First BMW project - E30 318i touring.

[savagehenry]

Hi, first project away from the VW stable. The touring must have been sitting for a few years. I fitted a new battery and gave it a wash first.


[/img]
With some fresh fuel I got it running. It's on 118k and is fairly quiet some ticking/cam noise. Standing back I noticed fuel pissing out of a perished line. I brought some common pipe (would have preferred oe as the outside diameter is smaller) and new clips.
My first concern is a big hole in the bottom of the wing, which is pretty bad so I'm worried as to what is underneath.

The other wing has been hit and so has the headlight but I have these from my parts car. Other than this I only found these few rust places (on the outside!!!)



There is a fish-tank in the boot which looks like it's coming in though the window seal corners. ????

Inside is clean, small crack in the dash. All the electric's seem to work. windows, sunroof, lights, wipers and washers.

I have taken it for a quick spin around the block and although I expected scraping from rusty and seized brakes, there seemed to be a lot of sound from the rear, like a bad wheel bearing noise.
I think before I touch anything I need to make sure the diff/ propshaft or anything else terminal is wrong with it. It has a cracked sump which is no problem to fix, but as this was a free car and I don't have a massive budget I will feel better getting it checked out by a mate's garage (he worked for BMW for many years). Although I have a complete parts car (in the same colour) it is a 325i.

[Barx325i]

nice, and a reasonable amount of work to be getting on with but the thing that worries me is that you say it has a cracked sump, did it have any oil in when you took it around the block?

the nasty noise could be diff, or handbrake assy's binding etc

[Alex]

seen alot worse couple of new wings and a good polish should do wonders

[savagehenry]

I have some RM's in 8-9x15 for summer use. Which were ruined by my mate using them in winter.



So I've split them. The centre's and caps are good done in BBS silver.



Momo team 300. no boss but in luck as already one on the car.

Dishes getting packed up and sent to Mike the polisher.

Now I just need to keep my fingers crossed that the touring is not f%$ked!

[savagehenry]

nice, and a reasonable amount of work to be getting on with but the thing that worries me is that you say it has a cracked sump, did it have any oil in when you took it around the block?

the nasty noise could be diff, or handbrake assy's binding etc

Yeah, when we dug it out the dip stick didn't show anything. so we winched it onto a transporter. once at home I topped it up before starting.

Could I use a 325 diff?? you don't get much for free now-a-days so I can't grumble. Just don't want a massive out-lay to get it going.

[capri_rob]

Another black touring

Thought it looked great until I saw the pic of that wing



You need to get that trim & sound deadening off to make sure that under your arch you don't have this :



Very common - and could be why you have a puddle there.

[capri_rob]

nice, and a reasonable amount of work to be getting on with but the thing that worries me is that you say it has a cracked sump, did it have any oil in when you took it around the block?

the nasty noise could be diff, or handbrake assy's binding etc

Yeah, when we dug it out the dip stick didn't show anything. so we winched it onto a transporter. once at home I topped it up before starting.

Could I use a 325 diff?? you don't get much for free now-a-days so I can't grumble. Just don't want a massive out-lay to get it going.

325i diff with a 318i lump will hammer any performance you may have been expecting.


If the diff is fooked a good used one shouldnt be more than £50

[savagehenry]

I think I will take your advice and pull the liner out. I soaked all the water up then gave the car wash and some had seeped back in during the rinse.

Cheers.

[Barx325i]

nice rimz

if the old 1.8 is fecked, it's high time to get the 318iS m42 motor fitted - with it being a touring, it already has discs and 51mm struts fitted, decent arb's etc - the rest is a fairly straight forward conversion & the m42 is a better all round engine..

[Coops90]

SHould be good.

How much does mike the polisher charge for 4 dishes out of interest?

[capri_rob]

I think I will take your advice and pull the liner out. I soaked all the water up then gave the car wash and some had seeped back in during the rinse.

Cheers.

If you're very lucky and there arent any rust issues there the next place to check for water ingress is the rear light seals - these are available new but only from BMW

[savagehenry]

SHould be good.

How much does mike the polisher charge for 4 dishes out of interest?

Well, it's a bit different for me. I was crying on the edition38 forum about the state of the pitting on my dishes. I had gone from 240 to 120 to 80 and not moved a thing. So Mike informed me I would never get anywhere with them by hand. So unbelievably Mike offered to remove the pitting for me on a machine polisher to a level that I can carry on with a mop and compounds.

I am paying him a large amount of coffee for the work. I just didn't really want to advertise this and get him pestered.

The work on his web-site and stuff he has posted looks second to none.

[savagehenry]

If you're very lucky and there arent any rust issues there the next place to check for water ingress is the rear light seals - these are available new but only from BMW[/quote]

Cheers, my mate said it would possibly be the lights. I just noticed that the seal/trim that runs along the bottom of the rear window does not meet at the ends. It is about an inch short on the worst side and a small area of rust is starting.

[savagehenry]

I'm ordering my stainless bolts from this place. So much cheaper than anywhere else I can find. My stainless bolts are about £50 less than the main UK site. The dishes are pretty good too,

http://www.felgenfuchs.de/en/home/

I'm just trying to find somewhere to buy genuine BBS badges. [/u]

[mani]

nice rm's mate

[savagehenry]

I'm thinking this is where the water is coming in through my tail-gate??


I've dried both sides with a heat gun and scraped out the loose rust and stuck the trim back with silicone that can be applied to wet.

Under the plate is pretty rusty too, but a patch up will have to do for now.

[oomz1975]

Cheers, my mate said it would possibly be the lights. I just noticed that the seal/trim that runs along the bottom of the rear window does not meet at the ends. It is about an inch short on the worst side and a small area of rust is starting.

