1991 BMW E30 318IS

[106e30]

Hi all.

New to Retro Rides, and this is my first post so here it goes.

After driving around in a 106 I thought it was time for an upgrade, started looking at old BMW's and went for a 1979 E12.
Lovely car, felt like a big old boat compared to the nippy 106 but my fuel costs doubled and I couldn't afford to keep running it in the end.

Decided to get something still retro but better on fuel, looked at e21's for a while and then saw a 318IS pop up gumtree. Phoned the guy up and went over for test drive. On the surface the car was good except a few rust spots down on the wings and the paint had become discoloured, mechanically the car is spot on apart from the exhaust which i plan to replace in a few weeks.

I decided I was going to keep the car as standard and as original as I can, So I sent it off for a respray and a bit of bodywork four weeks ago, picked it up on saturday and it looked stunning, not a blemish on it, absolutely amazing job carried out on it by Dave Jones. really recommend him.

Dave Jones
07769515292

so here is the E12

[img src="i1369.photobucket.com/albums/ag209/Jamesrw87/IMG_0975_zps5999a65d.jpg" alt="" src="" style="max-width:100%;"]


And this is the 318Is before the respray




And here it is after the work

[Mark]

Good to see you here Jim. Dave's done a really good job there and it looks great without being over-restored. It's nice that the interior is in such nice condition too.

Have you looked into what exhaust you're going to go with yet? OE is stupidly expensive from BMW but am sure there must be some aftermarket systems out there?

[discostu]

Looking good. The M42 is a cracking engine imo, sure you'll enjoy it

[tomr5]

If you wouldn't mind saying how much you spent getting the rust spots sorted and a respray. It's something I'd love to do to get done properly but ive always thought its somewhat out of my price range.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[106e30]

Jul 6, 2014 12:33:39 GMT discostu said:

Looking good. The M42 is a cracking engine imo, sure you'll enjoy it

Cheers mate

Nice e36, It will look great in white when you get it painted

i'm surprised at how strong it still pulls for a 23 year old engine, those M42's can just go on and on.

[discostu]

Jul 6, 2014 19:52:49 GMT 106e30 said:

Jul 6, 2014 12:33:39 GMT discostu said:

Looking good. The M42 is a cracking engine imo, sure you'll enjoy it

Cheers mate

Nice e36, It will look great in white when you get it painted

i'm surprised at how strong it still pulls for a 23 year old engine, those M42's can just go on and on.

If I ever get the time to do it! Cheers

Yeah they go well, thrashed the guts outta mine for years before the m52 got fitted. Never had any problems with it really, feed it good oil and it'll keep going! I think the e30's had a belt as opposed to a camchain though? (Might be wrong) but something to get changed if it has

[Gem]

Very nice. I miss my old IS. It was epic on fuel

[Mark]

I miss my old 318iS too, absolutely awesome cars!

[106e30]

Cheers guys

I'm really chuffed with mine, and by the looks of things I got it at just the right time as their prices are on the up.

The car is nearly complete but it has a few things that need working on such as, new springs (may drop it 30mm) new discs and pads, and a new exhaust.

What make was the exhaust you put on yours Mark?

[Mark]

Uploaded a few pics from the body repairs and respray that I had Jim. All the usual e30 rust traps, such as corners of footwell and sill ends, were repaired and all rust was cut out. The whole underside was resealed and the voids injected with wax. The front wings are new and the whole front end was bare metal. It should be good for a few more years now.











There's something about a white e30! These are at Rally Prep. (the M3 is Mr Harris' car and both are doing the Nicky Grist stages this coming weekend)

[106e30]

Cheers for the pics Mark.

Starting to think the springs might have to be the next job done, It's not riding the bumps too well at moment

What time are you setting off for the BMW trip to Wales on Friday?

[matbrojoe]

re the exhaust, i had a stainless steel one made for my 318is last year by a chap in stafford, from memory it cost around £180 and comes with a lifetime guarantee.

