E30 Zone

Hi,

Recently purchased a 325i sport in need of some TLC, i only have one pic as per below of the exterior but will sort that soon...i have started rust treatment as per below photo's and will keep updating with my progress

Picking it up:


Removing interior to start rust treatment:






Rust hole where water is getting in:



I have had some good information from Brianmoooore and The_Diddler on where i should be checking for rust issues and will start cleaning and treating any surface rust i find. What i have found so far is the surface rust on the rear inner arches which seem to have been treated previously, inside the boot is clean and solid apart from just above the passenger rear light there is a small rust hole no bigger that a 5p piece thoat should be easy to fix and i'll need to clean up the hole under the glovebox to see how bad the rust is.


There is also a drivetrain/diff noise i need to investigate. The noise experienced is a clunking noise once the car is warm, this noise only seems to occur when going at slow speeds in first and second gear when coming on or of the throttle, crawling at slow speeds or pulling away....almost as if you can here the diff engage/disengage. I ahev already posted about this and have some suggestions to check the bolts on the diff and backing plate, drivetrain, gearbox guibo and oil which i will be doing as soon as i can get the car up the air

There is also a small knock coming when turning the steering at crawling speeds and i can see a small amout of steering fluid leaking but i've yet to investigate further.

I dont have many plans for the car at the moment but i'm not keen on the alloys, i have an e21 too...i may take the 15" Mahles off it and see what they look like on

I have a mild chip on the way from Speedtouch and looking forward to getting this installed.

Any advice/comments welcome and i will be posting more pics as i work through all the issues

They wont be surface rust. Poke it with a screwdriver and they will be massive holes.

white sports are pretty rare,a good white sort is even rarer .

best of luck,subscribed .

sleepy wrote:

Please tell me that isn't expanding foam i can see here

Good luck with your project, couls have the makings of a nice car, when the issues are sorted, you will find this place full of the right kind of advise you will need.

looks like expanding foam to me

Looks nice also looks like you have alot of welding ahead of you.

Stab any brown bits with a screw driver ,better to find them now.
I'd get the kit off it aswell to see what its hiding.

How easy is it to get the kit off? Just going to buy wire brush attachment for drill and will get started cleaning this all up to see what rot i'm left with

Yes it is expanding foam, noticed a few other funny fixes around the car that i will post up too

sleepy wrote:

I thought i'd seen it all, till now,

hope you bought it at an outstanding price mate,

it looks like it's gonna take some work to get it remotely water tight dude.

sleepy wrote:

Aren't those circular burn marks, in that semi-circular pattern evidence of spot welding penetration from the outside of the vehicle

The skeptic in me is thinking that the rear arches are in a horrendous state with repair panels spot welded over the top of epic rust covered in layers of bog, newspaper, and expanding foam...........

You really need to take the kit off before starting any other work, buying the speedtouch chip is the last of your worries.......

Looks like they are Paul

Nice !

Holy shit epic bodge fest! That's gonna cost you some dollarzzz to put right

How much did you part with for it?

Until you strip it all out you won't find all the rot, surprising what's hidden, when you clean a small hole up back to good metal for welding a 5p size hole becomes the size of a tennis ball quite often, but stick with it mate, will be a nice car when done, too many of them are being broken up and sold as parts by the greedys these days

tom_tippin wrote:Until you strip it all out you won't find all the rot, surprising what's hidden, when you clean a small hole up back to good metal for welding a 5p size hole becomes the size of a tennis ball quite often, but stick with it mate, will be a nice car when done, too many of them are being broken up and sold as parts by the greedys these days

As you say it needs to be stripped to examine all the rust, its only then you can make an informed decision on whether its in your budget to repair it properly, bodge it up, move it on, frag it.

The cost will be beyond a lot of people, their only way of getting there money back maybe to frag it, selling it as a project often means selling it cheap, and remember most wont want to take it on.

its just the way it is......

