cameras ready prepare to flash

[jeenyus]

I must have missed why you got extra fender? I wouldn't mind acquiring a new white fender. mine is going to require work to get the old rusty stuff off the bottom area. OH, i also made some headway on the rust repair. I'll have to post up an update, but my wife is leaving me behind this weekend to go visit her grandmother and taking our daughter with. This will be the first weekend of dedicated uninterrupted car time. gonna be nice.

[s14brent]

so I put the newly acquired white fender on really just out of curiousity - thinking it was the old fender causing the fitment issues - but it's not. When I had the fender off, the frame rail looked fine, didn't see any kinks or damage there. Kind of confusing, hood is adjusted so it's all the way back. (oh i also spaced the rear of the hood up....because. rice.) I might swap the hood hinge (bar) over with a spare I happen to have. I have a weird idea that this might be the issue. you can see the hood is a little more than 1/4" forward on the driver side. Would love to get this sorted out, after that I can sort out paint-matching the fender and flares (still might upgrade to larger flares, and extended e36 m3 lca's as planned)



meanwhile i've got my spares ready for the next event, even though I might have to just do the wet track to keep it in budget (thanks to the e39 for fucking that up).

[dmanb2b]

Yeah, I pretty much figure the wheels are a loss...I did however have luck filing with the city in the past for wheel damage, but I remember it took FOREVER. And I was scouring online for wheels locally like a mad man....I needed to get the daily back on the road asap. What's funny is you're right, I might actually like it more like this now. It's a lot more low key and easier to drive around. I still would love to sell it for a truck, but I honestly don't mind holding onto it for a while longer, it's a cool daily that I don't have to worry about much maintenance wise.



thanks, uploaded a photo for you, hope it helps!

Thank you so much...super helpful

[s14brent]

That's some luck man. Good luck with the city, but I see that being an uphill battle with anything government. Sometimes things like this happen for some sort of reason, even when those reasons aren't completely obvious. I am impressed with how quickly you just get those things done and move passed them.

Yeah, I pretty much figure the wheels are a loss...I did however have luck filing with the city in the past for wheel damage, but I remember it took FOREVER. And I was scouring online for wheels locally like a mad man....I needed to get the daily back on the road asap. What's funny is you're right, I might actually like it more like this now. It's a lot more low key and easier to drive around. I still would love to sell it for a truck, but I honestly don't mind holding onto it for a while longer, it's a cool daily that I don't have to worry about much maintenance wise.

PM sent...great build thread

thanks, uploaded a photo for you, hope it helps!

[dmanb2b]

PM sent...great build thread

[jeenyus]

That's some luck man. Good luck with the city, but I see that being an uphill battle with anything government. Sometimes things like this happen for some sort of reason, even when those reasons aren't completely obvious. I am impressed with how quickly you just get those things done and move passed them.

[s14brent]

jeenyus - good progress man, I haven't had time to tackle this yet. Been super busy with work and trying dealing with this post...lol

I was trying to keep this thread e30 only content for a while, and I was doing a good job for a bit too, but this is just so ridiculous I need to post/vent about it....So last week Friday on the way to my 3rd gig of the day I ended up getting stranded in a construction zone. I blame the raiders stadium nearby. There is a stretch of road near the stadium that is 600ft and has 6 uneven metal plates on the ground from construction. The metal plates are driven into the asphalt with what looks like rail road spikes....but they're not sitting flush, and sticking out over an inch in some places.




If there's traffic in the left lane and you're stuck in the right lane like I was, you're aimed at 24 of these heads (12 on ea side of vehicle) sticking out of the plates. moving traffic in that area was about 30-35mph...which leads to this


^LF and then this LR





also my m5 rep bumper side brackets broke off clean on the left side and broke 2 of the 4 prongs on the right. super fun times while you're trying to get to work. So I abandoned the car for a couple hours in a nearby lot, went to work and then had my brother meet me with some of my tools. I ended up going to a 24hr tire shop to get a used tire since I got rid of all my 17" spares recently. I talked to insurance, and I'm going to try to get reimbursed from the city instead of filing a claim through insurance since it's a $500 deductible, and my rate would probably increase post-claim. So now it's the waiting game to hear back from the city.



