My Yuppiemobile: 1986 BMW E30 318i

Here too, this one was a bit of a steal. Although it did have organic matter growing in every crevice when I bought it :p This car has had the biggest jamesmaying I have ever done - I cleaned every crack with a toothbrush to get rid of the lichen. The sunroof seal alone held enough to run an Icelandic restaurant for a few weeks. Plus the sun damaged paint, which actually turned out to be not so bad after a wash and polish - I honestly don't think this car has had a proper wash for a very long time. The way it drives though cannot be faulted, apart from the fuel pump. But that should be arriving tomorrow and after it's installed we should have a fully functional and mostly faultless E30!
 
Yeah, both my Sapporo and E34 had green bits here and there when purchased :lol:
 
Swapped over the new fuel pump today. As someone who has absolutely no experience working on cars, with such activities actively disapproved of in my family, I found the experience quite liberating and rewarding :p
 
It was really the whole point of buying this car, so I'm glad it's going well and I haven't screwed it up too badly yet :p

A couple more photos:

Another taken by my mate on the trip home.


One for public - the condition of the front seats :p
 
Brake pads and fuel filter arrived in the post, but it's going to have to wait until after I return from overseas in late December. It may be wishful thinking to have get the car inspected and registered before Christmas but being ambitious never hurt anyone... :unsure:

Not so Interesting fact: the E30 uses the same brake pads as a mid-90s Land Rover Disco.
 
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So things are well behind schedule, coming back from overseas pretty much straight into Christmas means everywhere that will do an MOT is closed until at least 7 January. As soon as places reopen, I'll be booking it in.

I ghetto-fixed the dodgy handbrake warning light, turned out the previous owner had attempted a fix in the past by poorly soldering the wire to the switch, the poor soldering had once again come off. I did a possibly even poorer job to repair it, but it's only a temporary fix to get it registered. At least it works now.

Pulled the gauge cluster today, to replace the burnt out bulb that left half the gauges unilluminated. Found that the little orange cover over the affected bulb had melted. That could have been the problem, but I replaced the bulbs anyway just to be safe. The other side of the guages that still lit up had already had the little cover removed, with marks where that one had melted in the past. I'll have to wait until it's dark to see how well my fix has worked.





Can't wait to be able to drive the bloody thing!
 
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Just ordered new interior door handle surrounds to replace the broken existing ones, as well as a new gear gaiter as the current one is falling apart. I will also get a new gear knob eventually, however local prices for them seem to be pretty ridiculous.
 
Hbriz said:
I will also get a new gear knob eventually, however local prices for them seem to be pretty ridiculous.
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Weird. My rubber one cost something like 18 eur. Thinking of upgrading to an original wooden one just for fun, though.
 
public said:
Weird. My rubber one cost something like 18 eur. Thinking of upgrading to an original wooden one just for fun, though.
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I'm struggling to find anything at authentic looking for under $80.

Anyway, the car's booked in for an inspection on wednesday. Fingers crossed.
 
Managed to check the dash lights last night, great success! Also other lights that weren't working before unrelated to the instrument cluster now are again, magic.

Car's currently at the garage getting inspected. Nervously waiting for either a text from the garage (good) or a phone call (bad)...
 
The car failed :( needs a new lower front control arm bushing. And the engine is too dirty apparently. The garage is going to call me tomorrow with a quote for the bushing, it makes it much easier to get them to do it than arse around with it myself.
 
I didn't know it was a thing, but apparently you need to have a clean engine bay... I mean I hit it with degreaser a while back but it wasn't a thorough job, at least according to the RTA.
 
Heh, I'm sure you can't get failed on that here unless your engine bay is full of peat. Getting failed on bushings is a typical thing on any car.
 
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