E30 Zone

An indeterminable amount of time ago, I sold a 318iS Powerflow exhaust system to a chap called James who lived up near Derby. He had a black 318iS he drive daily and bought my old exhaust for his car. One piece was missing and I vowed to find it and send it up to him (although to be fair he wasn't too worried about it). Cut to... 18months or so later, I found said part and got in touch only to find the car was of the road due to a minor non fault accident not long after we first met. A deal was made and I ended up with my exhaust back...


...attached to the rest of the car...





Because I needed a third iS of course

I must admit, at the time I needed an engine for my racing car, the interior was in good shape and I could break the car up get my money back and some nice spare parts. The car proceeded to sit in the compound by my workshop for the best part of a further 12 months under a cover until I could make space to do what ever I was going to do with it.




Now, I was home one day going through the paper work for my cars and realised that in actual fact, the car had a lot of money spent on it over the years to keep it maintained and running and there was a tonne of paper work and documents. Despite its rough exterior, this was a car that mechanically had been cared for. Being a sado I took pitty on it and brought it in to start work repairing it.

I moved one of my beloved 'Poppy' to a garage near my house and 'Emily' now had a place to live.




First was I removed the engine and gearbox as the rubber mounts were shot and the front sub frame was corroded.




A replacement subframe and steering rack (the other one was leaking) were assembled and the wishbones and ARB were painted and reassembled with all new nuts and fixings.




The bonnet, valance and bumper were the most damaged parts. A very long drawn out search ensued and eventually I found the correct parts.




Work did/has stalled slightly when I moved all the cars to a new workshop closer to home. And this is the point I am at. Next plan of action is to refit the engine and gearbox to get the car back to a driver again. Then refit all the body work. Or vise versa




Thanks for checking in.

Nice work chap, keep us updated!

Cheers,
Tel

Nice write up. Keep going

Cheers guys, I'm hoping to give the whole fleet some love over Christmas so fingers crossed for some updates

Nice job! Save the girl, and make her smile again.. :p
Will look forward to see her fixed up again..

Looking forward to the rest of the story.

rix313 wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 14, 2018 3:00 pm

Cheers guys, I'm hoping to give the whole fleet some love over Christmas so fingers crossed for some updates

Great set of pics there and you cant have enough e-30`s anyway .lol


Mart.

Great to see this saved. Keep the updates coming!

I had a bit of a crisis of faith earlier as I felt his car was using up time and resources that should be going towards the other two cars but it's worth nothing in a million pieces so I pushed on.

Today I got the valance, bumper and grills refitted. I have found that fitting parts from other 30yr old cars to this 30yr old car has presented it's fair share of challenges with panel gaps and alignment. I have managed to get it somewhere sensible for the time being so the car is presentable. So at least she looks like a car now. I expect there won't be a tonne of progress as I really need to pay attention to the other two before I crack on with refitting the engine and other ancillaries.






She was joined today by 'Herman', a low owner E30 316i auto mooredoor that belongs to a friend. He recently had a prang in it and I offered the shelter and use of my equipment and knowledge to help him get it back on the road.

What a great attitude you have sir

I hope it all goes well for him. (and yours)

Mart.

Went up today to do some bits on poppy but forgot the keys do did a couple of small jobs on this car. Dusted over rad panel and headlight mounts with black paint and fitted the headlights which I had prepared previously. Then the kidney grille was painted black but was chipped to hell. A wire brush came out and to my surprise the black paint was removed and the chrome was in pretty good nick! I then removed the bonnet again read to get the engine bay back together and the engine fitted at some point. Also dug out a set of brake scoops but they're blue so they'll need painting at some point.

She’s got her heart back!





Back in with new engine and gearbox mounts. A few more bits to plumb in and fettle and I’ll be ready to turn the key and make it live again.

Now my race season is finished and Winston and Poppy have been parked up for winter I have started to crack on with 'Emily' again.

First port of call was to finish the engine install and get her running again. I decided at the last minute to delete the throttle heater as this car will be used for track days by my dad, so that has gone in the bin. Once al connected I put some fuel in, primed the fuel system by bridging the fuel relay and hoped for the best. She fired up first go! With no exhaust on the car it sounded horrendous and I was limited on how much work I could do warming her up as I didn’t want to piss the neighbours off. One mildly amusing mistake I mate was I noticed the oil pressure warning light was on but very dim, the longer the car ran, the brighter it got. I then noticed the water temp gauge wasn’t working. Guess what, I got the plugs the wrong way round, doh.

