Mike's Alpine White 1991 318is

[evandael]

Hey Mike! It's Eric from last weekend.. small world. Your car looks great and you are exceptionally detail-oriented both in formatting this thread (a format I may try to emulate if I have the discipline) and in the work you've done on your e30.


I've got the Ronals on the vert and they look great. Thanks again for a painless transaction!

[2mAn]

Always nice to have some help. Love the periscope shot haha

[mike.bmw]

It has been a month. Update time!

M42 Intake Boot

Nothing groundbreaking here. The original one was nearly brittle. The new one is nice and pliable.

20200630_143819 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

20200630_145424 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Fairly clean since I replaced the mess under the intake 4 years ago:

20200630_144404 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Had some help:

20200630_144447 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Fog Light Replacement

My fog lights aren't in great shape. They are missing the rubber trim, the previous owner had zip tied them into place, the glass is very pitted, and the adjustment hardware is a hodge-podge of junk from someone's toolbox. A few weeks ago I was chatting with fresh_TD about it and he said, "I've got a set of alpine fog deletes you can have." I've always liked the fog deletes for the late model E30s. We met up earlier in the week to exchange some parts. The deletes are in great shape and the weathered paint matches my brake ducts almost perfectly. I installed them with new clips and hardware (good bye zip ties).

Old fogs:

20200627_110604 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

New clips pressed into place:

20200701_125429 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

I had some help:

20200701_130750 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

20200716_124422 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

And, of course, some photos:

DSC_0811 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0826 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0928 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Articles, articles, articles...

A few from the latest der Bayersiche. Up until now I've been writing articles covering NCC events, but for this issue I included something more personal.

July_Aug_20_dB_week_2 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

July_Aug_20_dB_week_3 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

July_Aug_20_dB_week_7 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

[roguetoaster]

Surprising that you hadn't been, but go back during a season when the foliage is light for optimal auto touring. Also, off seasons will let you see more of the interesting fauna, and avoid the distractions of the two legged variety.

[mike.bmw]

Happy Father's Day -- Skyline Drive

Despite living in Virginia my whole life, I've never been to Skyline Drive. Skyline Drive is a 105 mile road that runs along the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park. The road is well paved and has lots of twists and turns. The speed limit is 35 mph so it's a great road for cruising and seeing sights.

My wife and kids asked what I wanted to do for Father's Day so I suggested we take the E30 out to Skyline Drive for the morning. We left around 8:30AM and got back home around 1PM. It was about 180 miles round trip and the E30 performed wonderfully. We encountered some rain on the way there and the first half of our ~32 mile drive on Skyline Drive was extremely cloudy, but the second half was fairly clear and we had fun stopping at overlooks regardless of the weather and visibility.

We plan to go back again on a clearer today to enjoy more views at the overlooks.

An approximation of the route:

FathersDaySkylineDrive by mike.bevels, on Flickr

An overlook in the clouds:

DSC_0818 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Visibility starting to get a bit better (another overlook): DSC_0889 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

~3400 ft elevation. We're finally able to see some breaks in the clouds:

DSC_0914 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Towards the end we had great visibility:

DSC_0915 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

E30 + F31 Detailing

I spent a couple of nights detailing the cars recently. I polished the lips on the BBS RS001s and hand waxed the E30's body. Normally I'd use my orbital, but the paint was still feeling smooth from last year so I figured a couple coats of wax by hand would be sufficient until the fall. I also took the opportunity to show some love to the F31 and gave it a thorough cleaning and coat of wax.

20200615_190500 by mike.bevels, on Flickr


More Photos at the CIT Building

I took more photos at the CIT Building, but this time I took the F31. It's such a cool location for photos, I just wish I had better photography skills to take advantage of it. It's a fun hobby and I'll continue to learn.

DSC_0864 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

National Capital Chapter BMW CCA Magazine - der Bayerische

I've been having fun as the co-editor of my BMW CCA chapter's magazine, der Bayerische. It has afforded me the opportunity to interview a number of NCC sponsor shops which includes meeting and interviewing the owners, touring their facilities, photographing their facilities, and writing articles. The magazine takes a lot more time than I anticipated, but it has been a great experience so far and I look forward to new challenges. Check out the archive of der Bayerische issues here: https://www.nccbmwcca.org/db/

[roguetoaster]

All of the strut mounts changed to the larger upper ID (at least RWD ones), not sure exactly why, maybe to change to another bearing, or make tool access easier. IIRC, it's the same size cap as E36s.

