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The parts car that never got parted: a beater 325e, that refuses to die

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  • #16
    Alright, so as promised, over the weekend got some car time and picked up where I left off. With my plan to have the inner rockers repaired and the floor put in before the jack stands are moved over to support the car by the rockers for the rear axle to drop, I started with the repair of the driver's side front inner rocker. Got a big sheet of 1mm thick sheet metal and got to work.

    First - cut it all out as one piece, as there were too many small holes or pitted areas to try and repair separately.



    Here's the shape I decided to go for the front portion, which is the tricky one due to the special concave area for the wiring loom.



    Took me about 3 hours to shape and then trim to exact fit in total, which isn't as bad as I expected for a newb doing such a complex patch as one piece.



    Final check for fitment



    And then tack weld



    Used compressed air to cool off the welds, still got some warping but think it'll be just fine after those welds are ground down. Sorry for the bad photo, it's not a convenient spot to take pictures of.



    You may notice the drain hole for the sunroof is missing. That was on purpose, since I plan on doing the draining a bit different and avoid water pooling inside the rockers in case the original drain hole (too small if you ask me) clogs.
    Outside view, the lower rocker piece looks pitted and weak, but it's plenty strong, trust me - I wacked it with a hammer to straighten out and that was really hard! Turns out this part of the e30 is made of much ticker sheet metal, so decided against cutting it out, rust prevention and correct chemical treatment will be good enough.



    Next area that is better to repair before putting the floor in and make use of the extra access the missing floor provides is of course the firewall area.



    By the looks of it, rot was getting onto the wheel well too, so stopped after the first few cuts. Had to see what it looks like from the back side, so out with the wire wheel.



    Not too bad, but a small rust trace made me look up and what do I find? You guessed it...



    This small hole will cause me a LOT of headaches. It was at this point, I realized there is no more putting it off - the dash needed to come out. Having the interior already stripped, made this task a breeze, having pulled out the dash off e30s at least about 10 times now helped a ton as well. So this being said, the process of removing it involved tracing the cruise control wiring harness to remove it completely. Turned out wouldn't be too hard, someone snipped the wires to the electric motor, maybe they had issues with it after repairing the control switch by twisting some wire around it.



    At lest they put insulating tape over the cut wires.
    Unfortunately, tracing wires around the firewall of a rusty car usually involves finding more rust, and this was not an exception.



    Looks like someone was spilling a lot of brake fluid while filling up. When I say a lot, I mean they probably didn't get any of it into the brake fluid reservoir. Then they didn't pour water onto it as well, which causes the paint and seam sealer to flake off upon touch. Thankfully, the rust on the frame member turned out to be just surface, wire wheeled it where I could reach.
    This joyful discovery not only changed the cutting plans a bit, let's say it expanded them.



    Although the frame is crowded with leaves and other trash, it's solid and nothing more than a few surface rust spots inside. It will clean up nice, I think.

    And this was the point where I realized the chassis wiring harness needs to be pulled off too, which I really really really didn't want to do. It's not the hassle and fiddling with connectors going through the firewall I don't want to deal with ... it's me going down the rabbit hole what bothers me. Knowing myself, I'll start luring my own mind into small tidying up tasks and then eventually tricking myself into more time consuming tasks until the wiring harness is completely restored.
    I've even started to do that, telling myself, that a repaired and gone through chassis wiring harness is way safer and not going to cause the car to spontaneously combust.

