E30 Zone

As if I wasn't a big enough mug owning one money pit.... I mean Sport, I went and bought another one. Since my first one is under going the slowest resto and engine build known to man or beast I had to get something to get my e30 driving fix.

Some will know her, some won't. To those older zoners my signature contains a small clue! Thanks go to Adam for finally letting go of the keys and Ziggy for driving me to Poole to collect her.

Here she is as I bought her, on the 17" pina reps that were sold within 7 days of collection and sat at the Monsport meet, her not so successful first outing. I guess I had to expect that the battery would be completelty dead after only doing 15 or so miles last year.







So after a proper going over and new battery, water pump, cam belt, fan belt, pas belt, fuel filter, oil filter, oil, G12 coolant, rotor arm, distributor, plugs, wheel bolts, UK legal pressed plates, and plate surrounds as well as a lime magic tree she was almost ready. As I mentioned I sold the old 17" wheels to Felix so the summer set went on and the winter set went on the resto.

I then got down to giving her a scrub, Zaino wash, coat of Z aio, Z2 polish sealed with Zaino clear seal and dressed the tyres and wheels and polished the glass. I cleaned and fed the interior leather and hoovered her out. Its not beading as much as I like but I'm having aproper detail done by a pro in a couple weeks so don't want to layer on too much crap for his sake!










Front stone chips and scuff on the rear wing will be sorted by the pros and then its time to enjoy the 2.8L M20 under the hood properly. For comparison heres my other sport:





Its generally in much worse condition although it doesn't look it. I may even consider parting with it I don't think I can justify owning two for very long.

I'll try keep this thread updated if I do many mods but at this time theres not much I can do that hasn't been done, I'll post pictures of the detail when its done though. Should be interesting to post pics of the problems before and after some treatment.

Liking those plates & the stolen sig! Smoked indicators needed...

two sports, you greedy man

i nearly did the same thing during my restoration, would have stopped work dead in its tracks so its probably a good job i didnt.

whats the 2.8 feel like? ive got one for my sport but it feels a bit slow on the engine stand,lol. must get round to putting it in, its a very expensive paperweight as it stands.

beardymat wrote:two sports, you greedy man

i nearly did the same thing during my restoration, would have stopped work dead in its tracks so its probably a good job i didnt.

That wouldn't have been Howard's damaged sport by any chance

March, you are a greedy man

Funny that I have a set of smoked indicators ready to go on and some other goodies I should have mentioned in the post, I won't reveal all my secrets but:





Ziggy you have PM too.

The 2.8 goes well enough, bizarly the 17" wheels and crap tyres gave better grip than the toyos on the 15"s, since I changed wheels the back end is letting go even on relativly sedate starts, looks good at the lights though!

The 2.8 is strangled by the log manifold though I reckon I will find another 30bhp with my RD manifold and a proper remap, Adam was maticulous with the history and on one RR it made 220ish before it went back to the log manifold, but this was to fit in a e36 steering rack. In its current configuration its making 205bhp with similar torques ish. Given what I've been told I'm not 100% happy with the remapping work carried out by a so called specialist and I'm already looking at alternatives, have been picking poeples brains left and right.. Thanks btw Simon, Oguz, Dips and Kos.

What I'm thinking of doing is welding a new mount for the steering rack so I can fit in the Racing Dynamics 6 branch and downpipes on and then having new generation management fitted with a proper map.

im currently running a btb on my 2.5 so this will go on the 2.8, got an e36 rack to play about with too and was thinking of doing the same by moving the mounting points, been told 10mm should do it and i reckon you could safely get the rack centralised again with the adjustment of the track rods or at least close, not sure what effect it will have on the geometry with one long rod and one short one but it is only 10mm and im not sure you would notice it on the road. That does make the difference 20mm though

Gareth word of warning, Adam used to own my RD manifold and it just wouldn't fit with the E36 rack

I know he's run me through that, thats why as Mat said I'm hoping moving the rack 10mm will help. If not the rack is coming out, given the choice of e36 rack or RD manifold, I would go with the manifold EVERY day of the week.

I won't bother grinding the old mounts off either, that way I can switch back easily if need be at a later date. Just hoping it will work, getting decent fabricators round here is a PITA though, no one ewants to do non standard work so I guess itsback to college for me.

I just detailed the car again, another wash and wax. Dressed the rubber bonnet seals, door seals and dash polished two more alloys too (they take an hour a piece!). I'm getting stupidly anal now and need a beer or two to settle.

