Found me a winter beater!

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#1
My 318i has a new stable mate!!! It's a 1992 E34 525i (w/M50 engine)5 speed. Lowered, replica M5 rims, M5 front spoiler, cross drilled rotors on all corners, Dinan chip, black leather, CD changer, my old MOMO shifter, and a little bit of rust... just so I know it's my beater, and that I won't spend money on it tuning it up that I could spend on the cabrio. Exact same colour as the carbio:) I bought it privately off of a BMW salesman (at BMW of Mississauga) a couple weeks ago. the factory rims have the snow tires on them, and they'll be going on soon. (did you see what happened in Buffalo, NY/Fort Erie, Ont. last week?!!!.... ..... ..... 60mm of snow!!! ..... .... In October!!!)

Here they are together for the first time:)


I also did a little work on the cabrio before I put her away for 6-7 months. Took out the highbeams (clear Autopal 100w) and put in clear yellow 100w Autopal floods. Bought an "is" front spoiler from the stealership for a couple hundred, and got my friend to paint it (23 years old and is the head painter at a GM dealer/collision center in Mississauga) for free!


I don't like how my beater is lowered, and my baby isn't. [confused]
 
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#5
the e30's nice!

btw, it was 60cm of snow, or 2 feet for USers ^^ (you might wanna make the correciton.. 60mm doesn't sound quite as impressive as 2 feet! ^_^

nice to have another bimmer as a winter beater eh?
 
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#7
Thanks, glad you like 'em both.

And yeah, sorry, I meant 60cm not mm... Yeah 2 feet... all wet snow too.

It's nice to have a BMW beater... it's sure as hell alot better than the '92 VW Jetta I tried last winter. sold it for $340 with a dead starter, back doors jammed shut, failed emmisions test, drivers window wouldn't roll down, seized brake calipers, terrible wheel bearings, and burning oil!!!! HAH! I got $340 bucks!!!

VW. Never again. (That should be their company slogan) Did you know that the VW alternator belt runs off the AC compressor which is run by the main pulley wheel... so if you're in Ottawa (400km away from home) and your AC bearings seize up in the middle of winter, you can't cut off the belt for your AC (as you would in a BMW) and still be able to drive the car for a long distance??? VW. Never Again.

Anyways, thanks for the comments

BTW, Justin, I bought my GF a '88 325i, and she loves it, but I still call it my "other beater". What are the chances of seeing a few pics of the Camero?
 
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#8
E30m42cab said:
BTW, Justin, I bought my GF a '88 325i, and she loves it, but I still call it my "other beater". What are the chances of seeing a few pics of the Camero?
Here are some pics I took prior to getting a digital camera, so the quality isn't that great. This is when the Camaro was my daily driver and in great operating condition. The car doesn't look this nice anymore since its been sitting outside not being driven for the past 3 1/2 years - the paint is deteriorating. It still runs great, but last time I changed the oil there were large chunks of bearing material in it. It's ok, though. I have BIG plans for her.









 
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#10
Thanks for the compliment. Yeah, it has a Vintage Air A/C system that I put in. Lots of other goodies, too, most of which are go-fast parts.

It's sitting because it is at my parents' house and isn't registered or insured for liability. It was my first car and daily driver up until I started medical school 3.5 years ago. We more or less did a complete restoration on it throughout that time. As you can imagine, the car gets 9 mpg in the city and pretty much requires weekly tinkering to keep her running top notch. I needed something that wasn't so expensive to drive and didn't require constant attention for medical school (and in hindsight that was a fairly good decision given what happened to gas prices over the past 3 1/2 years). So, I bought my e30 and the '67 began to sit at my parents' house in another state. In all reality, the problems that have developed with the car would have occured regardless of whether or not I was driving it daily - the paint issues are with the clearcoat on an area I had to have repainted after a wreck, and I'm sure the bearings issue would have popped up shortly after I started medical school, and that would have been a real problem. It's upsetting to see it in the condition it is in now, but it's ok because of my plans.