[106e30]

Jul 11, 2014 22:12:26 GMT matbrojoe said:

re the exhaust, i had a stainless steel one made for my 318is last year by a chap in stafford, from memory it cost around £180 and comes with a lifetime guarantee.

Thats a good price from what I've seen on the net so far. Was it very loud? I don't want it to sound chaved out, just want it to sound like the original only slightly louder and to keep the classic rasp up at the top end?

[Mark]

Call www.zeroexhausts.co.uk Jim. His names Kevin and he does a top job for sensible money. I want the M3 manifold on his website. It's a work of art!

[106e30]

Jul 12, 2014 10:17:16 GMT Mark said:

Call www.zeroexhausts.co.uk Jim. His names Kevin and he does a top job for sensible money. I want the M3 manifold on his website. It's a work of art!

Did he do the work on MIB and your other race cars?

[matbrojoe]

Jul 12, 2014 9:30:14 GMT 106e30 said:

Jul 11, 2014 22:12:26 GMT matbrojoe said:

re the exhaust, i had a stainless steel one made for my 318is last year by a chap in stafford, from memory it cost around £180 and comes with a lifetime guarantee.

Thats a good price from what I've seen on the net so far. Was it very loud? I don't want it to sound chaved out, just want it to sound like the original only slightly louder and to keep the classic rasp up at the top end?

No it's no louder than the original as far as i can tell. I can dig out the number of you want, i know it's not that near you but he did mine while we waited by appointment, my girlfriend took it in and she read a book for a couple of hours while he did it, if you knew you were going to be in the area you could maybe sort something out in advance.

[matbrojoe]

What i wanted to ask re the refurb was, i'm assuming you replaced the wings with new ones, if so did you use genuine or pattern, and if pattern what was the fit like?

[106e30]

Jul 13, 2014 16:19:50 GMT matbrojoe said:

What i wanted to ask re the refurb was, i'm assuming you replaced the wings with new ones, if so did you use genuine or pattern, and if pattern what was the fit like?

Cheers mate,

Could you please PM me the exhaust guys details and I'll try and get in contact with him. Haven't really taken the car out on a long run yet, so if I can get it done in a day I wouldn't mind driving it up there.
Like how you got the Girlfriend to do all the sitting around too.

Couldn't get hold of any decent rust free original ones at the time, so they are both patterns, but they fit really well.
To be honest I would say that I only really noticed the increased panel gap between the bonnet and wings a couple of days ago whilst washing it. but we're talking less than a mm bigger.

If you look at my third pic of the car that will give you the best idea of how they fit.

Dave did a really good job and i would recommend him to anyone.

[106e30]

Took the car down to Cornwall for a few days and the car performed brilliantly especially on the twisty stuff. 
It rolls a bit too much through the corners, but that should be reduced once its been lowered an inch in a few weeks.

Whilst down there I was informed of a show taking place at the Royal Cornwall Show ground called Wadebridge Wheels, so I gave it a good clean and took it down to see what was what.

Being Cornwall it was full of Subarus, VW Transporters and tractors, plus a few nice retros on show.

A couple of lovely looking Minis



 

This awesome Willys Jeep



A really clean looking Saab 900 here,  



Got the IS on the Cornwall BMW stand too, which was a bonus.




So after a few days it was time to head home. 2 hours into the trip I heard a big old clunk and then the car decided it wanted to be a WRC Impreza.
A rather large stone had flicked up and cracked the exhaust leaving me with a car that sounded 10 times better than a new f1 car.

After a couple of days of being back and fed up with the "what a chav" looks at traffic lights I got the exhaust sorted.
Didn't have the budget for a fancy stainless, so Just got a repair job done.




so that leaves the car with 1 out of the 4 tasks done.

suspension, steering and brakes still to come.

[Mark]

I'd forgotten just how good your car looks Jim. It really stands out on the BMW stand. (even more than that e21 interior! )

I prefer your exhaust to be honest, as it looks OE like the rest of the car. I think I know someone with a full H&R suspension kit for a 318is for and £250. It's good quality kit too, although I may be biased as I have H&R on the M3.