Reshelling my 335 - pics

[Theo]

After a little knock on my 335 I thought that rather than mess about getting panels and generally patching up a tatty shell, i'd buy a nice new shell and whack all my good bits in there whilst i'm still on holiday from Uni.

Car as I bought it yesterday


Stripped it out today, removed all the nasty sound deadening. It's a nice clean shell, and has no sunroof which is good!





Stuff stripped from the car today


Nice clean engine bay, will be plucking this out soon, stripping the engine bay, and then filling it with the boat anchor.


Tomorrow I will be putting poly subframe bushes on my rear axle, and then fitting it to the 316i along with the. But before that I need to replace the rear brake lines, and remove the fuel lines as they are knackered.

Lot's to do, will be interesting how long it takes. 1 day and counting...

[Colonel Sanders]

im impressed!! thats a very nice clean shell!! good on ya

[320Touring]

is that the lowmileage minter herman was selling????


GOOD onyer

[d6dph]

What happened to the other turd Theo?

[Andy335Touring]

Nice one mate, i'm thinking about swapping my running gear over to a 2dr shell and stipping it as the touring isn't my DD any more, it's more of a play thing so a lighter/less practical car would be fine, i'd easy be able to shed over a 100kgs compaired to my touring.

Stripped/caged/matt black paint/track day look-a-like

[gooner1]

looks nice and solid Theo. But for how long

[Theo]

Yes this was Herman's unmolested 316i. Lovely car, I almost felt guilty as I tore it to pieces.

Dave, i slid into the back of an e46 at low speed. In Germany. Great.

Andy - go for it! Stripped out e30 with an m30 is great fun, with your trick engine it would be a serious chariot.

Thanks for the coments lads.

[oguz327]

Good work Theo, that shell look sweet mate

Might be a bit cheeper on insurance as the base car is a 316.

Be good if you can get this on the road for Pod, does it have an MOT?

[Kos]

Dave, i slid into the back of an e46 at low speed. In Germany. Great.

you kept that quiet, how much damage was done ?

[Jhonno]

nice work Theo

[Theo]

you kept that quiet, how much damage was done ?

Minimal, i'm totally over reacting by reshelling, chassis rails are straight - but the N/S front bumper iron mounting point is a bit knarly, and the front slam panel was a little bent too. His E46 had light damage, to coin one of your favourite phrases - shit happens (happened)

[eko]

Nice move Theo.Was tempted to buy that myself and M50/52.
Local registered car to me too so would have been like `coming home` for it!
Good luck with the reshell mate.Did mine in 17 days starting mid afternoon and some nights slogging it out till midnight,constant pissing down too
Be worth it in the end though mate

[Kos]

you kept that quiet, how much damage was done ?

Minimal, i'm totally over reacting by reshelling, chassis rails are straight - but the N/S front bumper iron mounting point is a bit knarly, and the front slam panel was a little bent too. His E46 had light damage, to coin one of your favourite phrases - shit happens (happened)

my choice phrase for this would be , did you cu^t it up (while skinning up) ?? i though your IS shell was clean, thats why you when for it in the 1st place is it not ??

[oguz327]

you kept that quiet, how much damage was done ?

Minimal, i'm totally over reacting by reshelling, chassis rails are straight - but the N/S front bumper iron mounting point is a bit knarly, and the front slam panel was a little bent too. His E46 had light damage, to coin one of your favourite phrases - shit happens (happened)

my choice phrase for this would be , did you cu^t it up (while skinning up) ?? i though your IS shell was clean, thats why you when for it in the 1st place is it not ??

Behave Kos

[Theo]

The iS shell was structually very good, no rust in any of the common places whatsoever. But the paint was shite, had a rusty scrape on the OSR arch which spoilt the looks. Also had loads of scratches and scrapes.

Still pissed off about the knock, had been awake for over 30 hrs and was obviously getting a bit tired. The one point in the journey where a lack of concentration would lead to a prang was the one moment where I wasn't focused. Didn't help that the bloke in the 46 did an emergency stop at infont of me, but this is no excuse obviously.

[Kos]

and at your age having a prang overseas wont help you insurance premiums, but as you said, shit does happen.

[Theo]

Luckily it wasn't my policy with my NCB, but a new policy (i started it about a week before the incident).

