They told me E30s were played out

[gnmzl]

Hello again!
It's been almost 2 months since my last update, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working on the car.

I wanted to tell you about the plans for the engine, but that will have to wait. I have been dealing with various issues on that front and met some great challenges along the way. SO the post about the engine will have to wait until I sort all the stuff out.

Instead I will share with you the progress until now.
First, I had been unfortunate enough to find out, that the fuel tank was no good. The sheet metal itself was in good condition, but the hose fittings were all rotten. Not a single one was good enough. Especially the pair, where the small S-shaped pipe bolts on. The S-pipe itself was so gone, I knew I had to replace it too. So I made the decision called "everything new" and pulled the trigger on some goodies. I got a sweet deal on a pre-face lift fuel tank, brand new in the box, a buddy of mine works for a big parts importer and sorted that out for me. The tank came without said pipe, so I picked up the pieces of what was left from mine and headed to a popular brake line/hard line/hose shop and had 4 diferent versions of the S-pipe made with different angles and such. Once they were done, I picked the one closest to the fitting and made it fir perfectly in just 2 hours of measuring, careful bending and cursing. End result:



Next was the inner fuel pump. For those of you who don't know, some of the early euro spec cars were fitted with 2 fuel pumps - one in the fuel tank, sharing the same hole ( ) with the level sensor and another one underneath the rear left passanger's ass. My pumps were working OK, no noises no nothing, but I had a brand new pair sitting from another sweet deal I couldn't pass up, both BOSCH. So on with the new stuff:



Before I could put in the fuel tank, the fuel lines and hoses plus the breather hoses for the tank needed to be installed. So I bought some new stuff and got to work. The fuel hard lines were bought from an official BMW dealer, came with the factory seal etc. and STILL didn't fit. Had to made an awkward bend... but it'll do.





I don't have a picture of the breather hoses for some reason. Then I had some help from a friend and installed the fuel tank:



The installed fuel pump, sender unit and various hoses:



Next was ofcourse the rear crossmember:



Then came the sway bar and the LSD unit:



Slapped some trailing arms while I was at it:



The external fuel pump had to go in before I do anything more, so I unwrapped the OEM brackets, bushings and began the assembly after I gave the brackets a few coats of paint. The factory finish was peeling easily.



Finished assembly:




Then I decided to turn my attention to the steering column and pedal box. The steering column has a plastic bushing, which starts squeaking when it gets old. So on with a new one:



Installed the column, using the same bolts, which snap off their own heads when torqued down to the needed Nm. Then slapped on the pedal box with a new master clutch pump:



Installing the brake servo and master cylinder was a walk in the park, when there was no motor in the bay



All brake lines are new, it was a PITA to bend the one from the ABS unit to the front right wheel, it has like 10 bends with 5 different angles. But it turned out good. Then I wanted to install the ABS pump, but noticed it was badly rotten on the underside and had a huge crack in it! It had never leaked whatsoever, but I wanted to put a better one in. Made a call, a friend sent me his spare and I got it yesterday from the delivery office in the neighborhood. So that's pretty much where I stand now, picked up some more parts from the dealer yesterday, si I think I might be able to install the front cross member and suspension soon enough.

Thanks for reading, I am off to the shop to put in some more work!

[gnmzl]

Благодаря, пичове!

Awesome chassis work dude! Loving the attention to detail can't wait to see it with the wheels mounted and on the ground

yeah, me neither. Unfortunately there is still a lot to be done and I don't really have that much time recently.

Looks great man, that lip doe!

I've had several E30's and they're always a blast. I'll most likely build another some time in the near future.

Thanks! Build one ASAP and enjoy it


So, as promised, I will all let you in on what happened with my daily. Back in January I got bored of monster truck stock suspension and looked around the workshop. I had all the suspension parts I removed from the white e30 laying around - almost new ATE power discs, vented brake calipers, rear trailing arms with new-ish discs and brake pads .. all four billies as well. Found an old crate with lowering springs and got to work. I bought a polyurethane set for the rear beam, trailing arms and the diff bushing. I figured I might as well swap in the type 188 LSD unit I had as a spare.

We got cracking, I had already replaced the struts and rear shocks, before these pictures were taken. We figured we would swap the rear subframe and brake calipers in a day (previously done on other e30s with success), that's why the car was left halfway out of the garage:






Here's where I stopped taking pictures, because:

1. Rear beam came off with a part of the inner rocker and left a huge gaping hole
2. Part of the left rear beam bushing broke off and remained stuck in the hole for the fresh one
3. I found a hideous amount of rust underneath, which had evolved over the last 10 months.

