E30 Project/restoration thread

Pound for pound one of the best cars I ever owned. A-Reg (1983) 325i with dog leg gear box. It was about ten year old when I bought it and sold it at a profit a year later, with the only repair being a spring in the drivers door handle. Only sold it as wife at the time didn't need a second car. Had a couple more after as 'bangers' and loved driving them, even a 318 !! Decent power. MIles bettr than mopdern BMWs.... and yes I still own one.
 
Another corner today, ordered some cuts for the drivers side corner as I don’t have a break to properly bend sheet metal.

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Weirdly sound deadening all came off in large pieces which I wasn’t expecting guess maybe because of the damp.


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Cut out with one patch welded in with the wrong settings.

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Rest of the patch welded up with the factory jacking plate underneath. I did cheat slightly with some ready made weld in panels. But that’s the first proper corner repair done, just needs a load of seam sealer now; and to do the other 3 corners :p

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Just to note that it isn't a jacking plate, at this point it is purely decorative. It was for moving the shell around in the factory. Mine doesn't have them anymore.

Using it to jack up the car is what causes them to rust. :)

Nice looking repair!
 
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Finally had time to pick up the other footwell this weekend. Started out looking like this with all the rot cut out.


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As you can see wasn’t just the floor pan but the rail as well. I ended up getting some cuts from a donor car as the bends weren’t the easiest to reproduce.

Rail dealt with

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Once that was done I could add in the floor pan which was a pre made section I’d bought.

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Excuse my scribing knife. With that in it was on to the outside of the car and closing in what was left. Ended up several panels as otherwise was very hard to cut out just to make things easier but end result is more or less there.

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With that done I could finish it off and daub seam sealer everywhere.

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Now the front corners are sorted I might shove a load of cavity wax in the rails just to help prevent anything further happening. The. It’s time to move on to the rear of the car which should mean I can get it back on the road once that’s done.

Just need to rebuild the entire rear and passenger rear quarter first!
 
Onto the rear today

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Rear boot panel just mocked up for now but thankfully all seems to fit together fairly well with shut lines and lights. Definitely not perfect but I’m relatively happy with that for a first go. Might need a bit of filler work. Then just need to final fit the rear panel then get onto the battery boxes. I’m half tempted to delete the full battery boxes slightly and just fabricate something simple.

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Great work!
Are you finding more or less grot than you were expecting?
Definitely more, I knew the front corners were bad but hadn’t expected the rear to be quite as bad as it was. Hopefully once this rear section is done it’s most of it covered. The passenger left arch is a bit crusty so that’s next then it’s just anything in the bonnet. At some point the engine will come out so a good opportunity to check then.
 
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Looks great : Did you do much research to source pattern body pressings, are they very expensive ?
Most of what I’ve bought has been recycled from other non rusty cars. The floor pan section and the rear boot panels are the ones I’ve bought new. Both weren’t exactly cheap but probably what you’d expect for a piece of pressed metal that large.
 
If you aren't going for full originality then simplifying those battery box areas is not a bad shout.

You'll have some annoying filler work to do on that swage line on the rear quarter panel!
 
Small update, just finished 5 lug swapping the front end with some e36 components and hsd coilovers as well as some new to me 8 series wheels which I’m quite pleased with although need new and bigger tyres.

Have some trailing arms to convert the rear which hopefully I’ll do at the weekend. Also have a new rear quarter panel to do on the rear. Once that’s covered I need to start paying attention to the front body/panels.

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Finally got round to looking at the rear part of the car. Dropped the subframe which came down relatively easy given the bushes were completely destroyed.

Then attacked the rear inner sill which someone had patched previously was a bit of a mess as below, but have cut most of the bad stuff out so far. Need to cut a bit more then ultimately re do what looks like three panels which all sandwich together.

@Acme do you know if any of the inner bits can be bought new?

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Finally got round to looking at the rear part of the car. Dropped the subframe which came down relatively easy given the bushes were completely destroyed.

Then attacked the rear inner sill which someone had patched previously was a bit of a mess as below, but have cut most of the bad stuff out so far. Need to cut a bit more then ultimately re do what looks like three panels which all sandwich together.

@Acme do you know if any of the inner bits can be bought new?

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You could a few years ago but I couldn't say if they are available now or not, apologies.

Best to check RealOEM and then give the dealer a ring.

You can get repro panels from ValcasGarage and E30Garage.no
 
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