I suppose a lot of it depends on how much you are able to do yourself these days, im just doing one myself and when i think i have just welded up the last hole i take something else off and uncover some more!!! Im have no time scale, am stripping back to bare shell and rebuilding it, not bothered if it takes me 12 months or 5 years

Had it in my garage 2 yrs before i even started on it

I never even attempted anything today, had a few other things to do. I'm not good with spotting different types of welding etc....was wondering what those circular marks were....now it makes sense with what you guys are telling me. Looks really clean from the outside too.

What kind of money are we talking about for getting new rear quarter pannels in?

Just spotted the chip and thought it was cheap so thought i'd buy it now at that price...i wont be installing untill the car is ready to go on the road again (water tight) and this sounds like it may be a while away

Going by what you guys can see what do you think this car is worth in its current condition? I did get it cheap but i'm just thinking now it may not have been cheap enough!

Thanks for all the advice, please keep it coming

Paid £250 for mine with a month of mot and tax but i bought it to restore and not a daily driver, will be my toy when its done, got an M30 engine conversion sat there waiting for when the bodywork is finished

The thing is, if you start delving too deeply by stripping the car further you could end up with just a pile of bits and a nightmare of a job staring you in the face.

Its all down to what you want out of the car.

Drive it as it is knowing it has a few issues.....

Sell it on, buy something else

Fix it bit by bit

Etc. etc

It not gonna be a easy choice.

Take some more pictures for better opinions, where are you, perhaps a friendly zoner might pop round and help you identify the issue areas.

Ultimately the car is bridge fodder scrap.

You could break it to the tune of £1200 with very little effort, I have fragged standard cars to a grand and weighed them in because I couldn't be bothered with mundane £5 - £10 frag.

I would de-morsel it and find a better shell to whack it all in, selling some of the bits as you go that you don't need to fund any bits of work.

You could clear £800 in the kit and LSD if you get desperate.

That is why they get broken up, it's the easiest quickest way to relieve you of the 'job to do' and it is damage limitation financially, even if it is a royal pain in the arse dealing with the vermin wanting 'your best price mate'

Duke137 wrote:Ultimately the car is bridge fodder scrap.

You could break it to the tune of £1200 with very little effort, I have fragged standard cars to a grand and weighed them in because I couldn't be bothered with mundane £5 - £10 frag.

I would de-morsel it and find a better shell to whack it all in, selling some of the bits as you go that you don't need to fund any bits of work.

You could clear £800 in the kit and LSD if you get desperate.

That is why they get broken up, it's the easiest quickest way to relieve you of the 'job to do' and it is damage limitation financially, even if it is a royal pain in the arse dealing with the vermin wanting 'your best price mate'

I was trying be be a little more delicate

Duke137 wrote:Ultimately the car is bridge fodder scrap.

Ferg, what are you trying to say?!


But I agree with the above, to restore this, its gonna need alot of time and skill to get it finished to a good standard, not to mention lots of money. You may aswell use the money on something else.

If it was cheap enough, you might be able to sell it on for the same price on here or even a profit to someone who is willing to take it on as a project or a breaker. Or if you have the time and space, break it yourself. Ignore anyone saying, 'Dont break a Sport!' they arent going to foot the bill when it comes to repairing it...

If you want an E30 without "jobs to do" then you have to dig deep in the pocket!!

Having said that G-Bear on here bought an IS in similar condition and as far as I am aware, he has done a lot of research and took himself on a welding course so it all depends on your attitude and ultimately if you can stomach your wallet being emptied on top of the initial outlay of buying said sport in the first place

I would just like to clarify that the 'repairs' done on the rear quarters were nothing to do with me !


That needs inner arches , full quarters and major bulkhead repairs for starters. The rear panel, boot pockets, front floors , A posts and sills will be fooked as well. If you are lucky, the roof might be OK but looking at the rest of it , I would not hold your breath.

