1989 e30 Touring... this is Betty

[Nick_S]

God damn that touring is probably the most perfect combination of an E30 I could dream of. Wagon with a nice lump under the hood. Congrats, can't wait to see what you do with it.

[SeatownE30]

You have to find a way to keep both!

[evanc]

Now that the engine problem has been fixed it now the time I start dismantling the interior and get it ready for my OCD ownership.

The ultra suede seats were removed, the rear seats were a hassle to pull out



front seats and center console coming out so I can remove the front carpet for a steam cleaning



When I reached down to lift up the passenger side carpet i felt some moisture, took a peak underneath and saw this



Having gone through this with my e30 convertible 2 years ago I was not shocked to see water soaked foam, but it was a downer.

Pulling the carpet out the back door



After inspecting the foam is it soaked but not slimy or stinky. It did leave a faint mildew scent on my hands though




This is what I got to see after the carpet was removed




Always nice to see a bundle of cut wires taking a bath




On the driver side there was come condensation on top of the replacement sound deadening the PO installed




Removing the panels so I can clean things up and replace with Dynamat. Then I can see the por15 the PO applied to the area after he repaired a rust spot prior to my purchase of the car




I was happy to see that the majority floor is quite clean of rust so the cleanup stage should not take long to complete.

Next steps are to find the water leak, remove the factory sound deadening, surface rust cleanup, por15 application where required before I go nuts with the Dynamat.

I'm takin note here. I need to do this to my touring and if I had somewhere so I could take my time ripping everything out I would. I'm stoked for you that you don't have a lot of visible rust and hopefully not a lot of hidden lurking rust as I'm expecting to find on mine. Boo. How's the headliner? Mine is drooping pretty sad like in the rear. Look forward to follow your "OCDness" on this. Thanks for sharing.

[MC Hammered]

The PO who did the s52 swap redid the headliner so it looks great.

I am replacing the interior because I just didn't fall in love with the ultra suede, but now that I had time to think about it more after I sold the seats, I could have used them for another year and budgeted the $$$ to fix up everything else first.

Guess this is what happens when the impulsive side takes over the 'wants vs. needs' debate.

[e30shmobberr]

wow black betty bam ba-lam

[leegf]

wow black betty bam ba-lam

so many bettys on this board. next person with a schwarz car needs to come up with a new name that starts with the letter 'b' :D

[MC Hammered]

I forgot to post up pictures of the interior before I sold the seats.

[JinormusJ]

Touring content..!

So awesome... Love the seats! I think the back covers would look good in black though. Regardless.. Sick whip!

[ANDRÜ]

Nice looking wheels

[MC Hammered]

After a few days of rain I took a peek inside and sure enough there was water in the same locations, so I pulled the hose out to water down the car and see where the leaks are coming in from.

The passenger side leak is coming from here, can anyone tell me what is on the engine side of this hole/plug?




Not sure if this driver side drip is due to me flooding the car with a hose, but it will have to be dealt with




The rear leak is a combination problem but most of the water is coming in from the tail light so it is most likely the gasket that needs replacing



Have a small leak from the corner of the window





And from both sunroof drains

[Roysneon]

Wow, great work being done here. I do have a couple questions, though.

What exactly is the trick to removing the rear seats? I have everything else out, but I simply do not see how they come out.

How do the rear headrests affect folding the rear seats forward? Looks to me that unless the fronts were all the way forward you'd have to remove the rear headrests to fold the rear seat backs down.

[VANOS714]

everything on the e30 looks great, one day I sahll owne one.

[MC Hammered]

Wow, great work being done here. I do have a couple questions, though.

What exactly is the trick to removing the rear seats? I have everything else out, but I simply do not see how they come out.

The bases are held in by a pair of spring pins, fold the base forward and on the back there are 2 finger opening, squeeze together and the pins retract.

To remove the seatbacks, just above the flip forward lever there is a spring loaded pin that you need to push in and then lift the seat back out. You can see the white bushing on the left hand side. I broke the right hand side one when removing that seat back.

How do the rear headrests affect folding the rear seats forward? Looks to me that unless the fronts were all the way forward you'd have to remove the rear headrests to fold the rear seat backs down.

You have to remove the headrest in order to fold the rear seat forward. You can store the headrest between the floor and the rear seat when it is folded down.

I am reupholstering my rear seats and deleting the headrests as I find them useless.

[cbouchez]

Let me know how you fix the sunroof drain!

[MC Hammered]

The plan is to remove the existing drain panels and see if they are cracked as they are leaking at the same spot on both sides.

If they are cracked then replace them, if they are not cracked then I have to figure out why they are leaking.