My new e30 resurrection project

[shawmcbigdis]

So the snow finally started melting away yesterday. And I've been able to drive the car around a bit. Gauges are working really good, so far they all work non-stop. The temp gauge still needs to be tapped every time to get it started, so that must be the gauge itself is sticky.

The display on the OBC seems to go in and out, so I guess its either a loose connection or the bulbs going bad.

I've always thought the stereo sounded a bit funky but I rarely ever even have it on, since most the time I drive it so far it's been for "test drives" after doing something. But I was messing around today and realized the only speaker on the left side that works is the top front tweeter. The speaker in the kick panel, and the real one don't work at all. Right side seems fine front and rear. Also there's a fairly loud buzz sound from the speakers any time the stereo is on. So obviously a wiring issue somewhere causing those issues.

I also got the multi-meter out today and figured out the issue with the key less entry. For some reason the power lead to my antennae which according to the tutorials is constant power, isn't. Not sure why, and I didn't check if it energizes when the car is on. I just ran the lead direct to the battery since it is back there anyway, and the line has a fuse built into it. Once I did that, it works fine. Which is good because the locks on it are getting really funky and I thought the key was stuck in the driver door a couple times already.

[shawmcbigdis]

So I drove the e30 every day this week. Interestingly the display on the OBC has worked fine since I blew and replaced the fuse. Weird, but i'm not going to complain.

The stereo was bugging me, I need it working if I'm going to commute in it. So I went to work on that today, well working on the stereo quickly turned into this;



That wasn't' supposed to happen.

While investigating the non-working driver footwell speaker, I realized the carpet was all wet there. Poking around down there, I couldn't find any obvious intrusion of water, not of the carpet on the sides or up the firewall were wet, only at the bottom, right in front of the foot pad or whatever that plastic bit is called and behind it.

The car was parked in my driveway all day Friday, it started raining late Thursday night and pretty much all day Friday. I never noticed any wetness there before, so I assumed it had to be from the rain.

I started by checking the cowl and sunroof vents, both seem to be fine. I couldn't' actually try pouring water down them, because the car is now in the garage, and it is still raining outside. But there is no sign of "flooding" in the cowls, or at the sunroof. And I was able to stick a couple feet of stiff wire down the drains and felt no obstructions.

I did find 2 little strange bits of moisture. The first was behind the kick panel speaker. I took it out to check the sunroof vent tube. Tube seems to be in OK shape, from what I can tell, not moisture on it either. But at the bottom of that opening, half of the baseplate was damp, with no obviouse signes of were the water came from;



I'm very confused by this bit.

So since I was pretty sure it wasn't the vents, I started searching for more info. Found an old thread talking about the hood seal leaking, and water running down the firewall and through the old grommets. OK, so started poking around in there. I couldn't find any obvious signs that the seal was leaking, no signs of water directly inside of it. However, I did find one spot. Near the driver side hood latch, the foam covering that is on the firewall was very wet, and looks like it had been that way for a while, since the foam was breaking up at that point.



So I started to pull the foam away up on the top, and nothing. Agin the only place I could find moisture was right there at the base where that retention nut thing holds it down.Nowhere around there could I see any evidence of the hood seal leaking and it dripping behind the foam.

So at that point I knew I had to pull the carpet, which I probably needed to do anyway because of the moisture in the foam and the carpet. So I finally get it out and the good news is there isn't a lot of rusty like I feared there may be. It is pretty bad at the base of the pedal, but its still solid;



This is with zero clean up, just carpet out and starting to look. Again, the only place it is obviously wet is the lowest part of the floor in front of the gas pedal, and a small bit at the front corner near the door



But even there, no obvious sign of the water running down from anywhere.

So carpet out and inspecting the backside of it, and the foam is soaked. It obviously has been holding water since before yesterday. Kind of amazed the floor isn't rusted. Again though, only the lowest parts of the foam is wet, go up the sides and its fine



.... until I realized almost in the dead center going up the firewall the foam is wet. And then a see/feel the foam where the clutch stopper is;



So my assumption is that is where the water is coming from. Which I assume means that the hood seal is leaking?

