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As with all good projects, the car came off the road for something as simple as a blowing exhaust. And then I became a bit carried away. The plan for the newer and larger engine was brought forward when a suitable donor was sourced just up the road at a bargain price.
The M40 316i engine and gearbox proved pretty much unsellable even for £15 with gearbox and all ancillaries. So the decision was made to strip to its component parts and sell in bits. The ignition leads and rotor set proved to be more valuable that all the rest put together.
Which was lucky as there were some extremely dubious looking water and oil ways which definitely looked like they had the beginnings of gasket failure.
Next step was to remove all suspension, brakes and subframes:
Which had seen much better days:
Front end stripped, remembering to keep all scrap for maximum value for money in the project!
A considerable amount better than many E30s still on the road, not exactly showroom standard though:
Rear end stripped, the rear beam mountings needing many hours of attention and large tools to eventually become free:
More heat shielding/sound deadening removed from transmission tunnel and engine bay clean up began:
Now at the stage where the front end could be lifted off the axle stands - so much for a quick exhaust repair!
Meanwhile, inside the car, the dash was being retained partly for a hint of practicality (ridiculous maybe but the E30 was and will be pretty much a daily driver) and partly to keep to regulations of the E30 race series just in case.
The dash vents were unnecessary, gauges however were a likely future addition so a custom pod was made:
Checking angle for each vent to face driver:
Then several layers of fibreglass and sanding to get the pod shape:
Joined together and more fibreglass:
Then initial sanding to shape before priming:
Back underneath, a selection of parts had been attacked with the wire brush and made a visit to the powdercoaters. Of course it made sense to have the mainly subframes and anti roll bar done in the closest shade they had to lime green while the assorted brackets and plated recieved a coating of the more conventional black.