In about 10 years, when I have a garage and dispensable income that I can use for discretionary spending, I'm going to go to town on her. I will completely dismantle the car and clean/strip EVERYTHING (something I wasn't able to do with my restoration since I needed to drive the car while I was restoring it). The body is going to get bead blasted and acid etched to remove everything. She's going to get a complete Hotchkis Performance TVS suspension kit to lower the front 2" and the rear 1.5" and subframe connectors. C4 or C5 Corvette front disc brake conversion, Currie 9" positraction rear end, Ford Explorer rear disc brakes. If I was building it right now, I'd put in the GM ZZ383 crate engine (425hp, 449lb-ft on pump gas), but we'll see what they have when the time comes. I am toying with the idea of converting her from an auto to a T56 6-speed manual, but right now I am leaning toward leaving the car an auto. I'd put in either a 700R4 or 4L60E 4-speed auto (has a TH-350 3-speed now). Interior will remain the same - I like the stock look. Outside will remain the same except for the lowered stance and the wheels. The wheels will have to go in order to fit the big Corvette brakes behind them, which means I probably have to take the wheels from 15" up to 17". Not sure what color - I may keep the white with black bumblebee stripe since you don't see many white first generation Camaros - everyone paints their first gen red, black, blue, or orange.

So, there's a few of my plans. I get excited thinking about it, and I can't wait to tear into her. The good thing is is that I have the full support of my fiancee for this project, unlike most guys with cars like this - so my plans will probably actually be carried out in the future!
 
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#11
cool:) sounds good. My buddy (the painter) has 2 '66 lincoln continentals (one hardtop, one convertible (RARE... 4 door convertible with the suicide doors)... he's leaving the conv. stock, and he's hotroding the hardtop. He's putting Air Ride Technologies suspension kit in it, cutting out the tranny tunnel to raise it up so the drive shaft can go up really high, that way the rear tires can go right up inside the arches and drop the car to the ground:) He hasn't decided on an engine yet, but word has it that he's putting in a ... get this .... a diesel out of a Ford Super Duty truck:) and a 6 speed manual tranny... and if he can figure it out, a two speed rear end:) TeeeHeeeHeee:) It's gunna be awesome!!!!!
 
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#13
Justin............ YOUR FIRED!!!!

How could you let that baby just sit for 3 1/2 years??? That hurts me.... BAD!!!!

I LOVE BMW, but nothing warms my soul like the sound of a big/ small block V8, flowmasters or straight pipe.
 
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#14
tool fan said:
Justin............ YOUR FIRED!!!!

How could you let that baby just sit for 3 1/2 years??? That hurts me.... BAD!!!!

I LOVE BMW, but nothing warms my soul like the sound of a big/ small block V8, flowmasters or straight pipe.
I know, it hurts me, too. You'd love the sound of that car - 350ci small block with a CompCams Extreme Energy cam breathing through full-length headers to a dual 2.5" Flowmaster exhaust with H-pipe and dual 2-chamber Flowmaster Delta-Flow mufflers. It has an amazing sound and goes like a scalded cat.

The fact of the matter is that I couldn't really afford to insure both it and my BMW and bring it up to NC where it would be sitting in an apartment complex parking lot. Plus, it never would have passed inspection in NC, so it would have required a fair amount of investment just to get it registered. My parents also couldn't really afford to insure it as it would have just been an extra car that was rarely driven. Plus, the first time something broke on it, they wouldn't have fixed it and it would have just ended up sitting just like it has. So, I made a decision that I'd rather have it sitting at their house than in an apartment complex parking lot.

I just can't wait to do what I REALLY want to do to it!
 
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#15
Frolf, what don't you like about my E30, besides the rims? (In that picture it's sitting funny because I pulled the E-brake when I was still rolling, so it rolled up on it's suspension... and I'm hoping to lower it next spring with some Bilsteins, and H&R's, and maybe some Racing Dynamics sway bars), and what do you like so much about my E34? Other than the fact that it has the same rims as your E36:)
 


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