The 5 Year Restoration - E30 M3 Reborn

[CurrusDei]

New M3 Owner... The Build Thread

Will do! They won't be as exciting as the big new parts above for a couple months since my son is being born in March and my 335 needs new turbos - bad waste gate rattle for past 6 months or so (going with RBs for those of you who are familiar with that side of the BMW world).

But, I'm thinking its time to start disassembling for paint. My wife wants to do something nice for my 30th birthday in the spring and it's looking like paint is it! I'll be pulling the motor and all that other fun stuff in preparation.

In a less flashy area of the project-the heater/AC box is mostly done. I don't have a great before pic of the whole unit, but these capture its dirty essence





So I pulled it out, leaving the wires attached as I mentioned above.



Cleaned out the nooks and crannies (there are lots), I'm sure I missed a couple.



Removed all the old blend door insulation, which after 25 years was more like a thin film of adhesive with some foam particles still clinging to it. Nice how you can see through the one on the right. The one on the left is one I traced out of the foam I got from Grainger (pictured earlier)



Made new foam fittings for all the blend doors, including a bit of an aggressive one for the recirc blend doors on the top, left some foam in the middle for reinforcement because it's a big curved contact surface.











I also replaced the bead gasket that goes between the upper and lower sections of the box. The old one was dried out and brittle. Also it was gray, cmon guys, black clearly matches this part (that you won't ever see because it's inside another part you won't ever see) better. Still, I know it's there. I just bought some good rubber cordage from Amazon-2mm diameter solid rubber.





I added some foam padding to make my evaporator fit nice and tight, then put it in before rejoining to two halves so the foam didn't get pushed out of place.





Now, before I rejoined the two halves, there was one more thing that had to go.



Gross dirty wire tape. Again, you'll never see it, but I know it's there. One short order of smaller width tesa tape from some dude in Bulgaria later and... (I obviously had the tape already here, think of it like a cooking show)







Nice and clean.

Then put the two halves back together (I don't show how I took some of the doors off here, but there's a great thread at s14.net I'll link to later).

Edit: here's the link. He shows a lot I don't and I show a lot of where he left off:

http://www.s14.net/forums/forum/s14/general-e30-m3-discussion/50494-airconditioning-condensor-and-evaporator/page6

Also if you look closely you'll see I left some of the old wire tape where the cables enter the area behind the blower motor. I had already put the top foam gasket on and didn't feel like ordering another one so I could separate the right and left sides of the top.









Reinstall the recirc door motors and get all that wire routing back in place



Just needs a heater core and she's ready to go! It'll be a while though with paint coming up. Not that I mind, after all that work it will be nice to look at this on the shelf for a while.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CurrusDei]

Almost! Had the body shop guy out last weekend. Just have the rear subframe, fuel lines, rear brake lines, steering column, parking brake, and driver door left, along with some misc clips, etc.

[CurrusDei]

Alright, Thanksgiving. Time to bring this thread current :up:

Before I could free the back part of the wiring harness I had to get under the car to free a few sensors that tie into the main harness

Looking up from the bottom into the back seat



Speedo sensor comes off the diff



Brake wear sensor





I took a handful of videos tracking the path of various lines under the car.

This seemed more efficient than test and photos.









Some wires run to the fuel lever sensors and pumps



The two you see in the picture above run off the back of the fuel tank. Not easy to get out but unbolting the tank gives you some more clearance.



Some lines run over to the fuel sender pump



Pulling wires from the underside to the topside



On the topside



Part of the wiring harness runs over to the passenger side



On the passenger side, some of the wires split off from the main harness by the rear seat brace bar



These wires continue down toward the door sill (the white translucent clip (not the one in my hands) around the wires here plugs into the sheet metal on the inside of the door sill.



This connector looks a bit singed. The connection goes to the overhead lights.





Moving toward the front, here is the door sensor and speaker



You’ll notice on the passenger side that there are two main “sets” of wires that run down the side, one crosses over from the main harness that runs down the driver side, the other runs from the positive terminal on the battery down the passenger side and up into the engine bay. Here you’ll see where I have started to coil up this positive terminal wire.



