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1983 Jet Black 320i

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    1983 Jet Black 320i

    Another lemon for me to play with :D Heres my updates from my own site to date -

    My brother picked this up at the weekend. Needs a small bit of work - but hopefully nothing major.

    Idea is to tidy it up, do any maintenance needed, and drive it!

    Car needs a new offside wing and front panel. The paint is very dull - but unlike my neverending 323i project, it definitely doesn't need a respray.

    Did the wing just to see how it came up - will make a big difference when its all done.




    First big problem to fix was the wet drivers side carpets. They were so waterlogged, and stunk like hell, so I ended up cutting them out. Couldn't immediately spot a source of the leak. I used some talcum powder on the floor and starting pouring buckets of water over the car. It quickly became obvious that the water was coming in from the corner behind the accelerator.

    Had the poke around the accelerator - quickly turning the car into a flintstones car :( Not having a welder, or being able to weld, I needed to patch it up for the moment. I cut out the rusty metal and fibreglassed and isoponed the hole.

    A liberal application of anti-rust primer, and waxoyl undersealant went on then. It isn't a permanent solution, but it will do the job for a while - after powerhosing it today there wasn't a drop of water in the car.

    Anyway - the car now has a nice clean interior - I fitted the seats and floor mats from my 323i and gave the interior a good hoover and wash. Its actually the biggest transformation I've ever seen for an interior - you'll have to take my word for it, I have no before photos and haven't worked out a way of sharing the smell of damp over the web :D





    Gave the car a good wash - and claybarred it. I've never seen so much contaminant come off the car onto the bar before, I used almost a full bar as I was struggling to find new bits of clean clay when I folded it.

    Was time for some PC action then, the photo of the bonnet below is a good example of the paint overall -



    After some SSR3, Megs 83 and 80 it came up nice enough -



    Bootlid came up lovely!







    Still have the passenger side of the car and the roof to do. Theres also some worrying rust on the bottom of the rear passenger side arch. Hopefully its not too bad.

    Managed to get a new set of carpets for this from a lad on E30owners.com just before my wedding, so set about fitting it yesterday. Unfortunately when I got to the passenger side, there were extremely wet carpets waiting for me there too.

    Didn't even need to prod the floor this time - there was substantial daylight shining through!! Due to depression, and lack of time, I didn't get photos of the hole before I patched it. I cut out the metal, leaving a fairly large hole, and patched it like I did with the other side. Its not permanent, but it'll stop the leak.

    A bit of expert photoshopping later though - and you can see where I patched :D



    Just so you can admire my handiwork on the drivers side a few weeks ago -



    Once that was done I set about fitting the new carpet. It was a bit of an ordeal to be honest - the carpet won't fit in under the heater matrix, so some cutting was required. All in, fitting took about 2 hours. This involved having to dismantle the auto selector because a screw fell into it, which is typical really.

    Anyway - the new carpet does look quite well, and doesn't smell of old tramps, which is always good. Its slightly different in colour to the rear piece, which I may just swap out too.





    Last edited by kdevitt; 07-09-2009, 03:04 PM.
    1990 Diamond Black E30 320i Touring
    1994 Jet Black E36 320i

    #2
    Looks good. Jealous of the euro bumpers though.
    1985 M10b18. 70maybewhpoffury. Over engineered S50b30 murica BBQ swap in progress.

    Originally posted by DEV0 E30
    You'd chugg this butt. I know you would. Ain't gotta' lie to kick it brostantinople.

    Comment


      #3
      Another good looking project.
      Continuous For Sale Thread
      323i s50

      Comment


        #4
        Nice you took my advice and made this thread :)

        Comment


          #5


          i'm really digging that carpeted trim on the kick panel!
          IG: deniso_nsi Leave me feedback here

          Comment


            #6
            Had a bit of a disaster with this last weekend - the bumpers virtually crumbled whem removing them, and a small rust patch became a big rust patch on the drivers side rear quarter. Thoughts of breaking it for parts crossed my mind, but decided to take it in a new direction :)

            So a few photos of the intended new direction!

            With the way the bumpers were crumbling, it didn't make sense paying strong money for another set of chrome bumpers and then sanding and spraying them!

            So its getting a facelift - which also saves me having to buy a new front valance as well!

            Here is the result of the front (the rear is going to be more complex). Fist step was to remove the front bumper, and the bumper struts.



            Next up was to get rod of teh fogs - they weren't BMW units, and removed the front grilles.



            The trim piece that runs under the headlights and across the front of teh car came off next.



            Each towing eye needs to be cut off too - I borrowed an angle grinder which made short work of them.



            The new valance just bolts into the exact same mountings as the old one.



            Am still waiting on the facelift bumper shocks to arrive, so once they do I can bolt the bumper itself on - but should look like this.



            Will be an easy enough job getting the new bumpers colour coded once I have them fitted properly.
            1990 Diamond Black E30 320i Touring
            1994 Jet Black E36 320i

            Comment


              #7
              Nice work! The paint restoration worked miracles, keep up the good work!

              Comment


                #8
                Spent a few hours today swapping out the locks for new ones. The car had different keys to open the door and to start it up. Was a bit annoying, so got a full lockset from a contact of mine and set about fitting them.

                No pics as its not really that interesting - but christ is removing the igntion barrel a pain!! All done now anyway.
                1990 Diamond Black E30 320i Touring
                1994 Jet Black E36 320i

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