Hopefully it will stop raining and tomorrow I can pull the car out of the garage and put a hose on it, and test this theory. If that is the case, I guess I need to replace the hood seal, and also try to seal up the clutch stopper piece?

[shawmcbigdis]

OK, so things get worse. I was so focused on the driver side, even after I took the carpet out I didn't look at the passenger side, and when I did, oh man....



The lame part about this, is I knew it was there, but didn't realize it. That is the front passenger jack pad, which on the outside I knew was rusted. I thought it was doubled walled there, and I thought what I was seeing from underneath was the inner piece of metal (because of the water stains on the foam, it looks like rusty steel). So like an idiot, It though I would just take car of that eventually. I guess now is eventually, and also the rust up on the side of the door sill, again I guess I should be happy it isn't that bad.

So back to the driver side, I think I found the problem. Under the fuse box on the firewall there are 2 small rust holes;



With the fuse box in the way, that is about the max amount of room I can make to get to it. Removing the whole wiring harness from the car, or unpinning the fuse box is not at all something I want to do. So This will be the most Jerry rigged of all things on the car. Water is most likely getting there from the hood seal, since once I started peeling away the rubber coating on the firewall I could tell a lot of it was wet underneath. So I peeled off as much as that as I could. Next I'm going to sand down the rust as best as I can, then spray it with some Rustoleum rust reformer. Then bolt the fuse box back in place, and finally squirt that area with construction expanding foam. Or maybe squirt it in there, then bolt the fuse box down before it hardens, so I can get a better angle. Super lame I know, but I can't really think of anything else without removing the box, and that's not happening.

Strangely the hood seal looks/feels to be in good shape, but that has to be where the water is getting in. Still haven't had a chance to test it. Was going to do it today, because it was supposed to be nice, instead it's been foggy and low 40's. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and low/mid 50's so hopefully I can put a hose on it tomorrow and see what happens.

In other news, got a few coats of paint onto the side skirts and screwed them into place to to make sure they fit right before I mount them solid with some 3M molding tape, and bondo the seams. Started to try to clean up the paint with them off the car, and realized they are way to floppy, so after they are securely mounted I will finish sanding and polishing them. Going to have to paint/sand/polish the seams anyway. Did it all with Rustoleum rattle can, because who freaking cares.



I hopefully scored 2 new doors.They are already black, and freshly painted, and they include glass and regulators. Best of all they are from a late model, so new style regulators and glass. I will hopefully be getting them next weekend (on call this weekend, so stuck at home). Of course maybe I should really stop poring money into this thing, whats that saying, good money after bad....

[shawmcbigdis]

OK, so I was able to get a hose on it and verify the location of the leak. Sunroof and cowl drains are fine. Actually with the hose stuck directly into the cowl, there was a very slight drip from behind the heater. Close the hood and run the hose down the windshield, and nothing from behind the heater, so that's good. But after a bit I started to get water from the firewall behind the dash. Pop the hood and I can see right off the water is going over the top of the hood seal right at where the driver side cowl vent is. So while it looks like its in good shape, I guess its not pressing up against the hood nearly as strong as it should. So I need to replace the seal, and try and fix that rust hole behind the fuse box.

So, car back in the garage and go to work on the interior. Put a flap wheel on the angle grinder and tried to clean up the rust. I'm going to need something smaller to really get in there on the passenger side foot well/jack pad area;



I was able to clean up the pedal base with a wire wheel on the dremel;



I sprayed some Rustoleum rust reformer on it today, hopefully that will last for a while.

Got the rusted out portion of the rear floor out and cleaned it up with the angle grinder;



So yesterday, I went to Harbor Freight and bought the cheap flux core wire feed welder. I was hoping to score a real Mig on craigslist, but nothing I could afford has showed up. I don't need any of this to be pretty, I just need it to work. And besides the fact that I haven't welded since using Oxy/acetylene in Jr High so I'm going to be the biggest problem in the whole thing. I bought some 22g sheet and some decent Miller 030 flux core wire from Home Depot
and started to give it a try. Obviously I can't run a bead on something that thing, but I can get spot welds without blowing through the metal. The car and patch metal will be even thicker than that, so I think I can pull this off.

