Uwbuurman: 1986 e30 325iA cabrio

[uwbuurman]

I painted the dustplates.





And the fuelfilter. After that I put everything in the engine bay together. New thermostathousing, sensors and thermostat.

[uwbuurman]

Air inlet is a bit oily



I’m also thinking about changing the powersteering fluid. This is very brown.

[uwbuurman]

A side step. My e30 has as the only car I own no rear headrests. So I want those. But guess what? They are nowhere to be found in Perlbeige 0206 leather. New ones a a staggering €200+ a piece…
At Arnold D.’s e30 touring I harvested the old headrests, the mounting stuff from the rear seat and every thing, only to find out at home, thar my rear backseat has NO brackets….

I checked some other rear seats, but no luck. Finally I found the brackets online, but still not the right headrests, until I found a couple of e24 headrests in the USA. Same colour and year as mine, but different model. But it’s better than nothing, so I bought them and put them in my car last week.

The parts:



The pins are different also. The E30 has the short ones.



I took the E30 ones apart:

[uwbuurman]

I’m happy to discover that the inside of the e24 ones are also different…





The difference in the pins (large ones are E24)



The difference in headrests (beige leather is E24)







This is where the brackets are missing.

[uwbuurman]

Fitting the brackets:





But I had to cut my beautiful leather….





No guts no glory…



And in!



Done!



I am very happy with the way this turned out!!!

[uwbuurman]

I put in the gearbox oil, fitted the plugs in teh thermostathousing, put coolant in the engine and fitted the fuelpump unit again. And of course, put the interior back together.





From this:



To this:



And from this:



To this:



In short: I’m getting to like this car more and more!!!!!

[uwbuurman]

Axles put on:



Brakes rebuilt:





Old oil from the powersteering. It should be clear and red!



I had a check light, “kuhlwasser”. Was a rotten connector, so I tested it, and it worked!



I put back on the headlight wipers. They dissapeared on a tiny fenderbender, but I put new ones (well, new, from ebay…) back on. I’n haven’t figured it out yet, how the wiring should go.

[uwbuurman]

The first MOT in 5 years! It didn’t pass, but it was a minor point.the handbrake is not good, need to change the segments. So i ordered it right away. Hopefully next week a new MOT.
And I fixed the headlight wipers!!!!
The next hing is a buzzing sound from the fuelpump. I will replacet hat aswell.

The SI board( in the central speedo unit) has two batteries soldered onto it. they are almost 30 years old and started to leak, eating away the board.





Working headlight wipers!

[uwbuurman]

On tuesday April 17, 2012 this car passed the MOT! I was very happy, finally I could take her for a spin!!!

[uwbuurman]

but I still had some problems, like the automatic gearbox that leaks a lot of oil. It also shifts into neutral when i lifted gas above 150 km/h.

[uwbuurman]

I have had the car off for repairs on the gearbox. They replaced a number of gaskets and seals. That stopped the leaking, the box is now nice a2nd dry, but I still have the problem that the car goes into neutral when driving at higher speeds. But, now beiing end of May 2012, I used the car fors ome small trips around town and I like it. the car grows on me, and more important, convidence too. What I clearly feel is that the undercarriage is not so fresh anymore. Steering is a little vague, it tends to roll a lot in the corners. Nothing big, just 25 year old and used.

Did some more work on the car. My right doorpanel didn’t fit right. So i took it off. Behind it, there was no damplayer. But what I saw more didn’t make me very happy.





I suppose that there was a problem with the electric window in the past. They just cut out the middle section of the door . Who does such a thing! In a few years I will put in a new door.



I also cleaned my interiorparts, with the plastic cleaner from Colourlock. Fe-no-me-nal!

before:







After:









On the Sharknosemeeting 2012 i bought a Hirschmann electrical antenna, just €55,--. On removal of the old antenna I found out that the old manual antenna is not even propperly connected, just some wires taped together. I was lucky to find the electrical wires in place, in the past there was an electrical antennat hat was removed when it broke down. So installation was very quick!

[uwbuurman]

[gerrit323]

A really nice 325i convertible .. the are becoming rare in this state

[uwbuurman]

Thanks, Gerrit. I like yours also. Great e30 cabrio!

[uwbuurman]