Bringing my dad's car back to its former glory and beyond

[dadsbmw]

Update: Motor is in. What a fucking nightmare. That is all for now.

[dadsbmw]

Thanks guys, always appreciate the motivation! Wish photobucket hadn't ruined the first 3/4 on this build though, and you could still see the full progression...

[columbo_01]

Love reading your thread man. Its amazing how far you've come along. Keep it up.

[jeenyus]

i get it. especially in the winter season (not sure you're location). I keep mounting things to accomplish now that I have my whole car apart. I really want to finish this month though, so that's the plan! Keep up your motivation! you got this!

[dadsbmw]

Did NOT get much done today. Made a list last night hoping to get the motor dropped today, but didn't even come close. It rained all day and in the midst of fabrication I cut my thumb. It wasn't a terrible cut, but boy did it bleed! My girlfriend thought I'd cut my thumb off at first, but after calming down we ended up not going to the emergency room/urgent care. Only worry at this point is tetanus, which I think I've had the shot within the last 10 years...

Anyways. Finished fabricating the bracket for the steering linkage




While I was under the dash I decided that I'm truly a glutton for punishment, and to do it right and replace all the extra pieces I'd bought. So out came the clutch master cylinder and soft line




And that's it! So close yet so far!

[dadsbmw]

The joy of swaps, always take 3x longer and costs 3x as much, but it will be worth it on the end. Keep it up!

So. Much. More. I remember doing the math when I was trying to decide whether or not I wanted to buy the initial parts. I really have spent like 3x the initial investment. Once I agreed I would open my wallet, it just never closed!

Wow that's a lot of great work, very gratifying I'm sure. Just went back in the thread to see what rims those are as I didn't recognize the bolt pattern as being correct for BBS RS1001's, they look fantastic on this car. Excited for more, keep it up!

Thanks, I did a lot of searching before I landed on them. They're Emortal RS's in 16x8 with +25 offset and 4x100 bolt pattern. Always on the lookout for something better though... would certainly give them up for a pair of Impul Silhouettes or custom 16" bottle caps.

[Albie325]

Wow that's a lot of great work, very gratifying I'm sure. Just went back in the thread to see what rims those are as I didn't recognize the bolt pattern as being correct for BBS RS1001's, they look fantastic on this car. Excited for more, keep it up!

[2mAn]

The joy of swaps, always take 3x longer and costs 3x as much, but it will be worth it on the end. Keep it up!

[dadsbmw]

Rained most of the day and I felt like crap, but still managed to get a bit of work done. Pulled out the new splicers and cut up the AC lines to get that process started. I really want to get them crimped up and installed before the motor goes in, but I think I'll need the motor in first to make sure I get the lengths just right.




Replaced the stock throttle cable as well


And started on getting the firewall modified to fit the new steering rack. Little bit of a PITA to get it all out, but managed to do it without pulling the carpet, which made me happy!

[dadsbmw]

Continuing! Notice my persistence and recall!

Skies were relatively clear today but there ended up being scattered showers throughout the day. I had originally planned to do some "indoor" work last night after Thanksgiving dinner, but was NOT feeling it when I got home... so unfortunately that all bled into today.

First things first, I knew I wanted to get the front end back on the ground. To do that I needed the suspension buttoned up, and to complete that I needed tie rods and a steering rack. Pulled out the new (to me) e36 m3 rack and began the first of the indoor work.


R&R'd the inner/outer tie rods and the front power steering line/cooler.


Received the e36 AC compressor lines (1 new and one used) to cut and modify to fit the e30 system. The #8 to #8 and #10 to #12 splicers also came today, but I forgot to include them in the picture. Need to figure out which line goes where and generally how they route, so I can cut em up and take them to get spliced at an AC shop.


Decided it was also time to start putting together the shifter setup. Had a new shifter cup my girlfriend had gifted me years ago, bought a used shifter arm off a local guy and also sourced a 1.9 z3 shifter and e36 m3 DSSR from Garagistic. All went together pretty well with a slight bit of DSSR bending and the use of one thinner spacer.




The engine cover no longer fit correctly now that I had the obd2 ignition coil harness in place, so I had to make provisions


Drill and a couple snips


And she fits like a glove


Now time to get this lady back on the ground. Finished mounting up the front struts, calipers, and other little odds and ends. Love this picture... new Koni struts, eibach springs, coilover sleeves, and Arc Asylum front subframe. Brake pads, rotors, ss lines, front wheel bearings, 21mm swaybar, IE Motorsport swaybar bushings/mounts/endlinks, control arms, and CABs are all essentially new.



And bolted up the steering rack and attached the tie rods to the front knuckles


I really had no idea what to expect with this new front suspension. I'd taken ~1.25" off each strut, but I'd also put on 7" springs. I guess now we'll see! Threw on the wheels and tires, and the gap when at full droop was obviously much smaller than previously


But we're not ready to put her down yet! Hopped under the car to replace the shifter carrier. The old one was absolutely shot. The rubber was actually pulled out with the shifter. New one will hopefully work out much better, although I do plan to expirement with cutting and offsetting the old one to allow the shifter to sit more centered




And reinstalled the exhaust shields and brace




Now it was time to put her back on the ground.


And boy is she ever low! This is without a motor in the car! Sitting here missing ~500lbs from the front of the car, it sits probably an inch lower than it used to sit WITH a motor. Pretty funny. Thankfully I've got at least a few inches of upward adjustment.




