Hi guys,
Doing a little copy and paste from MK2OC but thought some people may appreciate the read.
Hopefully it'll get a bit more exciting in future progress.
Hi everyone,
Some of the more avid users of the forum may remember me from when I had a few Tornado Red Mk2's back in 2012-2014 period.
Or more recently with the Audi S6 at the last national meet:
Well, the C5 S6 is now gone to fund a wedding and house purchases and with the current COVID situation it allowed me to start looking at cars which aren't necessarily used for daily activities.
I spent a long-time annoying Mr & Mrs Mac alongside Ben Straker and the 'The Wagars' about finding the correct MK2 GTI 16V - spent a good while looking before mostly coming across rubbish and projects in my price range.
That is when I came across this, It was on page 65 of Car and Classic; shows you how deep I was into a search of listed cars. It looked relatively clean and promising and had been listed for one day.
It was listed as a 318i Auto Touring - Eagle eyed viewers may notice the M42 with an M50 Coil On plug modification, lurking in the engine bay from a 318is. This means: DOHC 1.8 16V with approx. 134bhp @ 6000rpm and 127lb-ft @ 4600rpm.
This provided an interesting alternative after initially wanting a MK2 GTI 16v. One aspect of promise was that the car was built from a well know 'old skool figure' in the BMW E30 scene - the engine had only 50k miles and was sourced from another well versed E30 member called Andrew Everett who has actually published literature including 'BMW E30 - 3 Series Restoration Bible'. In combination, the body has only covered 81k so I thought it was worth the risk to at least go and view the car. Thread linked below if you're interested in past history:
www.e30zone.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=269261
Me and Jasmine made the trip down to Windsor to view that car, in the meantime I had found serious history on the car in regards to the build thread and by googling the registration I had found the picture below. This was when I became worried:
Arrived at the sellers house, the guy was really quite polite and walked me through the E30's history and how much he had driven it etc. It turns out that he is a uni student so had only covered 1700 miles since September 2018 with his dad starting the car and letting it run every week. The car was kept under a cover on the drive way.
I took a few pictures, there was a few things that worried me which are pictured but overall it's solid - all the boot floor is rock solid, carpets are dry, scruttle and windscreen all clean!
These are the bad bits!
However, overall as the seller promised it's fairly clean!
The car drove really well, really very tight, went and stopped well. Only issue was the power steering has been removed which I have in the boot because the pump failed.
The only thing I was disapointed was the little grotty bits pictured and the fact the paint needs full correction - however, seller was willing to negotiate and ended up leaving a deposit!
So picked the car up - made it about 2 minutes, filled up with fuel and it ended up spilling over the forecourt. Attendant wasn't very happy!
Turn's out this one has an overflow, I'm going to keep an eye on this as these E30's are notorious for rotten filler necks. I've checked it and it seems solid but will update. Seller said he would pay for anything that needs doing on that front as he wasn't aware of an issue however I felt a bit sorry for him so graciously declined his offer.
Felt a bit sketchy but pushed on and the car drove the 70 odd miles to Essex perfectly.
I thought then I'd go over to Ali & Jo and show them the new purchase in additon to seeing little Penny and Jenson.
Before investing money into it, I thought it would be wise to drive it around for a bit - went to visit my mate Zach, who you may remember used to have the Jetta in the first post:
Therefore, he took the obligatory first time seeing my car photos!
And back home, ready to go back out to test if all the instrument lights work:
At this point, I've done about 300 miles in the car now and I'm happy to get stuck in.
One thing that is obvious is that the car mechnically; bar the power steering, is very good. It's even had a new clutch about 2000 miles ago.
Although, the main issue of the car is getting it up to my level of cleanliness. The paintwork really needs some love and inside does need tidying up. It's all a project, right?
So, got working on the inside first - been trying to do my disseration during the day so only really have evenings.
The seller said that the rear seats don't fold down - so quickly sorted that - they just needed a little bit of use!
Although FILTHY:
Now more presentable.
I'm thinking that its actually black dye being removed from the carpet instead of dirt being on the carpet as only M3's got black carpet.
Although when cleaning, I found this underneath the seat - dated back BB 2017:
Also - had a broken rear ashtray
Oddly fitting door card, so took it off and clipped it back in properly. All sorted now.
