No, of course not! The price is easy to find online anyway, so nothing to hide It's only money anyway

 

I paid £90 for the pair, delivered (3rd party - NLA from BMW). That's only the outer sill (the bit you see above from the outside with the body kit off). The inner sill (the bit that's got the cables running through it inside the car) are £120 each from BMW. With that in mind, I think I'll be fixing those, not replacing! I'm lucky I'm not paying for labour though, that would increase the costs massively, as so far I'm only in ~£200 for the body repairs (those sills and £120 on the Bilt Hamber rust stuff above). It'll go up a lot once I get some spraying done mind.

 

I've got my own version of Edd China, so I am lucky in that respect.

 

Taken from someone else's post in a thread about panels:

 

been onto bmw today looking at £249+vat per quarter panel & £169+vat for NSR inner arch & £190+vat for the OSR inner arch with a 7-10 day back order from germany . nice that we can still get genuine panels for these cars

 

Today's update though:

 

Another day, another hole. 

 

It's the battery box, and should be simple to fix as it's just a square with a fold at the back.

 

 

On the bright side, the cats are enjoying having some car seats in the house again. He was in there when I left at 11ish, and was still there on my return 5 hours later. I wish I were a cat.

 

 

I did managed to strip the headlights out so I can make a start on cleaning those up and replacing the missing headlight retainer stop, and try and bring some life back into the dead chrome rings.

 

I've managed to strip the headlight down so the projectors are out and the wiper motors are apart ready to be cleaned and replaced. Just got to work out how to remove the bowls from the frame so I can clean them down completely. Then I'll tackle removing the glass from the lights to clean inside and out thoroughly. I can't stand crusty looking headlights - they let down any car!

I've not updated this for a while, so this is a bit of an aggregated update.

 

Until now, the car was at a friend's place who restores classics (1930s era) cars for a living, who was meant to be welding it up, but the work just wasn't getting done, so I bought it home, found a bodyshop and set about ripping it apart to see what I had:

 

 

Inner passenger's rear quarter panel 

 

 

 

Inner driver's rear quarter panel 

 

Sweet merciful crap!

 

I managed to cut this much out in about 30 minutes 

 

 

 

Whatever this is (scuttle?) is solid 

 

 

This hurt to see 

 

 

These were taken today at the body shop, and is with the car up on ramps. I dunno which side this, but it's the sill and floor. Not much of a join there! 

 

 

 

Driver's side rear 

 

 

Passenger's side footwell 

 

 

 

 

Driver's side footwell 

 

 

 

And yes. It has MOT until March! I've written to VOSA... 

 

On the bright side, once it's done, I know I won't have to worry about it again for a good number of years, and it'll be dry stored, so shouldn't get wet enough to be a problem.

 

So. Current state of affairs is that the bodyshop it's at now should be fixing all the rust issues and giving it a full inside/outside respray, and then I reassemble the car myself at home. I'll be glad when it's done, but it's still scary to think how little of the structurally important bits are left intact! 

This is like watching a real life wrecks to riches on discovery lol. Good on you for staying motivated and seeing it through though. Thank god you never had a prang in it, looks like it was an absolute death trap!

sent from my Galaxy Note 3

Trying to stay motivated anyway! 

 

Yeah, I dread to think what would have happened if I'd crashed it, but I've only done about 200 miles in total since I bought it in April, so not much chance to crash. Every cloud and all that!

How is it all going mate? Light at the end of the tunnel yet?

sent from my Galaxy Note 3

The grows a little brighter each day. Should be done by the 1st September by current estimates. 

 

Work was meant to start in early July, but got pushed back about two weeks due to issues with the shop manager. He's been replaced, and work has started. Progress has been slow far - but all all the rust has been found (we think!) and removed. One of the rear arches is nearly done now. Current estimations are for the welding to be done by the middle of next week, and hopefully the interior sprayed by the end of it. Then they'll move onto the exterior spraying. There's about 4 days for the primer to cure, and then it should be done by the 30th August, hopefully. 

