My "Great White Buffalo" restoration.

[goskidmark]

Well, my head gasket might be blown. The good news is my 9 Stitch order came in!:


Now, I just have to go pick up my sport seats.

[e30onBBSs]

nice looking car. What makes it too low in your opinion?

[Porthos]

I used to be stationed at NH Jax. Nice E30.

[goskidmark]

nice looking car. What makes it too low in your opinion?

I think it's too low when I scrape the front lip driving up the driveway. It rides really well, but I want to raise it back up a bit.

I used to be stationed at NH Jax. Nice E30.

Thank you!

[e30onBBSs]

I think it's too low when I scrape the front lip driving up the driveway. It rides really well, but I want to raise it back up a bit.



Thank you!

Ah shit that used to happen to me then I took the lip off haha then it looked a lot worse but wasn't so bad. I'm excited to see how it turns out!

[goskidmark]

A small maintenance update: I started the car up to see if I had any leaks from hoses in the cooling system. I found one under this hose:

And this is busted (Hence the big ass zip tie):


Time to find that tube's part number.
The temperature climbs when revving, then cools back down when at idle. I'm sure it's low on coolant because I can't tell how much coolant is actually in the system. The thermostat is bad as well, and is stuck closed on idle loop.
I will have to install it after I move to my new house and just have the car towed to prevent the head gasket from blowing out.

Edit: That tube's part number is |Coolant Pipe:11531719788|. It lists for $225.81. Ha ha ha. Yeah right. Time to call my guy at BMW.... or call a junk yard.

[goskidmark]

Good to go.

I was correct. The thermostat was stuck closed. It was the original thermostat from 1989, so I give it credit. The pipe was a bit of a pain to change out. I just dumped half the radiator on my garage floor. It helps that I had a plethora of moving boxes under the car to soak it all up. It took only a few minutes to bleed the system since I pre-filled the upper and middle cooling hose. It's ready to drive to my new home in a week.

Bye Bye broken stuff!


I also picked up my sport seats from PoorBoyz that I bought a few months back while on deployment. He even gave me all of the tools that go into the trunk tool kit! He also offered to help me install the 13 button OBC that I have. I really like the R3v community. So many helpful people here. I will post pictures soon! Stay tuned.

[goskidmark]

Fixing things.

I fixed my turn signals finally. I replaced the whole turn signal stock, hazard switch, relay, and fuses (All NEW). Turns out the previous owner had the defrost and hazard switches flipped on the harness plugs. The internal light inside the hazard switch was constantly on and NOT blinking. I knew it was suppose to blink. Swapped both switches and now both defrost and my turn signals work. Now I have to fix a fog light that was working, but I tightened it down and it quit on me.

[goskidmark]

Bulk updates.

I finally moved into my new place. I hate moving.


I Replaced the throttle cable. That was a pain to get the clip out of the firewall. I had to use an extension and a hammer to bang it out. The screwdriver pry trick did not work.

My upholstery is coming along, but with a few hiccups. I will add to that later when I finish it up. I'm waiting on glue to come in from Amazon.


My sport seats are in dire need of corrosion treatment. I busted a few things in the process, but it's going well all things considering.


Interior and wiring progress with a blurry picture to look at. The previous owner dyed the seats black from tan so I have to re-glue the rear quarter panels due to the seat sticking to them when I pulled it out. Yay.


I was going to swap out my black seat belts with these fancy M3 Red one's but no cigar. Only ONE of these things retracts and the rest are froze up. I will see if I can unfreeze them, but I'm not a seat belt doctor. I just wish the guy told me this before I bought them. Lessons learned binder updated.


More to come when parts flow in. The first weekend of September I will drop the Sub-frames and replace all the bushings with my Powerflex ones. I will be posting pictures of everything that I am able to. It will be a walk-through of the process of a FULL restore, including but not limited to: corrosion treatments, painting, welding, sanding, and the correct chemicals for the material to prevent future decay smartly.