As you can probably tell from previous photos - I've got a problem with the rear wiper motor. In addition, the rear trim keeps falling out so I've taken it off to not risk losing it although I'll probably order a new one anyway.
My friend runs 'kill all wipers' so wanted measurements for a wiper delete kit and said he would shoot me one out for free - so awaiting the kit, not sure if I'll run it yet or go back to OEM but in any case it's really easy on an E30.
As you can see, Wet vaccumn is in the boot ready to tackle - just awaiting the correct interior cleaners in the post.
However, it had an initial wash just to get it a bit cleaner.
Pre:
During:
After:
I plan to get paintwork done and full correction completed in coming weeks/months.
Had a present come through the post too - my friend had a spare one and gave it to me for free - so I'll owe him a beer for it at some point. BMW wanted £145 for a new one so thats really helped me out!
More to come soon!
Another interesting development:
The seller previously didnt use the headunit because it never worked properly, he put a new battery in and it came up with 'COD'.
Looked through the history of the car and found a Blaukpunt instruction booklet inside with the code - next issue was that it had no radio signal. Took the headunit out and suprise, suprise, not even attached.
Ordered a ISO to DIN converter with the help of Ben and Drew, plugged it in and now have a working headunit!
Nothing major to update:
Had some C4 trim restorer out and decided to try it on the scuttle trim.
These will be taken out soon anyway when the car is polished so will go over these again to complete properly!
Also, picking up some new wheels soon!
The correct BBS stamped optional extra 15 x 7 - ET24 - 4x100.
Need a full refurb but these wheels are so difficult to find with the OEM BMW caps!
Just a quick update today.
Went to BMW and got some goodies:
And some new Bosch wipers as the ones on the car looked a bit perished.
And fitted:
Still need to decide on rear wiper delete or fixing the current motor.
Hopefully there will be some 'proper' updates soon.
Nothing major to update:
Replaced a few bits in preparation for its MOT:
Car passed and is solid as rock underneath - going to look at the exhaust system at some point, most probably a stainless system throughout which looks OEM. Then replace/restore anything else underneath.
Nothing really to update, been busy applying for graduate schemes, working and sorting the Audi out. I did feel a bit sorry for it sitting there getting all leafy so gave it a quick wash.
Before:
Really could benefit from a machine polish!
During:
After:
Little update:
Had a bit of time to have a look at the E30 and sort out some niggly issues.
Firstly, looking at the rear wiper motor - removed because the sweep has its own mind. I've never taken a wiper motor apart before so had to figure it out as I went along.
Investigated by taking apart the motor:
Rubber block slightly split - although the grease looks really fresh - perhaps someone has been here before!
From what I can work out, this rocker is the derivative of the wiper park position - I had to take it on and off a few times to discover this. However, I can't get this rocker to park back at the same position and therefore will land anywhere on this scale once parked. I still need to work out where to go from here because it's quite annoying. As you can see from the picture below, sweep has gone onto the bootlid and scratched the paintwork before so want to avoid this when the car is repainted.
Speaking of repainting, whilst I had the car under the barn under the light I discovered this:
I know the the first forum thread listed in the first comment, Mick painted the car which was a bit of a while back so was quite surprised that this came up. Therefore, it looks like the front end is going to bare metal painted at the very least. I need to work out what else is going to be painted as I ideally don't want to spend 6k on painting this.
Back outside - can barley see the blistering unless you're looing for it!
Next job:
The interior light wasn't working when the drivers door was opened. Commonly, this is a door switch which is normally broken.
So had a little look - trim off and speakers out:
The reason - nothing was plugged into the back of a switch:
Using the internet and the help of Ben's experience in reading diagrams - it was worked out that there were two possibilities:
Plugged it back in - actually had to do this twice as left one unplugged to find out that this car has a timer delay optioned.
Great success!
Drivers mat temporary glued whilst I find a OEM replacement:
Also changed the window stop switch.
Before:
After:
Much better.
Hopefully, some better updates in due course.
Needs a clean now...
Doing a little copy and paste from MK2OC but thought some people may appreciate the read.
Hopefully it'll get a bit more exciting in future progress.
