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Dec 28, 2021 15:39:26 GMT
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I just want to say thank you to everyone who has commented on this thread. it really means a lot to me that you guys have taken the time to read this story and thank you to all the congratulations regarding the new addition. a little sleep deprived but other than that all good.
I even managed to get some time in the garage today!! no work on the car but i was able to give it a good tidy up ready to work on the car.
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Dec 28, 2021 18:00:28 GMT
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So the plan was to finish the trip down in Florida, so this was the last long drive. We went to Ashville for lunch had a little walk around the town and hopped back in the car.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr now with our bellies full it was time to do the long hike down to Florida.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Before i left Ashville i topped up the oil in the e30. The car was feeling super low on power and just wasn't right so we pulled over to take a look see if there was anything i could see.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr This was the exact sight of what i saw when i opened the hood. F.U.C.K i left the oil cap off!! at this point we had been driving for about 6 hours. the underside of the bonnet was an absolute mess. Thankfully i had 1 litre of oil in the trunk and there was an autozone just down the road. The oil cap was somehow still sitting where the battery trey would be! what a result. topped up the engine, drove down to autozone to replenish the oil and off we went to our final location of our trip.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr We had an air BNB booked down in Apollo Beach (just south of Tampa) for our final two weeks. Our good friend Gabe lives in Tampa so he came down to Apollo beach on our second day to see how we were doing and also take us out to a local spot for lunch.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr much different to the usual plate full of meat you usually see for me.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr After food we headed to town, watched a movie at the cinema. Came out of the Cinema and saw a little slice of England.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr peep the e30 sneaking into the back. After the cinema we went to get Ice cream and then called it a night  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr The day after we had all our floridian friends over for a "friendsgiving" it was the perfect way to close off this adventure.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr I couldnt tell you what i would give to sit around a table with this group of friends again. Miss you all!  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr After Friendsgiving I went to another friends birthday party which ended up being a car meet in a local park. was super cool.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr And here i am, quite a big heavier than when i started  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr The next day Me and Nicholl went to a local Manatee Sanctuary which was just down the road from our Air BNB.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr After the Manatee Sanctuary we went for a little walk along the beach and watched the sunset.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr The next morning we went to Dunkin, filled out bodies and i also put fuel in the car. Little did i know this would be the last time that i put fuel in the e30.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr |
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Dec 28, 2021 18:20:06 GMT
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As we were in Florida it would be rude not to go to Disney World.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr We only went to Disney World and didnt go to the theme park side of things. If i am honest, ive never really been interested in going to the theme park side and neither did Nicholl but she wanted to go the Disney World atleast. We headed to Disney with our friend Gabe again.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr we found a "British fish n chips" shop in Disney and i was really missing some good old fish n chips.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr It didnt meet expectations unfortunately!  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr After Disney Me, Nicholl and Gabe went to Andretti's which is indoor go karting, also has really really cool racing sims and a load of arcades and not to mention it had alcohol and desert.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr We headed back to the air bnb and then met some friends at a local bar/pub Our Uber was pretty damn cool.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr This was another friend of mine Alex who picked us up in his car and we went to hang out in Orlando. Now comes the sad part of this story. We packed up the car for the last time, closed the door on our Air BNB and headed to where we was to drop the e30 off and then go to the airport.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr and a picture of the rear windscreen.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr I left the car with a couple of friends of mine Corey and Gabe. We dropped the car at Gabes workplace which is "Presidential Auto Detailing". And here Me and Nicholl are with the e30 for the last time on American soil.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr And a little walk around the stable where the e30 will be getting left.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Its really nice to know that the e30 is left with cars all of an equal value...  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Spotted this low flying jet  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr and we got one last meal in America.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Goodbye to the greatest adventure of our lives (so far)  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr and back in the UK  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr I just want to take a moment and thank everyone who has followed along so far on this story. The adventure was incredible and i am so thankful to have been able to do this and share it all with you. We are just normal people like everyone else and i really really cant tell anyone more to go out and do something like this if its something you dream of like i did. If anyone is interested in doing a trip like this and wanted more details regarding the trip, the budget and all that please feel free to send me a message. again, thank you for following along and i hope you have all enjoyed it as much as i have enjoyed telling it. Now, if you have a favorite part of this story please let me know what it was! |
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jamesd1972
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,921 
Club RR Member Number: 40
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Dec 28, 2021 19:20:03 GMT
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Loved the whole journey- thanks for sharing. Think I put on about 5lbs just by reading it though.
