E30 Zone

Anyone who has seen the external advert thread will be familiar with the car and how it came about but for anyone else in a nut shell...

1. Link to a satin black drift spec Y plate chromie linked in the section
2. Everybody says what a shame
3. Some educated zoners realise this is a bracknell car
4. I contact seller with a view to purchase
5. Dealer check by another zoner reveals this to be one of the first 50 323i Henna red Cars!
6. I lost out on the sale, car is sold before I can get there
7. A zone trader/fragger sees the thread and offers the turd back to me
8. I buy the turd


Here it is sports fans:






Then I had a scout round it for defects, damage and general unpleasantries, it is 30 years old and isn’t Henna red anymore so I wasn’t expecting anything other than disappointment. Other than obvious ”apaint job”a here are a few of the battle scars...

No fogs and bashed front valance


Bleb below windscreen


Back end of O/S cill section


Obligatory rear arch fail


Piece of the rear valance missing.....


N/S Rear arch


Inner arches



Rear O/S Floor pan has a random hole?


Previous repair work to front pad areas


Crap photo of drivers side, but it is pretty much the same as the other side


It also has some crust on the rear number plate lights and boot seal areas, and a welded small case diff so the original 3.23 medium case is ”˜MIA’

ANYWAY Enough negatives!!

On the whole, it is more than saveable! We started first off to see if the satin black rattle can drift-spec paintwork would come off with some thinners....





^^ Ignore the mess, it isn’t my yard and it was only shadey area today!


All of a sudden, we were starting to see a different car before us



The chrome is still there and underneath and although 30 years old it’s better than I expected!

Both bumpers need replacing though long term as neither is straight

Oh and the roof and A and C pillars are solid black, a proper paint effort so some D.A action required there. The bonnet and bootlid have had most of the Henna paintwork sanded down so we didn’t go too mad there as it will just rust (and we don’t want that!)

Onto the boot area, this is pretty impressive actually!






It has spax suspension which is fairly new, though I fear this may well be ditched for the sake of originality



Kidney grill was black and damaged so I lobbed a decent chrome one in



Toolkit in, with genuine locking wheel bolt key (and a spare), also got a complete set of good boot carpets and consoles, I just couldn’t be arsed to fit them I was getting hungry!


Got it in for a wheel swap....


And it looks a bit different already!






Anyway, it was too nice not to take up an offer of BBQ food so at that point I downed tools and farked off home.

Still plenty to do but, yeah you get the picture.

Quality!

Whats so good about matt black with these drift mugs?

Looking forward to the progress of this important car.

Hoorah

Thats actually not too bad by the look of things.

Whats the next plan of action? strip it completely and assess the true extend of whats needed?

Great to see another one saved. looking forward to more updates.

B7 wrote:Thats actually not too bad by the look of things.

Whats the next plan of action? strip it completely and assess the true extend of whats needed?

Well we were looking round it today, and it definately needs a fair bit of welding up so we will concentrate on that and go from there I think.

The rear arch (outer wheelhouse) is depressing me a bit

If anyone spots any parts that they can sell me please shout up.

What is going on with that rear wing Ferg? Looks like someone has stuck half a CD in there to cover a hole?

DanThe wrote:What is going on with that rear wing Ferg? Looks like someone has stuck half a CD in there to cover a hole?

It's just sik design skilz innit

In-d-a-vidualizm innit

you sir are a glutton for punishment ,best of luck with it though

who was the fragger that bought it and sold it to you then ?

It was bmw-mad

Showing alot of promise already.

Good stuff.

Forgot to mention it runs well, has extensive history to just about back up the 90k on the clock, a crack free dash and most of the HLWW system and I stuck an unused bottletop with brand new tyre in the boot well

Body work first though, my bro says it is windows out to paint it

Only done 90k?

It was a good couple of hours today! LOVED that pokemon ball on the drivers side quarter panel very clever skillz with a cd bruv. Drift-cark spec Matt black is because it's cheap, easy, effortless and makes it look 'stealth' but after 45 mins I have to say it looked better henna red in so many ways. I can't believe how tidy the boot is inside! There's a bit of bodywork to get stuck in with but we will get it all done and hopefully hit the thing red as soon as possible. Great project to be involved with. I think i know where my summer is going now! Maybe this car will be a magazine feature in quite a few different reads by the end of the project. This one is easy to restore you guys are going to love it

bss325i wrote:Only done 90k?

90100 miles on the clocks

Get stuck in

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/bmw-e30-diffe ... 0714619025

Not mine but is it the right spec for your diff

Yeah looks to be but a bit far for collection only

I can get a temporary 3.46 off Kedge for now along with an exhaust as it only has half a system

Nice work Ferg

Cheers Rob

Thought I would quote this from Barry off the other thread as it has the spec it left the factory with

bss325i wrote:THE PLOT THICKENS.

It's original reg was 8288 OI, chassis no 7544046

Built december 1982 week 49, registered 09/02/1983

Original selling dealer Sytner Sunningdale (would have been different dealer name back then)

Original spec,

Henna red with anthracite cloth
Central locking
Rear headrests
Brown tint glass
Electric windows
Headlight wash wipe
Sport steering wheel
Power steering
Alloy wheels
Electric sunroof

/\/\/\/\ Nice spec.

So whats your plan ?

I reckon youll struggle to get some early anthracite comfort seats now - maybe sell the buckets to put towards some anthracite cloth highbacks ?

Spax suspension is hopeless for road use - too bloody hard - again sell it to some diffcock and get some proper stuff in there

PM on way

I love henna chromies!!!

I wanted one when I found mine. If one came up I'd have to have it!

capri_rob wrote:
I reckon youll struggle to get some early anthracite comfort seats now

You would think so wouldn't you

I'm really pleased this one has been saved. Its details are now in the 323i Register, although I won't add any of these revolting pics; I'll wait until it's had a respray

Good work

Are the door cards Sweep currently has in the for sale section not correct for this??

Windows out is the only way.

What a result!! Now the Henna is visible and it's on bottletops, it doesn't seem such a daunting task! You must be rather pleased knowing what you have in your possession

Duke137 wrote:

capri_rob wrote:
I reckon youll struggle to get some early anthracite comfort seats now

You would think so wouldn't you

With rear headrests on the spec list too remember Fergal Sharkie

Has it already got it's brown tint glass Looking at the photos I think so

B7 wrote:Are the door cards Sweep currently has in the for sale section not correct for this??

Windows out is the only way.

Yes, they are my old ones...Shame because we stripped the mechs of a correct interior aswell - it only had 36k on it and we couldn't give it away at the time. You will need specific early rear benches, they are shallower and have different bracketry, so later interiors will require slight modificaton for the rears.

There are a few oddities with the really early cars, if you want to run the two piece front valance and retain fog lights you will need, buckets/brackets which plug into the tray above and hang down into the recess in the valance.

I'd put black comfort leatherz in. Would look spectacular with the bronze glass.

is the lowering set up for sale if so what size are the front legs

jlb wrote:

B7 wrote:Are the door cards Sweep currently has in the for sale section not correct for this??

Windows out is the only way.

Yes, they are my old ones...Shame because we stripped the mechs of a correct interior aswell - it only had 36k on it and we couldn't give it away at the time. You will need specific early rear benches, they are shallower and have different later one will require slight modificaton.

There are a few oddities with the really early cars, if you want to run the two piece front valance and retain fog lights you will need, buckets/brackets which plug into the tray above and hang down into the recess in the valance.

Thanks for the info, do you have a spare valance/fogs?

Ironically I sent an A1 early valance to the bridge