And looking down into the engine bay


Next up was the brake booster. I knew I would have to go from the drivers footwell, which is something I was dreading. While I was preparing to do this I decided I'd replace all the wear items down there as well... brake master cylinder and all the bushings/springs for all three pedals. Upon getting down to inspect, however, it was all in like new condition. This car is so funny to work on. Some components feel like they haven't been replaced in 400k miles, while others look brand new. You never know! Looking around an drinking in the shittiness of the job, I decided to just leave it all. I've still got the parts and can do it in the future if I need to. Moved on to the task at hand, disconnected the spring and pulled the pin from the brake clevis and removed all 4 bolts holding the BB in place. God I love my 3/8" impact. Out she goes!





Took it into the garage to compare to the x3 booster


I'd originally assumed I'd need to chop a significant portion from the rear thread on the x3 booster, but after measuring and comparing, I'm so happy I didnt! We'll see how it aligns with the brake pedal, but I installed the clevis at the very end of the shaft.


Unfortunately I couldn't install the x3 booster and master, because I still needed to modify the firewall to allow my airbag equipped steering column to work correctly. Unfortunately it was getting dark and obviously was going to pour rain tonight, so I moved on to other priorities. My hood latch hasn't worked in quite a while due to a stretched latch cable, so I quickly replaced that. This way I would feel confident closing my hood and know I could open it again in the morning! Unfortunately didn't take any pictures of this process, but know that it was been done. As I closed her down for the night took a couple more pictures




So funny to me that despite this only being ~4 hours of work, I ended up doing so much more. Shows that cleaning and fixing little issues really is a time suck! Hopefully it will continue at this pace as I continue!

[dadsbmw]

great work on the coilovers!

Thanks jeenyus

Was hoping to get a bunch done over the Thanksgiving break, but of course today is the first day it decides to rain! Thankfully I had some indoor stuff to work on, so after running a few Tgive related errands, I started on the e30. First up was to finish the front suspension. Literally only got one picture, and it's after I got one of the struts into the housing.


The rest is obvious of course... springs, top hats, and strut mounts installed. Mounted the front struts, lower control arms, brake calipers etc. Need to find the steering rack hardware to mount it to the subframe, but plan on doing the tie rods first. As it got darker I decided to swap out the steering linkage guibo with an Ireland Engineering poly unit. And that was basically the day!




Still plan on making some big headway through Sunday, including converting the AC over to 134a (been dreading this), brake booster, master cylinder, clutch master cylinder, accelerator/brake/clutch pedal bushings, modify the firewall to fit the steering linkage correctly, reinstall the underbody shields and shift carrier, and hopefully get the motor dropped into the bay!

[jeenyus]

great work on the coilovers!

[dadsbmw]

Wanted to get front end back on the ground, so started modifying the front struts. Clamped the housings in the vice


Cut off the spring mount


Measured an inch and removed it with the grinder


Realigned with to prepare for welding


Welded up


Ground back down


welded the new mounts in place


Gave em a quick coat of paint


Needed to get the front subframe in as well, so stripped the stocker




And built up the Arc Asylum subframe




And installed


While I was messing around in the bay I pulled the master cylinder and ended up starting on the AC system. Replaced a few of the O-rings, drier, and condenser. Unfortunately didn't get a ton of pics...




Great news was that the $50 Rockauto condenser I bought was a direct fit and had everything needed.

Hoping to get a lot more done this coming week during the Thanksgiving vacation.

[dadsbmw]

Today was not nearly as productive as I'd hoped... or at least the results weren't as satisfying.

The goal of the day was to put the rear of the car back on the ground.

Started off by changing the fuel filter. Not sure how old the current one is, but seemd like a good idea. I wanted to do the soft fuel lines as well, but after seeing that the several lengths of 6" high pressure fuel hose were ~$75, I figured I'd run them a bit longer.




Next I pulled out the shields and crossmembers to be cleaned. With 29 years of oil and grime built up on them, they'd certainly seen better days.




Can hardly believe it's the same piece!

The coating on these 2 pieces was coming off so I opted to strip and repaint with epoxy






Also went through and retorqued and lock tighted the diff to axle shaft bolts. Set the back end on the ground and finished cleaning the engine bay and started on the trans tunnel. Unfortunately that was it for the weekend, and I wont be able to work on the car itself until next weekend. Thankfully I've now got a few projects I can work on in the garage in preparation for next week. Anyways, the really fun updates are to come.

[dadsbmw]

So as was shown last Sunday, the engine, trans, ECU and wiring harness were pulled and sold. Unfortunately with the time change, it's not dark by the time I get home from work, and this is all taking place in the driveway, so no work is being done during the week. I finally had a chance to continue work today. Put the car back up on stands and started with the driveshaft. I wasn't sure of the condition of the driveshaft support bearing, so figured now was as good a time as any to replace it.


The old one was actually in pretty good condition, despite looking quite a mess, but she was replaced regardless. Next up was the guibo… as they're pretty different


I'd done the research but ended up randomly stumbling upon an adapter in the FS section that seemed pretty unique. Attaches to the stock e30 driveshaft


which adapts the bolt pattern to the zf guibo


I guess we'll see how it works. While I was under there I saw that the axle shaft bolts had loosened from the diff and had to tighten them up. Should I be lock tighting these or something? Next I pulled the front suspension, as I'll be modifying the struts to fit shortened Koni's and installing coilovers. I pulled the current components to be sold tomorrow night. Next out was the steering rack, reservoir, and lines


And then the front subframe with control arms


For those keeping track, I just replaced the control arms, so they'll be going back in with the new subframe. And here's how the engine bay looked as I wrapped up for the day.


I will note that I've found a few pockets of rust thus far, and discovered the somewhat shitty repair job from when my dad hit a deer going 80mph about 20 years ago. The new tack welds where they replaced the front clip are all rusting out and basically crap quality. In the moment I considered tearing it down to fix it, but cooler heads prevailed. One day I'll have a larger garage and be getting a full paint job done, so I may as well wait until then.

More updates to come tomorrow