Glad you got the booster line sorted! Threads like this motivate me to get to car/garage related projects, so keep it going for you and for us!

[mike.bmw]

This is a small update, but updating this thread motivates me to keep working on the car, so here we go...

Brake booster check valve, grommet, and vacuum hose replacement

Big thanks to roguetoaster for pointing out I needed to replace my brake booster grommet and then giving me the part numbers for some of the NLA items that I ordered. I ordered new booster vacuum hose, a new grommet, and a new check valve. I already have plenty of BMW hose clamps, so I didn't need any more of those. The check valve is NLA, but the E36 version works well (part # 34331156579).

It's a good thing I replaced everything as the hose was hard and brittle and actually had cracks on the back side. The connections were all rather loose too. It probably wasn't causing a massive vacuum leak, but after replacing these parts the small "dip" in idle I used to see when coasting to a stop has now gone away completely.

Old and new:

20200531_123906 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Installed:

20200531_125048 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Strut mount caps

Apparently these come in different sizes. My old caps were too small for my new strut mounts. BMW sells a 32mm version that fits the strut mounts with larger openings.

20200531_162128 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Garage lighting and cleanup

I hung up 2 additional lighting fixtures in the garage. One over the tool chests and desk, another in front of the shelving. These things are BRIGHT. I also did a better job of tidying up the wiring and securing it to the ceiling. In addition, I spent a few hours cleaning out the garage attic and I can now use that for organized storage. Now I just need to get to cleaning and organizing everything on the shelves, and paint the ceiling, and do something with the garage floor...

20200530_142448 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

[e30mclow]

This is the car that comes to mind while I sit looking at mine, wondering if it'll ever be clean.

[mike.bmw]

Nice job Mike! I remember doing this with everything out of the car and figured it'd be a pretty tight fit but looks like you had great access with the center console removed

Thanks! Access wasn't ideal, but it wasn't terrible. This would have been much easier when I had the dash out (swap) a couple years ago. You might be pleased to know that I've continued to make use of the foam you sent me! Was that last year? I've completely lost track of time... Anyway, thanks again for that! You rock.

I drove around for a few days without the knee pad or lower cover in place to check for leaks. Plumbing of any kind (house, vehicle, etc) always makes me paranoid. Yesterday after a long drive with the kids, Avery buttoned up the rest of the dash almost entirely by herself.

20200524_152331 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

And then we washed the car. I drive the car a lot, but usually not in the rain, so it generally stays clean. It had been over a month since the last wash, so we thoroughly cleaned inside and out, to include the engine bay.

20200523_135654 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

20200523_143811 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

And this morning I got out before sunrise for some photos. Taking early morning photos is quite calming and enjoyable. It's so early that no one else is out!

DSC_0768 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0739 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0723 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

[Albie325]

Nice job Mike! I remember doing this with everything out of the car and figured it'd be a pretty tight fit but looks like you had great access with the center console removed

[mike.bmw]

Nice job and thanks for the clear posts, Mike! Saved this in case I ever need to do the same.

Thanks. I found this post (and the 15 pages of comments following it) very helpful: https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/for...core-and-valve

Nice work Mike. Does yours have AC? I've been told on non AC cars the steering column is in the way making it a fair bit harder to replace the heater core.

Thanks! D.Martijn , my car does have AC. As Ed China would say, "it was a bit fiddly", but fairly straight forward. I'm not sure my left shoulder was meant to bend in the directions it bent yesterday. I believe the steering column rivets need to be drilled out for cars without AC as the components are different and oriented differently, making removal and replacement much more difficult.

[D.Martijn]

Nice work Mike. Does yours have AC? I've been told on non AC cars the steering column is in the way making it a fair bit harder to replace the heater core.

[Nate37]

Nice job and thanks for the clear posts, Mike! Saved this in case I ever need to do the same.

[mike.bmw]

Looks great! However, it also looks like it might be time for a new brake booster grommet and maybe even a new valve if you feel like replacing the original. Parts are something like $50 if you already have some good hose clamps around.

Thanks and keen eye! I also noticed this. It's on my list of things to replace. It's not currently causing any vacuum leaks (that I can detect), but it's always good to be proactive. :-)

[roguetoaster]

Looks great! However, it also looks like it might be time for a new brake booster grommet and maybe even a new valve if you feel like replacing the original. Parts are something like $50 if you already have some good hose clamps around.