After assessing the damage to the bumper a couple days later, I decided to get some plastic epoxy and just booger it on since it's a rep bumper anyways. New brackets would not have fixed this anyways. A local e30 buddy of mine hooked me up with some e60 style 124's. (18x8+20 18x9+32) with some nexen tires (245/40 & 265/35). Thank goodness for the few bmw friends i have locally. I couldn't really afford anything more than this with paying health insurance the same week. I actually think they look great. I have 20mm spacers up front and 18mm in the rear (same spacers i used to rock the mpars before...reduces hub size from 74.1 to 72.56.



I should have left it at this ride height, but i'm super sick of the car bottoming out at the casino parking garages for work. I took out the preload off the coilover springs so there was actually a ton of adjusting i had to do. I feel like i'm probably back at stock ride height now. It actually might be better here in case I want to sell this thing (been thinking about selling it and getting a truck sometime in 2020 - it just makes more sense for all the hauling and transporting the mini bikes - it just doesn't make sense for all the trips I make out to socal)




Anyways, the wagon needs an alignment still, and a small checklist of things to do now. About a month ago one day after work my driver side window regulator took a crap on me, and I had to replace it on a Friday before work that evening. It's been a stress case for sure. Luckily I did the passenger side about a year ago and it was really straight forward.

And lastly....i got a new custom knob made for the e30. I wanted something similar to my last one but with aluminum threads instead of into straight wood. I also had it made out of a slightly darker wood to match the Nardi's mahaganey. I think it looks phenomenal.



Hopefully I'll have the e30 ready for Oct. 13th vegasdrift @ LVMS inside road course. I'm really looking forward to that.

[jeenyus]

Yea I've cut that whole corner out and I have broke it up into three pieces to be welded together. I'm using a flux welder, which has made this whole process a harsher learning curve for me, bit still doable and I'm speeding up. This is the size of the hole I had to cut out to get all the creeping rust. Not the most ideal size, but it will be much nicer than it was before, especially since I had to remove the "jack stand" square that serves no purpose. Now it's a nice smooth area for the air to travel down.

[s14brent]

FTE - OEM?

Do you have the clutch pedal return spring setup?

Ive seen that fool with clutch fill hose and elbow.

FTE is listed as the OEM supplier, and yes I have the clutch pedal return spring setup. i'll have to take another look but I don't think that was what caused the problem.

you're gonna want to use.....

Thanks man, i got that pretty much from your thread the other day, did you go ahead and start cutting/welding? I'm going to have to shop around for sheetmetal. I've been kind of wanting to box in the front end (radiator support area) with sheetmetal, and eventually create some kind of fan shroud also. I just don't have as much free time lately to work on the car, so downtime is definitely a concern vs before.

[jeenyus]

you're gonna want to use an epoxy primer for the welded portions and then seam seal it. When you weld in the patch panels, cut small, try to get the new patch to fit as good as possible (this makes things way easier in the welding department). It is a time consuming job the first time around and i would say that a majority of the time is spent on prepping, kind of like painting. epoxy primer is two part, so there is a catalyst. This will prevent any more rust from being able to breathe so it stops it dead in it's cancerous tracks. The floor i think is 18 gauge steel. I went with 16 gauge steel for the patches, mainly because that was available to me at Home Depot. things that make welding in the patches easier, those little magnets that flush-up the metal and hold it in place are crucial. a good hood is also crucial to helping you see and as well, some good lighting in the area you're working on. clean the metal super well before you weld as well. You got dis!

[moatilliatta]

FTE - OEM?

Do you have the clutch pedal return spring setup?

Ive seen that fool with clutch fill hose and elbow.

