'90 Euro BMW 318iS M42 M-Tech 2 - Lazur Blau

[AlpinStar]

Hi Pieter,

Very nice work! Those cars came out looking so much better after getting the cleaning treatment from you. Love the beige color on the E21! And the interior on the E30 - rare to see cloth interiors in the USA.

A question for you: you said above "I took the E30’s door rubbers for my IS Coupe. They’re not damagefree but at least they fit like a glove. Couldn’t be more happy. After all this saved me another couple of years that i do not need to get the 750 euro OEM rubbers." Does this mean there are other passenger-door options for the main rubber door seals for the IS coupes? I have been wanting to buy a new passenger door seal for mine (since the current one has shrunk and doesn't fit right), but for some reason the passenger door seals are like $350-400 now. The driver's door seal is a fraction of that price; I'm not sure why. So I was wondering if there are other options out there for the passenger door seal.

[PieterVN]

Just a small post with some more information on the +2 cars.

So 2 weeks ago my cousin got contacted by an acquaintance. He tells him that he met an older gentleman that has 2 old BMW's that he needs to get rid of. The building that the cars were parked in was going to get sold & demolished so he needed them out.
We went to look at the cars on the same day and we make him a low offer. This gentleman had no interest in getting the most out of his cars and he justed wnated them gone asap. The man used to be a forklift and heavy machinery mechanic at a big industrial company that makes fence wiring.
He maintained the cars himself but in the last 15 years he did not find the time to maintain these two cars. His wife became ill and he had to take car of her so not much time was available for these two...

So firstly, he had a Sierrabeig E21 316i Automatic car. This used to be his wife's car. It's a 1979 316, he owned the car from 1984 and the last title we got from this car was still on his name...so in total a 2 owner car.
riginally the E21 was not available in 316i Automatic. So i think he swapped an newer E30 or E21 M10B18 injection engine & gearbox in the car.

Some years ago some little punks broke into the workshop and started spraying paint on the cars and graphite grease. The bonnet was a bit of a mess but nothing that couldn't be fixed.

The car had a lovely original Zender spoiler mounted, 323i double headlights and a damagefree interior. Previous owners took quite some care of the cars. Always covered the seat with somekind of cloth or sheepskin covers.

The car in it's garage where it was parked some 15 to 20 years. First time it saw daylight in a very long time.

IMG_20210227_081729 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

On the trailer on it's way to our place..

IMG_0762 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

First thing on the list, cleaning out all big things, carpets, old brochures, trash,...etc.

IMG_0764 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

Some overview photos to see what we started from:

IMG_20210227_104215 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104223 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104228 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104239 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104245 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104251 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104258 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104310 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104315 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

This is an example of how the old man & his wife placed covers over the seats. The cloth covered a pristine rear bench.

IMG_20210227_104322 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104352 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104415 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104424 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104508 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

After giving the car a big clean inside & out. We washed the outside multiple times, vacuumed the interior, gave everything a good wipe. Gave the chromework a swift polish. The plan was not to get a new car in any means, but try to get it looking allright and presentable.
I must say it was quite a fullfilling task. Colour looks amazing without the caked on dust an paint.

IMG_0780 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0784 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0787 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0790 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0796 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr


IMG_0802 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0803 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

Number 2, the 1983 E30 316 M10..

Same story as the E21. This used to be the man his daily driver for years. A couple of years ago his son used it as his daily driver but got in an accident. Front left took a hit. Not too bad of a shape. Mostly rustfree. His son installed some debateable accessoires (see 'Oakley'-sticker, tinted rear windows, cupholders glued on the dashboard, sport steering wheel, ugly & fake M-Power badges everywhere...). Well it was used over a decade ago and it shows in the taste the driver had... just my humble opinion.

First time the car saw daylight since...

IMG_0757 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

Getting towed to our place..

