Not sure if anyone watched this channel but Yorkshire Car Restoration are doing two YouTubers e30s at the moment. The level of fab work being done is pretty incredible imho. Something to aspire to be able to do!
E30 Project/restoration thread
- Thread starter Thomas. PLease.
- Start date
Finally got round to spending some proper time on the rear sills and made some progress. Not pretty given it’s all getting covered up but should be functional with a decently strong jacking point.
It’s three sheets of metal so had to build up bit by bit, a few too many individual bits where I was using what I could have the original panels. Possibly should have just made all new but prefer to keep my fabrication to a minimum where possible.
Mocked up at the bottom with the new arch. Just need to find the remaining panel gaps now.
It’s three sheets of metal so had to build up bit by bit, a few too many individual bits where I was using what I could have the original panels. Possibly should have just made all new but prefer to keep my fabrication to a minimum where possible.
Mocked up at the bottom with the new arch. Just need to find the remaining panel gaps now.
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Almost done with this side now, a bit more grinding/sanding and some welding at the bottom of the sill otherwise getting close to moving over to the drivers side now.
Not done many updates to this but have done quite a bit of work now.
Found a used disc subframe which I used to replace the drums and upgraded the discs/calipers at the same time:
Once that was done concentrated on finishing of the passenger rear which included the boot pocket, got a new panel to weld in which required quite a bit of adjustement to fit properly, but got there in the end:
Once that was done it's all been seam sealed up and on to fibre glass filling all the panel welds:
Just need to do more work smoothing it off and then on to body filler, but quite pleased it's starting to come together and is back on the ground and mobile, even starting to consider MOT albeit a lot of bodywork to do first and not entirely sure whether to try and paint myself or send to a body shop.
Ended up changing the wheels as well to a set of 16 inch style 5 wheels which I much prefer over the style 8s.
Found a used disc subframe which I used to replace the drums and upgraded the discs/calipers at the same time:
Once that was done concentrated on finishing of the passenger rear which included the boot pocket, got a new panel to weld in which required quite a bit of adjustement to fit properly, but got there in the end:
Once that was done it's all been seam sealed up and on to fibre glass filling all the panel welds:
Just need to do more work smoothing it off and then on to body filler, but quite pleased it's starting to come together and is back on the ground and mobile, even starting to consider MOT albeit a lot of bodywork to do first and not entirely sure whether to try and paint myself or send to a body shop.
Ended up changing the wheels as well to a set of 16 inch style 5 wheels which I much prefer over the style 8s.
Moved over to the front of the car now the rear is largely done from a welding standpoint, assumed/hoped the barttery tray would be relatively easy to remove/replace but turned out to be a bit of a nightmare for it to be done properly.
It looked bad, but the worst was under the bonnet hinge, which is 3 pieces of sheet all sandwhiched together where the inner wing meets the firewall and meets the inner suspension turrent sheet it seems. Very difficult to get to it all to be able to cut the rust out and replace, so its going to be interesting. Bearing in mind how bad the battery tray was it made sense to competely cut it and and replace the entire thing. Ended up damaging a bit more than was ideal in doing so, but nothing beyond repair hopefully.
Lookimg at it from the inside of the footwell you can see the piece which is the issue on the firewall, which then bends is sandwhiched into the arch.
I'm also at the point to start looking at other engines now as it probably makes sense to pull the current motor given the front end work. To be honest I bought the car originally with the intention of doing an S54 swap but the total expense is putting me off and considering chsnging to an M52 instead with a few supporting mods to get it toward 250bhp; but can't help the feeling i'd end up dissapointed given I'd always wanted an S54. Would be interested to hear from anyone thst's had any experience with either?
It looked bad, but the worst was under the bonnet hinge, which is 3 pieces of sheet all sandwhiched together where the inner wing meets the firewall and meets the inner suspension turrent sheet it seems. Very difficult to get to it all to be able to cut the rust out and replace, so its going to be interesting. Bearing in mind how bad the battery tray was it made sense to competely cut it and and replace the entire thing. Ended up damaging a bit more than was ideal in doing so, but nothing beyond repair hopefully.
Lookimg at it from the inside of the footwell you can see the piece which is the issue on the firewall, which then bends is sandwhiched into the arch.
I'm also at the point to start looking at other engines now as it probably makes sense to pull the current motor given the front end work. To be honest I bought the car originally with the intention of doing an S54 swap but the total expense is putting me off and considering chsnging to an M52 instead with a few supporting mods to get it toward 250bhp; but can't help the feeling i'd end up dissapointed given I'd always wanted an S54. Would be interested to hear from anyone thst's had any experience with either?
S62 must be mega. I’m edging toward an S54 still, on the look out for a car that I can break for parts and hopefully make more back doing that than paying outright for an engine. Most seem overpriced and with no ability to see what I’m buying not ideal. Let’s see what comes up in the next few months.An M52B28 with just an M50 manifold/remap decent ratio diff, will give an E36 M3 3L a fright up till about 120, a stripped out lightweight e30 will be neck and neck the whole way - seen it for myself.
An S54 will require dedication if you intend to drive it hard as intended with a high revving ///M engine.
Ideally source an engine with proof of the crank being reground/polished, and someone that doesn't mind chucking it on an engine stand and taking the sump off for you to inspect it, anyone with nothing to hide that breaks bmw's wont have an issue doing this - only someone with something to hide.
If not and you buy an unopened engine, you WILL end up with a shagged crank/bearings, as with any ///M engine, it's just what they all do. Me and my mates have been breaking them up for parts for many years/building various bmws, and my mate rebuilds engines, he's had to often buy multiple cars/engines just to get 1 good crank, regardless of the mileage/history, the last time was with his S50B30, I think he ended up buying 4 engines to get 1 good crank.
