Unfortunatly she was involved in a bit of a fender bender and Scruffy was in 2 mind, break the car or sell her. Having wanted a E30 for a longtime it was decided best to save her and repair the damage.
(Some images are not working, will post them again when I get back from Holidays and can upload them again)
Here she is as I got her home
Bit of a mix and match of colours but it's all there
And then the bit that needed attention:
So, started to strip the grill, lights, bumper and lower valance today and ended up with this:
Looking from the drivers door forward:
Front again:
Some bent panels but not a lot else wrong with her. Plan was to cut out and replace the whole panel with some help of my brother (welder) and some encouragement and criticizing from dad
Initially I wanted to replace the whole panel but they deemed it to much work and half a panel would work out the same if done right. And so work began, stripped the whole front end and got cutting
Panel was cut along with the majority of rust it had. Part of the inner wing was also cut of, it was a little bent.
Replacement panel mocked up, think it needed a bit of trimming for a better fit but we were getting there.
Replaced the alternator and water pump belts while the there was lots of room to do them easy.
The following months after doing the above work were slow. The car was at my parents house about 2hr drive from me. That and typical Irish weather when I was home to work on it meant not much work was done the 1st few months after getting the car.
Bit of rust treatment while I was at it
No pics of fresh metal welded back on here but it was done.
Sometime around the end of may we got the panel made fit, panels and lights bolted on to check how it all lined up and went ahead and welded the panel in. Then started the horrible task of preparing the bonnet, wings, valance and splitter for painting. Horrible job sanding, very boring and laborious.
July (slow progress I know) seen some more rusty area's sanded down and treated etc. And managed to build and finish this
Car got moved under the lean to and started to get tones more done with the car.
Bit more treatment of rust while she's still wasn't going anywhere.
Same area on the passenger arch was rotten, rust cut out and replaced with fresh metal (no pics)
Decided to have a poke at those (fake) jacking points, lots of rubber and mainly rust. Ended up with a decent sized hole and cut out some more affected metal to end up with this:
And then this:
The passenger side wasn't as far gone but decided it was better to remove it before it gets as bad as the drivers side. Close to an hr later and 2 numb arms the whole pad was gone. Luckily no big holes, some surface rust which was sanded away and painted. Put a patch over it to be on the safe side
In the mean time I got some panels back
All looking pretty good, wasn't top notch but what do you expect for 100euro! The passenger side wing wasn't painted, the paint I got was a good match!
Some engine bay surface rust removal and painting done before fitting all panels again and connecting all wires and she firedup 1st go and got her driving me back to Dublin.
At the time the whole underdash panels were of so we could lift the carpets a little. Have since fitted speakers and tweeters before going away for a few days.
Only pic I got of her is this:
Few little things sorted after I got back and went on holidays.
Got the maplight connected up. She got the tank replaced a few months prior the accident and the fuel gauge had stopped working, got this fixed. Who ever fitted the tank didn't fit the connector right, it was only sitting one 1 plug. Nearly sorted a rattly rear tail gate.
Had some engine problems, she was nearly cutting out and then revving quite high. Looking under the bonnet found 2 cracks one in the elbow the other in the hose connecting to it:
Put some clips on them and she's running more like normal (had to use tape as astop gap before getting clips :p) There's still a very little amount of hunting at idle which I'm hoping is a result from them cracked hoses.
Thats about where she's at now. We (E30owners.com) had a meet last weekend, 16 cars, and she went quite well.
I still have to get some grommets so I can fit the skirts back on (and sort out some of the rust on the cill)
Get the valance vents, ducts and arch liners fitted
Underdash panels need putting back on (and place found for the crossover)
There's a bad spot of rust at the filler lid that needs lots of attention
Some surface rust on the bottom edge of the doors
and some other bits and pieces to do that I can't remember.
I'm still undecide on the front grill/lights. She came with the black grill, chrome was smashed up. Would like to get smoked lights (or do it myself with spare set of lights I have) but it might look very dark up front. Plastics could do with a repaint also.
Would like to fit a quicker rack after all the country road driving we did last weekend.
HID's also after driving in the dark, them lights are terrible! They haven't been adjusted properly yet which might not help much either.
New bushings would prob be a good idea also.
Here's the spec as I bought it
Bilstein shocks
40mm Eibach springs
Viper 2 chip
Big bore throttle body
14" bottle tops (have gotten 15" BBS for her since)
Tech 1 wheel
K&N panel filter
Short shift
Anthracite cloth sports touring interior (should have rear headrest for her soon)
IS lip
SE Skirts
Clear indicators (need to replace passenger side one)
Sparco twin tube strut brace
Maplight mirror
Fire Extinguisher
Front fogs
Hopefully fit a LSD sooner rather than later.
Thinking of a Tech 2 kit also and a respray somewhere down the line in the future. (a nice S50/52 or big diesel lump would be nice to but thats dreaming for the moment)
Been looking into larger breakes and coil-over but thats all a bit much for the moment, maybe some day
For now I'm more than happy she's driving nicly. Will try and make updates as/when I get other bits done.
looking good 
)
Have an idea for what to fit the bumpers with ;)