    Anyway, once this realization settled in, I started on the task of removing the wiring harness off the chassis. No pictures, but I had to resort to destroying the license plate lights, as the bolts were rusted and wouldn't budge, I found some interesting wiring decisions done by questionable individuals. Such as a stretched to it's limit piece of wire going to the passenger's front speaker and a fist sized ball of wire for the driver's side speaker, the dual wire used for the rear left speaker was first snaked through a tiny hole on the mounting point of the rear parcel shelf and then the terminals of the wire were soldered onto it. As a result, it had to be cut off to take out, as the terminals wouldn't go through the small hole. The radio is powered by a sketchy piece of wire taped (not soldered) to the cigarette lighter power cable. The connector for the radio itself was snaked through a metal casing to hold the radio in place and then soldered together with the aforementioned wiring nightmare and as a result there is no way to take it out of the metal casing as is there is no way to take that casing off the car without snipping all the wires ........ The last piece of intriguing wiring solved a mystery for me. Every time I open the trunk, the interior lights would come on, but not the light for the trunk. I had noticed the little switch for the passenger side rear door is missing and thought it was because of the small accident that caused the poorly repaired rear quarter panel. Turns out, someone took the wire for that switch, cut off the connector off of it, cut off the wire for the trunk light switch and twisted these two together. Brilliant I must say, despite the purpose of it eluding my understanding.

    As fun as it was, I wasn't able to take out the whole wiring harness out of the chassis, what's left is the check panel loom and the headlights and other engine bay stuff loom. Stopped at that point, as I was tired and didn't want to brake any of the clips and fasteners.
    Instead, I cut off some metal off the donor car.



    All these rust discoveries and acknowledgment of inevitable work that needs to be done had me admin - this car is not going on the road this winter. It's far too much work to do in two months AND keep my job. So ... I did what any sane person would.
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    I bought another winter beater.



    Now I can do all the "while I'm in there" ideas I get, no rush.
    "You could roll an E30 in a BMW showroom today and people would think:
    Well, they finally got the 1 series right!"

    3.0 L e30 ground up build

    Comment


    • #17
      Ah yes, a lovely e36 in "shitbox edition" trim, with the usual RostRot paint

      The perfect winter car

      FB: @DumbassCarCrew - IG: @fruttolo_dumbasscrew

      Comment


      • #18
        Originally posted by Fruttolo View Post
        Ah yes, a lovely e36 in "shitbox edition" trim, with the usual RostRot paint

        The perfect winter car
        You called it - it's a total shitbox. Semi-op stereo, in-op sunroof, semi-op manual windows (not sure how these can even malfunction, but the driver's one is a "Lambo" window), a super annoying fart can instead of a silencer, cheap drift spec steering wheel, cheap gear knob, broken ash trays, in-op fuel gauge, interior mirror fallen off, side mirrors barely move, some rust on the doors.
        BUT! Body is straight, no rust holes on the floor or anywhere else, no accident damage at all (original paint), engine runs perfect and pulls good for a 1.8L and has maintenance records, only ONE oil leak from the oil filter housing which is a BMW trademark, no other leaks at all, has a good brand LPG system for those cheap refuel and the heater is totally functional.
        It is insured for 6 more months and is due for a technical check in 10 months.

        I paid 450 euro for this shed, winter tires on another set of wheels included.
        If it could be sold for the same amount of money come spring, that would be great.


        On topic

        Right now I still have to work until late to have some important stuff done before taking a week off, so no car time at all with working until 10 pm each day.
        Good news is the whole week off I have is for car stuff only, so in about 10 days, there should be a worthy update on the main character.

        Until then
        "You could roll an E30 in a BMW showroom today and people would think:
        Well, they finally got the 1 series right!"

        3.0 L e30 ground up build

        Comment


        • #19
          Hello Stance|Works,

          It's been over a month since the last update, so figured it's time to track some progress.
          As usual, when you make plans life happens, so during my week off work I wasn't able to progress much on my car. I helped a friend fix some damage from an accident on the track and weld in some reinforcements onto his car.
          We were done in two days, so no huge deal, but then ....
          I needed something from the trunk of my m10 powered e30, which had been sitting for about a month behind the workshop. Opened the trunk to see this crap



          We had some heavy rain days prior to that, water got in the trunk pocket and filled it, then because there is a slight slope and the car is at an angle, water proceeded to drench the trunk carpet and eventually overflow into the cabin through the hole for the battery cable, soaking the rear bench seat and again overflowing into the passenger side footwells all the way to the front. The cabin smelled awful and there was some mold forming on the carpet just in front of the passenger seat. This being my bestest e30 in terms of chassis condition and rust, I panicked and performed a complete interior strip down in about 3 hours.
          It was nice to see some rust free e30 floors for a change. You can see some surface rust prevention that I did 5 years ago when I bought it.