So today I took the passenger side fender and door off;



Fender had to come off to get at the rust. I took the door off just so it is out of the way, and I should have new doors coming later this week anyway.

I'm going to practice with the welder for a while before I actually go at the car with it. so not much will probably happen for a while.

[shawmcbigdis]

Wow, its been a while. Still haven't made a lot of headway. Bought a cheap Harbor Freight flux core welder, and been practicing on that. I did weld in the patch for the big hole in the back seat. Next up is the passenger floor board firewall area. Made the templates tonight, and cut out the rough pieces. Will get the shaped to fit tomorrow, and hopefully start welding them in. I'll take some more before and after pics tomorrow. Hopefully I can pull it off.

Another thing I plan on doing while its in the garage is putting in a new head unit. Nothing fancy, just something cheap that has Bluetooth. I'm thinking about this one;

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_070XDM7800/Axxera-XDMA7800.html

Can change the colors and then set the red level, so hopefully it will match fairly well. The chrome bit is kind of annoying, but I'll probably just try marking it with a sharpie and see how that works.

So right now I have the whole interior (except the dash) out of the car. Since it's all gone would it be a good idea to replace the speaker cabling now? So that way I won't have the weird shared ground thing going on, and I can just wire my speakers normally? Although I assume that will mean I will probably have to get new speakers also huh? Or just run the wires now, but hook the head unit up to the stock wires, and then when I replace the speakers use the new wires?

I don't need competition/audiophile level sound, just good enough to stream music during my commute and short work road trips. It has to work and be decent though, since when this is back on the road I'm going to tear into my e39 cooling system, clutch, oil pan gasket. So the e30 will be my daily for a while.

I'll go browse the audio section now and see what info I can find.

[shawmcbigdis]

OK, welding is done on the patches. Man do I suck at this, but hey always wanted to try to weld, and now I have. and they were getting better by the end, so I think with a lot more practice I could be OK at it. I do wish I had dished out the money for a real MIG welder, instead of the Harbor Freight flux core, but it gone the job done...badly, but done. I still need to go over it in primer, seam sealer and under coating on the outside bits.

Don't bother telling me I did it wrong and should have seam welded the patches. I know that, but I didn't. Cheap welder and new user, this was just so much easier. This whole thing is how to get the car road worthy as cheaply and easily as possible. So yeah. This car isn't worth taking the time to get it right, I just need it good enough to play with. It will get several coats of seam sealer to make it water tight (I hope) thus the welds aren't fully on all the seams.

So here is the passenger foot well with all the rust cut out (weld through primer already applied);



and a close up



And from the outside



I did this one in 3 pieces

First I did the vertical inner wall, shaped the piece



Then welded it in place.



From the outside;



Then I did the floor piece;



Then a patch on the outside to cover/seal the inner piece;




The only pic I took of the hole in the back seat footwell, was after one pass of spot welds;



So now I have to prime them both. Then I will put on a few coats of brush on seam sealer. Rubber coating on the outside and prime and paint the inside (not that it matters since its covered in carpet, but whatever).

So After this I still have to try and fix the rust spot under the fuse box. Since I'm not going to remove the fuse box, its going to be a Jerry rig at best (like the other patches on this car weren't). I'm going to try and sand it by hand with some sand paper as bet I can. Then spray some rust reformer primer in there, then try and get seam sealer all in there the best I can.

I do have a new hood seal on the way also. So hopefully water won't even get down there anymore. Well see how that goes.

I also ordered a bunch of stereo parts. New head unit, front speakers, sub woofer and 4 channel amp. So I will be running new speaker wire to the front speakers, and just not running rear speakers.

Oh, and I want to try that carpet paint stuff on it while I have it out of he car.

Oh, yeah, and I have new doors. They are from a late model, so have the new window regulator style, so will be cheaper/easier to replace when they go bad. And they have a fresh new professional paint job in black already. So the doors will look better than the whole rest of the car, but whatever. The locks do't match, and I didn't get a key with them, so thankfully I got the key-less entry working already.

The put it all back together and get it back on the road. Then pull the e39 into the garage and pull it apart, hooray.

[shawmcbigdis]

OK so 3 coats of seam sealer on all the spots, including under the fuse box. New front hood seal in place. And the hood seal plus seam sealer seems to have fixed the water leak there.

