my 318i auto to 2.5 diesel manual chromie project,.

[mrrodney]

hi people , im new here but often freqent the ford forums as ive had so many,

just bought this c reg 318i auto for a long term project, needs head gasket, ill do that 1st then start on the few bits a bodywork it needs , few rusty bits ill weld new metal into ,

my only real plans are to mint up the body, lower it , nice set of seats, some retro wheels , repair engine for now then later on when i can work properly (broken hip opp last month) ill put a bigger engine , either a 325/535 or ideally a 2.5 tds lump as i love a td, ive seen gems touring on here and retro rides so will ask em a few questions to get info on this,

ive been n and out the car/lorry trade most my life as mechanic and bodywork etc so hopefully ill finish this car

feel free to comment,

















notice my crutches lol , i recovering from a opp to repair a broken hip from falling off a push bike lol , not fun,

[kangman]

ebay??
nice colour bronzit

please tell us more about this push bike accident?? sounds painful..

[mrrodney]

yeah a cheap ebay car, litterally a mile from me ,

well to cut a long story short i was riding back from a mates, charged down a hill and got most way up the other side , went on the pavement and my bag caught my front wheel and threw me off to the left , i hit the floor straight on my left hip , pain was instant but i thought ill be ok in a mo........wrong! i couldnt move and no1 could see me so called myself a ambulance, had xray etc at barnet general hospital , confirmed broken hip just under the ball/joint , so next morning i had a opp to screw a metal plate in to keep it together...

that went fine but when i woke up they gave me a morthine pump that somehow overdosed me and i ended up in the itu ward on heart machines/drips/air mask etc ,

they think the pump was faulty, not fun i tell you lol,

i can just walk aound the house and drive with no crutches now 6ish weeks later but nave next to no leg muscles yet as they had cut thru to get the plate in so being mobile can be difficult at times lol,

i was the youngest they had known to break a hip at that hospital lol im 33,.

[kangman]

HAHAHAH you plonka! bad luck just seems to follow you. Especially now u own an e30 its going to get alot worse haha

I broke both my feet 5months back due to an idiot driving head on into me at work, bet you couldn't wait to get behind the wheel of a car.

No compo for you tho..

[mrrodney]

ouch! , well im not driving at the mo , not loon been able to sit up properly in a seat and the e30 even though a auto aint easy to sit in or get in and out till some more pains go away ,

soliceter is persuing the hospital for the overdose they gave me as it all got very messy, so see how that goes,.

[G-Bear]

Bronzit Chromies look great. There's plenty of info on various engine conversions here especially M50/52. Rav335uk on here is currently doing a cromie M30 build, super or turbo charged at that I think.

Have a proper poke around that rear valance (and everywhere else), if the rust is showing around where the bootlid corners meet and the bumper, there's a good chance its crunchy underneath the reg plate too.

Bad news about the bike and hospital experience, at least you're on the mend now.

[mrrodney]

yeah i poked my finger through by the light , ill either cut a piece to graft in off a scrapper or ill make a piece to graft in ,

also ive noticed people say the rear panels are different? what is the differences??

[G-Bear]

yeah i poked my finger through by the light , ill either cut a piece to graft in off a scrapper or ill make a piece to graft in ,

also ive noticed people say the rear panels are different? what is the differences??

I would guess thats because of the difference in bodywork between a pre-facelift (up to around 1987, chrome bumper) and the facelift (1988 and onwards, plastic bumper) E30, the below link would help explain one difference (I don't know if thats the only one difference for the rear) being the bumper mounts..

http://e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/index.ph ... rs#Bumpers

[G-Bear]

If I remember rightly, there is a page on the Wiki that explains all the differences between pre-facelift and facelift but I couldn't find it..

Might be worth a hunt. But from what I can remember it also includes different head lights and the facelifts having lower rear arches..

[mrrodney]

cheers dude ill have a looksie,.

[Rich320I]

hiya dude,

isnt it rodney from the XR2.com

these old BMWs love to hide rust mate, looks like a nice one though

[mrrodney]

yeah man thats me, would i reconise you from there??,.

[Rich320I]

possibly, havnt been on in a long time, i had a black xr2

i just remember yourself from that thread regarding that lad who 'welded' the front of his car on leedsrhino user name lol

look forward to seeing what you do with the above mate,

[mrrodney]

oh yeah ryan pmsl , hes a ok kid i reckon just opens himself up to get slaughtered lol ,

cheers dude its gonna be a slow project for obvious reasons but ill get at it when i can,.

