E30 Zone

Im looking at buying an E30, its got some slight surface rust on the rear arches and was hoping for some advice for a repair?

I have pics but cant upload them as im at work can i email them to some1 and they post them for me by any chance?

Also needs a front bumper and panel change, they come with the car just wondering how much to get it done or how easy to DIY?

Cheers

Front panel and bumper bolt on,but ask yourself why they need changing,will you have alignment problems? Rusty rear arches are always worse than they look,pull the trim away inside the boot and have a good poke around....

Agreed with daimlerman, the rear arch rust will be worse than it looks. We only found the extent of ours when we peeled all of the trim out of the boot - have since had to cut material out and weld in some patches.

If the rust is on the lip of arch, it can be a bugger as I found out on a different car - tends to spread up the inside of the skin of the rear quarter panel and what looks like a tiny bubble ends up being quite extensive.

Most important thing is that if you do get the car and repair it, make sure you leave no rust behind as it'll happily grow back and bugger up your repair - knowledge from experience once again

I wouldn't touch a car with rust around the rear arches, especially the RH one. Plenty of rust free E30s out there.
You can normally reckon on being able to see only about 10 - 15% of the rust present.

sorted, expert advice cheers guys, think ill give it a swerve by the sound of it as i dont have the spare cash to risk repairing a load of rust.

Cheers

true rust is a killer, the only way is to cut it out completely and with a lot of old cars there is much hidden rust so by the time u have cut it all out there mite not be much car left

tommtb wrote:sorted, expert advice cheers guys, think ill give it a swerve by the sound of it as i dont have the spare cash to risk repairing a load of rust.

Cheers

Wise choice mate, I have a sport that I thought was in pretty good condition, slight bit of surface rust but by the time i stripped all the bodykit off i couldn't get over the amount of rust there was on her, buy as good of one as you can.

I agree with above - there are plenty of rust free examples out there.

My first E30 316 E reg had not much surface rust but having a closer look in the boot after removing the carpet was shocking - papiar mache tastic behind the rear arches !!!!

Strangley enough - my current D reg is the best rust free (well a apot on one of the doors) example I've ever had so age isn't really the issue.

The ONLY badly rusted E30s I've come across (except one) have been as a result of badly repaired accident damage.

well my main problem with rust is where the front wings, the front inner wings meet the fire wall, the front of rear quarters just in front of the arches and the rear inner wheel housings where the shocks bolt on to

Brianmoooore wrote:. Plenty of rust free E30s out there.

I never managed to find one in my search, so probably like tommtb, you start to consider even those with rust

Sports seemed to be the worst for rust for some reason, obviously the kit hides a multitude of sins, but even in visble areas they were worse