Diamondschwartz 318is

Show off your pride and joy here

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Speak-slower
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Mon Jun 02, 2014 9:15 am

Hello! So I've been looking for a project and my mate Chris (aka goosiegander) has been twisting my arm forever about getting an e30. So I was trawling the Bay of dreams and happened upon a 318is non sunroof in Diamondscwhartz. It was also pretty cheap but had a lot of problems. Cut a long story short - epic 12 hour road trip to the other side of the country and TadAH!

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And the back.

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So it became very apparent on the way back that its a total dog lol! Just about everything is broken or rusted not to mention a hideous howling noise from the rear passenger hub.
Over the last week in my free time I've ripped out the interior and tried to give it a clean up all round.

This lot has all come out along with parcel shelf and door speakers.

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I've fixed the OBC.

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The seats are looking a lot better.

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Not the best picture but I've cleaned and painted the parcel shelf black again.

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I've also fixed the central locking and ripped out all redundant sub/amp wiring and old alarm stuff that didn't work anyways.
It also had aftermarket clock in which are gone too.
Next is to sort out some better wheels as the mims ones on it are shot. One of them is bent to hell plus i don't really like em. Also sort out the wheel bearing/handbrake problems to get it drivable again.

Cheers for looking in advance updates soon. - mike
Last edited by Speak-slower on Tue Jun 03, 2014 12:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
tonybtonyb
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Mon Jun 02, 2014 12:21 pm

Good luck with the fix..
They don't make bm's like this anymore!..They should.
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Speak-slower
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Mon Jun 02, 2014 12:27 pm

Cheers mate looks like I'm gonna need all the luck I can get :mad:
goosiegander
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Mon Jun 02, 2014 1:40 pm

Looks to have the makings of a great car,

Being non sunroof is a blessing!

Looking forward to seeing further pictures of council activities as the car is put back together!

:D
NoTurbo
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Mon Jun 02, 2014 1:57 pm

Can you please share a picture of the headlining?

I am interested to see it on a non-sunroof! :D
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Speak-slower
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Mon Jun 02, 2014 6:12 pm

I will post a pic of the roof lining tomorrow.
It's probably one of the best bits of the car.
I've kept the clocks to flog later when I can arsed to post em up.
Cheers - mike
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Speak-slower
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Tue Jun 03, 2014 12:53 pm

head lining as promised

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and the other way

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broken two of these now trying to get the wheels off :x

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and one last one of the bent wheel i managed to take off

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Speedtouch
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Tue Jun 03, 2014 1:01 pm

The twin exhaust is impressive for a 318is - makes it look like a 325i.
///M aurice
ECU Upgrade EPROM Chips, £40 posted within the UK. Note these are not Zone chips.
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Rich320I
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Tue Jun 03, 2014 1:07 pm

looks like a good start. what spoiler is on the rear doesnt look like a standard lip?
goosiegander
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Tue Jun 03, 2014 1:25 pm

its a prefeba (not sure of the spelling) spoiler, suits the car well I think...

Not seen many like that so rare perhaps.

Deffo need to get that towbar gone,

Zaust sounds epic, especially when mike rinsed a 320d merging onto the joining road for the motorway, heard it from 3 cars back with the windows closed lol!
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Speak-slower
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Wed Jun 04, 2014 9:45 am

mini update as it raining no car stuff boo! :(

heres a pic of the spoiler any info about it would be appreciated.

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and picked these up last night.

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also the legend that is my mate steve came round yesterday and loosened all my nuts 8O *cough cough* so i can now get the old MiMs off. thats it for today I'm off for a cuppa.

mike
goosiegander
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Thu Jun 05, 2014 8:40 am

BBS rightness!

:D
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Speak-slower
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Thu Jun 05, 2014 11:25 am

Wrong tyres again though lol. Not much done today.
Disconnected towbar wiring jacked up rear on to stands.
Changed front wheels. Discovered more rust and broken parts. Blah.
goosiegander
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Thu Jun 05, 2014 2:03 pm

Rust and broken parts,

Front factory jacking pads? :D
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Fri Jun 06, 2014 6:03 am

Jealous of your non sunroof black head lining, I have a sunroof one but now I'm changing the roof skin need to find a non sunroof one, no luck so far.
:?
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Speak-slower
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Fri Jun 06, 2014 7:08 am

Yes mate that's one of the reasons I snapped this one up.
I well remember the nightmare Chris has sorting his out.
I don't think it was to bad compared to some we'd seen previous.
Your car is awesome btw. I guess it'll be tough to find a non sunroof that someone wants to break.