 

They've also rolled the arches for me, and will spray the wheels for me, all FOC too

 

If I want, I can go along and work on it while it's there - so over the next couple of weeks (I'm off work until the 1st September), I'll replace the brakes, adjust the valve clearances, change the fuel pipes/filter, possibly change the oil too. If I have time, I'll also do the cambelt and the water pump, but that's a job I've never done before, so I might wait until it's home, so I don't render the car undrivable and hold the workshop up! 

 

The work that's been done looks to be to a very high standard too, which is good to see. I just hope it continues that way!

 

Here's some condensed copy + paste updates from my main thread on the BMW forums with some photos. (I keep forgetting to update this one!)

 

"Just ordered it some new M-tech stickers for the body kit, a new 5-speed gear inlay to replace the 6-speed one on my Clubsport (short, weighted gearstick from the e46 330ci Clubsport) knob, and a new leather gear gaiter (as the knob and gaiter are one unit on the factory item). Also got a new leather handbrake handle/gaiter to replace the vile 1980's plastic thing that mine came with."

 

"Another 'exciting' update is due! Given the whole car is being resprayed, I'm cleaning/respraying anything external, like the lights, plate surrounds, shadow line trim etc. as I don't want the little things to let the car down. I started today with one of the door handles as a small, model universal (so cheap if it cocks up) part to test the paint/process. It's just done using cheap Hycote Satin Black spray paint. At £2 a can I thought it was worth a try - I could always buy something 'better' if needed, but it seems really close to the BMW finish and is easy to work with too. 

 

Seems to have gone well with only a light sanding to the factory finish needed for the paint to adhere, and it looks a lot better too, although the photos don't really show this too well. I'll make a start of the rest of the bits over the week I suspect.

 

 

Also tidied stuff into boxes depending on what they're for, so I don't just have a masses pile on unlabelled pieces when I come to reassemble the car. I'd forgotten how much cats love boxes 

 

"

 

"Went to London yesterday and met a nice chap off e30zone to grab a pair of front seats. Mine are a bit scuffed (I'll dye them though), but the runner and mechanisms are rusty, and it really bugs me. So I got these for a tenner so I can either use those runners or take them apart and spray them, and then fit them to my seats.

 

Also grabbed another headlight with BOSCH on it (not Hella), so now I've got 6 headlights and enough to make a matching set finally. OCD: satisfied. Also got a genuine leather handbrake for a tenner too, which means I return the one I got off eBay which is just a sleeve over the standard plastic one.  

 

He also threw in a few other bits and pieces he thought I might find useful FOC - top guy! 

 

Not a bad haul for £30 IMO.

 

 

 

And within about 2 minutes of the cat waking up, he found the seats 

 

 

Also had a go at spraying the headright rings, but I've lost two  and the one I tried went really badly. Needs more prep work."

 

(Headlight rings since found - were in the garage!)

 

"A bit more spraying done. Just got a couple more pieces of trim to take and then that's done. Then I'll move on to finishing re-dying the carpet/parcel shelf.

 

Headlight rings before:

 

 

 

And after:

 

 

Not the best finish, but they're very hidden when on the car

 

 

I don't even know what this is or where on the front of the car it goes any more, but it was dirty, so I sprayed it anyway! It was also a good test of how well the paint works on plastic before I sprayed the visible stuff like the grilles/kidneys and ruined them

 

 

 

After:

 

 

 

And a big piece of the shadowline trim. Comes up pretty nicely I think. Better than before anyway.

 

 

"

"Went down to the shop today - no progress yet 

 

Various reasons, hoping to start it either this or next week, I'm not too sure. I've got the last three weeks of August booked off now (and some other random days), so I'm hoping it'll be back with me by then.

 

Did some more cleaning too. 

 

I was expecting to buy new ones of these, but seems some wet kitchen roll is all I needed!

 

 

Also autosol'd the chrome bits of the kidney grills. Made a huuuuge difference in the flesh!

 

 

 

 

These also came out really well I think. Scuttle trims for the wipers and the mechanism for the opening rear windows.

