E30 1986 2-door from ESTONIA - restoration project.

[MarkoEST]

Also cleaned most of the engine bay. There were places that i knew of and few new surprises as well. I'm already mentally ready for every new rusty spot. :D

Left side.




Right side.



Engine bay.

[MarkoEST]

Same crap, different day. Yesterday i continued with the underseal removal like last 10 posts. But i can feel the finsihline. :)

Cleaned the side member covering so i could see all of the welding points. Making easier for the welder so he doesn't have to look for them. I knew that the left side had a small hole and little fit of rust, but after wirebrush it became a much larger problem. Soon we will find out whats underneath and how bad it really is.

[MarkoEST]

When underseal removed i noticed that one of the previous owners tried to repair the rust holes with silicone. What a moron! After that crap removed a new opening came to visible. Of course my friend (he is gonna do the whole welding) is clapping his hands, because more money and work for him and bigger disaster to my bank account. :D

That whole lower part will be replaced. There isa Lithuanian company called Valcas Garage and they produce all kinds of metal parts for different BMW models.

I need this: https://www.valcasgarage.com/product...ide-1982-1987/



As you can see, rear left part of the wheel arch has been repired but what a poor job. Also the inner and outer arch is rust damaged and needs to be fixed by a proffessional.



I bet that many bodyshops would love to do the bodywork on my car cause i have made them welding and fixing so much easier by removing everything from underneath. All together i spent around a week by removing that s*it. Of course it would have been much easier to dip it in to a acid bath or take it to a sand or a soda blasting and call it done, but i just needed to do it myself. And i saved probably many hundreds of euros doing it myself. Only thing was spent was time, but this one i have and why not use it wisely. :)





To be continued......

[MarkoEST]

Thank you everybody for the good words! It gives me so much motivation to continue even if sometimes i feel exhausted and willing to give up! :)


It's morning in my country, so good morning!

I probably mentioned few posts ago that front panel of my project is little bit damaged and been repaired the way i don't like. So the whole panel will be replaced. I brought home used one, but its from the facelift model. Cooling radiator brackets and towing eye needs to be taken from the old one. But first i will take it to the sandblasting and see whats underneath the paint. I hope it's usable, but if it isn't i need to take my wallet to a dealership and buy brand new one. Unfortunately the brand new one costs 4 times more than used one. 100 euros versus 400 something euros. We will see that. My brain tells me to buy new but my wallet screams:" You are an idiot if you do that!"

By the way, that used front panel is from my old car. Looks like its time measuring kilometers has come to an end.





But the story doesn't end there. I still had to continue to remove the underseal. Luckily i see the light in the end of the tunnel. Actually i wanted to finish it yesterday, but i couldn't feel my fingers anymore (s*hit load of manual labor), anglegrinder batteries died and i ran out of wirebrush. So i had to call it a day and continue today.

Front right wheelarch.

[Tzantushka]

This thread is the start of something good!

[DieterQ]

Great post and pictures! Looking forward to following the rest of your journey on this.

[MarkoEST]

Thanks! We have a long weekend coming and i try to finish all the underseal in three days. It would be a race against the clock, but i have to get it done asap. Bodyshop guy is already waiting for me. Probably few pics coming. :)

[QuiqueUy]

nice progress! i like where this is going !

[MarkoEST]

Great thread! Good job on tackling the rust completely by removing the underseal!
I've done it a couple of times and it sucks lol.

Are you going to weld it yourself?

Im trying to remove as much as possible by myself. It should be much easier for the bodyshop and probably the price will drop significantly when you dont need to remove that crap. I would love to do the welding, but im not qualified and E30 shouldnt be the first project to test my welding skills on. So unfortunately i have to take it to a friend who will restore it completely. Of course i have a budget limit for the bodywork but definately it will go over the budget when it comes to restoring. I hope that i can get the welding and painting done by the end of this summer. I so want to drive this thing next season, but we will see. Luckily i have almost all the parts i need for assembly excluding headers and few bodyparts.

Thank you! :)

[D.Martijn]

Great thread! Good job on tackling the rust completely by removing the underseal!
I've done it a couple of times and it sucks lol.

Are you going to weld it yourself?

[MarkoEST]

Long time no see. Last weekend i continued to scrape off the underseal. Every time i do that, more holes will be visible and its sad. Rolled the car on its roof basically.



Before i started i already noticed some bad rusty places. After cleaning the real result came visible. I probably need to stack my shelves with cheap macaroni because work volume for the bodyshop will be quite remarkable. I build it for myself so i want to make as good as my wallet can let me. :)

[MarkoEST]

Havent posted a while. The reason is that i dont have enough time. I have so much else to do that i cant get to the garage these days very often. But its not totally left aside. But im still keeping eye on the market to find parts what i need. Few days ago i found one OEM BBS wheel and three hubcaps. You dont see them very often for a sale.
Now im missing one wheel and one hubcap. Then i have two full sets which at least one will be painted to its former glory. I dont know what im gonna do with the other one when its complete. Well see it then. :)

[MarkoEST]

And again we come to that point where dealership doesnt help and you have to fina an alternative route. This time https://www.specialclassicparts.de/e...vent-repairkit helped me with the part. For petroltank ventilation. This goes from under the rear seat and to the rear wheelhousing. More stuff for the welder. This week i should get the front panel of the car as well. Used one, but still in quite good condition.
And hopefully have the time to continue that stupid and boring scraping fiesta. :)

[MarkoEST]

So you still have a relatively good body. I had much worse... As I remember those long evenings in the garage, when I also removed the sealant from the bottom - it gets so scary! )

Actually i have few more pictures to upload, so you can see what the body really looks like. :)







Rear left wheelhouse.


Someone in sometime has been fixing it but they have done realy shitty job. So everything will be done again and properly.

[MarkoEST]

Such great work Marko!
Rotisserie is as serious as it gets.

Yes it is!


You can use an external image hosting site like Flickr to post more then 5 photos in a post (that's what I use in my thread).
But if you want to upload them to the forum, it's limited at 5 per post. We only recently fixed and updated the photo uploading, so I am thankful for even 5 pictures per post.

By the way, now i get it how it works. I was just blind. I just got home and realized that there is a image icon where you can upload pictures and probably more than 5 per post. I think this will fix the issue for me. But i dont have any more pictures to post. But i will go to the garage tomorrow but i have on other project i should do. Also BMW but E39. My friend asked for help to update brakes in all corners. Then intake manifold gaskets, injectors, glow plugs and bunch of different gaskets. Also oli change and filters.

Im gonna film it all so there will be "special" episode on my channel in youtube. :)