Mike's Alpine White 1991 318is

[mike.bmw]

DMC Prep Part 1: Exterior Detailing

I plan on attending the 36th Deutsche Marque Concours event next month. I went for the first time last year and had a great time (and placed 2nd in the 80s vintage BMW class!). My schedule for the next month is a bit full, so I figured I get the e30 ready in a few detailing sessions (exterior, interior, engine bay, final wash/clean) spread across the next few weeks.

Today I tackled the exterior. The paint was still in pretty good condition from the clay, polish, and wax I performed last year, but I figured it was time for another clay and wax. I washed, clayed, and waxed the exterior over the course of 3 hours. I went through a whole role of painters tape masking off the trim. I used my Harbor Freight orbital with Meguiar's High Tech Yellow Wax.

Washed and clayed:



Tape, tape, tape:



Above the belt:



Below the belt:



All done!



I was just using my cell phone to take photos. The lighting was terrible. So you won't be able to see much of a difference between the first and last photos, but the paint is sooooooooo smooth now. :D

[e30RS]

Absolutely gorgeous car. Bravo and well done.

[Pootis]

I will be purchasing that keyless entry. Thanks for the post

[Jokester]

Dream car right here

[fresh_TD]

Thanks all! I'd like to get a sound clip at some point. I've put a few hundred miles on the exhaust and I love it. Great sound, no drone. My daughter said "it's cool", it's wife approved, and my son has fallen asleep on more than 1 car ride.



State Inspection

In other news, I got the car inspected earlier this month. A couple of the guys at the Sunoco down the street have e30s (a 318 vert and 325is coupe). Always fun to hang out and chat with them about e30 stuff! The only place I'll take my car for inspection as I know they'll treat it well. :D







Dulles Landing Cars and Coffee



The same guys from the Sunoco at regulars at the Dulles Landing Cars and Coffee. There was a good e30 / classic BMW turnout today.







Another BMW that showed up at Dulles Landing was fresh_TD's stellar '91 318i. This car is something special. Low number of owners, tons of service history, and less than 100K miles on the clock. It's was a lot of fun to check out.















Keyless Entry



Speaking of fresh_TD, he recommended the Docooler keyless entry. $18 on amazon. After some quick research it comes highly recommended by the e30 crowd. At Cars and Coffee, he hooked me up with the necessary wire taps and loops! Thanks, fresh_TD!



I installed it this afternoon with the help of my daughter. She sat in the trunk and learned about wire stripping and working safely with electricity. It's only a few wires and doesn't take more than 10 minutes to install. While I was in there I found a trailer harness. Eric Giles' post was very helpful for wiring instructions as the Docooler instructions are wrong.

You'll love the keyless entry long time [emoji16][emoji16]

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[mike.bmw]

Looks good. I had one on mine, they sound good.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

Looks great Mike! Can't wait to get mine on!

Looks perfect! The exhaust looks like a quality unit. We need a high quality exhaust clip now!

Thanks all! I'd like to get a sound clip at some point. I've put a few hundred miles on the exhaust and I love it. Great sound, no drone. My daughter said "it's cool", it's wife approved, and my son has fallen asleep on more than 1 car ride.

State Inspection
In other news, I got the car inspected earlier this month. A couple of the guys at the Sunoco down the street have e30s (a 318 vert and 325is coupe). Always fun to hang out and chat with them about e30 stuff! The only place I'll take my car for inspection as I know they'll treat it well. :D



Dulles Landing Cars and Coffee

The same guys from the Sunoco at regulars at the Dulles Landing Cars and Coffee. There was a good e30 / classic BMW turnout today.



Another BMW that showed up at Dulles Landing was fresh_TD's stellar '91 318i. This car is something special. Low number of owners, tons of service history, and less than 100K miles on the clock. It's was a lot of fun to check out.







Keyless Entry

Speaking of fresh_TD, he recommended the Docooler keyless entry. $18 on amazon. After some quick research it comes highly recommended by the e30 crowd. At Cars and Coffee, he hooked me up with the necessary wire taps and loops! Thanks, fresh_TD!

I installed it this afternoon with the help of my daughter. She sat in the trunk and learned about wire stripping and working safely with electricity. It's only a few wires and doesn't take more than 10 minutes to install. While I was in there I found a trailer harness. Eric Giles' post was very helpful for wiring instructions as the Docooler instructions are wrong.

[TFJR]

Looks perfect! The exhaust looks like a quality unit. We need a high quality exhaust clip now!

[ATL_E30]

Looks great Mike! Can't wait to get mine on!

[fresh_TD]

Looks good. I had one on mine, they sound good.

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[mike.bmw]

Strömung exhaust install

Earlier this week I received my Strömung exhaust in the mail. Because I organized the group buy, Scott @ Strömung gave me some custom tip options. I opted for a 3", dual walled, straight exit tip (their normal tip is 3.5"). I'm happy I went with the smaller tip as I think it fits perfectly (see photos further down post).

It was packaged quite well!



Today I got to work installing it. First order of business was to get the car in the air and soak the nuts and bolts with PB Blaster.



After that soaked for a bit, I proceeded to snap off the rear muffler hanger studs. Go me!



Not to worry, after trying to hammer out the remains and failing, I just drilled them out and used some nice new hardware. At some point I'll replace the hangers.



Then I removed the old exhaust from the car, which had holes all over the top of it, which explains why the stock-replacement exhaust was so loud.





And then I installed the new one.



Nailed it. Perfectly center.

[mike.bmw]

Any chance I could convince you to sell that spare Mine is coming out of storage in next month or two...perhaps I should wipe the diff too before I start the hunt!

Good news on exhaust...I am bummed I missed the GB. Thanks for organizing;D

Going to keep this one as a spare, thanks!

What a pleasant surprise on the diff! I've seen your COTM article and finally had a chance to read through this build thread, what a great car (and great owner). I wish some of the details you included were more applicable to my m20b27, great stuff. Keep it up!

If that LSD ever goes bad you got another one to replace it. Keep up the work. Love how simple the build is

:p :p That's a nice surprise to have. Oh well, at least you have a spare now

Thanks, all!

To completely close the loop on this I found out why I remember the rear wheels spinning opposite directions during my LSD "test". At the time I was also working on the parking brake so when I spun the wheels there was a ton of resistance (due to parking brake work being performed), but they did spin opposite directions. The reason why they spun in opposite directions is because I had the car in gear, so the DRIVESHAFT WAS NOT ROTATING. If the driveshaft is fixed in place, the wheels will spin different directions, with a significant amount of resistance!

[econti]

:p :p That's a nice surprise to have. Oh well, at least you have a spare now

[Jokester]

If that LSD ever goes bad you got another one to replace it. Keep up the work. Love how simple the build is

[Albie325]

What a pleasant surprise on the diff! I've seen your COTM article and finally had a chance to read through this build thread, what a great car (and great owner). I wish some of the details you included were more applicable to my m20b27, great stuff. Keep it up!

[dmanb2b]

So I loctite'd and torqued everything back to spec and left that diff in the car. I'll keep the "new" one as a spare.


Stromung exhaust update
My Stromung exhaust will be arriving in a couple weeks. Scott @ Stromung has been great and gave me a few options for tips. Looking forward to installing this soon. And, yes, I have verified I don't already have a Stromung exhaust installed on the car.

Any chance I could convince you to sell that spare Mine is coming out of storage in next month or two...perhaps I should wipe the diff too before I start the hunt!

Good news on exhaust...I am bummed I missed the GB. Thanks for organizing;D