[s14brent]

I had the car back up on jackstands for a few days, I took out the clutch master cylinder thinking I could replace the plastic hose fitting, but turns out the seal had some major cracks - which is super disappointing due to the limited use that it got. Sure wish I bought it from FCP for lifetime guarantee, but since I was on a crunch for time I ordered a replacement FTE clutch master from pelican (they have a california warehouse so it was $13.xx for next day ground shipping vs close to $30 (next day air) from FCP. - I definitely didn't want to buy another febi clutch master, and the FTE was more expensive, so it's gotta be better right? lol) i replaced the hose with some of the extra length stock I had from last time around. I actually installed it a little longer than normal just in case I need to cut off split ends in the future. I also installed a new brake switch while I was there. The old switch had some plastic missing on the button part...so you know ...while i'm there.....why not!
I also rebent the clutch hardline and used the OEM mount to secure the clutch line. I didn't do this before and occasionally I would hear the clutch line flex and hit the bracket or frame..... Speaking of noises....I think my transmission input shaft bearing is making noise. When I'm in neutral (clutch depressed) I can hear it whining, but when I engage the clutch the noise disappears (also pilot bearing/TOB were replaced (oem/sachs) when I did my clutch job) All these damn noises since I took out the carpet!! UGH!! I guess I'll just live with it for now, I still have my spare zf trans that I did the detent pins on. I don't think I trust myself splitting the trans attempting to replace that bearing, and i'm sure it would cost me more than another spare zf trans to fix at a shop. Kind of lucky that zf's pop up at the local junkyard pretty frequently.

I took out the driver side sound deadening to see if there was any more rust issues that i'm going to need to address in the near future. I found a couple spots of surface rust. I'll probably get some 3M mar-hyde or POR-15 for those areas, but i found another tiny pin sized hole behind the gas pedal. I'm going to have to read up a bit more on this before I tackle this. I'm pretty sure I'm okay on the inside of the cabin, but i want to prep and seal the bottom after welding in patch panels - so i 'm going to have to do a bit more research on those steps. Also guessing I'm going to have to do the rust converter AFTER the welding part is done.. gotta figure out what products work best with what primers etc. Super not looking forward to doing this.



I got the MASSIVE hartge style dead pedal. It wasn't completely bolt in...I had to bend the mounts and add a stack of washers under one of the holes. But I'm super happy with the feel. I threw some grip tape on while I was there. I actually prefer that feel over rubber covers (for brake/clutch) for sure.

I just need to mount my 4 spares, and check if I can take Oct 13th off. There's a local vegasdrift event on the inside road course that I want to go to. I'll try to take more pics of the car now that the 100+ degree weather seems to be officially gone here now! I'm trying to keep the car as simple and reliable as I can for the time being and get the most seat time I can get before I decide to do anything else. (extended e36 m3 LCA's are for sure on the list still), and I'm kind of really liking the big duck club sedan m3 over fenders. I could totally take out the rack limiters after I did both those things. We'll see..I should have done the kamotors ultra-wides the first time around (still a possibility)

[s14brent]

I like the hood vent. Any plans to paint it black?

yes...i ordered a ton of 1/8 aluminum black rivets to revisit this in the future. I also have an alpine white driver fender that I started to cut for flares since my driver side fender isn't in best shape, but I plan to paint flares and new fender bronzit and the hood vent black. I'm kind of digging the N15 side vents.
-------------------------------
barely an update:
said fender cut up...not the greatest shape, but better than my current believe it or not.



I ordered a dead pedal from MASSIVE. I can't wait for that to get here - kinda bummed they don't offer the hartge style anodized in black anymore....
I also ordered another new brake switch and the plastic hose connector for the clutch master. Unfortunately I found a slow drip right from there. For those who aren't super familiar with the build, I replaced the clutch master (febi) and the plastic nipple broke off after like a week? So this is my old one being reused, I can't remember what brand I got in the past, but ordered a new oem bmw part in hopes for a quick fix. - I hope i don't have to replace the clutch master assembly again after this. I really wish bmw didn't put plastic parts on critical components, even though the piece itself isn't "critical". we'll see...I just hope this fixes it.

I also did a ricer mod and spaced out the hood a little bit...just enough to get air escaping from the back of the hood. My hood isn't in the greatest shape...the more air flow the better at this point. I also threw on a stupid aem dry filter. The last time i took the car for a car wash i spaced it, and had to throw a grocery bag over the filter last minute.



