Well, decided I ought to finally make a thread on here!
When I first got her there were a few problems, most of which I haven't sorted
I went all the way to Kent and back to pick her up back in december, and tbh she's a bit of a bargain.
For £600 I got a 1991 BMW 4 door E30 that someone had done a conversion on and stuck a 318iS engine and running gear in, 325 brakes all round and a nice sports interior (the seats are LOVELY!).
It had a few problems, of course, like having an oil leak and a petrol leak over 2/3's full. The suspension is also a bit wonky, but I think thats my fault!
Got her back and she looked like this:
I bought this car to be used for drifting, and possibly track days (only in the dry, you'll find out why in a min)
I just HAD to remove the M badge from the front, so off that came.
Then shortly after getting her, I removed the battery to charge it, and this of course, immobilised the car. Sh*t, couldn't get it sorted, couldn't find the master key or anything. DAMN, so the alarm and immobiliser is now removed. Bit tricky when I have no door locks, the only lock on the car is the boot, fortunately that works!
I then had a DWYB day that I was going to shortly afterwards, and decided to take the leap and get my diff welded up (hence only dry track days, wet ones and whooooops, my back end would be gone!).
Had lots of fun doing this, eventually I went down the Watford at about 8.30 on a tuesday night and had it done at GarageD at that time, in prep for the Drift day the next day! Eeeek.
5 mins after leaving the ramp, we went for a quick play, bearing in mind I'd only been driving the car a few weeks at this point! Kicked it out round a corner and wasn't used to it, managed to fool a kerb. Oooooooops. All fine though, just a slightly dented wheel!
Went to the drift day and started picking it up.
Drove it around for another month, got a little more practise in in a 'private' car park, which meant that the next drift day was FAR better! Got the hang of second gear and was really holding it out!
Also had some bloke in a volvo 340 reverse into me at the end, needed a new kidney grill (picked up a chrome one, just not fitted), and a replacement bonnet, but that can wait as this will probably get more beaten up before I do that!
Here I am, 2nd gear, pretty much full lock giving it some!
And just before I hit the barriers which produced a lovely dent you'll see later!
The main verdict of that drift day, both from myself and one of the marshall's was that the car was too boaty, despite the iS suspension.
Which I set about rectifying a few weeks back when I bought some second hand Jamex springs and shocks from an e30zone member for a bargainous £50, admittedly it was another £20 in petrol, but worth it at that price!
Set about fitting them, and I've had no end of problems!
Couldn't work out the best way to do it, now I've done it so many times I can have a front suspension strut out in about 20 mins tops!
Had a cross thread on the top of the strut which I only got recut yesterday (monday)! This happened because it simply refused to come off, and when we used a windy gun, it stripped the thread in the nut and damaged this thread.
So, got another nut, and recut thread. 40mm drop springs - not short enough! (having run around with a 40mm drop damper/spring on one side and standard the other side for a good week, not the best plan, but couldn't do much about it!)
So off comes another coil and a half! Bringing them to just the level where they wouldn't dislocate and are JUST held in. Got the first one built up yesterday like this, then fitted, lowered and wow, what a difference!
Started on the other side, oh dear, what do we have? The top nut wouldn't come undone again. So I got intoxicated off and panicy as my next drift day is tomorrow, which is what I was aiming for!
So today we arranged to pop to a tyre garage up the road and did it there *phew*, such an easy job, but only with the air gun!
Chopped that spring, fitted and its back on the car!
So thats 2 chopped springs on the front, and the 2 rear dampers done. I can't get the rear springs compressed properly to get them out, being very frustrating as the car is sitting slightly off atm. Lower one side than the others, NOT due to the dampers!
Here's the result! (after a quick wash and removal of about 6 bird poo splats 'cos it sits under a phone cable)
Note my missing front lip (in the shed) and bent valance - a result of hitting a verge and LOTS of cones while learning!
And you should be able to see the dent created by the barriers at the last drift session in my rear arch!
And a quick boso effort one of our talented photploppers made when I asked him!
Presently I need 4 replacement tyres, which sucks, as i can't really go running my drift rims on the road (all 7 of them now - 3 steels, and 1 more set of 15" alloys!) with mis-matched tyres! lol
Got myself a replacement rear light lense, just not fitting it yet.