If you have to pay people to do all the work, you will be amazed how quickly 10k will disappear. Just the body is likely to cost you 5k + Looking at the rimz and the 'repairs' I doubt if it is a nice car that has gone rusty, the whole car will be a bodged up sorry old pig.

My advice, frag it or nail it back together and sell it. If it has some MOT and looks tidy, another victim will be along

pacerpete wrote:I would just like to clarify that the 'repairs' done on the rear quarters were nothing to do with me !


That needs inner arches , full quarters and major bulkhead repairs for starters. The rear panel, boot pockets, front floors , A posts and sills will be fooked as well. If you are lucky, the roof might be OK but looking at the rest of it , I would not hold your breath.

If you have to pay people to do all the work, you will be amazed how quickly 10k will disappear. Just the body is likely to cost you 5k + Looking at the rimz and the 'repairs' I doubt if it is a nice car that has gone rusty, the whole car will be a bodged up sorry old pig.

My advice, frag it or nail it back together and sell it. If it has some MOT and looks tidy, another victim will be along

This thread will have the guy slitting his wrists soon

Well there is no point sugar coating it for him.

Frag it, Sports break well

tom_tippin wrote:

pacerpete wrote:I would just like to clarify that the 'repairs' done on the rear quarters were nothing to do with me !


That needs inner arches , full quarters and major bulkhead repairs for starters. The rear panel, boot pockets, front floors , A posts and sills will be fooked as well. If you are lucky, the roof might be OK but looking at the rest of it , I would not hold your breath.

If you have to pay people to do all the work, you will be amazed how quickly 10k will disappear. Just the body is likely to cost you 5k + Looking at the rimz and the 'repairs' I doubt if it is a nice car that has gone rusty, the whole car will be a bodged up sorry old pig.

My advice, frag it or nail it back together and sell it. If it has some MOT and looks tidy, another victim will be along

This thread will have the guy slitting his wrists soon

Well if it,s any consolation, he won,t have to go far to find a jagged, sharp piece of metal to do it on. Or maybe he will.

tom_tippin wrote:
This thread will have the guy slitting his wrists soon

I was not expecting the news to be as bad...looks like i'm in way over my head here both in what i paid and the the repair work involved.

7 months MOT left, i'm not sure what to do with it but i wouldn't like to sell this on to someone who was unaware of what is required...i'm in it for 2k at the mo....feel like a complete ass

For now i am going to continue to investigate the extent of the damage and post some more detailed pics for some further advice.

Dont hold back though as i want to know exactly what i'm dealing with

If you are in it for £2k you may just squeeze a profit through fragging it but you would have to nut and bolt the b4stard and have lots of patience, sports make the best breakers!

I have been there, it's not a nice feeling watching your new pride and joy turning into this horrible brown mess before your eyes.... You bounce back though, still good ones out there a friend of mine picked up an immaculate 316i 2 door for £500 the shell is one of the best I have seen!

same thing happend to me with an escort rs1600i.
Ended up scraping/ breaking the f in thing.
Good luck in what you do

yep we have all been there.to be honest you should clear 2k on ebay so its not all bad.my first e30 cost me a fortune but my second cost me fook all and lost no money on it either,so you could sell this,get some more knowledge behind you then have another pop at it.??

Wouldn't worry too much pal. Mines gone on the inner arch, scuttle, front towers, rear valance, probably a few more places. It's in the shop as soon as the new suspension has been finished getting stripped down, repaired and painted. All depends how far you want to go, do you just want a tidied up usable car or a minter? If its the former, theres not to much there to get it to a respectable standard. Mines kind of past the point of no return, will owe me in the regions of £6k minimum including the car after paying £2400 for it in July. My own fault for spending over £1000 on suspension items before thoroughly inspecting the rust, I couldn't really go back from there

Don't get me wrong the car is saveable, most are but whether you can afford to do it correctly is the question.

It's all about what you want to achieve long term.