Think you both have bigger adventures ahead of you, all the very best with your news.
Keep the updates coming when the car gets over the pond.
James
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Last Edit: Dec 28, 2021 19:20:26 GMT by jamesd1972
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Thanks for sharing your journey, the new journey you started with the baby will be for more momentous and exciting!
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I can echo your sentiments about going on an adventure like yours. Here I am at 50 gallivanting around Australia on my adventure of a lifetime. You're never too old to give yourself that one special trip.
Congrats to you both on the rugrat addition too.
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Dec 29, 2021 11:15:41 GMT
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Thank you all for your comments, i know i have said it before but it really does mean a lot to me that you guys have enjoyed the story and taken the time out of your lives to read this and also comment on here.
thank you once again regarding the baby news it has been nearly 3 weeks now and it still feels kind of unreal! atleast now we have someone to pass the e30 down to... if i can let it go that is.
NudgerSS, i am glad you are out there traveling around and going on your own adventure, take as many pictures and video's as you can, even if you think its insignificant like what you ate for breakfast, lunch or dinner or if its just a random photo at a gas station. you will come back later on, see that video and it will take you right back to that moment.
Me and Nicholl joke that when we are retired we will ship the e30 back to America and do the trip all over again, we do have a long wait for that though and the sad reality is will we be able to drive internal combustion engines in 30/35 years time? :\
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Dec 29, 2021 11:33:34 GMT
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Whilst we were back home in the UK my friends Corey and Gabe had the car. It was easy to convince them to look after it for me for a few months because, who the hell wouldn't want an e30 for a few months? It is such an iconic car even non car people seem to love it, and everyone seems to have a story about one which i love. Corey took the car out a few times a week to keep it going and also sent me some photos of the old girl.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr As you can see the car is rather beaten and in quite rough shape. but at the same time this car has done a rather big journey over the last 3 months and not to mention she currently has 296,000 miles on the clock and still going strong! I do plan on restoring the car but at the same time i don't want it to be a mint condition car that i am afraid to drive, also sometimes a not perfect car is better than a perfect one, it tells a story. But we can get into the direction of where this car is going a little later on in the story. After Corey had the car Gabe went over to pick the car up and take it back to his work to give it a full decontamination wash before it went on a boat.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Trunk full of presents. The shipping company said i couldn't have anything inside the car but it was acceptable if it was in the trunk locked. so we fitted as much American food in as possible that would last the journey over seas.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr That interior, i miss it so much. I must say, we done some seriously long drives in this car, one was 13 hours long and at no point did we ever get uncomfortable (other than the heat or the cold) but these seats are like a comfy old arm chair and i love them.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr All ready for collection. Unfortunately the shipping company had other ideas. i had set back after set back from the shipping company and constant delays, there was always a new excuse and unfortunately this went on for 6 months (this was pre-covid for the record). Thankfully Gabe was happy to hold onto the e30 for me as it just sat out the way in his work car park. I got updates every now and then with photos of the car, mainly saw it in the background of Instagram photos from his work account which was pretty funny to see this old beat up BMW next to these expensive P cars or other exotics.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Gabe gave the car another clean as we finally had a collection date for the e30!!  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Remember when i said we drove from Ashville to Apollo Beach and i forgot to put the oil cap on, you can see above all the oil stain on the hood of the car. Whoops. The guy who collected the car said something along the lines of "who would want to ship a car like this to England" i guess some people just don't get it.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Goodbye Florida, next stop. Essex. |
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Dec 31, 2021 12:52:02 GMT
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Right, shall we get one more update in before the end of the year?
