1988 BMW E30 restoration project. And more.

[JoeMallett]

Hi everyone, this is my first post on here. I've recently bought an E30 318 and decided I should start documenting what I do to it. I regret not doing it from the start with my Mk2 Golf VR6 project that I am midway though at the moment. I'll probably end up mixing in a bit of the progress with that as well.

I bought the 318 from a friend for £350 with supposed brake and clutch hydraulic issues. I've had my eye on it for a while so thought I'd snatch it up. He'd just bought a bike as this starting playing up so wanted rid pretty quickly.
It has been painted satin black with a roller, but the body work isn't too shabby underneath.
The interior definitely needs sorting out. It has Recaro buckets from, I think, a Skyline. and there's wires hanging everywhere etc. The dash is cracked and there are a few electrical issues and the door handle is broken.

It has custom front coilovers and a sump guard. I have a few spares to pick up including the original front seats and supension.

As far as I can tell the engine and gearbox are all okay. The brake and clutch issues I've had a quick look at and think it is only cylinders that need replacing, but need to have a proper look.

I really don't know a lot about BMW's and most things I'm just learning when I get to it. So, any help/ideas will be massively appreciated.

I'm not too sure what direction the project is going to go in at the moment. I'd like to sort it out and make a bit of money on it at the end, but that could change.

Here's a few pictures...

[JoeMallett]

Had a look to see whether I could find the clutch issue. There was basically no pressure in the pedal and no use of the clutch. The master cylinder seemed absolutely fine, it wasn't leaking or anything anything. I topped up the hydraulic oil, and managed to get the clutch to engage slightly a couple of times, but that was it.
Anyway it turned out to be the slave cylinder, which by the way is far more awkward to remove than it needs to be. Thinking about redirecting the hydro lines just to make it easier to fit again. The thing just fell apart when I removed it and sprayed oil everywhere, so I'm assuming the was the problem.



The brakes don't really work either. If you slowly push the pedal it will just sink to the floor, but the brakes work well if you use the pedal quickly. The car came with a new master cylinder so I have replaced that to see it its the problem. I couldn't see anything obviously wrong with the old one though. For some reason I have a feeling the servo might be the problem, but I don't know enough about it all really. Any ideas?
Just waiting on some more Dot 4 and the new slave cylinder to see whether I've solved the problems.




I've also been getting on with my Mk2 Golf VR6 smooth bay project a bit today. Finished welding up the holes in the chassis legs. I can't decide what to do about the horrible ridge that runs down them though. I'd cut it off but not sure I'm skilled enough the sort it out afterwards.
Still got the bulkhead to go, which I'm dreading. Then I can prep it for paint.







With the E30 I don't know where to go with the bodywork. I could just respray it the original dark metallic grey. Or strip it out and spray it some awesome classy metallic brown or something. Or I was thinking a matte burgundy? Have a lot to sort out before I get to that though, including a boot leak which I hear is quite common? And the gaffa taped sunroof -.-

Sorry for the poor photos and excessive writing.

[05subysti]

i vote for sepang bronze paint

[JoeMallett]

i vote for sepang bronze paint

This sort of thing? That would be insane! But the job of a complete respray is going to take so much more time and money, and I'd quite like to get a bit of money back out of it at the end. Trying to be sensible, but I doubt that will last the rest of this week once I've had a little drive haha

[JoeMallett]

This is slow at the moment -.- I have a lot on at the moment, and arthritis in my spine, so have been struggling to get on with it.
I fitted the new slave cylinder and bled the system. Unfortunately it hasn't solved the problem yet, it improved it a little bit. I can now pump the clutch pedal a few times and get it into gear and drive around comfortably for a few minutes before having to pump the clutch again.
I read that the master cylinder have leak internally so there are no visual signs of it failing. I replaced this too and it's still doing the same thing.
It's as if I haven't bled the system properly, but I have now gone through that process 4/5 times. Is it possible that there could be a leak in the lines somewhere? Or anything else that would cause this problem.
I did think it might be something to do with the push rod not operating correctly or not being the right length, but I don't think pumping the clutch would change that?
Any suggestions?