Positive terminal wire goes up a series of tie downs and into the engine bay





Nice and wrapped



Cleaned, taped, and tied





There was one wire left when I had cleared out the others





It runs back to the gas tank flap lock, easy to disconnect. The actuator comes off as well



On the driver’s side, separating the wire that runs up to the ceiling reading light



Complex junction around where the left side of the driver seat would be



Floor spaghetti



Passenger door wiring connection coming out



Passenger speaker



Harness running under the passenger seat area



Passenger side rolled up



Unattaching sensor on hand brake



Going over the transmission tunnel



and back down the other side



This guy was just coiled up under my seat. Quick research says its the seatbelt buzzer sensor.



Front driver side speaker





steering column



four screws hold on the stalks







I read that this is the seatbelt buzzer relay



Plastic cover over a set of relays behind/below the front driver speaker.



Ugh, such a mess





There was one more electrical attachment in the engine bay – I think this is the Fuel Tank Breather Valve, but all the new ones are plastic



Now, find someone to help with this part. The entire harness has to be fed through a small hole under the fuse box. My buddy from my neighborhood (who works on VWs a lot) helped with this part. It is not an easy pass through – just go slowly, don’t break anything, and take a break if you get frustrated. After a while, your reward is a huge mess of wire on the floor, and some very skinned knuckles.



…and a very empty car







Handy use for my engine hoist box...

[CurrusDei]

The doors on the car actually required a fair amount of work to empty while cataloging everything, and not breaking anything.

First step was removing the rear glass. easy. two bolts in the b pillar, suction cups helped keep it from dropping





Next this clip had to come off, popped off easily with minimal force



This guy just pries off the back



These plastic pry tools are hugely helpful. I would never do this with a screwdriver - and they're less than $5 at Harbor Freight, so who cares if you break one - you arent scratching anything.





These are the clips on the lower window trim



Rubber was a bit tired. Going to be replaced




I was able to raise and lower the window manually fairly easily



The upper trim pries off with some moderate force in the front. Be careful and definitely use a plastic tool here. Be very gentle. I bent my passenger side trim a bit taking it off, but it should straighten easily with some careful re-installing. Driver's side came off perfectly - practice makes perfect.

This is the first clip



Clips all the way across the top



Little bend, should fix ok i think



The B Pillar trim comes off with some force pushing toward the front so it can clear the lip and clips.





So i tried to preserve the original moisture barrier when removing it... didnt go so well. The heat gun melted through it instead of loosening the adhesive. So I'll need new moisture barrier material - if anyone knows where i can find that...







These are the inserts the door tweeter speaker goes into. they just twist in



Window motor



The wire is zip tied up the front part of the door (from the factory). I cut the zip ties to free the cable. You can see both ends of the cable here as i have it disconnected from the window wiring harness.



Disconnected the motor from the gear mechanism. This lets the window move completely freely. One trick i used to keep it from falling was to put a strong suction cup on the outside of the window so that the cup would get stuck on the door sill, preventing the window from falling down.



Two bolts and the motor wiggles free



The casing shell comes off easily, but i stored the two together





Window down to remove weather stripping



Worked the weather stripping down from the top. There's a surprising amount of rubber down in the door itself.





Now the upper trim on the body of the car

Started prying here



First clip released. They are old and fairly small, so they'll probably break. Fortunately replacements are cheap and plentiful



Some of the clips came off with the trim, leaving scratches. Not a problem in this case with the respray.



Worked my way up. Remember what i said about it being ok to break the plastic tools...







Now for this guy.



I just drilled out the center of the old retaining pins.



Then its just prying



And removing all the mounting clips and gaskets - not much hope of getting these off intact.



I removed the clips so the body shop has a clean surface to work with. Plastic pry tools again



And a gentle mallet tap sends the clip flying





And then on to the door mechanics. I removed the four bolts that hold on the window motor (three on the left, one in the bottom right corner of the door)





Here you see one of the two tracks on the bottom of the window glass. To the right is the insert on the window regulator arm that goes into the track. Its already out here obviously.



Once the runners are out of the tracks, the window just lifts out.



Glass out



Now to take out the regulator and arms. These two nuts hold it on.



Collapse it down into the right position and it lifts out easily.



Here its where those two nuts went



Now, this is a cool shot. Inside the door! The bolt at the bottom holds on the front track that the rubber window stripping fit into.