This is so f'ing annoying i just wrote out an entire update and my laptop decided to sh.it the bed.
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Last Edit: Dec 31, 2021 13:08:07 GMT by benwalsh91
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Dec 31, 2021 13:48:26 GMT
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After delays from the shipping company i was trying not to focus or think much on when the car would be arriving over here. I worked up in London in the financial industry and i had to try and pre-plan when the car would arrive so i could make sure i had no meetings booked in and i could take a personal day for when the car arrived. the shipping company being the shipping company called me last minute one day and said the car had arrived and it cleared customs and was ready for delivery. Brilliant, i said. When is the expected delivery date? Tomorrow, they said... Thankfully my old man was around to take delivery of the car.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr The battery in the car was dead, and it appears that must have happened when it was in the shipping company's hands as it drove onto the boat just fine... my old man told me this so i could grab a battery for the car on my way home from work, it was so dead they couldnt even jump start it. I was so happy when i got home and saw the car sitting there outside my parents house, they couldnt get it back on the driveway so it was left in the road, un-insured, un-taxed and un-registered. Great...  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Upon arrival home i quickly got the new battery into the car, fired her right up and parked her onto the driveway... in no way did i take it for a little drive around our small town. that definitely did not happen.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr At this moment in our lives we were still living at my parents house due to us spending our house deposit money on a trip across America no regrets. So i made a promise to myself and nicholl that no car parts will be purchased before we have our own place. Also, i didnt want to start tearing into the e30 and then need to move it.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr However, something always pops up when you don't want it to, and this is something ive wanted for this car before i even bought the car. You will all soon come to learn that i love obsessing over details and it takes me so much longer to do anything because of this annoying trait of mine. I had been wanting a specific steering wheel for this car, few have come up for sale as they are not rare by all means but none was in the condition i wanted. I managed to find a new old stock Italvolanti steering wheel. the two button version. This is the steering wheel that was used in the e30 M3 DTM cars. And this one was still in its original box, never been used.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Build date of 1983. The car still had its Pikes Peak summit pass. unfortunately now very sun faded.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Whilst we drove across America i was able to collect a number plate from every state that we drove through, in hopes to one day hang it on my own garage wall.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr As me and Nicholl both worked up in London we was originally looking for a house still within Essex but closer to London because, commuting sucks! Just by luck Nicholl stumbled upon a house, unfortunately it was even further away form London to where we currently lived. But i agreed to go take a look at it because Nicholl mumbled them sweet sweet words into my ear that every car guy wants to hear... "double garage". When we pulled down the driveway i took one look and said, yep, this is it. This is the house. Walked around the property and told the estate agent that we would have it. We finally had our own place and more importantly, somewhere to work on the e30 (maybe not more importantly but, you know).  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr We moved into our new place and two weeks later it happened. Covid-19 hit the world and we were all forced into lock down. I wasn't all mad, i was able to work from home and not have to commute and finally having our own place i would much rather be locked down in our own place than living with my parents. I love my parents but, i couldnt imagine being locked in a house with them, i am sure even my mum and dad was grateful for this too. Before i could move the e30 to our new home i had to get the garage cleared out as it had become a dumping ground from when we moved in and not to mention the old residents left a ten ton of their old curse word in the house. thanks for that.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Some old SPAM FROM in the garage which just wouldn't do, so out they came.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr I bought some cheap garage workbenches and storage units from Amazon. Cheap but they done the job.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr I used all of my dads tools when living at home so i now had to go about the expensive task of buying all new tools. And the moment we all had been waiting for, the car finally arrived to its new resting place.