325 Touring Project

[mike_sayer]

Hi guys,

I'm new to the zone, but on friday my friend Mark and I picked up an '88 325 touring (£800), which we'll be converting in to a track car over the next year or so. Pics of the car are below, and we have a lot of work ahead of us!

Good points:
- Bodywork and paint is in great shape, with the only exterior rust being some superficial stuff on the bottom of the nearside front door.
- Gearbox, clutch and brakes are all strong
- Already has a full Longlife stainless steel exhaust fitted, which sounds fantastic and very non-chav.

Bad points:
- It's done 185,000 miles and the engine is screwed!

So, the engine will be coming out to be replaced with...something else. We're not sure yet whether to get another M20 and do a forced induction project, or drop an M50 in. At the moment I think I'm leaning towards the M50 - my daily driver is an E36 325, and I love it. I've read through the M50 conversion posts on here and the work doesn't look too bad. What do you guys think?

If people are interested, i'll add pics of the project as it progresses. Yesterday was spent gutting the interior and chipping away all the soundproofing/NVH material, but i don't have pics of that yet as it was dark by the time we'd finished! We weighed the car on friday at work - 1300kg - don't know yet how much we removed yesterday...

Mike

[blitz877]

looks nice that mate, more pics of the work tho please

[JGG1]

Welcome to the zone mate!

I bought an f reg 325i touring last week with a f**ked engine! Got it for £400 with an lsd and alpina reps! What are you doing with the interior you took out?

Track ready touring will be quality, keep the pictures coming mate!!

[mike_sayer]

The interior is in two places right now - the seats and door cards (grey leather) are in my garage, and we'll probably sell them. The rest is either filthy, damaged or horrible, and so is in a large pile awaiting a large enough bin!

Pics of the stripped interior will be up later if I get home in time

[KRAMSSAYB]

YEAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pnd]

looks like a good base for what you want interesting how much these weigh not a surprise to me but many will be at 1300kg my two door is 1180 unstripped!

[fuzzy]

YEAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thats a good start for a first post

[fuzzy]

looks like a good base for what you want interesting how much these weigh not a surprise to me but many will be at 1300kg my two door is 1180 unstripped!

yep. mine is 1320 fully loaded post engine conversion.

[mike_sayer]

YEAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This particular idiot happens to be my mate Mark who's in on the project with me. I'll apologise for him now. Sorry!

We're leaning towards putting an M50B25 in it - also thinking about an M52B28, but i've read that second hand B28s can have a multitude of problems. Does anyone have any recommendations? I think my ideal project would be use to use a standard M50B25 now, and then go down the forced induction route in a year or so...

[KRAMSSAYB]

Ha Ha, Yes.

Later in the project we wish to make/buy some composite closures, I realise that some parts are easy to get, but does anyone have - ready made patterns for a touring tail gate?

Cheers

[mike_sayer]

It's now been a week since we bought the car, and I thought I'd post a couple of pics of the progress. In the last week :

- All of the interior trim has been removed
- Side glass and window actuators have come out
- All soundproofing and NVH material has been chipped out
- The car loom has been stripped to the essentials only (hopefully)
- Stripping of the engine bay has started, in preparation for the M20 to come out in 2 weeks time.

The plan now is to finish stripping the engine bay of ancillaries and start treating some of the rust. Both me and my mate are then away for a couple of weeks, but after that the engine comes out and body prep starts in earnest (bring out the angle grinder). Meanwhile, time to order bushes, suspension, top mounts and fast rack...

Pics below...

Before the windows and regs came out


Sitting a little high on it's wheels with no interior


Earlier today, stripping the loom

[blitz877]

i spy a halfords tool case in there, looks like its coming along well mate

[mike_sayer]

One of the few things that Halfords is good for - had it for two years and not broken a single tool...not bad for £100.

[E30BeemerLad]

I'll give you £10 for that wood trim from the dash

[daimlerman]

I'll give you £10 for that wood trim from the dash

You are a sick man,Lee!!

[whipsey]

hows this coming along?

[mike_sayer]

It's coming along quite nicely - no progress in the last few days due to holidays, but the engine loom, fuel system, exhaust, intake and all other engine ancillaries are now out - just the propshaft left to disconnect and the engine/gearbox is ready to come out. That'll hopefully happen on Tuesday, if not then it'll be next weekend. Will be ordering polybushes and H&R kit this week, and trying to find a Z3 steering rack. Anyone got one that they don't need?

I also now have a big box of engine bits and associated other engine bay parts that'll eventually make their way on to flea-bay - please let me know if anyone wants anything!

Pics to follow...

[mike_sayer]

Small milestone reached today...




Just need an M50 to put here now!


Also been doing more work on the inside, cutting out the sunroof and some now-unrequired bracketry. Tomorrow will see some more interior work and the stripping down of the engine. Next on the list is then bushes, springs/dampers, top mounts and the steering rack.

[appletree]

Great work look forward to the next up date!

O/T but is the case bottom big enought to fit 18" adjustable in a a couple of hammers? need a new case for work!

