Andrew Everett shows us how he rejuvenated a chrome-bumpered BMW 320i.

As projects go this was, to put it mildly, way off the scale on the "interesting" side of things. My aim? To take a solid but down at-the-heel E30 and restore it to something like showroom condition. Oh, and without recourse to a BMW dealer. Instead, I was going to get most of the new parts from Euro Car Parts, who have been supplying parts for BMWs for as long as I can remember. But as well as a general restoration, I was going to make a couple of minor tweaks to make it look and drive better. So overall a bit of challenge, then.

B706 MPC is an Alpine white 320i two door. It's got an interesting story along with tons of history and paperwork, which makes fascinating reading. A lot of it relates to its import from Holland, which back then was the cheapest place to buy a car.

It’s one of the better E30s, despite being a 1984 build car: most chrome-bumper saloons have become a shabby collection of tacked-on patched filler and by the time an E30 has rusted to the point of needing a full rebuild, you might as well just go and look for a better car.

Condition-wise, in all honesty this example is at the stage where it could be saved now with some work, or left to rust away. For instance, despite the new rear arches fitted in 2001, there is rot growing again behind the bumper end trims where mudflaps had been fitted. The other area of concern involves the front passenger side corner which has received a bump, damaging a wing and front panel along with a flattened front bumper. As a result, the outer arch skin had rusted through where the arch meets the sill, so this has to be cut out and replaced with new metal, and the rear inner arch has gone through where the fuel breather pipe steel guard screws on.

Unfortunately, early front panels up to mid-1985 are not available without recourse to BMW and vast expense, but ECP do supply the slightly different 1985- 87 type, which to my eyes looks better anyway. ECP still supply virtually all the front bumper components. An interesting repair of the rear exhaust box means that I'll just renew the rear box, a Walker box, which has lasted an astounding four years.

I decided to entrust the body job to P&L Bodyworks in Huthwaite, near Mansfield, who have restored a couple of old BMWs including an E21 320 and a 1972 CSL. If you're not too far away, you can find them on 01623 513726. So on the very day B706 MPC was delivered, it went straight to them. The brief was to repair the back arches, replace the damaged front panels and repaint the front end and both sides. I also wanted to get the rear panel repainted so that when the lights and bumpers go back on, it will look like a new one.

Because the car has been well maintained, there isn't otherwise a huge amount to do, but I'm going to do a cambelt change to show what's involved. Although they’re pretty simple, this example is a little more complicated, being the distributor version.

ACCIDENT DAMAGE

Back to that front-end knock. Thankfully this wasn't bad. It had crumpled a wing and knackered the front panel, but these are easy to remove. We used a BMW replacement for the wing, while the driver's front wing was a BMW wing. Best of all, the wing is an absolutely perfect fit and it meets the ECP front valance a treat. This valance was sprayed with the correct BMW-textured anti-stonechip paint so it looks 'right'. Also, the rear arch lips have been painted in this textured stuff to be something like a factory finish, and the new wings were painted off the car to get a good coat of paint on the inner shut. After rubbing down, priming was restricted to the repaired panels and the car was painted down on both sides plus the bonnet, the paint join being lost on the B-pillars before being polished when hard.

As for the rest of the trim, ECP supplied a complete new front bumper. Luckily the crunch didn't break any of the plastics, so once the bumper was assembled, they were cleaned and fitted. To protect the bumpers from rust, we painted the backs in Waxoyl. This won’t be an everyday all-weather car again, but if we did have to use it on a couple of foul days, it's nice to know the Waxoyl is there doing its stuff - and there's plenty of it around all four arches.

DAMPER UPGRADE

One of the things we wanted to do was to replace the original dampers and carry out a mild upgrade, so we've used a combination of Bilstein B4 gas dampers and Eibach springs, which will lower the car by 30mm. This is as far as you'll want to lower an E30 for the road and still retain some ride comfort. The dampers came from Euro Car Parts, the UK importer for Bilstein, and out of the box I was surprised at how stiff they were. I'd say they were equal to the Boge M Technic damper and for what they cost (around £130 a set), they are really very good. We also elected to renew the top mounts all round as well as new bump stops. E30 struts can get a bit flaky with rust and despite the recent MoT, both ours were rotten, so a pair of mint used replacements were found. Actually replacing the suspension is simple nuts and bolts with no particular tricky points. However, we did find surface rust on the rear trailing arms under the spring cups, so these were wire brushed and treated to some black Waxoyl. The result is a car that sits some 30mm lower than standard, handles much better yet still rides properly: very nice.

BELT CHANGE

Now it's time to give some of the normal servicing bits a look at, starting with the cambelt. In its 95,000 miles, B706 MPC appears to have had five belt changes but on the last one a few thousand miles ago, there was no reference to the belt tensioner. This is vital and must be changed with the belt. The tensioner bearings can get growly, but what can happen is that the shaft the tensioner sits on could break off, and it's then bye-bye engine.

