e30mclow's e30 #14 - Now 1.5jz + 6 Speed

[s14brent]

good friggin job! it looks great!

[econti]

Stop talking yourself down my guy, that looks absolutely fantastic and you should be very proud of it

[Northern]

looks spectacular

[dice2012]

Hell yeah

[2mAn]

beautiful

[e30mclow]

I got another little bit done on the weekend, which I now believe constitutes the "tipping point". By that I mean that from here on out, it is reassembly and instant gratification versus slow progress.

First I set about doing the stone chipping around the lower extents of the car. This is always a dead giveaway that an e30 has been messed with, as the texture is hard to match. With that, I did the front, back and sides all at once.







I then had to lap back over some of that with color and clear, before doing the lower details in black, which is how it would have been originally.







I'm very happy with it, especially as it used to look like this back there lol



I had forgotten about all of the fixes as it has been a year, but there was a lot in it over time













Another job I was pi55ed off with, that in the end only took an hour, was re-clearing the engine bay. I never thought that overspray could have infiltrated my masking, but it did, reducing the bay to a dull finish. It took longer to mask the car than it did to scuff and spray the bay this time.

Dullness


All masked up and then just dripping in lovely deep gloss






..and with all of that, the painting related tools and consumables are banished, and I can slowly start putting things back together

[dirty30]

The stone chip on the rear looks exactly like factory! I'll be there soon with our vert! What product and application method did you use?

[e30mclow]

The stone chip on the rear looks exactly like factory! I'll be there soon with our vert! What product and application method did you use?

U-Pol tintable Raptor Liner. Sprayed at 40psi (at the provided gun inlet), about 1-1.5' off of the panel, semi slow movement, one heavy-ish coat.
Be careful with overlap, or say sweeping half of a horizontal area at a time. This stuff stacks up so fast that you effectively need to blow past the panel at the ends rather than let go of the trigger. This means that the wall and your tools are going to get coated unless they're covered. You need to work/walk the length of the panel with each pass.

[litu]

Dude that is cool

[dirty30]

U-Pol tintable Raptor Liner. Sprayed at 40psi (at the provided gun inlet), about 1-1.5' off of the panel, semi slow movement, one heavy-ish coat.
Be careful with overlap, or say sweeping half of a horizontal area at a time. This stuff stacks up so fast that you effectively need to blow past the panel at the ends rather than let go of the trigger. This means that the wall and your tools are going to get coated unless they're covered. You need to work/walk the length of the panel with each pass.

Oh nice, I've used raptor on a few projects. I have some flecks of it on my garage door from an accidental trigger pull! haha I was thinking of using the 3M schutz with my raptor gun but will probably have to play with the psi on a test board.

[e30mclow]

Things are less exciting here now as we enter the phase of putting things on and off. On, because they can go on now, off again, because they don't look nice enough.

Firstly I put the dashboard sound proofing back in after thoroughly scrubbing it. This was from the rat infested donor car and smelled accordingly. These are now $650+ from the dealer, so I'm glad I decided to keep the stinky thing.


That was followed by the now non-airbag column and modified pedal box.


I cut and welded the clutch pedal to move it over about an inch as I've always been annoyed by how my big goofy feet clip the brake pedal. Moving to a non-airbag column got rid of needless joints and telescopic sleeves, which all have play now due to age. Before putting it in I painted the column, as every car seems to come with rust there from factory, even now. I should be able to install the front subframe and rack soon, once I modify the UJ at the bottom of the column. I'm thinking of spacing the column down slightly to make the wheel a little lower in my lap.

Then things got incredibly detailed. Anyone that has sat in an e30 knows the heater blower fan either whistles, doesn't work, or blows air out anywhere but where it is needed. Well, down the rabbit hole I went. No exaggeration, this was less fun that swapping the roof over.





I took it completely apart and made cardboard templates of every piece of foam, then made those in closed cell foam of varying thicknesses (26-ish individual pieces). I also cleaned all wiring and rewrapped the harness - a taste of what is to come with the overall body harness







New AC core and heater core




There is a little flap deep in the box that I assume is to prevent blowing the seals out when you slam the door, This was remade using the old packaging from a box of screws. Niceeee







Putting it back together took a number of attempts, but in the end we have a 100% sealed unit. Running it on the bench, I could feel air coming out of the joints in the casing, so I went back over them with a thin skim of black sealant, which sorted it. The final piece was the only seal I couldn't replicate, which came from BMW.




I'm glad that is now absolutely perfect. It moves more air than I've ever seen in an e30, while also being silent.
I don't think I'll have the AC working in 2027, but will be putting things in place to run modern AC refrigerant etc. The pump is on the wrong side of the JZ engine so I need to either relocate it, or figure out how to make my own lines.

During the week I hope to cleanup the wiper linkage and motor, as it is easier to install that before the heater box. Then it is onto stripping the wiring harness and making a new one for the additional circuits that are needed.