[mike_sayer]

It's been a while since I updated this thread, so here goes. In the last few weeks we've made slow progress stripping the rest of the engine bay, removing the sunroof, and completing the interior tear down. Last weekend though we spent four solid days on the car, cutting out all of the rusty bits and welding in some new plate. This included rebuilding the rear corners of both front wheel arches, complete with jacking points! We've taken delivery of the roll cage, and after a test fit have now welded in the reinforcing plate to form the mounting points. This weekend we'll be tidying up the welding work and starting to paint the interior and engine bay. The project has definitely taken on an element of restoration!

We've also recently acquired an E34 525 (thanks Jaffro!), which will be providing the engine. After the painting is done, we'll be starting on the suspension - restoring the subframes and arms and then fitting some new kit - probably Bilstein dampers with H&R springs and ARBs, along with polybushes.

Here are some pics of the recent work...
Dashboard removed ready for welding work and paint


Lightweight rear doors


Rear bench following rust removal


Welding a patch in the rear left arch


New front right corner with jacking point (still needs tidying up)


I still have a garage full of bits, including the old M20B25 (now fully stripped) - if anyone needs anything, give me a shout and I'll see if I can help!
More pics to follow after this weekend's efforts...

[Nelly]

You shouldn't of bothered welding in the so called 'jacking point' - you'd be mad to lift the car from here and not exspect the floor to cave in.

They were only for moving the shell along the production line.

Other than that - F%king good work lads, it good to see onther Touring getting a strip down seeing over - top marks to you and welcome to the club

Neil.

[mike_sayer]

Balls! Oh well, would've saved us some welding but never mind. At least we can claim it looks original...

[cliffybabe]

this is a wicke dthread keep the pic's coming

Nelly im guessing ur be going for th elight weight rear doors now too

[Nelly]

Already got them fella lol

[miniblob]

Good stuff!!! Can't wait to see more!!!!!

Still don't know wether to strip mine properly, or keep it sensible(ish) for driving daily!!!

[jamesc]

Are you guys going to fit a cage? I'm still trying to decide what to do to mine....

[mike_sayer]

We are - we've got an OMP bolt-in job, not the nicest looking or indeed best fitting of cages, but it's relatively light and will do the job if called upon! We got ours, including door bars, for £420 delivered from Crombie Carversions...speak to Kevin Gordon there, he's very helpful.

[mike_sayer]

Once again, it's been a long time since I updated this (nearly three months!), but we've made progress so here's a couple of photos. We've been working on sanding, priming and re-sanding (etc etc) the interior of the body shell, while preparing the roll cage and also stripping the E34 that's providing the M50. As you can see in the pics, we're at the final stages of preparing the car before we can spray it. This weekend we're finishing off the engine bay and the rear end, and hopefully welding the rear doors on. The roll cage is all ready to go in, after welding, sanding and painting (one coat of acid etch primer, two of regular primer, and three coats of satin black).

The E34 is now almost totally stripped, the engine and gearbox are still attached and will stay there until the E30 is ready for them (if anyone randomly wants any non-engine parts from a 525, let me know!). The old 5 is useful as a storage space at the moment, as my garage is only small. I've also spent quite a while finishing the stripping of the E30 loom, which is now good and light. I've also created a fully colour-coded wiring diagram, which i'll post here for others to use when it's finished.

Here are some pics, i'll add some more at the end of the weekend to show our continuing progress.

Stripping over-applied sealant, paint and rust out of the engine bay



The interior, all sanded smooth and primed


The "car"


All comments, criticisms and suggestions welcome!

Cheers,

Mike

[mike_sayer]

PS - Mods - given that this has a become a bit of a restoration project as well as a track car/engine swap project, this thread might be better in a different section of the forum - up to you though!

[Morat]

wow, they look tiny with someone sitting in the engine bay!
Excellent work - looking forward to seeing some videos of this thing on the track

[ric325i]

great work fella's. i find it funny how a small project turns into a full resto. this resto makes mines look pathetic though

that e34 off jaffro was a great car! i used it for a while. had my sofa in it,helped move some bits. sounds fantastic when the 2nd cam comes in.

ive actually still got the rear load cover in my garage sorry boys.

keep the pics coming its a great project

[mike_sayer]

Some more progress this weekend - 14 hours of welding yesterday plus another 4 today, and now all the holes that we created by cutting rust out are patched up, and the lightweight rear doors are now welded in place. Really pleased with how the doors have lined up, and it's very satisfying to know that the body is now rust-free after many weekends of work! One more weekend needed now before spraying, to sand, smooth and seal the welded areas and make it all look pukka. Then, finally, we can start sorting the suspension and actually get on with making it in to a track car. We didn't do a good job taking photos this weekend, but here are a couple showing the doors back in place for the first time in ages!

[mike_sayer]

Some progress on a different front - we've finally pulled the M50 from its E34 home. We then proceeded to attack the donor car with a very large angle grinder, so that we can sell the wheels and suspension etc to a chap but still get the body to a scrappy ourselves. Maybe not the most efficient approach, but i've always wanted to slice a car up and it was a ridiculous amount of fun!

The lump


Convertible


Compact


Just plain ruined

[Jon_Bmw]

Oh jesus, I bet the neighbours were impressed!

Looks fun.

[h2700]

you either have a really leaniant "her in doors" or you dont have one lol