1990 BMW 318iS Sterling Silver Euro

[Glaede]

Hi guys,

I've been going back and forth about creating a thread for almost two years now, but I think today is the day :-)

Some of you might have seen this before on my Instagram profile: @uberkaro

Some background history:
This is my 3rd E30. Started with a delpin grey 1986 320i back in 2006. Owned it for about a year, when I got an offer I couldn't refuse. So, sold it, made some money and moved on to another project. A 4-door 325i M50 where I retrofitted an M-tech 2 kit, steering wheel, 4 x power windows, OBC, electric sun roof, new paint etc. A ton of work.. Unfurtunately, I had to sell the car to fund the deposit of an apartment. This was back in 2009.

In the mean time, I finished my education (software engineer), got two kids, had several other BMW's (E46, E61 and G21). And then in 2017/2018 I couldn't resist the urge to get back in an E30, so I searched for almost a year to find the right 2 door facelift version.
Since I'm living in Denmark (small country, cold climate, government hate cars etc.), it's not so easy to find a good example. In the end I bought a 318iS (really wanted a 325i, but what ever...). I knew there were some rust issues, but I thought it looked decent, so I figured it was repairable...

The car had a repaint and actually looked pretty good except some bubbling in the rear arches, but as I started to dig into it, I immediately knew that the rust was just too much for me to handle (never welded before). The previous owner/or workshop did a horrible job on the previous rust repairs.

I think its time for some pictures:


My first E30 - the car that started this crazyness.. German import - mint condition rust wise. Should never have sold it. Houndstooth sports interior.


My second E30. M50B25 engine, M-tech 2, E36 front sports seats, E36 M3/Hargte exhaust etc. Major project too. I have an old thread on R3v somewhere.


My third E30. Pictures from the sales add. I sold the wheel, bought some 15" Euroweaves instead. Also removed that ugly paint from the rear taillights.

Stay tuned!

[Glaede]

The car is build in january 1990, but registered in 1991. It come with almost no extras. Only extra is pop-out rear windows. Black headliner is standard on the danish 318iS. This means, no power windows, no central locking, no ABS, no sun-roof, no rear speakers, no power steering, comfort seats, no A/C - NOTHING!

Rust







This is just some of it. I have rust in all rear arches, inner arches, tailpanel, plates in the engine bay (underneath the washer fluid reservoir) etc.
I'm sure that in the US, most sane people would've scraped the shell and found another. But, that's not so easy, as all E30's in Denmark are either rusted to death or crazy expensive (due to our tax system).

[Glaede]

Like i said, I bought some new wheels (..bought some more afterwards)

I acutally kinda like how the iS looks stock, so the exterior will be pretty much stock except suspension and wheels. The scooter is a Vespa VGL1T 150cc - slow as fuck.

One day I stumbled across these seats at the other end of the country and knew I had to buy them. They never come up for sale in Denmark:

They were so filthy and torn apart, but I knew they had potential. After a lot of searching i finally found the bottom part of the seat in UK, so I could restore my torn up passenger seat:


I also found this 370 mm M-tech 2 steering wheel in a bad condition, but super cheap (like 63$ dollars). I sent it off to Germany to get some new leather:


Before (leather is torn up)

After

[Glaede]

Other parts I've hoarded for the past two years:

E46 steering rack


OEM sidemarkers


New badge


Rear bumper shocks (NOS). My car had a trailer hook.


Complete new rear battery pocket! (NLA).

[Glaede]

This takes a whole lot of time to write and sort pictures etc. It might be a little confusing.

I also bought some 16" Style 5's. Actually, I bought 8 and sold a set to a friend of mine.
I now have 2 x 7" for the front and 2 x 8" for the rear 8-)

On facebook I found a guy who creates custom 3D printed centers, so I obviously needed that in my life.


Stock center caps


Custom 3D printed center caps

I think I will run 5-lug spacers, but that could change if the right parts show up :-)

A picture of the car the day it left for bodywork - Start of 2020:

[Glaede]

So, I sent the car to the body guy who started of with ripping off the tailpanel. It had a bad repar in the past (overlaying metals and rust in between). Also some minor holes around the number plate lights.
His recommendation was to change the whole panel, so he did:


Off came the ass..




New shiny ass..


He also put in the new battery pocket and tow hook.

Then corona came and all progress stopped.

[Glaede]

After a few months of zero progress work, he ripped out the right inner arches as they were really bad. I managed to source both the inner and outer arches. They were new, but with some cut outs.
He then noticed that the frame rail was rusted, so he took care of that and a new spring pad mount was fitted.


I hate you rust!!!


Fixed frame rail.


Frame rail done. Sorry for the black/white instagram filter.

[Glaede]

So, after fixing the frame rail, the lip on the trunk floor, he continued to fix the inner arches that I bought.
Like i said, they had some cutouts, but still brand new and never fitted.





I think they came out pretty good. Def. better than what I had before. Also considering they are NLA - this was the best I could get.

[Glaede]

Just some more pictures of the inner arches.

[Glaede]

This is almost where were are at today. The inner arch is welded in, the outer inner arch is not. Why you might ask?

Well.. The plan was to just fit new outer arches like this:


Then he discovered rust around the fuel cap area, some rust where the rear pop out window is, rust at the jackpoint in the side panel AND also some bad rust where the bumper mounts are. The inital plan was just to fix all the different areas, BUT then I stumbled upon these babies on facebook:





And i figured - why not do it properly instead of all those patches 8-)

Right now, I'm waiting for the body guy to finish some other work and then he will continue with replacing the outer panel and get rid of all those bad areas. After that, he will repeat the same process on the left side of the car :-/

Goodbye money......

[Glaede]

For now, I don't have any more body work to show you. This means, that progress might be slow in this thread from now on.
The plan for the car is something like this:

1. Get it rust free
2. Get it painted
3. Suspension/bushings, fuel lines etc.
4. Wheels
5. Inspection/getting it registred

After that, I will retrofit oem central locking, power windows, power steering and maybe the 13 button OBC too.

I hope someone finds this interesting otherwise, please let me know - it took several hours to reach to this point :-D

Some other interesting stuff I've found along this "journey":




...some original danish sales brochures! They are really funny and some cool pictures. Really pleased with this find. Will probably never find anything like that on danish again, so obviously I had to buy it.

A funny side note:
- Currently there is 13 registered 318iS' in Denmark. It's super rare here. Actually, I think there is more M3's left. These cars were, unfurtunately, killed by rust..

[Glaede]

Just found some more pictures:

NLA part. Took a year to find.


Recovered the rear parcel.


The seats all cleaned up and done.


The NLA fluid reservoir all cleaned up and ready to go. New cap installed from a Mercedes.


A used muffler that I cleaned up and repainted.

[Glaede]

More pictures:

The center cap with some fresh paint.


Mounted on the wheel with a BBS sticker. Wanted to try something else.. Might change it to a BWM logo.


Covers were faded and just ugly, so gave them a quick paint.


My three year old son helping with some bodywork :-D


Some new oem floor mats just waiting. Probably gonna wait a while....

[Glaede]

[lukem23]

definitely want to see the retrofit of the Central locking, OBC, etc etc.