Restoration of an Early 320i Sedan e30, with some surprises !

[parera]

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen

My name is Sylvain, I'm from France,

This e30 is my first ever car, I was 18 years old when I got it, It was 15 years ago, I bought the car with a brocken rocker arm, I didn't know much about cars back then .

We decided to swap the engine with a friend, and ended up doing an involuntary upgrade to an M20b25, The seller was sure that it was a M20b20 and I didn't know the difference between the two at that time

After months of wiring harness modification, and parts buying, I tried to start the car, And the fuel pressure regulator gave up on the first start, Engine immediately caught on fire and ruined monthes of effort

I swapped the engine again a few monthes later, But ended up not driving the car that much because I had other projects I was working on

On January 2024,The car was sitting in my backyard, all rusted, I decided that it was time to restore this car back to its former glory, or maybe a bit more

So here was the car, almost 2 years ago, I brought it into this small barn, and I'm going to restore it almost entirely here, Not ideal at all, I know, But I'm building a garage in a near future, I have all the equipment, And as long as we can keep the car inside, and dry, We are good !

[parera]

Now it's time to look at that car with a bit more detail ! What's wrong with it, Well ... Rust, and quite a lot of it, What you see in these pictures is just a part of the problem, I will discover quite a bit more during the restoration

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1ST CHAPTER : THE RUST

FIRST STEP : CUT EVERYTHING !

What do you need to do so ? :

- An angle Grinder, I use a 115mm Milwaukee, I also use a smaller one with 12V battery and 76mm disc, very useful
- Cutting disc, I use cheap one to be honest, the thinner the better, I use 1mm
- Flap disc, Grit 40 and 60
- Wire Wheel
- Face mask, and eye protection ! FFP3, or P3 for dust and small particules, For vapor ( paint for an example ) the highest protection will be A2 for a cartdrige mask, You can combine them both and use A2P3 protection all around
- A fire extinguisher is always a plus !



Let's start !

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STEP 2 : METAL SHAPING

Once you have cut every bit of rust, and now that your car's only structural's strenght comes from its windows, The next step is to patch those big holes you have created everywhere

I would recommend cleaning the area very well before cutting metal, As you can see on the former pictures, it would have been easier, Even if the most important is to clean everything before welding .

Before welding, It's important to remember that your car is not just a big piece of metal, but dozens of small pieces spot welded together,

I think it's better to respect the way it was built when you rebuild it, When it's possible

Let's take the floor pan for example :



To fix this big hole, You first need to fix the inner rocker panel, Ignore the remaining rust, every bit of rust will be cut before welding .

Here you can see how the floor pan is spot welded to that inner rocker panel



Cardboard is great for a quick template



A bit of cutting and hamering



The inner rocker is welded, now we can work on the floor pan



I use the old hood as a metal donor







Once the part is finished, I strip all the old paint and coating, clean everything, and drill some holes for the plug welding into the inner rocker







Time to align everything



Tacking



You can see here that, near my upper welding, the floor plan should originally be in 2 parts, I wanted to reduce the risk of rust in this area by not listening to the advice that I gave 5 minutes ago



WELDED



Once you are satisfied with the raw result, take your favorite flood light or flash light, and put it underneath the part you just welded, If you can see the light through, keep welding until it's sealed !





Now we can close the outer rocket panel





Just a reminder, These are raw metal finishes, with rough grinding etc.. This is not the final result !

Also, this is the welder I use :



0.6MM Wire ( Lincoln ) , Shielding gas : Argon (82%) Co2 (18%)

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Now, Same thing for the driver's side !













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[82eye]

great work. keep at it.

[parera]

Let's fix that battery tray ! It's important to leave a little gap between the pieces you are welding, All my welds are " Butt weld " You don't wan't to overlap material






















This one is not looking good, fisheyes, but it happens !

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This is the opposite side, We can see that despite the bad looking weld, We have more than enough penetration

[808ETA]

Excellent work!!

[Mazi!]

Very cool work, please keep posting updates :)

[parera]

Thanks for the kind words ! The rest is coming soon !

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Now that most of the rust has been treated, We need to take care of ..

The engine bay !

First I had to remove the engine of course, I don't have any picture of the removal



Then we need to sand ! Even the smallest trace of rust must be removed, The original seam sealer was also removed .

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I spent a few more hours, sanding the little hard to reach spots, Now it's time for Epoxy !

Epoxy primer is your best ally while doing bodywork on steel ! It will seal the bare metal and offer the best anti corrosion treatment possible !

BUT, the surface needs a good preparation, as good as possible, If a wire wheel was used to remove some paint or rust, The metal is now mostly polished, and won't offer a sufficient adhesion to your primer.

So you need to sand those areas too, With a relatively coarse grit,

for bare metal ONLY, P80 is what I use the most, I wouldn't go finer than P120 to reduce the risk of adhesion problem

If you apply your epoxy over existing paint, P180 - 240 will be enough to apply your epoxy primer,

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For this restoration, I'm using one of my favorite product

An industrial, Sprayed, Brushed or rolled on, Surface tolerant, Epoxy Mastic ( Jotun Jotamastic 90 )

It give an EXCELLENT base for any future coating, and its anti corrosion properties are excellent, If you brush it of course the sanding will be a bit more annoying .


First step will be to coat the bare metal areas, including the many welding repair I did, But also the most vulnerables parts of the engine bay, which will require the best protection














I also had to rebuild this bracket !






Now that I know that these are protected by 2 thick coats, We can smooth everything by sanding it, and clean the rest of the engine bay as much as possible before applying epoxy everywhere, it took quite some time











I took some time to apply and smooth the new seam sealer, And try to reproduce the original brushed effect






Now we are going for a sprayed on epoxy primer, smoother than the Jotamastic used earlier,




The battery tray welding repair is not perfect, But I refuse to use body filler on those repairs, The most important is the quality of the weld, the seam, and the rust protection !






Now we take advantage of the recoat window, And we are applying another coat of rolled on Jotamastic ( 90 aluminium this time ), only to a few areas of the engine bay which will receive a different coating than the rest

[Mazi!]

Engine bay looking good!