E30 Zone

I have been looking for an interesting E30 for a while. I have an E46 M3 for the weekends but always wanted to get back in to an E30!

I was looking for an Alpina or interesting variant but I found this E30 Hartge through some contacts stored waiting to be restored. The car had been SORN for a few years with very basic work started but was stored somewhere dry as per pics below. The photos are not all great!

The work started a few months back so will try to upload as much details as possible.

The car was brought out to be examined! I took a retired BMW mechanic along to check the car. The good news was that the car was very solid but the bad news was that it needed a lot of work as can be seen below!

Then the all important checks with Birds after Icreated a thread here. I called Birds to check it was genuine and they confirmed they had carried out the conversion using the VIN number. They had record of all the previous owners too.

The mechanic also checked that the car still had all the important items. It still had the Hartge engine, ECU, 6 branch manifold, exhaust, suspension and some accessories (in boot)! The interior will be a challenge as it had a lot of items missing including the leather interior and seats!

The car was full of parts, some nice and some not so desirable.

The car was delivered to the garage to be restored looking like this.

The initial diagnosis at the garage was that the engine was strong and the shell had no rust! This meant I could go ahead with the work, the first being a full service including belts, plugs, etc to make sure there was no nasty surprise.

The only issue they found was that the clutch was damaged so the gearbox was out for inspection and the clutch replaced.




The previous owner was intending to restore it with a more modern look so where the side strips were smoothed over. I decided to keep it OEM so the body panels had to be all stripped back.

Looks like a nice project.

What engine is it?.2.6 or 2.7?

macas wrote:Looks like a nice project.

What engine is it?.2.6 or 2.7?

Thanks. The works started a few months ago so some of these pics are from the garage from while back. It's a 2.7 engine.

It was then time to get the bodywork done, looks like a fun job!

And more prep work.

Whilst the bodywork was being carried out, I got them to take the dirty Hartge rocker cover off to be sandblasted.



And then painted!



They polished part of the 6 branch manifold to see how it came out.

Just realised that this is a right hand drive?

Im sure there is only one right hand drive 2.7 hartge convertable in existence?

ooh another hartge 2.7 cabby, this could be interesting.

i wonder if this is atta's old cabby?? where's mr hamilton??

It is a right hand drive. I was cautious as they mentioned this here so had a few calls and emails with Birds to put my mind at rest, apparently there are three conversions.

Birds are very helpful and once the car was registered to my name they verified the exact work carried out.

Looks to have A/C to , in a cab..??

Rav335uk wrote:Looks to have A/C to , in a cab..??

I am tempted to remove it.

Whilst the bodywork was being carried out, I needed to decide on the interior. I chose to continue with Cardinal red for the interior. The only issue was the missing seats so more spent getting a full set of seats retrimmed in Cardinal red! I also decided to get rid of the cream (almost grey) carpets after getting hold of some decent carpets in Cardinal red.

More pics of the paint work.

Nice work and looks like it's going to be a very nice car when your finished! Keep the updates coming

Glad someone is doing something with this. So there's two 2.7 cab conversions now, which is a surprise.

steve_k wrote:ooh another hartge 2.7 cabby, this could be interesting.

Here we go again...

I see its had the facelift rear lights cut into the pre facelift rear end.

I would be converting back to the earlier ones while all the body work is being done.

Also I would keep the A/C as its original to the car and so what if its a convertible with A/C.

Topblag wrote:Glad someone is doing something with this. So there's two 2.7 cab conversions now, which is a surprise.

appletree wrote:Nice work and looks like it's going to be a very nice car when your finished! Keep the updates coming

Thanks for your positive feedback guys. I still got a fair bit of work to get everything right.

Where can I get hold of some good centre caps?

bss325i wrote:I see its had the facelift rear lights cut into the pre facelift rear end.

I would be converting back to the earlier ones while all the body work is being done.

Also I would keep the A/C as its original to the car and so what if its a convertible with A/C.

That's what the garage said as well regarding the AC. I have to check with them regarding rear lights as this is how I bought it. I do like the newer rear lights though. Decisions decisions..

I should have more updates and photos tonight.

Cracking project mate

This car was on eBay many a time iirc. There was lots of questionable interest back then. Good to see it getting restored if it's all genuine.

It's not the Ata car is it?

Sanchez wrote:This car was on eBay many a time iirc. There was lots of questionable interest back then. Good to see it getting restored if it's all genuine.

I have been scanning eBay for a while for E30s and this I didn't see come up for sale. I could be wrong though. I got it through E46 M3 contacts.

After calling Birds several times, they said along the lines of - you have to take what you read what's on the web with a pinch of salt and it's the experts who converted them that matters. They knew the previous owners, the first one was Humprey IIRC. Just as well they keep good record!

This car was on eBay a good while ago, it was talked about on here for a bit wondering if it was a genuine hartge.

Back to the restoration & slightly off topic- there was a nice interruption with progress as I found an Alpina which I had always wanted in the form of a E46 B3 3.3 touring. Decided to go for it as there are not many in touring variety apparently. Lovely car but needed a bit of work, next on the list for refurb after the Hartge is finished!

The engine mount was perished so that was replaced. The steering was vague and this was down to the steering guibo (?) and this too was replaced.

After being off the road for few years, the car was taken for a first test drive. There was a bit of noise from the front passenger wheel which the garage thought was a disc but turned out to be the bearing. I decided to have the front wheel bearings, discs and pads all replaced!





The bonnet insulation was also peeling so this replaced with a new one from the dealers.

Just before the car was due to go for the MOT, the mechanic found a leak on the power steering so they replaced the rack.

Are there any parts that are worth replacing when restoring E30s?

Do you mean like service items, bushes etc or like service upgrades like z3 rack, z3 shirt shift etc to make them more modern.

appletree wrote:Do you mean like service items, bushes etc or like service upgrades like z3 rack, z3 shirt shift etc to make them more modern.

I wanted to keep it fairly standard and replace service items which would have been worn over the years.

I am thinking of using it for a few months before considering the upgrades of things like the racks. Maybe I should test drive one with the upgrades first Does that make sense?

I plan to take the car in to Birds when the first stage of work is completed and considering fitting Hartge short shift:

http://www.birdsauto.com/tuning/search?s=19241

Probably worth doing rear subframe bushes then and trailing arm bushes.

Most people upgrade the below to improve the e30 most will be worn on the average e30 angway
Rear subframe Bush fillers (Dan the does these)
Z3 short shift
Z3 1.9 . E36 M3 or e46 club sport steering rack (Might be difficult with hartge banannas though)
Z3 rear top mount reinforcement plates
E46 cab rear top mounts
M3 eccentric track rod control arm bushes

Other than that just a good service of the normal plugs, oil, cam belt etc will be a good start.

I got a sneak peek of the progress from the garage, although the paintwork is not yet fully finished!

You must be spending a fortune on this car?