As she had been sat for so long all the old coolant had crystallised and I was struggling to get any water to pump around the engine. I removed the thermostat housing to inspect and all was well there. Next I removed the pump and well.. a picture speaks a thousand words:



So out came the pressure washer and a pick to clean it up:




I did warm her up a bit to check for leaks but I need to wait until the exhaust is sorted before I’ll try again properly.

Linking seamlessly onto the exhaust. This exhaust is whole reason I have the car. I had it on my track car, sold it to the previous owner of Emily who got in touch with me as he was selling the car. So now I have the exhaust back and the extra car. I’ve now got the pieces to tidy it up as the tail pipe I previously had was horrendous. My fabricator friend will come to make it good along with the next items






I invested in a 2 post ramp for the workshop. Game changer!! Now wit the car in the air I could have a proper poke around. I knew there was some damage and rust where someone jacked the car up in the wrong place in the past and buckled the floor. There was also some corrosion on the right rear wishbone and front (badly named) jacking point. All offending parts removed so I can get some material and makes the filler pieces to be welded in.
















There’s still a bit more tidying up to do but I wanted my welder mate to be there to tell me what else he needs me to do for him to repair.

Other than that, the prop shaft is on, heat shields are on, I’ve fitted new brakes all round, shes looking in reasonable shape for an MOT soon.

Following this
Looks like this will be looked after

Massively jealous of your workshop!

AndyB wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 22, 2019 12:24 pm

Following this
Looks like this will be looked after

I keep in regular contact with the old owner, he was always gutted to let her go and I'm glad I now have the space to finally get her back together again, All the more worth it that I'll get to spend some days out with my dad at track days enjoying her as well.

iDemonix wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 22, 2019 12:36 pm

Massively jealous of your workshop!

Haha cheers, I share it with a mate of mine. We rent it from a local farmer and have spent a lot on the electrics, floor and equipment.

rix313 wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 22, 2019 3:03 pm

Haha cheers, I share it with a mate of mine. We rent it from a local farmer and have spent a lot on the electrics, floor and equipment.

Nice, that's what I want to try and find when I move back to Notts, going to be a struggle though...

It took me about three years to suss out where was local and who the correct people were to ask about it. Always quite a sensitive thing to ask farmers to rent their units for this purpose. Thankfully they have 3 sheds they have now let out and we’re all classic german car nuts. The boys next door are VW guys and next to them is I to his vintage Merc’s.

Tonight I took a light pattern template from Poppy and transferred it across to Em to set the headlights. Going on the basis Poppy always passes I thought it was a good place to start. To be fair they weren’t far off! Glad they’re done though as it was freaking me out a bit, all adjusters were working so it was a doddle! I’ve ditched the HID kit and have ordered some standard H1 bulbs. Once they’re in I can tidy the wiring and put the inner covers on.






Then I put the bonnet back on and fitted a new gas strut. It’s nice to put this on as it feels like the engine bay is almost done and she looks like a car again! The replacement bonnet has a bend in one corner which is a bit annoying but the lengths I had to go to to get a black bonnet I just snapped it up. It’s far from the worst part of the body work so if it ever does get to the point where the paint gets some attention it’ll all get sorted.




This weekend I hope to have the exhaust sorted after the new tail pipe turned up

It’s been a great weekend in terms of progress. My friend the fabricator came over yesterday and today to sort out the rust spots and now they are all sorted.








He also did an amazing job of the tail pipe for the exhaust. I am so happy with this. We spent a bit of time aligning it and now it is perfect.




Slightly less gripping but still important for me was to fit all the front under trays, brake ducts and liners to complete the front end.






I removed the HID kit and fitted some standard H1 bulbs, refitted the headlight covers. I also decided to fit a strut brace I have spare from my race car. Engine bay complete.




Finally once all that was done I could not stop myself from putting some wheels on and driving her outside. It is the first time in the best part of 4 years she has been driven. I put a set of bottle tops on her and ceremoniously drove her outside.








Next on the job list is to finish finish the under-sealing and then refit the interior parts removed to make the welding possible. Then I will be taking her for an MOT

It's been a busy few weeks! I've had some time off work so have been grafting away at the workshop on this car. I got her on a set of wheels from the race car that had great tyres on. I actually really like the stance of it with these wheels on and they'll be good for track days too.








