E30 Zone

Hi guys,
For those of you that dont already know, I'm new to the world of BMW's, although I've always hung around with them and occasionally tinkered with them.

Any who, already own several other cars and being a Ford mechanic I've got alot on my plate at the moment but I had always wanted one and this popped up cheap off a friend.

Rough details are:
- 1989 320 Saloon
- 173K Miles
- 4 owners I think
- MOT and Tax
- All windows are electric
- Central locking
- 'Check' panel
- Range, MPG, timer etc rather than analogue clock
- Factory tweeters
- Factory optional Blaupunkt rear speakers
- 15" BBS alloys (x5)
- Headlight washers/wipers

Think thats all I've noticed, like I say, I dont know a huge amount about them but thats what I've spotted so far.

Sadly has the normal rot, front wings (at the bottom), rear inner arches.
Only driven this for a day on temporary insurance and now its tucked away in my garage so I can start work.

For anyone that is interested, the engine wont be staying, the power to weight (with it being a 6 pot) is useless, a 2.5 will be on the cards at a later date but I'll be doing the rebuild step by step.

So, nothing amazing but here's some quick photos.













Thanks for reading Will get some photos up of the rot possibly tomorrow.

Hi mate

welcome to the Zone !!

There are quite a bunch of us from the south coast, over a dozen e30 owners on here and we meet regularly to natter about the cars and swap bits etc

keep an eye out on the meets page and it would be great to see you, especially being a mechanic, i'm sure there will be plenty of people keen to chat !

cheer and welcome

jim

Thats great to hear Jim! Thankyou I'm not the best at keeping an eye on all threads but I'll try my best.

Sadly I wont be in the E30, as mentioned thats now tucked away but will be keen to come and meet everyone and check out the cars, I'll be in a rather vivid yellow Fiesta aha.

Thanks again,
- Adam.

Spotted this on ebay a couple of weeks ago - I liked it and thought/still think it was a good buy - others didnt

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... c&t=238697

Glad to see its turned up here - good luck with it and keep the pics coming

As Jim said, there's plenty of nutters around that area.
Oh, and Welcome.

nutters

LOL

Ah thats very interesting! Didn't realise it was on eBay.

Funny story, I got talking to the owner months ago, and said I liked the car and always wanted one so if they ever sold, give me a call, they insisted it was never going to be sold etc.

Few months later my mate drives by and see's a for sale advert in the window, he buys it on instinct then realises he has enough cars so offered it to me!

Small world eh!

As promised, some pictures of the rust...




Sadly both front wings have suffered, offside being the worst as you can see. Sadly this has gone through the drivers footwell too.



This is just below the door on the drivers side, expecting to see more behind the drivers wing too once removed.







All these are from the nearside rear arch, nothing major though thankfully and inside the arch its relatively clean bar a small bit of rot on the inner arch where it meets the exterior arch.




This is the worst of the rot, theres also a third very small hole right down at the bottom. Sadly its also taken the bracket that mounts the fuel filler pipe to the body with it.




Small hole from the rear valance.





And finally a few surface bits on the offside rear outer arch.



There is good news though, no rust here!

And a random shot of the engine, not sure why?


Got more updates coming tomorrow possibly, maybe Wednesday.
Chow for now!

Sorry mate but that's in a bad way, hope you have deep pockets and lots of time on your hands

I bet that was nice place to be when it was new!

I hope you restore it

I have a freind who would love that long time

Its nothing that major, really. Most fiddly bit to get looking like new will probably be the drivers foot well. Wings are replacement panels so no issues there. And then apart from the valance and offside rear holes in the boot, the rest is surface bubbles.

Boot holes will be easy to sort out, valance will need some shaping but hopefully nothing to strenuous.

Why's that Pete? Aha.

Thanks.

Really, that's a breaker. I wouldn't go pumping lots of $$$ into it - just tidy it up and extend its life by a few years. A 173'000 miles four door 320i is not desirable but if you can get it back on the road and tidy for 500 quid, why not?

Well as mentioned, the aim for the car is to be restored to a degree. The car's going to be all welded up, planning on making some metal plates soon to replace the rot. Once its welded I'll go over the entire car removing all the underseal back to metal and redoing it all and painting it all again as if it had left the factory.

Not planning on a half arsed build.

The engines all going to be binned in the future for something more desirable (worry about that after the body works up to scratch).

Them "surface bubbles" will swallow your grinder if you are not careful, trust me !

