The New Car 92' Black/Black Vert'

[reelizmpro]

If it's not "Metallic" it should be single stage from the factory. It is possible for a car to be cleared though. It looks like a nice original car.

[KIRIEIW]

Well it just says "Schwarz" under the hood so I may be in luck. Got a few things done, my buddy came by in his e21 and he needed some clips replaced on his door panel so I changed them for him. As for my car, I conditioned the leather seats with Meguiars and painted some pieces with SEM. I have yet to paint the trim on the bumpers but no rush. I also tried the power top switch today, it just makes noise and doesn't go down.. Looks like I'll need to disconnect some linkage, hopefully the boot lid motors still working.

[KIRIEIW]

I picked up a extra rip free Black passenger seat the other day (to fix my ripped drivers seat) and decided to head over to the junk yard a few miles away on a rainy day. Well little did I know I didn't have my tool box in the trunk. ALL I had was the stock e30 tool kit, and a pipe wrench. Of course, the day I had no real tools, the car there happened to have KONI adjustable's installed. I decided instantly I couldn't leave there with out them, so I laid down on a back seat from a Volvo, in a huge puddle and went to town! Got them out luckily, I'll be installing them in the car in the next few weeks. I also bought brand new Lemforder shock mounts for them.

[KIRIEIW]

Well I tackled the timing belt today. I'm really disappointed because it started to rain, which forced me to pack up for the day. Looks like I'll have to get it back together sometime later in the week. Right now I have the old belt out, everything cleaned up (the timing covers, front of block, so its all reverse installation from here! I was able to get the new water pump installed/ seal at least. I didn't make a post on it, but I also painted the valve cover the other day.


Here's my "special tool" I've used numerous times to remove the fan clutch. I don't see what all the fuss is about how people say they can't fit a wrench in there?! All I do is wedge the crankshaft from turning (breaker bar/ socket), and turn it with my pliers and leverage bar (which is just a portion of my jack handle). Works every time but I'll keep my fingers crossed for future jobs :D





Cover off exposing the belt, use your judgment on the condition of the belt. I personally think it would have lasted a few more years even being 8 years old, no cracking when you bent it in either direction.






Aligning to TDC threw the kidney grill's






And the new water pump installed, which is where I was forced to stop.

[KIRIEIW]

Been waiting 9 days now on my parts from BMA Parts, well I gave them a call and they said the package has been delivered.. They didn't email me a tracking number so I had no idea. I might be screwed out of my $150 bucks now, and the cars sitting outside un completed. The finger game has started, BMA said contact UPS, UPS said to contact BMA.

[KIRIEIW]

Still haven't gotten my parts, and the investigation's still happening with UPS. I talked with someone from BMA the other day, and he told me to give him a call back with the latest this Monday. I still wonder though, if the package was delivered to the wrong address what use would these parts be to the person who received them? If someone's package was delivered on my door step by mistake, who lived a few miles away from me I'd defiantly drive over to them and deliver it myself. At the very least bring it to a UPS office..


So it's been raining a ton lately and since I haven't received my parts yet the cars been sitting around a lot. I did however fix my drivers seat today, which is pretty awesome because now I have rip free interior! It was pretty simple, but a time consuming task. Quick summary, I basically ended up buying a rip free passenger seat off Craigslist, and transferred the rip free bolster to my cars drivers seat. Looks excellent and the leather patina match's perfectly.

[KIRIEIW]

Finally! I got everything together and drove the car around the block for the first time in 26 days! I have to thank Eve at BMA, he went out of his way to also deal with UPS (along with me on my part) and they ended up covering the lost parts. Got the new box of parts a couple days ago, but hadn't had time to work on the car until today, my day off. Such a relief to have this all done, now I can get it smog'ed.

I took some pictures of most of the work today, but a quick run down.. New coolant hoses, valve cover gasket, transmission filter and fluid change, oil change, OEM BMW coolant and distilled water, air filter, plus I flushed out the radiator. The fluids looked brand new, especially the transmission fluid. I dug into the receipts and found out it was actually changed last year, and the more I dug into the receipts I found out its been changed quite a few times in the past, glad to see they didn't only change the oil. Still have some more work to do tomorrow such as replace the spark plugs and maybe the fuel filter, we'll see.

Just a note to myself when I changed the oil (and the other fluids listed above) 190,595



Fluid Draining;



The Pan off;



I had no idea there where magnets inside the pan to catch potential metal shavings;

[KIRIEIW]

Well I decided to treat the top today with a water repellent spray, made by 303. I also cleaned the window with some Meguiars plastic cleaner. Said right on the back side of the bottle its meant for convertible tops, and it sure cleaned it up nice! I wouldn't recommend it if your top was yellowing (I doubt it could fix that), but if you have fine scratch's like mine had, it'll get rid of most of them and really make the window clear. This is definitely the cleanest top I've had on a e30 convertible, and I hope to keep it that way for as long as I can.

Lastly, I decided to mess with the top motor. Seeing that holding the button down didn't do anything, I figured maybe the motor was bad but it turns out the links to the tonneau cover are disconnected/ possibly the motors un-plugged. As for the top, the link is still connected to that motor. Not really sure whats going on but the original plan was to keep the tonneau motor connected and just disconnect the top motor so it would be a partial manual top, now I might have to fully convert it.

[KIRIEIW]

Just took it for a cruise to the post office and around my area. I ended up taking my camera along and snapped some pics, drove awesome. One of the center caps unfortunately wont snap in place securely, I have one extra but its panted gold so I'll need to piece together one good one before I put all 4 on the car.

[MouseRat]

Wow this thing is pristine! Glad the parts issue got sorted too. And the KONI adjustable's are such a good find in a junkyard.

What future plans do you have for it?

[Matt341]

KIRIEIW Love all of your builds man, your attention to detail and cleanliness is very satisfying. You have such clean cars.

[KIRIEIW]

Thanks guys! Matt, I was actually just thinking about you the other day. I hope you got things sorted out with your car, and the other complications you went threw some months back.


Well, today I decided to take the lazy route and have the guy at my work detail the car. I've never had a car detailed, always done my own work but because of the fact it's black, I was worried about swirl marks so decided to let a professional do it. This is the guy we have detailing all the new BMW's that come to our dealership, I got it done for a fraction of what we charge the customers thankfully. Took him 4 hours or so to fully finish, and he only did the exterior.

[Reichart12]

The detail job looks worth the money, especially if you got it at a cut rate!

[KIRIEIW]

^I'm really happy with it myself, glad I didn't cheap out and had it done professionally.

Well the other day I found a brand new cap and rotor in one of my parts box's and decided what the heck I'll install it. The old stuff I had in the car wasn't looking the best anyways, I should have just replaced the the day I did the timing belt change. I also broke the plastic spark plug rail a couple weeks back but found a good used replacement and installed it.

[KIRIEIW]

Got all my bumper trim painted and installed today, damn SEM is some good stuff. It's a perfect match to the factory trim, and drys fully in minutes. I also got a new lip installed for the front valance because it was missing when I bought the car.