E30 Zone

So I thought it was about time I put up a thread for my turd, it's taken long enough, and I have a ton of questions that might as well be in one thread. So I'll start from the beginning...

It was mid-2011, and a super cheap E30 came up for sale in Cornwall. A four door Chromie with rusted out arches and chrome bits EVERYWHERE. But it was cheap. I arranged the buy and collection with my family and was all set to go, at which point I received a message saying it had been sold to someone else. I was not happy, but now had it in my head that I must own an E30.
Shortly after, a decent looking 318is came up for sale just down the road in Sunbury -on-Thames so I got a bit more cash together and arranged to view it, having no idea what I was getting myself into.
The plan of attack for the eveneing was for my mate to drive to my house, get in my sisters mates car and have him drive the is back to mine with his trade insurance. Simples. Well actually not, no. On the way to mine, my mate from college (the guy driving the car home for me) was in a crash on the way to my house, getting rear ended at a roundabout. He eventually got here though and we all loaded into my sisters mates car and set off. Just s we were getting onto the M3, her auto Astra started to lose power and smell a bit funny.

And then it exploded. As I investigated under the bonnet I noticed a hole in the side of the block that I could probably fit my fist in. I later found out that she thought they added oil to your engine at every M.O.T, and when informed her otherwise, she said that she hadn't had it serviced on her four years of ownership. Great.
I thought I should put a call through to Vince, the seller (sorry, can't remember your username!) to tell him that after all this I wasn't sure if I would be able to get there, and he was very understanding. Eventually we had my sisters mates mates mum come to our rescue and drop us at Vince's house some time in the late evening (roughly half eight, nine-ish if my memory serves) and gave the car a look around.
Does everyone remember the golden rules for viewing cars? Clear daylight, dry conditions? Well, AIN'T NOBODY GOT TIME FO' DAT. It had rained all day and was pitch black, but truth be told I was fed up and wanted to buy it really badly. So without a poke-around, test drive or VIN check, we headed inside and did all the paperwork, handed over the cash, and it was mine.
We ragged it home, stopped for petrol and parked it up for the night. My day was over, after a very eventful day (four hour drive there, about 40 minutes back, from Bracknell, roughly 20 miles away!).

I came outside the next day to give it a proper look over, and much to my relief, it was pretty tidy. It obviously had some rough bits here and there, but what car doesn't? Especially an E30 sport bought for under £500!

I'll update it soon with some of my recent activity, but until then, have some lovely pictures, and LOOK HOLY SHIT A MOTHERFUCKING RAINBOW!

those style 5 alloy's have to go and you need an 'IS' front lip but other than that you made a good choice of weapon,welcome to the Galvanisor club

we need more pics,more angles and interior/engine bay shots.... go knock yourself out

magpie wrote:those style 5 alloy's have to go and you need an 'IS' front lip but other than that you made a good choice of weapon,welcome to the Galvanisor club

we need more pics,more angles and interior/engine bay shots.... go knock yourself out

They're style 10s man, I kind of like them to be honest, they're not the nicest rimzzz around but I prefer them to meshes, bottle caps, steels etc. but they will be replaced in time. For the lip situation, I was thinking about getting a Volvo splitter. I know they look a bit more pikey, but is lips are strong money, that could be spent on more important things. But I digress.

After being moved around garage to garage a few times due to pan in the arse landlords and my grandad dying and losing his council garage, it's finally found a permanent home in a new council garage, which is by far the best garage I've ever had, but also the farthest from my house, at a ten minute walk/three minute drive away.


IMAG0068 by geeteearggh, on Flickr

I'm grateful to have a covered place to work on the car, but have no power for tools or lighting sucks major chode when there's a lot of cleaning, rust removal, cutting, welding etc. to be done. I'm tidying up my front bumper and valance, rear bumper and both wings at home in the garden, as well as giving the wheels a bit of a spruce up.

Wing condition and tidy up, operation turd-polish is a go.


IMAG0035 by geeteearggh, on Flickr


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IMAG0043 by geeteearggh, on Flickr


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I'm using an old mattress from a cot to rest the wings on while I wheel them, which is partially covered in this netting stuff. After a small lapse in concentration, I found they shouldn't mix.


IMAG0030 by geeteearggh, on Flickr

Fixing my scabby wheels as well.


IMAG0038 by geeteearggh, on Flickr


IMAG0041 by geeteearggh, on Flickr


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One done, before and after kind of shot.

IMAG0042 by geeteearggh, on Flickr

My pro spec PPE that makes me look like a gay bandit. SWAGGIN' ERRY DAY.


IMAG0032 by geeteearggh, on Flickr

So today I was going over the chassis, mostly the arches, looking for rot. What I found kind of sucks, but at the same time I'm glad because at least I know what needs doing, and how it could have been so much worse.

This is the nearside front wheel arch:


IMAG0044 by geeteearggh, on Flickr


IMAG0045 by geeteearggh, on Flickr


IMAG0046 by geeteearggh, on Flickr


IMAG0047 by geeteearggh, on Flickr

Close up.

IMAG0048 by geeteearggh, on Flickr


IMAG0049 by geeteearggh, on Flickr


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IMAG0051 by geeteearggh, on Flickr

Offside front;


IMAG0052 by geeteearggh, on Flickr


IMAG0054 by geeteearggh, on Flickr

from the other side;


IMAG0058 by geeteearggh, on Flickr


IMAG0057 by geeteearggh, on Flickr


IMAG0056 by geeteearggh, on Flickr

The offside 'jacking pad' is also pretty shagged. I'm not sure how they're constructed, is it possible to chisel/cut the pads off? Or do they need to be completely cut out and patched?