Changing a cambelt on an E30 is a pretty easy job. E30 belts, be they M20-engined (320i, 325e and 325i) or M40-engined (316i and 318i), must be renewed every 30,000 miles along with the tensioner rollers and the water pump. On the M20, changing the pump is a boring job because it involves removing almost everything you remove on a belt job, and so for the sake of £25, it's madness not to replace it.

MPC also had a couple of annoying problems that took some sorting, namely a high idle speed and a really long brake pedal.

The high idle speed was caused by the water-controlled idle control valve (or auxiliary air slide) which is an alloy H-valve that lives under the inlet manifold on these pre-88 cars. It fits in between an air hose that runs from the idle speed screw, and between two hoses than run from the thermostat housing and the back of the block. When cold the valve is fully open, allowing a slightly high idle speed to go with the richer cold-start mixture; a bit like pulling the choke out on an old Mini. As the coolant in the engine heats up, the valve starts to close so that by the time the engine is up to temperature, the valve has almost fully closed, dropping the idle speed back to the correct 8-900rpm.

Only ours wasn't, being so corroded. The idle speed screw had, of course, been wound right in to try and lower the idle speed, dropping it to about 1,200rpm which is way too high.

New idle valves for these old L-Jetronic cars are an absolute fortune and are now a BMW-only part. So on a couple of scrapyard jaunts, I found three old chrome bumper E30s with these valves, which were duly liberated. Once home these were cleaned and given the hot water test of having very hot water poured into the coolant passage to see if the air valve closed off: two passed the test, one failed. The best one was fitted, which made things bit better.

The next issue was the long brake pedal. The car would stop, but with a disconcerting amount of pedal travel. Taking the drums off revealed genuine BMW shoes with plenty of meat. We renewed a weeping wheel cylinder and adjusted the shoes (the handbrake is a lot better) before bleeding the brakes. Still no improvement, though!

Only one thing for it: a new master cylinder. ECP supply these for £90 plus VAT, but it was just luck that I bought a couple from that well-known auction site a couple of years ago, and one was the exact type. E30 master cylinders are easy to change: the reservoir simply pulls off (you'll need plenty of blankets to catch any stray fluid) and once the airbox and air flow meter are removed, it's two 13mm nuts and three 11mm brake pipe connectors to remove the cylinder.

With the cylinder bolted on and a cleaned-out reservoir fitted, we filled it with new fluid and bled the brakes again. Result? A much better pedal, but not perfect. In a last-ditch attempt to sort it, I opened the glovebox and removed the steering column undertray, located the two 17mm locknuts on the brake linkage crossbar and rotated the crossbar to raise the pedal an inch. The result now is a decent pedal.

Next the exhaust. I don't think much of pattern exhausts, but my 'BMW only' principles tend to get put aside when a genuine back box for a 1983 BMW costs over £200. I called Dave Cooke at BMW specialist Parkside in Worksop (01909 506555), who located one.

With the exhaust replaced it was almost all done, but one thing remained and that was the coolant level sensor, also known as the life-saver. On any car, the moment the coolant level drops, you want to know instantly so you can pull over and see what's happened. Ours was constantly crying wolf, even though the level was spot on. Bridging the contacts with a paper clip put the light out, indicating that the sensor was at fault and not the wiring.

These early-type sensors have flat blade terminals, and the sensor itself is a different length so the later-type just won't do. Even so, a new one from BMW is around £15, so not outrageously expensive. Once fitted, our light went out, and stayed out.

FINAL OUTCOME

Now that the E30 project is completed, it's time for an overview of what's been done. The bodywork restoration was only kept to this side of affordable by the fact that I did all the stripping and refitting myself. If you paid a specialist to do this, you’d have a bill for three grand, which is about twice the car's value.

The best bit about it is the new suspension. The Eibach springs as fitted are llower, but still have the same spring rates as a 325i, which means it's not rock hard and jarring but a lot better than what came off. The Bilstein B4 dampers are just right, giving good damping for a set-up which is taut yet giving a very compliant ride. The nice new top mounts mean no creaking or clonking, like a new one.

We ended up doing a major restoration on a car, which really was pretty horrid. When it arrived, it looked an absolute mess and had I bought the car myself for a few quid, I’m not sure I wouldn't have whipped the limited slip diff out, pillaged a few bits and weighed it in. Yes, the coward's way out! But that would have been a pity given its history: one previous owner and things like the new BMW clutch fitted literally hundreds of miles before I got hold of it.

We’ve taken a sad E30 and brought it back to life, at the same time making it handle better than it ever did.