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr And i finally got them plates up onto the wall. Which is why just that one patch got painted at first.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr 2 weeks into working from home i noticed work really slowing down, a lot less was coming into my tasks and inbox. Everyone in the country was in a panic understandably and more people pulling investments out of there various savings pots rather than putting in. I got put on Furlough and my income was then capped, not a great state to be in just after getting our first place, needing to buy all new furniture too which was another story on its own. Money was tough to say the lest so nothing really got done for quite a while. I did want to strip the car down and do the things that didn't cost any money just time, thankfully i had all the time in the world. Although being a double garage and English double garage still isn't the largest. I built some little dollies to put the e30 on so i could move it around the garage easily to work on it.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Pushed into the centre of the garage i put the old girl on axle stands and started the strip down.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr The car sat like this for quite a while, as i was on furlough for a little while i did some other little jobs that i could do. i finally got the call from my company for a Zoom meeting. and my time had come, the company laid me off. Told me that they was having financial issues of there own and looked like they was going to close their doors. They told me that i would be paid my full notice period and also have all my holiday entitlement paid to me too, at this point i hadn't used any holiday time and they almost owed me a full months pay just on holiday allowance. Had mixed emotions, just got our house and being laid off but i knew i had a 3 month notice period and a months worth of holiday time so i figured with almost 4 months wages coming in i should be good to get something else before the funds went dry. The next day i got another call asking for a zoom meeting. clearly my old company figured out that i had a 3 month notice and not 1 month so they done me dirty, they screwed me. They said i was now re-employed and i was back on furlough for my notice and i had to use my holiday entitlement on my furlough. As the original zoom call was not recorded and i had nothing in writing i had no way to back up what was previously said. I was fuming, apparently they was in their rights to do what they done. It was a real kick in the d.ick. I actually ended up having to work for Sainsburys doing the food delivery. Although one of the easiest and most stress free jobs i have ever had it certainly wasn't paying the bills. Luckily Nicholl was still employed and working from home so we had that keeping us afloat.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr |
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Dec 31, 2021 14:47:20 GMT
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In the worlds true form of kicking you whilst you're down my daily driver decided it didn't want to drive anymore and broke down. Weighing up the option on if its worth replacing it or fixing it i decided to replace it. I do love an e46 and ive been kind of thinking about them a lot during this time and one random ebay search later i found a listing. Knowing i am doing more and more miles in a car these days rather than a train i wanted something economical and i managed to find: e46 320cd Factory Sport 6 speed manual Heated leather front seats 2006 model so one of the last ones made and facelift. 150k miles. been sitting for a few years. Saw the eBay listing had about 5 days left, i chucked a bi on it and tried not to think about it. 5 days go by and i won the listing and didn't need to put another bid down. pretty happy with that  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr It needed some TLC which i knew of but i won it at such a good price i couldn't complain. In the true form of kicking me whilst i was down and in true BMW fashion a rear spring snapped on my drive home. Good excuse to lower the car right?  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Chucked on some lowering springs and i decided whilst i was in there i would give the car a full service as it had been sitting for a while. But you guys are not here for daily driver or e46 content, you want the e30 stuff, the good stuff. But this thread has become more about my life than just the e30 now so i figured you can get all the updates. I've gone through e30 updates and ive got about 50 photos of e30 updates to chuck up for you. Just trying to decide if i do that today or make you all wait. But for right now, I'm going into the garage. |
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Last Edit: Dec 31, 2021 14:56:29 GMT by benwalsh91
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Dec 31, 2021 19:20:00 GMT
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Its been a great read thanks for sharing it with us, I might even go back to the beginning and go again!
Glad your sorted ish job wise and I'm sure your not the only person thats been shafted by a financial institution!!
