E30 Zone

My Brother and I have picked up this little project almost scrap value as its been laid up for about 2.5 years.

Just before being laid up it had a full years MOT with no advisories and about £2K in recent work. The owner lost interest and it sat under a pile of stuff in his garage.

So we have rescued it with a mind to restore it for show use.

The good, the clock read 63K, but we need to check if thats correct, it's an 8 valve car, with no rot that we could find so far. Brakes and suspension need some attention and it comes with the original alloys although they need a refurb and tyres but selling the reps should cover the cost of that. Full custom stainless exhaust including manifold and a spare mint interior and dash.

The bad, not MOT or Tax, heater matrix is a dud and it means probably dash out to replace it. Needs belts, waterpump, some pipes and a major service. The paint needs alot of attention but nothing several hours on the MOP wont fix. Bumpers need re-alligned and the reps have to go. But overall a solid wee motor.

And at last something for me to tinker on again as the SAAB is a pain in the hole to work on.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us



Uploaded with ImageShack.us



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Oak green big bumper FTW!!! Subscribed to this one.

PLEASE keep it reletively standard. They are getting thin on the ground now,

Thats the plan Trev, all we need to do now is find the time to work on it.

I am on to a potential parts car at the moment as well which will give us a lot of the bits we need. Timing could have been better as i have had lots of bad Karma recently and shelled out over £1500 in unexpected bills but I had a little cash left over from the E30 so thought why not, lifes too short.

My mate has a 1990 white 3 door 16v with a 2.0 bottom end. Looks completely stock but fuck me! Do it go well? He's on here but not very often.

There was a time in the late eighties early nineties, when my mates and I reckoned the ideal driveway at the time was one of these and a specced auto 535i e34. You just didn't need anythng else. A long legged cruizer for the long runs and jumpo into a GTI for some fun. Happy days.

Nice - late one too.

I had an '86 8v but it was fooooked - I hated it. Good ones are still great cars though.
Fit PAS and you could still comfortably smoke around in one of these as a daily.

Heater matrix doesn't need the dash out, just the lower bits and centre console, and the heater box will squeeze out underneath.

Not a fun job, but not as bad as I expected it to be.

Thanks harry_p. Never worked on one of these but that's reassuring. Strip down should commence this Saturday on a rust hunt before we go any further.

Part way through with the front section of the heater box removed. Some of the little spring clips holding it together and the motor duct to it are very awkward to get to!


From there it unbolts from the engine side of the bulkheadjust pulls down and forwards with the heater matrix sat in it.

You'll probably find the foam on the air control flaps has disintegrated too, so I took te top half off the heater box to take the flaps right out and recover them


Unlike an e30, there is no heater valve, the matrix is constantly hot and temperature is controlled by the flap directing air either past or through the matrix. Early matrix were crap and tended to fail under pressure, all replacements you buy should be the modern type by now.

Overall they're really easy to work on, decent german quality fixings, quite a simple design, and plenty of access to most things.

My mrs' 87 8v has been a daily driver for the past 6 years.

Wasn't there a recall on these to assess the possible cause of failure. I remember one 16v which was owned by the guy I mention above (not the same car). It was an early 16v, an 86 on the D. This was then sold to my brother in law in about 1997. It was during his ownership it was recalled IIRC.

That car was a stormer. My mate bought it in 1994. That thing was never out of the redline. The night he picked it up, the tyres were sticky leaving the previous owners road!!! It was caned mercilessly but just kept hanging in there. When my Bro in law expressed an interest I warned him of it's history but he went for it regardless. He then went on to continue it's abuse, day in day out. He then progressed to an e30 funnily enough (a late 2 door 320 SE) and sold it to his mate. Last I heard was in about 2003 / 4 it was starting to kick back and become a bit troublesone. It had changed from it's Alpine white paintwork to Black and was very down at heel. But when running, it still went like stink!

Hence the 2.0l 16v on my mates drive now. After that 86 car, he just can't help himself.

Yeah, they put a pressure relief bypass valve in the supply pipes to the matrix, but over time they open fully so the heater never gets properly hot, then rots out because the water doesn't circulate through it.

Fit a newer uprated matrix and remove the bypass valves and the heater warms up quickly and is as toasty as an e30s.

That looks great, did the wheels come with it? There is something about old style BBS wheels on a Mk2 GTI.

The wheels came with it, shame they are not genuine BBS. So will be going for sale very soon.

They look quite big too. 17s?

Oak Green 90 spec, always wanted one of these. Any updates on it?

No updates recently, my brother has been doing all the heavy lifting as I'm too busy with work, however interior is out and we found one patch of rust on the floor which needs cut out and welded.

Just dropped off a whole bunch of parts for powder coating, hopefully I'll get round at the weekend to finally get my hands dirty.

Its been a long time since I updated this thread since then the car has been stripped a few small holes were found on the floor pan which have been cut out, new metal welded, primed, painted etc.

All of the bodywork has been taken care of by my brother as he can weld and the car is at his. To be fair he has done the majority of the work with me mainly funding the project. It started out as a tidy up and has soon became a full restoration.

The engine was stripped and rebuilt with a new performance Cam, new gaskets all round, filters, etc. Home made engine stand FTW



All new suspension, and any bits that could be taken off and blasted \ powder coated have been, now back on the car:



The engine bay was cleaned up and sprayed lots of new bit under here as well:



This is how she currently stands and will be going off to paint very soon, looking a little less chavtastic with original wheels back on:



Still a fair bit of cash to be put into her, but all going well she will be back on the road soon.

My brother has put so much time into the car that once its finished I have agreed with him buying me out for what its cost me to fund the work. He might as well enjoy it as I don't have the time to help him work on it these days and would rarely have the time to drive it.

It also means he can get it finished and pay me back over time as coppers don't get the best of wages.

Sorry for the lack of pictures but this was all I had time to take the last time I was over putting the suspension together.

That's looking proper nice!