my German import touring project : S52 / z3M coupe 5 lug + full rust repair

[ethirtydavid]

After being out of the e30 game for almost two years, I decided to look for a suitable new replacement. I really was looking for something special and decided to use AutoScout24 and search the European market for a touring. At any given time there are 35-55 tourings for sale on this site, many of them priced high, many priced low. It's difficult to develop initial communication with the sellers and, after contacting dozens of ads, it seems like there is a return ratio of a little better than 1/10 that reach a response. If you do this, my advice is to offer multiple ways for the seller to reach you. Open a WhatsApp account (popular messaging app in Europe and world), email, Facebook.com/username contact option, 1+phone number etc. If anyone has any questions about the process or need specific info I'm happy to answer.

Anyhow after a couple months of semi obsessive searching I came across the car I would buy. A 1991 diamond schwarz metallic 318i manual with black leather interior for 3,000€ (~$3,500). It sat on a clean set of euroweaves and came with a nice running m40 motor. This didn't matter though because the motor and wheels would be pulled within the first month to begin my project.

This was an attractive price range but of course it is a European car and it's hard to get away from their ugly issue... rust. Right now I am full into rust repair and will all photos on that and processes soon.


these are some of the parts I have on the shelf which I intend to put into this car:

• 1999 resealed S52 (m50 manifold)/ ZF trans and z4 shifter / ECU / modified wiring harness.
• 1999 Z3M Coupe full suspension, GC coilovers and camber plates / adjustable camber toe rear subframe with 3:46 LSD
• after market headers / custom 3" full exhaust
• m5 lightweight flywheel / clutch / pressure plate
• all e36 to e30 swap parts
• red needle rebuilt gauge cluster, 7100 rpm with oil temp / 60l fuel gauge sensor to match touring fuel tank / 6cyl coding plug
• 330ci steering rack
• e90 booster, front/rear adjustable brake bias
• plus a lot more, and some stuff I will still need to get as the project moves on
• full rust repair / motor bay paint etc

/ / / / / / / /

Here is my car.



A good buddy came down from Seattle and we did a bit of a paint detail, which really boosted the moral after seeing the extent of some of these rust areas. More on that soon.
Overall paint is in good shape as most of the rust issues are underneath and so there are just a couple exposed rust spots which will need some kind of panel patch and paint blending.




motor out.





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Before we get into the fun stuff fitting parts and connecting things together there is going to be a series of rust documentation and I'll try and show the process to expose that and fix the different areas. I've messed around a little but haven't done sheet metal welding before and it's been a bit intimidating, but I'm pretty stoked to have found a local guy on craigslist that's come over a couple times and has been very helpful. He's actually owned an e30 in the past also which is pretty cool, but then - who hasn't? Anyways, without him this project would have been a lot more challenging. We're basically working through repairs together, I kind of cut out from the parts car, measure and cut out from the touring/ prepare the surface and then he finalizes. There are also two people I've been following on YouTube which really have helped me come to terms with this rust repair portion of the project: Restore It and Practical Enthusiast.




Here are a few of the parts that were mentioned above-

Z3m on the left, check out the disk brake difference compared to stock e30. Plus the front coilovers.

This is the s52, has cams (to be determined) - will be doing a re seal and can then identify what's what. ZF trans.

1991 318is retired autox car, this is what that held all the suspension swap parts and will also be used to source body panels and replacement metal for the rust repair.



Pulled this soaked, nasty rust stained carpet and have a color dye/refresh video if ya want to see that ~
--->

How did that happen?? link to the video here:

https://flic.kr/p/2kwTtCW









photos of rust repair coming.

To be continued.

[ethirtydavid]

So here are a few of the rust areas that have been being worked on. These are all still roughed in and will need to be sanded smoother, then coated with POR15, seam sealed and maybe body filler on the visible areas / exposed body parts?

* If anyone has tips on this sequence I'm open ears..

This is the driver side between strut tower and firewall, under the fuse box.


