E30 Zone

As some of you may know back in may i bought the red S50 touring built by Dameon (old_skool) pretty much as soon as it came up for sale.
Here's the build thread for the car.

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... 38&start=0

Here's some pics of the complete car when it was featured in BMWcar magazine along with Ste's black M52 touring and ian332isport's black S50 tech 2 sport.







Some of you will also know that my intention all along was re-shell the touring into a 2dr shell as i'm not a big fan of tourings so what i saw when this came up for sale was the ideal parts donor for an S50 project which is something i had wanted to do for some time.
When i spoke to people about my intentions most people assumed that i was going to transfer all the mechanicals into my tech 2 sport. There was no way in hell i was going to mollest my 50000 mile sport with all the stuff that goes into such a conversion so the hunt was on for a suitable 2dr car/shell.

After a brief search on autotrader and ebay a red 318i lux turned up localy on autotrader for a reasonable price so i contacted the seller who turned out to be a car trader. This put me off a little but after a brief chat about the car and as it was fairly local i thought i'd take a look any way. Before i went to look at the car i explained to the seller that the most important thing was the condition of the shell and that i wanted to remove cetain parts of trim for inspection and to jack the car up for the same reason. He had no problem with this so we arranged to meet. On inspection of the car in all the usuall places it turned out to be completely rot free in all areas bar one, the o/s door on the inside where the skin meets the frame. The car has had only 2 owners, full history old MOT's and has been garaged all its life with the previous owner part exchanging it for a newer car from the trader now selling it. Needless to say a deal was struck and i collected a couple of weeks later.

Here it is.





In the time between viewing the 318i and collecting it i traveled up to Gloucester to collect the touring from Dameon and got to enjoy a very brisk journey back down south pondering where, when and what i was going to do about the re-shell. As i was i no rush to get on with the project and what with an impending trip the Ring in june i though this along with daily use would be the ideal shake down and test of reliabilty as Dameon had only done about 1500 all be it faltless miles in the car.
One thing that was urgently needed was bigger brakes as this was the next thing that Dameon was going to do before deciding to sell.
I ended up going for a Willwood 310mm 2 piece disc and 4 pot caliper set up which i had a few issues with when fitting due to slightly incorrect machinng of the brackets but this was resolved.





The car behaved without problem on the trip which included 12 laps and got me, oguz327 and Ant there and back in air con'ed comfort with out a hitch. Daily use followed up until august with me adding another 3500 miles with out any problems.

Here's a few pics of the ring trip.









What with The Ultimate BMW show at Santa Pod looming and as the the touring had to be striped to remove the wiring loom amongst other things i thought it would be an ideal opertunity to loose some weight for a good time up the strip! Everything was removed from inside the car from the roof to the floor with only the front seats and dashboard minus the the glovebox and drivers knee roll trim remaining. I managed a 13.6 best but this was with plenty of wheels spin probably not helped by the lack of weight over the rear wheels!

A few from Santa Pod.















So after finishing in a blaze of glory, the touring will be no more as of next week!

Time for a new chapter!

Nice one, I'd say too bad about the touring dynasty ending but it doesn't effect me at all, it's your car! Good luck with the build!

The start of another great thread. Sad to see Dameons beast unwrapped, but also interested to see a new build thread Is the 2 door staying Red sir?

Everyone knows 2dr`s are better than tourings anyway

Good luck with the reshell mate,look forward to seeing plenty of progress pics

Well you'd better do a good job of this, hadn't you!

Jon_Bmw wrote:The start of another great thread. Sad to see Dameons beast unwrapped, but also interested to see a new build thread Is the 2 door staying Red sir?

My original intention was to change the colour to schwartz black and go for a retrim in cardinal/ox blood leather but i have a black 2dr e30 allready and red is now growing on me.

bss325i wrote: My original intention was to change the colour to schwartz black and go for a retrim in cardinal/ox blood leather but i have a black 2dr e30 allready and red is now growing on me.

The best colour combo (if only I could justify a respray...!). Red with cream leather's not a bad alternative though.

I sometimes lust over a red car, not neccessarily an e30. Some cars just pull it off really really well. Then I remind myself I don't get any enjoyment out of cleaning/polishing/detailing. Knowing you, this is going to be a good thread with some pretty damn high standards. Bring on the 30 page zone gold like Si's pina thread, oh and haps pina one!

Ok, so on saturday i finished stripping the 2dr car of its engine, box, prop, diff and exhaust. The interior, dash, engine bay and complete car wiring loom was stripped the previous week in break times at work with very little of the 318i is being used but all of the switches, dash board parts, screws, nuts and bolts are always good to have as spares.
With the car stripped this much its is a good chance to inspect the rust hot spots thoroughly and wax oil to prevent the dreaded tin worm eating away at the shell. Here's some pics of the common areas that rust.

This is the O/S/R inner wheel arch which is completely rot free. The fuel filler kneck cover will be removed, sand blasted and painted. All of the inner wheel arches are in the same condition. One thing that is confusing me is that all of the wheel arches have been painted black which looks factory but i was always under the impression that inside the wheel arches were body colour overspray. One thing that make me think that this may have been something done on later cars is a pic of an M3 that Tim (e30bmlover) took at the BMW museum in Munich which had black inner wheel arches on a red car. Who knows.









