Joe's E30 325i Sport

[AshVrs]

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

Ed China paints stuff with his spit and it looks brand new! Lol gotta love wheeler dealers!

sent from my Galaxy Note 3

[TriggerFish]

Cheers I'm no Edd China, that's for sure!

 

Cruise control has arrived  Being from a US car, the loom is backwards, so I'll have to mount the ECU by the glovebox, or extend half the wires. No brainer which to choose really!

 

Went to see the car today, and got there just in time as there were only a couple of guys there who were having a smoke before locking up, but they let me in for a quick poke around anyway.

 

Progress has started!  I now have inner sills on the passenger's side (maybe the driver's too, I couldn't open the door to check as there was something in the way), a fixed bulkhead on both sides and a solidish (WIP) set of rear arches.

 

I couldn't tell much as most of the lights were off, and I didn't stay for long as I didn't want to hold the workers up, but the work all looks good. Rubbishy phone photos only, so not sure how well they'll be visible:

 

Clearly not finished, but at least you can't see the floor any more on the driver's side footwell.

 

 

 

Passenger's footwell:

 

 

 

 

And inner sill:

 

 

Even sprayed the suspension and brake back plates too (just hope they covered the shock tube/strut thing (what's the bit that moves calls? The rod thing)

 

 

Various bits of the rear arches/boot pockets in different stages of work

 

 

 

 

And from the inside:

 

 

 

I'm glad work's finally started as I starting to loose hope and get despondent, and it means I don't need to have an argument, which isn't really in my nature, and would be a shame as I get on quite well with the people there anyway.

[TriggerFish]

So, I went up today to view the E30 now the welding was 'complete'. I'd been sent a couple of photos via Facebook and was sceptical all the work we'd agreed had been done. On arriving, I got a call to say the 330 had failed the MOT (handbrake, rear tyre and headlight aim), so that annoyed me a bit.

 

Anyway, the work we'd agreed was a full inside/outside respray, rectify all encountered rust (including, but not limited to the scuttles, sunroof, suspension turret, the floor, the bulkhead),  and fit new outer sills (parts supplied by me).

 

Here's some photos of what we currently have. If I hadn't gone up, this would have been painted on Monday. (Also, what's with Photobucket recently? The website is even more terrible than normal, and the mobile app keeps randomly uploading photos over and over again until I force kill it.)

 

This is the driver's side upper dash area, the previous home of the much fabled structural cardboard.

 

 

This is the relay/option socket area in the passenger's foot well:

 

 

A hole by the seatbelt mounting point. An MOT fail.

 

 

Untouched roof.

 

 

Untouched scuttles. Visible rust shown, plus crusting on the underside of that metal.

 

 

Crusty inner boot arch -> outer skin join.

 

 

Rusty rear valance bit where the numberplate goes:

 

 

And inside the boot lock hole:

 

 

Patched up, not replaced sill.

 

 

Although the work that has been done has been done to a standard I'm happy with.

 

 

 

 

So yeah. My mood didn't improve on seeing this. I'm a calm person, as those who have met me will testify too, but this is really trying my patience now!

 

The owner wasn't there. The chap who was, whose fault I don't think it is, said it's likely down to a breakdown in communications between the guys working on it and the boss. I'm a cynic, and have an inherent distrust of any third party, and wonder if it's an attempt at cutting corners in hope I don't notice? I'm expecting an update from someone on Monday as to what happens next. 

 

So there we go. Another down point in my disappointing ownership of this crap heap of a car. 

[Paul007]

Sounds obvious, but don't pay until it's properly fixed.

[TriggerFish]

I've paid a deposit, and an interim payment based on the quality of the work I saw last weekend (when I thought it was still a WIP - I had a quick poke around just as they were closing, but didn't speak to anyone as no-one related to my car was still there). Defo not paying any more though, and I regret making the second payment tbh, unless it gets resolved to a decent standard. 

[BobIzYaUncle]

Seems youve had some ups and downs with this project. Hope it all works out for ya.

I used to have 1989 320i E30.

Loved it, only cost me £601 off ebay. Lowered 60mm, mtec rear bumper, mtec guages with coloue choice of red blue or grean. Half leather and body was mint other than slight bubbling on 1 rear arch. Had it foe bout 8 months but got a bit scared when it began to run quite hot as told the heads cracked easily. Then started to loose bit of coolant but no evidence externally! Sold it for £900 that was 5 years ago. Wish i had kept it, never missed a car so much and it would have been worth £2k+ now.

Even had the full tool kit!

Edited 25 September, 2014 by BobIzYaUncle

[TriggerFish]

Awesome, and turning a profit too and the original dealer "!" Sticker on the boot lid too

Things are looking up again. ETA of 1-2 weeks for completion from this Saturday.

