** Acme [Akagi] bought a pink estate car - E30 325i project log! **
- Thread starter Akagi
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 25 May 2008
- Posts
- 3,899
- Location
- North Wales
Just get a welder and get stuck in like we all told you about 15 pages ago 
They say mig welding is as easy as drawing with a marker pen, in reality it may be *slightly* harder but not by much!
They say mig welding is as easy as drawing with a marker pen, in reality it may be *slightly* harder but not by much!
Right-o, been a while. A few things have gone on with the E30 but I've been a bit distracted by the shed I bought. Lets not go into that in here though...
Dropped it off at the garage who did the work again:
They took apart the hub assembly and put it back together having found no issue and sent me on my way, and the fault went away. I've since noticed that the ABS light seems to come on intermittently, sometimes it can stay off for days, other times it comes on straight away, but it always coincides with a bump in the road. I think it is a wiring issue somewhere else in the car. Warm weather keeps the issue away too which is another clue. I still haven't had a bill from the garage...
Went to my mates place (the one you know as "the other guy with the E30") who helped me fit the replacement bonnet, as the original was rusting from the inside and had filler and so on. This one looks much better. Just about fits in the back of the car!
Choosing the best pipes and brackets and things from each:
Voila!
This is a rather poor picture but we also fitted the matching leather door cards. (well, the cards are vinyl but they match the leather interior.)
Set about getting rid of some of the old stuff I no longer need. Someone has taken the rusty bonnet for a project, someone bought the old passenger seat for a whopping £80, and I stripped down the drivers seat and salvaged what I could from it. Just the buckle to take off now, and then it will be scrapped.
Mum being a loon.
Oh and the rear gearbox seal has started leaking since the gearbox oil was changed, not much mind. Dad fabricated a "nappy" under the back of the gearbox to stop it dripping on the driveway until I get it fixed.
Thats all folks!
Dropped it off at the garage who did the work again:
They took apart the hub assembly and put it back together having found no issue and sent me on my way, and the fault went away. I've since noticed that the ABS light seems to come on intermittently, sometimes it can stay off for days, other times it comes on straight away, but it always coincides with a bump in the road. I think it is a wiring issue somewhere else in the car. Warm weather keeps the issue away too which is another clue. I still haven't had a bill from the garage...
Went to my mates place (the one you know as "the other guy with the E30") who helped me fit the replacement bonnet, as the original was rusting from the inside and had filler and so on. This one looks much better. Just about fits in the back of the car!
Choosing the best pipes and brackets and things from each:
Voila!
This is a rather poor picture but we also fitted the matching leather door cards. (well, the cards are vinyl but they match the leather interior.)
Set about getting rid of some of the old stuff I no longer need. Someone has taken the rusty bonnet for a project, someone bought the old passenger seat for a whopping £80, and I stripped down the drivers seat and salvaged what I could from it. Just the buckle to take off now, and then it will be scrapped.
Mum being a loon.
Oh and the rear gearbox seal has started leaking since the gearbox oil was changed, not much mind. Dad fabricated a "nappy" under the back of the gearbox to stop it dripping on the driveway until I get it fixed.
Thats all folks!
Cheers. Interior wise it just needs the headliner re-trimming and a bit of rubber on the drivers door. And the 'retro' head unit. The carpet has a small tear in it but its not noticable. Could replace it, or might stitch it and pull the tear back together which should be close to invisible.
1st of July I'm driving it to Northants and we are compounding the paintwork and seeing if we can bring it back to life. Then I am staying over there, and then on the 2nd it is going to Santa Pod with the EssexE30Collective and E30Zone. I will mostly spectate because I don't want to hurt the poor old girl, but I might make a couple of passes.
Soldato
- Joined
- 29 Jul 2013
- Posts
- 8,605
inb4 you race it and you end up stranded in Northants
That does look like it is coming together nicely. If I knew what I was doing and had the tools and space to maintain it properly I would have something like an E30 as a daily driver. Just something about the look both inside and out and the relative simplicity of the things ticks all my boxes.
Quick before/after of just after I got it, dirty with scuffed plastic trim, old numberplate in the wrong place, no attempt to buff up the paintwork, old corroded bottlecaps, and a towel underneath to catch the oil drips, and then now(ish).
Caporegime
- Joined
- 22 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 28,291
- Location
- Boston, Lincolnshire
Doing well Acme, good lad
It's alright he will swap it for a stanced e30 which is rusted to the core just like he did with his mx5
Perhaps unsurprisingly Right so my old door seal had shrunk and would no longer fit in one corner, meaning that rain could potentially get in. It had also split.
A new seal from BMW was something completely ridiculous like £180, so I bought a good condition one from eBay for £30, no splits, and it fits much better!
I also finally removed the disgusting remnants of a 20 year old Goodwood sticker from the rear window:
Stuck in this sticker from the E30 club I'm in:
And used some drawing pins to hold the headliner up temporarily, which actually worked really really well! Previously it was sagging a good three or four inches and passengers were at risk of being engulfed by it. It was so bad that it even affected rear visibility. This is much better. Just take my word for it.
A new seal from BMW was something completely ridiculous like £180, so I bought a good condition one from eBay for £30, no splits, and it fits much better!
I also finally removed the disgusting remnants of a 20 year old Goodwood sticker from the rear window:
Stuck in this sticker from the E30 club I'm in:
And used some drawing pins to hold the headliner up temporarily, which actually worked really really well! Previously it was sagging a good three or four inches and passengers were at risk of being engulfed by it. It was so bad that it even affected rear visibility. This is much better. Just take my word for it.
Soldato
- Joined
- 21 Oct 2003
- Posts
- 13,608
- Location
- Back with a Vengeance.
RE the headlining. Doing it right is a real pita, but if you're keeping it that's the way to go. If you decide that pins are as far as you want to go then replace the drawing pins with upholsterers twist pins.