E30 Zone

So after owning this E30 for about 12 years and driving it through my 20's the time has come to restore the old beaut!

It came off the road about 3-4 years ago with a blown head gasket and because I had another car the poor old E30 got forgotten about and has since been in the garage, (which I actually fell through an Azzy roof onto the car ) and more lately she takes position on the drive under a cover. I started work on her in May this year.

I have been buying bits for her for a little while now, when I see good deals come up on the zone I have to get them. So I have been collecting 2nd hand bits, fogs, mirrors, sunroof panel etc for a little while now. I seem to have lots of bits to go on the car but never enough time to work on it due to work commitments.

So enough of the waffle, here are some pics of her 8+ years ago. These were taken on my phone from old prints when I first lowered it.






And this is how she resides now




And started to play with her under carriage




Tank Out


No messing about with these rusty bits - Out comes the grinder


Brake and fuel lines out

Diiirrrtyyyy

Clean after a De-grease in a squirty bottle and jet wash

Prop shaft out

There was nothing left of the rubber mount!

I realise its marked up wrong here, but the previous pic I think I got right.
Removed the prop bearing

Removed the beam bushes the proper way!


And cut the remaining metal collar with a hacksaw blade


I sent the rear beam and trailing arms away for shot blast and powder coat. Decided on gloss black, not OEM but I like it.





There like brand new! Replaced the beam bushes using threaded bar, an old wheel bearing and a impact socket.


New trailing arm bushes put in with a vice and threaded bar.



New wheel bearing put in. I used the freeze the bearings in the freezer and warm the hubs with a blow torch method.

Next it was time to dismantle the front legs

Remove the bearings

Remove the springs

one of the front shocks had had it, the top spring plate had corroded and crud had got in the seal and it was leaking. The strut collars were a ba**ard to get off. One I managed to get off with a little bit of heat from he blow torch and a large pair of Stilsons, but the other I wasn't so lucky. The collar was badly corroded and just crumbled on the stilsons. The grinder had to come out! I had to cut across the top of the collar, remove the shock inner.




Then I had to cut the threaded collar out with a hacksaw


The front struts are currently at the shot blasters getting powder coated in gloss black.
I accidentally chucked the lollipop bushes away with the old control arms, so bought a 2nd hand pair of Magpie. Cheers Mick Pressed new bushes in with the trusty old portable vice. I pressed it in so far, then mounted it on top of the vice and tapped the last little bit in.


I gave them a clean up and paint, nut only have a picture of them in zinc primer, but there good as new.

Next I decided to clean the diff up and give it a lick of paint. I'll probably be sending the diff plate away for vapour blasting. I can't really remember if the diff had any whines, so I'm gonna chance not getting it rebuilt. I know that it'll most probably need one being 20+ years old, but Im shedding out loads of wonga at the mo as it is.

I done this with engine paint

Take some crusty callipers

A flappy disk and clean them up

Rebuild kits

Paint them


and get yourself some fresh looking ones


Thats all fro tonight, got plenty more to update. Enjoy....

Enjoyed this... im subscribed!!! Excellent work mate, going to be mint once your done, keep it up!

Getting stuck in

Top work!

whats that lift you got called would love to buy one

Look here mate, http://www.cjautosheywood.co.uk/mini.shtml

I got mine 2nd hand on ebay. I Think I paid £200, it was basically brand new, some rich toff had bought one but it didn't fit under his car as the clearance gap between the bottom of his motor wasn't big enough and he had to pee about driving on scaffold boards.

Makes it a lot easier to work on the car.

its fooking heavy!

great work on saving that strut leg

get yourself a tub of copper slip for the rebuild .


subscribed .

Top work

Yeah already got it cheers Mick!

So little update, here it goes:

Little bit of work on the brake components, clean up and paint. Ive ordered new pins and springs for the hand brake shoes, their a German order and should be here in the next day or 2. But these bits were worth saving/clean/paint.





Picked these bits up from powder coating today.

Fresh



And got these new B4's, 2 to fit in the fresh struts


New bearing dust covers put on, just need to buy the front bearings

New bits in last week or so from the dealer, new brake disc plates, and bits n pieces


Then it was time to get back under the car and sort these little rusty bits out. I attacked them with a flappy disk and applied Hamerite No 1 Rust Beater. Its quite thin and runny when you first spray it on, but you build the coats up every 15 mins once their dry. Not bad stuff, it undercoats n primes. I plan to sort out all these little surface rust bits out then stone chip the whole underneath.








I see on here that people was dying the carpets so I thought I'd give it a go.

How she came out.

Then after a vacuum and a carpet cleaner machine run over it, it came up a little better

This is the colour of the water that came out of it. 20+ years of grime. I could of kept going but I was getting bored!

I bought 1 little of Dye thinking it would be enough. It wasn't and only done 3/4 with 1 coat. So it cost me more in the long run and had to buy 5 litres and pay the £7 P&P again.
Its not a very good picture as it was getting dusky outside, but it turned out ok. The picture when it was cleaned looks better in the pic than it actually did, and grey probably won't go with the colour combo i want with the car.