Happy New year to you and your good lady
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Dec 31, 2021 19:51:21 GMT
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Its been a great read thanks for sharing it with us, I might even go back to the beginning and go again! Glad your sorted ish job wise and I'm sure your not the only person thats been shafted by a financial institution!! Happy New year to you and your good lady Thank you, i am glad that you enjoyed it. i do wish i filmed the trip instead and put it all on youtube so i could go back and revisit it. Oh 100% not the first and surely wont be the last. Thankfully it has come round and ended up being a good thing as, if i am honest, never ever really happy in that job. Yeah the pay was good but i was miserable and that came apparent over the time i went back into it between America and being laid off. I have since moved on and got a job within construction site management and i really enjoy it. So it all came round and worked out best for us. We are just sitting in tonight, Me, Nicholl, our dog Lilah and our new born son Loxley. Hope you have a good evening to yourself and your family and i am really hoping to make it to the RR gathering this year, meet some of you guys and fingers crossed take the e30!! but we have a long way to go with the car. I still have a few updates to make to bring this thread and the car up to date. |
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Dec 31, 2021 22:31:45 GMT
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Great thread,
With the e46. I had a 320cd the swirl flaps and oil breather probably want removing and changing.
Swirl flaps fall off and go into the engine.
And the oil breather is a poor design and blocks up and makes it smoke.
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Last Edit: Dec 31, 2021 22:32:01 GMT by pauly22
1994 BMW 525i touring
2004 BMW Z4 sorn and broken
1977 Ford Escort
1982 Ford Capri getting restored
1999 Mazda B2500 daily driver.
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Cracking read Ben - I have loved reading about your exploits over the pond. I have a trip to Florida booked for September 2022 so can't wait to go back there. Will be doing a road trip down to the Keys, but not on the scale of what you did!!  |
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Great thread, With the e46. I had a 320cd the swirl flaps and oil breather probably want removing and changing. Swirl flaps fall off and go into the engine. And the oil breather is a poor design and blocks up and makes it smoke. Thank you, i have had quite a few e46's now mainly the 330d or 330i. thankfully i was already aware of the dreaded swirlflaps on these engines and the previous owner had already had them removed, when i gave the car its first service i double checked to make sure they where indeed removed. I lost a 330d sport touring a few years back to the swirlflaps falling into the engine. didnt know about the oil breather though so i will look into that thank you. Cracking read Ben - I have loved reading about your exploits over the pond. I have a trip to Florida booked for September 2022 so can't wait to go back there. Will be doing a road trip down to the Keys, but not on the scale of what you did!! Enjoy the trip and make the most out of it! we are planning another trip back but it will be in a couple years when the boy is old enough to enjoy it. When you're in Florida poke your head into Real Muscle Cars Miami, they have an incredible collection of cars for sale and they are ran by enthusiast's so always take the time to show people around what they have even if you are not looking to buy. Also, Lazy Moon Pizza in Orlando is an awesome place to go grab a slice of Pizza. |
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So now the car was in the centre of the garage now was the time to start taking it apart.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Had some wheels laying around so figured i would have some fun.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr And just like almost everyone else in lockdown we picked ourselves up a trouble maker and garage helper.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Tidied up the garage getting ready for the next part of the strip down.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Started picking up parts for the car Front and rear wheel bearings and ball joints. I was going to replace with brand new lower control arms but as the arms on the car are original still i feel it is right to keep the arms, powder coat them and replace the ball joints in them.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Found an engine crane for cheap on ebay or gumtree, i cant remember what one so i picked it up.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr If anyone is in the Essex area and need to borrow an engine crane let me know. Also grabbed an engine stand too.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr It was time to make some progress on the e30. Unfortunately to move forward we need to take many many steps backwards.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr And the engine is out sitting on a stand tucked in the back of the garage.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr The front subframe came out, extremely grubby and in need of a good clean. It gets fully stripped down, cleaned up and will be getting powder coated. bought a vice  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr painted a vice  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr my tipped was snapped off the front subframe, which makes perfect sense as to why the car never had a front roll bar as the mounting bracket was snapped.