But now, I am getting water from the blower motor assembly in the cowl. I know all the cowl drains are working, checked them all. So maybe it was just because I had the hose right on the cowl openings? One thing I did notice is that the passenger side has a little damn thing to stop water from getting to the blower motor/heater core, but on the driver side there isn't one. Is it supposed to be that way? I seem to be getting more water inside when I have the hose on the drivers side. But strangely more of it comes out into the passenger foot well side. It always comes from the center some place leaking down the trans tunnel.

So I'm thinking of building a little damn for the driver side to go between the blower motor and the wiper motor to try and stop water from getting to the blower opening.

Any other thoughts or ideas?

[shawmcbigdis]

Wow I just can't stop water from getting in. Every time I seal them up water comes in from some place different. Built a little damn on the driver side, and seam sealed it up. Also put some seam sealer on the passenger side. Ran water on the drive side cowl vent for a while, and no water on the driver side from anywhere. So far so good.

On to the passenger side. This is where things start to get complicated. I noticed before a rust spot in the passenger foot well firewall. Its right in the middle width wise and right under the glove box, so just barely at the point where its still visible. Well water is leaking in from that rust spot. Then after a while I also notice water leaking from the upper right corner, somewhere above the glove box so I can't see where it is coming from. Then after a while I do start to get some from the heater core area, but only on the passenger side.

So I turn off the hose and pop the hood to take a look. I realize that inside the engine bay it is wet under the hood latches on both sides. But the water isn't leaking in from above, the walls around them are totally dry. After poking around I realize that on the driver side the water is coming from where the hood release cable comes through, and on the passenger side its where the AC line enters the car. So I assume both those go through the cowl area or drain somehow and that is where the water is getting into the engine bay. I'm also assuming that is where the hidden leak on the passenger side is coming from. I can put some silicon in there on the engine bay side to hopefully seal up those to stop rust in either of those areas. However, I have no idea how to stop it from getting into the inside on the passenger side.

After all that I did notice a small amount of water on the driver side which appeared to be coming from the drain plug behind the brake pedal. I'm not even sure how water was getting down to that point, since I couldn't find a leak up above. Maybe the leak under the hings spill some over that little ledge and rolled down the firewall?

So I just grinded that rust spot down and put some rust reformer primer on it. I will put some seam sealer on it tomorrow. I will caulk up the 2 point sin the engine bay, and the driver side drain plug as well. I don't really have an idea for how to fix the leak into the car on the passenger side.

Some good news. Through all of this I did get the new stereo, front speakers and sub installed. As well as the new (late model) passenger door. Still haven't gotten the drivers side door on, as when I took the old one off one of the hinge pins disintegrated. So I'm waiting on new pins for both hinges on that side. The stereo is a cheap off brand from Crutchfield, but the color matches almost perfectly. I will post some pics later. Front speakers are Power Bass components from Amazon. Since I rewired the speakers from the amp at the back the fader (balance? I can't remember which it did) knob in the dash is useless. So I removed it, and got a panel blank and mounted the sub level knob there. I was able to mount the component tweeters in the stock door mounts, and ran the cable through the wire harness hose thing. Well on the passenger side, still haven't done the drivers side.

[shawmcbigdis]

OK, so started putting everything back together. Got the carpet painted, and installed, back seat installed, passenger seat and center console back in.





I left the panel off the passenger door because something is wrong with the window regulator on that side. And the door lock actually, neither of them work. The window makes a noise but doesn't move, the lock does nothing when I push the lock and unlock button. I can move it manually, so I not its not totally stuck.Need to figure both those things out.

Here's some shots of the stereo so you can see the color.





This pics make it looks more yellow than it actually is. Color wise it is actually a very good match, but its a lot brighter. And if you dim it, it doesn't seem to dime every color equally, so even one click down on the dimmer turns it purple. I haven't played with it a lot to see if I can fix that.

Here's a close up of the sub level knob I put in place of the stock fader knob;



Got a friend coming over tomorrow to help me install the driver door. Then its just trim and the drivers seat and its done and back on the road.

Just in time since the coolant leak and clutch on my e39 are getting pretty bad.