To summarise, the front end of the car has developed a few of it's own speed-holes which I'll need to patch somehow. The rear arches are actually really tidy, with only this on the nearside:


IMAG0059 by geeteearggh, on Flickr

And on the offside I removed the plastic arch liner that protects the fuel bits and bobs. A shit-ton of detritus came out and made my clothes look like this.


IMAG0065 by geeteearggh, on Flickr

Underneath the metal looks like this;


IMAG0063 by geeteearggh, on Flickr


IMAG0062 by geeteearggh, on Flickr

Not spotless, but pretty damn good all things considered. Right now it looks like this.


IMAG0067 by geeteearggh, on Flickr

The garage is near a primary school (the one I went to in fact) so all I hear when I'm under the car every five minutes is "Daddy look, the man's crashed his car!".

Good job getting stuck in.
Doesnt look too bad.

I have the same issue with working in a council garages, sucks right?
Looks like a good base, mine has holes all over the rear arches and front wings aha!

Yeah cheers guys, it's not too bad. Yeah council garages do suck beans, mine's also surrounded by chavs in every direction. All the damn time when I'm busy, even when I'm on the phone its "Oi mate. mate. Oi mate. wanna buy some saxo alloys?" "Oi mate. Oi mate. Wanna buy a moped? £20?!?". Uggh.

Anyway, the to-do list at the moment is as follows, roughly in order:
-Clean the underside as much as possible for rust finding.
-Get rid of as much of the rust I can find without power tools.
-Gets some Bilthammer Deox-gel on as much of the car as possible.
-Repaint/re-waxoyl whatever is missing.
-Replace pretty much every bush.
-Locate the bits of interior trim I'm missing (the panel under the steering column that hides the ecu, wiring, etc. and a gearstick gaiter)
-Finish up with the wings, bumpers and valance, and get them back on the car.
-Get the sump off to check all the bolts.
-Take off the cam cover to
a. make it look all painted and lovely because I like tarting things up.
b. change the gasket.
-067 rack swap.
-Full service inc. all new fluids and filters.
- Gaz coilovers.
-Shiny new wheels. bigger, wider, better tyres.
-Have the ecu out to check for any chips, if it's standard, get an EPROM chip from Mr. Speedtouch.
-Drive it until something breaks, fix it, and drive some more.

Some nice brown patches there.. Good to see it getting saved.. Shall be following with interest..

Had the cam cover off to sort the gasket and to give everything a check.


IMAG0083 by geeteearggh, on Flickr

All clean and lovely.


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Also tidy. Shiny bits are still shiny and not scored or pitted. iz nice I liek very much.


IMAG0085 by geeteearggh, on Flickr

Chin tension seems alright and the sprockets look worn and pointy.

Giving it plenty of loving

like marmite them wheels, i love em

its the other way around, the pointier the sprocket the more ware it has.

its the other way around, the pointier the sprocket the more ware it has.

Fucking brainfart haha, EFT. Give me a break, I couldn't work out how to get the oil filler cap off the other day haha.

imagine what the bottom sprocket is like ,the one no one changes .

i bet you have a nice chain rattle going on there.

I've not had anything to noticeable to be honest, but that may be down to the oil. I have no idea what oil it has at the moment because I've never changed it, but it looks like its been looked after well in the past in terms of basic maintenance.

this was one of my m42's ...look at the pointy teeth



i could nearly get the chain off with a screwdriver

Got a bit bored so I decided to start tidying up my cam cover. The paint on it was quite shitty, so I attacked it with scotch brite and water based thinners.


IMAG0087 by geeteearggh, on Flickr

Half way through, getting plastered in all sorts.


IMAG0088 by geeteearggh, on Flickr


Gave it a rinse in the bath, now it looks like this.


IMAG0090 by geeteearggh, on Flickr

It's still a bit scummy, oxidised, and scored from keying from previous paint jobs, but it's coming along. I'm not going for a mirror finish sort of look but I'll try to get the deep scoring out of it.

Can anyone recommend where I can get decent primer and brilliantrot (or a close enough alternative) and the stonechip paint that goes along the sill/wing etc? Cheers.

So this is how it sits at the moment, pieced back together and back on its feet, looking a bit better but still in a sorry state. I'll hopefully have a bit more time to waste on it when I'm finished with all my paperwork and legal affairs, just in time for winter.


IMAG0102 by geeteearggh, on Flickr

Glamour shot with the daily... haha


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Also, I finally went and collected this from college, I didn't know what I had so it was a nice surprise. At least the two years of shitty commutes were worth it. Now for four more years of shitty commutes if I'm lucky. I come across as a spaz on the internet but I promise I can be smart when I need to be, and I know some stuff about cars.


Untitled by geeteearggh, on Flickr

nice little project, looks quite crusty in places tho but not bad and caught at the right time, areas like the rear drivers side arch where that metal cover goes behind the strut- get that cover removed and scrape back the sealant around the studs and joins in that area and expansion tank out and around the brackets and see if there is any rust starting there, it will be behind the sealant

Triple distinction? Bloody clever clogs!

So I took my air box off to see how the filters doing, and saw the cool little trumpet, a nice touch. What wasn't so nice was that this -


IMAG0116 by geeteearggh, on Flickr

was the only screw holding the air box onto the maf. I'm guessing this is the reason-


IMAG0114 by geeteearggh, on Flickr

It's sort of hard to make out, but all the threads are at least a little fucked up. I had some M6 button bolts and managed to recut most of the threads by screwing them in a bit and backing them out for like 15 minutes.


IMAG0122 by geeteearggh, on Flickr

This'll have to do, the thread in the last hole is too far gone and will have to wait until I can helicoil it. Another amazing update, try to contain your excitement.

Something I am also curious about, does anyone know what these threads are for in the side of the maf?


IMAG0121 by geeteearggh, on Flickr