E30 Zone

right chaps ive jumped the gun and decided to start building my track car before i get my garage built. i bought a goodish base for more than i wanted to spend, but the plans at the moment are too do an engine conversion and turbo/sc it as well, so i figure this car could well be a keeper judging by the amount of money im going to be spunking on it. the car came with some spares and extra wheels and stuff to sell to keep the cost of buying it down. dont expect mega progress as theres a lot i dont want to do until the garage gets built so it may be fairly slow going. ill probably keep the m20 for a wee while but i haven't ruled out swapping the m30 over from the touring. in all honesty i think its going to be an m50 conversion though.





started stripping it out in the last few weeks and havent got very far at all due to the shitty weather aberdeen has being offering recently.





some lovely council gearknob action



council method of putting 6x9 speakers in didnt notice this when i bought it



the boys wiring is unbelievably bad, he must have shares in scotchclips and black tape



no rust up here thank god



this is the worst bit (nice repair) and there is some on the offside inner wing too. its pretty rot free everywhere else...quite chuffed with that part so far.




manual window regs replace electrics for some easy weight loss


thats it so far. just chipping away at the remaining sound proofing on the floor at the moment.

Lovely looking car mate, like the colour as well. The only probs you have highlighted are minor and easily put right IMO. Got yourself a minter.

..and an E30 number plate to go with it!

nice oen mate, rare to find a sport with little rust, I had a look under my sunroof the other week there, its not a pretty sight!

Nice example, almost too good to track!!!

It's going to be a weapon.

Slinky, I don't think it's a sport!

liking the numberplate

E30 i did chop dis ???

Looking good fella, my tourer looks exactly the same atm lol, good to see your check panel where it is as well

If she's going on the track, try to relocated all the loom on the flour under the dash then, grind then little nasty threads off the flour as well.

Keep us informed.

Neil.

Nelly wrote:E30 i did chop dis ???

Looking good fella, my tourer looks exactly the same atm lol, good to see your check panel where it is as well

If she's going on the track, try to relocated all the loom on the flour under the dash then, grind then little nasty threads off the flour as well.

Keep us informed.

Neil.

yeh i nicked the check control idea off your thread......fits very nicely


the number plate was a bonus but pretty useless really as im not a fan of stupid spacing....only an e30 fan would get it anyway

Looks like it will be a quick little thing....

u destroyed it you evil man!

sort out the rear shelf it forms part of the integrity of the car if your gona race it you don't want it to crumple if your hit from behind mate

maxel wrote: u destroyed it you evil man!

whipsey wrote:sort out the rear shelf it forms part of the integrity of the car if your gona race it you don't want it to crumple if your hit from behind mate

yeh i thought it might be structural. im not sure how im going to go about it though. im thinking for neatness it might be easier to cut out the entire panel and just weld a flat plate in. as you can see its going to be a bastard to make 2 panels to fit it with all the bends and stuff thats there. any other suggestions welcome.

Lookin good Nick, you could maybe cut a panel out neatly from another car and weld it in?
I presume this is heading for Knockhill? Or do you have somewhere further in mind?

what about putting box section in? i've see the result of a rear ended e30 that had holes hacked out here was not nice

Ritchie wrote:Lookin good Nick, you could maybe cut a panel out neatly from another car and weld it in?
I presume this is heading for Knockhill? Or do you have somewhere further in mind?

ritchie i didnt want to call it a trackcar as there are no tracks near us and its also going to be my summer car for terrorising the general public....but....its probably going to see the ring a few times....and any other trackdays i fancy....im hoping to make it look good but im also planning on caning the bejesus out of it

i thought about cutting one out of another car but then thought it would be just as easy to weld a flat plate in.

whipsey wrote: what about putting box section in? i've see the result of a rear ended e30 that had holes hacked out here was not nice

im not with you on the box section? do you mean a flat plate welded in would need to be strenghtened with box?

not sure was just thinking they use box section to make race car chassis etc due to the strength and weight etc

i see. im thinking you might be right though. if you look at the original panel its got boxy bits to make it stronger.

im sure i saw on here there was a guy with a white m3 that he has stripped and was in the middle of painting, it had a flat panel there instead of the original.

i suppose it's like having a rear strut brace but one welded in might be able to fix it properly all round to a roll cage!

mini update. the footwells are still filling up with water at an alarming rate with all the water that has fallen from the sky recently . couldnt see where it was coming from so i took the dash out to inspect and to remove all that grey foam stuff.