Cheers for looking - mike
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Speak-slower
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Fri Jun 06, 2014 11:04 am

ok so i aquired a half inch socket set today (don't worry Chris i got you a present too!), which meant i could get the carpet out. found evidence of previous repairs and a BIG hole in the driver side foot well. the carpet was actually fused to the rusted metal.

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passenger footwell has also been repaired looks ok at first glance, could do with cleaning up surface rust.

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heres another casualty.

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Lots of water ingress here. it definitely water i tasted it, yuck!

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and i believe this is called the money shot.

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the carpet was soaked all the way through left it to dry in the sun.

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well i doubt I'm gonna get much done this weekend as its my stag do tomorrow but who knows what sunday will bring.
Oh and to top it all off my battery is flat. :x

cheers - mike
cmsslee
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Fri Jun 06, 2014 12:36 pm

Great stuff Mike.:cool: I'm envious of those who have the skills/tools/space to do all their own work.
goosiegander
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Fri Jun 06, 2014 1:01 pm

Well now we know that spare section of car in my back garden is going to be of some use don't we!

Should be easy enough to cut and paste repair the floor, you'll need to grind back that mess and get some proper zinc coating on there asap, again spare can of bilt hamber electrox in the shed...

:D

What are the rear arches like with the quarters out?
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Speak-slower
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Fri Jun 06, 2014 1:04 pm

cmsslee wrote:Great stuff Mike.:cool: I'm envious of those who have the skills/tools/space to do all their own work.
Haha! I have the space but not sure about the other two lol.
Cheers bud!

I've not had the quarters out yet ran out of time. If we're not busy at work I'll see if I can take a half day. Take a look see tonight maybe.

- mike
goosiegander
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Fri Jun 06, 2014 1:32 pm

Speak-slower wrote:
cmsslee wrote:Great stuff Mike.:cool: I'm envious of those who have the skills/tools/space to do all their own work.
Haha! I have the space but not sure about the other two lol.
Cheers bud!

I've not had the quarters out yet ran out of time. If we're not busy at work I'll see if I can take a half day. Take a look see tonight maybe.

- mike
OK cool,

Perhaps use some of Sat morning to cut out the patches you'll need from the spare one...

Did you get the bearing for the rear wheel?
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Speak-slower
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Fri Jun 06, 2014 3:12 pm

No bearing going to sort that out next week after I've got paid etc.
I doubt I'll be able to do anything Saturday I've other crap to sort in the morning.
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Speak-slower
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Sun Jun 08, 2014 7:41 pm

so after yesterdays festivities and this mornings hangover i had a couple of hours this afternoon to do more exploratory surgery on the car. Chris came over with some shiny tools and we got to work on a couple of bits n bobs.

so we cleaned up the foot well a bit more and you can see the chassis member underneath is all good we just need to cut the rot on top out and weld in new metal. also in the corner there are a few grotty holes but its pretty solid just need new metal there too.

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found this lurking under black tape on the wing :cry:

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thankfully the car came with a spare solid wing it just needs re-painting.
also got the to the bottom of why the handbrake doesn't work.
it not existing on the drivers side would be a bit of a clue.

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so got my work cut out for me hopefully will make some progress toward putting the car back together this week. but don't count your chickens lol.

cheers- mike
goosiegander
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Sun Jun 08, 2014 8:06 pm

the handbrake, she gone boss... 8O

Progress is progress...
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Speak-slower
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Tue Jun 24, 2014 7:47 pm

time for an update on the rusty dawg as I'm now calling the old motor.
i have replaced the fan heater motor and got the blowers working on all four speeds again.
my resistor is a bit rusty (surprise!) much like the rest of the car. so i cleaned that up a bit and now its now back in business. also have the wheels on and rebuilt the rear brakes. purchased a rear trailing arm to swap over in the future so i can have handbrake again. that job is a bit beyond me at the moment along with sorting the bearing out on the other side. i will be swatting up on that in the near future. found a black box under the dash where all the alarm wires are headed. its a total mess under there so more research is needed there too.
Chris helpfully swapped out the rusty wing so thats a bit better but have found i need a new front valance and bumper etc. tow bar is gone also and sorted all the faulty lights except a front fog just needs a new bulb. heres some pics enjoy!

