E30 Zone

First thread on here and my first 'proper' build I guess. Few shots of my previous cars,

1994 VR6 Corrado on schmidts and kw's. (I really really miss this)



2000 B5 S4. 340bhp on bbs e28's static



However with the e30 ive just bought, its really going to be a much more in depth build. Starting with a 1983 pre facelift 318i with a 325 fitted by the previous owner. However he gave up just before he finished due to a bunch of reasons and left it standing for 6 years. I picked it up ebay and drove the 8 hour round journey twice to go get it. Once to see and then again with the trailer. Here's some crappy phone pictures.







I bought it because it was super rust free and really straight. V pleased with it. Some pictures at home





Wasn't long before i splashed out on this. Holset HX35 twin scroll with 12mm housing.



Pulled the old m20 out. £250 is anyone wants it with all the ancils.





All the room for activites!



A donor e36 325 m50 has been sourced and i'll be digging it out the scrapyard next weekend :cool

Right, flew up to my breaker friends to pick up the e36 donor.

1993 rHD e36 325 M50B25TU. Was seized by the police for insurance problems in 1999. Been stood in the yard ever since. Lots of genuine m3 bits on it, i was told by the scrap yard owner this guy really loved his car. He's now in prison for some unpleasant reasons but we wont go into that.

After a five hour drive herE it stood in the darkness on the drive



and in the morning light



the wheels were chucked on, as it didn’t have any one when we moved it with the hiab.



squashed into the garage



and the money shot. this thing doesn’t know whats coming.


should have the engine out early next week.

small update.

Because its pre 94, its fitted with a '413 red lable' ecu, so no imob. Thought it would be a laugh to try and start it before i pulled the engine out. Do a burnout or something equally as anti social to annoy the neighbours. Keep in mind its not started since 1999...



DrIlled into the tailgate to get the boot open and stuck another battery in it, fetch the ignition switch out and turned it with a screwdirver and hey prEsto, ignition!




TurNs out the mileage is tiny, 53199. Motor will be getting rebuilt anyway. No crank however. released its got a real rubbish aftermarket sigma immobiliser on it. Started ripping it out, and got the heap to turn over. Sounded okay, but cant get the fuel pump to prIme so couldn’t start it.Its showing a 1/4 of a tank of fuel, hope its not water ha. Tomorrow i'll spend a little longer on it, see if i can work out how the immobiliser is killing the fuel.

In an attempt to get it started i’ve been doing a little troubleshooting. TurNs out the fuel pump is dead. Pulled out the back seat (past all the brOken glass and varIous other shit) and tried putting a voltage to it - nothing. Pulled it out and its pretty shagged. All the petrol has turned to jelly too.



Ah well, doesn’t matter really just thought it would be fun to here it running its its original body one last time. Will be pulling the engine with Thooooom this saturday

Engines out! Bit of a pig compared to the e30. Because its been stood for so long everything was very seized. Decided to cut the front end off and drag it out with the engine crane. Couldn’t get the downpipes off, so they came out too.



There was so much moss and shit on the plenum chamber. All went up the hoover.



Garage is such a mess. Will be very glad when the shell goes.





Don’t laugh at my headtorch!





Left to rest for the night.


M20 engine sold and was collected last night too so thats good. Need to get rId of the e36 shell then the e30 can come into the garage and the smoothing can begin.*ï¿a*

another update. moved some stuff around so the e30 can go in the garage. didn’t want the e36 looking a state on the drive so got that covered up nicely. removed the terrible aplina spoiler from the boot and its got some nasty holes going on. will try and find something to replace it with.













ALL of the room





also knocked up a bit of a to do list and a rough order of things to do.



it reads

1. get parts for 5 stud conversion
2. parts for crOssmember refurb including z3 rack and steering column fabrication
3. coilovers and 5 stud wheels
4. smooth bay.
5. marry engine and box temporally with engine arms
6. worK out mounts & position, year levees and box cross member
7. send car away with engine in for manifold to be made
8. spends loads of money on vems and sort loom adaptor, tuck loom
9. rebuilding engine
10. refit engine and start and fix problems/leaks etc
11. remorage house to pay for everything.
12. remove engine for paint.
13. engine back in carefully
14. take car for mot and tuning
15. apply wheels and stance
16. mcdonalds breakfast on the way to ultimate dubzzzzz 2015
17, lots of skidding
18. no crashing!

