Project E3 is Go! 2014

[uwbuurman]

Nice progress. You being Brewer and all, does that make Nas Edd China?

[arshad76]

Lol thanks guys, I'm as chubby as Brewer right now, but Nas certainly isn't as softly spoken as Edd China!

[uwbuurman]

Whahaha, and not as tall aswell.

[nas80]

Ok so the car went off to enviro strip and after a nervous wait. The car came out the other end looking pretty good















Still needs to go through the etch priming process. Will update with more pics later in the week.

[Jeroen]

Well, as long as the condition isn't worse than expected! Looking forward to the next update... now the constructive fun begins!

[Peter V.]

Nice work already, can't wait until the next update.

[arshad76]

Apologies for the long pregnant pause. To be honest, it's been a fairly depressing turn of events. Envirostrip did their bit and with the car stripped and coated in primer, every area of the car that needs repair was on display. There is a lot of work to be done, fortunately the E3 is not a rot box and pretty well preserved for a car that will be 50 years old in a couple of years.



Onto the less so good.

First, the owner of the bodyshop who were going to take the job initially (Mal's Customs & Classics) sadly took his own life. Obviously there isn't any point blaming him, I quite liked Mal. However, this meant swapping to another bodyshop and all the associated hassle that went with that for Nas and me.

Next was Sharps Customs in Nottinghamshire. The quote from Mal effectively doubled. However, we were under the impression that they were a professional outfit. I duly put down a deposit for £2000 and the remainder on completion and then... nothing. With zero progress made in 3 months we took the decision to remove the car (again with me footing the removal costs) and an assurance that my deposit would be returned a month later. Then Andrew Sharp the owner failed to return my messages. Luckily I have an old college friend who now has his own law firm. I'm in the process of taking Andrew's business through court.Extremely arrogant and uncompromising when I met him. He essentially laughed at me when I requested they took some photos of the progress during the job and also slipped in the fact that this was a cash job with no invoice given. I wonder how many people would feel great about handing over £8000 for a paint job and then getting made to feel like they were doing the customer a huge favour?

I have always supported small businesses, both personally and in as part of previous job roles, but I hope Karma really is a b@£*h when it comes to this person and I will be making my feelings felt for his dishonest dealings more publicly on the net.

Anyway, with that off my chest onto more recent progress. There were some lessons learned after this bad experience and Nas spent a lot of time finding a more respectable replacement. Nas had a point of finding someone more local too, so that it would be easier to check up on progress etc. It's going to Prestige Bodyshop in Sheffield. They're a family owned business and from what Nas has told me, keen to take on the project (the most important factor there is in my mind). Hopefully we're back on track soon then.

A few photos of the car as it stands. As mentioned, the E3 luckily came out from dipping with most of it intact. What faired less well were the bonnet and the bootlid, front wing and doors.



The problem we're finding with old BMW's (not just E3's but E21's too) is that new stock is slowly becoming NLA and phoning up the local specialists for new old stock or quality secondhand replacements have some heavy mark ups. I didn't fancy paying £600 plus VAT and shipping for a used bootlid for example . I wish I'd carried on learning German from school, but with the help of Google translate and some creative searching, I managed to track down a near pristine replacement from Germany for half this price.



Likewise I managed to score a bonnet a few years ago. It's dented and wonky, but not rotten. Prestige has assured us they'll get it straight. One front wing was fine, the other we replaced from a solid one we took off the Li we broke a few years ago.

The doors were mostly solid surprisingly, but the front passenger side was starting to go at the bottom. Luckily I managed to find a brand new replacement from someone selling a NOS version on a Facebook forum (another useful site by the way!). Fills my heart with joy looking at such clean metal




Photos of the E3 as it currently is















More updates to come in the next few weeks hopefully.

[Jeroen]

Eventful times then, but there's progress now, good to see! Has to be ready for next year's Sharknose!

[uwbuurman]

Nice progress! Karma is a bit$h. For that guy I hope it will be double! Hope your friend will put Jim out of business.

Onwards with that great motor, mate!

[arshad76]

Thanks both, very encouraging. I'll try to refrain moaning about Sharps Customs, however this is such an emotive hobby for us car people. You work hard in your day job, looking forward to your dream being built one day. Except in my case it turned into a nightmare. Guys like Sharp have a special place in hell as far as I'm concerned and give honest, diligent trades people a bad name.

But yes, onwards and upwards! Hope to have some more constructive progress in the next posts

[drjim]

Didn't know about Mal but not paying much attention to e21 scene.

[Jeroen]

How dare you!

[uwbuurman]

Ban??

[drjim]

cheeky wotsit!

Wasn't sharps the place Nas went to work at for a bit???

[nas80]

thought I would update this, I'm sorry progress hasn't been thick and fast. I did work at a place but that didn't work out and I ended up back in an office job. its a very long story.

we have had some pretty bad luck with body shops, the car ended up coming back not once but twice. after some quotes (5 figures!) fortunately we found a localish one that is reasonably priced. I think we have picked the colour we want now, went to the bmw dealership to see it in person, I fell in love with the car it was on but unfortunately I didn't think my wife would appreciate me "nipping out" and then coming home in a 50k car ha.

anyway the main reason we had massive quotes, is because the all the panels were beat up. the doors / bonnet although intact weher clearly filled to hell previously the boot lid edge didn't really survive the acid dip, so we went on a worldwide mission on finding panels, and I'm not sure how Arshad did it tbh. we have some very nice panels now, needed a sill - I couldn't find any for less then 300 but a quick call to mount panels and they had the side we needed for only 35 pounds!

some progress has been done this week on getting the car welded, theres loads more to do so might just leave sharing pics of that for a post of its own.

we found some 15" alpinas in 5x120, they seem to be dirt cheap in this size with 5 stud? as you all probably know I don't get the reason alpine stuff is so expensive esp period wheels, they aren't forged or even split rims etc. Arshad rang me and told me hes gonna get them converted into 18" by a firm in Poland that specialises in this work. I was over the moon.

The wheels sent to them, however even that was a bloody ordeal! They took absolutely ages, and also started being really random, sending 1 wheel, two weeks later 2 wheels, then another two weeks went and i finally got the last wheel?! Then they lost the center caps,

I don't think I would (or Arshad) would ever go through that again, i would rather ring Image and get some made custom from a solid billet. however.. they are back home now all built up.