Photos to follow once I've uploaded them

Edited 25 September, 2014 by TriggerFish

[TriggerFish]

A week late, I know, but it's not a case of someone trying to pull a fast one. Why the work wasn't done, I don't know. An explanation wasn't offered, and I didn't think to ask.

 

Anyway, some of the issues have been fixed, some are still outstanding (and I discovered a few more issues today, which have been added to the list). The outside of the car has been primed now, it just needs the inside/shut lines doing and sanding down.

 

Today I removed the wiring loom to make sure that there was nothing else by the bulkhead grommet, and I'm glad I did! The was a hole there, hidden by some relays/the loom that was on the engine side of wheel arch, so completely hidden by the brake servo/fuse box from above, and the loom from the inside. If this had been left, I'm guessing I'd be in the same situation in a few years time when it all rusted out again.

 

I was dreading removing the loom, but apart from feeding it through the bulk head (lots of wire, small hole!) it was pretty simple and just a case of being methodical. Surprising how much wiring there is in a car though - I dread to think what the really modern flagship models are like, although I believe Audi at least have moved to fibre optics cables for some things.

 

Anyway, some photos from last week.

 

The sills haven't been replaced. In a way I'm pleased - original metal is nicer to have in some ways, and there's no chance of the chassis twisting during fitting. Also, having seen the fitment of the wings I got from the same company, I'm not sure how well they'd fit anyway!

 

The patches have been ground back, and look fine now. (Excuse the photos, I just tweaked them quickly to bring the detail of the metal out, as they were a bit dark before.)

 

 

 

 

One of my 3rd party wings. 

 

 

The other was OK, but this is terrible. Where it meets the doors, is fine, so it can't be moved forward (although it doesn't fold around to meet the sill properly), and it bolts up by the headlights just fine, so it's just a terrible casting.

 

Wheel arch that we'd welded up previously, but it looked terrible, although was sound. It's been ground back and fillered back to the OE shape.

 

 

The whole boot, and interior, has been painted in some stone chip stuff, although it's all due to be painted body colour and lacquered.

 

 

 

 

Current outstanding work:

• bulkhead (by loom) on the passenger's side.
• bulkhead on the driver's side
• 
  
• front suspension turret
• 
  
• some rust I found today on the boot slam panel
• 
  
• strip sound proofing/underlay off the floor/rear seat base
• 
  
• a couple of small bits of surface rust to be ground back where the mirror bolts to the door
• 
  
• paint
• 
  

So it's getting there.

 

Looking further at the roof, despite the repairs done, there's still some bubbling by the original seem sealer, so I'm not sure how long the roof/skin has left before it just needs replacing. I'm hoping, without exposure to water and being allowed to dry when washed, it should have a good few years left yet. It's not structural anyway.

 

ETA of 2-3 weeks IIRC. 

[BobIzYaUncle]

Nice update matey, seem to be taking their time but at end of the day, the important thing is quality of workman ship. Id rather they took a bit longer to get it right. Just keep on at them mate. Good progress so far

[TriggerFish]

Same - as long as the end product is good, it's got the point where I don't care how long it takes. I've missed summer anyway now, so there's no rush/pressure on me to rebuild it either now.

 

So today I finished getting the wiring loom out.

 

This is what I imagine giving birth is like.

 

All of this (and more in the 'bay):

 

 

out through this!

 

 

(The small hole to the left of the masking tape)

 

Outside is all sanded and ready to paint, it just needs the work above doing, and a hole by the fuel filler I'd forgotten about until today, and it should be good to paint.

[TriggerFish]

And this is what ~£150 worth of clips and stuff looks like. Also includes new door hinges, as mine have sagged, and two new nuts that hold the rear windows on as mine had faded a little. Also a very good match to the paint I've used on the rest of the metal trim, which is good to know from an originality point of view. 

 

Not exciting at all, but hopefully useful when reassembling.

 

[TriggerFish]

Soon.

[BobIzYaUncle]

Ahhh i want one!

[TriggerFish]

And now it's all dry:

 

 

 

 

 

They were waiting for me to take up the clips and stuff I'd bought so they could put the body kit back on, as they didn't want to polish the small parts without any way to hold them down, which makes sense (so the above is without any work after having been sprayed - it still needs sanding/polishing).

 

The eagle eyed among you will have noticed some G60 wheels there - it's going to be rolling on those for a while, while the style 5s are refurbished, and until I manage to source some decent tyres for them. 205/55r15 is a horrid size to shop for!

 

I think it's another couple of weeks, and hopefully, it should be done  Then it's a case of wiring it up, putting the interior together, and giving it a good service ready for the summer.

[BobIzYaUncle]

Looks awesome mate

[TriggerFish]

Cheers The excitement of getting it back is building again.

 

I also started spraying the inlet manifold with the same paint as the rocker cover. I've seen this done before, and I'm not sure that I'll like it, as there's a bit too much black in the engine bay, but it's got to be better than a faded/scuffed 25 year old finish.

