E30 318iS project from trademe

mark247 · December 1, 2023

Hi all. This car was posted in the for sale section earlier in the year and I ended up buying it to tidy up so thought I may as well show my progress so far. When I bought it it is misfiring badly, paint was peeling in many places, it looked like it had lived outside much of its life. The interior was all there but needed a good clean and some parts replacing.

I stripped the car myself to get it resprayed ("closed door").The respray came out pretty well. It needed some rust repairs around the rear valence which turned out to be more than I first thought. I had to replace the drivers side door as hidden rust had taken out so much of the lip the door seal sits on (only saw this when removing the rubber for painting). A rust free door was pretty easy to find, I was worried as I had been told prefacelift and facelift doors are different (different trim, and one mount for the motor is different). I took a risk and purchased a door which I was told was prefacelift (maybe seller was wrong), turns out it was 100% identical to my door, so no worries there. I transferred over the facelift window motor and other components and trim with no issues.

The misfire turned out to be a simple fix, i replaced the coils and leads and it now runs perfectly.

I have spend nights and nights in the garage tinkering and tidying it up but a few things I did include;

- replace all the seals in the boot inc. rear lights, boot vents behind pumper, and the aerial gromet. Water leaking into the boot caused almost all the rust in the rear.
- Odometer had recently (according to carjam) stopped working, I ripped it apart and replaced the gears. Easy fix.
- Replaced the headunit with one that doesn't look like total crap. Got some new speakers also.
- Replaced the fuel neck rubber
- Painted the black trim with SEM PAINTS 39143 TRIM BLACK spray paint, a product I would 100% recommend for any DIYer. I was going to just buy new bumper trims, they are not that expensive, however I thought I'd try this product first and I am totally happy with the results.
- I tidied up a lot of the other black plastics with 'Solution Finish' which basically blackens faded plastic trim, another amazing product I'd recommend.
- Replaced many many clips which were damaged when disassembling car, BMW clips are not cheap!
- Gave the interior a thorough clean and replaced some odd bits. I ripped up the carpet to check for rust and found none thankfully.
- The car had this totally bonkers hydraulic headlight adjuster system which was not working. It had a switch under the steering wheel which you can turn which would pump water to the headlights to adjust their angle. I ripped it out and replaced it with normal adjusters, no way I'm trying to fix that.

The car is now by no means in show room condition, it has a rip on one of the driver seat bolsters (going to be a mission finding the proper fabric), and the dash is cracked. However these are things I can live with for now, as all I wanted was a nice weekend cruiser, not a show car. The lip, after painting and spending probably $60 on clips, has already been ripped off multiple times. The joys of iS lips, but at least it looks good. The car probably owes me around $25k now including the purchase price. I am happy with that for the condition it is now in. Even passed a wof!

Here are some photos of current product, and some photos from along the way. Really should've taken more photos of the progress.

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