When I first put together my daily, I left it at a body repair shop in my home town to patch the huge rust holes in the trunk, change the rockers, etc. Turned out they just welded the new metal OVER the rust, without cutting it. As a result of that genius move, the car ate itself from inside out... I was genuinly sad about that .

That day I stayed up until 2 AM in the freezing winter cold (door wouldn't shut, car with no rear axle halfway through it), beating the shit out of the freaking part of the bushing that got stuck and trying to install the other rear beam I had prepared and he trailing arms. It was a tough fight, I had a friend come over at about 10 pm and help me out. Without his help, I would probably have stayed up all damn night.

Anyway, after I put the freaking thing together and had gotten a pretty good picture of the car's actual condition I decided I would just have fun with it until it dies. So I bought some steelies in an attempt to make banded steelies and slam it to the ground:





Those are 16x6.5 et49 wheels off of some Renault soccer mom van. After the temporary banding it was 16x10 et0 and fits pretty decent IMO. For the front I was going to do 8.5 et20, but unfortunately I never got to finish that little project of mine, because:

1. The exhaust fell off
2. A halfshaft exploded
3. The engine crapped out

So with heavy heart I decided to part myself with that car about a month ago and put it up for sale with these pics:






Literally 5 minutes after I put up the ad, a guy from our e30 community called me up and said he'd buy it. I was like, dude, at least have a look first and drive it around. Nope, he wanted to buy it.

So I swapped all the rare parts with regular ones (LSD, M3 interior mirror, star tec tail lights) and made the deal on the next day, got exactly what I asked for

And there I was... miserable and daily-less. What do?
Remember that e28, that belonged to my buddy earlier in the thread?












































That's right, I bought it
He was selling all car related stuff in order to fund a proprrty deal he was willing to do and called me up to tell me all his cars were up for sale. There was a guy, who wanted to buy it, but since that guy was a douche, my friend offered the car to me for almost half the price he was asking "because it needs to have a good owner"
That's how I got it:



Exterior is pretty bad, peeling clear coat because of a half assed spray job in the past, dented right fender, crooked hood because of same accident, that dented the right fender, dented rear left door, some rust on the rear valance and around the tail lights, but not rotted through. Interior is pretty good, apart from the cracked dash, AC works but needs a refill, all gauges work correctly.
The most important part is, that the underbody and structural parts are completely, absolutely RUST FREE. I swear, that e28 is the best I've encountered in terms of rust.

At first when I drove it around like that I was horrified of it and parked it for almost two weeks. Then I read on the internet that front e30 springs would work on an e28. Coincidence? I think NOT!
The same friend that saved me from the freezing cold whilst working on the black e30 was parting out his e34 and hooked me up with a set of rear lowering springs for it.

So one friday after work I loaded the e28 up with the front H&Rs from my first attempt to lower the white e30 and the e34 rear springs and headed for the workshop. While on my way I called another of our local e30 guys, who I knew was selling his BBS RCs with tires in the correct dimensions, 205/40/17 in the front and 215/40/17 in the back. We made a quick deal and he stopped by while I was already swapping the front springs. Perfect timing. Needless to say I had to stay up again until 2 am in the workshop, because I had never worked on an e28 before and it was unexplored teritory for me. But I managed to put it back together and drove off home happy. That's how it sat the next day, when I took it for a spin:





At the shop, with a friend's clean e12 in the background:



Another of our e30 guys spotted me while sitting in traffic and took a spy foto:



Since then I had bought new tires for the front, so I can lower it some more. When I get to it, I will show it off.
Hope you enjoyed the post as much as I did.

In my next post, I will tell you about the engine plans for the main charachter in this thread.

[OsckR]

Почнаха да изплуват качествените български коли тука :d

[Kalin]

Човечееее ти си изрооод! Поклон , поклон и пак поклон! 30-ката е тотална лудница! От София ли си ? Много ще се радвам да се видим и да обменим идеи Пиши на лично ако имаш желание да си спретнем среща. Аз карам това:

[Rubber&Iron]

Looks great man, that lip doe!

I've had several E30's and they're always a blast. I'll most likely build another some time in the near future.

[Meeve]

oh lord have mercy

[fackinsteve]

Awesome chassis work dude! Loving the attention to detail can't wait to see it with the wheels mounted and on the ground

[gnmzl]

This post is about the suspension/wheels plan.

