Jdesign

You can do that in MN? We cant do vanity on collector or hobbyist plates in Wisco. I  painted my hobbyist plates about 5 years ago and never had issues. (Joking because my car never leaves my shop) 

From what I understand, its illegal to alter the plates in any way (hell a license plate frame is considered illegal). On the other hand, any cop I have asked always says its NBD as long as its legible. Its in line with most modifications, be honest and polite when cops ask questions, you are more likely to get a warning. 
 
 

Hartge seems like the best deal of the 3, all nice cars though

It has been awhile since I gave an update.  Lots has been happening! Popped on an Active Autowerks supercharger, 4.10 gears with a drexler LSD, CSL King Pins and new bearings, CSL steering rack and all new power steering lines and reservoir, replaced the cam bolts and did a valve adjustment (2 were out of spec), valve cover gasket, manual swap with a JB Racing lightweight flywheel and HD Sach clutch, ZHP shift knob and a short shifter, and turned 200k miles on the car (motor probably has 130k-ish on it), and some 18" Apex wheels wrapped in PS4s 245 front, 275 rears.

Upgrade on the Ranger. New downpipe from CVFab. They seem like a Ford only performance place?  Dunno I’ve never had a Ford before. Fit great, and wow is it nice working on something that isn’t rusty. 

Long time no post!  Zero to update! It's been sitting in my garage with a replacement engine and transmission right next to it.  I'm just never going to get around to putting it together.  It has a lot of replaced and nice parts.  Read through the thread for all of it.  It has some rust and will never be a show car but isn't really that bad.  It has so many replaced and nice parts, my intention was always to just use all of the parts on my arctic grey sedan someday.

Eibach suspension that works good.
Solid mounted rear subframe.
The whole rear suspension is gone through, adjustable lower control arms, M out ball joints top for outer top and bottom.  3.15 LSD (I think this was factory, in 93 the cold weather package came with heated seats and LSD and no traction control because it wasn't ready yet).
Custom exhaust sounds really good.
The engine in the car has a broken timing chain, replacement engine appears to be working, it came from somebody doing a swap.  I can't guarantee it works though.  The engine in the car has Stewart water pump, Dinan TB, new coolant hoses, newer starter, Dinan ecu chip, and some other stuff.
Comes with a replacement Getrag transmission from the same place as the engine.
Xbrace
 
Anyone interested?  It's taking up too much garage space and causing marital strife...  Make me an offer.
 
 
I bought a truck to replace my work van that is falling apart/also too small.
2020 Ranger XLT with 6k miles.  I was actually going to order a new XL very basic options but when I went in after selecting options with the salesman it rejected the order because they are apparently out of engines for 2023.  So I started searching used and found this one locally.  Complete with old man appearance package, chrome, running boards, etc.

Replacing the old Sienna.  It served me well starting my electrical contractor business.  But now it's rusted so bad the receiver hitch was falling off, the sliding doors don't open without the perfect touch, and it's very tight fitting everything in it.  Major pluses are that 10' conduit fit down the middle.  280k miles on it and it still runs great.  My parents bought it when it was a few years old with 60k on it so it's been in the family a long time.

 
Sorry I am a disappointment 😭
 
 

Electrical work is progressing well. I decided to abandon the Littlefuse integrated fusebox and build my own using TE fuseboxes. It allowed me to bus the power to the components the way I wanted.

I left the original rear harness and terminated it with the 20 pin deutsch connector. It will connect to the front harness.

Body harness is 90% complete. Almost everything under the hood is done. I am still adding some wires under dashboard for gauge power, glovebox lights or radio power and finishing up some grounds. It should be ready this week.
I get the set of cheapo rock auto parts e28 axles , brake discs and some pagid brake pads. I also got the gasket set for the m42. 
I got a set of cheapest VAG coils of amazon to see how they fit. I think i will whip something to retain the coils. Once that thing moves out of garage under it own power and suspension aligns I will replace all el cheapo parts with something of better quality. 

I spent some bucks on the Radium FPR and it fits beautifully with the nuke fuel rail.
Next:
Finish the fuel system: I got PTFE lines and fpr AND now its time for Flex fuel sensor and some AN fittings
Finish the steering: I ordered woodward u-joints and will need to whip a steering shaft. I still have to mount the column in final position. And lastly will need to sort the tie rod situation. I am thinking shorted e90 inners and e36 outers? 
Engine: I have a second m42 which was sitting (covered) outside for almost 3 years. Damn squirrel lived in that thing for two years before I chased her out of there and sprayed 2 cans of pb blaster into the motor. It made very interesting, kind of crunchy noises when turning so I am pretty sure that it will work great. I got a gasket set for it  and I am ready to dingleberry the shit out of the cylinders if needed and re-ring the pistons.
 