Just wait Simon you'll be a two bucket polish bufty when you get the 'Pina back!

i know it will be a sad day of gimpness

You have to leave the scorpion on with the RD fannymould the noise is sublime. Best M20 noise ever, period in yank speak

Scorpion system and RD fannymould will be engaged at full chat on my car sometime soon. Heres some bufty beadage for you taken 30 mins ago after todays shine to wet your appetite.

homo, did you take the badge off and clean behind there? dirt builds quickly here! lol

Blimmin 2 bucket wierdos...

No but got a cotton wool bud impregnated with neat cleaner and got it in the groove around the badge! Then did the same with polish and wax too.

Amazing what you can clean with a cotton bud, when its light tomorrow I'll get a pic of the newly polished "325i" badge at the rear too.

Ahhh crap I'm a homo!!!

Nice tight beading there Gareth, What was the product of choice?

Smoked indicators look best on Delphin grey imo.

(Si, Even I don't remove badges to clean! )

You say 'Adam', is that 'e30adam'? I didnt think he would sell that.

Great car, lucky you having two sports. Swap all the good bits onto one!

You blimmin tarts. I do need to order some new wax, but I refuse to believe that 2 buckets are needed!

march109 wrote: Amazing what you can clean with a cotton bud, when its light tomorrow I'll get a pic of the newly polished "325i" badge at the rear too.

That reminds me - I really need to decide what badge to put on mine! 318i / 325i / 335i...

D6DPH wrote: Nice tight beading there Gareth, What was the product of choice?

Smoked indicators look best on Delphin grey imo.

(Si, Even I don't remove badges to clean! )

That was Zaino wash (two bucket method), Z aio (clenser, polish and protectant), Z5 show polish (which is a protectant really) then Zaino CS (clear seal). Could have gone further but I was running out of daylight. Looks damn good and I'm very impressed.

bmwe30mtech wrote:You say 'Adam', is that 'e30adam'? I didnt think he would sell that.

Great car, lucky you having two sports. Swap all the good bits onto one!

Yup E30Adam, and I didn't think he would sell it either, it wasn't even for sale.

Two buckets are essential Jon. Even after foaming I use two buckets.

But let's not turn this into a detailing geekfest

Nice choice on the Z products Gareth, I will be trying them next year I think.

Geekfest almost over, Dave even though Zaino isn't the cheapest it is the best IMO for the home detailer. Certainly better than turtle wax or Meguirs and excellent results too.

meguires is ok though no? i've always used this in the past when i had an E30 worthy of such cleaning being my old sport 3 odd years ago

A hose does the job...
What other Waxes have you tried Gareth? I was planning on getting zaio & some Collinite 476S, but have only really used megs stuff in the past, so nowt much to compare to!


How miles have the Toyos done btw? Might just find they're too new to grip well...

I'm currently using Meguiars shampoo plus, Swissvax Onyx and Blackfire tyre shine amongst many other bits. I don't think I really stick to one range now. I really need to throw out a lot of the stuff I don't use tbh.

Looks great with the different rims Gareth- v.nice Sport you have there. One day I really will do something with mine!! Oh yeah don't remember a red cool box on the roof of my car (pic from Monsport)? Surely as a DSLR owner/user you would have noticed that

Simon please megs is ok for a Ford but if you put it on the Alpina then you don't deserve her. It just doesn't cut the mustard when you want to do a proper quality job. Zaino isn't really expensive but it isn't cheap either, you get what you pay for. And it is the closest finish you'll get to the pros at home. Expect it to take you a good 4 hours just to do the car though before interior, glass, wheels and engine bay.

I recommend:
http://www.pro-detailing.co.uk/index.php?p=35&c=22 or
http://www.pro-detailing.co.uk/index.php?p=36&c=22

The second kit will do everything you need including leather interior but not necesary if you have a cloth interior. The first kit is just for paintwork and glass. The supplier is top notch too I've always been very happy with them. Both kits should last for at least 25-30 washes too so works out about £3.50 in material per wash.

Ziggy wrote:A hose does the job...
What other Waxes have you tried Gareth? I was planning on getting zaio & some Collinite 476S, but have only really used megs stuff in the past, so nowt much to compare to!


How miles have the Toyos done btw? Might just find they're too new to grip well...

Bring the car round one day and you can try out the zaino stuff, I think you'll be plesantly surprised.

I've used Turtle wax (not on the e30!), Meguirs, Bilt Hamber, Auto Glym, and I have a sonus PC with sonus polishes and pads.