 

[Paul007]

Looking good.

[BobIzYaUncle]

I like it matey

[TriggerFish]

Still no progress from the body shop - still awaiting polishing.

 

In other news, I collected my 4 extra style 5s (normal E30 BBS/sport wheels) (with semi-decent tyres) for £50. Pretty good nick IMO.

 

 

 

Also got a nice period HU at the same time. It's one of these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BLAUPUNKT-LONDON-SQM-37-RADIO-CASSETTE-AUDI-Ur-QUATTRO-TURBO-COUPE-/261202279135 offered £20, which was accepted   Winning.

 

Now I've got the top off of it, it's clear that these wires provide an earth/positive to the tape drive, and both the left/right input signals to the amp from the tape deck. I'm hoping to splice into these for a 3.5mm jack coming out of the back for a bit of modern functionality with complete period looks. 

 

 

 

 

While I've not found it yet, I found want to find a source of the pre-amp'd signal. I'm hoping to find a signal feed that's volume controlled, but before it's been run through a 1980's amp - although the amp may do the volume, so I may have to settle for a post-amp feed. I know someone on the BMW forum has done this with a modern 'Business' CD HU, so I'll have a look at that thread and see. I then intend to send this off to a new amp hidden away somewhere to get 21st century sound quality while still looking original, and having the HU front face (volume, radio etc.) being fully functional.

 

With a bluetooth audio receiver hidden out of the way, connected to my phone, I should have a fully modern and 100% hidden system. 

 

This should prove useful too

 

https://www.scribd.c...T-LONDON-SQM-37

Edited 26 October, 2014 by TriggerFish

[BobIzYaUncle]

sounds good (no pun intended)

[TriggerFish]

News on the radio front - it lives! I'm not sure why, but I've incredibly excited/enthusiastic in this radio project - more so than anything else in the car atm. I found a tape (we have some!) and away we go. Turns out it was the Jam (Down in the Tube Station). Sounded pretty good considering it's 6watts and a 1980's amp. Hardly going to set the world alight with some D&B or whatever, but it's better than I expected.

 

Next job - aux input. Only issue is, when it's turned off/loses power, it spits the tape out. To get the aux in to work, it's going to need a dummy tape in there (to switch the source), but it will need to have the ferric tape removed first so it doesn't stop every 45 minutes. Anyway, as it stands, it'll be a pain if it spits it out at the end of each journey, so I need to find what causes that and isolate it.

 

Anyway, some photos (I'm falling in love with my 50mm lens again too):

 

That grey tape is one it spat out - they fly that far! Hence why I want it disabling. 

 

 

 

Only the LCD has lighting, which is a shame though.

 

 

And power taken from a 12v drill charger.

 

[BobIzYaUncle]

haha nice progress

[TriggerFish]

Progress on the radio front - the aux in works! Sort of.

 

I can get sound to come out, but it's very, very tinny. Even with the source and the HU on full it's still quieter than my phone speaker. But thanks to a hole on the back, nothing needs modding to allow the wires in/out. Although the gain issue is a big problem currently.

 

Also, I seemed to manage to wire it up so that connecting a source to the headphone jack shorted out the eject function on the HU, so it would spit the tape out as soon as you tried to play anything. When set like this, it would cause my phone to reboot too when being plugged in.

 

Instead, I tried to earth it off the HU's case instead, which didn't work either. In the end, I earthed it off the negative of the 12v power source, which worked fine with my laptop, but has seemingly completely killed my phone. It's bricked totally now.

 

 

Making use of the holes in the case to run the wire:

 

 

And the wiring - note the connections neatly tacked onto the end of the blue/yellow cables - no need to cut in the audio source ones thankfully.

 

 

 

For a tape, I managed to get Harry Potter on audio book for £1.50 for 8 cassettes from the charity shop. Cut the tape and pull it off the reels and et voila, infinite play time.

[TriggerFish]

Got it working, with perfect stereo too  Fantastic. Needed a 3.3ohm resistor in combination with a 10k ohm trimmer in the end. Worked out with some help from the great interwebz, and trial and error with some resistors and a potentiometer. 

 

Anyway, all tidied up and back together. Next job is to try and find a pre-amp'd source.

 

My high-tech test rig (loving my new 15mm lens on a full frame - much better than the crop 18mm I had before which vignetted everything):

 

 

 

And the money shot:

 

 

And a wiring diagram if it ever helps anyone else trying to convert a Blaupunkt London sqm 37 to accept a line input/aux connection from the head tape. Excuse the poor diagram!

 

 

 

Still no word on the car itself, and since I lost my phone, I've lost the mobile number for the body shop. I'll give them a ring at some point.

[Toxicvrs]

Bargain on the wheels, I sold a similar set for about £100 a few months back. Want the E34 back in my life :(