dash out



this is between the heater and the steering column. the other side is directly below the elephants trunk which was missing so im guessing water had been sitting on a seam or something on the other side. it doesnt look too bad so ill leave it until the engine is out.



this however is bad . that should grind out to a nice sized hole all my good luck so far on the rust department couldnt last forever. it looks like its coming through from the inner wheel arch just below the fusebox. it was all hidden behind the electrics in the glove box.



this is the state of play after an afternoon fekkin around. the next jobs are to finish off the sound deadening and start to remove some more of the unrequired loom. leccy window wires, central locking, heater controls, interior lighting are all going. radio, sunroof wiring is gone already. cant say im looking forward to unwinding all of that cloth tape off the loom

Is the centre console screen as badly bodged as the rest of the stuff he fitted?

If not, wanna sell it?

its badly spray painted in black. right up your street mate

£10 posted to get it away from my house?

it came with a powerpack thingumajig and a dvd player as well. they are heavy though so they would cost to post.

£10 plus post for the lot?

I'll probably just rip it apart and do it properly if its bad but as long as it works thats enough for me.

Dont spose you've still got the stereo loom mate? My car didnt come with 1!!!

Rik178m wrote:Dont spose you've still got the stereo loom mate? My car didnt come with 1!!!

it was butchered beyond repair when i got it mate. look in the for sale section for a breaker. it isnt difficult to get it out.

did you sort anything for the rear shelf yet bud?

not yet.

still pondering that move but no welding to be done until the garage is up. i hate starting something and then having to pack it all away when the rain starts....like it does every 10 friggin minutes just now

ive got quite a lot to do on other things as well so progress will be slow until i can just wander into the garage for extended periods.

okie doke cheers mate! Top project - Giving me some ideas which Im not sure is good haha!

nickso wrote:

whipsey wrote:sort out the rear shelf it forms part of the integrity of the car if your gona race it you don't want it to crumple if your hit from behind mate

yeh i thought it might be structural. im not sure how im going to go about it though. im thinking for neatness it might be easier to cut out the entire panel and just weld a flat plate in. as you can see its going to be a bastard to make 2 panels to fit it with all the bends and stuff thats there. any other suggestions welcome.

Rear strut brace

cant believe its been a year since i did anything about this. i was driving it for a long time with no interior then i got the garage built and its pretty much sat in there doing nothing for 4 months. after the latest scottish meet i realised it was time to stop faffing about turning up in mazdas and jaguars with smoking brakes.

i did the front suspension a couple of months ago but didnt take any pics.

the state of play after two days of stripping.









no more major rust found so it should hopefully be a case of cleaning everything up, repainting/stonechipping and bolt it all back on......lol im such a dreamer.

if it looks half as good as taylor325's efforts on his back end rebuild ill be happy. grinding off rust starts tomorrow

but at last it gave Neil some ammunition for something to say!!!

cleaned off most of the rust today. still got a few bits nearer the back to do, exhaust hangers etc. i was quite surprised at how far the rust had spread under some of the underseal, glad i did this now as some of it was going to get nasty, particularly around the subframe mounts and the seatbelt brackets. the seatbelt brackets were hard to get in about so ive just had to do the best i can and hope they dont go nasty over time.

first coat of zinc primer is on, ill do another coat tomorrow maybe as well as getting the rest of the rust off.

right ive been a bit lazy whilst sorting out the garden and not doing a lot to the car, money has been a bit tight too recently so ive not been able to buy bits.

ive blasted and started painting the trailing arms, ill post pics later once they are finished. i bought the repair panel for the battery tray and both rear wings so i thought i'd strip it out this week. this is what it looked like after a mild prodding.




a really bad water trap back there as you can see, the towing eye assy is goosed too so ill have that off too. removed the battery tray yesterday and today, bit of an awkward bastard to get out.



heres whats left



ive started stripping the chassis leg part off the new battery tray as i dont need that bit,the one on the car was ok. its looking like it wuill be even more of a pain to remove the leg than it was to cut out the old battery tray.

Since its going to be a track car mate i wouldnt worry too much about the rear shelf as the seatbelts wont be used. weld a few patches in and fibreglass underneath and on top to tidy up. If you are using a roll cage there should be enough strengh to give it as much pain as u like

scottidog wrote:Since its going to be a track car mate i wouldnt worry too much about the rear shelf as the seatbelts wont be used. weld a few patches in and fibreglass underneath and on top to tidy up. If you are using a roll cage there should be enough strengh to give it as much pain as u like

if he has a rear end shunt the back of the car will just crumple there is a reason it was put there if the first place i've seen the results of them being chopped first hand