There is a little hook at the top that you have to watch out for, the track has to drop down before it will release. Dont force it and break this.



Now looking toward the back



The other track is held on by one of the four bolts that held in the window regulator





The little black plastic plastic clip just below center in this pic holds a clip that holds a connection on the window wiring harness.





These two bolts hold in the door lock actuator



Disconnect the hook at the top



Then disconnect the electrics



Getting emptier. Left the hook for the lock actuator hanging.



Door hardware coming off



BMW gave you a metal bracket with your metal bracket so you can bracket while you bracket.



Then there's this goo



Rear bracket



How it all goes back together



And black rubber goo coming out



Door handle





Another hook



Wiring harness extraction



Tagging



Speaker wires



More mounting points for clips





Couple more zip ties



Powered mirror connection





The last wires are on the door latch box. This thing was not easy to get off. The bolts are torqued hugely tight and the screw metal isnt super hard. My advice, do what i did on the driver's side and use hand tools - a screwdriver bit paired to a long wratchet works very well. Power tools stripped the screws almost without fail. then you have to get mean and use dremmels, flat screw drivers, and force. Fortunately all came out nicely and new bolts will be used on install of course.





Door handles are easy



here's the back, inside the door





This little guy lives on the inside of the door and provides the bolt studs for the nuts to hold the door handle hinge.



Here's how it fits in



Unhooking more electrics. This looks like a sensor that sits on the door lock arm.



Here what it looks like after you remove the black box



One more bolt to release the high tech motion control mechanism... steel rods



How it sits in the car.



Misc door hardware









lock releases with this C clip









EMPTY DOOR!! Now, just do it all over again on the other side



And some organization afterward will help later



Remember what i said about door latch box hand tools? Proof from the driver's side...



And the driver's side lock didnt look so hot. Guessing this is related to the dent that is in the same location. Body shop is working that one out

[SteveJ]

Ballpark cost for the VIN labels?
Did they do the swirl cuts in the emissions one?
What documentation did they need to start the process?

I've got a collection of stickers already, but there is a -tiny- typo on one of them, and I didn't get any of the body panel or door jamb VINs.
(Actually, it might be fun to use my typo sticker and just see how many people spot it)

Steve J

[SteveJ]

Not to get too far ahead on the build, but what are your plans for all the black metal and black plastic trim bits - re-use, refurbish, or replace?

Curious, because some of the shadowline trim around the door/window is NLA. Not sure what I plan to do yet. All the parts need to match...except for the rear window trim which is gloss finish.

[SteveJ]

I refinished some of the black trim on my e21 320is- door handles, mirrors, license plate lights, etc...

Scuffed down with 400/600, then coated with Smart Grey Etching Primer and Trim Black. Results were good and seem to be holding up after a couple of years outside (no garage time for the 320).

I used to use SEM products, which I like. My supply place has been switching over to Smart products. Supposedly easier to deal with the California air requirements.

The only trim that concerns me is the drip rail. It has to be durable yet flexible to withstand the crimping/installation.

[CurrusDei]

Fuel door back on!





The hardware was pretty dirty



Before/after







Ready



On






and cleaning up hardware for firewall insulation





Simple Green (bag) vs Zep Degreaser (on the table, looks like a cream puff)



Zep and a nylon brush won







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CurrusDei]

2.5 Years In... M3 Build Thread...PAINT COMPLETE!

Hey, sorry been busy lately. Car's still at the body shop and I haven't been pushing them on it because I'm doing some work in the garage that is not awesome for new paintwork to be around. Lots of chemicals and spray painting. Even with proper precautions there's only so much you can prevent. That said, here are some pics from recent work...

Harbor Freight 5lb vibratory bowl




Rust removing media




Shredded walnuts. After reading a lot this was a well reviewed media and it's actually pretty cheap - because it is sold as iguana bedding. True story.



Some before/after







Tumble/Sand/Paint



The bowl is a great tool, but it's not magic, and not as good as a media blaster. It won't take off anything greasy with the media I'm using, so I'm using a combination of chemical soaks, brushes, sanding, an ultrasonic cleaner, and the tumbler.

This was an interesting piece



These wire mesh gaskets didn't seem good to tumble, so just brush and ultrasonic here. They were caked in oil at first.



