Delphingrau 1989 325i 'Elsi' Build Thread

[Wschnitz]

I know, too bad it will probably get dyed or replaced for a different interior later on.

[HennaE30]

Car looks great man. I really dig the Delphin/Hartge combo.. Goes together extremely well.

I would keep the interior tan. Delphin/Tan is a great color combo, even though tan carpet gets dirty really easily.

[Wschnitz]

Car looks great man. I really dig the Delphin/Hartge combo.. Goes together extremely well.

I would keep the interior tan. Delphin/Tan is a great color combo, even though tan carpet gets dirty really easily.

Plan is anthracite interior with the Uberkaro M3 seats and door cards, with H27 exterior kit and a beefier engine.

It will stay for a while though yes.

[HennaE30]

Plan is anthracite interior with the Uberkaro M3 seats and door cards, with H27 exterior kit and a beefier engine.



It will stay for a while though yes.

That will look great too. What are you thinking motorwise? And isn't the H27 ridiculously expensive?


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[Wschnitz]

That will look great too. What are you thinking motorwise? And isn't the H27 ridiculously expensive?


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H27 kit unpainted is around 1500-2500$ The rest of the car depends on funds, H26SP ITBs on a built M20 would be cool, but those ITBs are near impossible to find, and when you do they are 700-1200$ alone.

Im leaning towards H35-24 Rep as it has same body kit as late model H27, and it will have more power overall with the S38, which funnily enough is easier to find then an H26SP engine.

[Wschnitz]

Replaced the fuel filter yeaterday, boring update I kno . Gonna be that way till I find a pot of gold.

New:



Installed:



Cleaned and bedlinered the plastic guard:

[N2MYE30]

There is a guard for that filter? All my E30s and I have never seen one.

[Wschnitz]

There is a guard for that filter? All my E30s and I have never seen one.

Haha Yep!

More updates soon, Grabbed some better lighting for the beauty.

Will need to re tackle my driveshaft CSB again soon here too, I apparently didnt preload it enough and it vibrates on freeway :(

[Wschnitz]

Not many updates I know, but heres some catch up

A tree ended up falling on my car during one of the windstorms we had up here in seattle, it smashed up my passenger fender, bumper, and hood, also leaving scrapes all over my window and smashed my mirror. Replaced the mirror with an extra I had, getting minty lenses for both sides and replaced them. Got new panels from BMW to replace my dented ones from the tree, which were surprisingly affordable for new panels. Paint will hopefully come before picnic.

Did the SQUARED MOTORWERKS Morimoto H1 Retrofit.

Cant say im impressed, The Brackets from SQUARED are great. bit the morimoto products themselves are, in my opinion, absolute trash.

The projector lenses are OK at best. they seem uniform and clear, but dont seem to spread the light very well, theres an obvious hot spot when you turn your headlights on.

IMG_20141201_094911 by Wschnitz, on Flickr

The cutoff is trash, literally worst cutoff ive ever seen Ive tried everything, even assembling without the SQUARED brackets and seeing if the cutoff gets better, but it doesnt.

image (3) by Wschnitz, on Flickr

image by Wschnitz, on Flickr

The bulbs seem to be typical ebay quality rebranded and marked up, one bulb was at least 1000k off the 5k I ordered, the other seemed fine. The best part is trying to get TRS or morimoto to replace it, TRS said for them to replace it, even though i provided proof of the discoloration, that you need to send them a picture of the snipped wires and serial tag. Or purchase a new set outright, and once they get there, repeat process with old ones to get your refund.

ballasts also seem to be ebay rebrand with fancy shells, one ballast flickers pretty obviously, and this is using their "HD Relay" kit thats sent right to the battery to prevent flicker. (note this makes your headlight warning dummy light come on above mirror.

I will most likely be RMA'ing all of it, then selling it to someone at half what I paid for it, putting the stock stuff back in with some OE ballasts and nice Phillips bulbs.

/rant

Replaced my sloppy stock shifter with a Z3 1.9 Shifter

image (2) by Wschnitz, on Flickr

IMG_20150101_125024 by Wschnitz, on Flickr

Installed some Ebay long tubes and had a friend weld me up the midpipes:

IMG_20150113_133449 by Wschnitz, on Flickr

image (1) by Wschnitz, on Flickr

Sounded awful, so I sold it and put the stock stuff back on, painting the stock headers with high temp black manifold paint (which ended up cracking off because obviously the can lies about it withstanding 450c+)

stock headers by Wschnitz, on Flickr

Currently waiting on getting my Hartges back from the wheel re-finishers, which will tidy up that project.

[Wschnitz]

I may have to take back my rant against morimoto, but im still messing with it.

Think i finally found out why my cutoffs were so horrendous, looks like the lens was too close to the bulb/cutoff shield? I must have screwed the lens on too tight to the rest of the setup.

Might be a false alarm, when i had them outside of the smileys, just the setup itself, I was appearing to get an awesome cutoff at 15-20feet (couldnt see any farther past cause daytime) but as soon as i put them inside the smileys they seemed to go back to being horrible. My smileys are super clear, with only minor pitting. Could the cutoff be hitting the lower part of the headlight where the like glass wavyness is?



Will have to mess with it more tonight.

[Wschnitz]

Here is what she looks like atm:

IMG_9681 by Wschnitz, on Flickr

Cant wait for paint, hopefully I can knock it out before picnic. Wheels are almost done according to the refinishing place.

Put the stock exhaust back on and had a shop add like an extra inch of space so the tips stuck out a little bit farther:

IMG_9685 by Wschnitz, on Flickr

Rubber CABs because you dang kids and your poly hurts my back.

IMG_9691 by Wschnitz, on Flickr

And heres what im sitting with my morimotos as of current, this is 25feet away from a white wall at night.

IMG_9972 by Wschnitz, on Flickr

IMG_9975 by Wschnitz, on Flickr

IMG_9974 by Wschnitz, on Flickr

As you can see cutoff isnt very sharp at all, and the bulbs seem to be seating improperly, causing the hot spot to be very low. Ordered another set of bulbs because the one side is super dim, and im working on making the seat for the bulbs level on the housing so they point up a little bit more.

Also if anyone knows the trick to making an HID planet account let me know, I never get an activation email, no matter which email service I apply with.

[Wschnitz]

Finally got my wheels back the second time and drumroll please.....





Ended up just taking my wheels back, said I cant get a refund for lots of BS, lets just say he doesnt get any more chances from me. 3 months and $800 down the drain.

[Wschnitz]

;D

[Wschnitz]

Dropped the car off at haurys, cant wait to see it finished and having painted front end parts again!

[2mAn]

Car is looking great Will.