E30 Project/restoration thread

Thomas. PLease.

Thomas. PLease.

Thomas. PLease.

Soldato
Joined
5 Jul 2007
Posts
5,504
Location
London
I've wanted one of these forever so when one came up for sale locally advertised for not very much money I had to go and have a look. It's supposedly a one lady owner car with 71k miles on. The odo does ready 71k but also doesn't work so not sure how much to read into that, in any case the car didn't have any history. Overall for the money (£2250) it seems less rusty than I thought it would be, some rust on the arches and boot corners as well as front corner by the pedal, but doesn't seem to be anythng catastrophic just yet.

The front has dents on just about every panel at regular intervals so the supposed one lady owner can't have been too careful, or good at parking so that'll be my first area to try and address; followed shortly by the rear bodywork and boot floor. It drives pretty well though, stops, goes etc.

Photos from the ad:

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When I got it back there were a few areas of immediate attention with the aim to get it through an MOT.

Indicators not working - Turned out to be the flasher relay by the indicator stalk, easy £20 fix
Tach/Odo not working - Took it apart but couldn't see anything obvious, read about batteries going on the SI board and could see mine were very low on voltage, so ordered some new batteries to attempt to install
Old alarm still wired in - Dealt with the rats nest of wires and pulled out the immobiliser/alarm and associated wiring, need to solder some connections back up but appear to have maintained all functions so far.

Which is when I found someones address book written into this:
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Along with this newspaper clipping :lol:

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Rear light cluster is missing an indicator lens - Ordered a second hand cluster to fit

That's when I came to the sunroof whcih has clearly been leaking and was visibly rusting on top:

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So I decided to hoover up the rust and give it a light wire brushing just to remove some of the excess, and left the panel off for now. Not sure whether to repair the rusted panel or just to seal the thing up fully

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Overall though it's relatively clean

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And no visible rust on the scuttle:

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Next steps are to make a decision on the sunroof; sort the rear lights and possible order some new front panels/bumpers to tidy all for the front end up. Longer term the idea when buying was to do an S54 swap and turn it into a full track/fast road toy. Will see how that plan develops as this seems like quite a nice car to really destroy doing that sort of thing. Otherwise just to tidy it up for the time being and get it through the MOT and go from there.

Thanks
 
I'll tell you right now that with that amount of rust around the sunroof you want to take the headliner out and inspect the roof skin on the inside, then decide if you actually want to proceed or not. It is the biggest pain in the arse to repair because the sunroof tray is bonded and welded to the roof skin, and it rusts in between the two. Replacement sunroof panels are also, unfortunately, several hundred quid in rust free condition. :p

You also want to check the boot pockets, the rear valance by the towing eye, front and rear of the sills, rear inner arches, front footwell corners, flitch tray corners, the lip underneath the boot seal, the scuttle corners, the stamping behind the drivers side bonnet catch, the firewall next to the heater blower motor, the battery tray, and the fuel tank lip.

Assume nothing until you've removed the headliner, carpet, and all the plastic covers, undertrays and arch liners and had a proper poke around. I bought mine years ago advertised as rust free with a years MOT, and it was rotten everywhere.

Aside from rust, they are pretty stout cars. Not a whole lot to go wrong and when things do go wrong diagnosis is fairly straightforward...

The odomoter is a common issue, one of the plastic gears strips. You can buy replacements in a little kit. The SI board battery issue is unrelated. All that does is stops the service indicator lights from working properly.

The wings are worth saving if you can, genuine ones that aren't rotten on the bottoms are getting a bit scarce.

Oh and a good friend of mine owns "F83 FGJ", it is also red... :D
 
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Acme said:
I'll tell you right now that with that amount of rust around the sunroof you want to take the headliner out and inspect the roof skin on the inside, then decide if you actually want to proceed or not. It is the biggest pain in the arse to repair because the sunroof tray is bonded and welded to the roof skin, and it rusts in between the two. :p

You also want to check the boot pockets, the rear valance by the towing eye, front and rear of the sills, rear inner arches, front footwell corners, flitch tray corners, the lip underneath the boot seal, the scuttle corners, the stamping behind the drivers side bonnet catch, the firewall next to the heater blower motor, the battery tray, and the fuel tank lip.

Assume nothing until you've removed the headliner, carpet, and all the plastic covers, undertrays and arch liners and had a proper poke around. I bought mine years ago advertised as rust free with a years MOT, and it was rotten everywhere.

Aside from rust, they are pretty stout cars. Not a whole lot to go wrong and when things do go wrong diagnosis is fairly straightforward...

The odomoter is a common issue, one of the plastic gears strips. You can buy replacements in a little kit. The SI board battery issue is unrelated. All that does is stops the service indicator lights from working properly.

The wings are worth saving if you can, genuine ones that aren't rotten on the bottoms are getting a bit scarce.

Oh and a good friend of mine owns "F83 FGJ", it is also red... :D
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Thanks, the odo gears seem fine when I took the cluster out. Unless I need to fully dissasemble to see? Wouldn’t the SI board battery issue stop the tach working though?

