E30 van

[jakey555]

Hi, new member here, but no stranger to BMWs 3er, having owned several e30s, followed by e36, e46, 2x e90. Mainly tourings. Miss my E30s the most though. I'll always remember an F-reg 325i touring I had back in the mid/ late 90s that was utterly immaculate- one owner, like new with 50k on it and some of the pre delivery cellophane still peeping out under the seats. It might even have had wind up windows, but an electric sunroof. I certainly remember it had horrific shiny black plastic door cards and a sort of matt black pvc or vinyl roof lining which struck me at the time as very old-fashioned. I remember paying £2300 for it and suspecting it was far, far too much. I sold it a bit later for a bit more (I was going through a short stint as a car dealer at the time), but I remember it stuck around for months as it had no aircon and cloth trim, but I thoroughly enjoyed booting around in it.

I have an idea in mind that has been festering some years and will not go away. An E30 Frankenvan!

Surely somebody out there has welded up the back doors, pulled out the interior and done a panel van conversion on an E30 Touring?

I guess the main considerations would be VOSA / DVLA ones, SVA? etc? Anybody know the path ahead on this? If it's never been done, is there a reason I have not considered for this fact?
The only things I can find online about converting estates into panel vans are things like Astras or Belingos, where, (possibly significantly) there is, in existence, an OEM van variant. So something already there to select on Mr or Mrs VOSA, or DVLA's dropdown menu!

Strength/ stiffness wouldn't be a factor as i'd keep everything that's there, intact, just remove the glass, and weld up the back doors and then weld the panels on top. It would probably actually be both stiffer and lighter. It might even need the battery moving back to the boot. I'd imagine the 1-2mm steel panels would be substantially lighter than the glass removed. In fact, for the panels I could lay something up in carbon and epoxy in a couple of days that would be easier for me, 2 kgs max a side (Much happier working with composites than my crap welding), and it would also be much easier with my existing skills to mould in the recess round the edge of the panel (that panel vans always have for some reason and look a bit weird if they don't). I guess getting this recess accurately rolled into sheet steel would be quite a specialist job.

I'd be looking to get something that's had all the mechanicals done so I don't have to, (principally- later/ larger engine swap, suspension, brakes to match), but can be more rough on the body and interior (might even leave outside of car completely unrestored, welds/ new panels unpainted etc. if using steel!) Maybe M3 arches, maybe not.

The idea would be to use it for trips away/ overnighting- I have slept in most of my tourings at one time or another, and can vouch that they are (just) long enough. But I'd go for a bit of more formal camping gear, folddown camp bed, little cooker etc. this time. So a little lightweight camper van that a) goes and handles like a well sorted E30, and b) doesn't look like a camper van and can therefore be parked overnight in places where they usually move campers on.

1) This is not a joke
2) I don't want to stick vinyl wrap over the back windows, unbolt the back seats and say it's a van. I want to do a conversion that's never been done before.
3) Please don't take offence anybody on here with immaculate cars and an interest only in immaculate cars, I'm not going to be doing it with a minter. It's no more ruinous to the car's originality than converting a 318 road car into a 3.2 litre track day car.

I think it would be an amazing van. Especially with a roof chop, but that would be outside of my skills and budget with all the custom glass etc. and would of course detract majorly from the camping ability which, let's face it is already going to be pretty pokey and short on headroom in the back.

Another question would be insurance for modified cars. I've always just done changes when younger and taken the risk of not being caught or having a big accident. Always got away with it , but I'm older now and more risk averse, plus this would be a very noticeable conversion that would excite Plod if it appears to be a 3 door commercial vehicle but coming up as 5 door estate on PNC. I'd be inclined to at least take a look at the proper custom/ modified car insurance, but I have no experience whatsoever of this area despite having owned very many modified cars. Is it horrendously expensive?

[Moz]

Hi!

I'm actually intrigued by this! We did a panel van conversion into a motorhome and the process for DVLA reclassification required sending them images of the conversion but there were some minimum requriements for that classification so I would think it will be different for this due to the smaller overall size - https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... or-caravan

This is more the reverse of that though! Maybe send the DVLA an email?

Modified insurance has always been really expensive when I've personally had it, motor home insurance is not that much in comparison but it sounds like you don't want to go down that route. Good luck if you do go through with it and I'll be following it if you do. If you need any advice on conversion related stuff I'd be happy to help.

Thanks

[jakey555]

Thanks, no the motorhome aspects would be pretty informal, lightweight and removeable, so I won't be worrying about the legality of that. It's the changing from estate car to van and the rear doors delete I'm worried about.