[CaseyCulby]

I'd have someone sllok at the slave cylinder while you pump it, and maybe it's the throwout bearing or something else internal?

[99sil-teg]

This sort of thing? That would be insane! But the job of a complete respray is going to take so much more time and money, and I'd quite like to get a bit of money back out of it at the end. Trying to be sensible, but I doubt that will last the rest of this week once I've had a little drive haha

Meh that guys car is ok I guess

[JoeMallett]

I'd have someone sllok at the slave cylinder while you pump it, and maybe it's the throwout bearing or something else internal?

Okay cool thanks, I have a look at that. Is there anything I should look out for in particular? I'm starting to run out of clutch knowledge at this point.

[JoeMallett]

Haven't had an update for while. Haven't got any updated pictures I'm afraid. Managed to sort out the clutch though. I haven't had a proper look but after getting stuck for a while, thought it could be that the clutch arm was bent or something.
I extended the push rod, shoved it all back together, AND IT WORKS! finally. It's still not brilliant, the biting points pretty low. So at some point I might extend it some more. But it's fine for now, I can move it about.
Had a little play with the sunroof too. Not only was it taped up, but I found out it didn't function either. That turned out to just be that it didn't drop far enough to allow it to slide back. Just loosened of the bolts so it dropped and tightened it up. Pretty much works fine now, needs a little fettling to get it sat straight, and I think one of the sliding pins is bent which is making it stiff.
Best of all, it's been raining a lot, and it doesn't to have leaked yet!

I've been concentrating more on my Golf at the moment, because I've had enough of it sitting there and want it back on the road.
I thought it would be nice to make this thread focus on both the cars.
I haven't documented what's happened with the golf up until now really, but I'll do my best to fill you in.
I bought the car back in August 2010 as a completely standard 1990 1.8 8v GTI. Annoyingly I couldn't insure it until April the following year. I just left it as it was for a while, it was having timing issues and electrical issues where it had been sat in a barn for so long, so all my money was going towards sorting it out.





Eventually I managed to afford some cheap JOM coilovers, so they went on and I just played about with the ride height and left everything as it was, apart from a from maintenance parts here and there.
This photo is from August 2011, parked next to the E30 I now own haha


Not long after insuring the car, I was at my now ex-girlfriends house, when I saw my car rolling past the window. The bolt for one of the handbrake cables had snapped and the car rolled into the neighbours brand new Mazda 6. You can just about see the damage in this photo. A nice crease down the door, cracked door handle and indicator, cracked bump strips. I was gutted.


Last year I was looking at ways I could improve arch clearance to drop my car some more when I came across a load of unknown rust under the plastic arches.






I quickly tidied that up and bodge pulled the arches with some mole grips for more lows haha, I'd had enough of my car after finding all the rust so didn't really care about appearance for a while.


Car was used in a music video just after this




For my birthday I got all of the damage repaired. Had the dent in the door sorted, the rear arch replaced. Then the front two arches cut out and the back to rolled. Now I have plenty of clearance for wheels .



The next step went a bit wrong. My wheels were all flaking and horrible and I couldn't afford a new set. So I decided to refurb them myself. The finish turned out pretty good, but the paint was not the copper I wanted it to be, it was orange -.-





Edition 38 2012


I'll carry on up to how it is now later on.

Hope this interests you.

[JoeMallett]

I drove the car around like this for a while before I decided it was time for a change. I wanted to just get stuck in a do what I could myself. So I decided an engine change would be fun. I chose a VR6 mainly because I like the look of them and the idea of having an extra 2 cylinders, I realise I could go down other routes like a 1.8t for more power.
I got pointed in the direction of someone selling a 2.8 OBDII with most of what I needed for the conversion for £300 which I didn't think was too bad.
So off I went, and started stripping the car down.

[JoeMallett]

Resprayed the Mk3 subframe.


Then shortened the new mount and test fitted the VR. Still needs a bit of adjustment.


Picked up some Corrado front and rear seats.


And a Jetta front end, £15 well spent I think!..


I then started on cleaning the bay. I wasn't going to bother with smoothing etc, but I couldn't resist once the bay was empty. Seam sealer is the worst creation...