When I drove the car with the konis, I was generally happy with them - great handling, stiffer than billies when at softest setting and straight awesome when set at maximum stiffness. There was only one problem - the bump stop was still being engaged too often. And I know I had left just a tiny bit of it, so that I don't completely trash the konis. But sometimes that would play a bad trick on me in a fast corner, so was looking for options to go lower and yet retain suspension travel. Ofcourse I knew about the IX shocks and shortened struts combo and I must admit the idea is great. However, I knew I would want to build coilovers out of that setup one day and when I did the math it turned out I would be better off bying actual install ready coilovers and call it a day. OK, so there were a few options and I started asking around who did what to their car. I rode some e30s with fitted coilovers, among them some truly awesome rides, like a v8 m60/6 speed manual swapped convertible with XYZ coilovers, a n/a 2.8 m20 stroker on Megan racing coilovers, and the one that made me go for my choice - a twinturbo 2.8 m20 stroker:



Damn beast! Most importantly - on the softest setting it rode as soft as bilstein b8 coupled with a high rate H&R spring for instance and on the stiffest setting it rode exactly like my setup minus the hops. So I was sold on that choice and ordered the same combo. Yep you guessed it:



BC racing coils in 6kg/8kg rates.



I know, it's not something exotic or mind blowing, but I am at a point, where I don't want to expiriment more than I have to. And I am going to, when I get to building the motor.

Let's rewind 9 months back. I have mentioned previously in the thread I narrowed my rear track for a purpose. I wanted to fit a specific wheel in there without any issues. Because of the same wheel I am redoing the front spacer for the front hub, so I can tuck the wheel a bit more into the wheel well.
The wheels I had in mind are very common and easy to come by (or so I thought) in North America. Us unfortunate eurofags need to kind of sell a testie to get a set of those and it would be still a hard bargain, because it would be a eurofag testie.
I am ofcourse speaking of the Trans Am GTA wheel in 16x8 et 16 and 16x8 et0 dimensions.

I swear I tried my best to find a set, I even contacted some guys in the US, who have baldly announced on their sites they specialize in those wheels and refinish them in the whole factory color variety available for the market back in the day. None seemed to have even a single wheel in stock and they couldn't tell me when they would have a set or a wheel. Oh, well. I searched at the same time the UK forums and ebay.co.uk, ad boards and whatnot. I was lurking the german ebay and ad boards as well.

Several months in, I had no luck. Then one day I found an ad from a breaker in Germany, who announced the breaking of a Trans Am GTA, no year specified. I quickly contacted the guy (thank god I speak German) and asked about the wheels, what kind where day, what color and what price. I got a response fairly soon with good detailed picture and an honest description. I struck a deal with the guy and he send the wheels off. After a two weeks wait they turned up and I picked them up from the post office. I must tell you, the guy did a great job packaging them in separate boxes from some other wheels, filled with cardboard and soft stuff. He had also described the wheels accurately, all flaws pointed out (small curb rash on one wheel and some pitted paint).
I was happy to have these puppies:




Despite being freezing cold, I still went down to the garage where the car slept and did a test fit:






That's with 15mm spacers, wheel gap is because the rear right tire was flat.
Now, I will gain 5 more mm because of the new 5x120 combo for the front, and I only need about 12 mm for the wheel to clear the calipers, so I should be good with a bit of camber. I intend to run 215/40/16 in the front, because I liked it that way with the previous wheels, which were also 16x8.

I am not a fan of white wheels on white cars, but am willing to try it out, once I assemble the car and put her on the road once again. If I don't like it, I can always switch to mayan gold

In my next post I will tell you about my daily and what happened there.

[gnmzl]

And this, young grashoppers, is how progress is made

I should learn how to weld...

Beautiful e30! There's a reason they're 'played out' -- because they're the best!

Thanks, man. I didn't believe them anyways, those conformist bastards.

Let me tell you about the trip back home. We departed with an empty trailer (duh) :



Right after we loaded her on the trailer it poured like hell for about 20 minutes and flooded the cab. I was really unhappy at that point. You can spot the welder's super clean wagon, an edition model from the early 90's. Seriously one of the cleanest e30s I've seen.



We headed back to the capital city and were horrified to find out, that while we were loading the car up and grabbing some snacks, wild roadworks had appeared and we were forced to take a detour through some really bad roads, which were literally made out entirely of pot holes.



