E30 Zone

I posted a thread earlier about buying a 1987 320i. Thank you for all your input - it definitely points me in the right direction. Much appreciated mate!

Went to see the car again today - it's still available and the seller drops Ԛ£100 (too good to be true)!

As mentioned before, bodywork is largely rust free. I checked the wheel arches, boot, round rear lights - they're all good. But then I saw a few rust bubbles on the outer sill (the area with black "hammerite" finish)! Bits of the hammerite coating has worn off in parts along the bottom rail of the sill but the jacking points feel solid (only poked with finger though).

Question 1: are E30s prone to rust in the sills? Do I need to worry about a few rust bubbles? Or are they indicative of nasties lurking in the inner sills?

Question 2 : Quite a bit of white smoke from the exhaust on start up. Is that normal? I hope it's not head gasket - coolant and oil look clean and unmixed.

Thanks again.

It's condensation smoke mine does this when cold and does not mix water,oil. I think it's an M20 engine thing

Sills i don't think they are renowned for this, none of my 3 E30's have had horror stories with sills

Thanks, Simon, that's very reassuring!

Its that same white smoke thats scaring the crap out of me on mine and making me think I have head problems!!!!!

nope. don't worry dude, white smoke when cold is perfectly alright.

Hiya,

Had such a bad A reg 316 with Mtech kit many moons ago. Was completley hollow under the flanking. Bought a set of sills but scrapped the thing before fitting them. They cost me 70 pounds but id only be after 2 squid (they run from arch to arch and are about 8 inches deep).

I have just put a picture of them in the part for sale section under "Bits in Plymouth".

Cheers

Phew, tommo, that's a relief!

Thanks all, I'm good to go.

E30 sills are made from steel - well protected steel, but if that protection is breeched, they will rust.
The two trouble spots are, around the jacking points where damage is caused by careless use of jacks, and at the back of the front wheel arches, where the "end plate" of the sills can be damaged by stuff thrown from the wheels, rust through, and let crud into the sills.
Back of the arches can often look perfect, untill you start prodding with a screwdriver.