New member, my first E30, from the Bay Area. NEW QUESTIONS EVERY DAY!

[Navarone]

New member, my first E30, from the Bay Area. NEW QUESTIONS EVERY DAY!

Time to remove the tinting. It's all wavy and dangerous at night. Dangerous because I can't tell if those are cop headlights!


Using a hair dryer. Almost too hot to touch, but isn't pulling the glue up with the tint. At least it softened it enough to keep the tint from coming off in tiny little pieces.


Rubbing alcohol worked great to take off the glue. Going to take a break then get back to work.

[Navarone]

The edges are a pain, they just fall apart. I had to sit there with a razor and carefully scrape the tint off being carful not to hit the defogger traces.


It's about %95 now. Just need to finish the bottom corners and clean off a little bit of glue.


The passenger side window and the two wing windows have tint also, but I'll save those for another day. The rear was the most important. It was a safety issue.

[Verdi]

old records

[quote=Navarone;4170286]Lookie lookie what I got!

Maintenance records! You called it golde


Any advice on tracking down old maintenance records?

[Navarone]

Got almost all the glue off. The glue under the tint that kept breaking apart took a lot of elbow grease to get off, and it still has some residue but it's a million times better than the kaleidoscope I was looking through before.

[Navarone]

Lookie lookie what I got!

Maintenance records! You called it golde

Any advice on tracking down old maintenance records?

I got them from the previous owner. If you find any receipts or anything you could call the shop and see what records they still have. BMW probably has it all if it was taken to the dealer, but smaller shops probably purge old paperwork after taxes have been paid. I think you have to keep stuff for 3 years for tax reasons. Worth a try if you have any leads.

[Verdi]

thanks. I got it from a dealer and it had old receipts but I didn't want to call the previous owner out of the blue. Thanks for all the info on the work you're doing.

[Navarone]

New member, my first E30, from the Bay Area. NEW QUESTIONS EVERY DAY!

Hey, great! You're welcome. I'm glad my ramblings and nonsense could be of some use.

Passenger window getting cleaned up. After this I'll do the wing windows, if I can figure out how to take them off.


The edges and bottom aren't bad. Just roll the window down a bit, pull the whole top of the tint down and inch to clear the seal then roll the window up and work your way down. The sides pull out and the bottom sorta popped. I didn't have to remove the door card until I fucked up later.


I got impatient and pulled hard and the rest of the tint came off in a big sheet, but it left all the glue. I had to wet it with rubbing alcohol and then it would scrape right off super clean. Took off the door card to get glue I would have gotten attached to the tint if I wasn't impatient.


Don't leave the key on listening to the radio and giving the windows power, the fuel pump also stays on and killed the battery in a couple hours. I had to push it out the driveway and coast downhill and bump start it. Kinda hard in flip flops.

[itsjustkevin]

If you're still having trouble with getting the adhesive off the windows, spray the window with windex, let it sit for about 3~ minutes and then take a razor blade and scrape it off. Once the windex soaks in it'll come off very easily.

[Navarone]

Hey thanks! I did that with rubbing alcohol and it soaks in and gets soft in a few seconds but you have to scrape fast because it evaps so fast. Windex sounds like a better option.

[Navarone]

New member, my first E30, from the Bay Area. NEW QUESTIONS EVERY DAY!

I went hunting for the clunking coming from under my car and found out why I'm slowly losing coolant. The brand new 6 months ago gates water pump is already weeping!


I couldn't find any obviously torn to shit bushings so I still don't know why it's clunking. It sounds like someone is taping on something metal from the rear end area and it happens on bumpy or rough roads. Any ideas?

When I scrape together a few more bucks I'm just going to do all the bushings in the rear, but with me who knows how far out that will be.

Also, how well does that plastic fusion rattle can paint work? I'm thinking about reprinting my grill.

[Zekerbox]

I went hunting for the clunking coming from under my car and found out why I'm slowly losing coolant. The brand new 6 months ago gates water pump is already weeping!
[ATTACH]94624[/ATTACH]

I couldn't find any obviously torn to shit bushings so I still don't know why it's clunking. It sounds like someone is taping on something metal from the rear end area and it happens on bumpy or rough roads. Any ideas?

When I scrape together a few more bucks I'm just going to do all the bushings in the rear, but with me who knows how far out that will be.

Also, how well does that plastic fusion rattle can paint work? I'm thinking about reprinting my grill.

Rear end clunking is likely your rear upper shock mounts. They commonly rip loose and your damper mount is loose and flopping around in the rear. Could also be a missing or worn out spring pad. There are a lot of bushings in BMW's so your best bet is to get it up on a rack or jack stands, pull of the wheels and look for broken or worn bushings/ball-joints. I would put money on rear shock mounts.

[Navarone]

Ok, thanks! I had the car on ramps and could see everything pretty well but didn't check out the upper shock mounts. The spring pads did look well squished but I didn't see cracking or tearing, I'll check more when I get it on jack stands.

Home Depot didn't have krylon so I got rustoleum bumper/trim paint. We'll see how it goes.

[Navarone]

New member, my first E30, from the Bay Area. NEW QUESTIONS EVERY DAY!

Painted the grill and mirrors today. Went to the car wash and scrubbed it all down really well, didn't use any of the protectant wax shtuff, still got some fisheyes poppin' but can't tell at 10 feet.

Before. Uggos!


Removed the grill to paint. Did the kidneys off the car too.


After!


Masking the mirror.


Boom!

[Navarone]

New member, my first E30, from the Bay Area. NEW QUESTIONS EVERY DAY!

Driver side mirror has some big ol' saggers and mad fisheye. What the eff? I kinda dumped the paint on though so that's probably why :(

Hopefully when the paint dries to its matte finish it won't be noticeable.


If it's intolerable I'll sand and repaint. Update in a few days after it's flashed off. It's only 60° here and the paint isn't drying very fast.

[Navarone]

New member, my first E30, from the Bay Area. NEW QUESTIONS EVERY DAY!

I got some abs to finish the cup holders.

Precut section of 3" abs and two 3" couplings. Their ID is about 3-1/2" so that should be perfect for larger cups and I'll cut pieces out of the 3" piece so I can have removable inserts with an actual ID of 3" for small cups and water bottles.