I know the front footwell corners are bad, as are the rear sills and inner arches, but they didn’t look beyond help. Battery tray looks fine, but will have to check the flitch and will take the headliner off as the next job.
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
Thanks, the odo gears seem fine when I took the cluster out. Unless I need to fully dissasemble to see? Wouldn’t the SI board battery issue stop the tach working though?

I know the front footwell corners are bad, as are the rear sills and inner arches, but they didn’t look beyond help. Battery tray looks fine, but will have to check the flitch and will take the headliner off as the next job.
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My odo still works so I haven't had cause to delve too deeply into that particular issue. The E30Zone wiki may be of help. But don't take everything it says as gospel, there are a fair few little errors on there.

The SI board issue will not affect the odometer no. The odometer is completely mechanical. If the speedometer works, the odometer should work too.

Front footwell corners are typical because people jack the car up from there, despite the fact that the square "cups" on the footwells *look like* jacking points, they aren't. They were just to aid assembly in the factory. When people jack the car up from there it splits the seam sealer/layers of metal, and then rust ensues.

Also I just noticed your wings appear to be held on with 2 or 3 bolts each. :p
 
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Acme said:
My odo still works so I haven't had cause to delve too deeply into that particular issue. The E30Zone wiki may be of help. But don't take everything it says as gospel, there are a fair few little errors on there.

The SI board issue will not affect the odometer no. The odometer is completely mechanical. If the speedometer works, the odometer should work too.

Front footwell corners are typical because people jack the car up from there, despite the fact that the square "cups" on the footwells *look like* jacking points, they aren't. They were just to aid assembly in the factory. When people jack the car up from there it splits the seam sealer/layers of metal, and then rust ensues.

Also I just noticed your wings appear to be held on with 2 or 3 bolts each. :p
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I’d taken the front wings off in that photo to have a look underneath.

Trying to decide whether to make good the current wings or order replacements and get them painted. Are pattern parts or other pressings any good? Any recommendations?
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
I’d taken the front wings off in that photo to have a look underneath.

Trying to decide whether to make good the current wings or order replacements and get them painted. Are pattern parts or other pressings any good? Any recommendations?
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Ah gotcha!

When I got replacement wings for mine I spent a while tracking down some genuine ones, just to be on the safe side. I have heard that pattern wings can have fitment issues and take a bit of fettling.

If the ones you have aren't rusty, id say its worth a go getting them straightened up.
 
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I hope you're ready for the modern pricing on parts, £250-500+ for awful cloth interior, £500-1000 for basic bbs 14-15" 1 piece, etc etc... It's gone mental now.

The e36's are getting into that territory now - 3-5k for black vadar interior!

You should take the windscreen and all glass out, you'll find more rust, I'd put money on it.

Hope you've got deep pockets!
 
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keef247 said:
I hope you're ready for the modern pricing on parts, £250-500+ for awful cloth interior, £500-1000 for basic bbs 14-15" 1 piece, etc etc... It's gone mental now.

The e36's are getting into that territory now - 3-5k for black vadar interior!

You should take the windscreen and all glass out, you'll find more rust, I'd put money on it.

Hope you've got deep pockets!
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Depends where you look. You can still get 15" BBS for £500 - £600, and nobody wants 14" ones still. People are welcome to ask what they like but they don't always get it. ;)

Interior prices are a little silly now. My full black leather interior with a few rips in it is probably worth over £800 now. I should probably repair the leather and take better care of it. :p

If you need reasonably priced parts I can put you in touch with someone who can help. I also have a bit of a stash.

Leave the glass in, what you don't know won't hurt you... Always best to leave a few surprises for later... :D

But in seriousness, the windscreen lip behind the rubber seal is also common for rust if you wish to check.
 
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keef247 said:
I hope you're ready for the modern pricing on parts, £250-500+ for awful cloth interior, £500-1000 for basic bbs 14-15" 1 piece, etc etc... It's gone mental now.

The e36's are getting into that territory now - 3-5k for black vadar interior!

You should take the windscreen and all glass out, you'll find more rust, I'd put money on it.

Hope you've got deep pockets!
Click to expand...

I know the feeling. I have owned my Toyota Celica GT-Four for nearly 11 years now. When I bought it the OEM wheels you couldn't give away now they sell for £400+. Have a crash and a new bumper was 50 quid. Now more like £500. I actually had a parts clear out over the summer and sold an OEM exhaust for £400 which is more than it cost brand new!
 
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I guess that’s what happens when world governments are on a money printing spree!

So I had a deeper look into the passenger rear which I knew to be in dire need of work with bottom missing, its been taped up so I knew it was hiding a bit of a mess but it’s gone all the way through the seam so will need a lot of building back up, which was more than I was expecting; there’s a theme emerging here!

Other side is thankfully much less worse with just some rot in the bottom

Going to need a full rear repair panel rear and passenger side. @Acme if you know of anyone with any good repair panels or where I can get something it would be much appreciated.

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Ahhh, so it begins... :p

That is extending into the inner wheelarch as well. Never seen that corner rust out that badly... Usually its the other side that goes first.

Message my friend Lukee_e30 on instagram, say Tom sent you. He will have shell cuts available I would imagine.
 
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