 

"

"

 

"Today's latest purchase, some period BMW speaker covers, straight from America. These cost £30 Inc. Postage. I paid $42 to get a jiffy bag posted from the us a few weeks ago. And the royal mail managed to deliver these without running them via their extortion racket, sorry, admin fees, first. 

As a bonus, the semi decent looking pioneer speakers it came with are the right size too."

 

"This weekend's progress - carpet dying.

 

The E30 came with a pretty depressing grey carpet, which I don't much care for:

 

 

Plus, Mr. Mastic had cut the back of the carpet behind the handbrake to run speaker cables to the rear, rather than lifting the carpet and doing it properly. Pikey. So I wanted to replace it. Plus, when I was stripping the car I got very cross and butchered it completely with a knife, so it's cut in half completely now. It was a mess anyway. I picked up another carpet from a 'vert from Birmingham that the guy had started to dye black already, although I've done a couple more coats as his threw in a litre of dye, so a shame to waste it!

 

The rear bit of carpet (under the rear seats/against the rear bulkhead) is different on the 'verts, so I had to use mine instead. Here's a couple of photos of the before/after of the dye. I'm hoping it'll lift the interior of the car nicely.

 

Very easy to use too, but as my hands, arms, legs and knees can attest too, it's not water soluble! 

 

 

 

Only disadvantage is, the pile isn't as soft any more, but I've got matts, so won't really see much of the carpet."

 

"Anyway, I went to see the car today, and almost bought myself a Clio Willaims (still tempted, but not 100% on the seating position for fast driving, and I still need to buy a house... Epic little car though). The work has progressed - nearly all the rusty bits have been cut out now - there's just a couple left, and the left hand side has been sanded down and fillered ready for priming (after the welder fills the holes).

 

It's also the first time I've seen the car without all the wheels on, and I def. need to replace the front brakes in addition to the rears. I also checked about getting a couple of extra bits done, since they weren't relayed onto the owner when the previous guy left. They're happy to: drill the sills for the body kit clips before it's painted (save me doing it and damaging the finish on the paint), fit the front wings, remove all the remaining sound interior deadening, rehang the doors so they don't hit the sills when shutting and roll the rear arches for me before painting, all FOC. 

 

I was also told they'd happily refurb my wheels for me, again FOC, if I sand them down first, so they'll be getting done soon! I'm wondering if some of it is by way of apology for the delay, but I also think it's genuine care/enthusiasm for a fellow motorist. 

 

No photos I'm afraid - wasn't really interesting enough to bother. 'Bad' news is, it's not going to be done ready for Gaydon, but I'm hoping it should be done ready for me to spend the last week of my leave rebuilding it (25th August - 1st Sept.). Still, I'd rather it was done right, rather than rushed to meet an arbitrary deadline."

 

"Well, went to see if again today. Some progress has been made, and the welding has started. I got a couple of crappy phone photos that show the scale of the holes after being cut back.

 

Still not sure of an ETA. When asked, I was told that once they think they've found all the rust, some more appears (just how I felt stripping it). Good job it's a fixed price! 

 

Rear arch - first welds being laid:

 

 

It's also been rolled too - quite a lot more space in there now too, which is good.

 

Bulkhead once cleaned up:

 

 

That started looking like this:

 

 

And the front 'jacking point'/floor:

 

"

 

"And I've just won a cruise control retrofit for it off eBay America  (Cue another rant about import charges!)

 

The two times I drove it to work before I found the rust I found myself wishing for cruise control. Having to maintain speed yourself is such a hassle.  

 

Figured it will be easy to fit while the dash is out and there's nothing to stop me routing the loom neatly. All it wants now is AC and I'd be happy with the spec, but there's too much work involved in that for me for the gains it gives.

 

Fitting looks quite easy too: http://www.e30zone.n..._Cruise_Control"

 

Sorry for the disjointed nature, but that's it for now!

 

Ordered a few service bits to fit: new cam belt and tensioner, PAS belt, alternator belt and new discs/pads all round. I left out the handbrake shoes as I think from memory, it actually worked 
 
Also on order from BMW is a rocker cover gasket (£21 posted - it was about £35 for the 330d  )and at some point, a new water pump too (there's more than one type, and I can't tell which I need until it's out). 

