gearheadE30

[gearheadE30]

I have been searching for a first car for close to a year hand a half now. Originally, I wanted to get an E36, but I quickly discovered that I couldn't really afford one. After looking at various Subaru 2.5RS's, civics, and cavaliers, I came across the E30. It was more or less love at first sight, and I knew I needed one. Originally, I wanted an M20--but I saw this great 318is on Ebay. The owner posted it in the wrong section, so no one could get to it too easily, I just came by it by accident. The ending price was $2400, and the car has 19X,XXX miles on it. I did some research and came across you guys, and reading various threads convinced me to buy it. I am now one happy owner of an alpine 318is.....THANKS!!!!

here are some pics, hope they work
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/gearheadE30/00c9_3.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/gearheadE30/1106_3.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/gearheadE30/ff3a_3.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/gearheadE30/f47d_3.jpg

Unfortunately, the car wont be here until April, these are pics off of Ebay

[Nick_318is]

Looks like a good car, clean interior too. Remember keep the revs up and you will have a blast.

[dude8383]

Holy crap man! What a score for $2400!!!

Where was it listed btw? I'm going to start looking there lol

[RED IS 91]

I do believe the alpines are taking over :eek:

[gearheadE30]

Thanks guys, it was in the 1991 model year, but it didn't show up unless the model was "any." Autotrader.com had some nice 318's last time I looked as well.

Unfortunately it is in CA and I'm in Indiana, but shipping was only ~$550 :)

[RED IS 91]

Oh yea, I almost forgot ...........
Nice car ,welcome

is it being shipped?

[RED IS 91]

never mind

[jpod999]

Wow that thing is clean! Looks like it has front camber plates too.

April is gonna be very slow coming man. ;)

[turbo_negro69]

where in California? that car looks very familiar:confused:

[Tonyb]

Nice score for 2400

[gearheadE30]

yea, April will be like waiting another year for the car...

It was originally in Simi, which I believe is just north of L.A.

[Eurospec]

Nice score for 2400Indeed. Great find. Enjoy it!

[sumyungguy]

Nice... I wish mine had black interior..

[gearheadE30]

Finally got around to updating this. Nothing fancy yet, just going over it with a fine-tooth comb. Learned that neither foglight was installed right and they are made by different companies and both bulbs were burned out. Finally fixed that and did the independant fogs mod (works great, any ?'s I'll be glad to help) and learned that there was a reason I couldn't see the road-all of the headlights were pointed at the sky. I also learned that the instrumnet panel is a bitch to remove and none of the DIY's are really that accurate. Also, the auto antenna motor shorted and melted the whole deal, so if anyone as a cheap antenna to sell, look no further.

The car handles great, which suprises me with the ORIGINAL REAR SHOCK MOUNTS at 200k. How do you not notice the pounding!!!! Also, I don't have anything left where the front suspension carrier bushings are supposed to be. Otherwise I LOVE it ;)

Finally got around to the pics-these are from about a week ago. It is now actually waxed, I'll try to get pics soon.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/gearheadE30/IMG_1615.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/gearheadE30/IMG_1610.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/gearheadE30/IMG_1609.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/gearheadE30/IMG_1608.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/gearheadE30/IMG_1602.jpg

[jpod999]

Awesome. How are those headlights done? Those are sealed beams so they can't be original because of their blueness. Any idea when they were replaced?

[gearheadE30]

The headlights were converted by the previous owner, so they aren't sealed beam anymore. The improvement is really amazing having driven with US elipsoids previously. They are blue because the bulbs actually have some type of blue film or high-temp paint on them. In the first pic, the lights are actually off. I just used the flash on the camera to bring out the blue ;) I'm going to get some pics with them on, I'll post them soon. The blue bulbs actually look xenon-ish (instead of ricer-ish like most of the colored lights I see).

[FL318is]

Very nice buy. Another ALPINE! You will really enjoy the car. There are parts galore here on the board. Those rims kick a$$. Who makes them?

[dude8383]

Those rims kick a$$. Who makes them?

that and whats your tire size?

the car looks great...i'd like some info about how you did the independent fog light deal. :)

[Alpine003]

Very nice buy. Another ALPINE! You will really enjoy the car. There are parts galore here on the board. Those rims kick a$$. Who makes them?

Damn, I love your sig. Really trying to show off baller style, eh? haha. :D

[FL318is]

Damn, I love your sig. Really trying to show off baller style, eh? haha. :D

PLAYA,

LOL! Yeah if I could just clean it up. Thanks.

[gearheadE30]

Thanks for the comments guys, and yes, I do love this car!! I thought with only 134 HP it wouldn't be that great, but its light and it handles like a dream :)

The rims are könig imagines, 15X7. So far, so good, with no rubbing. The tires are 205/50/15's, but I bet that 205/55's would rub.

The independant fogs really aren't difficult, it just took some time to figure out. Once everything is wired up, pull out the foglight relay. Solder a wire between pins 85 and 30 on this relay (K8), which should be the same as all of the other relays except for the highbeam. The foglights will now work with just the parking lights, with the low beams, and with the high beams. Be careful that you turn the lights off when leaving the car, though, because the fogs will stay on and kill the battery. Ask how I know ;)

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/gearheadE30/IMG_1648.jpg

I'll try to get a pic with all the lights on soon.

