Oh dear!!

[RM2186]

My 1987 MTech 1 Sport Auto (rare beastie) in Dolphin Grey with a warranted 90k miles has just bombed at MOT time, the list of nasties is as follows:

1. Offside front seat belt anchorage prescribed area is excessively corroded
2. Offside track rod inner ball joint has excessive play
3. Offside front suspension has excessive play in a lower suspension ball joint.
4 Offside front (inner wing) suspension mounting component prescribed area is excessively corroded
5 Offside front (floor) suspension component mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded
6 Rear brake pipe excessively corroded
7 Nearside front brake pipe excessively corroded
8 Offside rear (boot) suspension component mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded
9 Offside rear (under floor) suspension mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded

To add insult to injury, she also failed on front brake imbalance, parking brake efficiency, excessive CO2 emmissions and a knacked washer jet and headlamp bulb but I can sort these myself.

Other than that, all is well

Question is for the welder types out there, does this sound fixable at sensible dosh or is it time to sell off some some Mtech 1 bits and a decent leather interior?

[leeparkes]

Oh dear
save it if possible,but it does sound more of a resto than repair!
ill have the tech-1 steering wheel if you rape it!

[Steve-E30]

That doesnt look that bad if you can get someone to weld it properly for cash and i mean properly not lashed .
Where are you located as you may get more of a responce then

[RM2186]

Good point Steve, I am based oop north in Stockton On Tees.

[leeparkes]

Where are you located as you may get more of a responce then

+1

[iceox]

that sounds harsh as fook to me, take it somewhere else. when i got mine mot'd it went striaght through and the day before i put the jack throught the jacking point!! the exhauast was blowing and the handbrake was shite. sappose it depends who you see...

[RM2186]

Believe it or not, the tester is a friend of mine! Mind you, he does a proper job and stays well with the rule book.

If I had somewhere to do the work, I'd do a resto on it because she is a real looker now that the BBS are back on. Got a stinker of a water leak into the boot though

Methinks I bought this one with my eyes and not my head!

[dave525]

your main worry is the welding.rust is generally more extensive than the bit you can see.you need to have a good poke around the areas mentioned to see how far it goes.be brutal cos a mig will blow away any suspect metal straight away.if they are localised then it should be repairable at a decent cost.however if it needs a lot of work then you have a tough decision to make.is the car worth the cost of the repairs to you or would you be better buying another.

[Bob_S]

I'll give you 350 for it as it stands? I'm after a tech 1 project

[corkie]

Buy another imo

[RM2186]

I think you are spot on dave525. I will run it down to the guy that does a lot of welding for the local garages around here and get his opinion.

It would be a real shame to break it, but a Lottery Winner I ain't.

Thanks for the offer Bob, but the leather guts alone would fetch a good few bob.

[capri_rob]

That doesn't sound that bad when you break it down. Any 20+ Year old car will need Balljoints and brakepipes at some point - no bid deal. You can probably get it through the MOT with some repair welding pretty cheaply - it ain't gonna be concourse but at least you can keep another Tech 1 on the road.

Good luck fella

[jonesye30]

iv just done a load off welding on mine to get my tech 1 back on the road check the pics n that the chat is
" resoring my a reg 84 e30"

[bmw1066]

Hard m8, get the welding dun and you get it in the air and down and dirty with the wax oil. There getting had to get and with 90k on the clock. Well worht it. The other thing is that you will know the car, get another and you could have the same problom the next MOT. It would be a crying same to kill Her

I have kill KA's with more rust and thay have come back,

[RM2186]

I am going to get an estimate for the welding first thing tomorrow. I'll keep you posted!

[SPADGE]

I'll give you 500 for it as it stands

[jbh]

if it aint that sore a price go for it either that buy a cheap mig and have a go your self

[zimmer-320i]

why not reshell it with a decent e30 shell?
could be cheaper.. more time consuming but it will still feel like your car and not the next one, also with them mounts and pipes excessively corroded i dont think id wanna drive it unless it was done properly

[RM2186]

Well well well. A decent repair is going to cost £150 including a couple of spots that were not part of the MOT. Happy days, it goes into the welding hospital next Tuesday. Hopefully back on the road in a few weeks once I have sorted out the other bits.

[BigBavarian]

Get it repaired and keep it on the road, itys a shame to break tech 1's, we've done 2 and now wish that we'd restored rather than fragged

[AlexBaur325]

£150 for all that work sounds a steal mate.

[djk]

£150 for all that work sounds a steal mate.

+1 - Is it mates' rates?

[skipunda]

That's great news, good for you! save O rama!

[RM2186]

It's not a mate rate as such. He is the feller that all the local garages send their welding stuff to if they can't be a**ed. I guess I cut out the middle man. I met him at work one day and mentioned that I would like him to have a look after the MOT took place and he's come up trumps.

I'm well pleased that she'll be back on the road soon, even with the other bag of faults that I still have to sort, like a self draining battery etc. The joys of owning an E30