Already hit them with a hammer, they're still there, isn't that bad. As i say, bits that need welding is valance, boot/rear inner arch and drivers footwell. I've had a good stab around everything else. Relax people, you have no faith.
Not in any rush with this, have another project too which is my daily.

looks a lot more than a bit of surface bubbles, youd be much much better off stripping all the underseal and everything before commencing, look like it definatly needs new rear inner and outer arches from them pics, and carpet is vital to come out, have a good inspection of the floor- with the front corners that bad it would of been letting in all sorts of water-causing issues

its a breaker really, far nicer e30s out there with less roy and less doors to start with, petes man is your man.. , but best of luck with it if you do take it on, your mate had the right idea quickly getting rid

why do people have a fit over abit of welding action, crack on mate iv seen way worse put back together. the only reason id say not to was i you had to pay someone else to do it, but if you have the skills and tools its nothing that cant be done easily enough.

hows your engine polsta is that sorted yet?

As others have said, it's a pretty bad and neglected example of a less desirable model but if you paid peanuts for it and have the skills and tools it's only the cost of sheet metal bodywise, how are the mechanicals though?
As said, there are better cars out there. If it was mine, I would be inclined to frag it and find something that was a better starting point. It has some bits of value, so if you paid less than £300 for it you would already have your money back on the HLWW and alloys alone, anything else would see a profit. I would do a full strip down, carpets, dash and headlining out before spending any money on it though.
Good luck with the resto!

So many things to reply to.
Outer arches are ok, although granted the lips are going but the plan was to cut most of these away anyway. Wings weren't that bad until I poked them bigger, already lifted the front half of the carpets and all looks ok bar the small hole.

More doors is fine with me, not used as often so maks it different. My mate got rid of it quickly as he bought it with gut instinct as it was cheap and he always wanted something RWD, then realised having 3 other cars and his neighbours already having a fit about, it wasn't a good idea.

I was going to say, I've seen much worse cars still being used on the road ha. Weldings welding, its an old car and I needed an old german project. Its got very clean paint work (not that the colours staying anyway..) and the sunroof, boot floors etc have all be cleaned by the last owner to avoid more rust yardy yardy yar. High spec with a fair number of optional extras, its an ideal base project.

Running issue is still there, although I've now disconnected the battery to see if resetting it helps, not overly bothered with the running issue at the moment as want to get body work sorted first. Believe that answers two peoples questions, to be honest, I would never keep a engine if it had done 173K even if it was running ok at the time ha, the future will see most likely a 2.5 but worry about that when the time comes.

Now as far as updates go, Mike Greggory who is also on the forum is a saint, top guy who's breaking another saloon. Has really helped me with a load of parts which I've picked some up of and more to come soon.




Rot free wings!



Replacement filler neck

And two steering wheels, one being a Tech 1, the other being a momo off a Maserati.




Thats all for now, as I said, more parts to come hopefully tomorrow!

Well good in you for getting stuck in. My previous post wasn't meant to be negative in any way. Will watch your build with interest. Good luck!

No that's ok fella ha. Was just getting tedious reading the same comments, too many E30's breaking for bits and some of them really aren't bad. I'd rather save one and know all the work I've done than buy a minter and have nothing to do, that would make life too simple haha!
Cheers

Looks like its grotty in all the usual places - finding an E30 that doesnt have issues in one or all of those bits is getting more difficult so if you can weld crack on !

You do need to get the carpets out ASAP - check the bulkhead on the passenger side where the fusebox loom comes through from the engine bay - it is likely you will find more crunchy bits there to add to your list.

Look forward to seeing the progress

Good for you saving it, my previous comment is not being harsh it's just being realistic as I speak from experience when I know how quickly they disolve into nothing and how much the panels/parts cost....

I'm all for saving E30's!

Floor pans ok, shall have to have a looksie up by the fuse box loom. Currently have another E30 at my disposal to cut parts off. Out of interest what causes the rot in the bulkhead? Any future things I can do to avoid future rot is always welcome ha. I see people say the sunroof drains or something cause rot too but don't fully understand where abouts and why they cause issues. My sunroof if rot free and again, been cleaned by the previous owner all around the shutting area.
As far as cost goes, I've managed to save a small fortune thanks to Mike, who il forever be greatful to haha.

pacerpete wrote:I have a freind who would love that long time

pmsl Pete. Thats made my day.

