I had the unfortunate experience of writing off my old 318is. I was very attached to the old car, and set about building a new one.
I tend to get carried away so decided I should try & make an "MY19" E30 318is... You know... like you walk into dealer and say "one of those please". 318is with some modernisation and such.
Old car (RIP)
Sadly, this pal met its maker. So onwards with a replacement. Found a non-runner and began stripping it down to bare shell and putting it onto a dolley. Shell was in amazing condition except for some rust in the battery box, a little rust under the windscreen and a ding on the LHR quarter. Besides that, never been apart. Owner by a crazy old cat lady (interior was disgusting….. solid felt of cat/dog hair under the front seats). None of this phased me because the battery tray and windscreen cowl sheet metal was still available to buy new, so that was ordered.
It was in super good condition, even the pinch welds near the jacks were mint
The plan here was to chemical strip the engine shell (except the underbody, because all the underbody was in amazing condition and cleaned up so well… I didn’t see the need to change it)
I didn’t want to sandblast because that would have removed all the factory e-coat or whatever you’d like to call it and I don’t want this thing to rust.
Now, the idea here is “OEM+”. So, for example, when the engine bay was cleaned up, all of the seam sealer was removed and re-applied in a much, much neater fashion but none of the holes where covered up and none of the spot welds filled & smoothed. I like seeing the spot welds and factory joins, albeit in a much smoother manner, because it shows that the sheet metal is original and there is ‘nothing to hide’.
I spent a good 3 weeks with a wire brush on an angle grinder removing all seam sealer in engine bay and all the stone guard along the front valence, sides and rear of the car. This was a substantially time consuming task because when I was strip it, I don’t mean *most* of it, I mean all of it… from every nook and cranny. Also took a long time because one needs a light touch to remove the material without touching the metal beneath too much.
And, the boot was completely stripped as well. This took an age….
And on to the stripping of the body… some progress pics
Overall, I was pretty amazed at the condition of the sheet metal, given it’s 30 years old. There were maybe 2-3 small rust spots where a stone chip had propagated, this were all converted and treated before moving on
The battery tray is cut out
Rear ding is fixed
New cowl is fitted
New battery box installed
Engine bay well under way..
And now onto the interior… this was a thankless task… no fun at all… didn’t take many pics, very long days ��
Now, we’re getting somewhere…. Chassis in epoxy primer and seam sealer going on
New parts start to arrive… last RHS OEM dashboard left in world
Panel spray outs
Quick trip to BMW to suss out current trim options…
Closing out the opening post… and we’re in primer
I tend to get carried away so decided I should try & make an "MY19" E30 318is... You know... like you walk into dealer and say "one of those please". 318is with some modernisation and such.
Old car (RIP)
Sadly, this pal met its maker. So onwards with a replacement. Found a non-runner and began stripping it down to bare shell and putting it onto a dolley. Shell was in amazing condition except for some rust in the battery box, a little rust under the windscreen and a ding on the LHR quarter. Besides that, never been apart. Owner by a crazy old cat lady (interior was disgusting….. solid felt of cat/dog hair under the front seats). None of this phased me because the battery tray and windscreen cowl sheet metal was still available to buy new, so that was ordered.
It was in super good condition, even the pinch welds near the jacks were mint
The plan here was to chemical strip the engine shell (except the underbody, because all the underbody was in amazing condition and cleaned up so well… I didn’t see the need to change it)
I didn’t want to sandblast because that would have removed all the factory e-coat or whatever you’d like to call it and I don’t want this thing to rust.
Now, the idea here is “OEM+”. So, for example, when the engine bay was cleaned up, all of the seam sealer was removed and re-applied in a much, much neater fashion but none of the holes where covered up and none of the spot welds filled & smoothed. I like seeing the spot welds and factory joins, albeit in a much smoother manner, because it shows that the sheet metal is original and there is ‘nothing to hide’.
I spent a good 3 weeks with a wire brush on an angle grinder removing all seam sealer in engine bay and all the stone guard along the front valence, sides and rear of the car. This was a substantially time consuming task because when I was strip it, I don’t mean *most* of it, I mean all of it… from every nook and cranny. Also took a long time because one needs a light touch to remove the material without touching the metal beneath too much.
And, the boot was completely stripped as well. This took an age….
And on to the stripping of the body… some progress pics
Overall, I was pretty amazed at the condition of the sheet metal, given it’s 30 years old. There were maybe 2-3 small rust spots where a stone chip had propagated, this were all converted and treated before moving on
The battery tray is cut out
Rear ding is fixed
New cowl is fitted
New battery box installed
Engine bay well under way..
And now onto the interior… this was a thankless task… no fun at all… didn’t take many pics, very long days ��
Now, we’re getting somewhere…. Chassis in epoxy primer and seam sealer going on
New parts start to arrive… last RHS OEM dashboard left in world
Panel spray outs
Quick trip to BMW to suss out current trim options…
Closing out the opening post… and we’re in primer
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