Hi everyone,
Some of the more avid users of the forum may remember me from when I had a few Tornado Red Mk2's back in 2012-2014 period.
Or more recently with the Audi S6 at the last national meet:
Well, the C5 S6 is now gone to fund a wedding and house purchases and with the current COVID situation it allowed me to start looking at cars which aren't necessarily used for daily activities.
I spent a long-time annoying Mr & Mrs Mac alongside Ben Straker and the 'The Wagars' about finding the correct MK2 GTI 16V - spent a good while looking before mostly coming across rubbish and projects in my price range.
That is when I came across this, It was on page 65 of Car and Classic; shows you how deep I was into a search of listed cars. It looked relatively clean and promising and had been listed for one day.
It was listed as a 318i Auto Touring - Eagle eyed viewers may notice the M42 with an M50 Coil On plug modification, lurking in the engine bay from a 318is. This means: DOHC 1.8 16V with approx. 134bhp @ 6000rpm and 127lb-ft @ 4600rpm.
This provided an interesting alternative after initially wanting a MK2 GTI 16v. One aspect of promise was that the car was built from a well know 'old skool figure' in the BMW E30 scene - the engine had only 50k miles and was sourced from another well versed E30 member called Andrew Everett who has actually published literature including 'BMW E30 - 3 Series Restoration Bible'. In combination, the body has only covered 81k so I thought it was worth the risk to at least go and view the car. Thread linked below if you're interested in past history:
www.e30zone.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=269261
Me and Jasmine made the trip down to Windsor to view that car, in the meantime I had found serious history on the car in regards to the build thread and by googling the registration I had found the picture below. This was when I became worried:
Arrived at the sellers house, the guy was really quite polite and walked me through the E30's history and how much he had driven it etc. It turns out that he is a uni student so had only covered 1700 miles since September 2018 with his dad starting the car and letting it run every week. The car was kept under a cover on the drive way.
I took a few pictures, there was a few things that worried me which are pictured but overall it's solid - all the boot floor is rock solid, carpets are dry, scruttle and windscreen all clean!
These are the bad bits!
However, overall as the seller promised it's fairly clean!
The car drove really well, really very tight, went and stopped well. Only issue was the power steering has been removed which I have in the boot because the pump failed.
The only thing I was disapointed was the little grotty bits pictured and the fact the paint needs full correction - however, seller was willing to negotiate and ended up leaving a deposit!
So picked the car up - made it about 2 minutes, filled up with fuel and it ended up spilling over the forecourt. Attendant wasn't very happy!
Turn's out this one has an overflow, I'm going to keep an eye on this as these E30's are notorious for rotten filler necks. I've checked it and it seems solid but will update. Seller said he would pay for anything that needs doing on that front as he wasn't aware of an issue however I felt a bit sorry for him so graciously declined his offer.
Felt a bit sketchy but pushed on and the car drove the 70 odd miles to Essex perfectly.
I thought then I'd go over to Ali & Jo and show them the new purchase in additon to seeing little Penny and Jenson.
Before investing money into it, I thought it would be wise to drive it around for a bit - went to visit my mate Zach, who you may remember used to have the Jetta in the first post:
Therefore, he took the obligatory first time seeing my car photos!
And back home, ready to go back out to test if all the instrument lights work:
At this point, I've done about 300 miles in the car now and I'm happy to get stuck in.
One thing that is obvious is that the car mechnically; bar the power steering, is very good. It's even had a new clutch about 2000 miles ago.
Although, the main issue of the car is getting it up to my level of cleanliness. The paintwork really needs some love and inside does need tidying up. It's all a project, right?
So, got working on the inside first - been trying to do my disseration during the day so only really have evenings.
The seller said that the rear seats don't fold down - so quickly sorted that - they just needed a little bit of use!
Although FILTHY:
Now more presentable.
I'm thinking that its actually black dye being removed from the carpet instead of dirt being on the carpet as only M3's got black carpet.
Although when cleaning, I found this underneath the seat - dated back BB 2017:
Also - had a broken rear ashtray
Oddly fitting door card, so took it off and clipped it back in properly. All sorted now.