Lack of progress recently due to being busy at work, spend this weekend in stockholm too but made some progress this evening. StrIpped the front end a bit more, got the wings and crossmember off.
Very pleased with the lack of rust on this car. Im waiting to find the massive hole hiding somewhere waiting to surprise me. So far so good though.

Thinking about replacing all the suspension parts with brand new stuff bar the crossmember itself. for the price of stuff like the wishbones it doesn’t seem worth cleaning them up. Picking up a z3 rack tomorrow which is awesome, so i can start rebuilding the front end. Will buy coilovers at the end of the month as an early christmas present to myself. Think ive settled on bc's now im not doing a 5 stud conversion, but will not doubt have to get custom springs. Will try and finish grinding the bay this week and remove the rest of the parts like the servo and the seam sealant. Some pictures.....







so much ROOM!







so i could move it around the garage, dropped the rails onto some blocks of wood and onto these homemade caster trolleys my dad made ages ago for something else. dead easy to move around now!





garage gets a little messy because of the lack of room, so sorry for the clutter.

thanks

little update.

picked up the z3 rack and strIpped the crossmember. will get the new bits ordered and get the new rack painted.





need to do some research on the right lines, track rods and ends to use if anyone has any knowledge on this that would be great

also test fitted harpers wheels. the big looser ;) looks pretty sick though

Looks good, looking forward to seeing the build progress.

another evening spent.

started removing paint and stuff from the engine bay, had to use a respirator after a bit due to the amount of sealant ending up inside my nose



stripped the rack and gave that a good scrub ready for paint, came up really good. had a go at the trAck rods but they'rE shagged, so i'll replace those. split the subframe and arb and brAckets etc, will take them for powder coating tomorrow.



removed servo and started to remove all the sound insulation on the bulk head. came across a bit of rust, nothing major though



current state of the bay

for some reason i keep breaking power tools. first the (all beit cheap) impact gun,



and today to 20 year old+ makita grinder died in a fury of sparks, so i nipped out and replaced it with a new dewalt one. its good, just aggressive as hell.

No major update, just pressing on with stuff.


(messy bench D: )



was originally going to clean up the flanges and press new bearings in, but the flanges have some pretty deep corrosion and a pair of brand new flanges with bearings is like ~£50 so i'll just do that.





roughly chopped the struts up and cleaned them both up ready for the coilovers which i'll have pretty soon. ended with some BC's supplied through a good friend's company, ssautowerks.

think ive decided to pull the fusebox into the car through the bulkhead just unsure of the best way to go about it. i guess the proper way would be to pull the interior loom apart and pull it through, but tbh, i'll probably just cut all the wires just after the box, and reattached on the other side.

also not sure on how to smooth the inner wings. like how much i can get away with sealant/body filler without it cracking, or should i be lead loading the rough sections? the inner flitches will be sheeted over, and then spotted. but then im not sure wether i should be seam welding all the way along, or spotting it and using filler. seam would be the best way to do it, i just dont want to warp the sheet. mhmmmmm.

little update. pretty ready for welding and sealant. away with the girlfriend over the weekend, but I've got a bunch of days off next week so hopefully i'll get some good work done. going to order coilovers, and all the other front running gear.

Big update. Alex took some fancy pictures like he usually does whilst me and thom stripped the engine.



And then after i spent an hour or so learning to weld with the borrowed welder, me and thom started cutting the templates for the inner flitches out of a guitar hero box haha.



(DAT HEADTORCH :ph34r: )













thats the current state. stopped before i finished that one side. its cut, just needs welding in. but all the holes have been welded and ground down, so have the back and front sections. happy with the progress. not happy with my burnt face from the welder <_< oh, also ordered coilovers and all front suspension bits.

picture of aforementioned coilovers



took a stag at 18 fronts and 20 rears, but we'll have to see once they're on the car.

still waiting on the crossmember to come back from the powder coaters, the rack and all the new bits are painted and ready to go on (thanks to thooooom for that ;) )



and this is what im at currently, excuse the shoddy welds



need to finish a few tiny bits of welding, and grind all the welds down. then its time for some seam sealant i think. Little but unsure on this side of it though. Mind, i was when i started the welding ha. I have no idea about anything. Will see if i can ue the coming holiday days before is start my new job on the 5th, the get some sealer down and stuff.