Yeah I travelled the whole time like that, until we cleared the detour. My neck was hurting.
We stopped at a gas station to fill up the e38, we used again to pull the trailer. And my friends were being dicks, as usual:





We reached the workshop at a very late hour and unloaded her from the trailer. I was relieved that no water was present in the cab, it was all swept away by the wind. No photos though, sorry.

And that's pretty much how she sits right now, alone, waiting for me to sort out some stuff and start the assembly.

The plan is:
1. Phase One: put suspension on, put wire loom in, put engine in, take it for exhaust fabrication, take it to painter's, final assembly
2. Phase Two: ?????
3. Phase Three: Profit

In my next posts I will start revealing wheels/suspension plans, so you don't die of boredom.

[foxster]

I should learn how to weld...

Beautiful e30! There's a reason they're 'played out' -- because they're the best!

[loekaaz]

And this, young grashoppers, is how progress is made

[gnmzl]

Very cool thread. I really like all the attention to detail & parts that you made!

Thank you! Then you should love it, when I get to the mechanical stuff - suspension and drivetrain.

Wow. i wish i had metal working skills like that... very impressive work!

Don't we all ... I drool every time I witness someone good at their own witchcraft and whisper to myself "wish I could do that!"

well that shell will be good as new!! Curious how much all that bodywork will cost you!

It's pretty solid indeed, and keeping in mind this toy isn't going to see winter anymore, it should last at least another 30 years! She's a 1985 and I actually started the tear down on her birthday, call me OCD

Cost in terms of money hasn't really bothered me that much, since I am willing to pay for quality work. But for the sake of it - just the metalwork had cost me so far roughly 1100 USD, including the parts, sheet metal and chemicals used. I also have the hauling costs, which are about $250 and a short block m20b27
In our part of the world, that is considered expensive, but as I said, quality and craftsmanship are important to me.
However, that part of the build has put more gray hair on my head than my ex-gf.

Interested to hear as well, and particularly, if you're sticking with E87 hubs or what you decide. Overall, I very cool build thread so far! I completely envy the body-working abilities of your buddy, he makes it look easy. Can't wait to see the end result!

Thank you, he does make it look easy, doesn't he?
I am sticking with the e87 hubs in the back, the rear end is going to be unchanged in terms of trailing arm/brake setup. I am just redoing the front 5x120 adaptor/spacer, because I had a better idea from the start, but not enough time to make it happen. I am working on that right now, but will explain it once I get the thread up to current date and/or finish it.


Now let me entertain you with some minor chassis mods, which are really not that big deal, but are going to make my life easier.

First, the radiator support. You may have noticed, it was badly rotten on the underside and needed replacing. I had sourced a new replacement, but the quality of the upper part was poor, the bends were not correct and where there was from flowing into another form, it was all twisted, as if it were hand bent by some HULK. We decided on removing the rad support, cutting both pieces and making a new support out of the two parts.

Naturally, we made it detachable, so engine install/removal is as easy as it can get.

Rad support removed:



Franken-rad-support in place:




And a lick of paint, the finish is not showcar-like, but I never intended it to be.





I don't know if any of the e30 guys have noticed, but the behavior of a coupe with the battery in the engine compartment is a tad better than a coupe with the battery in the trunk, as 325i and 325e came out of the factory. This is mostly noticeable, when the trunk is empty and the spare wheel is missing - when you do a hard left turn, the back end swings more easily and it feels like a pendulum. I know these are a few conditions, but I wanted that annoyance out of the way. So we made a new battery nest, with two basic positions for different battery types. It is spot welded, so that mod is easily reversible, if I don't like it. The idea is to move the battery weight between the axles and somewhat centered.

First mockup:



Shaped and painted with the trunk floor:



Since the paint gun was out and the floor in the cabin was prepped too, why not?



Now, since it's the Stance|Works, we need to be able to fit some wheels in those arches, right? For some reason I am not a fan of rolling, because the inner lip just becomes a moisture trap. So I did what any decent person would do - cut it out! Then some polyurethane was applied to achieve maximum moisture freeness



I will show you how we brought her home in my next post.

[tajjj]

That I didn't like, that's why I am redoing it. The next version will be revealed once I have completed the assembly.
Will tell you what happened next in my following posts, thanks for your interest!

Interested to hear as well, and particularly, if you're sticking with E87 hubs or what you decide. Overall, I very cool build thread so far! I completely envy the body-working abilities of your buddy, he makes it look easy. Can't wait to see the end result!

[Meeve]

well that shell will be good as new!! Curious how much all that bodywork will cost you!

[kneums]

Wow. i wish i had metal working skills like that... very impressive work!