A champagne coloured 1984 BMW E30 two door strapped to a U-Haul car trailer on a driveway, seen from the front three quarter, with trees and a house behind it

Garage projectDrawing 5 of 33

BMW E30
restoration

A nut and bolt restoration of a BMW E30, still in progress. I bought a car I didn't understand and I'm taking it apart one system at a time until I do.

StatusIn progress
CarBMW E30, two door
Right nowFront structure off, shell in primer, engine out with the head off
MethodNut and bolt, one system at a time
Not recordedModel year, trim, engine identity, purchase date, mileage

Sheet 02 of 06/Why an E30

Why I bought a car that does not work

Everything else I build starts in CAD, where a corner really is a corner; this car doesn't work that way, and that's actually the appeal.

The E30 on its trailer in front of a stone and stucco house, seen from the front three quarter in bright daylight — *PL 02*Still on the trailer. The first proper look at what I had actually bought, in daylight and still in one piece.

The E30 sitting on the trailer in a wooded driveway, viewed from the side, with blue tape on the rear quarter panel — *PL 03*Parked up before unloading. Every photograph of this car after this one is of a car in pieces.

Sheet 03 of 06/Diagnose first

Evidence before parts

The expensive mistake with an old car is buying parts before you actually know what's wrong, so nothing gets ordered until I can point at the reason.

The empty engine bay of the E30 with the engine already removed, showing bare metal, surface rust across the inner wings and the steering rack still in place — *PL 04*The engine bay as bought. Already stripped by somebody else, and the rust that had been living underneath it.

The removed front end panel of the E30 standing on a shop floor next to the car, with shelving and tools in the background — *PL 05*The nose off, in the shop. Taking the front structure away as an assembly is what makes everything behind it reachable.

Sheet 04 of 06/Sequence

Order of work

I'm doing the structural and safety stuff before anything cosmetic, since there's no point painting something I'd just have to pull apart again to get at what's underneath it.

The E30 engine bay stripped to bare metal and sprayed in light grey primer, seen from the front with the windscreen masked off — *PL 06*Bare metal and then primer. Stripped back to clean steel and sealed before a single part goes back into it.

The same engine bay sprayed in the car's cream body colour, clean and glossy, with every seam and hole visible — *PL 07*The engine bay in colour. The first part of this car that is finished rather than in progress.

Sheet 05 of 06/Where it stands

Where it stands

Right now the front structure is off, the shell's back to bare metal and primer, the engine's out on a stand with the head off, and sound deadening is going into the floors.

The primed E30 shell in a workshop with its front structure and crossmember laid out separately on a blue tarpaulin on the floor — *PL 08*Shell and front structure. The whole front end lifts away as one piece, which is why the subframe came out first.

Looking through the door opening into the stripped interior of the E30, the floor and wheel arches covered in foil backed sound deadening mat — *PL 09*Sound deadening going in. Floors and wheel arches, done now while there is still nothing in the way.

The four cylinder engine removed from the car and mounted on a red engine stand in a garage, dirty and partly disassembled — *PL 10*The engine out, on a stand. Off the car it can be turned over and inspected properly instead of judged by feel.

The engine block with the cylinder head removed, looking down onto four open bores and the deck surface

Sheet 06 of 06/Lessons

What the car has taught me

The big lesson so far is patience: fixing the visible thing first usually just hides the real cause, and doing steps out of order means undoing them later.

PL 11The block with the head off. Bores and deck in plain view, which is evidence rather than a guess about what it needs.