 

 
I was shocked at first with how small the brake pads were (rears on left, fronts on right):
 

 
Then I saw how small the discs are! (These are the fronts against a 17 inch wheel with 32*mm discs)
 
 

 
I know it's lighter than later models, but considering that 325mm set up pictured is installed on BMW cars with as few as ~15bhp extra, that's a small set of discs on the E30! (They're 17s on the silver car, for reference.) I think they're 260mm vented front and 258mm solids at the rear. Shows how far things have come anyway. 

Edited 18 August, 201411 yr by TriggerFish

Wondered if this was any use ?

 

https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=%2Fgroups%2F127160300780560%2F&h=kAQENpxY1&enc=AZPqHMTgC1FG1CLGZiMt9aa9y_1446EvC7x_BC-Sq1zdlPLWr7WyrR7c4aK5URkvyj-cm9fIzDhgrWT0temkEj-t05Osh8g3OE3Cn9TEDkLWFulSk4SUVUYdXS6ibw5ABlSHm_A-WizXiocbuBF4AVlCUNoAow28z0B9jS2Ap2ZrJmt7vMpLlyLF4Zpi2JaAPs81VziTrm7FbAgF3zWlbsji-VEv6UJZKJho5Uny8L-WIpqli-9lOqy56Vf1WL0HACcdpsdx6pELAZZZW4XTOD24i1f4JgR2wN3alpKjHkf_GO4YFU5lA6QjlZUtm8LOb4NyH7PQEP85mRUYilKRVM9djzdzn-xULy7VW1gzhm6-tER4r_alJa_MTR7qdaXyAp-UMpiqsgegjCrwVKwTXgp_ncHEwjfxnVgBaNFZ8ljSEIYJ-U4HbGnU72PVVh-iBNBa28IK--bHAj0ROyrMdydqJaFrb4Cw2p7BhV1vnIUZz_fI2MByyK3GUbz0wN2O4V5qiZoOflXzWoxLXUlyBq3RPZOJBs9JNLoYk_V1IIB0zA

Joe if you need any parts that are identical to an E34 (I've only got the rear end of the car in the loft! But anything you need drop me a PM and I'll try to get it sent at some stage FOC

Fantastic offer Jack, much appropriated! I'll have to have a look and see what, if anything is compatible. I would offer you some Clio stuff... but I have none! 

 

Cheers Paul - I'll keep an eye open on it. Some real crap on there though! There's an E30zone page on Facebook too which is quite useful.

Edited 18 August, 201411 yr by TriggerFish

Fantastic offer Jack, much appropriated! I'll have to have a look and see what, if anything is compatible. I would offer you some Clio stuff... but I have none!

Cheers Paul - I'll keep an eye open on it. Some real crap on there though! There's an E30zone page on Facebook too which is quite useful.

Don't worry mate I'm just about to buy some matches for it

Ah, those I can post you!

 

I've done some digging, and it seems nothing from the back of an E34 will fit into an E30: http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/index.php/E34 . (Google confirms this too,) If you've a steering UJ then that would be useful, but otherwise I'll have to gratefully decline, and leave the stuff in your loft a little longer.

 

Again, cheers for the offer though

Edited 18 August, 201411 yr by TriggerFish

Ah, those I can post you!

I've done some digging, and it seems nothing from the back of an E34 will fit into an E30: http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/index.php/E34 . (Google confirms this too,) If you've a steering UJ then that would be useful, but otherwise I'll have to gratefully decline, and leave the stuff in your loft a little longer.

Again, cheers for the offer though

Sadly no that stayed on

Popped up today and managed to get the brakes changed, in quite possibly the slowest brake change ever. But still, it's done, and apart from a hand removing a rounded disk retaining screw, I managed it all myself too (rather than calling for my dad half way in!). The brakes were poor before, and I think I know why - all the sliding surfaces (sliding callipers) were very rusty, and in one case, the pad was held onto the calliper with rust. Not seen that before! I've attacked these with a file/emery paper and they're nice and smooth again now, so combined with some copper slip, I'm hoping that'll see the brakes working again. And as a bonus, I managed to reuse the pad wear sensors too - a very nice design really IMO and you'd have to be a fool to damage them. Also interesting to see how early they come on too as they look to be on at about 50% wear.

