Andrew's Sterlingsilber 90 325iS -> 318iS

[Nairb]

Thank you. I try to do my best. The only paint I would personally recommend is a professional automotive paint. Most distributors will sell to the general public and they often are able to mix some into a spray can. Diamantschwarz is color code 181. You could print out the mixing sheet for that color here and bring it with you: https://coloronline.glasurit.com/index.php

There are some fairly decent 2k (2 part) clear coats available in a aerosol such as this one: https://www.amazon.com/U-S-Chemical-.../dp/B0043B7UQY

I haven't used that aerosol clear myself, but I've used Spraymax's 2k epoxy primer and it seems good.

You have gone above and beyond in this post! Thank you!

I'm moving to the Seattle area around the end of the year, I'll have to take a tour down to Portland and buy you a beer!

[Andrew325is]

Okay cool!

[mike.bmw]

Nice recovery on the wheels. They turned out excellent. Over the years I've refinished a few sets of 5 spoke wheels and found that time consuming and challenging. I can only imagine how it is to refinish a set of weaves.

[slippery]

Great thread!

I saw the injectors you used and decided to order them. Holy cow!!! What a difference.

Car idles way better and feels torquier. I wish I would have done this years ago. Sending the factory ones to get cleaned just in case.

[Andrew325is]

Thanks. Yeah it was very time consuming. There are 34 holes between the spokes and towards the end of scuffing them my fingers were numb haha. First time I painted something 2 colors too. I wasn’t sure how to do that at first. I thought about painting them the one color and then clearing it and wait for it to cure before masking it, but then I would have had to scuff the centers again, so I waited a couple hours (paint guy told me I had 4 hours to apply the clear) and put some tape on the side to test it and the paint didn’t lift up so I went ahead and masked them and shot the other color. It made me nervous peeling the tape off. It worked out well.

[Andrew325is]

Great thread!

I saw the injectors you used and decided to order them. Holy cow!!! What a difference.

Car idles way better and feels torquier. I wish I would have done this years ago. Sending the factory ones to get cleaned just in case.

Awesome! That’s good to hear! I’m going to install mine right now actually. Haven’t started the car again yet. Just need to do that and install the new heater core.

[Andrew325is]

Well I was going to install the injectors, but 2 of them on the car are missing the clamps that hold them to the fuel rail. Weird huh. So I ordered those.

I installed the new heater core. It still had the original (had a date sticker of Jan 90) and it was leaking a little bit from the lower pipe, so it was good I replaced it. I replaced all 3 of the o-rings on the water valve pipes. The old ones were hard as a rock.

Also, another weird thing I noticed is that there are no ducts to the rear heater ducts and they are filled with foam. Is that a model specific configuration or did later E30s just come equipped like this? Seems odd when there are heated front seats, but no heat for the rear.

[Stanley Rockafella]

IIRC all e30's should have the rears piped into the system.
At least that's how it was on my 86 es and 88 is
:???:

[muppetman342]

Two doors have the foam, four doors have the ducts, as I understand.

[Andrew325is]

Hmm, I can't recall if my other 2 door E30s were missing heat to the rear or not. According to the ETK/Realoem the cover that blocks the duct is part number 64111372670. It doesn't give any info besides that Canada spec cars have that (mine's USA).

[Jokester]

Hmm, I can't recall if my other 2 door E30s were missing heat to the rear or not. According to the ETK/Realoem the cover that blocks the duct is part number 64111372670. It doesn't give any info besides that Canada spec cars have that (mine's USA).

I’ve seen coupes come with them before, I think it might have been a factory option but I’m not sure.

[e30austin]

From what I can tell, 1990+ cars did not come with floor vents. Not sure why. Perhaps another way for BMW to cut costs.

[Staszek]

Well I was going to install the injectors, but 2 of them on the car are missing the clamps that hold them to the fuel rail. Weird huh. So I ordered those.

I installed the new heater core. It still had the original (had a date sticker of Jan 90) and it was leaking a little bit from the lower pipe, so it was good I replaced it. I replaced all 3 of the o-rings on the water valve pipes. The old ones were hard as a rock.

Also, another weird thing I noticed is that there are no ducts to the rear heater ducts and they are filled with foam. Is that a model specific configuration or did later E30s just come equipped like this? Seems odd when there are heated front seats, but no heat for the rear.

Wasnt that a pain to replace, I almost gave up on it a few times, glad I went through with the change though.

My 90 2 door doesnt have floor vents.

[mike.bmw]

Does the whole dash need to come out to replace that? I swapped dashes about a year and a half ago. What a pain.

[Staszek]

Does the whole dash need to come out to replace that? I swapped dashes about a year and a half ago. What a pain.

If would be easier to do if you did it when it was out, but it is not necessary.