          Needless to say, a new trunk seal, new taillight seals and trunk vent seals were instantly bought and arrived in only 3 days, during which the carpet and trunk carpets were thoroughly cleaned and blow dried, everything was put back together and the pressure washer put to use - no leaks.



          Also took the opportunity to change out the cracked StarTecs to a better pair I've been sitting on for maybe 6 years, they still have one small crack each but very minor. Lower pair is before, upper is after.



          With that being taken care of, decided distractions are undesired and took this car and my e28 to a storage unit in a village not too far away from the city I live in. A dry and rodent free place for the cars to make it through winter.

          Now, back to the current project car.

          Before doing anything else, decided to check out what the rear left hand side quarter panel is all about. As evident from previous photos, it carries a heavy load of bondo and I wanted to see what I have to deal with and start making plans on how to repair it. Glad I did that, since it turned out to be way worse than I expected.

          First, bust out the cold chisel and get to work. The back side of it seemed to have a never ending bondo layer applied on top of the original paint. That almost was expected.



          However, the accident damage was not limited to below the body line, but is actually on the line and above. That's something I didn't want to see, as I planned on replacing the panel below the body line.



          Took a straight edge to the right hand side and it looks like this.



          The left hand side looks like this, pushed in and caved in as well.



          Bust out the grinder with a paint removing flap to see how far the bondo actually goes. I think it's safe to say the whole quarter panel is sculpted.



          With that revealed, I may be looking at replacing the whole panel. At this point avoiding painting it is inevitable anyways, so might as well. But if it can be beat/pulled out, I think I'll try that first and replace only the arch.
          Anyway, there is enough time till I get there, as there are more pressing things to do to this car. Such as put the driver's side floor back in.

          To do that, one must first put back in a firewall, but to do that, one must first repair the flange on the wheel well it attaches to. The joys of rusted out cars.

          So, let's put this piece in, tacked in first.



          Check the fitment and then fully weld in.



          Penetration is OK, note the prepared surface for some rust prevention chemicals.



          Ground down the welds some, to avoid possible rupture in the seam sealer later on.



          Took the opportunity to grind down some of the other welds nearby.




          Now, this hole here was a bit tricky. What didn't look like much turned out to be a pain to repair.



          From the cabin side, at first there was a tiny hole next to the initial big one and when I started digging, it just became as big as the one to the wheel well.



          Unfortunately, the donor piece was also rotten in the same place, which was evident after I removed the flange for the wheel well.



          The tough part is, it is at the rain gutter, where there is no access to seal the weld. Still need to figure out how to do it properly. Anyway, the piece welded in and the welds ground down some but not too much to avoid pinholes.



          Ok, time to put in the firewall piece in. Although the donor car one is not perfect, it is in far better shape than the one that was on the car.
          Inner side:



          Outer side:



          Trial fit to outline where it needs to be cut/trimmed



          Before it was welded in, this mess needed to be cleaned up and protected from rust. Wire wheel the hell out of it:



          Apply epoxy primer (3 coats)



          And the firewall piece welded in in the course of two evenings. There is a small patch I had to make, because it was rotted on the donor car as well.



          Engine bay view:



          And the whole mess viewed from the wheel well.



          Certainly not pretty, definitely not an invisible repair, but strong an rust free, which is my goal.

          With that out of the way, time to start working on the floor from the donor car.
          Here's what we are working with and what needs to be repaired.



          Decided to start with the gas pedal area, as it had several spots of rot, some holes and thinned out areas due to corrosion.



          First made a patch to fit



          Welded in



          And ground down some of the higher welds.



          Again, not a beauty contest winner, bit strong, solid and rust free.

          Next step is to repair the other side of the floor, check for any more areas that need repairing and start fitting it to the car. Also need to figure out how to make a gas pedal bracket for an early model e30. I've seen some on the market, but they are priced higher than what I think this piece is worth, so I will be attempting to make my own.

