SLC: 1989 Zinno coupe. Superlight, Super Functional *6spd swap inside*

[mitchlikesbikes]

Got the footrest back from powder and installed. I think it turned out great.

[mitchlikesbikes]

small things happening with car lately, mostly brake stuff. i was having issues with my new boosterless/unbiased setup locking up the rear wheels first and making the car incredibly unstable under hard braking, so i decided to install a wilwood adjustible proportioning valve. ive included some pictures of that, i mounted it to the shock tower so the lines are pretty short and were easy to bend/fit.
i also made brake ducts since a friend of mine has a 3d printer and was able to print me some of the adapters to go from the stock duct inlets into a 3" duct hose. the backing plates were made by hand from steel by me so they're not perfect but i'm happy with how they turned out.
i noticed last summer that my steering was a little prone to binding since i installed my e36 rack because when removing the stock rubber flex disk in the steering linkage i just bolted the two halves together which doesn't offset the u joints and isn't really optimal. so i made a flex disk "replacement" out of aluminum that is thin which allows correct length for the e36 rack but also offsets the u joints for a smoother rotation through turns. i included a pic of my first attempt at making the disc just to illustrate the idea of it, but i scrapped that particular one and made a better one but forgot to take pics of it before installing it on the car.
oh and i bought a hartge style dead pedal from massivebrakes. i fitted it using threaded "nutserts" and pulled it back out to have it powdercoated so i will post installed pics when it's all done. i'm really excited about this piece, i've hated not having a footrest in this car since i've owned it. anyway here is a pic dump of all of this stuff plus a couple others of the car from last fall!

[mitchlikesbikes]

Just dropping in for a post to confirm that my car and I are both alive and well. I've been busy and broke with the new home purchase as well as working on a new beater f250 I acquired recently so the e30 has been wayyyy on the back burner. It is running really well and still really fun. This winter I'll probably continue to refine the car and fix small things. Probably nothing substantial unless I get lucky and can afford coilovers after I save up for a new roof on my house. Here's a pic dump

[mitchlikesbikes]

not a ton going on with the car lately. i took possession of my new house a few days ago so i have been balls deep in renovation stuff. currently redoing the bathroom from the studs up as well as a full kitchen and flooring throughout with my dad. my new place has a big garage and work room though so when the renovation stuff settles i am going to try and collect some go fast parts. still not sure what direction i wanna go. at this point i'm thinking m50nv swap for now and a mild turbo setup down the road.

[mitchlikesbikes]

that sucks man.

I rear ended someone in my e30 last year, similar cosmetic only damage basically im out a fender, hood, and some smilies and grilles (no big deal)
insurance paid me out 1200 after my deductible, im still searching for a zinno hood and fender tho :O but the car is literally perfectly fine, just a little uglier.

I would take the check :D probably a lot more e30 parts in SLC anyway, vegas is dried uo right now :(

thats the plan, i'll probably fix it sometime down the road when i'm ready to paint it.

Great work i like rewards

thanks!

[Euro4uwsm]

Great work i like rewards

[Pantless Spency]

that sucks man.

I rear ended someone in my e30 last year, similar cosmetic only damage basically im out a fender, hood, and some smilies and grilles (no big deal)
insurance paid me out 1200 after my deductible, im still searching for a zinno hood and fender tho :O but the car is literally perfectly fine, just a little uglier.

I would take the check :D probably a lot more e30 parts in SLC anyway, vegas is dried uo right now :(

[mitchlikesbikes]

lots of interesting developments with the car lately. i had the two studs that hold the MC to the massive booster delete block snap on me. luckily i was in my driveway when it happened and not travelling down the road or things could have gotten ugly. i got some nice 10.9 grade studs to replace whatever came with the kit and things have held up okay since.

on my way to the local ikea for a euro meet last night i got hit by a 16 year old that ran a red light in his jeep wrangler. luckily he stood on the brakes and i ended up with some cosmetic damage and a couple gouges in the tire from driving the car out of the intersection where it was it. today i pounded the fender back out with a hammer to make it driveable again. not sure what i am going to do from here at the moment, most likely get a body shop quote and see what the figures look like. here are some pics of my finished door handles, a random shot from a meet, and the accident damage:

[jeenyus]

Awesome. Look forward to seeing you around.