As you can probably tell from previous photos - I've got a problem with the rear wiper motor. In addition, the rear trim keeps falling out so I've taken it off to not risk losing it although I'll probably order a new one anyway.
My friend runs 'kill all wipers' so wanted measurements for a wiper delete kit and said he would shoot me one out for free - so awaiting the kit, not sure if I'll run it yet or go back to OEM but in any case it's really easy on an E30.
As you can see, Wet vaccumn is in the boot ready to tackle - just awaiting the correct interior cleaners in the post.
However, it had an initial wash just to get it a bit cleaner.
Pre:
During:
After:
I plan to get paintwork done and full correction completed in coming weeks/months.
Had a present come through the post too - my friend had a spare one and gave it to me for free - so I'll owe him a beer for it at some point. BMW wanted £145 for a new one so thats really helped me out!
More to come soon!
Another interesting development:
The seller previously didnt use the headunit because it never worked properly, he put a new battery in and it came up with 'COD'.
Looked through the history of the car and found a Blaukpunt instruction booklet inside with the code - next issue was that it had no radio signal. Took the headunit out and suprise, suprise, not even attached.
Ordered a ISO to DIN converter with the help of Ben and Drew, plugged it in and now have a working headunit!
Nothing major to update:
Had some C4 trim restorer out and decided to try it on the scuttle trim.
These will be taken out soon anyway when the car is polished so will go over these again to complete properly!
Also, picking up some new wheels soon!
The correct BBS stamped optional extra 15 x 7 - ET24 - 4x100.
Need a full refurb but these wheels are so difficult to find with the OEM BMW caps!
Just a quick update today.
Went to BMW and got some goodies:
- Rear windscreen bottom rubber trim
- Fuel filler neck boot
- New bumper bolt as mine seems to be missing on one side
And some new Bosch wipers as the ones on the car looked a bit perished.
And fitted:
Still need to decide on rear wiper delete or fixing the current motor.
Hopefully there will be some 'proper' updates soon.
Nothing major to update:
Replaced a few bits in preparation for its MOT:
- BMW matching dealer plates are now on!
- New fuel filler neck boot
- New rubber gaskets and clips for rear trims
Car passed and is solid as rock underneath - going to look at the exhaust system at some point, most probably a stainless system throughout which looks OEM. Then replace/restore anything else underneath.
Nothing really to update, been busy applying for graduate schemes, working and sorting the Audi out. I did feel a bit sorry for it sitting there getting all leafy so gave it a quick wash.
Before:
Really could benefit from a machine polish!
During:
After:
Little update:
Had a bit of time to have a look at the E30 and sort out some niggly issues.
Firstly, looking at the rear wiper motor - removed because the sweep has its own mind. I've never taken a wiper motor apart before so had to figure it out as I went along.
Investigated by taking apart the motor:
Rubber block slightly split - although the grease looks really fresh - perhaps someone has been here before!
From what I can work out, this rocker is the derivative of the wiper park position - I had to take it on and off a few times to discover this. However, I can't get this rocker to park back at the same position and therefore will land anywhere on this scale once parked. I still need to work out where to go from here because it's quite annoying. As you can see from the picture below, sweep has gone onto the bootlid and scratched the paintwork before so want to avoid this when the car is repainted.
Speaking of repainting, whilst I had the car under the barn under the light I discovered this:
I know the the first forum thread listed in the first comment, Mick painted the car which was a bit of a while back so was quite surprised that this came up. Therefore, it looks like the front end is going to bare metal painted at the very least. I need to work out what else is going to be painted as I ideally don't want to spend 6k on painting this.
Back outside - can barley see the blistering unless you're looing for it!
Next job:
The interior light wasn't working when the drivers door was opened. Commonly, this is a door switch which is normally broken.
So had a little look - trim off and speakers out:
The reason - nothing was plugged into the back of a switch:
Using the internet and the help of Ben's experience in reading diagrams - it was worked out that there were two possibilities:
Plugged it back in - actually had to do this twice as left one unplugged to find out that this car has a timer delay optioned.
Great success!
Drivers mat temporary glued whilst I find a OEM replacement:
Also changed the window stop switch.
Before:
After:
Much better.
Hopefully, some better updates in due course.
Needs a clean now...
