BMW E30 320i 2-door 1986 Marko S

[MParallel]

Hope you are good friends with the BMW parts guy.

[Marko S]

Hope you are good friends with the BMW parts guy.

I think we're gonna be soon best buddies.

[Marko S]

Parts sandblasted and ready for paint.









Also suspension gets a small upgrade. Bought D2 coilovers.



I also made sleeves. Mine had 45mm front struts and i didnt want to buy 51mm ones and cut them so sloution was to make sleeves. Inner diameter is 45.xx mm and outer is 50.9x mm.
I just slide them on the 45mm strust and weld them. Should be fine i think.





While i was working on my car, i always kept my eyes on different markets and webshops to find some decent seats. Only condition was that they had to be original sportseats. One day i got a message from friend that someone he knows has sportseats for sale. Trust me, i didnt think twice. Made a call, arranged a meeting and came home with these. Seats are fixed using original material, seat frames fixed and new gas springs. Most important part, same design as ma whole car. But man they are asking nowdays. Asking price was 1300.- euros for the seats. But they are worth it every penny. And for my eye these are mosrt perfect seats for the E30. Of course you are not able to compare then with todays availability of differen seats but doesn't matter. I like them and thats the most important thing.







- - - Updated - - -

Somwehere i mentioned about my difficult reationship with the garage owner. Garage was huge, it was war all year around and lightning were good. Everything seemed like should be like a perfect place to start and finish your project. But no. The problem was and actually i dont even know did they have some trust issues or what, but i never was able to be there alone. There was always someone "watching" or someone had to be there keeping eye on me. So that means, if they didnt have time to come then i wasn't able to do things in the garage by on my own. And that sucked! There was time when i could not work on my project for months. And i started to feel that my motivation is starting to fade away. And if you let that happen, you are screwed. To get that back is a hell of a job to do. So i had to figure something out AND fast! Luckily my Estonian friend who lives in Hong-Kong bought a place little bit out of town. And cause he is keeping only cars there, then there is enough space to work on my project as well. Its not as huge as the previous place and not as warm, but better than under the clear sky.

And i packed the car on the towtruck and drove it to another location.





Packed all the parts and drag them to a new garage as well. And there was s*t load of them. So small cars but so many parts. I threw them under the floor and will sort everything and clean the garage when im able to.

[Darmo]

Impressive work. Have seen this with my own two eyes.

Sent from my NE2213 using Tapatalk

[JerseyArtform]

Good stuff man 🤙.

[Marko S]

Hello!

It has been a while since i posted here. Been quite busy doing everything else accept my project. But lets start where we left off. Moved my procejct to new garage which was empty. I gathered all stuff from the old place and installed them there.
It needed a small cleaning before i could install the shelves for all of the parts that came off from the car.





I caused a awful mess. Everything is laying on the floor. But this will change....





Much better.

[Marko S]

Garage cleaning done and every part has find its place on the shelf. Now we can focus on the car itself. Continued with dismanteling the car. This kind of huge scale project is my first one and hopefully not my last.
Today i managed to get rid of the engine harness, dashboard and heater. I was pretty sure that the work itself is easy, but the truth is you have to be very gentle with lot of the parts when removing them. Easy to. brake but hard to find replacement ones. So i took my time, used google and youtube help but i managed to remove everything without any massive mess up.



Engine wiring harness.



Dashboard.



No dashboard.



Heater also removed.



Good news is that the dash itself is pretty good. No cracks like the used to be when getting too much sun. Mine has sat close to 10 yeas in the shade so it probably is the reason its so good condition. Only small defect and i saw it already when picked up the car.
It dosen't bother me at all, because when door closed its not "very" visible to the naked eye.





It came from the factory with manual sunroof. Someone of the previous owners has fitted electrical sunroof. Connectors are like they should be, but unfortunately used plain speakerwire to make it work. This little f*ck up will be fixed with original wiring.



Also removed all the speaker wires. The sound will get a small upgrade, but i will reveal it when the time is right.



Both door connectors are unusable. Broken in every way. I managed to find some of the connectors new from dealership. Plug housing is no longer availabe so i have to figure that out. Maybe buy used ones and get them from there ? We will see.
Same owner has fitted the electrical windows and just pulled the wiring through the socket. I will add the missing pins and the end result should be like form the factory line.



Every nut and screw and bolt will be bagged and tagged. I have probably close to hundred minigrip bags with all sorts of fasteners.



To the end of this post i will add a small video of that carage cleaning. Enjoy!

