e30 316 rebuild from Finland

[SLAMMED_C]

Wow that's a lot of work! Amazing.
3 piece bottle caps looks awesome. Always love a 1 piece to 3 piece conversion!!
Keep up the great work and pics.

[Pazi88]

Wow that's a lot of work! Amazing.
3 piece bottle caps looks awesome. Always love a 1 piece to 3 piece conversion!!
Keep up the great work and pics.

If I have calculated correctly, I have done about 2000 work hours with this. Most of them doing rust repairs.

More pics coming After I got the chassis almost rolling, I started working with the doors, hood and trunk lid.

Even in the better doors, there was rust under seam sealer.






Had to sandblast all the rust:






Then sanding and filler:




Trunk lid had huge dent:


And hood had several:


First coat of sanding primer:


Someone has done dents in new fenders


Had to straighten those:


More sanding primer:




Also the chassis in now rolling after 1,5 years:


Started sanding:

[Pazi88]

Test fitting the IC. I had to cut huge hole to get more air for it:


Tight fit:


All will be hidden behind bumper:


Tested also the improved steering angle. Now the stock wheels hit the frame rail so they cannot be used.


Also got m-tech2 steering wheels. It needs some fixing but I think it will be okay.


Continuing the sanding:


Had to do some grinding, because doors were hitting the corner.


More primer and sanding:








Also got the steel braided brake hoses:


And fuel pump:

[Pazi88]

And finally everything is ready for paint:


I did all the prep work by myself and i had couple of friends help in sanding. But for the painting I don't have good enough place. So I gave the job to my friend who works in the paint shop. Unfortunately there was lot of problems renting the trailer so had to figure out some backup plan to get the car to the paint shop. So eventually I had to move it by using tractor trailer


luckily that worked and my friend painted the car over weekend:




Coming back from paint:


Result:

[Pazi88]

Then started assembling. Every part is new or restored to look like new. Even every bolt and nut is new:


Plastic parts are painted matte black:


Cleaned up the blower unit. It's old, but looks like new.




Installed. Also notice the hole for wiper wiring (originally comes from engine bay)


Dash installed:


Washer unit is now located in trunk.


I choosed the standard lip in front.


Perfect


wiring has to sorted next:

[Pazi88]

At this point it was time to test fit the bottlecaps, so I can order correctly sized lips and barrels. Enjoy!












outer lips will all be 3" (as in those pictures) and inner barrels will be 5,5" and 6,5". (16" diameter). The 3,5" outer lips would have fitted easily, but I don't like the wheels to have too much poke and camber. I also **** pulled fenders. I already have some 215/40 and 195/45 tires laying around, so I will test them first. Maybe then I buy different tires, if those don't fit.

[Pazi88]

Then I painted the headliner black and installed it back in:


After that I could install the windows:


The windshield was in quite good condition because it was replaced recently. It also had the green stripe.


Before installing the windows, I did some polishing. The standard polishing compounds for paint don't remove any scratches in glass, but in that way I managed to get rid of all the dirt and over spray. I didn't do any painting in the same place I kept the windows, so the over spray must be caused by some previous owner.


Rear window in place and new badges also


Because of the compilation of parts fro different cars the trunk lid didn't fit well. Luckily the BMW sells these shims, even when I haven't seen them in factory made cars.


Also got the new plastic parts to the front panel and primed them.


The panel to cover up the blower motor is under work. I may still do some smoothing to it. The right one is the starting point.


Sprayed some wrinkle coat to IC to make more stealth.


And installed it:


Also installed the e36 radiator. Fits perfectly with e30 318is plastic mounts.

[Pazi88]

All the rubber seals were quite dirty from 30 years of use.


But luckily the very in good condition, so I didn't have to buy new ones. The only needed cleaning:


The mirrors required some paint.


And I had to replace the connector for door electrics, because I broke it.


But after that I could assemble everything.


New clips for the mouldings.




And mouldings installed. For some reason the on in Door is lighter than the others. I have to do something for it.


Then I sprayed some body cavity sealer. I had to tape all the holes, because I didn't want it inside the car.


Maybe I sprayed too much


Then I moved to work with the wiring. There was lot of stupid connections to remove.


Made a bracket for fusebox


And now it sits inside the dash.


I don't want any wires to engine bay, so I made the wires for front lights to go inside front fender:


I needed to extend them little.


Finished.


I had to replace the wrapping for wires, because old ones were gone:


Everything in it's place. Only need to add lights and grill.


Then I got bored with wiring work, so I installed new leather covers for shifter and handbrake.


Also took apart the drivers seat and the spare seats and took them to upholsterer.


And the last part I have got are the two other outer lips for the wheels. I have already ordered the inner barrels, so I'm now waiting for them.

[Zic]

This is a greaaaaaaaaat build, so much fun to read. Keep it up man

Where do you buy all your lips from?

[gbaby2089]

Best build I've seen in a long time. Excited for further updates!

[Pazi88]

Where do you buy all your lips from?

Normally I buy almost everything from Germany or from UK. At this time the lips came from Felgen Fuchs in Germany.

[BettyWhitE30]

literally speechless at the quality of this. VERY well done sir

[Max399]

Woot, this is so freaking awesome! Love everything, especially what you did with the wheels!

[M.Knight]

What a restoration you've done...

Great job and awesome photos!

[TeckniX]

Multi talented builder, I like that. But above all I like a clean and well documented build. Danks for sharing