Build by Build: Redlined Car Club’s Early Days

Every club starts somewhere. Ours started in parking lots and garages, with a handful of people who cared more about how a car was built than what it cost. Here are two posts from the club's Instagram that show where it came from.

2023: an E30, restored at home

One of the first builds the club featured was a member's BMW E30, a car that had been taken all the way back:

Beautiful flicks of @1cholic's E30, fully restored, custom built, and all self made at home. Thanks to @ross_s_8 for the great flicks.

That post also set out what the club was for, and it still holds: "If you wanna become part of the family … you are always welcome to pull up to our meets."

View on Instagram

What restoring a car like this actually involves

A home restoration of a forty-year-old car is a long list of unglamorous jobs before the shiny ones. For cars of the E30's era, the usual places to look are:

• Rust. Rocker panels, wheel arches, floor pans and the areas around the windshield and jacking points are the classic trouble spots. Rust repair comes before paint, always.
• Cooling. Old radiators, hoses and plastic cooling parts get brittle with age. Refreshing the cooling system is cheap insurance on any car this old.
• Rubber everywhere. Suspension bushings, engine mounts and door and window seals harden over decades. Replacing them makes an old car feel tight again.
• Wiring. Forty years of owners leave forty years of shortcuts. Sorting the electrics is slow but saves endless gremlins.

That's why "self made at home" is the impressive part. Anyone can buy a finished car; building one in a driveway takes patience, a lot of evenings and a willingness to learn as you go.

2024: how far we've come

Eighteen months later, the club looked back:

Crazy how far we've come… only up from here, building the community brick by brick, or rather "build" by "build." Miss the good old days with the boys.

The carousel ran from Volvos and Mustangs to M3s, GT-Rs, WRXs, Type Rs and Evos. That mix is still the point: unique builds over cookie-cutter ones, and the people behind them.

View on Instagram

Want your build featured?

The club has always been about the cars its people build, not what they cost. If you've got a project, whether it's a fresh restoration, a daily with a few tasteful mods or a build that's halfway there, we want to see it. Tag @redlined.cc in your posts, or send it in through the build submission form with a few photos and the story behind it. The best ones end up right here on the blog.

A few tips that make a build easy to feature:

• Shoot in good light, early morning or late afternoon, and get the whole car in at least one shot.
• Write the mod list down. Readers always ask what wheels, what suspension and what tune.
• Tell the story. Why this car, what went wrong, what you'd do differently. That's what people remember.

Where it goes from here

The club has grown since: Redlined 101, our series explaining car culture from the ground up, a newsletter, and merch that funds what we do. Got a build you want featured? Tell us at hello@redlined.cc or tag @redlined.cc.

Frequently asked questions

When was Redlined Car Club founded?

Redlined Car Club was founded in 2023 in New Jersey.

What kinds of cars are in the club?

All kinds: European and JDM cars at the core, plus American muscle and anything with a story. The club values unique builds over cookie-cutter ones.

How can I get my build featured?

Tag @redlined.cc on Instagram or send it through the build submission form on redlined.cc with photos, a mod list and the story behind it.

Where are E30s most likely to rust?

Commonly the rocker panels, wheel arches, floor pans, and the areas around the windshield and jacking points.