The lower part here really responded to tumbling. The top one not so much, probably because it has spent its life ON the exhaust manifold, so it's been reeealy hot and is thus pitted a lot from debris baking in.



It did respond to an overnight soak in a rust removal solution I got at HF




Front sway bar mount. One tumbled about 2 hours, the other not.



Misc hardware. You can see the 6 brake line brackets in the upper right that 4 were scrubbed before being tumbled, 2 were not and are going back through the process now









Also had to use my punches and mallet to beat this trim piece corner straight. Came out well.





My DIY paint booth





So far (actually there's more drying in the garage now)...



For the parts cleaning, my method is going to be

Degrease if needed
Tumble
...continue until ready for
Benchtop Polisher
Acid bath or electro de-plating to remove old yellow zinc coating
New Zinc Electroplate
Yellow or Black Zinc Coloring to match oem

Off to put on another coat of paint...More to come


Edit: here's where I ended the night



And with flash on




Plus other flat door trim and both door handles in primer and drying


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CurrusDei]

Ok I'm getting the hang of it now. Lessons learned: Evapo-Rust is really, really good for this. It takes off all the rust, most corrosion, and the old yellow zinc plating. Only thing it won't touch is grease or other sticky stuff.

So my new method is
1) 24 hour soak in Simple Green for degrease
2) 24 hour soak in Evapo-Rust (after tumbler if it's bad)
3) Bench polisher (not there yet)

Some pics

After 24 hours in ER (replacing the broken speed nut and corroded thin washers at the bottom)



After 24 hours in SG



Sanding + ER got all the gunk and rust off my rear subframe mounts, including the surface rust on the threads. Ready to prime and paint.



Door handles came out well. Need to beat out some dents in the external B pillar covers but they did well too.





Set up 2 tubs of SG and 2 of ER last night. Taking pics of each item going into each bucket and putting the plastic bags on top of the bucket to keep things straight. Can't put too many similar items in at once or it would get confusing.






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CurrusDei]

More goodies today. Copper stuff is for negative charge electroplating and the bmw part is the fuel door stop


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CurrusDei]

2.5 Years In... M3 Build Thread...PAINT COMPLETE!

Update - the touch up body work is done and the car is at the upholsterer. Work being done:
Install new headliner (OEM match material)
Re-cover A pillars
Re-cover forward headliner (OEM match material)
Refinish or re-cover C pillars
Refinish door cards

Snapped some pics of the car under the lights, man, shiny.








My DIY paint job on the wind deflector actually looks good agains the professional work on the roof.



Install marred up a few of the screws, that will be fixed






Headliner wasn't done yet. Still needed to be pulled tight in the front and rear and steamed to remove all wrinkles, but just a preview...







Oh and that rust spot...I can't even tell where it was. Some trash on the floor here since the car is being worked on, but no trace of rust or even where they painted over the repair. The guys at magnum are magicians. Hocus pocus, begone!




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CurrusDei]

2.5 Years In... M3 Build Thread...PAINT COMPLETE!

Car is headed to the detailer today. Upholstery except for seats is done.

New Headliner and sunroof insert
A pillars recovered
C pillars refurbished.
Door cards cleaned up and restapled
I also had the cheap fiberboard trim that covers the back side of the rear seat covered in the same material as the pillars (it was not in great shape cosmetically and the part is NLA). Looks a hundred times better.


Quick (bad) pics below...












Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CurrusDei]

Original door lockbox screws (Phillips head) have been superseded by star bit with whatever finish bmw is using now. It's probably more effective, but it's not original and doesn't look as good.

Thankfully, it isn't immune to a strong dose of muriatic acid. Stripped to bare metal and replated.

New on the left, replated on the right




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CurrusDei]

2.5 Years In... M3 Build Thread...PAINT COMPLETE!

Did some plating this weekend...

Got my method down on how to tie pieces together for plating. Solid contact with the wire but minimal footprint so it doesn't block plating.



Did a few pieces...



Including door strikers. Cleaned up the passenger side door lockbox and reinstalled.

Before



Plated. New rubber grommets



Assembled



Installed. Still need to clean the latch a bit







Closes nicely. More to come


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk