My E30 Rehabilitation! ft. Boost Noises

[pondhopper]

Seems to mention the M1 second from last.
He built some Frankenstein BMW race cars in the past.

[2mAn]

Yep, it's located in South Austin at Terry Saythers. I spotted it on a Sunday so unfortunately the shop wasn't open, but I am very curious about the background. If I had to guess it commands too big of a price tag for the condition, hence why it continues to waste away. It's not the only rare bmw sitting out front in similar condition...

It's actually suppose to have a six button OBC, but it was long gone when I picked the car up. I found that clock in a junkyard a couple years ago and grabbed it just to fill the space. Definitely not ideal, but better than a hole in the front console.

I've considered picking up a euroclock, converting the space into a phone holder, or using it as a future gauge space if/when the car sees turbo dreams. But I remain undecided. I believe an adapter is needed for the OBC to euroclock conversion, right?

That name sounds VERY familiar. He sold a 2002 race car on BaT ( https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1976-bmw-2002-57/ ) and mentioned he was going to be selling a bunch of his cars... maybe he's collecting change to give this one love OR its one of the cars going to be sold soon

Heres his reply when I asked what he was going to be selling:

2mAn—highlights: Colorado 2002 pretty stock, Inka 2002, turbo flares and not as stock, e39 540 six speed, e28 535i, riviera 2002ti clone, tear drop trailer, R75/5 MC—that’s all this year. Next year—Inka 2002Touring 5speed, silver 02tii barn find, ’71 3.0CSL, ’79 M90 engined Euro 635. After that—2 Targa Baurs, 1600 Full Cab, M1, 502 V12 Hot Rod, …

No M1 mentioned, so who knows...

As far as the OBC-> Euro Clock conversion you will need the harness. The OBC has ~12 wires going into it, the clock has ~4 or something and they have their corresponding plugs

[zwill23]

Crazy, was this in Texas? Were you able to talk to anyone about it? Thats seriously a shame...

I noticed your car doesnt have any kind of OBC (or does it??) because the clock is the most basic clock setup available... the good news is that it should be a very easy plug and play to put a euro analog clock in. I highly recommend it

Yep, it's located in South Austin at Terry Saythers. I spotted it on a Sunday so unfortunately the shop wasn't open, but I am very curious about the background. If I had to guess it commands too big of a price tag for the condition, hence why it continues to waste away. It's not the only rare bmw sitting out front in similar condition...

It's actually suppose to have a six button OBC, but it was long gone when I picked the car up. I found that clock in a junkyard a couple years ago and grabbed it just to fill the space. Definitely not ideal, but better than a hole in the front console.

I've considered picking up a euroclock, converting the space into a phone holder, or using it as a future gauge space if/when the car sees turbo dreams. But I remain undecided. I believe an adapter is needed for the OBC to euroclock conversion, right?

[2mAn]

Cruised down to south Austin the other day to check out an antique store, and perused an old bmw repair shop afterward.

It was very cool to see this M1 lurking out front, albeit wasting away. Maybe another rehab build is in order ;)



The interior smelled strongly of cat piss :(



That poor exposed engine was covered up with a trash bag:

Crazy, was this in Texas? Were you able to talk to anyone about it? Thats seriously a shame...

I noticed your car doesnt have any kind of OBC (or does it??) because the clock is the most basic clock setup available... the good news is that it should be a very easy plug and play to put a euro analog clock in. I highly recommend it

[zwill23]

Excellent thread. I admire your commitment to wrenching anywhere and everywhere while doing quality work and documenting well. You've inspired me to show more love to my DD. Thank you.

Thank you!!

I used to complain a lot about not having an ideal place to wrench, but complaining wasn't helping any. Fortunately, I'm lucky enough to have understanding roommates who let me work in the driveway and friends that will offer up a space from time to time.

Good luck with your DD! Wrenching on a daily just takes a bit of planning :)

[alkkamai]

Excellent thread. I admire your commitment to wrenching anywhere and everywhere while doing quality work and documenting well. You've inspired me to show more love to my DD. Thank you.

[zwill23]

ttuuurrrbbooooo!

One day! :twisted:

[kid8]

ttuuurrrbbooooo!

[zwill23]

A lack of safety systems, mo'meat, and a weepy cooler

Small update!

The big projects have slowed, so I've been enjoying the car and doing some tinkering here and there. In just a couple hundred miles I'll have officially put 20k miles on it and I'm a month away from a full year of daily duties :) feels good. It's had a lot of work done at this point, but I never expected these old cars to be as reliable as they are.

Also, I did my first autocross in April! Had a lot of fun and the car absolutely out performed the driver. I set better times each run, but my biggest issue was staying on course. The damn traffic cones would come up so fast I would lose my line of sight and botch the following turn. Lots of room for improvement, although I'll say it was a much bigger time commitment than I had hoped. 12 hours for 5 min of total drive time... woof.

