Let the Madness Begin

5

<50miles

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Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Hello All,

It has been more than 20 years since I bought my car, and as of yesterday, the car is finally at the body shop being completely dissembled for a bare metal rebuild. First email I received from the bodyshop informed me that they had removed the back seats and found the 'first' mouse nest.

Anyway, now that the body work is underway, I have question for the community. Given that I have finally decided to keep the car mostly original, I wanted to know what period correct upgrades I can make to the engine. Please keep in mind that I am keeping it Automatic. I was thinking of stroking the engine to 3.5 litres and slightly increasing the compression. The mechanic said that the transmission can take up to 250 horsepower/torque.

Any advice is appreciated.

Andrew
 
I love my Schrick 284 cam that SFDon recommended. Not sure if the automatic would take advantage of it though, others here would know.
 
Hi Andrew,

I am no expert but I have been researching similar content for my 2.8 motor as of late. From what I gather, there aren't a lot of options for stroking the 3.0 motor with a factory crankshaft. BMW changed the M30 at around 1976 to accommodate a crankshaft with a longer stroke. The block has reliefs cast into the sides to accommodate the longer throw. The blocks have visible bulges toward the bottom.

Now you can still stroke it a little bit with machine shop trickery or a custom crank. If you get a later block your options increase but the long stroke cranks are generally rare (E3 88.4mm stroke) or expensive (s38B38 90mm stroke).

An option that I may pursue if my oem motor ever gives me trouble is to swap the long block and keep the original short block in storage.

That's all that I have researched so far. I haven't turned a single nut on an M30 internal component yet.
 
Hello Everybody,

Because the car is going to be rebuilt using as many OEM parts as possible, who is considered to be the best/most reliable company shipping parts to Canada?

Thank you
 
Hello Everybody,

I have a question. Is removing the instrument panel the best way (or perhaps the only way) to remove the windshield? In addition, am I right to assume that for a proper restoration, the instrument panel should be removed to investigate/prep/paint it.

Andrew
 
FOR sure pull them and clean
you can gently open up the glass frame and clean the inside of the glass it is always dirty
w/ a film
no need to pull the instrument ot get the glas in out.
check all bulbs
and you could get 4 w to be brighter.
 
Hello All,

After talking to the restoration shop this week they made a very interesting observation. According to their experience working on many 1960 to 1970s European cars they though the original bodywork was poor. The owner said that it was as bad as or even worse than British Leland!
I mention this because I was wondering if any other members who have done restorations have heard similar remarks from their shops?

Thanks

Andrew
 
im not sure about the early cars but mine is very well built everywhere
as i inspected every inch whjile in the body shop
and we were planing on strengthening at that time
my guy added a few welding spots here and there just for safety because of my motor.
in the back seat the trunk
and around the firwall
the floors were really solid
 
<50miles said:
Hello All,

After talking to the restoration shop this week they made a very interesting observation. According to their experience working on many 1960 to 1970s European cars they though the original bodywork was poor. The owner said that it was as bad as or even worse than British Leland!
I mention this because I was wondering if any other members who have done restorations have heard similar remarks from their shops?

Thanks

Andrew
Click to expand...
Hi - well all I can say is these cars like to rust from the inside out . Having just had mine dipped there is not much left!
It did not look that bad with paint on .... But now it's a full on job...
British Leyland ( I live near Leyland) - if it was made by them the car would not have lasted no more that 4 years -they started rusting in the factory!
I think the best way to tell if the car is rusty is to take off the front wings ... If it looks good there, the chance the rest will be good - if not I would take a guess it will need. All new sills as a min...
Good luck
 
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