** Acme [Akagi] bought a pink estate car - E30 325i project log! **

Decided on Mora metallic. "Final answer" :p

Work is being done by Firefly Speed Shop in Manchester.

Full exterior colour change re-spray including door shuts and inner panels, re-welding rear arch and sill, welding repair to rear panel, sunroof removal (sunroof casette being cut out and binned, sunroof skin being welded into the roof, skimmed, sanded, painted - Similar to this: https://imgur.com/a/gqVgN ), full underside scrub up and undersealing, re-painting all plastic trims in satin black, re-fitting side skirts.

$$$$ :eek:
 
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Diddums said:
Well go on then, how much?
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Not confirmed 100% yet on the price. He said about £3K but I'd be surprised if I get any change from £4K, and thats with these guys being well known for value:quality.

Getting a comprehensive tally up next week apparently, he has loads of messages and pictures I sent him to sift through.

Also got another LSD... S3.64, genuine E30 M3 diff with 15K miles on it.
 
4K seems pretty fair for that amount of work tbh especially if it's being done to a very high standard. You'l feel like crying once you get your first stone chip though!
 
After this £4K it would take my total spend to around £9K and the car will be worth about £5K... :p
But it doesn't bother me that much because I have zero plans to sell, and its insured for 7K and that will be upped to about 10K once this work has been done. Plus I have tonnes of spares still to sell which will take my total spend down by about a grand.

And after this lot I will still have stuff that needs doing... Still got my new front seats to refurb, still got my headliner to re-cover, and all my optional extras sitting in boxes waiting to be fitted... :p

But hey, to the best of my knowledge it will be the only Mora metallic E30 in the world, and possibly the only E30 325i Touring in any kind of purple in the world. Certainly that I have been able to find online anyway... :)

Plus with it being a manual, non-sunroof conversion, and soon to be Alpina C2 2.5 spec in the power department, it will be a unique beast.
 
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sigma said:
I reckon that'll be at least £5k surely?
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We shall see. You do seem to get a lot of bang for your buck where these guys are concerned thats for sure. They did a same colour full re-spray on a mates MK6 Celica GT about 3 years ago, cost him £700 and it still looks minty today.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/fireflyspeedshop01/photos/?ref=page_internal

Prices seem to go down the further North you go. Round here near Brighton it was 6K at most places, Manchester way, about 4K or so, Scotland, 3K.
 
Acme said:
We shall see. You do seem to get a lot of bang for your buck where these guys are concerned thats for sure. They did a same colour full re-spray on a mates MK6 Celica GT about 3 years ago, cost him £700 and it still looks minty today.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/fireflyspeedshop01/photos/?ref=page_internal

Prices seem to go down the further North you go. Round here near Brighton it was 6K at most places, Manchester way, about 4K or so, Scotland, 3K.
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Don't forget scope-creep... especially when they find issues that you weren't aware of.

I'd be interested in seeing some of their work up close as I need to get some work done too...
 
Quoted £3400 - £3600 including removing the sunroof. Which involves removing the sunroof tray by drilling out spot welds and cutting the welded mounting points with a cutting disk, breaking the bond to the roof skin with heat and wire, cleaning it up, tacking some angle steel to the outside of the sunroof on each side, tacking some 4mm TIG wire around the edge of the sunroof where the seal would go, setting it in the hole, welding it up with lots of spot welds to avoid heat distortion, removing the angled steel, grinding the weld flat, treating, skimming, sanding, then prep for paint.

I've also bought a non sunroof headliner board. RIP sunroof.

Asked if they can do my exhaust and brake re-build while they're at it...
 
Wow. Cost me about £3k to solely have the boot floor in the Charger removed (spot welds drilled out, etc.), new panels trimmed and fitted, all of the other required repairs carried out and then the interior/rear end painted to suit. Big car, though, and a lot of work (two days' welding alone).

Did a stunning job, though; kid you not, the person responsible managed to blend an unknown shade of orange into existing 20-year-old orange paint seamlessly. Blown away by that.
 
And after all that it will still need a clutch, central locking still needs fixing, still have the new cooling system and the new head to go on, the new diff to go in, the seats to refurb, etc... When its fully finished it will probably have £10K in it and be worth half that... :p
 
Acme said:
And after all that it will still need a clutch, central locking still needs fixing, still have the new cooling system and the new head to go on, the new diff to go in, the seats to refurb, etc... When its fully finished it will probably have £10K in it and be worth half that... :p
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£10k could have bought you a better car. Though, if it makes you happy then why not.

I'm at a point with cars now where I rather get one that's good out of the box instead of mod'ing and making it better. I just cba :o
 
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