          Until next time, thanks for reading.
          Last edited by gnmzl; 11-10-2020, 04:35 AM.
          "You could roll an E30 in a BMW showroom today and people would think:
          Well, they finally got the 1 series right!"

          3.0 L e30 ground up build

          Comment


          • #20
            Hello again Stance|Works

            Had some decent garage time over the weekend and made some more progress worth noting on this pile of rust.
            Continuing with the repair on the donor floor (which seems will take forever), it was time to take care of the corner where the accident damage is. First order of business is to remove the stupid square chassis pick-up, that would be beneath the driver's left foot.



            Not too bad, but still rotted and has to go. Decided to cut it this way and merge a few spots into one repair panel.



            Made a piece and made sure it fits well.



            Tacked it in



            And welded



            Looking at it from the cabin side, wasn't sure about some of the welds' penetration, so went over them once again.




            Then busted out the flap discs and tried my best to make an invisible repair.




            I think it turned out very good.

            Next item on the list was the circle shape on the floor. Before cutting it out, made a roughly formed replica of it on a leftover sheet of metal which was bigger than what is needed on purpose.



            Cut out the rotted part and then trimmed the bigger patch piece to fit.



            Welded, ground down and primed. Not as good as the previous one but good enough.



            Opposite side:



            Decided to not have a hole in the center of the big circle, just made a small circle indentation instead.


            That's all I got for now, until next time!
            "You could roll an E30 in a BMW showroom today and people would think:
            Well, they finally got the 1 series right!"

            3.0 L e30 ground up build

            Comment


            • #21
              I love your attention to detail! I'm so glad you still update this thread I hope I get to see this finished one day. =)

              Comment


              • #22
                Originally posted by Luke Girard View Post
                I love your attention to detail! I'm so glad you still update this thread I hope I get to see this finished one day. =)
                Thanks man, trying to keep the balance of not getting too involved (not to waste too much time) but still make it good enough so the repairs last and the car keeps the original shape. I would also love to see it on the road again and sooner rather than later, I miss driving it. That e36 I bought is just bleak.

                Having said that, progress is slow, but I am making progress which is important. Kind of tired of preparing for putting in the floor, but in this line of work, preparation is key, so I'm trying to keep myself motivated to plow on.
                While taking out the donor floor, one of the bolts holding the bracket for the brake line and fuel lines wouldn't come off, so it was time to take it out. The sheet metal around the body nut looked kind of sus, so out with the wire wheel and viola - RUST.
                That's what it looked like before wire wheeling.



                Luckily, the same location on the original floor was not rusted, by magic. So cut it out and prepare to fit it onto the donor floor.



                Cut, fit and weld in (that went surprisingly fast)



                Back side with some control welds over the areas with not as good penetration.



                Ground down and some primer on it. Sorry for the bad photo.



                Made another repair on the section which is over the cross beam connecting the trans tunnel and inner rocker. Not much pictures of the process though as it also went very quickly and I keep forgetting to take pictures.

                Side from the bottom



                Side which faces the cabin



                Another very small spot, which I didn't cut out but just welded onto.



                And another spot right behind the last big patch I put in.



                Finding rust around the captive nut for the fuel/brake line bracket made me dig around the other ones too and sure enough, that is what I need to deal with next. Already drilled around one and remembered to take a pic.



                That's all for now. Hopefully I'll have some more soon, despite the freezing cold weather.
                Until next time.
                "You could roll an E30 in a BMW showroom today and people would think:
                Well, they finally got the 1 series right!"

                3.0 L e30 ground up build

                Comment


                • #23
                  Hey everyone,

                  Did some minor stuff on Saturday. Getting tired of working on this floorpan to make it good again, so not too much work done. Having a birthday on Sunday also didn't help my motivation.

                  Anyway, progress is still progress!
                  Picked up where I left off with the stud and mounting point situation for the brake and fuel lines. Removed the rotted out ones and made the ones from the original floorpan fit. Used some souvenir magnets I had laying around.



                  View from the other side.



                  Welded in.