[mitchlikesbikes]

car is at firestone getting the front end aligned right now. i drove it about 40 miles to bed the brakes in and settle the suspension, then retightened everything before dropping it off. current to do list:

add resonator to exhaust

figure out why coolant temp gauge is working but won't climb past the blue

acquire a turn signal switch at the junkyard to see if that is what's causing some random turn signal/high beam issues

continue beating on the front brakes to ensure that they perform 100%

[mitchlikesbikes]

well, the weather is getting better here so i put the car back on the ground with my avids and re11s. also installed some condor door handles i got a while ago. i eyeballed the front toe to get it close enough to drive somewhere to get it aligned soon. still have some stuff to button up but my cluster lights are finally working, and i think i narrowed down my speedo issues to the sensor in the diff so i'm going to get one of those. today i ordered a small 2.5" resonator to put in the exhaust to help with the raspiness at higher rpms that's been bugging me. once i button that stuff up it will be ready to drive as long as my brake setup works right.

[mitchlikesbikes]

progress finally (plus another minor setback). i installed my revamped struts and new LCAs tonight, as well as started assembling the brakes. everything went smoothly until i underestimated how weak the threads were on one of my reman calipers and stripped the hardline input. i ordered another reman caliper tonight so i will send this stripped bastard back to them as a core. also finally posting pics from the last update:

[mitchlikesbikes]

pulled the old strut cartridges yesterday. they were very old and completely blown bilsteins of some sort. they read "western germany" so they have to be close to as old as the car. definitely ready to be replaced.

today i pulled the wheel bearings off of the spindles and got my knuckles/struts all cleaned up, then added a quick coat of black rattlecan to help keep them looking decent. my new cartridges came today so if the paint is dry i'll install those tomorrow. waiting on new upper strut mounts since mine were toast. i went cheap on those too because i'm only gonna run them for a year or so just like the shock cartridges.

trying to upload pics but photobucket is blowing it. will get them up later

[mitchlikesbikes]

started diagnosing some cluster issues that have been plaguing the car and making me pull my hair out repeatedly for as long as i've owned it.

no speedo/odo
fuel gauge is wonky and inaccurate
no cluster lighting

i reflowed the joints today and ordered new SI batteries so hopefully that works for the speedo. i have power to my cluster illumination lights but the ground isn't actually grounded. going to have to do some wire tracing and figure out where the problem is there. i have replaced the left side fuel sender so i may replace the right side one too if the fuel gauge isn't working after the SI battery replacement. if i can't fix everything pretty soon i will most likely send the motherfucker to greg at bavarian restoration and have him refurb it. then i will know that if something isn't working that it's on the car side and i can troubleshoot a little easier.

so sick of the cluster issues on the car. they're gonna make me blow my brains out.

[mitchlikesbikes]

more progress recently. i finished my brake pedal modification and got that back in the car. i also bought myself a new vise to use with my flaring tool and did the final trimming/flaring of my hardlines today. they came out pretty nice but the bends aren't pristine so i may redo them down the road with a better tubing bender. i cleaned up my MC and reservoir and used a bleeder screw i had kicking around to plug the 4th port on the MC that i don't need for my setup. crossing my fingers that nothing leaks when i bleed the brakes. i have a pile of parts ready to be bolted back on too but i decided to order some cheap KYB front shocks to get me by for a season or so until i can buy coilovers. wanted coilovers this year but with the house hunting happening i couldn't justify blowing another 1000 on the car after all the money i already spent on it this year. anyway on with the pics