I then had to have a go at welding. I'd used an arc welder a few times before around the farm. So thought I'd just get stuck in. Didn't go amazingly well, but I'm started to get the hang of it I think. As long as the first attempts stay in place, I'll be able to tidy them up haha.

This was my attempt before moving on to the car. The car was a LOT harder. I realise the rust really isn't ideal. I spend much more time cleaning up the metal on my car, promise.


There was a lovely rust hole under the battery mounting bracket, so I thought I'd tackle that first.

[JoeMallett]

So the last update has basically brought everything up to where I am now. Been doing quite a bit more welding in the last couple of days, I have seven holes left to do then thats pretty much the welding done.







I think my welding is starting to improve. I did start a welding course but it got cancelled after 2 hours, which is a shame. But hopefully will be getting on a more advanced one and learning TIG as well, very excited about that.

I'm not too sure about what to do with the seams along the inside of the chassis legs at the moment. DO I just cut them off? Or leave them and tidy them up?

Also bought these babies, need to get some custom adapters made, but G23 engineering have already said they can do that. Can't go less than 18mm though so hopefully that will be okay. Not sure on the offset at all, but I'll get on with mock fitting them when I have the money for the adapters.


I want to get this out of the way before I get too involved with the E30, because ideally I need this done by June so I can be on a clubstand at DC13. Worried it won't happen though.

Any tips/ideas on how to clean/paint the engine would be awesome as well. I was thinking of just painting it all black, with a gloss black intake manifold. But I'm not sure about that now.
I also found a photo of a red Mk2 VR6 where they had flipped the throttle body around so the air filter sat above the gearbox, which I thought looked awesome, how difficult it will be to do though, I'm not sure. Annoyingly I can't find the photo now -.-

Shoving in a couple of photos of a Mini Cooper my boss and I have just finished restoring whilst I'm at it.
Sorry for poor photos again, I'm going through my Instagram.

Thats how it was when we got it here.
And how it is now. Finished getting the carpets and seats etc. in on Monday.

[JoeMallett]

Finally made some big progress this week. My friend has the week off, so I got an extra pair of hands. Finished all the welding on my Golfs bay and started prepping for paint.



Then got it in our new semi permanent spray booth for the primer.









Fairly happy with the results. Wish I'd spent more time getting everything perfect, but it's taken so long so far, I just need to get it done so I have a car I can drive again. Plus I did learn to weld ON the car pretty much, so I think I did I good first job. And the first thing I've sprayed unsupervised out of 3.

Hopefully it will sand down well and just get better. Tempted to go back over some of the seams with some sealer just to neaten it up a bit. It was so hard to get out so its still a little bit rough.

Picking up the base coat today so will hopefully have the bay done by the end of the week and get a start on cleaning/painting the engine and other parts.
Does anyone know of the best way I can paint the block and head at home?

[JoeMallett]

Also test fitted the wheels without the adapters. It's going to be a very tight fit, especially with the smallest adapters I can get being 18mm. If anyone has any ideas on tyre sizes, that would be awesome!

[JoeMallett]

More progress has been happening this week. Got the basecoat and lacquer on! Pretty happy with it apart from a few little bits, just down to me being impatient and not spending enough time sanding and cleaning. Also got a couple of runs which really pissed me off. But cooled down and they're sanding out alright, hopefully I can get them barely noticeable.















Started having a go at the engine too. Unfortunately I can't afford to rebuild it at the moment, which I'd really like to do. But at some point I will.
Stripped all the ancillaries etc. off and cleaned the hell out of it. I found out that the matte black gearbox has been painted really badly so thats another thing I have to do.



I painted the block today, I couldn't get a gloss HT black in a can, so I bought a tin, and just brushed it on. I came out a lot better than I expected.



I didn't manage to get the head as clean as I was hoping so think I'm going to buy some silver HT and hope that doesn't look too bad. Any good ideas on how to clean it better would be great.

Whilst waiting between coats I got on with tidying up some other parts ready to paint. I quickly found out these have been painted awfully as well, with no prep work at all!



Glad to see it coming together. Hopefully have the engine in early next week and be able to get the wiring started!