E30 Zone

Well I picked my 318 Touring Up today and it is exactly as described. 2 owners from new, Father and son, full main dealer service history, every MOT and receipt kept from new including the original purchase receipt.


It's great, I've jacked it up and looked all over and this is the only spec of rust on the whole car:

All the electrics work and came with these alloys too, but they need a scub up

Looks nice, must get a touring one day - how's the interior ?

Clean as a whistle



Needs a new load cover though. Plus I broke a bit of trim whilst laying the cable for my disk changer, Doh!

Funny thing is I offered him 1000 quid for it when it was on ebay a couple of months ago, but he wanted to let the auction run and it didn't meet the reserve.
Good for me cos I won the 2nd auction for £640 - bargain.

look like you got a bargain mate
got mine in a simula way any plans for it.

Well won,best colour as well...that a Tesco thingy on the key ring?

dave318 wrote:look like you got a bargain mate
got mine in a simula way any plans for it.

Well just lost out on a 2.7 litre stroker on ebay, but that's probably best as can't afford to uprate everything else all at once. But for the time being I'm gonna sort out suspension and wheels. I'm either gonna recon the 15inch bbs alloys that came with it, or Ideally I'd like some Azev A's, Alpina's or Borbets. Gonna lower 30-40mm asap too, but can't decide on wether to get better shocks at the same time?

Is it worth finding some Mtec suspension- the shocls must be stiffer but how much will it lower it by???

Long term plans will be to add an LSD and engine swap (325i or 3.5 litre), along with a meaner front bumper / valance - any ideas?

daimlerman wrote:Well won,best colour as well...that a Tesco thingy on the key ring?

Yeah, this is one of the few cars I like in white, so very happy to get one.
Good spot on the Tesco thingy! lol

sounds good i want a bigger engine cant afford it (not after 400 quid on wheels n tyres)
as for the front end there is loads out there its wot u like at the end of the day

Alburglar wrote:Well I picked my 318 Touring Up today and it is exactly as described. 2 owners from new, Father and son, full main dealer service history, every MOT and receipt kept from new including the original purchase receipt.

Those are 16v Golf alloys - had them on my old 320i - I think they look good but havent noticed them on any other cars on the zone :



Very good find anyway mate - its amazing what you can get for a few hundred quid these days - welcome to the zone and post some more pics when you've got em !

One free 'mod' you should do fairly soon, if you are sticking with the standard front seats, is to remove them, swap over the tilt/height adjuster mechanisms and seat belt ends, and refit the seats on the opposite sides, so that the passenger seat is now the driver's.
This will nearly double the life of the seats!

Brianmoooore wrote:One free 'mod' you should do fairly soon, if you are sticking with the standard front seats, is to remove them, swap over the tilt/height adjuster mechanisms and seat belt ends, and refit the seats on the opposite sides, so that the passenger seat is now the driver's.
This will nearly double the life of the seats!

cheeky trick!!!

i thought tourings had mtec springs as standard. You have a nice original car there don't ruin it by unsubtle mods keep it cool and original looking this will help keep its value too.

Drivers Seat has a already had a new Bmw cover at some point so is in very good nick.

Is that true about the suspension - do I already have mtec springs / dampers???

I'll give you a ton for those golf alloys, need them for the wife's valver

personally i am extremely jealous of you right now. my jaw hit the flor when i saw the pics. i paid 900 for my touring and it wasn't in that much of a fantastic state. well done!!


i agree with pnd though.

why do people do this?

buy proper sweeet examples of e30's then change everything on them, bigger engine, skirts, bumpers, wheels, lowering, stupid exhausts, etc.....

if you're gonna do that why not get a slightly 'rough' example like my touring, few bits of rust, but not loads...

the only thing i can sort of understand is slightly lowering as it stops the car giving you sea sickness.

arrgghh!!



pregnant rant over.

thats a wicked buy dude well played!

bargain

Alburglar wrote:Drivers Seat has a already had a new Bmw cover at some point so is in very good nick.

Is that true about the suspension - do I already have mtec springs / dampers???

Yes, you sure do. All tourings came with M-Tech suspension as standard. Oh, and you'll notice that you have rear brake discs too.

