Jamesy's E30 Project (Pic Heavy)

[Imjamesy]

Hello, i'm sam and i'm new to the e30 world and new to this forum so just like to say hello and thanks to anyone reading this.

All work will be carried out by myself and hope you enjoy my work.

So, the car.....

1987 318i auto
a little bit of rust and a fair few owners later, shes mine.

this is how i got her



So, inspection and strip down began!





















so after a few hours stripping and ripping and snaping clips and bending trims here we are! all loaded up and off to storage whilst i finish the important bits!



i am no photographer so bare with me

now i need some advice, at this moment in time i have a blank canvas, do i restore or modify? i see modified ones (colour changed and engine swaps) going for more ££ than the 'original' looking ones? i know its no special edition but i'm really not sure what to do.......

hop

[Lurch320i]

Welcome to E30's those rust problems you have, we've all had them in exactly the same places so nothing new there
Looks good and I look forward to the progress

[Steve]

Welcome Sam.

Yeah rust in all the usual places ! don't forget to check the bulkhead as well.

[Gert_8]

Welcome Sam. Look forward to the progress on this!

[pacerpete]

Looking forward to loads more rust / gape pics !

[magpie]

that's an arse end to run from not get funky with

hope you got good welding skillz Sam .


best of luck

[jimbom30cab]

Welcome and nice pics

No worse than most e30s, all of them are like this (almost)

Enjoy

[Imjamesy]

Cheers for the warm welcome!
Rust hasn't put me off so hopefully i can get her straight

Nice one steve, had a quick check and looking abit suspect around the steering rack hole will add a few pictures on the end.

Don't fear magpie i'm a painting, preping, panel beating, mechanic with a nvq in welding!

Can anyone point me in the right direction for inner rear arch repair sections? Only ones i can find are in denmark......

So today i hoped to get some sand blasting done but this evening has a dead car with a shagged ecu in the blasting area so ill hopefully get down to it after work tomorrow! After steves advice i decided to look over the bulkhead and heres what i found!



So looking pretty good until i delved a little deeper



Only just started to bubble from the inside so FOR NOW im going to leave it alone. My plan is to get the outer bits all sorted and get her looking mint then look at doing an engine swap and potential smooth bay

[Imjamesy]

Little update, managed to get out in the sun and have a play with our blaster. Using fine glass grit i cleaned up the areas mainly to see how far the rot had spread, luckily not too far!
Bit of previous repair work to sort out too.

Few pictures














Collection of parts is building up! Ordered my inner arches today too so as soon as they arrive its angle grinder time!

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[Imjamesy]

also decided the rubbery under seal isn't the easiest thing to blast off! so ill be removing it with a wire wheel on the angle grinder or something similar

[rix313]

It'll look mega once it's done

[Cypriotgeeza]

Hey Sam, welcome to the zone!

It looks like your NVQ in welding will get put to good use with that

I'd 100% recommend an engine conversion + manual box after its done! unless it's a very well maintained 2.5i sport engine or eta engine I wouldn't bother anymore, much better power (and fun ) can be had for not much money!

E30 wiki - engine conversions or even the engine conversion section on the zone is your friend!

Good luck with her!

[Imjamesy]

It'll look mega once it's done

Cheers bud!

Hey Sam, welcome to the zone!

It looks like your NVQ in welding will get put to good use with that

I'd 100% recommend an engine conversion + manual box after its done! unless it's a very well maintained 2.5i sport engine or eta engine I wouldn't bother anymore, much better power (and fun ) can be had for not much money!

E30 wiki - engine conversions or even the engine conversion section on the zone is your friend!

Good luck with her!

Thank! Engine swap is definitely on the cards! look at m60b40 if im honest! ive always wanted a e30 and ive always wanted a v8. not after track times or race car so not bothered if it messes up the handling. either that or a straight 6 engine with a turbo?

but v8 is imprinted in my mind hah! need to get everything else done before i think about that.

[Cypriotgeeza]

It'll look mega once it's done

Cheers bud!

Hey Sam, welcome to the zone!

It looks like your NVQ in welding will get put to good use with that

I'd 100% recommend an engine conversion + manual box after its done! unless it's a very well maintained 2.5i sport engine or eta engine I wouldn't bother anymore, much better power (and fun ) can be had for not much money!

E30 wiki - engine conversions or even the engine conversion section on the zone is your friend!

Good luck with her!

Thank! Engine swap is definitely on the cards! look at m60b40 if im honest! ive always wanted a e30 and ive always wanted a v8. not after track times or race car so not bothered if it messes up the handling. either that or a straight 6 engine with a turbo?

but v8 is imprinted in my mind hah! need to get everything else done before i think about that.

I don't blame you at all mate!

I've always said if a conrod goes through the side of the block of my M30 I will start hunting for a V8!

There's just something about the V8 gurgle which can't be matched!

One day. .

[Imjamesy]

I don't blame you at all mate!

I've always said if a conrod goes through the side of the block of my M30 I will start hunting for a V8!

There's just something about the V8 gurgle which can't be matched!

One day. .

I'll keep dreaming for now! lol got a lot to get on with!

[Imjamesy]

So my inner arches have finally arrived! With that its also dawned on me how I've not actually done a panel job this big ever. Although i won't be using the whole panel, it really seems a shame to cut them up.




Whilst our window man was here i asked him for advice on removing the windows, so they all came out today. Proud to say all by myself (first time) all except for my getting impatient and cracking the front screen




So what have i learnt today? To pay the window man to do windows................

[Imjamesy]

Been a few weeks with to be honest slow progress!
Been flat out with work so my 'in-between' jobs approach hasn't really worked with it.
managed to get the n/s inner arch out without removing hard any of the outer arch which will help me later on with lining up ext.

Few pics anyway....







So i didn't have to drill any of the spot welds out because they're weak as shit and awkward. i just used a slitting disc and cut the bulk of it out. then a sharp chisel and an old planishing hammer so remove the excess. then anything i couldn't get off was removed with a belt sander (3m cubitron belts are brilliant)!
Still want to do a lot more tidying up and the obvious bit of rot needs to be sorted (on the inner inner arch lol)

Although its not ready to weld in just yet i got excited with my new hole punch

[Imjamesy]

Little update from this evening. Had a week off and been itching to get bits done so got some hours in tonight!
mainly consisted of cleaning and priming with a few plates and some lining up
now the important bit, a few pics lol
little plate needed in the inner inner arc. now cut out the lower rear panel to line up the bottom of this plate being put in. (more pics when its tidied up)




cleaning up the area ready to be primed



Found this little shit spot, its only on the surface so it just wire brushed the death out of it then coated it in kurust then using the strip off wheel cleaned it up.



then on went abit of zinc weld through primer!



now onto the little plate which i left oversized at the edges for adjustment, will be trimmed up before its welded in properly.
its also just tacked on at the moment as it'll be coming off to get it really clean behind it first. (more pics tomorrow hopefully)


also notice the few tacks higher up, not sure if anyone else does this but i over size my patches then tack it over the hole. using a slitting disc then cut through both layers of metal and they normally line up pretty much perfect.

also removed the jack holder as it was rusting underneath, will be put back on at a later date.


so this is where we are left today, the lower panel still needs cutting in at the top as its overlapped in these pictures but other than that its all pretty much ready for welding.