Who knows maybe it will  make it to the Vintage  
 
 
Beginning of the new fusebox
 
 
New fusebox
 
 
And the guts : power first
 
 
 
And the outputs
 
 
Radlok for incoming power: This thing is well........... very rad. Possibly best power connector I've seen so far
 
 
 
Finished product with chassis harness attached. Still need to shrink the boots but first will need to test and verify all circuits. I already found horn connected to the radiator fan output and vice versa. Hooooooonk you overheated
 
 
FPR. works really well with Nuke rail. Looks like this part was meant for m42 with my manifold
 
 
 
Chinesium coils
 

Retiring the “E46”plates in favor of collector plates. Always liked how clean and minimal MN’s collector plates looked, plus no more registration each season! They do give the option to do vanity collector plates but I preferred the anonymity this time around. Someone steal my old plates, quick!

Some of my bones are deformed, causing irregularities on my joints. This makes it easy to tear tissue on my ball and socket joints (shoulders, hips). I suffered this on both shoulders from doing pull ups and had to rest them for over a year in the past.
Now I’m thinking that deep squats with double my weight caused the impingement between my femur head and hip. I also suffered a minor tear on my gluteus minimums from compensating the initial tear. I also may have suffered damage to my sciatic nerve on my back, but there are no X-rays or MRI done to that specific area.  We also have to remember that our understanding of MRIs are still developing, it’s still hard to pinpoint what goes wrong in our complex anatomy.  

The only thing I know is that as sensitive as we may be, we are sooooo resilient.  I’m optimistic on my outcome, I already have back problems, but that doesn’t mean I should give up. 

Prime parking spot. I had an awesome time at the Bavarian Classic car show today. 

 

160k
After much thinking and hunting around I finally came up with a solution to put 5x7 speakers in the rear parcel shelf without cutting big holes or looking like someone landed a UFO back there.
 
Before I did anything with the speakers themselves I figured now's the time to refresh the parcel shelf itself. I had a spare standard speaker parcel shelf so I used the markings on the back and opened up the speaker cutouts and moved the mounting clips to the premium speaker layout. Since every parcel shelf is now faded to a lovely shade of light blurple I gave it a couple coats of black duplicolor vinyl/fabric dye and cleaned up all the plastic parts.

 
Once that was done (and after letting it dry for about 3-4 months), I got into swapping things out. With the old parcel shelf out, I added some sound deadening over any holes in the sheet metal and a few spots that made a lot of noise  when tapping on it. My thinking on doing this was it should help the speakers perform better/keep more sound in the cabin/maybe reduce some road noise bleeding through from the trunk.

 
Side note: I've always hated the tan rear seat in my car ever since I put it in. Its in really good shape and the original plan was to dye it eventually, but I realized I have a perfectly good black sedan back seat sitting in my basement. My car is a coupe so the seat isn't a perfect fit, but I also happen to have the rear carpet section from that sedan so I swapped that in as well to get everything looking as factory as possible. While it still isn't blue, it looks so much better. 

 
Back to the speakers. After much hunting around and thinking, I came across these speaker grills from a 90's ford van/ranger/etc. that had an identical grille pattern to the kick panel speakers in the front. I found someone selling NOS ones and ordered a pair. With the new decklid in place, and the grill/speaker (Polk audio DB+ 5x7 coaxial) in hand, I designed and 3d printed the adapter to make it all work. 

 
The adapter has slotted holes to screw into the factory e30 parcel shelf premium speaker clips so you can shift them around and maximize speaker clearance, matches the profile of the ford speaker grilles, and spaces the speaker up high enough to require no hammering/cutting of the sheet metal underneath. It is printed in ASA which is UV stable and should have zero issues dealing with the heat inside a car parked in the sun. To finalize the fit and finish, I screwed the speaker grille to the adapter and sanded the outer profile as a unit to get rid of layer lines and align everything perfectly. 

 
I obviously didn't want a gray speaker cover, so that got scuffed up and sprayed black with adhesion promoter and SEM trim paint. The adapter was then sprayed with adhesion promoter and filler primer, sanded smooth, then another coat of adhesion promoter to re-coat any exposed plastic, textured black paint, and a final top coat of SEM trim black. I did this same process on the tweeter pods and it's held up perfectly so far. 
 
With everything painted it was time to mount it all up! Here is the adapter mounted to the parcel shelf: 

 
Then the speaker gets mounted to the underside of the ford speaker grille. To fit the speaker I did have to remove a trim ring/spacer from the top side of the speaker and use a tin snips to remove the outer mounting tabs/trim a bit of excess material on the other mounting tabs. Also, because of the placement of the wire connections, I bent the connectors outwards 90 degrees so that they would clear the parcel shelf without having to cut a notch in it. 

