1983 E30 316 - the dangers of sober eBaying

[big_chris1981]

After a particularly traumatic month with the S8, where the cambelt, waterpump and oil cooler housing had to be done and £1800 leaving my bank to pay the associated bills, I started looking around for something simple that I could fix myself...



Say hello to a 55k mile 1983 316, with one former owner and the standard BMW e30 rear arch rot.

4 speeds, digital clock, rev counter, twin choke weber carb, aforementioned rot and broken spring in the driver seat...she may not be perfect, but she's all mine!

Now to sell the S8...oh and if anyone has a 2 door interior for sale...

[Alex]

Must only be a handful of 4 speeds left

Henna red povo spec = lovely

[ImysE30]

More pic's needed

[Z3I]

In 1986 I bought a 316 in Henna Red, with absolutely no extras at all, those bottletops would have been sheer luxury. But I was the envy of all my mates, the E30 was the most desrable car of its day! NPX803Y, long since gone...

[big_chris1981]

More pic's needed

I'll get some! It's at CPC at the moment having a check over with Phil...

[TPS]

Very Nice & original

[Quaser]

was that the one in Ruislip?

[big_chris1981]

was that the one in Ruislip?

Yep. Think it sold twice at auction to tyre kickers then was up as a classified...knocked him down a chunk on price...now resto plans are afoot.

[Quaser]

Looked very clean from the ebay ad -

[big_chris1981]

Looked very clean from the ebay ad -

I went to look at 3 or 4 early E30s and 5 E21s...this was the best by a long way and most reasonable on price.

Mechanically it's very good...needs a couple of bits and pieces, but nothing major.

The bodywork is ok...it's had touch up's over the years, shopping trolley dinks and there, rust on both rear arches, rust around one of the number plate lights.

The interior, other than the drivers seat is very good, no cracks in the dash, no saggy door cards...just some pappy speakers in the rear shelf and some dead blaupunkts in the footwells.

I'm contemplating a full respray with Tom Dixon at Lemass Automotive...but trying to work out the finances first...

[Andy325i]

Waxoyl! And welcome

[Automaton]

IanB is the other hope to see what an unmolested 316 engine bay looks like, but could you put up some engine bay pics?

Looking for references to restore the 316.

[jonny323i]

For a 316 it looks good well done

[big_chris1981]

IanB is the other hope to see what an unmolested 316 engine bay looks like, but could you put up some engine bay pics?

Looking for references to restore the 316.

Yeah sure. It's not 100% stock in that it has a weber rather than a pierberg, but I'll post up some more pics including engine bay when I get it back.

[Automaton]

Thanks,
Weber is cool, because I'm supposed to change the existing crap to a 32/34 DMTL.

[Duke137]

Lush! Don't ruin it with m-twat soilers/bumpers/trims! Early cars have loads of differences so be careful buying parts

[Duke137]

Oh and if it is supposed to be on a Y plate get that back on, original plates are the new cool

[big_chris1981]

Lush! Don't ruin it with m-twat soilers/bumpers/trims! Early cars have loads of differences so be careful buying parts

The plan as of right now is to sort the body work, have all the rust cut out, dents removed and repaint in hennared.

I also want to fit new seats as the early ones are pretty uncomfortable at the best of times (in my opinion) and in this case, have broken springs coming through the drivers seat.

Off to collect a set of front/rear 1991 sport seats in Anthracite check.

I've also removed the early 1980s dealer fit stereo install, along with huge and heavy EQ screwed through the panel under the steering wheel and about 25 meters of speaker cable.

New plain BMW speaker grills on order for the parcel shelf and the footwells and some 13cm 2 way speakers to go in them.

If I had buckets of cash, I'd play with the M10...love the idea of something along the lines of a 2002 Ti Alpina A4S...but that's some serious cash.

[Duke137]

Parcel shelves are different so don't butcher it and the rear bench might be aswell (the base). Also front speaker grills were carpet type and not common. Some parts don't fit so don't go throwing bits away without checking on here seriously mate early car parts are getting hard to find.

By the way can you post a pic of the interior before you skip it? Thank you

[magpie]

the seat belts and seatbelt stalks will be different to most e30's too.

any engine swap plans ?

[big_chris1981]

Parcel shelves are different so don't butcher it and the rear bench might be aswell (the base). Also front speaker grills were carpet type and not common. Some parts don't fit so don't go throwing bits away without checking on here seriously mate early car parts are getting hard to find.

By the way can you post a pic of the interior before you skip it? Thank you

Using the standard E30 grills...which go over pretty much any 13cm speaker from what I can see...will be much better than the horiffic mid 1980s Jensen items on the back shelf and the cracked and dented blaupunkt ones in the footwells ;)

Using PN 65131370803 - item 12 here: http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?mod ... g=65&fg=20

Rear bench base will definitely be different...have some ideas about how to deal with this, but want the two side by side first before I do anything (measure 5000000 times, cut once).

As for skipping bits...not gonna happen...I'm a squirrel! Still got bits from the Polo G40 I had 10 years ago, the Mk1 GTI before that, and the Audi quattro that wasn't even mine! Not to mention the gult of E36 bits still lurking in the garage...hehe.

Will put some pics up before I do anything though...

Just had a call to say the SI board repair is done! Whoop!

[big_chris1981]

the seat belts and seatbelt stalks will be different to most e30's too.

any engine swap plans ?

Ta for the heads up!

Nope, I might be the only person on the whole internet who quite likes the M10...

[big_chris1981]

New seats picked up last night...now I need the "pins" from the floor of a later car to get welded in when the paintwork is done.

Anyone cutting up a shell at the moment? ;)