Anyway, back on reshelling.

Got a few nice new bits to go on on m30 turd mk2;

Ireland engineering Poly engine mounts
Ireland enginieering Poly gearbox mounts
Ireland engineering Billet aluminiun rear top mounts with reinforcement plates
Powerflex subframe bushes
Hartge H26 Bilstein front shocks
Brand new E28 535i rad
Audi VDO gauges

Tempted by an E36 rack, but worried about the clearance with the coupling on one of the manifold/downpipe flanges. Also want to make up a straight through centre section out of some 50mm exhaust piping.

[12345kevin]

Slightly O/T, what's happening with the old 1.6 motor and gearbox ? Is it any good ? PM me if your selling

[Jon_Bmw]

Theo I could do with exact details of the incident if at all possible, for my scrapbook you see.

Top work so far, looks like another really good base, its got some inner arches and scuttle I trust.

Tempted to paint it like Glenns one with the Mtech stripes?

[Theo]

LOL Jon

Shell is very solid mate, no rot in the inner arches or scuttle etc. I did have a little trepidation as I removed the inetrior today, but all was good.

Fancy paint isn't on the agenda, need to spray my iS lip spoiler and that will probably be all. Wouldn't mind some sort of rear spoiler, m3/hartge style could work?

Kevin - PM on it's way.

[DRIFTBOY]

That looks a very nice base for a slaaaaaag 335I mate!


Got some nice trick parts going on the new shell too, should be a bit of a weapon!

[Theo]

Still waiting for those bits from the US to arrive, once I have the engine mounts I will want to get the engine in ASAP. The M40 is so small, will be a joy to remove compared to the m30.

Eko - 17 days to beat eh? Will see how I get on.

[ric325i]

oh i already want to re-shell my 335 just so i dont have to go through an MOT.

and if i was it would be in a touring or a mint shell 3 door with no sun roof. perfect man - enjoy

[Jhonno]

Finished yet Theo?!

[1an]

looking good Theo,

atleast my car will gain a better engien that it has, btw how many miles on the 316?

[Theo]

1an - engine is on 116k miles I think, went very nicely actually.

[1an]

nice and quiet? aslong as the clutch dont slip i dont care lol

anything will be quieter than my m40 at the moment.

[Theo]

Yeah, its a decent m40, and no clutch slip. For the sake of £60 i'd be inclined to put a new clutch in especially when the engine and box are out of the car.

[1an]

itso nly got to last untill febuary then i get a proper engine

anyway back on topic, keep us updated mate, and hopefully we shall see you some time this week hopefully.

[Theo]

Cool, will see you next wednesday I think.

Update with pics tomorrow, as I acheived very little today!

[gareth]

blimey, you don't hang about!!!!!

give us a shout when you're dropping the anchor in and i'll see if i can pop by, in my one!!!

i've been out in it today and yesterday. with the ledas on, it's goooooood! but needs the geometry setting up!!!
oh, do you have any spare front bush lollipops lurking mate?

[Theo]

Hello mate, yeah I've got a pair of wishbone brackets if you need some. Will be looking to put the engine in some time next week, not sure exactly when though - need my poly engine mounts to turn up.

Car now has genuine alpina c2 2.7 manual windows (cheers Simon) removed the sound deadening inside the doors too. Battled the rear subframe off today, and replaced the brake lines. Fitted poly subframe bushes to my existing rear subframe which is now waiting to go on. Fitted the rear ARB, first time this e30 has ever had one!

3 days of reshelling, and not a huge deal to show for it

[DRIFTBOY]

It'll soon come together dude!

How did you get on removing the old subframe bushes!

Where (and for how much if you don't mind) did you get your poly engine and gearbox mounts?

[Theo]

Old subframe bushes burnt out a decent amount of parafin got them burning really well. After a while I just drifted them out.

Engine/gearbox mounts are from Ireland Engineering - http://store.nexternal.com/shared/Store ... oducts.asp

Not too expensive as you can see, new rubber mounts lasted about 1500 miles on my car, so they will pay for themselves quite quickly.

[DRIFTBOY]

That's how I got my old bushes out too, nasty job!

Thanks for the link, very interesting stuff on there!