E30 Zone

Hi there, my names kris and ive been on the forum for a while but never really posted anything so thought id throw up my project, more of a complete rebuild tho lol


got the car from a family friend its an '89 325 sport which has had a bit of a tough life and im planning to bring it back to a really high standard, basically the whole car is going to be stripped back to a bare shell welded up and painted again to get it looking mint, mechanically the car is amazing engine runs sweet and drives great but sadly the body lets the whole car down so hopefully over the next few months will have it all sorted, not exactly a small project which i thought but its something nice to have in the end







and then the whole kit was taken off to see what exactly the sills etc were like




had a good hoke around the car to see what it was like underneath so looks like whoever owned of before had got the whole underside sealed and then replaced all brake lines and possibly, new'ish boge shocks too! so things arent as bad as i thought, well that was untill i went to go and take off the rear disc and discovered someone had welded the handbrake shoe retainer pin to the backing plate, for reasons i cant even see why!

so got some crap photos of how decent the underside looks too







and then the rotten handbrake cable which i had to cut out unfortunately

well eventually got to stripping the dash out of the car as i kinda knew id have to get welding at the bulkhead but didn't quite realise just how much welding or rust there would be... turns out quite a bit, so out with the loom next i think and the heater etc to start cutting away at the bulkhead for some new metal... not looking forward to this but will be worth it

heres what i found..

so took another stab at the sport on a search to see how much more of the car was falling apart, turns out that the bits on the passenger side of the bulkhead aren't as scary as they look when i got the heater out was pretty surprised it hadn't gone any further, altho got the screwdriver out and had a good poke about the drivers side of the car and discovered that the front part of the sill is shot and the inner wheel arch is a bit buggered, so out will come the grinder sometime this week i think to do some chopping







the sill

then i hadn't really done much to the car due to lack of time but i ordered up some pollybushes for the rear trailing arms so took the whole rear subframe out to do the mounts on it too, also at the same time give it a lick of paint. had also sandblasted the calipers and painted them and rebuilt them with some new seals along with giving the diff a lick of paint , so tomorrow will hopefully have the subframe in again! then i can move on to the front end have a new steering rack and a full pollybush set too for the front. anyway heres some photos

got the diff cover sandblasted there and came up pretty well I've taken the notion to polish it tho but not 100% sure also got the tags sandblasted on the cover also managed to get a screenshot of a video from a while ago of the car shooting flames haha had me even more excited to get the thing finished!

cheers
kris

seen the arrival of a new diff gasket and diff mount so hopefully will be able to get it all back in tomorrow morning along with 2 new wheel bearings too and some 75-140 lsd oil! Honestly cant wait to get the back of the car done and then get the front started! also contemplating changing the whole suspension setup but dont know what to go for either some GAZ coilovers or some bilstein shocks and h&r springs? anyone any thoughts on this one?

havent really had much time to get near the car sadly as i've been flat out in work, but slowly getting all the parts that i need so after the respray i can just take my time building the car back up again. So today got all my new brake and fuel line clips and fittings from BMW that took like 3 weeks to get here!

also going to go ahead and order new brake lines and all those other fiddly things that will make the car better! Took the notion to change all the underside fuel lines to some sort of braided stainless line? not sure if i should go ahead with it or just order up new steel lines from bm priced them and its about £60 which imo isnt that bad! but like the thought of the braided lines too haha i'm a sucker for shiny bits!

heres all the goodies i got today from bm anyways

and almost forgot.... have this all fully rebuilt and painted ready to be dropped back in... literally cant wait!



Well finally I now have a back axle in the car after taking the morning to get it in all the rebuilt brakes and handbrakes all back on and well it works bit of an encouragement now to hurry up and get the rest sorted here's some photos!







Also ordered a full set of Sachs shocks and eibach springs to get rid of the rusted bilstein ones lol

So it's been a while since I've updated this and I am awaiting delivery hopefully this week of another shell that has a decent bulkhead in it that I'm going to chop out of it the rest of the shell has had it but luckily the parts I need are perfect

So while searching for the shell I had also just been gathering up all the other wee bits and pieces ill need to rebuild the car, so a bit of a long list haha

New remy steering rack
2 new bottom arms and all bushes
2 new lollipop bushes for the arms
All new track rods and tie rods
Pollybush kit for the front end
Continental timing belt kit and tensioner
Water pump
Fuchs oil (awaiting delivery from opie oils)

The list does go on lol

Also picked up a few other wee goodies like a tech 1 steering wheel which ill be getting re-trimmed in alcantara. Full set of new shadow line trim for the outside, also managed to get a original owners wallet with all manuals etc

And then lastly I needed an interior and I had thought about a leather one but then a cloth sport one came up and I liked the look of it and thought it was different from the normal leather so bought that too

Slowly getting there lol

sorry for the long speel lol was copying it from another forum that i had my build thread on lol

cheers
Kris

Excellent stuff mate, very brave taking that rust on!

One thing though though, is that a standard E30 rack your fitting? If so I wouldn't bother, you'll be much better off sourcing and fitting an E46 '067' rack or similair - the difference it makes to the way the car drives is amazing!

Meatballs82 wrote:Excellent stuff mate, very brave taking that rust on!

One thing though though, is that a standard E30 rack your fitting? If so I wouldn't bother, you'll be much better off sourcing and fitting an E46 '067' rack or similair - the difference it makes to the way the car drives is amazing!

lol everyone has been telling me that they think im brave but id rather try save this one and rebuild it than a re-shell

and yeah it is a standard e30 one but i have been looking into the e46 ones and think im going to swap it out for one! any specific rack that i would need? would an m3 one do?

cheers
kris

That underseal underneath looks like caked on Black Death, judging by the rest if the car I bet its covering up some horrors, bit miffed as to why your worrying about diff oil and shiny diff when you have them rust issues, that car needs to be fully stripped and floor taken back all glass out etc by the looks of it buddy

polsta wrote:That underseal underneath looks like caked on Black Death, judging by the rest if the car I bet its covering up some horrors, bit miffed as to why your worrying about diff oil and shiny diff when you have them rust issues, that car needs to be fully stripped and floor taken back all glass out etc by the looks of it buddy

the underseal may well look like that and it may be hard for some people to believe this, yes the bulkhead is shot and only use fort it would be a sieve, i have got another shell coming to fix this!, and the underside of the car is actually where the shock to me is and it is rust free and no holes or anything!.

but i understand what you mean and i will be stripping the whole car when it comes to being painted!, i was rebuilding the diff so that i had it all ready to be put back together when the car is painted and the windows and everything are coming out, its just its going to be a slow restoration due to work so if things are done back to front my apologies,

Just trying to point out - if prev owner has caked a load of that "underseal" with a brush (not proper polyurethane type sealant) , chances are its covering rust, although obviously you won't see it , and slapped over the cracking/lifting original sealant, if your wanting/going to do a proper job you really should get that all taken back and done properly before thinking about paint and shiney bits and diff oil, them rust issues look bad, the rest needs to be properly hunted out under all that caked on underseal shite

+1. You need to remove ALL of that underseal for a proper inspection. There WILL be rust.

sorry mate but thats got re-shell written all over it , id source a good shell and start over