[Marko S]

Continued removing interior. Every nut, bolt and screw will be removed. Started with the chassis harness. It was bit of a struggle to get it out without damaging it.



And like 9 out 10 times there is a small surprise under the fuse box and my car was not an axception.



Bunch of plastic clips holding wires in place. Looks like i have to visit dealership again.





Nothing left except sound deadening material glued on the floor. But someone has done some repairs in some point because this grayish paint is not from the factory.



Luckily firewall was in a good condition.

[Marko S]

Now sound deadening material removal. I know that lot of people using dry ice to remove it. I decided to use heat gun and putty knife. Did spend about 2-3 hours to removing it. And because at that time was bit chilly outside and in the garage, then little bit of warmth is good.

Before:





And now the floor.





Finally is possible to incpect the floor. Lot of new rust holes came to visible but i was prepared.

[Marko S]

Small updates. I needed body rotisserie. I almost bought one when my friend told me that he has one lying around. It was specially made for Lada, but small modifications needed to fit it for the E30.
Originally rear panel doesn't have the holes for attaching the rotator bracket but i just had to cut them. Afterwards i will probably let the body shop weld them shut. We will see.









It's not the most stable thing to attach the chassis, but it did the work and that was the most importat thing.



First step is to remove the axels and get the chassis on its side. It was bit scary to rotate it cause i had no idea will it hold or will it break.





Shitbox on its side.



To be continued....

[Marko S]

At first the bottom of the car doesn't look as bad at all. Some minor rusty places i already knew. But the real truth we're gonna find out soon how good or bad it really is when starting to remove underseal.











Since the day one i knew about that fuel pump bracket. It looks pretty bad. When take a closer look, it gets even worse.



Fuel tank removed, i started to clean up the brackets to see whats underneath.



When removing the sound deadening material i was pretty happy when realised that fuel tank brackets where in good condition and didn't need any welding. Well....





And found a ventilation hole.



And there is not much to say. Only manual labor, wirebrush, putty knife and a heatgun. Works fine if you don't want to pay sack of money to someone who does this as a daily job.

[Marko S]

[Marko S]

I always keep my eye on different sites for original 15" wheels. Rims itself is not very hard to find, but hubcaps are a huge problem nowdays. If only dealership would sell them i would run to that direction in no time. But unfortunately they are NLA and i have to accept used ones. Luckily from time to time some interesting parts come up on sale. This time i managed to grab 1 rim and 3 hubcaps for 250.- €. I concider it a pretty good deal because usually only hubcaps go for 60+ euros a piece. Now i have two sets of wheels. Yes, there is 7 pcs on the picture, but actually i have 8 rims and 7 hubcaps. Still reaching for that last one.
I probably will restore one set of wheels and bag them and just keep them for no reason for the future. For the other set i haven't decided what to do. Maybe i will restore them as well and use them for my E30. We will see. Only time will tell.

I'm not try to get historical vehicle license plate for my car. In our country it means your gonna have a black license plate if the car is at least 35 years old and MY since 1970 it can't be less than 95% original. Mine doesn't does not meet these conditions. Still what bothers me is that 4 of my wheels have manufacture date 1993 (probably wagon), one is from 1989 and two are from 1986. And don't ask why, i'm searching for the 86 year rims. I probably need to see a doctor.

[Marko S]

For a change i upload some pictures of new parts i have ordered and recieved. Most of them are original BMW parts. I specify most of them. For example i couldn't find electrical operated antenna for a decent price, so i had to go with the non bmw one. I hope it meets my expectations and works as it should be.

Electrical antenna made by BERU and a clutch master cylinder by Sachs.



Accelrator pedal.



Rubber grommet for front brakelines.



All kind of small bits and pieces.



Fuel and ventilation hose for the petrol tank.

[Marko S]

And continuing with the scraping fiesta. Thers not much to talk about but i try to explain everything as good as i can.



Rear right wheel arch. I saw tiny rust spots before removing the underseal, but after scraping that off, unfortunately more came to visible and they weren't that tiny at all.







Petrol tank ventilation hose pipe.



And there's should be expansion tank attachment points but there is nothinf left of those. Completely rotten away.





Front right wheelarch.



And as you may notice, not rustless.





Rear left arch. Someone has done a "great" job repairing it.



The end is near. To get to this point where i am now, took me about 8 days total. Proper working 8-12 hour working days.













I also cleaned all possible places in the engine bay.

[Marko S]

I wanted to do as much work as i possibly can. So i bought special drill bits for spotwelds. Damn they know how to ask money. 14.- € a piece.



