E30 Restoration and track car build

[Garry Spight]

My friend owns this E30 BMW 320i
The engine on the car is sweet it has had a fair bit of work done on it.

The engine mods are as followed:-

Ported, gasflowed and polished head.
268 deg Cam.
Vernier pulley.
Rebuilt bottom end.
Pipercross enclosed carbon induction kit.
Manifold back mongoose exhaust sysytem
and a Superchip

This is making 138.6BHP @ The wheels
Which is good for a G reg car

However The tin worm has gotten the best of this car over the years

So he was going to scrap the car,
So I suggested I store the car at my house. Strip out restore and rebuild it as a track car, for us both to use.
He jumped at the idea as this is a lovely car to drive

We striped the car down taking off the front wings as they where rotten.

We was left with this.
This is what is wrong with the car at a glance.


Front drivers Side arch.

This it the front of the arch under the washer bottle

This is the rear of the arch under the battery tray

This is where it meets the sill

Another of under the washer bottle

Now on to the passenger front

Front of the passenger arch not quite as bad as there is no washer bottle above it

Where it meets sill

On to the passenger rear arch

Front of the rear arch

Rear of the rear arch

On to the drivers rear wheel arch

Front of the drivers rear arch

The worst bit so far
Rear of the driver arch

Will get more pics of the project as it progresses.
Surprising the sills aren’t too bad. But we will see

We will be treating areas with Bilt Hamber Deox Gel and the worse bits will be cut out and new parts welded in.
The car will then be painted with Hydrate 80 rust convertor.
Then stone chipped in the arches, before being sealed with Dynax cavity wax.

I am waiting on some stripping discs to turn up then I will know more of the extent of the problem.

This is a Part Time Project for us both so will post pics up as soon as we do more work so bear with me.

Any advice or tips welcomed as this is the first time on a project like this. I can barely weld but getting there.

Many thanks for looking
Garry

 

[Garry Spight]

Where do I start on what to cut out?

Do I grind back the metal till no rust and if it goes thru do I cut out and replace?

 

[the snooper]

its best to cut the rust out, grinding rust away makes the steel really thin weaker and harder to weld

 

[the snooper]

from what you have shown us there is very little wrong with the car

 

[dean0]

For a start that looks like a pretty mint E30. The one I had was far worse than that!

You can get a rust removal disc for use in an angle grinder (looks like a black sponge), I'd give that a go over all the surface rust. They're better than a wire brush as they remove the rust rather than polishing it. Any places it leaves a hole I'd cut out enough metal so there's no pitting left where you are going to weld. It sounds drastic but I spent last Sunday welding a friends car for them. Whenever I hit any pitted metal, even if I'd removed all the surface rust it just blew straight through.

That's just my 2ps worth though, someone might have some tips which means you don't need to be quite so enthusiastic with the cutting disk.

 

[Garry Spight]

Didnt think the car was too bad have seen worse.

Not too sure on where to start do i do a corner at a time?

is that the best way?

 

[the snooper]

start anywhere but finish before you move on its as broad as it is long regarding where to start

 

[£20 clarke 165]

Bmw

I once bought an "IMMACULATE" e28 BMW on Ebay that was far worse than that!!!

 

[Garry Spight]

My plan was to do one corner at a time starting with the passenger front so i could build my skills to tackle the rear

 

[daf45]

Car doesn't look half bad mate - brilliant first project.
Take each area you have shown as a job in itself and finish each bit before you move on. Have wet towels and or a fire extinguisher close to hand!

Clean back the affected areas even more then just cut the rusty bits right out and replace with new metal. They wont be huge pieces and they don't look to have a lot of complex curves or shapes to make...

BEST TIP for you is to do the welding practice away from the car first - until you have a good feel for it. Even if after a few hours you can stick clean offcuts together, it will be much harder when you start under the car.