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr So i cleaened it up and welded in new ones along with other subframe reinforcements.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr and coated in primer so it doesn't rust  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr next up was removing the rear subframe, decided it would be easier to just take it all out as one, very interesting to do on your own.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Sorry, i lied. i didn't do it on my own. i had help.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr I posted a lot about my trip on my Instagram and BMW UK contacted me and asked if i would like the story printed in their magazine. I ended up getting 10 pages in total split into 2 back to back magazines. quite awesome to be honest. I have a few copies of the magazine.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr and back to the car and the garage updates A lot of people dislike the American bumpers but i love how dorky they are.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr I also picked up a roll over jig to put the car on.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Took the entire interior out of the car to help check for rust. Thankfully, no rust on the floor of the car.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr spent an entire weekend organizing the garage as there was curse word everywhere and i cant work with clutter, i cleared out everything that was in the rafters of the garage and put most of the e30 body panels, interior and misc bits up there out the way and less chance of any damage happening.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Took a moment to sit down, relax and work out what i needed to buy for the car in order to move it forward. The plan for the car... its hard to kind of explain what i want out of it. Well its not that difficult, maybe not that hard but most my family/friends are not really car people so they don't get it. But, i love the old early porsche outlaw builds. just purpose built and used. I want to use this car, enjoy it and make more memories in it. I considered for a long time if i should give this car a full respray or not as now would be the best time to do it, but i decided against it. The paint is pretty poor but it had a story behind it and i know if i went through the entire respray aspect i would get scared to actually drive the car and enjoy it. Maybe i will paint it later, but for now it stays a little beat. Underneath is going all brand new, being a California car the undercoating underneath isnt the greatest. So thats the reason behind stripping it all down to be honest and the roll over jig, the plan is to put more undercoat underneath the entire car then paint it white underneath. everything underneath will be new and upgraded or restored. The car is going on coilovers. Wheel wise, unsure just yet i like the thought of 15s and a chunky tyre but i also like the idea of 16s and some fitment. Maybe i will just get a few sets of wheels and switch it up. Interior i will be doing a full retrim and freshen up, i plan on doing most if not all myself. Never done it before so lets see how that goes. I hate how on most "builds" people forget or don't put much effort on the interior where in fact its the place you spent most of your time when you are driving the car. Interiors are important guys! Engine is a long way down the road, the car is a 325e 2.7 but revs to a measly 4k which kind of sucks for a car that i want to have fun in on the back roads. If you put the euro 323 head and pistons on it creates a sort of factory stroker kit which will raise the rev limiter and i also plan on going ITBs. Thats a lot of words so if you read all that i am seriously impressed with you. Let me know if you actually read it.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr At this point in the build we found out that we are going to have a baby. something that we have been working on since we moved into our house. With baby comes the need for Nicholl to get her own car and one thats up for carrying baby stuff around. She actually chose this and i am so proud of her. 2006 BMW X5 (e53) 3.0 diesel auto sport with basically every extra other than the pan roof (Didnt want the pan roof as they are trouble)  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr In 2006 we would have been pretty damn cool people. She did want a black x5 but struggled to find a clean one. We have since ordered a brand new BMW iX3 but it wont be here until around September 2022 which is kind of ridiculous. BACK TO THE E30!! I welded up reinforcement plates to the subframe  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Its like the 3rd thing i have ever welded so don't beat me up on the welds, they are strong enough and once powdercoated i am sure you wont really be able to tell. Stripping things down and getting the powdercoating pile ready. Just need to find a local powdercoater that i trust. I have even considered the idea or doing the POR15 treatment on it all instead.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr I previously mentioned that the car did not have a front anti roll bar so i managed to get this from whiteline. When looking over the bits i had taken off the car i cleaned up the rear ARB and it was dark blue and seemed quite thick compared to a standard ARB. measured it and the rear ARB is 22mm which is somewhat weird, i believe the factory one is 16mm... which meant i couldnt put a factory front ARB on the car and have a larger ARB at the back so i got the 24mm whiteline ARB for the front which is completely overkill but oh well.