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tidied this lot up too. just need a cover for it.
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black box of doom!
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RUST!
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tow bar removal YAY!
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cheers for looking guys got a long way to go yet.

mike
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Speak-slower
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Wed Jun 25, 2014 10:25 pm

Righty ho got my grinder out and cut all the rusty holes out of the drivers footwell today.
also got practicing with the welder I'm still a bit rubbish but i can lay a weld now. only problem is i used all my gas just practicing. hopefully tomorrow i'll have enough time to cut some metal to plug the holes and maybe get em tacked in. heres some pics for your delectation.


gone from this
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to this

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this is my bollox welding i managed to get some better beads on when i realised the metal on the wing was too thin. the metal i'll use for the repair is a bit thicker and i didn't blow holes in it.

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gotta a bin full of crud mainly just from the car. good job its bin day tomorrow.

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so i'll leave you guys with that pile o ****

cheers - mike
baggimodo
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Thu Jun 26, 2014 8:12 pm

Sure I've got an M42 plug cover lying around if you want one :)
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Speak-slower
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Thu Jun 26, 2014 10:09 pm

I do, that would be cool I'm going away for a week soon. Ok to PM you when I get back?
What would want for it?
Split_S
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Fri Jun 27, 2014 12:10 am

Congrats on the car! Dont let that rust scare you!
I bought a '91 318iS last august... been working on it ever since!

Build thread here if you're interested: http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... c&t=243594
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Speak-slower
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Sun Jul 06, 2014 8:40 pm

Split_S wrote:Congrats on the car! Dont let that rust scare you!
I bought a '91 318iS last august... been working on it ever since!

Build thread here if you're interested: http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... c&t=243594
thanks mate. yeah I've been looking at your thread. its very impressive what you've been up too.

so I've been away to cornwall for a week of sun and fun so not much has happened on the car. had to shoe horn it in to the garage whilst away as i didn't fancy it being left on the drive. but it wasn't all fun as i picked up a used top tint screen to replace my cracked one. so big thanks to joe at Arm BMW Motorsport in Redruth for that.

heres old screen

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new/used screen fitted, lovely.

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there's a car in there somewhere!

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thanks for looking - mike
Last edited by Speak-slower on Tue Jul 15, 2014 12:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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BHadley
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Sun Jul 06, 2014 9:10 pm

Great read this, think I remember seeing this car on eBay....
Your story is similar to mine, I've got an is too and trekked across the country to get it also!
The rear bearings are known as the worst jobs to do... Have read horror stories on here of frustration trying to remove them!
Anyway, im off to try and learn how to weld my sorry example...
goosiegander
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Thu Jul 10, 2014 9:36 pm

New pictures dude!
baggimodo
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Fri Jul 11, 2014 9:04 am

Cover the postage costs and you can have it for free mate, gimme a PM and we can sort it out!

I need to get handy with a welder, got a few patches on mine that I really need to investigate, but I just enjoy driving the damn thing too much to start stripping it to pieces just yet.

Keep going mate, always nice to see a car being saved!
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Speak-slower
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Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:59 am

thanks for all the good comments!
its time for a quick update.
i have been chipping away at the foot well a bit more over the last week or so have started to fabricate the metal also all the shiny good metal is now primed and ready. slowly getting there.
its a shame as the weather has not helped one bit, every time i have a free day the heavens open. my garage is only a single so its difficult to work in if theres a car in it.
here be some pics of my progress.

a BIIggg hole.
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i think that was a jacking point :?

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getting my fabricator on

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primed and ready

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template-age.

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new shelves!

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so there you go! keep your eyes peeled for another instalment soon. - mike
goosiegander
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Tue Jul 15, 2014 1:08 pm

Good Work dude!
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