For Love of a Car...

 

 
 

It started as just a favor for a friend, get him a brake job for his 84 318i from the mechanic that I was bragging about. That part I did, and was quoted a price of $900.00. Apparently he had ruined everything except the brake lines, and had to have been aware of it. I neglected to call said friend and advise him of the cost. He called me later that afternoon about the car. Several expletives later he informed me that the car was now mine since the work was finished and he did not want to put $900.00 into the car. So in all actuality I paid $900.00 for the car. That accomplished, I asked the mechanic if I was suckered. He said the engine was in good shape for the mileage and age, but cosmetically it was not so good. That's what I can handle. Got ahold of the great "BMP" catalogue, and started going to junkyards again! (Ahhh, I Love the smell of Antifreeze in the morning!) In a few weeks it looked less embarrassing, but I realized I had alot more to do than I thought. Knowing what I do now, I would have passed on the car, but by that point it had grown attached to me. Problems I had were:

So now that I had a game plan for restoration, I moved on to adding more to the performance aspect. That's when I found out that what everyone was doing to the 325e/i/s, I could not do to the lovely Dirty e30. No chips, no real bolt on HP adding mods. I was not going to have a Screamin Demon at all! After careful thought, and many questions on the .org and Ben.net, I realized what I wanted from the car. I could do all the suspension mods, eventually  get an LSD, a K&N drop in, and various other minor mods to enhance the ride, but basically I was  going to restore the car to factory new, if possible.That's what I am in the process of doing now.....