Elias’ E30 project

[elias 350]

Saturdays progress. Engine and gearbox are out, and at the scrapyard. Removed sound deadening, removed rear seat, removed boot trims. Pretty much stripped as far back as it needs to be at this point for rust repair/paint. Still trying to workout the best way to get rust and paint sorted without spending a fortune. 
 

 

engine and box out. Was not a fun Job as I couldn’t use a ratchet strap to lift the back of the gearbox once the engine was up and out, so I needed to lift the whole thing up and over the front core support by hand, not a fun job extremely heavy thing. But got it done.

brake booster/master are out too pretty much a bare engine bay apart from some wiring and brake lines. Yet to figure out how to get the fuse box out. Most of the stuff on the firewall is glue residue but there are also some rusty spots that will need some attention, no holes however. 

[Eagle 1748]

42 minutes ago, elias said:

Still trying to workout the best way to get rust and paint sorted without spending a fortune. 

Flap disc take it back to clean metal, probably need a die grinder, dremel  and\or a finger sander for the blower motor area. If its too thin or gone through in areas then get someone to weld some patches in. Brush on 2k epoxy primer, seam sealer where needed. 1k base coat matched to body colour if you dont want to spend on a 2k base coat, probably get away with it since that area is not subject to much wear and UV. Cavity wax back sides of any areas you cant paint if especially if welding. Should be around a few hundred in paint and supplies then whatever welding costs are if needed (maybe a local member etc can do it for cheap).

[elias 350]

14 hours ago, Eagle said:

Flap disc take it back to clean metal, probably need a die grinder, dremel  and\or a finger sander for the blower motor area. If its too thin or gone through in areas then get someone to weld some patches in. Brush on 2k epoxy primer, seam sealer where needed. 1k base coat matched to body colour if you dont want to spend on a 2k base coat, probably get away with it since that area is not subject to much wear and UV. Cavity wax back sides of any areas you cant paint if especially if welding. Should be around a few hundred in paint and supplies then whatever welding costs are if needed (maybe a local member etc can do it for cheap).

Sweet yeah that sounds like a good plan will do that for the areas I can do myself. Just a bit stuck on what to do about the rust hole underneath the cowling near the inner guard. That’s probably not a job I’d take on myself. 

[Eagle 1748]

Yeah need right tools for sure. Worst case it may have to all cut out and a patch welded in.

[Neil McCauley 425]

Can recommend Dinitrol cavity wax for the back sides and spaces that will be hidden away.

[modz 154]

On 3/5/2025 at 10:30 AM, nick496 said:

I'm running the Sachs m20 clutch in mine and it's great for daily use. 

Haven't had any issues with the axles on my swap, but aside from a few track days it's seen mostly daily use (though now it's more of a Sunday driver). 

I have a clio booster, and after testing someone else's e30 with an e90 one, I want to swap mine. 

Def go the e90 booster over the clio one. #1 easier to find (and remove from donor) and #2 better booster feel. 

[elias 350]

12 minutes ago, modz said:

Def go the e90 booster over the clio one. #1 easier to find (and remove from donor) and #2 better booster feel. 

Good to hear, have got the 2002 reservoir, grommets and adapters for brake lines already, just need to find the time to go to pickapart to grab a booster.

[e30ftw 428]

I did a similar repair on mine. That part is borderline impossible to get to without cutting open more of the chassis. The rust starts on this piece underneath and spreads to the cowling area and under the windscreen. Check through the opening the inside of the lower windows in the corner, it usually starts from the inside. Take the fender off and you can slice open the inner fender. 

Also check the inside through those openings, feel up under the bottom of the windscreen and down (shown where I cut below). Generally the lower windshield corners rust from the inside out.

Edited March 17 by e30ftw

[elias 350]

10 hours ago, e30ftw said:

I did a similar repair on mine. That part is borderline impossible to get to without cutting open more of the chassis. The rust starts on this piece underneath and spreads to the cowling area and under the windscreen. Check through the opening the inside of the lower windows in the corner, it usually starts from the inside. Take the fender off and you can slice open the inner fender. 

Also check the inside through those openings, feel up under the bottom of the windscreen and down (shown where I cut below). Generally the lower windshield corners rust from the inside out.

That’s a lot of cutting. Probably not something I want to be doing myself, will try and talk to some panelbeaters and see what they reckon. Will pull the fender off and see how much more rust I discover. 

[elias 350]

Took the drivers side guard off to have a look and see if I find any more rust. But appears to be in good shape, rust appears to be limited to the one hole and hasn’t spread. 
 

will be getting the rust hole repair quoted by some panelbeaters not something I want to take on myself.

[elias 350]

No ground breaking progress as of late but slowly chipping away at some jobs. Have got a panelbeater coming to look at/quote up a repair for the rust hole under the cowl sometime in the next week. Have acquired a zf 5 Speed Box which should be better than the g220 I had previously, and have been busy spending a fair few hours prepping the floor for some rust treatment.
 