 

Looking at the hoses, I want those off the car soon, so the hunt is on for a set of braided ones, and I'll also see about getting the carriers sand blasted, and either the same for the callipers, or just some refurbished ones. I'm only doing the callipers so that it all looks the same, so I might just throw some paint at them. I'll see how they feel and go from there. All of this will be done over the winter though - I want to get some mileage in this year! My thoughts are I can leave it up the unit on axle stands and work my way though the suspension/brakes/exhaust etc. as and when.

 

Look at the rust of the rear carrier:

 

 

 

In good news, the disk guards/backing plates were in good nick, so that's a job saved.

 

 

 

And an obligatory 'job done' shot:

 

 

 

I also took this, as I think it symbolises the current state of the car quite nicely (and would have been apt for my driveway too before I swept it up!)

 

 

My rocker cover gasket also arrived, as did my high temp paint, so I'll pop up tomorrow and remove that and set the value clearances and paint up the cover. 

 

They've got two cars which should be done by the end of this week, and then they reckon mine should be the only thing the guy working on it has on, so I hope to see a lot of quick progress soon.

Also just found these two, so that's another project to keep me busy!

 

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=233787

 

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=286673

 

I'd love a full trim, but not really worth the money considering, and given these are heated sports seats, they're quite rare (considering), and carry a price premium, so good replacement ones mean I might as well just get a retrim.

 

For perspective - E46 M3 leathers have been known to sell on eBay for ~£50. A friend offered me a set of heated, electric memory and lumbar support seats from an e46 coupe (so no use to me) for £80.

 

A semi-decent set of E30 sports seats is going to be £200-300+ 

Edited 21 August, 201411 yr by TriggerFish

Up there again today - I tried to do the valve clearances. I got the rocker cover off easily, but actually lining up the cam gear alone is a right pain, as you've got to turn the crank, and then check the cam lobes are in line, but it's quite crowded and dark (lots of oil deposits), so it's hard to track the lobes without being able to follow them as they move, so I gave up and will give it another go when someone else can track the progress of the cam as I rotate the crank. (Glad I've not got a S5* engine where there's 24 valves, all needing shims instead!)

 

Still, I can make a start on cleaning/painting the rocker cover up now as it is a complete mess!

 

I also ordered the stuff for the leather seat repair, and bought my driver's seat home, so will make a start on that next week.

 

 

Edited 22 August, 201411 yr by TriggerFish

My seat stuff turned up today. Looks good so far - even came with some gloves too. I've got a proper air compressor and spray gun, so I'll use that, rather than the small one + propellent they provide. Progress will be shown once I've done, but having reassessed my seat - it's got it's work cut out! Also found out why the seat's leg bolster is a bit weird - the bracket has snapped and needs welding. Don't buy cars from fat people!

 

 

Anyway, I finished my rocker cover today, and I must say, I'm really pleased with the results! Excuse the mess outside - we're having building work done (evident in later photos of the seat repair too!)

 

This is how it looked at first - covered in oil stains and peeling finish. Nice.

 

 

After a quick degrease it cleaned up much nicer, but still tired looking.

 

 

A spray of degreaser on the underside has tidied things up nicely too.

 

 

And after rubbing it down with a sanding pad thing, we get this. I really liked this finish and the 'patina' (even typing that word makes me feel pretentious!) that was left. However, it wouldn't really fit in with the clean/new look I'm going for, so I ploughed onwards.

 

 

I've seen some photos of these done with wrinkle paint, so I bought four cans of this stuff, although I've used just under one, so a bit of a fail there! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/351112585695?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

 

After being sprayed with three coats, and left in the garage overnight, you get this:

 

 

And some close ups of the finish.

 

 

 

Next stage is to use a sanding block to just rub down the raised bits to get to the metal underneath, and then mask it up, and spray it again.