                  The welds cleaned up well, despite being too high. Had some issues with wire speed, not sure what's going on. Maybe it was because I didn't preheat the metal and it's cold already.



                  Other side cleaned up well too.



                  Replaced this flange for the seat mounting point, as I had to cut it while removing the floor from the donor car. It was in bad shape anyway.



                  While cleaning up the welds, I noticed a small bubble on the undercoating, took a screwdriver to it and .... what do you know - more rust....



                  Right now I'm contemplating on removing the whole undercoating in one go to see what actually remains to be done and get it done before the Christmas holidays.

                  Until next time.
                  "You could roll an E30 in a BMW showroom today and people would think:
                  Well, they finally got the 1 series right!"

                  3.0 L e30 ground up build

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Removing all the undercoating in one go is probably the move. It's tiresome, and sucks, but you'll be able to see exactly what needs to be replaced and can take your time picking off each area if there are areas to be fixed.

                    Also, if it was your birthday, happy birthday!
                    IG: @sebastienaudeon
                    1974 Porsche 911S

                    Originally posted by TRaNz
                    *pats Sebs head*
                    there there.
                    keep calm, go mash your face on a car window.

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Happy New Year, everyone!

                      Originally posted by SebastienPeek View Post
                      Removing all the undercoating in one go is probably the move. It's tiresome, and sucks, but you'll be able to see exactly what needs to be replaced and can take your time picking off each area if there are areas to be fixed.

                      Also, if it was your birthday, happy birthday!
                      Thanks man, it was a lonely B-day thanks to lockdown, but the boys got me a nice complete e30 trunk tool kit, which they noticed was missing in every one of my e30s. Not only did they go through the trouble of hunting every piece down, but they also polished them as good as they could.
                      That warmed my heart, really! Here's what it looks like.



                      Now, onto the main character in this thread. The lip at the back side of the floor was looking too pitted and thin to be left alone.



                      Decided to repair it as it is a simple shape, which was quick to make.



                      And also quick and easy to weld in



                      Ground down as flush as I dared



                      Back side wasn't too bad, so took down the most protruding welds and edges.



                      Started taking off the undercoating from the front half of the floor and took a closer look at the big tin cap of the rear section, which was used to drain the paint on the production line. Didn't look that bad from the underside, coat peeled off the protruding parts of the cap, but they were solid despite some surface rust.



                      A quick poke with a screwdriver from the cabin's side revealed a different truth.



                      Off with the cap and the sealer, forgot to take pictures of the rot, but here's one of the already repaired drain hole.



                      And from the bottom side.



                      Quite happy with how it turned out. Got an OEM replacement for the cap too, it was surprisingly cheap at 8 euro.




                      Now is the time for some facepalming. in the previous post, I showed how I managed to repair the mounting points for the brake and fuel lines and was very proud of myself.
                      Weeeell, now I tore them off.
                      Because I remembered (yes, had forgotten) I want to put in a modern day ABS system in the car, from an e46. Which requires an additional brake line, as this ABS uses one for each wheel, not like the original one in the e30, that uses one line for both rear wheels.
                      Having realized how I wasted time, made the quick executive decision to act immediately and replace the original threaded mounts with the required studs in the correct location for the e46 mounting hardware.
                      Onto pics.

                      An overview of what I had previously made with the mounting hardware I wanted to attach. Note there isn't enough space to attach the hanger to the original thread.



                      Out with the grinder and welder and soon enough



                      Cabin side



                      Furthest back mounting position



                      Cabin side view



                      I did these in big patches, because I saved the original ones in case they are needed for another e30 in the future. Currently doing welding repairs on TWO of my mates' e30s and another one is in the waiting list. I guess people like how I mend e30s.

                      And how the mounting pieces for the lines attach to the floor. Very pleased with the result.



                      Did two more up front, but only have the view from the cabin for some reason.



                      So, with this sorted out and the majority of undercoating gone, started to fit the floor to the car. Unfortunately, it has twisted from all this moving around and flipping over and of course from all the welding. This made things quite difficult, but managed to have it fitted. Started cleaning up for the welds when I found more rust on the car, where the bracket for the heat shield is attached. Exactly the same as the passenger side, so should have seen it coming. Naturally, this halted my enthusiasm and took a brake from this.