I picked up a spare set of 16x8 bbs style 5's, so I officially have spares. I just need to mount a pair of 205/45's to keep on hand esp for drift events i guess. I'm going to try and figure out the gas pedal bracket. I think i have the 2 clip (wide), and will probably replace it with the SRS bracket when i fix the two small rust spots in the floor. Won't be posting an update for a while, work is getting crazy.

[rzerob]

I like the hood vent. Any plans to paint it black?

[s14brent]

This is pretty awesome man! you most certainly gonna be able to stop now!

Thanks! hopefully it won't be used too much for "stopping" though!!
------------------
So here's a little more in-depth on some of the upgrades I've been doing and things I would have done differently.



welding of the secondary caliper brackets. Probably best to weld one full side with caliper mounted. I can tell they warped a little - which would mess with pad wear. but i fixed it by shimming the caliper mount with a washer on each side. no big deal there.

I probably should have asked someone for help putting the rear end back into the car. It got a little sketchy this time around, or maybe it was the lack of sleep, but here it is in place.



chasebays hydraulic handbrake line kit. - bad ass.


interior lines - check bulkhead fittings in corners. (no drilling, just remove rubber drain grommet)

just add washers on both sides.

caliper side fitting.

As for the main rear caliper, since i was using an e30 front brake line (little longer than the rears) I only needed a 12" section that I picked up at o'reilly's near my house and made a few quick bends to fit.



while i was there, I did a lot of hardware upgrades for the exhaust system, and longer/stronger rear bolts for the rear shocks. (if you're wondering why all the washers, those are e36 m3 fortune auto rear shocks. e30 FA rears have a built in spacer for clearance and a longer neck between mount and actual shock.



garagistic abs sensor block off plates showed up. They fit perfect, but the fronts unfortunately don't really fit as well on the e36 m3 spindles. I could probably trim them down to fit better, but I still have to button up this job first.

Since the diy exhaust had to be pulled down (yes it's ugly, but it actually has been working REALLY well) , I had about 10' of dei titanium wrap laying around, which I added another 25' to thinking it would cover a lot more than this. The Y-pipe gets incredibly hot, so I did the front section (nearest transmission) and I had just enough left to do a small section near the differential.



I also saw oreilly's sold the 50' kit, but i'm kind of tapped out until next month's bills are all paid for. I also really think if i wanted to wrap something it'd be the headers. The driveshaft is bolted back up, exhaust just needs to have bolts tightened, and I need to torque the bolts at the driveshaft/differential and I'm golden. I actually would like to rebleed the secondary calipers one more time. but I'm hoping to test drive it sooner than later. More updates soon hopefully!
------
edit: buttoned up everything listed above but didn't have anyone to help me bleed the secondary calipers a second time around. Just pretty damn excited to get the car off jackstands. This was a fun little project I didn't mean to tackle so soon.


I put the bmw rubber floor mats in after this photo, and it actually looks really good.

funny what a little black paint does (on the cut console areas)

love how discreet everything is on the exterior. you can't even tell behind the 16s.

and lastly one of the full car. I put the federal ss595s up front so i can burn up the bfg's in the rear first.
-----------
edit: so I had time today to do some measuring and cutting on the hood for the n15 center vent. cut-off wheel, reciprocating saw, and a finger sander made it actually very easy. the long part was the placement & measurements. I wonder if this piece I cut out can be used to fix the floor board/rust repair. That would be pleasantly convenient but I doubt it.








Probably won't have an update until my next event. I don't have anything else to install at this point LOL! took the car out for its first test drive. The car is definitely "louder" inside the cabin without the carpet. It's nothing horrible, but I found myself listening to the car more and wondering if the sounds were normal. Hood vent placement turned out to be great. you can literally feel the heat escaping even after short drives. oh...and i also just found out I need to buy a dead pedal, i forgot the stock one is just foam under the carpet. Right now, I'm probably leaning toward massive since I've had a few of their products and the quality has been top notch! MKAH if massive is out of stock of the hartge style ones.

Also, make sure to retorque your wheel studs once in a while. I noticed mine were under the recommended 25 ft/lb torque spec MH recommends (which imho seems low).