The square shell transportation pads are both rot free and intact along with both sills.





Inside the boot both of the inner arches and wells are rot free.









Inner arches behind the trim panels inside the passenger compartment.









The battery tray and fuse box areas are both tidy.





As are the rest of the inner wings.







And also very importantly, inside the roof. A very common but often forgotten place where rust can easily form due to the lack of any protection.





With the use of the workshop for a week today i began transfering all of the parts to be used in the 2dr car. The quickest way to remove and install the engine, box, front suspension and steering is to drop it all out in one complete unit. The trickiest part whe doing this refitting the steeing coupling as space is very tight in this area due to the BTB manifold and E36 steering rack.













Dashboard and part of the wiring loom removed. The A/C set up is to be transfered as well.



Both cars after the engine and front suspension assembly has been fitted to the 2dr car.





The exhaust and diff have also been removed from the touring and the rear brakes and ABS sensors have been disconected ready for the rear axel to be removed and swaped over tomorrow along with new bushes in the beam and trailing arms.

cant belive how clean that shell is!! you lucky git!!
gonna be a very nice ride!!

nice find every 2 door i look at has major holes or isopon by the shovel full

Great project Looks like it will make an awesome car

why can i never find a shell like that

Nice move Barry, thats gonna be one sweet 2dr once it's finished!!

Nice progress Barry

Excellent Barry. You don't hang around do you mate. Keep the info coming and Bagsy the first run out!

Talk about making it look simple!!!

This may be silly a question, but what was wrong with the touring shell?
Or is it just the want for a 2 door?

comming along nicely, the shell of that 318i looks mint

Dan325iSport wrote:This may be silly a question, but what was wrong with the touring shell?
Or is it just the want for a 2 door?

Our barry don't do Tourings.

i look forward to seeing this one finished

B7 wrote:

Dan325iSport wrote:This may be silly a question, but what was wrong with the touring shell?
Or is it just the want for a 2 door?

Our barry don't do Tourings.

Ok, just sounds like alot of work just to reduce the amount of doors lol

u aint messing about r ya, looks cracking barry

Looks to be a good find Barry, Im looking forward to seeing the end result

Who will win you or Simon?

Excellent stuff Barry, what other Hartge goodies are you bolting on, if any.

Another proper car in the making

spook wrote:Excellent stuff Barry, what other Hartge goodies are you bolting on, if any.

Another proper car in the making

A full facelift Hartge bodykit and the 17" split rim Hartge's i have.

Thanks for the comments guys. Got some more done today, complete car wiring loom installed, full Air con system transfered over along with other bits and pieces.

Rear axel, dashboard and other stuff tomorrow.

Will this car be ready for Hindhead, i hope so

spook wrote:Will this car be ready for Hindhead, i hope so

It will be running but the split rims and body kit wont be on till after christmas. I'll be at Hindhead in the sport.

Right, lots more progress has been made so i should be on course to have it running by tomorrow.

Yesterday the wiring loom, most of the dash, carpet and the bulk of the air con system was installed along with the coolant rad and oil cooler. The VAG brake sevro and master cylinder assembly was also fitted after carrying out the bulkhead mod by cutting the hole a further 44mm away from the engine using the stainless plates that Dameon used in the original conversion on the touring.

The main wiring loom layed out prior to instalation.



The loom and carpet installed.



Air con being gased after being installed using new O-rings for all connections.



The VAG (Golf mk2 1.3 servo and Audi 25mm master cylinder) brake assembly installed in the relocated possition.



The dash partly installed.





Today i concentrated on the rear of the car. The complete drum braked rear suspension was removed from the 2dr and transfered onto the touring shell to keep it mobile which left me with a completely striped rear end. Along with transfering the disc braked rear suspension, now was the ideal time to replace the rear axel and trailing arm bushes as the looked to be pretty old and knackered. I purchased the rear axel bush remove/install tool some time ago and although expensive i kind of figured that i would be doing this job quite a few times in the future, this is the second E30 i've used it on and its compatible with E24's, E28's, E30's,E32's and E34's.



The old axel bush being removed.



The new one being installed.



New brake T piece, pipes and goodridge hoses.



Rear suspension comprising of H&R 35mm springs, H&R adjustable anti roll bar and Bilstein B8 shocks.



Complete rear suspension along with the Z3M 3.15 LSD



Untill next time.

Loving it Barry,keep up the good work

You're really not pussyfooting about with this are you? Love it

no fuck!ing about here, i see you got the beam off after our chat! Good man

It bloody pains me to see that aircon being gassed up and onto it's third car now!

Awesome rebuild!!!!

Yes Mr13 knocking the studs back up into the body helped imensely. The last time i did axel bushed on an E30 it was done with the beam in situ and without knocking the studs up into the body. It was hell!

Guys, E30's are a joy to work on compared to new Renault dog sh!t!

Very cool Barry!!

Is kinda sad to see the Touring being gutted, but the new shell will be a chariot!!