infinityisfive

So I used to have a toyota pickup and am trying to get back in the game. This is what inspired me to sell my pickup before I moved to the east coast where it snows and apparently I actually need 4x4. Anyway, it's a 1987 BMW 325i cabrio. First year of the convertible in the US and last year of the early model e30.

When I brought it home (well really a month after since it took FOREVER to find time to go to the DMV)


I had bought it off some kid who said he bought it from an older couple down in Florida while on family vacation. The kid seemed shady but I saw potential in the car and the carfax supported his story. Anyway I handed him probably more money than the car was worth and finally had my own set of wheels since moving to the east coast!

I've fixed more stuff on this car than any of my other cars combined. And not even big ticket maintenance stuff; every piece of plastic has been broken on this car at some point. And the car is still not done.

I've driven the car through two winters so far (it's 3rd in its lifetime) and last December, this happened! I ended up swapping clutch slave cylinders in 35 degree weather.

At least it was sunny that weekend?


Though I have to admit, this was a ton of fun. The BMW cabrio has 48/52 weight distribution (that's 52% REAR) so it handled the snow quite well. They say the awd 325ix is better than a snowmobile


At some point I swapped from amber turn signals to clears (everything on this car is so overpriced) and then threw in some H4 conversion yellow fog/driving lights you can see in my avatar picture. These are a whole story in themselves


More recently I've done some stuff that matters, like replacing the water hoses (this is my top rad hose that had...expanded... due to age


I replaced an aging and sagging suspension with new H&R sport lowering springs & new KYB shocks (everyone goes Bilstein in the bmw community but those are so expensive and I don't even track my car so forget that). This was a 2 day affair and spring compressors will forever be my mortal enemy!!


The US bmw e30's mostly came with the m20 motor, which is a 12 valve inline 6 and has a 60k mile timing belt interval. The m20 motor is an interference design, which means that if the timing belt snaps, valves will hit pistons and your motor is toast. Because of this, common procedure is to replace your timing belt as soon as you get the car if you are at all unsure of the last replacement. Well, I didn't have records so I went ahead and replaced that and the water pump anyway. Turns out upon inspection of the old belt, I could have gone another 20k miles and been fine. I'd done this on my 3VZE and it was pretty straightforward.


UV rays from the sun can harm the convertible top so it's important to use this stuff called Raggtopp which protects your top and also allows water to bead off, rather than soak in to your canvas top. So it's like car wax for your top. This is the prep so no overspray gets on the windows


The car came with a sunbleached and dried interior so my next (and most expensive) project will be to reskin the seats and paint the door panels. They should be in this month!





So back to the whole "this is my other car" thing.. if anyone knows anyone who wants to sell their 2nd gen 4runner with a nice history and no rust in CT, please send them my way!