                      Something not welding related - I've always loved the look of the police cruisers' steelies and caps in the US. Since the plan for this car to be on steelies, this was the perfect opportunity to mimic that look. Spent about a month looking at caps from many makes - LADA, Trabant/Wartburg, Moskvich, Opel, Mercedes, FIAT, etc. Then I remembered, there used to be a steel cap offered for e28s. Luckily found a set in Germany for a very good price (they are not mint, but in really good condition).

                      On the e28, they are offered with a specific 14 inch wheel, which worried me - could that mean they wouldn't work with another wheel, say 15 or 16 inch? My desire is to run 15s with meaty tires, so was hoping for the best. From what I could tell in the pictures, they use the wheel bolts to attach, not the wheel itself. So a deal was made and just before New Year's Eve I got these.



                      One of my mates' e30s is sitting on 15 steelies from an e34 (5 lugged already) and was begging me to test fit them



                      They mount solid, but are not flush with the wheel, about 2mm apart. A small rubber strip will fix that.
                      Needless to say - I love how they look!

                      Let's finish this post off with some other news.
                      Just before Christmas, a friend sent me an ad about a car he knew would interest me. So naturally, I had to go and buy it.

                      Here it is, it's a fully operational, running and driving (and donuting and drifting and burnouting) donor car, it's only on the trailer because it's unregistered.



                      What made me buy it was this lump



                      It is NOT for the car being repaired in this thread though, just wanted to share.
                      "You could roll an E30 in a BMW showroom today and people would think:
                      Well, they finally got the 1 series right!"

                      3.0 L e30 ground up build

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        still admiring your rust repair...

                        hub caps look nice...

                        happy new year and congratulations on BIG MUSCLE

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Thanks, Miro!
                          My motivation for the current project was kinda thin lately, but with the new acquisition, I need to get things done faster to have the work space freed up soon. Really excited to start on my first GM v8 - it's a rare beast around here.
                          "You could roll an E30 in a BMW showroom today and people would think:
                          Well, they finally got the 1 series right!"

                          3.0 L e30 ground up build

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            Well well well,

                            You all thought this car never got finished, right?
                            On the contrary, I've been working on it like crazy for the past year. Can't believe it has been that long actually.
                            Slacking on updates, pictures on my phone were piling up and I always thought I'll just drop a huge pic bomb update "one day".
                            Joke's on me - my phone died recently and berried all of them with it, got annoyed and stopped taking pictures after that, but some guys pitched in and sent over whatever pics I sent them over the months.

                            I'll try and update the story chronologically and insert some pics along the story.

                            Here goes:
                            Last update on here was that my motivation was getting thin for this project. That was because getting better with the welder lead to the fact I didn't like the previous work I'd done on the car. Also, that floor I spent almost a whole month restoring wasn't very good when I looked at it - so full of patches I might as well have repaired the one on the car.
                            FORTUNATLY some good deals popped up and I ended up buying two other donor cars and a separate set of doors, hood, trunk and sunroof panel.
                            One donor car provided a whole MINT floorboard, with the exception of the corners in the feet of passenger/driver and a small random hole, and a presentable rear axle assembly.
                            Another donor car provided a straight rear panel, rear valance, power windows for the front and power sunroof plus a very desired complete AC assembly for a six cylinder e30, which is rare over here.
                            Selling off the other stuff from the parts cars didn't bring me too much money and I didn't break even, but did good enough to call these acquisitions a bargain.

                            At the time, the wonderful world of invisible weld repairs had started to interest me a lot, so naturally I started over and redid all of the work previously done, making it as good looking as possible. Ripped off the passenger side floor as a whole as well and replaced everything as one unit. It wasn't actually that bad, the tough part was getting all the creases to line up.

                            Caved in and disassembled the whole car - glass out, everything out, including the engine. Look at how dirty and oily that MF is



                            Removing the sound deadening in the engine bay uncovered a big surprise which wasn't visible from the inside.