You can get a new seal for the bottom of the tailgate screen from BMW, just pull the old one off, sort the rust, then fit the new one (with sealant if you want).

[savagehenry]

I got an email from Mike the polisher saying he wanted me to ring him, so i was fearing the worst as my dishes were in a terrible way after being exposed to winter salt roads.



this shot shows the pitting after i attacked it with 80 grit. Mike said "what kind of finish are you after?" I said anything that is better than the state they are in now. He said "give me a couple of hours"
Then sent me this:


to say I was happy was an understatement.

[mani]

came out nice

[Alpina99]

Keep the updates coming,
Will be a nice car when it's finished,
Loving the wheels,

[savagehenry]

thanks...........most of the nasty noises have been sourced to a very badly worn rear brake pad, fingers crossed things are looking good on the whole.

will up-date after the weekend's spanner work.

[savagehenry]

After cleaning and drying out my rusty tail-gate corners, I went to the touring this weekend to find a fresh fish bowl in the back again.

So pulled out some trim and got myself camped in the boot while my dad played god with a watering can. The water is going down the side of the rear bumper and coming in through the top of this 'gutter' in the back.


I wanted to have the bumper off to see if I could seal it up but I had forgotten to buy the torx fitting for them (grumble)........

I had the wheels off the front and cleaned up the callipers, the discs still have a few miles in them so I just changed the pads.

my 'dealer' forgot to get my rear pads which were in a terrible state so I will fit them next week. all service parts are here, so need to get that cracked sump off at the weekend, might put some trade plates on and get it on the garage ramps instead of laying in the gravel.

[Jhonno]

Yup, that leak is easily fixed with a little silicon round the vent.

[savagehenry]

Snow has slowed up my service work on the tourer, so I thought I'd give my dishes a going over with some new polish before I apply some poorboys.

I got a zeplin polish pack, with one prep and one mirror polish. And although the dishes were pretty good when they came back from Mike, the polish is just amazing.

[redcar]

shiney!!!

[Ninja_Penguin]

i fucking LOVE shiny stuff....i randomly sand and polish offcuts of metal from our scrap bin at work lol

[savagehenry]

i ******* LOVE shiny stuff....i randomly sand and polish offcuts of metal from our scrap bin at work lol

Yeah I'm loving the results....I'm just coming to terms with the fact my touring will need to go in for paint now because of how nice the splits will look!

I want to go for a satin black (is) lower spoiler like you have, I love the look. I'm doing the grill and kidney's satin too.

[BEMER_LAND]

This has potential
looks exactly like mine when i got it.

see that pipe next to the vent, that should be in a hole in that vent.
its a drainage pipe from the sunroof. Thats probably where the water is coming from

[savagehenry]

Na...I thought that, but was coming in though the top of the gutter.

I had pulled that pipe out (in the pic) to see if it was blocked. The rear bumper bolts are seized so I have sealed the 'gutter' up from the inside with 'under water' silicone. If no joy I'll have to have the bumper off. drill heads, stud extraction......all that ball-ache stuff.

[savagehenry]

A little progress. turning the car round in the road was producing some horrendous sounds from the back wheels/brakes. On inspection the rear pads were paper thin (one even had a bit missing) but once I had the calliper off there was still some nasty scraping when I turned the disc.
As this is my first non VW project it was an eye-opener to take the disc off to find this:

The spring pin had pulled through and as I had the car up on a 'widow maker' I left the hub on, which led to a very fiddly job to get the pin to stay in. With a hammer and flathead I managed to dress the jagged metal around the hole back, but the pin still wouldn't hold. So I nipped the end of the pin in the vice (each side) which gave me a tiny bit more. The pin stayed in and once I had straightened and equalled the shoes up it took some tension out of the pin in trouble. I hoping this will hold, I don't know what the best fix for this would be if the pin hole was worse, other than welding it up and making a new one.
Anyway with everything back the wheel sounded alot healthier. I've stopped test drive up and down the road as dad informed me po po have taken an interest in my plate-less e30. Next job is cracked sump....joy.

[savagehenry]

This has potential
looks exactly like mine when i got it.

see that pipe next to the vent, that should be in a hole in that vent.
its a drainage pipe from the sunroof. Thats probably where the water is coming from

Have you got a full sized pic you can put up? I like the look of your suspension set-up. I'm also going for 15' wheels.

[Sanchez]

These are cheaper than new back plates.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-x-GIRLING-B ... 3465wt_989

[savagehenry]

These are cheaper than new back plates.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-x-GIRLING-B ... 3465wt_989

Perfect! I'd feel alot better knowing that the pin is not going to ping off inside while on a long journey.

Have you used these? I take it they are fairly universal, I'll order them. Cheers.

[savagehenry]

Finally after some choice advice from Brianmoore (cheers) I managed to get the back bumper off to attend to the leaky gutter. The once 13mm nuts had badly rusted and a couple were only freed after knocking on a 12mm socket with a small hammer. Plenty of falling rust for my eyes from a disintegrating back-box heat shield. I've revealed a nice rust patch so for the time being I've wire brushed it and painted on a little hammer-right just for now as the car will be going for some paint in spring.



The offender

I've used this silicone for plumbing and there really is nothing like it, especially for wet use.

So hopefully I have soaked up the water in the back for the last time.

[Sanchez]

These are cheaper than new back plates.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-x-GIRLING-B ... 3465wt_989

Perfect! I'd feel alot better knowing that the pin is not going to ping off inside while on a long journey.

Have you used these? I take it they are fairly universal, I'll order them. Cheers.

As long as they fit well in the hole thats been made in the back plate then yes, good buy.