StanceWorks: An Imperfect E30 is the Best E30

StanceWorks Video Transcript

Foreign If somehow you haven’t seen the first episode of this series stop here go back watch it it’s important and it explains why this project is so special to me now that you’ve seen it let’s dive in we’ve got some hideous us bumpers we’ve got to tear off at this E30 so that we

Can make it look at least a little bit better in the last episode we took a look at the US E30 bumpers and compared them to Euro bumpers it was a Showcase of exactly how awful us e30s were cursed from the factory the rest of the world got Chrome

Slimline bumpers that accentuate the lines of the E30 in contrast to the quote-unquote diving boards we were given oddly enough there are people out there that prefer these U.S diving board bumpers but I’m not one of them and with the E30 finally in the shop we can give the front end an overhaul

Along with the bumpers we’re going to install a Euro valence a new front lip ellipsoid headlights Euro grills and new kidneys ensuring that the entire front end of this thing not only looks better but looks the way that it was supposed to all the way back in the 80s

Now most of these parts are admittedly only subtly different the bumpers are the big one and the rest take a bit of a BMW fanatic to notice but I’ll do my best to break each detail down so that you can appreciate them in the same way that I do we’ll start with the

Headlights because not only have mine been fitted with ugly red trim rings but they are also early sealed beam headlights which you can see here on these early E30 commercials when they’re in like new condition they look just fine but with that said there is room for improvement here because

Once the E30 received its facelift it also received ellipsoid headlights if you look closely you’ll notice that these E30 headlights have a projector housing in them one of the very first cars to feature such a headlight which is still in use on cars today they offer a much better light output

Than their earlier sealed beam counterparts and not to mention they look really good so while some BMW nerds might be a bit upset I’m going anachronistic by installing these on an early model E30 well it’s my car I like them so that’s what we’re gonna do but before we install the headlights

There’s more disassembly to be done up next is removing the US impact bumper and all of the trim that surrounds it now let’s talk about Why Us e30s and other early BMWs have these gigantic bumpers to begin with it’s because Federal crash safety regulations stated that cars must have what they call 5

Mile per hour impact bumpers essentially bumpers that would prevent any damage from happening at 5 miles per hour or less and unfortunately for us this was BMW’s solution but thankfully as said we can replace these bumpers with the original European counterparts and that brings us to the

Final step of the teardown removing the US Valance now as said most of these differences are somewhat subtle but here I’ve got the original us part and our European counterpart sitting side by side the major difference is that the U.S balance has huge holes at Each corner

Technically it works and it’s not a requirement to swap this out to go to European bumpers but it makes the entire conversion look a whole lot better but a real version of this European balance can fetch over a thousand dollars so keeping in line with what my

Buddy Corey would do I bought a cheap knockoff off of eBay and it fits just fine I had my neighbor painted based off of my gas cap and as expected it doesn’t match the front of the car at all but again as Cory would say dude it’s fine

Even the nicer of his two e30s had mismatched paint of its own and while I’d never be happy with a paint mismatch like this on any of my other projects it almost seems so fitting here that I actually kind of like it this Project’s really going to serve as

An opportunity to shift the way that I think about cars and Perfection as a whole this time around I’m really here for what this car is meant to drive like and not the process of getting there but I digress back to putting this car together with the headlights installed we’re able

To then install the Euro grills which admittedly are probably the most subtle change we’re going to make the way that the plastic closes in over the top of the headlight differentiates the us from the European grills and although it’s subtle it’s definitely a change that stands out once you begin to

Look for it with the bumper brackets installed we’re able to then put together the bumpers themselves and install the rubber trim and this probably would have been pretty interesting to see for some of you but I completely forgot to record it so this is that moment where I say draw the rest

Of the owl and some of you know what I’m talking about while the rest of you don’t in short with the bumper assembled it is a bolt-on process the car has all of the provisions so that we can simply line this thing up tighten the hardware down and call it done

But there’s still the rear of the car that we have to focus on it’s easier in some ways but does present some new challenges the main one being that it does require drilling holes in the back of the car in order to mount the bumper brackets European cars

Came with holes that are Us cars did not but with the rear components removed I discovered somebody’s crime black paint on the bottom of the quarter panels likely put there to cover up stained rock guard coating initially I feared I might have to repaint this section of

The car but I decided I’d try my luck get out some acetone and see if I could remove the spray paint by hand not only is this a much cheaper solution it’s also 100 what Corey would have tried first the result is imperfect some of the black paint remains some of the white

Paint has been rubbed away but overall I think this is a great solution for the time being and it didn’t cost a thing following the cleanup session and after drilling some holes the rear bumper was able to be installed as well now I know we’d all love to take a step

