South African 333i Rebuild

Wed Nov 14, 2018 4:10 pm

A rather rough example by any measure
I expect that it will take roughly 300 to 400 days to complete.

The hunt for parts has already begun and I am hoping that it does not land up being like the e30 M3 I finished a few months ago after working on it for 2 years.

Stay tuned

Wed Nov 14, 2018 5:03 pm

The right front door as well as right front fender will be replaced due to excessive rust.

Car was running on standalone with piggyback.

Thu Nov 15, 2018 3:55 pm

Off to a good start, it's going to be great

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Fri Nov 16, 2018 4:45 pm

Previously painted by a shop who truly believed in giving the client their money's worth in paint

Originally this was an aircon and manual steering car. The condenser for the aircon is in the pod.

The lower part of the cradle either was damaged or rusted away. Angle iron was used as a substitute.
New cradle on order

Oil cooler next to radiator,

Mon Feb 04, 2019 11:56 am

That's a rare one! Are there a lot of parts that differ from standard E30 / BMW catalogues, apart from the obvious (custom engine parts, body kit)?

Mon Feb 04, 2019 6:04 pm

Body panels are the same.
Engine components are slightly different and are mounted on different brackets.

Tue Feb 05, 2019 5:41 pm

Got the engine ready for removal
I typically pull them out from the bottom however given that the cradle will be replaced due to previous damage I took a grinder to it

Some random pics of the engine bay follow

Sun Feb 17, 2019 12:17 pm

Stripped the engine yesterday so that it can go to engineers for machining.

I will see whether they are willing to weld and machine new fins otherwise I shall have to take it to a specialist welder and then back to them.

Not too bad for the number of Kms covered.
Clocks stopped working at 150K Kms so your guess is as good as mine.

Notice the date stamp on the oil pump base. Still going strong 34 years later.

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Made back in the day when things were designed to last.

Sun Feb 17, 2019 2:28 pm

Agreed

Also a testimony to the owners over the years as well.
Mart.

Fri Oct 18, 2019 12:48 pm

Rare car, I'm looking forward to see this take shape. Looks like some real bodges in the past, will be satisfying to correct it all. Thanks for sharing.

Paul