The first MOT was a fail which really pissed me off The list wasn't huge but all the same. 4 brake lines needed changing, they said that trailing arms can't be repaired, the fuel tank had a leak by the filler and a front bleed nipple had failed. Doh. they're also flagged up a number plate light not working and the drivers side mirror being hazy.

So as soon as I got back:



Sneakily I took the trailing arm back to my fabricator mate and he cut the section out, but welded in a new section and then polished back the welds. I then wire brushed the whole wishbone and painted and undersealed to fill in any imperfections. It looks perfect. I was trying to make brake lines but my tool broke. After much messing about I ordered the lengths from BMW dealer and I wish I had just done that in the first place.

As fo the fuel tank I cleaned the filler pipe and put new clips on. I took a mirror glass and number plate light from one of my other cars to complete the set.

I also took the time to remove the wiper motor as I had a case of the common intermittent 'mode' not working. After taking it apart it was pretty clear why it wasn't working:






So yesterday I took her back and all good She's finally got an MOT and is road legal after all this time! I keep in regular contact with the previous owner and he's been super happy to see her alive again.

Sadly I had not actually fixed the fuel tank leak as filling up on my way home it started to leak from the filler again. On closer inspection it has rusted through where the rubber pipe joins to the tank. Fuck it. So that needs to be replaced but as the car won't be used for a while it'll have to wait.

finally I also fitted my medium case 4.1 LSD which I had spare from the race car

Nice mate good work.

billyfrost wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 12, 2019 4:50 pm

Nice mate good work.

Certainly been a labour of love. Spending time enjoying driving her with my dad has spurred me on. Going to take a break from this car for a bit though and focus on my race car engine.

I thought my wiper motor was bad when I took it apart for the same fault as yours, but with respect yours is in a really bad way.

Ha yeah I was amazed how gross it was. Pretty amazing really how it can get that bad.

Only one photo today but a couple of updates. I fitted a set of Meyle eccentric front wishbone bushes. I was pleasantly surprised how inexpensive they were and also very easy to swap.




I also discovered there was a leak from the metal filler on the fuel tank. This left me no option but to remove the tank. Thankfully the tank in my race car was perfect and I was removing it for a light weight version. So like family members helping each other out, the fuel tank from Winston was removed and transplanted into Emily. I also installed the ECU from the race car which has a mapped chip installed along with the airbag and K&N panel filter.

I'm trying to get some mileage on the car before handing it over to my dad. Once all this Covid stuff clears up we will be booking our first track day in this car, a day I'm really looking forward to!

I recently fitted a Z3 shifter to this car which was removed from my race car. I'm hoping to get down to my dads when all this lock down stuff is over to hand the car over to him.

I got Cotswolds BMW to send me the original spec for this car. It's always nice to see. Looks like it was a pretty basic spec 318iS with steel wheels (assuming this as no optional wheels are selected), the manual sunroof and no other extras.

I finally got my hands on a sensibly priced iS lip for her. Slight blessing really that she's black and the body work isn't fantastic as it looks great as it is. She's finally a complete iS

Last September in the brief moments we were allowed outside dad and I did a track day at Castle Combe. Other than the drive to and from the MOT centre this was it's first time being driven in, 5 or so years! Started the day on a set of treaded tyres and once everything was checked over and dad was happy driving the car, we put a set of used R888R tyres on. It was a fantastic day and weather was really nice. We were getting comments from guys in Porsches saying how impressed they were with the plucky E30 It handled very well considering it is really just a road car, the LSD was sublime, The main thing I noticed rather quickly was how much extra lock the standard rack required compared to what I have been used to with the purple tag in the race car. A Z3 or purple tag rack will be on the cards for this car soon

Looking great Rich, if I had to buy another e30 it would be a 318is after having had a 318ti.

Mart.

After two years of trips to Castle Combe and Goodwood for track days with my dad, I finally decided to 'thin' the E30 fleet down. As luck would have it, a guy in the next unit had a friend who was looking for an E30 project. After chatting about the car and seeing some pics I went down to Wiltshire to pick her up and bring her back to my workshop. Gave her a wash and a spruce up and the deal was done. She'll be staying local which is cool and the guy is a painter so I look forward to seeing her looking like new again