My first e30, finally. Latest Update: The Restoration Begins

[Click]

Sup

[bmwstudent]

Very nice, i also just bought my first e30. Thanks to my brother. After i drove his i had to have one. Currently doing a trans repair. Resealing and replacing selector rod stuff. Good luck with yours.

[Click]

So I got tired of silver bottlecaps. Shit was always dirty and even when I cleaned them they didn't look good, the finish was starting to come off.







So I took them off and popped the centercaps out...



Cleaned them good.











Then spent an absurd amount of time with some 400 and 600 grit sandpaper to rough them up.



Taped them up





Gave it a quick light wipe with some acetone to get any skin oils off



Then one last wipe with a tack cloth before paint.



Primed



I did 2 coats of primer and 3 of satin black. I would have liked to put another coat on or two but I ran out of daylight. I need to take pic of the final product. I like the look of the black wheels, it no longer looks like an 80s executive car. I did take one last pic before the night was over...

[jaywood]

Those cracked tips on the injectors are called the pintle caps. Mine were cracked when I pulled them out too. I just put on new caps with new o-rings and cleaned them out ;) They worked perfectly.

That last shot is pretty cool! Good progress.

[Click]

Yeah, I'll probably just end up getting a rebuild kit and replace them.

Took a pic of me and a friend and our cars...

[bmw2002tiiagave]

sweet pickup.

[Click]

So some goodies came in the mail.



And it was warm out today...



And I was tired of my wheels howling so here goes wheel bearing replacement.

Take your wheel off.



Get the "grease cap" off, I used a small screwdriver and a hammer.



Then you see this.







Bend that little tab out of the machined notch of the stub axle to the point where it doesn't interfere with it. I should have sprayed some pb blaster on the axle nut at this point.





Put wheels back on, lower car, get 1/2" breaker bar and pipe and procede to break breaker bar. *This might not have happened if I remembered to spray the nuts.



Jack car back up, take wheels off and continue to remove axle nuts with a real tool.



Take caliper off and hang out of the way.



Spray some pb blaster on the brake rotor retaining screw and let sit for a few minutes. Take screw out and remove the rotor, which usually takes a few taps of a mallet...



Pull hub assembly off. I used a craftsman puller, the center screw on it was too small and fit into the stub axle and would have surely pushed the threads off so i took a small piece of steel and drilled a hole (9/32 iirc) in it that fit the point at the end of the puller screw and sat at the end of the stub axle.







Sometimes the inner race part stays attached, pull that off too.



Take a look at that bearing you just pulled off.









Look at that clean beauty.



Back to the job. You're now looking at this.



I got new rear dust guards, I don't think they really needed to be replaced but I did anyway. So take the protective plate off.



A couple taps from a mallet pops the old one off.



Get the new one started.



A 2" piece of PVC works marvels at driving it home.



Done.



Put the protective plate back on.

Admire your German made FAG bearing one last time before putting it on....



Use the 36mm socket on the inner bearing and a mallet to drive the new bearing/hub assembly home on the stub axle.



Put your new axle nut on hand tight.



Put all assorted brake parts back on.



I tightened the nut as far as it would go with my impact wrench then put the wheels on, dropped the car and did some extra tightening with a socket wrench and cheater pipe.

Jack the car back up and take the wheels off.

The next step is to bend a part of the axle nut into that machined notch on the stub axle. I used a big punch but it didn't come out very nice. Bentley called for a screwdriver but I don't know how much better a job that would have done. In retrospect, using a dremel and a cutoff wheel to cut notches at the ends would have made a real clean strip to bend into the stub axle notch. But whatever, MOAR PICTURES







Should hold.

Tap the "grease cap" in place. Bentley calls for putting some Loctite 638 (a retaining compound) on it but all I had was red and blue threadlocker so I just put it on dry. It's such a tight fit I doubt it's going to come off.



Put wheels back on, lower car and tighten the lugs to final torque ~75 ft lbs.

In other news I "may" be going to look at an m30 pulled from a 88 735i tomorrow. The intake has the 3.5 on it instead of the 3.2/3.5. This combined with it being from an 88' makes me pretty sure it is a b35. Car had somewhere around 130k when pulled.

[!AjHoWzA!]

Very nice work! Seems like you are doing the right things.

Way to get the maitenence started.

Keep it up and nice looking car

[FutureE30]

Wonderful job man. Would the process for the back wheel bearing be about the same?

[Click]

No, the rear wheels are driven while the fronts just sit there and spin, different setup. They're also quite a bit harder to do from what I understand. I'm sure I'll do them eventually...

[Click]

Look what the cat drug in...













Pulled from an automatic 88' 735i with a little less than 130k miles. Complete minus wiring harness, MAF and ac compressor. Guy bought the car and was told it had a leaking headgasket and a leaky heatercore. Heatercore was bad but he said there were no signs of the headgasket leaking, but the gasket was replaced anyways.

Guy never put the cam gear back on and I bumped the crank so it needs to be retimed before I put the gear back on and put it back together. Once thats done I can get the torque converter off and put it on my engine stand.

Not quite sure what my ultimate goal for this engine is going to be, all I know for sure is that it will be going into my car.

[E30ruben]

BY FAR I enjoyed reading this thread and viewing pics more than any other "maintinence" or "rebirth" of a car.. This is how they all should be, including mine lol great job!

[Brezzi]

awesome project man. love the m30 if i ever swap my vert i wana stuff an m30 in it.

[schtozo]

Nice work! M30s are fun.
These are some vids of my m30 e30 overseas

First start up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw9pDG1T4pg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

First run

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1KHktDpjoI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Second run

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGsz-n1dQGw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[freeride53]

Awesome dude!