Proud owner of my first E30 (Now also a restoration thread!)

[Nick_S]

Looks like a good start for the money!

[Vivek]

Nice pickup, but since the trip meter is at 000.0 I'd bet money that the gears are broken. Have you looked into what's wrong with it?

[Oats]

Welcome. Looks like a solid starting place!

Thanks! I'll probably be requesting your services at some point in the future... Love the shift boots :pimp:

that sucks iv been trying to find people with garages... i hate working on my car in the snow and rain that always seems to come when i need to do something :( oh and the wind, i hate the wind.
yeah theirs no point in a yard if you have to pay for them to remove the part for ya.
as for tomorrow im free after about 2:30 or so
just shoot me a txt or call and we can meet up if that works for you.

I've always wanted a place with a garage, but until I actually start making real money that's out of the question :(

Sounds good. I'll hit you up.

Looks like a good start for the money!

Thanks!

Nice pickup, but since the trip meter is at 000.0 I'd bet money that the gears are broken. Have you looked into what's wrong with it?

Thank you! The PO bought it a few months back, but couldn't get it running and didn't really bother to do anything with it... At some point in the past some idiot hacked off the entire exhaust up to the manifold and stuck a muffler on it When I tried to start it, it would try to run for a few seconds, but really rich, then shut off. Hopefully adding a complete exhaust + O2 sensor and new spark plugs will do the trick... If not, we'll start looking into other potential causes.

[Cosmic Serpent]

im right there with ya man... perpetual cycle of being broke:(
word i take it we will be taking my car :D

[Oats]

word i take it we will be taking my car :D

I've never actually taken a ride in an E30, so I would prefer to take yours... Or, we can take a ride in the Honey Badger!

[Cosmic Serpent]

id prefer we take mine as well:)

[justlikeyours]

nice

[EtaSax]

Great start. These sure are fun cars to start out with. You'll have lots of fun with that M10. Tuck those bumpers fast! It costs a grand total of $0 and improves the looks quite a bit. Super easy to do as well.

There's something about the patina of worn and faded delphin that looks really cool to me.

Then you'd love mine. Delphin is a color that really does/doesn't age well. All I know is I'm in need of a respray.

[Oats]

Quick update: Cosmic Serpent and I took out the seats and carpet today and got a good look at all of the rust spots in the car. It could be better, but it could also definitely be worse. I also found out today that I have access to a welder, so my plan is to cut out the rusted bits and put in some new metal, then coat it with a rustproof paint and finally a spray-on rubberized coating. What do you guys think?

Have some pics!

Seats and center console removed(the dark area is water from where I left the sunroof open for a week and it rained a few days after )




I need to redo the padding in the seats, apparently:


Gross carpet... Could this be pressure washed/steam cleaned/whatever cleaned, or should I just not bother?


Not too much here, just around the gas pedal and along the edge of the floor pan behind the gas pedal:


This will teach me to leave things open!


I believe this is the worst of it... Water has been getting into the engine bay and behind the sound deadening/heatproofing material :-( The good news is the floor pan is just fine on this side, with just a couple tiny surface spots.


Closer view:


Battery tray:


Under the battery compartment in the trunk:


Lots of surface rust on the suspension... Eventually i'm going to sand down and repaint the parts I won't be replacing.



More to come soon!

[Oats]

I hate to double post, but different days require different posts :P

Cosmic and I went to a junkyard that I somehow completely forgot about and found an '88 318i... we didn't have much time to pull things, but we did manage to get a pair of interior door handles, some switches, the toolbox(empty, of course), a better gas cap, a spare gauge cluster and a piece of trim that I was missing.

Poor thing...


But, it means I can make mine that much better!

[markspelman]

Hey Oats, very weird but i just picked up the exact same model and same colored 85' 318i here in Texas with 155k miles and it runs! shitty interior though. It's also my first e30 and my first car as just got my license! Mine seems to have less problems then this one. i'm guessing you sold or are trying to sell it, as this thread its about a year old.. :/ but im planning on putting my thread up on everything i do to my e30! Strange world with a strange coincidence haha....