[goskidmark]

Wiring and stuff.

I had the chance to get most of the wiring under the dash under control and routed correctly. What a nightmare. It takes forever to figure out what the hell goes to what.



I installed the 13 button OBC and now I'm at another stand still. I can't figure out where this crap plugs into. I don't have a door gong and it does not connect to the accelerator speed cable like the 6 button.



I have to re-glue my new cluster since I pulled off the face plate trying to get it out of the dash. Yay. Here's some more wire pictures for you to yawn at. Wiring is so fricken BORING and time consuming.



More to come when more stuff comes in. Mail needs to come on Sundays. Enough said.

[goskidmark]

Fixing mistakes.

I bought a glue gun to fix my goof up. It turned out pretty well. It's almost time to put the cluster back in after I clean up some more wires.

[goskidmark]

Small stuff.

My cruise control cable came in the mail, and it was not too bad to swap out. Just be sure you take pictures after you open it up and just pull that "Black Tongue" out and release it from the cable to keep the assembly intact. I had to remove mine due to other broken parts inside.



They do not produce my cable for the 89 325i any more. So I searched for a model with the same cable. I found it.

Use this cable as a replacement. There is a part number on that label somewhere.


I also had a chance to put in a new hood release lever and cable. The bushing that sits in the firewall is still not seated. That is hardest part for me. Breaking down the cruise control was no problem for me. Yes, it's a lot of little parts that go in specific ways, but it's NOT as hard as that stupid firewall bushing.

Yes, I cleaned this very well before I installed it. Don't use WD-40 to lube as it attracts dust like no other.

[goskidmark]

Some progress.

I decided to start on removing my rear sub frame a little early than scheduled. The hard brake line on the starboard side was stripped out, so I ordered a new line, along with the tools necessary to bend and cut the line to fit. The previous owner decided to remove ALL of the e-brake assembly parts on the starboard side for some odd reason, so I will have to rebuild that as well.

If anyone wants to trade rear springs, please feel free to message me. I would like to trade sport springs. These sit way to low for my taste. I don't know the rates of these springs, but they are stiff and stable. They don't bounce, that's for sure.


I ordered replacement seat belt catches for the rear since mine had broken grip studs. Note the difference between the old part (left) and the new part (right). BMW decided not to include the grip studs in the manufacturing process. Hooray!? Now I have to figure out how to mount these to actually hold the new fabric in place.



These are the correct part numbers for my Vin-number, and there are NO other part numbers according to BMW.


More updates to come this weekend. 28-OCT-2015

[goskidmark]

Sub-Frame updates.

I pulled the Sub-frame within a few hours and I forgot that I was going to do a detailed removal of the parts. Oops. I only took a few pictures since I was in "wrench mode".



The most difficult part was the drive shaft in my opinion. It did not want to come out until I dropped the sub-frame with my floor jack. The sub-frame came out with no hassle at all. I was surprised to be honest. It would of taken less time if I didn't have to drop the ENTIRE exhaust system, and two heat shields with a cross-member.

I fell like an archaeologist now that I have this out. You'd be surprised how much crap builds up over years and years of not washing the undercarriage.

Before:


After:


Damage report:


It appears the fill pug insert is chipped off. That's probably why there was so much build up. Time for a new cover.. errr used/refurbished.
The new center carrier bearing for the drive shaft is on the way. I chose to go with different than OEM manufacture due to design specs. I wanted tighter clearances for less drive shaft play, a beefier rubber compound, and a sealed bearing loaded with a special lubricating compound that we aviation folks use.

[goskidmark]

Waiting...

I'm still waiting on parts to come in. Pelican ships fast, but my other source is not so fast. The differential cover is on back order.

I have the car on jack stands and it's slowly leaking coolant from the front. All the hoses seem tight, so I might suspect the water pump. Even though the gasket is bone dry around it. I will find out this weekend when I rip off more of the front end to change out the clutch on the fan and replace the bad electric auxiliary fan.