Take pics as you go and stick the process up here

 

[Garry Spight]

Today’s Update

Went home after I finished work for the day to check on the progress of the Deox gel on the driver’s side. Seems to be working ok but still some rust on there.

So I jet washed it all off cleaned it again with Surfex and re applied Deox Gel.

While I was working I had a delivery of the grinding discs I ordered.

Tried to remove the old disc from my old grinder but it was well and truly seized on.

So a trip down the local tool shop and I picked this up
A nice shiny new Makita

So thought I would have a play with the passenger side as I was free

This is how it looked when I started

So I jacked up (Not with Skaag may I add) and took the wheel off to get better access

I already knew it wasn’t going to be too pleasant due to this

So I Put my paint stripping disc on and gave it a whirl

Wasn’t looking too good, But as I have been doing a bit of research on doing this I found out that I could cut the jacking point off.

Cause for some stupid reason BMW thought it would be clever to make a triangle compartment behind a wheel.
(Prob getting their own back for the war who knows)

So I Switched to a cutting disc and proceeded to **** my self

When I had changed my pants I cut away the jacking point making sure I didn’t get the wing locating screw on the sill

Only to find the seam where the panels join had rust in and that where the jacking point ended had made a hole in the floor

So up the carpet came

And I proceeded to cut away the rust I started at the back of the jacking point first which left me with this.

I put my phone there so you can see the size.

And from the underneath

I then moved on to the seam which didn’t look to healthy so decided it would be easier for me to cut it all out and weld a new bit in.

So out came the Makita again
Leaving me with this

From the underneath

I know I was after a track car and saving weight is a good idea but it was getting quite bad

Anyway I ground of all the rust I could in the area there was still a few pitted bits I couldn’t get in to

So out came the magic gel

Coated the whole area with Bilt Hamber Deox gel and left it to do its magic.

When I remove the gel tomorrow I hope for a lovely shiny new panel in there. Ok it’s not quite that magic but hey.

I will wash off tomorrow and coat it with ferrosol before attempting to weld a plate in there.

I will then paint that with hydrate 80 to stop any rust I may have missed then I will spray stone chip on it and it will look brand new.

Apart from missing a jacking point.

Anyway that is it for today;

I hope you have enjoyed having a read so far.

To anyone that is thinking of doing something like this, make sure you aint wearing tight jeans as you need big balls to cut your car up

 

[Garry Spight]

Have I done this right or taken too much off ?

Shall I repair this in one go or make two small plates

 

[Garry Spight]

Passenger side update

Today I turned up to work in the pouring rain to inspect the magic gel.

On arrival things were looking good the gel had formed a dark brown mess on the area as shown.

So I took the cling film off to have a better look. (Looks lovely eh)

Gave the area a scrub with a plastic brush.

Afterwards I cleaned with Surfex and jet washed it off to reveal this, the gel really did a good job of cleaning it up. There is still a bit of pitting there but I wasn’t expecting all to go in one hit.

Seeing as the area is nice and rust free I decided instead of doing another coat I would use the hydrate 80 on the whole panel one the plate was welded in.




So with it raining like a mother ****@r I coated the whole area with a layer of ferrosol

Then I thought I have nothing better to do so I will strip the turret assembly.

Started by taking the tie rod end off with a 15mm spanner
(For all of you that care I will give you the sizes used.)

Then I Spun the turret round and Loosened the ball joint nut with a 19MM spanner (don’t take it off yet)
Then I removed the ARB drop link with two 13mm spanners (you leave the nut on the ball joint so that when you take the anti roll bar link it doesn’t all come crashing off.

After that was done I Clamped the brake hose (even though they will be replaced didn’t want brake fluid everywhere)

Undone the calliper sliders with a 7MM Allen key socket.

Finally Undid the 3 top mount nuts with a 13mm socket to remove the whole shock turret.

