E30 1986 2-door from ESTONIA - restoration project.

[MarkoEST]

Bodyshop guy called me and asked if i could bring him the car 17th of June. I was like, yeah sure, but just first let me figure out who will tow the trailer. Made few calls and found myself a driver. My friend who does own a towing company. Luckily he was very happy to help. So the plan was sure. I bought the ferry tickets. Yeah, i live in the capital of Estonia, Tallinn. And my friend who's gonna do the welding lives on an island called Saaremaa. Not very long trip but exhausting. Back and forth around 550-600km.

Yesterday evening i went to the garage and started packing. Because the ferry departures 9 in the morning and i had almost 2 hour drive so we had to leave early. I don't like to rush because otherwise I will mess up or forget something. I like to take time and think everything through. I packed everything my friend asked. Hopefully i did not forget anything.
Bumper, hood, doors, trunk lid, fenders and etc.



Next mission was to get that chassis on the trailer. It was bit of a fight, because the bodycart was not as wide as it should have been. But after 15 minutes of struggeling we managed to get that on the trailer and tied it properly. Trust me i don't want to find myself on the side of a road and looking for my car from the woods. We are proffesionals, we dont use blutetooth straps.



I know it looks like towing skyscraper behind your back but it wasn't as scary as it looks.



Ready to go!



And new home for few months. You are probably asking when it will be ready ? I don't know actually. He will begin cutting it open after midsummer. And in my head i have thought at least 3-4 months. I want it to be not good, but very good. I wanted to say perfect, but i think with my budget its impossible. But we will see! :) Im quite sure that my friend is up to the task and he will do really good job because after that project he still want to be friends with me. :D

[MarkoEST]

From chassis chat to a sound. I know it's a long long journey, when starting to assemble the car i like to have everything that i need for that. Because i'm gonna upgrade a sound system a little bit i needed a new headunit for that. I know that there are endless possibilities to install whatever brand you want, but for me it has to fit perfectly. I don't like all fancy bling-bling colorful screens. I needed something that doesn't disturb my eye and at the same time internal components would be contemporary so i could use bluetooth and other stuff that comes with the headunit. Only what was good enough for me (maybe there are more) was this. It has everything i could need and the looks of it is just perfect for that timeless E30's interior.

[MarkoEST]

I'm pretty sure it's a panel from E30Norway, although delivery times will probably be the same..

https://e30garage.no/

edit, it's even cheaper and he has 4 in stock..

https://e30garage.no/product/rear-subframe/

Yeah, i'm pretty sure that is the same part. But the day i purchase it, it was -10% discount and as i bought it to a company i also got the price without VAT. Final price was less than 200 euros with shipping. I consider it as a quite good deal. :)

[D.Martijn]

I ran in to a trouble. When removing the brackets, i had to remove also the seatbelt subframe. But it was so rusted and i had no choice but to break it to get it off from the chassis. I was pretty sure that i will find new one without any problems. Or at least used one, but hell no! I could find only one place in Europe who produces it https://www.schmiedmann.com/en/produ...=E30GN-0105SCM
I made the order and they told me that producing time with the delivery is about 4-5 weeks. Luckily i can send it later to the bodyshop. He has lot of else to do before hea will start welding that. :)

I'm pretty sure it's a panel from E30Norway, although delivery times will probably be the same..

https://e30garage.no/

edit, it's even cheaper and he has 4 in stock..

https://e30garage.no/product/rear-subframe/

[MarkoEST]

I ran in to a trouble. When removing the brackets, i had to remove also the seatbelt subframe. But it was so rusted and i had no choice but to break it to get it off from the chassis. I was pretty sure that i will find new one without any problems. Or at least used one, but hell no! I could find only one place in Europe who produces it https://www.schmiedmann.com/en/produ...=E30GN-0105SCM
I made the order and they told me that producing time with the delivery is about 4-5 weeks. Luckily i can send it later to the bodyshop. He has lot of else to do before hea will start welding that. :)

[MarkoEST]

Good morning!

Last thing what bothered me was the inside of the boot. This was the only place which was untouched by the wirebursh. Because yesterday was a great weather and i thought why sit at home when you can be productive and do something ? So i grabbed my stuff and head to the garage. There is not much to talk about, because pictures says a whole lot more.

[MarkoEST]

Showed some sunlight after two years of inside the garage. This self made bodycart works just perfect. Job well done!

[MarkoEST]

Today i got an email that my parts have arrived. Its like christmas for me, all year around when getting new shiny parts for my project.
New original exhaust brackets and few blind plugs.

[MarkoEST]

I had some free time on the weekend and decided to build a home made bodycart out of wood. Bought 360 degrees turnable wheels and wood i bought from my summerhouse. Little bit of measuring and cutting and that was it. Now its basically ready for transportation. Few spots i found what i need to clean before take it to bodyshop.

Finally it on its "wheels" :D

[MarkoEST]

Thanks!

If i could, i would buy everything from the dealership, but unfortunately i need to eat too. So i have to compromise and find a bit better solution. In this brackets case there is no alternative than get new ones because trying make them look beautiful again takes more time and effort. :)

[D.Martijn]

Great progress on the body! Good idea to remove some of the brackets as there can be still rust present between the shell and bracket!
It does take some time but it'll be worth it.

Yeah, sometimes it's better to spend the money and find new panels then trying to save what you currently have.!

[The_Glory]

Yes, in Ukraine, two-axle trailers and carriages for transporting cars also require a special category of driver's license. But I found out about it already after I took the car on a carriage and picked it up from the bodywork and painting works - lucky )) That's why I ordered a tow truck the last time, so as not to risk with the police. )
In the future, it will probably be necessary to get that category just in case.

[MarkoEST]

Hellish is a pretty polite way to put it. There were times when i wanted to burn that s*it. But finally managed to finish it. 19th of January 2023 i attached the chassis to a body rotisserie. Then i started to remove the axels and all the fuel and brake lines. First time i showed wire bursh to it was 22nd of January. It took me 8 days, which means 4 weekends to get where i am now. Not bad actually. It felt like forever. I also spoke with the bodyshop yesterday and we agreed to take the car there in the end of this month or in the beginning of June. I hope i can get my license done before that. I dont know about other countries, but in Estonia if you want to tow a car on a trailer you need an extra class for that and its E-class in our country.

Drilling was quite easy part but took some time to get used to it and your eye trying to find the spotwelds. I could probably drill the whole body apart, but next destination will be scrapyard and not a bodyshop. My friend would tell me to piss off with the trailer full of bodyparts. So im gonna keep it like this and let him do the work from now on.

When all the brackets removed i inspected them and realized that few of them needs some fixing before i can weld them back. But then i remembered to check the bmwfans.info page just in case if they are available any more ? I took the product codes and sent them to the dealership. You know what ? After i got the list of prices i buried any idea to restore them. All the exhaust rubber mounting brackets cost for me less than 30 euros. Im not gonna think twice.

[The_Glory]

Cleaning the bottom is hellish work - I know from my experience. But also drilling all the brackets is already a super approach. I didn't dare to do that. Just sandblasted the body...

[MarkoEST]

Hola!

Just got home from garage. 10+ hours spent and i am exhausted! Würth drill bits was well spent money. Rear section of the car is bracket free. Kept the differential bracket because i didn't have any small tool to cut through the weld. Also rear seatbelt subframe was pretty bad after seatbelt brackets removed. So i decided not to reuse it and threw it to scrap. Now i have to find new one. I was able to find one place where i could buy that subframe but i try to find something cheaper maybe.

Lego.