Oh, I did notice one other thing while I had the car apart. I've always thought the shifter was really sloppy, but I figure, well 30 year old car, whatever. Well while the center console was gone I was moving the shifter and though, it seemed way more loose than it should. I lifted the boot to take a look and realized I could move the ball socket the arm was in. This being an early car, that means that whole plate the thing is on is moving. It only moves left and right, so I assume the bushing thing on the rear mount is shot. So I jack the car back up and crawl under to take a look, and to my surprise I find that the top half of the bracket that holds the bushing is just plain gone.Number 5 in this diagram;



Its just the bottom piece, the bushing itself, then the plate that holds the shifter. Thus nothing holding the top of that bushing in place so it can wiggle all it wants. The weird part is it looks to be all original stock pieces, with no damage. So I'm not really sure why the hell that bracket is missing.

I've lived with it this long, so for now I'm not doing anything about it. I need to refresh everything anyway, so I'm trying to decide if I by all new wear part for it, or if I just change the whole darn thing to the new style shifter. That's what I'm leaning towards, but budget doesn't allow it now.

So now that this is all done, besides getting the locks and windows working it will probably sit as is for a few months. When we head back to California this summer I'm going to pick up the straight fender and ES front splitter I have waiting for me. And I'm goign to try to score some cheap basket weaves while I'm there. Then I need to decide what the next project is. It's between re doing the upholstery, fixng/updating the AC to r134, or basic 885 head swap. Basic as in just the head and other needed parts, no internal engine mods or machine work.

I'm leaning towards AC, since it looks like I'd like to be able to drive it during the summer, and that aint happening without AC.

[KIRIEIW]

Keep it up man. I need to learn how to weld myself..

[e30RS]

Huuuuge transformation thus far.

[shawmcbigdis]

Keep it up man. I need to learn how to weld myself..

I own I welder, and I was able to stick a couple of pieces of metal to each other, but trust me I need to learn to weld also.

Thankfully neither of the spots are visible and seam sealer is cheap [emoji16]

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[econti]

Your welding was likely bad because your earth was shit. Always always make sure the earth is close to, and mounted on, the same sheet of metal you're welding. And play around with the settings until it makes the sizzling bacon sound. You'll get there, I was if anything worse when I first started.
Also if it will let you run a shielding gas, do so. It makes a huuuuge difference

[shawmcbigdis]

Your welding was likely bad because your earth was shit. Always always make sure the earth is close to, and mounted on, the same sheet of metal you're welding. And play around with the settings until it makes the sizzling bacon sound. You'll get there, I was if anything worse when I first started.
Also if it will let you run a shielding gas, do so. It makes a huuuuge difference

In some spots, heck yes I'm sure the ground wasn't very good. There were a couple places where it was good/right on the piece I was welding. Even then there was a bigger problem than the ground, namely me.

No shield gas, it's not a real MIG machine, just a $90 flux core only. Only setting is high or low amperage (not sure what either of those equate to) and wire feed speed.

I would love to get an actual MIG machine, but I just can't justify the expense right now.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[shawmcbigdis]

OK, so car is completely back together, and been my daily all week. put a little over 400 miles on it, and no problems.

With the new doors and the side skirts on the dented up front fender rally sticks out. Alas, that will need to wait a few months, as I have the part waiting for me in CA, just need to bring it back home when we go visit this summer.

Speaking of new doors, I sprayed a bunch of dry PTFE spray all over the window regulator, and it started moving again. So I did this on both sides, and both windows work just fine, hooray. Also, not really sure why, but after I installed the 2nd door, the remote lock started working fine again. So cool, locks and windows work, stereo works, heater works. No prob being a commuter for now. When it gets hot, that's going to be a different story, since the AC doesn't work. Actually the rear defroster doesn't' work either, but I just need to get some of that paint on repair stuff to fix the bad spots in the lines. Already tested the connector and its getting power.

Here's a shot of the car as she sits today;



So next up, is nothing for a while. I need to get that shifter either fixed, or convert to the new style. On the to do list at some point is get the AC working, i head swap, 3.73 LSD rear end, and reupholster the seats. What order those happen in, will probably come down to when I happen upon parts.