And to finish this little update off, here some new bits from the dealer, nut n bolts mainly for suspension, ARB bushes and shells. Everyone likes new bits from the dealer

what carpet cleaner did you use? im waiting to get my george, hopefully today... whats it like?

what was the cost of the disk plates etc from the dealer and what parts you get, ill probably need to the same soon..

The carpet cleaner stuff is called 1001. It's pretty good, it works well. Just keep going over it. You'll see the shite getting sucked through the nozzle. I think the disk plates are around £30 each off the top of my head. You just get the plates, I've bought all new bolts for the plates and calipers. Best way to do it is just hit it and rip it all out, get rid of the bolts, then you have to buy new then! who wants to put dirty greasy bolts back on new fresh bits anyway!

Nice writeup

Can be expensive to buy everything new so i like the way you have been cleaning all of the stuff up and making it look new again, New bolts can add up to a shed full as well but you have to have them.

Going to be keeping an eye on this thread.

Leigh

Great work there and nice to meet you today also

jimbom30cab wrote:Great work there and nice to meet you today also

Nice to meet you to Jim!

Little update, managed to get the rear arms made up. I was waiting for the shoe pins and calliper mounting bolts from the dealer.

Shoes and components in

Sprayed with some copper slip anti seize

Calipers, new disk's and pads on

Bling Bling together!

I'll probably try and find the original dust cover for the bleed nipple and bin the one's that came with the calliper rebuild kits.

Thats it for today, gonna try and get out there in the morning and get back under the car for more rust prepping / cutting out

Impressive stuff!

That's a MEGA re-build

Always love the pics of shiny bits!

zd3bx wrote:That's a MEGA re-build

Always love the pics of shiny bits!

Cheers, yeah I like the fresh pics too so will hopefully keep posting them up.

Cut some rot out of the passenger foot well today. She don't look pretty when you see the floor pans, but I guess most e30's that ain't really been touched are. It's rusted in the common places, jacking points, inner arches, battery tray, boot wells. People will be quick to judge when the pics r up of said areas, but it's my 1991 high mileage old turd that I've had 10+ years that I've grown found of lol. So I I don't care if it's gonna cost a lot. It's mine to keep till I'm old and grey (and probably divorced as I'm spending so much spare time on it). So until the next update.

Good work mate your doing it the proper way .

Wow..great restoration!

Idol wrote:

zd3bx wrote:That's a MEGA re-build

Always love the pics of shiny bits!

Cheers, yeah I like the fresh pics too so will hopefully keep posting them up.

Cut some rot out of the passenger foot well today. She don't look pretty when you see the floor pans, but I guess most e30's that ain't really been touched are. It's rusted in the common places, jacking points, inner arches, battery tray, boot wells. People will be quick to judge when the pics r up of said areas, but it's my 1991 high mileage old turd that I've had 10+ years that I've grown found of lol. So I I don't care if it's gonna cost a lot. It's mine to keep till I'm old and grey (and probably divorced as I'm spending so much spare time on it). So until the next update.

I always say they are going to need an extra big grave when i die so i can be buried IN my E30!

Nice thread mate..i look forward to updates!

Some great work done there. Keep it up!

i feel good vibes looking at your work ,the progress so far is top notch given your not a garage .

back yard builds by owners that care about quality is where it's at .

Idol wrote:Sprayed with some copper slip anti seize

Nice idea, but not so good getting it on the linings!

a tiny dab isn't the end of the world Maurice ...unlike aqua planing

soak the rear dust shields in waxoil Paul

True. I just hate getting grease/oil on my brake linings, particularly if they're new. Had to fit a set the other day, in the pissing rain - just managed to get it all back together in time for an MOT restest, which it passed.

Speedtouch wrote:True. I just hate getting grease/oil on my brake linings, particularly if they're new. Had to fit a set the other day, in the pissing rain - just managed to get it all back together in time for an MOT restest, which it passed.

yeah i'm like that too ,when i copper slipped the rear of of my front pads i got some on the discs and face side of the pads and had to take the calliper apart again to clean it off for good measure ...good news on the mot


nice sunny weekend so should be an update soon eh

Thanks. Good engineering practice, doing the job right, and redoing it if you haven't, particularly with brakes...

magpie wrote:i feel good vibes looking at your work ,the progress so far is top notch given your not a garage .

back yard builds by owners that care about quality is where it's at .

Thanks.

Not any decent update as not much work has gone on as I've been away the last couple of weekends on a Stag Do and a weekend away with the family. But I did pick the Apex springs and Sport ARB's from the Powder Coaters. The've been painted Gloss yellow, same as the original Apex colour but thought I'd get the ARB's done in the same colour. I'm impressed with them, they look brand new! I'll post some pics up soon.

Work is still gonna be slack this weekend as I'm going to Le Mans with a load of mates , looking forward to that!

Excellent work! You should be proud, I'm in the middle of restoring an old 90 dolphin sport and the bodies panels have all needed replacing! Massive money in this car now and no going bk! But I would like to replicate your work when I've finished body! Massive thumbs up pal

Nicely done. Good attention to detail with even the brake adjusters getting clean and painted despite being unseen to quickly getting dirty in service.