[mrrodney]

i got the back on ramps , pulled bumper and light off to see what i gotta chop and weld

would i ruin the car if i put face lift bumpers and lights on the car?? rear bumper is fubbard,








can see the mess there, its all welded but the left old metal there so ill have to remove that...

[G-Bear]

I personally think it would be a shame to put plastic bumpers on a chromie. But that's up to you

I see a Mrk I and II fiesta. I had a Mrk II when I was 17 it was only a pop 1.1. I pulled the suspension, interior and kit off an xr2 and put it on. They're a great shape. Same reason I love E30's, nice and boxy.

[mrrodney]

yeah i was thinking save the chrome lol, more retro ,

the fiestas, mk2 is a mates old rotter thats in bits doing nothing , the mk1 i built and sold 6 years ago , its back to sort a running issue , its running a 2.0 zetec mondeo engine that i fitted,.

[G-Bear]

I got an Si after that and at the time was thinking of putting a 2.0 Mondeo Zetec in it. From what I remember it was pretty much a plug in and play..

[mrrodney]

yeah all you need to do is strip the 2.0 down to head and block, and fit inlet , water pump , flywheel and clutch from the si/xr2i and it straight bolts in , then you just need a 1800 or 2.0 ecu thay runs the same edis4 setup, even runs fine on a 1600 ecu,.

[BATTS91]

Bit of tin worm there :/ .

I also had a mk2 1.1 pop plus when i was 16/17 but some bugger burnt it out the weekend i was about to but a 1600 crossflow .

Built a mk3 si 2l zetec piece of pish to do like you say but just change waterpump sump ,metal inlet an used a non pats system ecu from a mk1 mondildo

[BATTS91]

Oh and keep the chrome lol

[mrrodney]

chromes staying

made a start on the bit below the rear light today , pain in the arse welding in wind had to use wood to block some wind lol , need to brush up on my welding as its been a while since doing anything more than exhaust lol,

little bit more tidying then a skim a filler and will be ok , bit above light is next ,.




lick a random paint just to cover bare metal for the moment till i can get back on it...

[craggsyE30]

good to see your tackling the rust good start. will watch this thread .

[jimbom30cab]

GOOD EFFORT!! keep up the good work mate

[mrrodney]

gonna be slow progress due to this hip malarky and doing it on drive , but this is my inspiration.....on ebay ......

[G-Bear]

Fair play for making a start, that cromie in the inspiration pic looks great..

[mrrodney]

got a hour on it today before it pissed down , i wire wheeled the rust on the sill to reveal how big its hole is ,


got the rear in filler, needs more rubbing down and another skim of splodge but the rain came down so had to lash paint over to stop water soaking in till i can get back on it ,
but im not too happy and a fella on here is gonna let me cut that section out of a scrapper along with bit of the sill so hopefully will end up with far less filler,




not far off weather permiting, but as said im prob gonna redo it with a fresh piece,

had a poke under the rear arches and wish i didnt passenger side seems mint bar a small dent ,

drivers side join has rotted away all the way around but the outer arch feels near on mint! , can i buy inner arches?? or am i better brushing up on my skills and making a piece up?? ,

[craggsyE30]

wow thats quite a gap in the rear arches but will be worth it mate keep up the good work.

[mrrodney]

its wierd as the outer arch is near mint , on every ford ive ever worked on inner and outer go together,.

[craggsyE30]

you se my outer ones were very bad but the inner ones seem to be alot better compared to it.

[mrrodney]

i was hoping to go chop a few bits off a breaker not to far from me today but my lift couldnt make it , gutted , gonna try and make it during the week,

so that being a fail i decided to pull the head off and see how bad things were , heads off and its blown between cylinder 1 and the water way,

so plan is to tidy it up , check the head is still true then bolt it all back together with new gasket etc , make it a runner again till a new lump arrives

[Duke137]

Great project

[mrrodney]

found some hairline cracks in the head and what looks like the same in the block where the bolts go in ,

thought fuck it ill throw it back together so it runs and i can move it about the drive when needed,

got it running and temps sitting at halfway but no heating and waters bubling away with that exhaust smell lol,.

[craggsyE30]

iv just got my 318is fixed and its alot better now idles spot on and goes well. you got any plans on changing the engine ?

[mrrodney]

its going 6 pot , e30 325 , or a e36 lump , ideally i want a tds engine to play with ,

no smoke no poke,.