E30 Zone

My first car was a Vauxhall Astra 1.4 Estate (Auto) 2nd car a VW Golf 1.6CL Hatch and now my cherished BMW E30 325iSE Saloon

Back February time I got a text from a mate saying he had just got a BMW and did I want to come down take a look? I have loved BMW's since my dad got his first one, an E46 318i since then I have just had to have my own. Popping over it was up on the ramps prop hanging no clutch in need of some work. (some pics show it on the feild after the work was done)

The body had minor imperfections, sunroof had to go in time rusted on edges let alone the mounting bolts, rust on rear around N/S rear light and general wearing around door edges/ bonnet edge etc

This is the first day I went to view!















So this is what I saw, after the new clutch was fitted it went in for MOT and failed on things like headlamp level, brake pipes and emissions no big deal and flyed through 2nd time round, I ended up paying £850 including 12 months MOT I didnt think this was too bad seeing as it was an almost rust free example.

I joined the Zone the same day I got the car on my drive (30th March) and started looking at other members cars and ideas they have had themselfs. I set out to try and keep the car as original as I could but with the little tweaks added

Dye the carpets
Fit full leather interior
Smiley lights
BBS wheels (off with the 17's)
Crome the grill
Get back those dasterly headlamp washers
Colour code the mirrors
Sort that horrific wiring
And finally sort out those bloody chopped springs!

will contine progress sortly coffee break!!

Ok so short and sweet I havent taken a lot of pictures of the repairs (oops) but I have got the 2 major ones (if you can call them major) Shortly after getting the car it started blowing real bad! I found out why



Tapped down the split and spot welded the ends of seach crack with the MIG then welded a plate over the top for added strength good as new!!



And before you say why is he painting over durt, well not really I cleaned the area I wanted to paint then masked off the rest, filled, sanded primered and painted the rust away wihich was really the only bit I could find for the moment.

Exterior

OK so this is the car on my drive before I made any changes (freshly cleaned)





Now before I bore you with hundreds of pics im going to jump straight to where I am today with the car exterior wise:

Fitted the simleys
Headlamp washers
New GB plates
Removed chopped springs 40mm now in front standard in rear (belive it or not)
Standard side repeaters
BBS 14â€a replacing the Fox 17's
Colour coded mirrors









Interior

For the interior I have replaced the gear knob, and gaiter
Uderdash trim (thanks dobbie)
Fitted rear leather bench
Front black vynl door cards
New centre console (old once had cutout)
Dyed carpets black (best mod ever)
fitted BMW sport seats front (covered untill sourced leathers)

Awaiting: front leather seats and rear black door cards (on the way from SPADGE)







z

looks nice mate.

looks much better than before.

Ok guys so what do you think, I know you wont like the seat covers im waiting on some front leathers comfort or sport and the rear vynl door cards are on delivery from SPADGE to match the front but besides that I think that will be it.

I know most of you guys n girls will perfer the 2 door I agree but im happy with the 4 door for the moment.

Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas on any little tweaks or gadgets thats would go in nicely without standing out too much?

Cheers

Fair play to you , its looking %100 better now.

Thanks guys for the comments

StuBeeDoo wrote:Nice to see an E30 being rescued. Too many are being broken these days.

I know what you mean, theirs nothing more I enjoy then buying a car and fixing the little niggles on them like the body/ rust/ electrics etc its a challenge and its nice to look back on what you've done!!

Nice mate, my old 14" BBS look spot so much better than those 17" wheels. I don't know why I sold them really as they were a great set! Unlike my curbed 15s.

100 times better than before, well done.

//Power badge is shocking..

But car is getting there.. BBS' look loads better than the Fox shitness

Fair play to you mate.Youve transformed what was basically a pile of crap into a good usable car.Id be the first one to say break it but loos like theres loads of life left in it now
Could colour code the bumpers and fit some SE sideskirts,they would transform it.Oh and may aswell dechrome it and get an iS front bib to go with your Mtec1 rear

As above....boot badge lets it down

cheers for the ideas guys, I knew that was comming with the badge just waiting for the 325 badge to replace it with (uh-oh)

your badge will be posted dude, had an hectic weekend

spook wrote:your badge will be posted dude, had an hectic weekend

ahh cheers spook to be hunest I couldnt quite put my finger on who said they had one spare as i deleted my PM's the other day. Cheers bud!