[jpod999]

A picture at night would be nice por favor.

[dude8383]

sweet thanks man.

i'm going to try this soon.

i have two extra's just in case i screw up :)

[gearheadE30]

Finally got out and took some pics of the lights. Sorry, my camrea is a bit crappy in dim/dark weather. Looks like I'll have to borrow the parents' camera soon.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/gearheadE30/IM000710.jpg

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/gearheadE30/IM000704.jpg

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/gearheadE30/IM000717.jpg

These lights are simply so bright you really have to see them to belive it. The camera wouldn't show it, but sitting one the top of my drive, the highs lit up the house across the street. I tried taking a pic about 300 yrds away, but there was so much glare you can't even see the car. The last pic is with the headlights off. Every pic was taken on the sunlight mode, as it was the only way I could get the pics to look decent.

[oldtimer]

Nice car and welcome. When I got my 1991 318is it did not have a spoiler lip. It was suggested not to get anything but the original lip for "IS". The one on your car. Is that the original version?

Ben

[gearheadE30]

As far as I know, it is the original piece. The so-called iS lip was an option iirc and was more popular on the better roads in Europe. I plan on upgrading soon, though ;)

[gearheadE30]

WEll, unfortunately, I now have an ant problem. Sorry, no pics as of now, but if they come back I'll get some. First they were under the rear window seal/sunroof drain, around the trunk seal, and under the rear window trim panels. I thought I got them all out in the carwash, but I opened my door today only to discover that the whole inside panel was covered in ants. Needless to say, I'm not too thrilled right now.....

Anyone know how to get ants out of a car?

[gearheadE30]

Just finished replacing everything in the timing system as well as painting teh cam cover. Pictures to come shortly. Can't wait to get the new MarkD chip installed....

[g0dspeed]

do update us on the markD chip...

[gearheadE30]

Will do, but I still have a half tank of 91 octane in the car...

[jpod999]

Dude, sick sig. Update on the MarkD chip?

[gearheadE30]

lol thanks. My friend is in the passenger seat. This was the thrid pass that he had ever taken around an autoX. The first time he was yelling the whole time because he thought I was going to hit something. The second time my shift knob popped off going into second and I punched him in the nose ;). Good times, good times...

As far as the chip goes, it is simply amazing. If I want to drive lazily I can keep up with traffic and keep it under 2500 rpm. Before I was having to get it over 3k all the time, and it got a bit annoying with my exhaust. Economy is up by about 2 mpg, the 7k redline is great even though I rarely use it. Also, it will chirp the tires going into second (with LSD), throttle respons is far better, with no bogging at low revs, and I bet I got 5 or 10 hp out of it above 6k. Before this chip, I had some crappy ebay one that ran wayyy rich, though. It's definitley one of the best mods I've done to my car. If you don't have one, I highly suggest it :)

[jpod999]

Could you not chirp into second before? I can do it right now without the chip. We don't have 93 octane here...so i'm kinda outta luck on that front.

[gearheadE30]

oh, that's a bit of a problem. No, I couldn't chirp as my shifter was extremely balky going into second. I have since installed all new bushings and a z4 2.5 selector, and with that I bet I could have.

[gearheadE30]

As usual, sorry the pics are so big

Well, since the last post I have gotten a whole bunch of stuff done. The electric fan is in and keeps the car so cool that the coolant temp gauge never gets too car past the second dash. Even in hard driving it barely goes above that. Operation is silent and I have never seen it go to high speed.

Also installed chrome gauge rings which look great except I didn't clean off the inside of the plastic cover enough. The needles are now red, did it with sharpie and you can't even tell it wasn't sprayed. You can see the needles very well at night, which I wasn't expecting. I don't really have any good pics, but you can kind of see it here:
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/gearheadE30/IMG_0156.jpg

I now also have red lights in the storage area so that I can read the screen on my old Ipod at night. When you are in the front seats you can't see the lights at all; just the red glow:
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/gearheadE30/IMG_0162.jpg

I'm pretty proud of this one ;). Everyone knows that the stock interior lights on e30's suck, so I have been searcking for a light that is roughly the same size as the check panel hole. The problem is that most are more than 8 inches, so it would be impossible to fit. I finnaly found one on ebay for $5 that fits perfectly and even has maplights that are aimed at the seats to counteract the angle of the check panel. I wired it up to the existing lights and ran the wires under the headliner so that all three lights come on when the doors open using some diodes. Each maplight has its own button. Here's a few pics:
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/gearheadE30/IMG_0158.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/gearheadE30/IMG_0139.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/gearheadE30/IMG_0144.jpg

Also just picked up an authentic Zender spoiler, it is going to be painted to match the car but put it on to make sure that there were no fitment issues.
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/gearheadE30/IMG_0136.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/gearheadE30/IMG_0133.jpg

[xwill112x]

spoiler looks like ass on that is..
no offence.

[gearheadE30]

It's not on there anymore. In fact, it was only there for 15 minutes while I took the pictures. I need to get some paint for it, and it will look better. Well, to me at least :)