I then went into my shed Joined by mister snap on and proceeded to strip it shock assembly down
I used an 18m deep socket to undo shock from the top mount.
A 19mm spanner to undo the brake carrier.
A 4mm Allen key to remove the disc.
Remove the wheel bearing off with a 34mm socket
3 10mm bolts held the back plate on (which was binned)
And finally undid the shock cover with a pair of grips.
That left me with this.

With all this striped down I inspected the calliper seals which are perfect. (Was going to shot blast the calliper but will use Deox c now instead.)
I then sprayed the rubber shock mounts, Plastic cover that covers the bump stop and the top mount with Surfex.

I gave them a brush the rubber parts a brush and rinse to bring them up like new.

I then moved on to the top mount, The bearing on the top mount had so much dirt and grit in there the it didn’t move properly, so brushed with a toothbrush, sprayed with Surfex brushed again then rinsed, Rotate the bearing and repeat for 1 hour before the bearing spun freely with no resistance.
I then coated it with ferrosol, to protect it (not sure if I need to repack it with grease or not though (any help).

The rubber on the mount is fine, the paint that was covering it was just flaking off.
I will give this a sand down a coat with hydrate 80 then coat it with the same paint as the other parts.
The wheel bearing is on its way out so that will be replaced
So I will send this, which is the shock housing, Calliper bracket, spring, spring cup, disc and the washers off to the media blasters to get the rust and paint off ready for a fresh lick of paint.

Luckily for us my best mates granddad has shot blasting facilities so will be paid for with beer money.

Thank you for looking at the update so far.
If anyone has any suggestions on anything or if I have missed anything so far, or just want to share any info (like a coating for the parts when they come back from the blasters) please feel free to comment.

Many thanks Garry

 

[BillJ]

Started by taking the tie rod end off with a 15mm spanner
(For all of you that care I will give you the sizes used.)

While I may never work on a BMW (who knows?), I do exactly the same as you have done when I write procedures on my Saab 9000 site. Someone working on an E30 at some time in the future will be grateful for your attention to detail while writing this.

 

[Disco_Mark]

Are repair panels available for these areas, or are you left to fabricate your own replacements?

I have started getting into BM's recently and been thinking about acquiring an e30 or e36 to play with...

 

[Garry Spight]

They Prob are avalible. But I'm doing this to learn as well as have fun making a track car. So I will be making all the panels that I need myself.

I know that some bits of my build wont be welding based but it is a project none the less.

Hope everyone enjoys reading this, If not please let me know and I will stop posting the pics up.

Many thanks
Garry

 

[Garry Spight]

While I may never work on a BMW (who knows?), I do exactly the same as you have done when I write procedures on my Saab 9000 site. Someone working on an E30 at some time in the future will be grateful for your attention to detail while writing this.

Just had a quick look at your site I like it. Would like to do something like that one day.

I Used to be a Mechanic so that side is easy to me, But I'm real interested in the bodywork side of things now

 

[chap]

I make holes and repair patchs in rectangles.. easier to measure and cut. Also, with that kind of repair, considering it's a track car, i'd just use slightly thicker steel and tack and beat the panels together until they're a close fit (no point trying to panel beat all the detail into the new metal), then seam/thin sheet technique weld together.

HTH

Oh, and welding from inside the car will be easier than trying to do it upside-down, on your back under tha car!

Best of luck

 

[davenport]

awesome work...

ive often read reviews of that DEOX gel but never actually seen proper use (adverts can be very misleading) but it looks like its some seriously good stuff....

as for the rust?? stick with it bud.. i`ve been through exactly the same with my pug and starting off with a hole the size of a 50p coin only to end up with a hole big enough to get your head through can be soul destroying..

BUT..

its only metal!! and with enough patience and care anything can be remade!!

i look forward to seeing your progress bud....

 

[Garry Spight]

I have to say that the full bilt hamber range is amazing does excatly what it says on tin.

I have just ordered the deox c which is a soloution you mix with water and soak parts in. it incredable.

Was thinking of welding from inside of car.

Didnt get anywork done over weekend so hopefully some tommorrow. fingers crossed