E30 Resurrection Intro

[Jshbrwr]

Hey, any ideas would be appreciated...see pix below

Before:


After:


I now have to figure some way to seal up that nasty gap before I install the carpet. I have a similar issue on the other side of the trans tunnel. Anyone used FlexSeal?

[Jshbrwr]

Yeah I'm beginning to see the importance of the timing belt/water pump work...but honestly I just want to get it running. I received my spark plugs from PP and am now looking for a good article on replacing those. I'm sure its not too difficult, but I have a feeling it might get trickier when I'm actually doing it.

Meanwhile, I'm looking for a good timing belt tutorial. Pelican parts has lots of tech articles and I wonder if you guys have had good luck with those?

[Shangsta]

Good work so far. I agree with vertbmw. If the motor in it is good then make sure you do a timing belt asap

[estoguy]

Keep at it! Great to see you bringing it back!

[vertbmw]

Make sure to change timing belt that car has been sitting for a while

[Jshbrwr]

E30 Resurrection Intro

Ok guys, last Sunday was a good day -

I was up and out on the road by 7am, heading to my first of three stops: north Atlanta pull-a-part. I'd heard about the place but never been to one and was wondering what I would find...I also had made contact with a guy who was selling some 14" basketweaves (with "decent" tires).

My first stop:


I was pretty impressed with the whole operation, very streamlined...also got in free with my military ID - SCORE

Quickly found the 3 donor cars and saw no black interior...bummer. Also found not much interior stuff in general. BUT - I did find a mostly good tail light from an '84 318 that I nabbed,



and also got the passenger door moulding and a glove box. Total, a whopping $38 😎👍🏻



Next stop, Marietta for these:


Wheels are in great shape but looks like one tire is trash, so I bought one site to store from Walmart that I'll get installed next week. Look for pix with my new wheels then!

Here's a complete rear end and the side moulding installed




Also, I ordered a bunch of parts from Pelican Parts, the most significant being a set of sparkplugs. Got some other door hardware as well.

I also won a three spoke steering wheel off eBay that should be arriving soon. Pumped about that. It's not the Motorsport one, but this one:


One thing else I've been trying to find is a good carpet set...got a potential lead on that over in the parts section. Hopefully that turns out soon.

Anyway, I'll most likely be scanning the tech forums soon so I can start this beast again!

More posts soon, also send me any tips you guys have for me!

[Jshbrwr]

Im near ATL and have a tail light for you if you want it. May even have a gasket. Shoot me a PM. Its not perfect, but it will work. I am going to try to do a meet this weekend. Let me know If you are interested. Where in ATL are you? or do you live in Alabama?

Hey there, I'm totally in Alabama...

I ended up finding a tail light over the long weekend...my next post will cover that. I'm kind of working from the past up to current day, I know it's a little confusing, but I'm almost caught up with my story.

Thanks for the offer though - I'll most definitely be needing more parts, so it's good to know there's people that are willing to help!

[rcsoundn1]

Im near ATL and have a tail light for you if you want it. May even have a gasket. Shoot me a PM. Its not perfect, but it will work. I am going to try to do a meet this weekend. Let me know If you are interested. Where in ATL are you? or do you live in Alabama?

[doorman]

Love a good story!!!

Keep it up brother!

[Jshbrwr]

Slowly catching up to the present....almost there!

Thursday I took out the battery and decided to try to charge it. There was literally a ball of ants underneath the battery in the tray pouring out soon as I started to fiddle with it. It was as though you were looking at an ant hill without the hill.


I got it charging and then tried to assemble the interior parts as close to where they are supposed to be. Put the passenger door card on the door and realized that I'll need to order some door clips to get it installed securely. Also will probably need a passenger door handle.

I also planned to give it a good cleaning over the long weekend.

After charging the battery overnight, I put it in before I left for work Friday morning and I did get a little "jump" on the gauges and saw the tiny amount of fuel on the gas gauge, (that was good since my plan was to be siphoning it out over the weekend) but no starting. Of course I was using a screwdriver to turn the ignition switch because the key had been broken off probably a year or two ago. So, I took the battery to AutoZone and left it with them. It only charged to 10V, so I went ahead and bought a new one for $130.

Thinking about tires. It definitely needs some, but I saw a set of basketweaves that has pretty good tires already on them so I planned to check em out while in the big city -ATL. I knew new tires would be more than $200 and I figured it would be nice to get a new-to-me set of different wheels for the same amount.

More carnage:


SO.... all day Saturday I spent cleaning and cleaning and cleaning the car. Found what I thought was some kind of grime or dirt layer that I was able to scrub off, but now I'm thinking that it was the clearcoat from the roof and trunk. Not really sure but, I will say that it looks better.

Clear coat? Maybe:

After working on the exterior for a good while, it got to the point that it looked like a car that needed a car wash, not a car that had been sitting outside neglected for three years. That was an improvement.

Exterior post-clean:

I next turned my attention to the interior cleaning, and mostly reassembling the interior parts. I was very happy to use my shop vac, and I was able to suck a lot of water out of the battery tray and also just suck a lot of leaves, and Rusty bits from the floorboards etc.

One of my favorite parts of cleaning was when I was able to clean the gauge cluster cover. I really really love mid-80s German instruments. It reminds me of the VDO gauges that I had in my old 944 turbo. Interestingly, it was also an 86, gray, manual transmission German car.

So after cleaning and repositioning all the pieces of the interior which included the bench seat I was able to turn my attention to getting it started. I decided to use a trick I got off of YouTube to suck out the bad gas, or should I say the Old gas. I had purchased some flexible vinyl tube from Home Depot,



but when I tried to insert it into the gas tank I found that there were too many kinks and turns keeping me from getting all the way to the actual tank. So instead, because I'm impatient, I decided to just add to the old gas with some 93 octane fuel. I put about 2 gallons in, and also included some fuel system cleaner. Also took the time to buy some oil treatment. Not sure if it would help, but it was only three dollars. The oil level is good, and it doesn't appear to be too black, but I'm sure I should change the oil very soon.

That night, I was finally ready to try to start it. I installed the battery and got in the car and for the first time the interior lights came on. That was a good feeling, to know that it was not just a shell, but an actual vehicle that was potentially going to be living again. I turned the key to on and I got some caution lights, which was also a good sign. But, as soon as I moved it to start, all I heard was a "click" and the battery was dead. Or it appeared that the battery was dead. Quite frustrating. After fooling with it a little bit, I just discovered that the battery terminals were not secure on the posts, and after making sure that they were, I actually got what I wanted, which was hearing the engine turnover. So I was able to crank it, but the engine didn't fire. I'm OK with that, because it means that the engine is not locked up or otherwise useless.

So, at the end of my Saturday I felt somewhat accomplished. Sunday I had more plans, and they turned out to be pretty successful actually.

More on that tomorrow!

[Nick_S]

Nice score! Definitely post up what you want, most of us are more than happy to help save a nice E30. Good luck!

[Jshbrwr]

Looks like it's going to be one of those where the end result is mind blowing compared to where it started!

Gawd I hope so!

[Jshbrwr]

Thank you for NOT scrapping what appears to be an otherwise rust free car!



Post up your parts needs in the "parts wanted" section. Someone on r3v has whatever you're looking for. Well ALMOST anything!

Yeah, I've already seen soooo many parts I am needing. We'll see if I can do it under budget. I'm shooting for less than 2k to get it how I like it and reliable mechanical-wise.

Thanks for the tip!

[e30rida]

Suscribed

[e30onBBSs]

Looks like it's going to be one of those where the end result is mind blowing compared to where it started!