Here's a little intro to my car. Following several unimaginable months without a BMW to tinker with in the July of 2009 I bought this 8/84 production 325e to serve as my daily driver for $1800:






She was clean, and as a California car until 2007 had no rust to speak of. However as with an car of this age she wasn't without her problems. The rubber trany mounts were gone, the T-belt was replaced who-knows-how-long-ago, and a funky battery draw were the main hurdles to getting her reliably on the road again. On the cosmetic side the body was amasingly strait and after a good detail the iconicly BMW Hennarot paint came out looking good. The interior, however,was pretty well toast (it doesn't show well in the pic). The front seats were worn through on the bolsters and the rear seat looked like Freddy Krueger had worked it over.

After a week all the major mechanical bits were handled and I embarked on a 'progressive' OEM++ resto and 'Euroization'...

The hunt for goodies was on. The first bits to come in were for the interior which I had decided to swap to black...


Then I threw on some BBS RJ's off of a VW Corrado which I cleaned up...






...at this point I was getting tired of my monster-truck-high OEM ride height so I threw on H&R Sport Springs with Billstein Sport Struts






It isn't the most radical drop, around 1.5" front and 1.3-1.5" rear, but as my daily driver it works for me just fine.

Then I started the interior swap. All that I was waiting on were the the new seat skins...










And finaly sourced all the parts to get rid of those hideous US-spec 5-mile-an-hour bumpers and replace them with proper Euro-spec ones...










(winter tires with the stock wheels went on for a while around this time too)

Finally, after months of anticipation my upholstery came in. The centers are genuine Alpina upholstery sourced from Germany while the bolsters and headrests are vinyl. They were sewn up by Creative Options back east and installed by myself...


Once done with the (slow and tedious) install she was ready for her first real debut on the scene...

Then I finally recieved and installed the Euro-spec front valence with proper fog-deletes and threw on some BBS RA's...




Then some OEM German-Spec Bosch H1 Elipsoids completed the cosmetic Euro-ization...

With the car looking like she should, the next major step is the drivetrain. The parts sourcing has started in ernest and at this point I have pretty much every part to make it what I want:

-2.7l Stroker based on M20B27 (325e) Shortblock with complete Euro M20B23 (323i) Head. This will mantain the 325e's copious low-end torque but with the stronger valvetrain and hotter cam of the 323i it will significantly raise the redline and top-end horsepower.
-Upgrade to Motronic 1.3 Engine Management
-Complete exhaust with Ireland Engineering Headers and Catback with custom downpipes and mid-section.
-Newly rebuilt 5-Speed
-3.25 Limited Slip Diff

With all those goodies the little Henna E30 should pull pretty well when desired, while still being sedate enough to use as my daily. Unfortunately just when I had sourced the last of those bits Uncle Sam sent me on an all-expenses-paid trip to Afghanistan, where I am at the moment, so the swap will have to wait 'till I get back.

Oh, and BBS RS will accompany the swap too...

I love build threads. Especially on awesome cars like this. Keep it up dude, I'm excited to see what's next.

Nice build man I love the euro bumpers, where did you get them?

pure awesomeness

That is nice! Love what you did

I take photoz! I also haz Flickrrrrrr

Thanks guys! I can't wait to get back to the states, my cars, and the meet-n-greet scene...

Diego, The euro bumpers were bought from Levant at Guttenparts (ZM Blue Devil on r3v) and I ordered the complete mounting hardware set through BMW Northwest in Fife. There was a point where I was coming in to order Euro parts through them once a week, so they usually give me pretty good pricing...

nice. yeah they look WAY better than DB's LOL

Thread revival, but I had to. Seriously wonderful work. Such superior cars. Great work!

Seriously, awesome oem+ build. I just picked up an 86 ES. I'm taking out the motor, so lmk if you want it. It's already 2.7l

I already have two stock 2.7l motors, the stock one that came in the car and the one that is being built into a stroker. The 2.7 in your eS is the same as in my car, and all 325e and 325es cars through 1987. To make the stroker I'm using the M20B27 bottom end with the better breathing and better reving top-end from a Euro-Spec 323i (M20B23). While im at it I'm upgrading the engine management system and harness from Bosch Motronic 1.0 to the '87 and up Motronic 1.3. Its also going to recieve Ireland Engineering headers, a complete down-tube back exhaust system and some other little bits that once working in tune should make for a fun but still daily-driverable setup...

...just gotta get home first

Woohoo! I love henna cars with euro goodies, so awesome. The 2.7i will be icing on the cake.

Fun project. You do most of your own work?

(08.30.2010 02.44 AM)RainierHooker Wrote:  

hahha i have that pic too, the red jetta is mine looong before the wheels and the coils, that was my first meet.

^ Nice, it was my first outting with this car too!

LittleTurboSRT, yes, everything done on this car was done by yours truely. The only exception being the sewing of the upholstery, but the install was all me...

@ The Skipper: I was looking through the pics of that day...