Update 1:
The first thing to do was to get it up on jack stands, rip off the fenders and pull out the interior to check how old uncle Rust had treated this car over the years of abusing since 1999.
Funny how the service booklet just stopped in 2000. From 1987 through 1999 the car lived a wonderful life in Germany, oil changes, filter changes, spark plugs, routine checks and everything is all stamped in there. The color of this car is SmaragdgrÃan Metallic, which is a rare color I've never seen on any E30 in Norway as of yet, and I've seen quite a few.
And hoy! We hit gold instantly! Or wait, that's rust, fuck. Well at least there's a lot of go-- shit, rust on this old Bayerische masterpiece.
Oh, seems like we hit some more rust, time to keep digging!
And kept digging I did. Cut out most of the rust that evening and grinded to bare metal around them, ready to weld. But I didn't stop there, I welded and finished up five of the holes that day. And if you'd like to ask, yes, this was on New Year's Eve, 12 hours of welding throughout the night. No party party, only worky worky. To say the least, I'm not going to be as picky about this car as I was with my other E30, cause that took a lot of time that I unfortunately do not have at the moment.
Had to rebuild the entire jack point, it went surprisingly well seeing as this is my first time welding these thin sheets.
One hole to go on the passanger side of the car, and then I'll prime it and put some good ol' underbody tectyl on it. I also ordered new front brakes and braking pads, plus some other inconsequential parts.
Update 2:
Today I took some more crappy pictures, got the dashboard out since the previous owner apparently let a friend cut out some pieces of the plastic surface, leaving large uncovered areas which looked like shit. The new dash (I got one extra when I bought the car) will be mounted as soon as I'm done welding and priming the driver's side of the car.
I'm going to get some welding done today and hopefully I'll get to sandblast the struts if the sandblaster is available. They'll be primed and painted and new dampers will be installed as the current ones leaked as a high maintenance prostitute from Poland.
The right front trailing arm inner ball joint also needs to be replaced.
A lovely pic of the overkill brakes for a 86 hp car, haha.
Rear wheel arches cut out, 2002 Turbo flares bought and should arrive in the mail shortly.
Update 3:
As I dismantled the struts I noticed the calipers were toast. The cylinder is rusted stuck, and there was just no way of getting it to move, even under high pressure, so new ones must be obtained.
Some pictures of the struts getting a makeover...
Sandblasted the fuck out of them, so they should be good to go for a round of primer.
And voila, primed and ready to get a layer of paint on them. O! how I love it when parts gets a refurbishment.
All painted and ready to be put together again, all that's missing now is some new dampers. Since this is supposed to be an economic build, I don't feel like wasting cash on buying new ones due to the high prices in Norway, nor do I feel like putting one of my lowering kits on it since that won't go through the inspection without TÃaV-papers, plus some extra controls which costs more money.
Starting to look like something again, we'll get there soon!
Holes man, holes...
Passenger side all done, rejoice! We're making progress, finally.
My idiotic friend, happy to have just mounted new strut bars in the engine compartment and trunk.
Update 4:
A small update for today. Used the lathe to make some sleeves for my younger brothers K-sport camber plates, as he was foolish enough not to listen to me when he ordered. The diameter bearing hole was too large, hence the need for sleeves. They fitted neatly, made them out of nylon. Also had to drill new holes in his strut towers to make these fit, as the bolt pattern was different from the original.
So back to my chunk of rust. I had no idea the E30 was delivered stock with a sandbox, this must be some foolishness added by the previous owner, dooh. Tons of sand. The sinner? Yes, a fairly large hole through the wheel house and directly into the trunk. That is going to be a pain in the ass to weld.
Also found this peculiar looking fellow, looks like some kind of a breathing device, perhaps for old batteries? I have no idea, at least it had a factory stock hole in the tray there which it was mounted in. Apparently I also have sentral locking on the tank lid, neat feature for such an old car, rather simple though.
Here you see the largest rust hole on the car. My friend named it The Kraken, and to be honest - it deserves the nickname. I'll save this one for last, definitely. I'll have to remove the gas fill pipe and the breather tank to get a good view of it, hopefully it's fixable.
Got both these holes welded, now I'll need to weld some reinforcement to the seat mount on the underside, then I'll patch up what's left and fill it with tectyl oil on the inside and tectyl on the outside.
Also welded this quickly last night.
Update 5:
Got a few things done since last time, you'll have to see for yourself.
Old vs new sway bar bushings.
Old vs new sway bar end-link.
Pulled the trailing arm of my E36 to "borrow" a ball joint, but obviously that one was busted too. Ordered a new one immediately.
Primed the dust shields.
New trailing arm bushing.
Struts almost complete, just lacking the dampers.
Haha, crappy rear dampers exchanged with some good condition Bilsteins. New tower bearings will be inserted.
Wooh, it's a miracle. It's finally done. Must say that took some time, but not half as much as I expected. Spent some welding gas and thread though.
And voila, primed it too.
Painted the headlight rings black.
Sway bar finally mounted again, man that was a pain in the ass to get up there with new bushings. That piece of crap stock holder was so rusty it bent too easily, so once I got it locked in position it snapped right out again. Now it sits nicely though, after some jacking and hammering.
New inner tie rod and end will be mounted soon. Seems as almost all ball joints were rusted on this car, sweet deal! Some rusty pictures.
Update 6:
The rear axle is hanging by the differential bushing alone now because I decided I'd bore the reserve wheel well out, since it's of no use to me, plus more space underneath the car = Win in every scenario. I'll replace it with an aluminium plate or a sheeth metal plate with some reinforcements.
Exhaust pulled out, ugh, how dirty.
This is the reason I had to pull the rear axle down. Rusty piece of shit, here I was welding the so to speak last rust hole I had left, and then this one showed up. Good job ruining a perfect streak.
From down under. I just touched it and it crumbled into pieces of rusty dust.
The more I searched, the more I found...
Yay...
Wow, this was a lot bigger than expected. This should be fun!
Update 7:
Got some small shit done today too.
Interior carpet getting cleaned before it's put back in.
Removed. Bye, useless metal.
Some holes waiting for some filler and paint.
Dirty rear axle. Washed it to remove all the sand, then I'll grind it down tomorrow. All the bushings looks intact except from the differential one, so I'll use the lathe again and make up 10 bushings in nylon, so I have some backup/sell some.
Put the dashboard and carpet back in, plus wired all of the electrics. I've always heard this is such a hard and time consuming job, but it was a breeze when I found the correct entry angle for the dash.
I hate this particular hole.
Got the rest of the interior in today, I'll mount the seats and put the carpet lists on after I've filled the sides with tectyl oil.
Mounted the front fenders, the inner plastic houses, the front bumper and the complete tie rod. Also put some tectyl on the left wheel house.
Over and out for now, Rust Garage.
I ordered new e-brake wires, new brake hoses for the rear, some new parts for the front struts and some small bits and pieces. Also picked up the fender flares today, of course I forgot to take a picture. 