Idea was to get rid of all the rotten brackets. I marked their correct position, so welder would know how and which way weld them back. And figure out later what to do with them. Throw them into acid bath of use soda blast to clean them.





But i came up with a better solution. Been using bmwfans.info quite often lately, i remembered i saw exhaust brackets on one of the drawings and figured maybe they are still available. And i was lucky. They all were available as new and all of these brackets cost me less than 30 euros. In that point there is no way i will start cleaning the old ones. I just keep them, maybe one day they will become useful on my another project.





I also got rid of the rear seatbelt subframe which was really really bad. I made the order from https://www.schmiedmann.com/en/produ...=E30GN-0105SCM and still waiting for it. I hope it will arrive soon.



I had a discussion with my friend who is gonna do the bodywork and we decided that my part of removing brackets is enough. Everything else he will do by himself. At least he knows what's hes doing. I just practise.

[CblockM3]

Awesome thread, that looks like a ton of work!

[Marko S]

Chassis cleaned, i needed to put it on the wheels again. Pointless to buy expensive bodycart when you can make it yourself. Used 50x150mm wood and cart wheels. Took me about two hours and it was on its wheels again.
It's not the most beutiful one but it does the job and thats what matters to me.







Shed some sunlight.





And cleaned the boot.





And packed all necessary stuff with me, attached chassis to a trailer and head out to a bodyshop.







And left it there god knows for how long.



- - - Updated - - -

Awesome thread, that looks like a ton of work!

Thank you! Amount of work i have put to this project is just wild. Countless hours in the car, under the car and on the car. Broken fingers and hurting muscles after long days in the garage. I pretty sure when its ready it will be worth every second and penny spent on the project.

[Marko S]

So my friend blew dust off my project and started to do his magic on the car. I gave him free hands but it has to be done as good as possible. I don't want to do that all over again. Better safe than sorry.

Rear brake hose holders or brackets are welded later.







New ones.



And looks like he is pretty skillful with the hammer.



New piece modeled.



Welded in place.



I have owned many E30 in the past and every one had the same rust problem and had to deal with it. This project is not an exception. Fuel tank/petrol tank attachment points were pretty bad looking and needed to fix them.
How it looked before.



Lot of small parts he is hammering from scratch.

In progress.



And ready.







And same with the other side.







Thats it for today. Next update will be when i get more photos of the progress.

[Lowspot]

Fantastic restoration - love the progress !

[Marko S]

Hi,

I have some updates. There is not much to say beacuse pictures say more than thousand words.











Step by step.



And here is the "short" video how i got to this very point where we are now.

[Marko S]

Hello!

And again i can post some updates of restoration progress. At first i thought i should buy new ones. One German company makes them, but discussed with my friend and we decided that he will fabricate these himself. The end result will be the same, maybe even better.

Rear spring perch (i think it's the right word for that?)



Not a surprise its not better underneath. Same looking garbage like the perch itself.



Cleaned.



New piece done and welded.



And one side finished.



Other side there is a tank ventilation pipe. I bought https://www.specialclassicparts.de/e...vent-repairkit and the plate thickness is bit different than the original. Original sheet used to build the car is 0.8mm but the one i got is 1.2mm thick. 0.4mm thicker and if you gonna install it like it should be then there will be stupid and ugly looking lip. And i don't want and like that. So he will make this small piece of metal.



And the other side is done as well.







Upsidedown.

[Marko S]

Hello,

I don't know about you, but woke up around six am(i think i'm getting old) and thought this would be the perfect time to update my thread a little bit. ​
Total 89.5 hours spent for cutting, welding and fabricating and the result is visible on the pictures. But lot of hours ahead to make this car good solid E30 again.

This is the oldest chapter. I ordered this rear frame piece 25th of May. 28th of August finally recieved it. I hope it will fit..


As i mentioned in my last post, that the ventilation pipe metal piece was wrong thickness and we couldn't use it. So my friend made a new one and it fits like a glove! We have a saying in our country: There is no unsolvable situations, there is only incapable people.







And welded in place.











Few small rustholes fixed.











New spring perches fabricated. Needs grinding in to shape before welding them back.



There is a nasty hole near rear subframe mounting point. Luckily we have a cure for that.









Testfitting.



There will be a few week silence in this thread. Friend needs few days off and also he has few other projects to take care of before mine. I have plenty of time.

[Marko S]

For the continuation to the last post. 104.5 hours spent on the restaraution.




New spring perch fabricated and welded.

[ZEKTI]

You've made a lot of good progress! Looks like it will come out perfect.