 

 

After leaving it overnight again and peeling the tape off, you end up with this:

 

 

 

There's still some black marks on the metal, but it's not noticeable from a distance, and given it's a 25 year old part, it sort of seems appropriate it's not perfect anyway. 

 

A very simple job, and well worth doing while adjusting the valve clearances IMO. (A new rocker cover gasket is £20 posted from Coltswold BMW too.)

Nice work.

Look great, well done! The whole car is really coming along now.

sent from my Galaxy Note 3

Cheers both.

 

Just won a new engine for it on eBay.

 

With ECU, inlet manifold, clutch, prop, starter, alternator, mounts etc. £41!!

 

Doesn't have a head, but a new 325i ECU is £55 on eBay anyway, and an inlet manifold is £20...

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E30-325i-Almost-Complete-Engine-Minus-Head-includes-Ecu-Inlet-Manifold-/251627490073?autorefresh=true&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=9Re0ASdnTuvdEcuc6C8dwH0gQCU%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

 

And people say BMW parts are expensive!

Sounds like a good buy then? Is the new engine for overhaul or to just fit?

sent from my Galaxy Note 3

Dunno. Only bought it as it was cheap!

I'll like strip it down, as I've never done so before, so a good chance to learn.

Using modern cranks and rods and pistons, you can stroke the stoke engine to 3.3l k think. Certainly room for more power and capacity anyway.

Picked up my new engine (£41) and a complete set of gaskets for £45, inc. head gasket (£70-£90 normally), rocker cover (£20normally) and manifold gaskets/heatsheilds (£25 normally) and a load of smaller washers and misc. gaskets. Couple of good bargains there me thinks 

 

Also found that the new engine comes complete with a set of injectors too, and the complete wiring loom. Which means, I can use the good loom from that engine to replace the bodged loom on my car. Good times! Only thing I'm really missing is a spare flywheel to lighten. But my plans for the engine are this, I think: http://ns1.e30zone.n.../Building_a_2.8

M52b28 crank + M20b2.0/b23 con rods + M20b25 head, pistons and block, and you get a roughly 220bhp 2.8 litre M20. Should be good, and still look original, and I'll have my old, stock engine as a spare.

 

I also finished my seat driver's today. There's a couple of imperfections, but on the whole, I think it's a huge improvement, but open to thoughts.

 

I used this, from Furniture Clinic:

 

 

http://www.furniture...lourant_Kit.php + http://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/Leather_Repair_Kit.php

 

And I started out with this:

 

 

 

 

 

So as you can see, serviceable, but tatty and cracked.

 

First steps were to split the seat apart, and then rub it down with a couple of supplied cleaners and alcohol wipes, and then sand the leather back a little.

 

Next stage is to fill the cracks with filler, allow it to dry, and sand it back until it's smooth. Keep repeating this until the filler and the leather are at one level.

 

These should give you an idea of the amount of cracking/filler I had to use!

 

 

 

 

Once that's done, another quick wipe with the alcohol cleaner and you're ready to spray. This is simple, and made a lot easier with a proper air compressor. I didn't get any photos of this, I jumped straight to the after ones. The finish is tacky and very shiny after spraying. It attracted a lot of dust that I had to remove, although there's some bits I missed. After spraying it with a 'sealer', you then apply a lacquer (for want of a better word), which is used to flatten down the finish, or make it shiner as needed.

 

When dry, this is what I ended up with.

 

 

And some close ups of the repaired areas:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there we have it. Far from perfect, and there's a couple of bits that annoy me, but to my parents, who saw the finished product and aren't aware of the imperfections to the same degree I was, they think it looks good. I think so to on the whole. But defiantly an improvement on before.

 

Now I just need to weld it back together.

 

(Oh, and excuse the mess - it's the failed aftermath of building work where my parent's had no idea of the end result, or seemingly, the budget either. *slow clap* )

Seats look definitely back from the dead mate, good job! There is some quality products around now to do stuff like this. I'd have never thought you'd improve the condition and look by such an extent.

sent from my Galaxy Note 3

Good job. Wheeler Dealer's did something similar. Painted the seats with some leather stuff, left to dry and then polished up.