Alburglar wrote: All the electrics work and came with these alloys too, but they need a scub up

Look like cavalier expression alloys , The mk2 astra guys used to have them as cheap champion alloy lookalikes

bet u could polish that lip up nice though

Why are some people assuming I'm gonna f*ck this car up???
I've mentioned a couple of types of alloys that are very complimentive to the E30's look, I'm gonna lower it 40mm to suit. Then probably change the front spoiler for a colour coded alpina version, I just wondered what else was on the market.

So the precious few can rest assured, that I am not a tw@t and please not rant about bodykits and exhausts that no-one has even mentioned!
I AM NOT FROM PIMP MY RIDE!

As for the golf alloys, sorry but I've decided to resto them and use them. Hope to have them on by the end of the week. Plus they are a lot worse than they look in the picture, alot of the paint has lifted where they've oxidised underneath.

sorry. i'll be nice now.

Holla! My Joint is gonna be big baby, REAL Big - Gonna Hook her up with some 22inch Giovani Rims with ruby inserts and a pull out projection TV where the load cover used to be.
LOL

cliffybabe wrote:bet u could polish that lip up nice though

I got some graphite grey to spray the spokes with but I fancy a polished rim (no pun intended). How exactly do I go about it. Do just polish the bare metal and leave it bare or do I Laquer over the the bare metal and then polish that???

They arn't OEM BBS Golf alloys, look very similar but not quite the same!
They may be as said vauxhaul wheels, so check the centre bore very closely as it is ever so slightly smaller than VW/BMW e30 fitment. One guy on the VW forums fitted a set of vaux wheels to his Golf, and used the wheel bolts to pull the wheel on all the way. It was all good till he tried to take them off, he had a right mission ahead of him!

Nice car by the way! When I get old and have to have an estate, it'll be an e30 touring

rubjonny wrote:They arn't OEM BBS Golf alloys, look very similar but not quite the same!
They may be as said vauxhaul wheels, so check the centre bore very closely as it is ever so slightly smaller than VW/BMW e30 fitment. One guy on the VW forums fitted a set of vaux wheels to his Golf, and used the wheel bolts to pull the wheel on all the way. It was all good till he tried to take them off, he had a right mission ahead of him!

Nice car by the way! When I get old and have to have an estate, it'll be an e30 touring

The centre bore may not be the only issue here, the offset will be different as well if they are vauxhaul wheels. The rears will be fine but the fronts will need 15mm hubcentric spacers to stop the inside of the rim clouting the strut, these dont come cheap.

Ah yeah, vaux offset is low even for VW fitment! Is the centre bore lip on the e30 quite shallow then? I can get away with up to 13mm or so non-hubcentric spacers as there is still enough hub lip sticking out past the spacer. I also bought some 10mm hub-centric spacers and they wouldnt fit becasue the hub lip was too deep, oopsy!

rubjonny wrote:Ah yeah, vaux offset is low even for VW fitment! Is the centre bore lip on the e30 quite shallow then? I can get away with up to 13mm or so non-hubcentric spacers as there is still enough hub lip sticking out past the spacer. I also bought some 15mm hub-centric spacers and they wouldnt fit becasue the hub lip was too deep, oopsy!

Yes the centre bore lip on the E30 is very shallow, i tried standard spacer/shims 1st and the resulting wheel wobble was terrible

ah I see! well I have some 10mm hub-centric spacers that are no good to me, I guess they would be handy for an e30 owner

georgen wrote:

Alburglar wrote:Drivers Seat has a already had a new Bmw cover at some point so is in very good nick.

Is that true about the suspension - do I already have mtec springs / dampers???

Yes, you sure do. All tourings came with M-Tech suspension as standard. Oh, and you'll notice that you have rear brake discs too.

Not all tourings have the M-tech 51mm suspension. The very early 318i tourings (up to Sept 89) had 45mm stuff, but still had rear discs.
My touring is a 1989 G plate, with 45mm front struts - confirmed by the VIN.

Steve-E30 wrote:

Alburglar wrote: All the electrics work and came with these alloys too, but they need a scub up

Look like cavalier expression alloys , The mk2 astra guys used to have them as cheap champion alloy lookalikes

On closer inspection you may be right mate - the ones I had on my old 320i were definately 16v golf jobbies but these do look v slightly different so probably are the Vaukhall wheels.....

Enough about the alloys please folks, they were on the car for 15years no probs so I'm not worried about any fitment issues.

Can someone please advise about polishing them. How exactly do I go about it. Do just polish the bare metal and leave it bare or do I Laquer over the the bare metal and then polish that???