Still, I'll likely give it another go :up:

Went on a hike with the lady a few weekends ago at Muleshoe Bend, couldn't help but take some pics of the dirty girls ;)





Quite nice out there, decided to load up the mountain bike for a revisit the following weekend:



Cruised down to south Austin the other day to check out an antique store, and perused an old bmw repair shop afterward.

It was very cool to see this M1 lurking out front, albeit wasting away. Maybe another rehab build is in order ;)



The interior smelled strongly of cat piss :(



That poor exposed engine was covered up with a trash bag:



Moving on, I went on a work trip to Sarasota and spotted this golf cart at a dealer next to my hotel ;D



Onto some tinkering!

Airbag System Removal:

Since I had already installed a non-airbag check panel and removed the airbag wheel, I decided it was time to remove the rest of the system.

Unhooked the crash sensors in the engine bay:



Removed the knee bolster from under the steering column to expose the airbag module. All the airbag connections were very obvious as they were bright orange. I simply unplugged all the connections and unbolted the module.



Pulled the airbag plug through the lower steering column cover:



Un-tucked the crash sensor wiring in the engine bay and pulled it through the firewall.



Done! Feels good to simplify the car a bit where I can.



Picked up a new fuse box cover:



Glove box handle broke so I zip-tied it until I picked up a new handle:



Back to normal :up:



I've had a weeping oil cooler line for a while now and finally decided to do something about it. The bmw tax on these oil cooler lines is absurd and they always seem leaky when I find them in the junkyard, so I decided to try a different route and have the line repaired.

Pulling the line off a friend's parts car and calling around, I ended up finding a local hydraulic repair service that did an awesome job. The shop was Hydraulic House if anyone is looking for similar repairs in the Austin area.

The line had AN fittings brazed onto it with a serviceable hydraulic line, new o-rings, and was put through a parts cleaner - all for a fraction of the cost of the OEM replacement part. I felt quite good about that



Brazed connection!



Installed and officially leak free!



Beyond that, I picked up some new tires as my current S-drives were seriously used up. This little gem was just begging to cause a flat, but fortunately the tire held up long enough to get the new ones swapped on.



New S-Drives! 205/55/R15



andddd back at work with some fresh meat :devil:



Megasquirt install and a drive-shaft replacement are next on the list

[zwill23]

Auto-x time!! I'm still impressed you got that all done in a weekend, nice work man!

I’m stoked! I think I waited wayy too long to sign up for one. We need GreyE there!

Ehh, it is more like a week with all the prep work included. It was still a sprint for sure!

[kid8]

Auto-x time!! I'm still impressed you got that all done in a weekend, nice work man!

[zwill23]

I did this. Ended up going out and buying a sawzall because I was doing it alone and needed my car to be done asap. Cut the heads off and installed new hardware and got the car on the road but man was that a scary moment.

Sick update too! I always like e30s with roof racks. Functional hoopties are great.

Ugh, right? Funny how such a seemingly simply mistake can cause so much grief. I ended up lifting the engine with my support bar and having to lower the subframe again just to get the damn things out.

Thank you! I'm a big fan of using my roof rack / e30 for things they are clearly not suppose to be used for ;D

So did you brake the rack on purpose so you can have a excuse to install your new one :p

I love the blog deff keeping me occupied and getting excited to tear into mine keep up the good work!!

Hah! I plead the fifth ;)

I'm glad you like it! It is just a documentation of all my E30 trials and tribulations, really :rofl:

Awesome thread, keep up the good work! Might I recommend to give her a little polish at some point? If it's single stage paint you can get it back to life with a day's worth of work. You may also be able to get the door ding removed with a paintless dent guy.


Cheers

I appreciate it!! I believe it is a single stage paint, it had a cheap maaco paint job done at some point in it's life after a fender bender. In general, the exterior needs a lot of love, aside from paint it has enough dings, dents, scratches, etc. that leaves me with a mentality of, "why even bother?"

Ideally, when I have a garage again one day I'll be able to bring the rest of it back to her former glory, but in the meantime maybe I'll spend some time trying to give it some new life.

[Julien]

Awesome thread, keep up the good work! Might I recommend to give her a little polish at some point? If it's single stage paint you can get it back to life with a day's worth of work. You may also be able to get the door ding removed with a paintless dent guy.


Cheers

[Mpolito3355]

So did you brake the rack on purpose so you can have a excuse to install your new one :p

I love the blog deff keeping me occupied and getting excited to tear into mine keep up the good work!!

[wworm]

Big Update!

However, I made a really stupid mistake and installed the bolts from the top down... only to realize after buttoning everything back up, that they're suppose to go from the bottom up, i.e. nut on top of the rack. The only way to get them back out is to lift the engine back up out of the car, or drop the subframe...

I did this. Ended up going out and buying a sawzall because I was doing it alone and needed my car to be done asap. Cut the heads off and installed new hardware and got the car on the road but man was that a scary moment.

Sick update too! I always like e30s with roof racks. Functional hoopties are great.