I still use the megs metal polish and auto glym tyre dress and turtle wax black rubber gel but those are the only products I mix and match, prefer to keep the paint work products from the same range, I expect they work better together as they are developed for use together.

Going to give swiss vax a go some day soon and dodo stuff but I'm so happy with Zaino I don't know if its worth shelling out more dollar for other stuff when I'm happy with the result now.

As I said I've booked for a pro to come to me and do paint correction soon so will pick his brains too.

Toyos have less than 150 miles on so may well be the case.

suchy wrote:Looks great with the different rims Gareth- v.nice Sport you have there. One day I really will do something with mine!! Oh yeah don't remember a red cool box on the roof of my car (pic from Monsport)? Surely as a DSLR owner/user you would have noticed that

Think its a biffa bin, it adds colour.

The Pinas look awsome on my cab now thanks to Gareth <3

A wee update, I'm finally moving home

However I only now have off road parking for two cars at the new place .

The daily driver is staying and so is the 2.8 sport, so I will be refitting the interior on the other, putting it back to standard and getting the sill welded up. I will then consider selling it with no MOT and no TAX or MOT it and add a premium on top.

I will service it before I sell it, stick new tyres on the front and rotate the fronts to the rear, new tech 2 wheel, and fit a stereo and new ISO wiring. I'm thinking if a fair price of £2250 with it all put right and an MOT on it. But I'd take much less if someone wanted to finish the work themselves.

Those that know me will be shocked when they see the state of it now, but no surprises when they see the finished article!

Stay posted because tomorrow I'm posting the disgusting before pictures.

The two bucket bufty in me will finally be satisfied with hours of labour.

Just come in from work so excuse my lateness!! Reference 6 branch and E36 manifold...seem to remember that Iain Temple managed to fit both successfully,but obtained more steering lock in one direction,so it can be done.. keep polishing the turd,it will look good one day...

Very nice.

Although I don't think the wheels suit the car, I guess I could take them off your hands just to help you out

Shocking state of affairs.


There will be more photos later. I'm cleaning her now!

Jobs to do today:
Clean
I've sent the valence off for a respray so it needs refitting when it comes back. & new fogs to go on.
Put standard lights back on all round and new rearboot seals
Refit German plates
Refit Front passenger side grill
Refit Interior after a hoover
Refit Spoiler with new BMW bolts and stuff
Oh and fix the dent in the drivers door, (paintless dent removal anyone!)

then NEW Photos and see where I've got too.

Good things discovered that make me happy:
no scuttle rust. Hopefully I can expand on that list by this evening.

Bad things that make me sad:
paint bubbling below the rear light, interior is filthy, exterior is filthy, some twonk has put a small dent in the drivers door (whilst the car was on my drive!).

So as I was giving the (what do I call it?) Nail (thanks to Si13 for the name!) a wash. I was greeted by a grumpy arse delivery driver informing me I have a crumpled boxon the back of his wagon.



When I saw the state of the box, I almost wept I could tell what it was right away and the box looked like it had gone ten rounds with Tyson, so I refused to sign for it until I had checked for damages (ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS!) Thankfully I also put it on my Visa, which should the worst happen covers me for purchases over £100 and I knew it was sent fully insured too.

Anyway I'll review the product in a minute, I'll let the pictures do the talking for the minute.

WARNING The following pictures may make you horny.

Carbon Fibre Porn:










Anyway I'm 99% happy with it (which is very good for me!), but then I'm anal (really anal!). It has some dust on it and a few blemishes that are only visable under bright light (like halogens), Did I mention I'm anal? However nothing my porter cable and a mild cut can't sort. The weave is perfect all over the bonnet though and thats what matters since that I can't sort out.

Packing was a little iffy, but then I didn't have to collect and it arrived within 3 days which was nice. Only the box was damaged and thats what its there for right? Inside it was wrapped in foam AND bubble wrap, and then packed in styrofoam and then boxed.

It had been knocked off the pallet by a fork lift apparently though , but again I can't reiterate how happy I am with the condition upon arrival once I opened the box and considering the state of the box.

Problem is now I want to put it on my bed and wrap it in my duvet so I don't damage it, I certainly don't want to fit it! It would get ruined, so bonnet bra even though they are gay will have to be ordered, as will a new bonnet BMW badge as I can't have a secondhand one on such a work of art, and I may get my painter to layer on ALOT more laquer too, that way as it gets road rash I have plenty of sacrificail layers to wet sand and polish off.

10/10 thanks Demlot.

Straighten up that exhaust with an auld jubilee...