E30 1986 2-door from ESTONIA - restoration project.

[Mazi!]

Nice job!

[Panici]

Great peek into the chassis.
Can't say I've ever seen the inside of the subframe mounts, or the rear spring perch on the frame deconstructed.

Do update us on the new lift! :o

[MarkoEST]

Great peek into the chassis.
Can't say I've ever seen the inside of the subframe mounts, or the rear spring perch on the frame deconstructed.

Do update us on the new lift! :o

Same here. Never seen inside of E30 chassis as well. At the moment project is on hold because of other bigger project he has. And i don't mind at all. Gives me time to save some money for the whole restoration project maybe. :)

About the lift ? Its twinbush https://www.twinbusch.de/product_inf...roducts_id=433 and lifting capacity is 3600kg. On the lift i have at the moment M5 and 911. They weight about 3300kg and the middle beam is bit bent which should not be a problem. I rememeber my last boss had same parking lift and there was a Lada and a Datsun Cherry on it. The beam was bent same way. So i'm not too worried. :)



I also bought new daily project which need some work.

[Andy348]

Hell of a project. Looking forward to seeing the finished product!

[MarkoEST]

Hell of a project. Looking forward to seeing the finished product!

Trust me you are not the only one. :D Concidering that there is at least 200+ hours of welding ahead and i need to eat too, then the project will be on its wheels by the end of 2024 or in the beginning on 2025. But you never know. Maybe sooner or maybe later.

[MarkoEST]

Good evening dear readers!

It has been a while since i last posted here. There is a good reason for that, actually. I suppose everyone in here already thought that i gave up and toss that junk over to the scrapyard, but NO!
Just I had lot of other things to do and also i was financially in a pretty bad situation so i had to postpone my E30 project. Now i'm back and we can go on what was left unfinished.
Today i got a phone call from a courier that i have a package from Valcas Garage. Thats was good news. I was waiting for that to arrive already last week. But it finally appeared.
As you all remember i had few rust holes in the chassis and restoring these spots are very time consuming and also takes lot of hours and money. It was easier to buy the pieces and juist replace them not to fabricate them in house. So what i bought ?

I have battery in the front under the bonnet and i will keep it that way, i decided to replace the bottom part of that battery tray. Everything else around it is fairly okay.



Also the front corners were pretty bad looking. Last year when i checked Valcases homepage they didn't have these left pieces or i just have a bad memory. Luckily now they had and i had to have them. Makes welders life much much easier.



Front left and right floor panels plus rear left floor panel. I accidentally bought that last one. But what will you do if you are not careful and pay for everything whats in the basket. :D



I don't even know how you call them ? Both left and right front pieces in the engine bay were half gone so new ones are taking their place.



Also left ourter and inner wheelarch will be replaced.



Thats for today. I hope i'm able to update this thread sooner than last time. :)

Cheers and take care!

[Northern]

That metalwork is so clean, and I really like that 4-post lift. If I ever build another garage, it will hopefully have some storage like that.

[MarkoEST]

That metalwork is so clean, and I really like that 4-post lift. If I ever build another garage, it will hopefully have some storage like that.

This guy is a magician. He is much younger than me and he can do a really good job. Not the cheapest place but when it comes to restoration of an old beemer, then quality is the top priority. I don't want to discover any rust after few months of driving.
The 4-post lift is a great way to save some space and gives me more room to operate in the garage. Of course it would be great if it goes little bit higher so you don't hit you head, but then i just have to be careful when running around in the building. :)

[MarkoEST]

Holy crap. It has been over two years since the last time I posted something. Where should I start? Well, I'll start where we left off. On the 10th of October 2024, I got a call from the welder that I should come and get my half-finished car. Since he and the garage owner had some differences or whatever, I had to drag the shell out of there. Unfortunately, he couldn't continue the restoration process. Which is a shame. He did a really good job. And I trusted him. But now I have to figure out myself what to do with the shell and who is gonna be the next person doing the welding. I have slight trust issues, so it will be really hard to find someone who I can trust that much. Since the beginning of my time on this planet, I have been messing with cars. And I have seen "good" metal working before. Actually, I have seen it personally. I had one E30 back in the day. It was in need of some fixing. So I got the phone number from a friend, and he recommended the place. Well, I took his word and dragged the car to that specific recommended place. Side skirts and rear wheel arches needed replacing, as well as the rear boot floor had some rust holes. You probably know where I'm going with this? The quality was non-existent. And since then, I have had my trust issues. I have to think twice before I take my car somewhere to be restored. But enough of that nonsense.

For a while, I figured out that I should sell my project and get on with my life. But I couldn't. So much money and time have been invested to make that project live again. So I thought, what the heck? I'm gonna do it myself. How hard can it be? The learning process is long, but I believe in the end I am one more experience richer. And that can't be a bad thing. Can it?

So I made an order for my first-ever welding machine and started experimenting by building a trolley for the machine. I think that turned out quite good.

So i took some scrap metal and turned it to a weldins equipment on the wheels. It's not the prettiest sight, but it does the job.




Not bad for the first weld.



I cleaned it and painted it with hammerite.



It need some finishing touches and a handle. Handle brackets are made from old E28 front wishbones.



To be continued.....

[MarkoEST]

The shell is back where it started its journey. Looks like a complete car, but it's far from it. In my opinion, maybe 5–10% of the process has been done. So 90% to go. Not that big of a deal.




The car is back on the body rotisserie and ready for inspection.



The rear seatbelt brackets won't fit as they do with the original part. So I need to make some cuts into it to make it look good. I just need to wrap my head around everything that's to come.
Here you can see there is a quite large cap between the bracket and the structual part. I'll figure out something. No questions about that.



I also did some test fittings of the parts I have purchased over the past months. Original parts are always better, but they are NLA, and we have to use what we've got. This rear section is from E30 Garage Norway. It sits quite well but needs some adjustments to fit even better.



And again, I will write: to be continued...

[Panici]

So I thought, what the heck? I'm gonna do it myself. How hard can it be? The learning process is long, but I believe in the end I am one more experience richer. And that can't be a bad thing. Can it?

So I made an order for my first-ever welding machine and started experimenting by building a trolley for the machine. I think that turned out quite good.

You're right, it's VERY hard to find someone who does good work, not just welders but in general.

Welding is such a good skill, I hope you find it as rewarding as I do!