Back and look at this thing but there are a few other parts I want to install before we have our grand reveal first on the list is actually wiring in our new headlights now to be clear Corey wouldn’t have whipped out a Deutsch connector kit instead he probably would have just

Twisted the wires together and said dude it’s fine but given that I want to install some HIDs later down the line I want something that’s serviceable and interchangeable so we’re going to use these nice weatherproof Deutsch connectors as a good foolproof solution now I’ve explained them before but if

You aren’t familiar with what a Deutsch connector is or how it works step one involves crimping pins onto individual wires there are a lot of different tools to do this job and I use a knockoff DMC once crimped the wires go through the weatherproof backing in into the plug

Itself one female and one male a plastic key locks everything into place and with that you’re done we’ve got a jumper harness for our headlights inside the car I want to swap out our steering wheel to be honest the factory three spoke is fine I don’t hate it but I do think that

There’s room for improvement I’ve got a cool Momo cavallino that I’ve had on Ice ever since it was in my E28 and I think this is a perfect opportunity to pick it up off the shelf and install it in a car once again so I snagged a Momo Hub installed it in the

Car and well you know the rest here’s where I say if you’re enjoying this episode or you want to support the channel you should consider subscribing if you haven’t already or leave a like both of these help tell the YouTube algorithm that you like what you’re seeing We’re almost done but we have one other round of parts to install it’s not our h r coilovers but instead it’s a set of H Rae Springs that will install in the interim while we wait with my lift currently occupied I went next door to see the guys at like bow

When Byron made a bet he said he could pull both front McPherson struts install the front Springs get them reinstalled and then drop both rear springs and replace those all in under 30 minutes and since I’m not one to interfere with a bet that saves me a couple hours worth

Of work I said sure Bud go for it so he swapped out our h r Sports springs for the h r races which will provide admittedly only a small drop from where we were but it’ll also up the spring rate and give us an even sportier ride than we had already

And for anybody counting at home Byron got all four Springs installed in 26 minutes flat but I guess I shouldn’t expect anything less from liked about now let’s finally take a look at this thing I don’t know how you guys feel but this is a massive massive Improvement on the

Way this car looks as a whole of course wheels or flashy paint would make an even bigger difference as would some sort of body kit but honestly I love the way this looks and this is quintessentially an E30 while I’m excited about our new headlights the new grilles the bumpers

The valance and our new steering wheel there’s something else that I find myself more excited about this time around I’m excited to have this car finished that might sound weird to say because of course that’s the case with every project but unlike the Ferrari this car

Isn’t so much about the process as it is about the end result with previous projects people often ask why I built it whether it’s the Ferrari Rusty or something else I think they often expect an answer along the lines of I built it for racing or I built it for drifting not really

Expecting the answer to be I built it just to build it this time around though I’m eager to actually drive the car I mean I always am but that’s what this car is about I want to embrace all the things my friend Corey loved about this thing and I want to share the

Experiences that made it so special to him this time the process isn’t about the fabrication or the problem solving it’s solely about embracing new ideas and new approaches to building a car like preventing Perfection from becoming the enemy of good enough the car is basic in this state but it’s

One step closer to being complete and to say I’m excited about it is an absolute understatement now at this point you guys know the major changes that are still left in the pipeline like the engine and the transmission swap but there are a few small details that got left unfinished for this episode

I need to come up with a solution for the lower bumper trim mounts at the back of the car and lurking behind the bumper are the bumper shock holes which I want to make some sort of plug for the right solution would just be to weld in a euro

Valence but nah I’m not doing that and last but not least I’ve got to come up with a solution for these protruding exhaust tips next I really want to get the engine and the transmission in this thing swap they’re relatively minor in the scheme of things and they shouldn’t take that

Long to do but I’m kind of waiting to go out and carve Canyons until those are done because one going out and driving mountain roads with an automatic Etta isn’t very enticing and two I want that experience to be everything that it can be so once those are out of the way this

Car will be kind of on the home stretch we’ll get the coilover installed the wheels and tires and cross a few more things off the list and then it’s just go out and drive the hell out of this thing and I’m excited for it as said this really this project is about

Getting to that end result versus the process to get there if you guys are enjoying the series make sure you subscribe if you want to support the channel and you’re looking for a good way to do it of course there is the patreon or the Discord we got

Memberships for both or for the next episode which will come out sometime next week I’ve got new apparel coming out I try to make sure that you guys are provided the highest quality stuff I’m able to put together so there’s something in exchange you guys get some out of it too

With all that said I’m done I’m rambling I didn’t plan this exit out this outro whatever you want to call it I’m really rambling I’ll catch you guys next week