Stripped the sound deadening off the floor, and cleaned it all up, started wire wheeling the rust spots in preparation to have my brother weld some tiny holes shut and then epoxy prime, seam seal and paint the floor. Then into the same for the boot. 

Not the most fun work, but worth doing now to make sure it stays rust free in the long term. Hoping to get the rust hole fixed in the near future, then to prep and paint the engine bay. 

[Eagle 1748]

13 minutes ago, elias said:

zf 5 Speed Box

Detents done? Worth doing imo for improved shift quality

[elias 350]

26 minutes ago, Eagle said:

Detents done? Worth doing imo for improved shift quality

I don’t believe so, does it require special tools? 

[Eagle 1748]

Yeah @Vass would likely lend them out for cheap. Not sure what the part prices are like these days, but Schmeidmann was much cheaper than all the US places when i did mine.

[elias 350]

13 minutes ago, Eagle said:

Yeah @Vass would likely lend them out for cheap. Not sure what the part prices are like these days, but Schmeidmann was much cheaper than all the US places when i did mine.

Had a quick look now, about $300usd for a full detent kit or is it worth just doing the 5th gear detent? Hard to try and draw the line somewhere of what to replace vs what to just run as is. 

[Eagle 1748]

Yeah i drove the box before and after so felt like it was worth it at the time, paid in upper 300's NZD iirc. Probably depends on the box too, some maybe better than others. Just doing the 5th is with new shifter\shifter bushings is still going get most of the way to peak OE setup.

[elias 350]

8 minutes ago, Eagle said:

Yeah i drove the box before and after so felt like it was worth it at the time, paid in upper 300's NZD iirc. Probably depends on the box too, some maybe better than others. Just doing the 5th is with new shifter\shifter bushings is still going get most of the way to peak OE setup.

Yeah might just do the 5th and fresh shifter bushings all round maybe a dssr too as I’m missing the selector rod, unless I can source an oem one for cheap.  

[Vass 1003]

Yeah you need a special set of drifts/punches to install the detents and guide sleeves. Happy to lend it out to you, just cover return shipping.

Can't remember the detents themselves being that pricey. I got mine from Schmiedmann a few years ago. One of the pins was expensive, the others were fairly cheap. Can't tell if it's the 5th or reverse one but part number 23-31-7-502-165 - looked through my order history and I paid 59.01 EUR back then, now it's gone all the way up to 81.64 EUR. Yikes.

I got my DSSR from BM Speed Shop, a local fella here in Christchurch. Quality was decent and very reasonable price. Not sure what length you'd need but he might be able to advise or even make a custom one for you if no other ones suit.

[Harper 598]

Yeah the cost of all those gearbox detent parts jumped up significantly not long after I did them on my compact. Worth doing imo, the ZF in my compact has probably the best feeling gear change of any car I've owned. 

I also have a set of the detent punches if you need them. Based in Beachlands.

Edited March 27 by Harper

[elias 350]

Been a bit slack with this project recently, trying to come up with a plan for rust etc, and needing to figure out what’s going on with the gearbox in my touareg. 
 

anyway, decided to let a panelbeater sort out the rust/engine bay paint work, so the car will be getting dropped off for rust repairs to the rust hole under the cowl, rust around the boot shut, and full engine bay respray after Anzac weekend. 
 

then I will begin working on the engine refresh in the meantime now that all the parts have arrived from overseas. 
 

also picked up a purple tag steering rack and cleaned it up, should sort out the bus like steering feel of these e30s. 

Thanks for the suggestions regarding the gearbox detents, spoke to Kayne Barrie, and will get him to sort that out for me, get him to give it a good look over at the same time. He’s doing “all stuff” as he calls it for $300 so I’m pretty happy with that, I will trust his judgement on what needs doing and what doesn’t.  
 

managed to snag a manual pedal box and some new tailight lenses as well as a dash mat last week for it too. E30 part pricing is so wildly all over the show that it really pays to be patient and keep an eye out for a deal. Had multiple people tell me they wouldn’t sell me a pedal box for less than $800, ended up picking mine up for $120. So much money to be saved if you can find a seller that doesn’t charge e30 tax. 

[elias 350]

Finally got things moving with the e30. Fixed the touareg last week, so hired a trailer, rolled the e30 out the garage and down the driveway, loaded it up and took it to the panelbeater. It’ll be there for 2-3 weeks getting the rust hole fixed, the engine bay resprayed and the boot lip area rust will be sorted as well. 

picked up an engine crane off my mate, and made a start on the m52 refresh. Did the vanos rebuild last night, took a couple attempts to get the bearing preload right but not too bad. Reinstalled that hopefully it all works nicely. 
 

so far plan is to replace rear main and it’s housing gasket, sump gasket, valve cover gasket, oil filter housing gasket. Wire tie oil pump nut, delete the oil level sensor from the e34 oil pan, and do fresh oem pcv System. Anything else that’s work doing? Do the front timing covers ever leak? Seems like a bit of a pain to do with it being jammed up under the head gasket.