Quick work, the Audi looked nice, touring car style. That Alpina spoiler would have been worth abit! Also are they highbacks I spy! Tasty

The spoiler sold twice to people who wouldnt pay. Went for about 150 in the end I think. I'm after something to fill the holes it left if you have an suggestions? And also the seats? How much are they worth? I'm after a full houndstooth interior instead. Or whatever it's called ha.

iamsilverfox wrote:The spoiler sold twice to people who would pay. Went for about 150 in the end I think. I'm after something to fill the holes it left if you have an suggestions? And also the seats? How much are they worth? I'm after a full houndstooth interior instead. Or whatever it's called ha.

As mentioned on ED38 - those seats are worth a fair bit, however wrap them up and stick them in the loft as they'll likely to be worth more in years to come.

These are the same but with an M3 rear bench to give you rough idea, depends on condition though obviously.

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vi ... GB&alt=web

This is a great thread!

They look like VAG seats to me, not BMW

iamsilverfox wrote:The spoiler sold twice to people who would pay. Went for about 150 in the end I think. I'm after something to fill the holes it left if you have an suggestions? And also the seats? How much are they worth? I'm after a full houndstooth interior instead. Or whatever it's called ha.

A mtech1 spoiler would probably suit the car best.

blimey thats alot! the dude who hd it originally told me they were worth loads however the dude who collected the spoiler said something about the handle on the edge being in the wrong place, like too high up or something. so that meant theyre ford seats? but he said someone must have fitted the bmw plastics to them, but that seems unlikely. Is there anyway to identify more accurately what they are?

id like to swap them for a houndstooth interior ideally. and an mtech1 spoiler, that looks good! how much can you pick them up for?

Post some pics of the seats and someone will tell you on here as there are some knowledgeable people on here when it comes to rare parts.

Tech one spoilers are around £150 it would seam at the minute.

Hi GREAT thread there mate, looking forward to seeing this built very much.

I actually know this car quite well and the previous owner. It is one of the best preface lift shells I know, very very clean.

I would definitely buy the seats if you wanted to sell them, just drop me a PM with the details

Super car, well looking forward to seeing this built.

okay. i'll get some pictures at some point. anything in particular that helps identify the seats? front and rear, with cards aswell probably. i'll respond to all the pm's about the seats once ive identified what they are ha. anyone know of an mtech1 spoiler for sale

Hey mate, Welcome to the world of E30 ownership and modification (which never ends no matter when you think its finally complete )

Good progress so far!

Can i just ask why the welded plates in the engine bay?


Im guessing your going for the smooth look?

Good luck with the progress

you don't to post any pics up, I know the car very well and if you want to sell the seats, send me your price and payment details

thanks.

Its a dub thing man

jaysus that is an epic disaster !!

Great thread! I wouldn't want to be a neighbour to anyone that does this sort of thing from their home garage, but I respect the hard work you're putting into this project. I wish I had spent my youth learning the skills you have. Keep up the good work and the updates.

Great read so far, wonder if the E36 owner is sat in prison looking forward to get his car back...

e30topless wrote:jaysus that is an epic disaster !!

DanThe wrote:Its a dub thing man

and just because it looks pretty damn cool.

Gert_8 wrote:Great thread! I wouldn't want to be a neighbour to anyone that does this sort of thing from their home garage, but I respect the hard work you're putting into this project. I wish I had spent my youth learning the skills you have. Keep up the good work and the updates.

thanks dude! i live in a detached to its not too bad. besides i have very good relationships with the neighbours in the close, they're all quite old so i look after their cars/gardens stuff like that. we all get on

kieronjb wrote:Great read so far, wonder if the E36 owner is sat in prison looking forward to get his car back...

haha, its out pretty soon iirc

Nice work very interesting to read.

rob0r wrote:Nice work very interesting to read.

thanks dude

plates seam welded in and ground down. also bought a little propane heater for the garage which is awesome

progress is slow and pretty rubbish atm. struggling to find a way to grind down the edge where the inner arch meets the fabricated panel. its too tight for a grinder. could do with one of those long belt sander things, but thats $$$$ i dont have.

this is best ive got them so far using a grinding disk on the angle grinder and nibbling away at it. (ignore my shit welding)



but there's areas like this which are too boxed in for the grinder





its really holding up progress as everything else is pretty much welded and grinded and ready for filler.