AdamBeevers wrote:Floor pans ok, shall have to have a looksie up by the fuse box loom. Currently have another E30 at my disposal to cut parts off. Out of interest what causes the rot in the bulkhead? Any future things I can do to avoid future rot is always welcome ha. I see people say the sunroof drains or something cause rot too but don't fully understand where abouts and why they cause issues. My sunroof if rot free and again, been cleaned by the previous owner all around the shutting area.
As far as cost goes, I've managed to save a small fortune thanks to Mike, who il forever be greatful to haha.

you said you had a peek at the floor pans, but that doesnt mean its ok- you had a massive hole/rot in the front corner so called jacking points, probably lettign water in/seep in over a long period from when it 1st started as a "hole/crack" , but get thhe carpets out, its vital fella if this is to be a long term make perfect car

trouble is- the sound deadening on the floor, has a hexagon like glue pattern, when you have a water leak, water gets in under that stuff, and causes rust, it may "look good" but thats because your looking at sound deadening not the metal underneath ! as you say youve no e30 expirience, a lot of good advice on here


for rust prevention- get some fertan (google it/local yacht chandlery type places) funnel, pour it down the sunroof drainage holes, is a good shout - put some sort of jug/tub by bottom of the wings, pur the fertan in the sunroof drainage holes-watych it leak out catching in the jug, then pour it back in, catch it, do that a few times

as is in the sills-along the bottom inside "lip" of the sills, feel along with your fingers youl feel it sort of raise out, 4 (i think) slits on each sill, you can fit a bit of wire coat hanger in there and wriggle it - make sure all are unblocked , but - block them up with bit of somethign like carrier bag you can pull out easily, pour fertain in to the sills or spray it in, all along the inner sill holes under the sill carpet trim, leave 24 hours, then maybe re do if you want, and then waxoyl - will give good protection, do in the bottom of the doors, scuttle, etc etc, where ever you feel

Interesting, thankyou. Fertan sounds like interesting stuff after a google search!

Ive never liked waxoyl, was going to use shutz..

I meant I've lifted the carpet and no signs of rust, although I didnt remove the sound deadening. I'll come round to this when some of the other bits are done, dont want to pull it all apart and end up with rubbish everywhere and loads of areas having work done, want to finish one area before i move onto the next.

The website is very useful as you say. I've tinkered with friends e30's before and being a mechanic in general and having done rebuilds etc before i can transfer all the knowledge over to this.

Thanks.

Good for you on getting stuck into this project.

I would have ran away long ago...you a braver man than me, so will be watching the progress on this one

Haha, normally I would but I bought this knowing I had to do some work to it so its ok, or that's what I tell my self ha. I'm sure by the end of it I won't look 21 anymore and more like 50!

Going to have one last poke around today at lunch and then need to start preparing the wings down in my garage, want to keep the ball rolling!

waxoyl and schultz are totaly different things for different uses buddy

you put waxoyl (the liquid type you heat up) in cavities and nooks and crannies, to preserve and keep rust at bay

schultz is the hard underseal rubbish, that should be no where near an e30 and you plaster over weldding or rust on scrap to make it look good, but if doing a proper job a polyeurethane sealant or similar should be used..and then also as a weather barrier, you can spray waxoyl over that

Really? Im confused now. I bought some 'underseal' which im pretty sure was branded waxoyl which i painted on (although you can get a spray version), it was only for a daily i used to have as it was starting to rust. I never liked it as it was extremely messy and as the name of it says, oily.

I also followed another build thread where the fella was completely stripping down and starting from fresh on his E30 and swear he used schultz then painted on top of it.

Shall have to do more research.

Sadly though, a bit more digging today... had a look in the scuttle area, no rust found on the passenger side so thats good. Put my hand up behind the dash on the passenger side, all good.

Then put my hand up behind the drivers side dash section and... theres rust, as its so far up i cant see how bad. Now this is the one bit that i always said in my head, if i find rust here like another recent user has, im not going to fix it as its a funny shape and i'd want to get it looking like new.

But i think im going to strip the carpets out next week and start pulling the dash out. Anyone know why this area rusts? Also found a small hole around the battery tray area that goes through to inside the arch, nothing major though.

Main thing i want to do is find out why these rust areas occur, and then find a way of stopping it happening in the future, again. I see theres loads of sound deadening and heat insulation in the bay all over the bulk head, is this what causes it? Holding water and rotting it out?

Its a bummer, but not all hope is lost. Im brave ;)

Lots of parts arriving this week, hopefully some replacement body sections coming tomorrow so I can start getting the holes removed. Also on slightly bigger news, pay attention to next months PBMW Magazine ;) That is all.

So guys, as mentioned yesterday, got lots of bits coming this week. Below is what arrived today, wasn't important but it popped up cheap so snapped it up for the future, doubt I'll like driving with it but I'll try it, if not, flog it on!





Also got the carpet out finally over the weekend, works been manic recently so haven't had much spare time. Nothing more to what I already knew was there luckily, the rest of the floor looks relatively clean including behind the throttle pedal. There is a small strip of the inner sill thats gone as pictured too although you cant see any holes, it is rotten.





That's it for today!

Remove the loom and take a grinder to the inner sill area, there WILL be some unpleasant suprises to be found

Cant be that bad theres not alot else behind the inner sill, bar the outer sill haha.