Basically everything gets grown down to distinguish panels and follow the extent of the rust, turned out it was not as bad as I thought.


both pieces were welded in, hole marked for brake line entry


Battery box in the trunk was rusted, PO did a patch job that had failed. decided to cut the whole area out and do a large replacement patch of the entire box floor.





driver side wheel arch valance



here's a common spot - passenger front inner fender arch.


Most of the welding has been handled by this guy I met on CL
This was the first area that I welded in, and I thought this region was a little tricky because 4 pieces all come together, meaning 4 pieces need to be welded back in order





Here is an example from the inner pass fender well, basically go around and expose where the rust is.
Then use a paint pen to kind of outline an idea for where to cut.



Here are a few more repair areas



* And this is what we will be working on next which is probably going to actually be the worst area. Pass side under door / floor pan area..

NSFW

it's pretty gnarly.





Anyways, it's moving right along
I'm really looking forward to continuing the welding and rust repair aspect of this project then finally getting closer to installing parts.

[Northern]

To embed youtube you need to use this button now. Unfortunately it doesn't exist when editing an existing post as far as I know.

Your pictures also aren't showing up for me. Looks like they're trying to link from within r3v somewhere, but it doesn't seem to be working.

[ethirtydavid]

Your pictures also aren't showing up for me. Looks like they're trying to link from within r3v somewhere, but it doesn't seem to be working.

well that's a bummer. I've tried attaching files by uploading, from url - with the image icon.. and directly by writing img src = etc

in some ways it would save me a lot of time not to do this, but I kind of want to document the project - anyone have ideas?

on my end everything shows correctly, all the images - but when I open a new tab in incognito (ie not logged in) they all do not show.

[mike.bmw]

I use flickr to store/host my images.

Just from reading the first two posts, it sounds like an awesome project. Hopefully you get the display issue resolved so we can see it. :-)

[ethirtydavid]

I use flickr to store/host my images.

Just from reading the first two posts, it sounds like an awesome project. Hopefully you get the display issue resolved so we can see it. :-)

hey thanks man, I use flickr also .. I guess I was trying to use the forums upload photo feature instead of copy/paste direct links.

IDK why that was so difficult... hopefully the rest of this project goes easier ! (lol)

[Northern]

Wow that's some rust for sure haha. Looks like you've made really good progress with it

[moatilliatta]

The battle of Rust. good to see you getting it out of the way first.

Did you acquire a Z3M subframe also?

Would you mind taking some measurements if so?

[parkerbink]

Very nice progress. thanks for sharing!

[ethirtydavid]

hey thanks guys ~

Did you acquire a Z3M subframe also?

Would you mind taking some measurements if so?

Hey, actually I am using the z3m stuff but with e30 subframe here

[moatilliatta]

hey thanks guys ~



Hey, actually I am using the z3m stuff but with e30 subframe here

When you get to it, Id be interested to see how it aligns, I've yet to find anyone who put this setup in their car, then did a proper alignment...

[ethirtydavid]

When you get to it, Id be interested to see how it aligns, I've yet to find anyone who put this setup in their car, then did a proper alignment...

I believe I have alignment spec sheet from when this was installed on the silver car, I’ll take a look

[mike.bmw]

Thanks for fixing the photos. Looks like you're making good progress!

[ethirtydavid]

Starting to get this motor bay stripped down.
Probably not going to go all sexy smooth like some of you guys have done, but looking to remove all the brackets for m40 equipment / and of course rust patches (which are almost all the way done in the front portion of the car now.) I will have to do some minor body paint touchups and thinking I may as well paint the engine bay also, so there will be a little more work to do to get there.




I removed the fuel tank and inspected that - thought there was rust at the fuel inlet but that's not the case. which is a relief. I also remove all the hard fuel lines and brake lines - I wanted to keep them but some of the welding is right over that area and is semi extensive so it's going to be best to remove inspect and replace or reinstall, depending.

here are two rust areas on the pass side footwell, each were silver dollar size, but the rust from the bottom spread just a little past.
It's a good idea to expose the rust from the bottom and then make the cuts outline there (that's likely going to be a larger visible area then from top down)

[Glaede]

Good job on the rust repairs!