Another of my mates bought a brand new S54 crank from BMW 10 years ago, it was IIRC £5600, and I doubt they'll even sell you one these days.
Bearings wise, if you use oem bearings, you will get more life out of them, circa around 30-40k, but they run the risk of killing the crank under abuse, if you go for ARP, you'll have to replace them every 10k due to being race parts, but they won't take the crank with them if they die. Obviously your mileage will vary depending on how hard you drive it, but an ///M engine is wasted if not used for it's intended purpose.
Regardless they all kill cranks, don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise, they've either never inspected it or the bearings, or bought a car/engine that's had the work recently done then not driven/owned it long enough before it needs to be done again.
You'll also want to do the valve clearances every 10-15k, as long as you don't mind doing this and the ARP bearings yourself or know people, then it's worth it, it's just the same with any ///M engine, they love to murder a crankshaft/shag the bearings and all require the valve clearances doing frequently due to the type of high revvy race derived engine that they are.
Either way it's worth the faff if you're going to keep the car and drive it hard/track/drift it.
However an M50/M52 will just work and take a kick in everyday and you'll never have to worry about the crank or bearings, I've had 5 E36's and never had an issue, the last one being a ridiculous spec M52B28/custom rebuilt 3L M3 LSD swapped coupe with stupid amounts done along with tuning. It got it's head kicked in everytime it was driven, zero issues over 5 years of constant abuse spanning over 130k miles of use along with drifting it whilst living on the limiter. Zero issues. Only thing that kills a M52 is if you don't bleed them properly and cook them, due to being an ally block, this is easily done if it's been done before when it comes to bleeding them yourself when you're for example replacing a stat/waterpump/rad/hose. The best way is to lift the front of the car up if it's being a pain.
You'll also want to get a proper plated LSD and rebuild it - a good option is to use double the amount of dog and friction plates, or just use thicker plates, whatever you prefer. My M3 diff ended up being 60% lock 1.5way with 4 thicker plates + all the bearings/seals/top hat bolts etc etc, locked up amazing and was awesome for daily road use along with if you wanted to drift it or track it. Just find someone you trust to setup the ramp angle properly.
My mate built a S62B50 E30 coupe, everything custom, E34 M5 box and diff/custom rear end the lot, even runs posh waterless coolant, spins all the gears even at half throttle on semi slicks haha, it's hilarious fun and stupid fast, he's made it close to 400bhp per tonne, so it will destroy any bar a R35 GTR/exotic power to weight wise.
The same mental argument I’ve been having with myself for the last few months. I’m 99% sure I’m going to go M52 now, it’s 80% of the performance for literally a 10th of the price and to your point can always change it if it does get boring.I also think we'd want ABS with that much time & money invested if we did an S54 build. So that jacks up the costs and argument against even more.
I've owned a 328i and driven a few, I can imagine it is more than enough. If it is not, S54-ing after is also a possibility.
But then I think that life is short and the dream was/is an S54.
Repeat
Half the fun would be adding breathing mods/cams etc as well of which there would be plenty of budget for if not using an S54.
Thankfully mines a non ABS/Airbag car anyway so keeps things simple.
Well as ever things have escalated, Fuse box and battery tray have been completely cut out and ended up taking the dash and heater matrix out so I could get to all of it.
I also bought a complete battery tray replacement panel which is now welded in
And started replacing the metal on the other side.
And then somewhat more excitingly I've procured an engine donor (328ci with M52B28TU). Hopefully works out cheaper to buy a whole car than just then engine, and will smoke around in this for a while until the e30 is ready. Hopefully the style 32s will offset a good portion of the overall cost among other bits which I'll sell when I start pulling it apart.
I also bought a complete battery tray replacement panel which is now welded in
And started replacing the metal on the other side.
And then somewhat more excitingly I've procured an engine donor (328ci with M52B28TU). Hopefully works out cheaper to buy a whole car than just then engine, and will smoke around in this for a while until the e30 is ready. Hopefully the style 32s will offset a good portion of the overall cost among other bits which I'll sell when I start pulling it apart.
46 is the TU which is inlet and exhaust VANOS and is an auto so will still need to source a 5 speed from elsewhere.
Is a great car for the money, reminds me how crap most modern stuff is these days.
To be fair, that’s the good side. The drivers side has a fair few cosmetic issues and quite a bit of rust. Don’t doubt it could all be sorted but for the price I paid I may as well just use it for a while then take it off the road.
Been a while since I posted, and have made quite a bit of progress. Yesterday was a standout as we now have six cylinder lift off.
Was actually fairly easy to go in once the back of the car was jacked up and I had the right tilt on the lift. Now lots of wiring and ancillary jobs to do.
Was actually fairly easy to go in once the back of the car was jacked up and I had the right tilt on the lift. Now lots of wiring and ancillary jobs to do.
Yeah, actually super straightforward, stays on the current engine arms it’s on and just needed a change to the mounts in the E30 subframe.
The pain beforehand was changing the engine from a rear to a front sump, which in my case required fabricating a new oil pickup tube which was a bit interesting.
Otherwise it also bolted straight up to the G240 Manual gearbox I’ve chosen to swap in as well. Due to manual converting the car at the same time I just need to finish off doing clutch master and slave cylinders and lines. Pedal box is all changed over and I have gearbox linkage done too.
The pain beforehand was changing the engine from a rear to a front sump, which in my case required fabricating a new oil pickup tube which was a bit interesting.
Otherwise it also bolted straight up to the G240 Manual gearbox I’ve chosen to swap in as well. Due to manual converting the car at the same time I just need to finish off doing clutch master and slave cylinders and lines. Pedal box is all changed over and I have gearbox linkage done too.
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It sounds horrendous because it’s got no headers on, but it lives.