The sleeping E30. Bringing it back to life after almost 10 years!

[vasilis m3]

Nice work! Subscribed!

[Ay Ron]

I'm live a little ways down the road in St. Mary's. I recently bought a white 87 is and a 86 es recently. Hoping to combine parts from both cars to make one. The es has front end damage with frame damage beyond repair. The is has rust everywhere and the guy smoked so much it put a nasty coating on most of the interior. Would love to meet up and check out your project.

I work down in St. Mary's, we could definitely meet up some time after all this craziness dies down.

[TC Baur MD]

I'm live a little ways down the road in St. Mary's. I recently bought a white 87 is and a 86 es recently. Hoping to combine parts from both cars to make one. The es has front end damage with frame damage beyond repair. The is has rust everywhere and the guy smoked so much it put a nasty coating on most of the interior. Would love to meet up and check out your project.

[Ay Ron]

Been a while, but OP delivers



More posts to follow over the next few days.

Link below is to a short clip of it running!

[325isman]

This is going to be a great looking car when you finish, keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing much more.

[Ay Ron]

Got a few things done this weekend, getting back into it.

Intake manifold cleaned up and reinstalled. That tube is a PITA!



Got the fuel rail back on the manifold along with some refurbished M50 injectors. My car is an early model that has the separate plugs for each injector that was sort of a pain.




I only realized after putting the intake manifold and rail on that I should have put the thermostat housing on first. Luckily I was able to unbolt the rail and pop a few of the injectors out to slip the thermostat housing under it.

I have a new rubber boot hose for the throttle body that I need to install. Besides that its a few more connectors and the engine bay should start coming together.

Also installed Rogue Engineering rear strut mounts and Condor power steering delete but don't have pictures of those.

[Ay Ron]

What would most body shops do?

I ask because the same thing is happening to my car!

Yup, it will need to be cut out and new metal will need to be welded on.

That rust is now a pretty large hole. I'll need to get it taken care of once the car is back on the road. I'm a bit worried about how far it goes along the panel.

[Stanley Rockafella]

What would most body shops do?
I ask because the same thing is happening to my car!

Cut it out and weld on some new metal.
That's what a shop did with my my rear "is" spoiler. It was starting to rust you could hardly see anything from the outside. But once you pulled the spoiler off (factory btw, not added by me or OP) they spotted a hole they had to patch.

Looks great now, but the trunk is also SLIGHTLY heavier, so it doesn't "POP" open like it used to :(

Also gotta remember to disassemble that rear trunk latch/lock mechanism and clean/lube it. Seems to get VERY sticky when it's wet out.

[Javier h]

Would you replace the door or fix the rust?



What would most body shops do?

I ask because the same thing is happening to my car!

[Ay Ron]

Where in Maryland are you?

I'm located in the southern Maryland area, in Charles county.

[E30SPDFRK]

Nice project, glad that it's being cleaned up right.

[eternal24k]

love that interior, looks like a great base for a project

[Broken88]

Where in Maryland are you?

[Ay Ron]

OP here! Still working on it slowly, I've been really lazy about getting it back together, so its been sitting for the most part. I'll try to get some more pics posted here soon.

[ArtFoodBMW]

The answer is in the title.. The Sleeping E30

Also OP hasn't logged on for 1.166 years