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr When i picked up the car it came with an IS front lip which is American only, they done IS and ES lips, the IS has 4 holes at the botom and the ES has 2 holes at the bottom. I unfortunately smashed the front lip i had on my car when we pulled in to see the elephant seals on the Pacific Coastal Highway on our second week of our trip. I really wanted to get another one of these lips but finding them now seems to be rather hard. And then there is finding one and then convincing that person to ship it to the UK. near on impossible task so i had given up Someone i know found one, imported one for his Euro e30 and realized they are not compatible and don't fit the euro market e30s so i thankfully managed to get it off him for stupid cheap and also, its white!!  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Flickr has decided to sh.it itself so unfortunately thats all for the updates for now but we are almost up to date!! |
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Flickr is back up and working again now so back to updates, not many left. i got pulled over driving home from work and my rear tires where at legal limit, fortunately not bad enough for him to give me a ticket. So i was going to buy new tyres all around but the standard MV2 wheels on the car are pretty damn beat so i got looking on eBay and found a set of e60 MV2 wheels, recently powdercoated and had 4 almost new tyres on and they only cost me £200. can't complain. Until i went to put them on the car... e46 mv2 have an offset of around et52 and these e60 MV2 have an offset of around et20... so basically ive just added 30mm spacers onto the car... don't quote me on them offsets, i cant be bothered to google it to make it factually correct but thats just off the top of my head. The e46 has now got over 190k miles and its pretty damn rotten like most e46s so its pretty much worthless at this point so, outcame the angle grinder to make them fit.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Ordered more parts for the e30, this is every bush for the underside of the car, in the past i had used powerflex bushes but i wanted to try someone else on this build so a friend of mine recommended strongflex, i have used some of the strongflex bushes on the e46 and i am quite happy with them  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr I mentioned previously that we have recently had our baby now. Meet Loxley Walsh born on 11 December 2021.  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr I am really looking forward to creating new memories in the 30 with him This photo was literally taken about a week ago, unfortunately not as much progress as i would have hoped for  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Progress had been slow due to whats going on in the world, the set backs on salary but we are back on track now and i really want to make good progress on the car this coming year with the goal to hopefully drive this thing to the gathering in August!! it wont be as i explained earlier on with everything done but i want the udnerside done, the engine back in its standard form and some progress on the interior. We will see. I finished making the mounting points for the roll over jig to the car. I am using the factory bumper mounting brackets but i am so so so so so so scared of rolling this car over!!!  Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr Again, thank you for reading. We are now up to date on this journey so far but i do plan on keeping this up to date and bring you guys on this journey with me. Also, i am located in Essex (not far from Colchester) so if anyone is around and wants to help throw some spanners or need an extra pair of hands on your project please reach out! |
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Great thread, With the e46. I had a 320cd the swirl flaps and oil breather probably want removing and changing. Swirl flaps fall off and go into the engine. And the oil breather is a poor design and blocks up and makes it smoke. Thank you, i have had quite a few e46's now mainly the 330d or 330i. thankfully i was already aware of the dreaded swirlflaps on these engines and the previous owner had already had them removed, when i gave the car its first service i double checked to make sure they where indeed removed. I lost a 330d sport touring a few years back to the swirlflaps falling into the engine. didnt know about the oil breather though so i will look into that thank you. |
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1994 BMW 525i touring
2004 BMW Z4 sorn and broken
1977 Ford Escort
1982 Ford Capri getting restored
1999 Mazda B2500 daily driver.
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thomfr
Part of things
Trying to assemble the Duett again..
Posts: 694
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Wow Ben! Great job!
Is the 325e engine not the secret holy grail for E30 6 cylinder tuning? As far as I know all the E30 drifters are looking for those.
Love to read about your road trip (did something like that in Australia in 2006 and in California in 2008. No decent digital camera then so not many pictures..).
Enjoy your son and remember baby's are a women's thing after the first 8 months kids are also becoming fun for men (interaction starts). At least that was my experience (and that of some friends).
Thom
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73' Alfa Giulia Super
64' Volvo Duett
65' Volvo Duett
67' Volvo Amazon 123GT
09' Ford Focus 1.8
20' VW ID4
71' Benelli Motorella
65' Cyrus Speciaal
The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys
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