 
I then mounted the speaker assembly to the adapter in the car and went back and did the whole thing a second time!

 
Couldn't be more stoked on the end result! It looks very factory and the sound improvement over the previous 5 1/4" coaxial speakers is huge. 
 

Yes sir alien engineering. 
Not totally sure if he keeps his eBay store up anymore, but he is super active on the boostede36world Facebook page.
 
mid post edit - looks like he has his own site now 
https://www.alien-engineering.com/product-page/alien-engineering-bmw-m50-m52-m54-s50-s52-solid-lifter-conversion-shims

This last weekend was the first fvscc event at USAIR. For this event they ran the layout backwards which was a first for me. They also usually cap the event at 100 cars, this one had 137. Ended up placing 1st in XSB and 3rd overall raw time. 
http://fvscc.com/results/2023_Summer/event2_raw.htm
 
here’s my fastest run of the day

gf brought out the e36 and ended up placing 19th overall

Exhaust and guibo claimed, updated OP.

I’ll take it!
I was just thinking the other day about how I should really get a new radiator for the e30 to get rid of the trans cooler, so this is very convenient. 

Eventually I would like to get an S3. Audi's keep the rear seats flatter than BMW which makes it easier to fit three car seats. I've always been a fan of them and think they look fantastic and the versatility of being something I could take on a long drive and then small enough to really enjoy on some backroads is very appealing to me.
If I were to get back in an e30, I want a bone stock vert. 

I know....
 
RIP

“How are you gentlemen!!”
I am alive but partaking of the car hobby in a much more manageable and scaled back manner.
The way I was trying to do it before was not in balance and not a good fit for my lifestyle.
Appreciate you thinking of me! Are you still involved with RA?

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/617764916953479/?mibextid=6ojiHh
 
Well that was quick…

It was a family in Hartland. The Dad has an M4 Comp, the kid has an m340i, a RHD GTR, and a couple other japanase cars I know I've heard but am not familiar with. So, it will be taken care of. 
Yup. Hartland. Hopefully sooner rather than later, but not immediately. I'm going to enjoy some time without constant car projects. 

157045 Miles Checked a few things off the punch list. Changed the oil with the handy screw in oil funnel kit when it was on sale. Also installed a mishimoto magnetic drain plug. https://www.harborfreight.com/master-oil-funnel-filling-kit-56892.html

Attempted to start the front shocks, ball joint bolt had different plans. Very seized and had to cut/punch out. Replaced with a 10.9 bolt and haven't gone back to that project yet. 

Discovered during the rear shocks replacement that the drivers rear spring had broke and wrapped itself around under the mount. Didn't notice any noise or handling issues so this was quite the surprise but apparently a common issue by 150k. 

OEM spring compressor is short but extremely expensive. Not enough room to use standard ones so just ended up using a small bottle jack and got plenty of room to pull them out. Make sure the brake line is removed from the shock mount location. 

Replaced both sides with LESJÖFORS 4208476 from Rock Auto as they were $20 cheaper each than FCP and didn't care about warranty. Top is the unbroken stock, LESJÖFOR below. Little thicker than the OEM. Replaced rear upper and lower spring pads as well. 

Finally pony up'd the $25 for the Motive bleeder bottles and was happy to toss away my gheto gatorade setup. The seal on my Motive 1100 power bleeder cap had swollen as well, FCP and Amazon don't offer the replacement. I ended up trimming a 3/8 x 2 1/4 with 1/8 center rubber washer from Menards down to 1 3/4 diameter tracing a hole saw bit. Brakes bleed with Pentosin DOT4-LV

Got all the other parts on hand, just need to purchase the tune yet and then I can dig into the major refresh items.

Well, the saga comes to an end. A family put a deposit down on it yesterday and they're coming to pick it up today. One day I'll share the full story of what is going on, but that's not today. 

I realize my posts in here were pretty infrequent but I sold my X5 to my brother. And bought a 2013 XC90 R-Design. I just sold that to my parents last weekend.

They drove me in my old car to Milwaukee and I took a train down to Chicago and picked up a 2013 Allroad. Higher miles, but the PO gave me a stack of maintenance done in the last year with the anticipation of keeping it for a long time before finding a good deal on a 5 series. 

This car fits the girls great after ditching the Graco Tranzitions car seats for Diono Radian 3's. Other than doing coilovers and maybe carplay, the car will remain as-is for a while.
Thank you everyone for the constant help with the e30 while I diagnosed goofy things, ranted, etc. It was a really fun car to own and was my first project where I was thoughtful in what and why I did things to it. The girls will miss it, but are OK  with it as long as it's replaced with a "red race car" one day.