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

[Streichholzschächtelchen]

Good stuff. I have an 87 is same color and pin stripe even that I will have owned for ten years in August. Looks fantastic!

[2mAn]

Im feeling like this is going to be real good. Im confident in OP. Looking forward to more updates.

I'll save you the trouble on the taillight gasket part #, realoem is your friend

63-21-1-370-679

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=1113-USA-03-1987-E30-BMW-325i&diagId=63_0193

[Kershaw]

That interior can be saved if you work on it now. In a year it'll be cracked beyond repair. I used leathermagic.com's kit and so far I'm really happy with it. Soak those seats with leather conditioner every day for a week, then use the kit to seal the bigger cracks and redye the seats. They'll look as fresh as the wet paint. http://i.imgur.com/h1kqeY5.jpg That's my interior freshly redone.

If you're local to DC in MD, I can help you with the interior.

Really nice base for a project btw!

[Ay Ron]

Thanks for the compliments!

thats going to be something sweet when done!

the water in the trunk is most likely the antenna seal that is probably totally gone. replace that, drain the water and you might be good to go. chances are all the other seals should be replaced also. the tail light seals and trunk seal are the only other ways that water (usually) gets into the trunk

I'm thinking that the antenna seal is the culprit as well. Last night I went to take a look at the trunk to check on things since it has been raining on and off the past few days. It looks like not too much water has gotten in from the antenna seal. Beneath the seal was dry to the touch last night and there are not really any signs of rust right there.





I think you're right about the other seals, too. There are rust spots behind the tail lights that shows where the water flowed as it traveled to the lowest points in the trunk. I'll take a picture of those spots tonight. I've cleaned out the gutter area around the trunk seal as well - it was full of bits of leaves and dirt. It probably wasn't very effective with all of that crud in the way. The rubber still feels soft to the touch and it does not look like it is cracked anywhere. It might be good to go, now. I'm going to look for the part numbers for the tail light seals as well as the seals that go around the air vents that sit lower down in the quarter panels.

Also, here is a close up picture of the rust below the rear passenger window.



My first box of supplies for this project showed up yesterday evening! Mold respirator and extra filters, plus some more DampRid but with charcoal that will hopefully help with the odor in the car as well as the moisture. In the bag is some more microfiber rags to use when cleaning the exterior. For the interior I'm going to use some disposable rags until I'm positive that the mold is taken care of for good.



The current plan is to start taking apart the interior this evening. The goal is to have the interior mostly removed so that I can begin cleaning it as best as I can. It will be much easier to attempt that without the seats and carpet in the car. Headliner might be coming out too, as well as part of the dash. To clean up the mold, I am going to using some white vinegar first. Stronger solutions may have to be used but I want to start with trying something a bit less abrasive first. I'd like to save the seats if possible, at least the fronts. The bolstering still seems fine based on how they felt. I really doubt that I'll ever have anyone riding in the back of this car, so if the rear seat is too far gone with the mold, I don't think I'll be that upset if it needs to be tossed.

[Ay Ron]

The following day, I began looking over the car with much more detail. The water in the trunk was taken care of quickly with a shop vac. Once the water was gone I removed as much of the trunk trim pieces that I could. Part of the trim is secured with the plastic clips that attach from behind the rear seats. Because of the mold issue, I didn't feel comfortable with hanging around inside the car for too long wrestling with seats and panels without a respirator. Found one for a decent price on Amazon since Lowe's did not have the one that I was looking for. While at Lowe's I also picked up one large tub of DampRid as well as two smaller, refillable tubs. The large tub is going to live in the trunk until all of the pellets are saturated and it needs to be tossed. The other two containers are sitting in the cab. Here is the trunk as it sits right now.



Luckily the area where the spare sits is hardly rusted. It should clean up easily enough. The jack and wheel chock have a lot of rust but it is mainly surace rust - the metal has not deteriorated too much. I'm thinking that being submerged in water may have saved those pieces to some extent. There is lots of rust between the very rear of the trunk and where the tar covering starts. I need to remove the tar to see how badly it has spread.

The engine bay was like a storage container for acorn shells! The car must have made for a great stash for some squirrels. The windshield wiper fluid reservoir is broken and there are mice droppings on the inside. I also find a mouse nest in the trunk when I was cleaning it out. Most of the hoses and wires in the engine bay look to be intact so I'm hoping I'm not in for a lot of trouble with that. Looks like my exhaust manifold has a pinhole from rust. The sitting water in the engine bay behind the wipe fluid reservoir seems to be because the car is sitting on a slight incline, so the water avoids the drain holes. The strut towers don't seem to have any rust which is good, but the mounts definitely need to be replaced as they are cracking. I am also missing part of the air intake system. I believe the part I am missing is called the suction tube? It is the cone part at the front of the intake according to this parts diagram.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/More_Info/13711284612.htm?pn=13-71-1-284-612-BOE#tab1

The last thing I have been able to do while waiting on my respirator to arrive was to wash the car. I only did a quick wash to see how it would look a bit cleaner. While the car was still wet, it looked great! Once it was dry and in the sunlight the next day it was faded again. A good polish and plenty of coats of wax should have the car looking awesome.







Is it just me, or does the front bumper seem to be sitting a bit crooked? The front spoiler is hanging low a bit on the driver's side too. I think the clips are broken.

[2mAn]

thats going to be something sweet when done!

the water in the trunk is most likely the antenna seal that is probably totally gone. replace that, drain the water and you might be good to go. chances are all the other seals should be replaced also. the tail light seals and trunk seal are the only other ways that water (usually) gets into the trunk

[ak-]

Wow, that's a solid car.
Pressure washer and some elbow grease and she's a looker.

[jeenyus]

awesome! give it a good cleaning and then work from there. gonna be fun!

[Ay Ron]

I picked up my first E30 last weekend, a 1987 325is! I have been interested in these cars for quite a while, and things happened to fall into place when I found out that a friend of mine had one at his house. It belonged to his father who has passed away. His father had always wanted the car, and around 10 years ago he got one. Unfortunately, shortly after getting the car, he stopped driving it because he was given a company vehicle to drive to work daily, and he worked too much during the week to really give the car a chance to be used. So for the majority of the car's time with the family, it sat in the driveway.

Here's few pictures of the car right before I picked it up.










For the most part, the exterior seems to be in good shape! One major area of concern is a rust bubble that sits just below the passenger rear window. The paint has separated from the body of the car. I did not see any other spots that needed immediate attention. The interior is in worse shape. There is mold on the back seat that has spread to some of the dash as well as the shifter and steering wheel, and a bit on the driver's side door and the back of the driver's seat headrest. There is also sitting water in the trunk where the jack and the wheel chock sit. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the water sitting in the trunk.













I picked up the car a week after taking a look at it. Luckily I live only a few miles away from where it sat so it was not much of an issue getting it home. My uncle has a car dolly that made transport easy. Both tires on the passenger side held air after they were inflated again, but the driver side is a different story. The driver's side was hit by the sun during the time it sat without a cover. The rubber was badly cracked and rotting away. I had to use the spare in the trunk to get the car home. It looks like the spare has never been used on the road, it's mint! I plan to get it back into the trunk once things have dried out and I clean it up.





I'm super excited to get this project started. It's going to be a lot of work, but I'm ready to dive right in.