Got some german numberplates on order too as my rear is damaged and my front missing *cough*
When I first got her there were a few problems, most of which I haven't sorted
I went all the way to Kent and back to pick her up back in december, and tbh she's a bit of a bargain.
For £600 I got a 1991 BMW 4 door E30 that someone had done a conversion on and stuck a 318iS engine and running gear in, 325 brakes all round and a nice sports interior (the seats are LOVELY!).
It had a few problems, of course, like having an oil leak and a petrol leak over 2/3's full. The suspension is also a bit wonky, but I think thats my fault!
Got her back and she looked like this:
I bought this car to be used for drifting, and possibly track days (only in the dry, you'll find out why in a min)
I just HAD to remove the M badge from the front, so off that came.
Then shortly after getting her, I removed the battery to charge it, and this of course, immobilised the car. Sh*t, couldn't get it sorted, couldn't find the master key or anything. DAMN, so the alarm and immobiliser is now removed. Bit tricky when I have no door locks, the only lock on the car is the boot, fortunately that works!
I then had a DWYB day that I was going to shortly afterwards, and decided to take the leap and get my diff welded up (hence only dry track days, wet ones and whooooops, my back end would be gone!).
Had lots of fun doing this, eventually I went down the Watford at about 8.30 on a tuesday night and had it done at GarageD at that time, in prep for the Drift day the next day! Eeeek.
5 mins after leaving the ramp, we went for a quick play, bearing in mind I'd only been driving the car a few weeks at this point! Kicked it out round a corner and wasn't used to it, managed to fool a kerb. Oooooooops. All fine though, just a slightly dented wheel!
Went to the drift day and started picking it up.
Drove it around for another month, got a little more practise in in a 'private' car park, which meant that the next drift day was FAR better! Got the hang of second gear and was really holding it out!
Also had some bloke in a volvo 340 reverse into me at the end, needed a new kidney grill (picked up a chrome one, just not fitted), and a replacement bonnet, but that can wait as this will probably get more beaten up before I do that!
Here I am, 2nd gear, pretty much full lock giving it some!
And just before I hit the barriers which produced a lovely dent you'll see later!
The main verdict of that drift day, both from myself and one of the marshall's was that the car was too boaty, despite the iS suspension.
Which I set about rectifying a few weeks back when I bought some second hand Jamex springs and shocks from an e30zone member for a bargainous £50, admittedly it was another £20 in petrol, but worth it at that price!
Set about fitting them, and I've had no end of problems!
Couldn't work out the best way to do it, now I've done it so many times I can have a front suspension strut out in about 20 mins tops!
Had a cross thread on the top of the strut which I only got recut yesterday (monday)! This happened because it simply refused to come off, and when we used a windy gun, it stripped the thread in the nut and damaged this thread.
So, got another nut, and recut thread. 40mm drop springs - not short enough! (having run around with a 40mm drop damper/spring on one side and standard the other side for a good week, not the best plan, but couldn't do much about it!)
So off comes another coil and a half! Bringing them to just the level where they wouldn't dislocate and are JUST held in. Got the first one built up yesterday like this, then fitted, lowered and wow, what a difference!
Started on the other side, oh dear, what do we have? The top nut wouldn't come undone again. So I got intoxicated off and panicy as my next drift day is tomorrow, which is what I was aiming for!
So today we arranged to pop to a tyre garage up the road and did it there *phew*, such an easy job, but only with the air gun!
Chopped that spring, fitted and its back on the car!
So thats 2 chopped springs on the front, and the 2 rear dampers done. I can't get the rear springs compressed properly to get them out, being very frustrating as the car is sitting slightly off atm. Lower one side than the others, NOT due to the dampers!
Here's the result! (after a quick wash and removal of about 6 bird poo splats 'cos it sits under a phone cable)
Note my missing front lip (in the shed) and bent valance - a result of hitting a verge and LOTS of cones while learning!
And you should be able to see the dent created by the barriers at the last drift session in my rear arch!
And a quick boso effort one of our talented photploppers made when I asked him!
Presently I need 4 replacement tyres, which sucks, as i can't really go running my drift rims on the road (all 7 of them now - 3 steels, and 1 more set of 15" alloys!) with mis-matched tyres! lol
Got myself a replacement rear light lense, just not fitting it yet.
Got some german numberplates on order too as my rear is damaged and my front missing *cough*
Just sold one for 13quid.
My main love is my E21, but the E30 hands down drives better. 
