.