                            Cut out a piece from one of the parts cars and made it fit. Overlapped at the top because it was the easiest thing to do. Sealed it off good after that.



                            And welded, plus welds finished as best as I could.



                            Went back and redid the firewall piece at the driver's footwell too, but no pics of that unfortunately. Here's a shot from the outside instead. There was a hole above the gearbox too, revealed after removing the deadening.



                            At this point, the floors were ready to go in. It took me about a month (!!!) to make them fit correctly and welded them in over a weekend to avoid warpage. The result was very good, but only have pics of the finished and painted product.

                            If you know where to look closely, you can see where the welds are. Super proud of that job.




                            On this pic we can see I had already made the holes for the AC tubes on the transmission tunnel (used a template but still a bit off unfortunately) and also for the side blinkers which were required in some countries like the UK and Italy. I smeared BMW OE seam sealer on the factory spots as well on some of the welds I did just to be safe, using a special 3M gun to do that (a buddy working in auto collision lent me one)



                            Here's a shot of one of the corner panels I made




                            Next was the rear quarter panel and valance, unfortunately no pics, apparently I hadn't shared with anyone the progress on that. I was in a rush to finish it too, because I had a deadline to meet - the car was sent to a frame machine to have the small impact damages front and back pulled, which turned out with great results! I wouldn't be able to tell the car has had an accident if i didn't know already!
                            After the frame machine, I had the car painted despite I didn't want to. It just was too many different colors at this point and would be a pain to pass tech inspection.
                            We agreed to only have the roof, rear quarter panels, valance and rockers painted. The doors, hood and trunk I bought are supposed to be the same color, so with the intent to keep the beater look, I only had these panels painted.
                            BUUUT then the car sat outside the workshop for a while and someone keyed the left side. THEEEEN a bunch of exhaust pipes fell onto the left side and dented the quarter panel and both doors. AAAND it picked up quite a lot of scratches and small dents just from moving around the shop and/or working on and around it.
                            Not mad though, it aligns with the beater theme anyways.

                            Put in the wiring harness along with the wiring for the power windows and sunroof, added an extra wire for heated mirrors through a switch and some other stuff. Next was putting in the headliner, so that glass can be reinstalled.

                            You can see in this picture that I went a bit overboard with dynamat. This car has always been loud in terms of road noise, no suprise with all the holes, so this time around I want to make it a pleasant cruiser.




                            Turned out good enough, I screwed up the corners for the sunroof ofcourse but that's fine




                            Time to blow the HVAC apart and give it a clean, plus replace all the nasty foam with fresh stuff



                            Put it in and install the dashboard.



                            A random shot of the car - you can see how I tried to repair a flaw in the newly acquired door. First time around it was perfect but then the bondo made a weird reaction with the filler primer and fell apart. Second time around I just half assed it. The car is already 5 lugged in the front and a pair of new billies were installed along with some H&R spring I already had, they used to be on my e28 and my white e30 before that.




                            As you can see, I strayed a bit away from the super budget oriented build, but it is still a very affordable build.
                            Things are going slower than I wished at the moment, but progress is still being made.
                            What still needs to be sorted out:

                            - Finish up AC installation
                            - Brakes, currently non existent
                            - Fuel tank, fuel lines, fuel delivery
                            - Rear axle install
                            - Fix front quarter panels
                            - Fix headlight wiring and add AC wiring
                            - Finish interior bits - sun visors and check panel trim, rear parcel shelf and speakers, some other small pieces

                            AND of course! The engine needs rebuilding. Still haven't touched it, it sits on a cart. Plans are to rebuild it after everything else is done.


                            Hope you enjoyed this overdue incomplete update.
                            "You could roll an E30 in a BMW showroom today and people would think:
                            Well, they finally got the 1 series right!"

                            3.0 L e30 ground up build

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                            • #29
                              Subscribed, Always down for watching rust repair work!

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                              • #30
                                i think you need to take that v8 and drop it in this car. you are doing gods work by restoring the rust and it shows you car so why not give it a powerful heart!

                                Instagram: @half_lung

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