IMG_20210227_082450 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

I went to my place before cleaning it to get something to eat. When i got back my cousin allready started cleaning. So we don't have any before pictures apart from at the old man's place. But you get the picture...dust and grease...
A couple of posts ago i told about my weakness for a Malachite Green two door... well this car made gave me a similar feeling.. It's Achat green, similar to Malachite but more used on the older generation cars.

IMG_0832 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0834 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

Please don't mind the fart cannon/exhaust tip... it's a keepsake from older tuning times...

IMG_0835 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0836 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0838 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0840 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0841 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0842 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

Lovely green on green combo.

IMG_0843 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_0845 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

The car is still in overall good shape apart from the damage on the side. We didn't feel like parting out the car. Because we didn't want to spend too much time on it. We took some useable parts from it and moved on.

The same weekend that we picked up the cars we put them on our local craigslist/ebay online platforms and Facebook Marketplace. After only 4 days both of them were sold with a nice profit.
Profit = budget to spend on E30 parts.
We priced them to sell not to get ridicilous amounts of money of them. Our seller was happy, we were happy with our profit and the guys who bought these cars both did a good deal. This is what i call 'WIN-WIN-WIN-situation'.

The old man that sold the car to us told me he also had another E21 at home that he regularly drives and did maintain. Car got a paintjob couple of years ago and went trough technical inspection about 4 months ago... He also was doubting to sell it, i told him i would call him to take a look at it if he wanted.

So maybe, this story will get a sequel.... To be continued.

[PieterVN]

Wow, you've been busy! Nice work on finding those two cars - that should keep you busy! And nice work on the diff too. Does it make any noise at all, like can you hear any rattling/knocking when letting out the clutch with no gas in reverse? Asking for a friend ;)

Heheh, well i did use most of my free moments to make some small fixes here and there. Yes, i wasn’t planning on buy 2 more cars but couldn’t waste a great opportunity.

Well my differential does not make any bearing noises anymore. But when i put it in reverse and let go of the clutch quite rapidly i can make a clunk noise. But i do not know if this is normal or not. I does not annoy me and it sound pretty normal to me. So no rattling or knocking only small *clunk* noise. (Mine is an open diff, so not LSD)

There, I fixed it for you.

Nice photos by the way!

Hahaha, well i think you got me there… I’m allready planning some things…
If i get enough profit maybe i’ll get a new timing chain job. But first on the list is still a set of shocks. I did a testdrive in my buddies IS (the red one from the photos). It has Bilstein B4 shocks. A bit stiffer than original but not too hard for my taste. I think it would make an awesome upgrade to my car.
Keep you updated 😊

Lots of progress! Excellent work on the diff and interior cleanup. The brick building and stone parking lot make for a very cool photo of the two E30s.

Very cool to find the other BMWs. Build threads for those as well? :-)

Thanks Mike! Well i still need to give my interior a deep clean like i did the rear. Same for your pictures. It’s cool for us to see the difference in building styles (US vs. Belgium). I think in the near future more pictures will follow. I have a picture here we took at a 1950’s Hotel/Restaurant building with our group of E30 friends.

IMG-20210221-WA0004 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr
From left to right (E30 328i M-tech 2 M20B28 with ITB kit, E30 327i M-Tech1 M20B27, E30 318is M-Tech 2 M42B18, E30 318is M42B18 and a E30 Touring 325i M20b25)

And probably no build threads for the other cars. I’ll make a small before and after post but plan is to sell them ASAP 😊. Pulled some parts here and there that could be usefull for my cars. I took the E30’s door rubbers for my IS Coupe. They’re not damagefree but at least they fit like a glove. Couldn’t be more happy. After all this saved me another couple of years that i do not need to get the 750 euro OEM rubbers.

Before cleaning:

IMG_20210227_104215 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_104239 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_080402 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_080415 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

After cleaning:

IMG_20210227_171403 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210227_170938 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

I'll make an extra post with some more in detail pictures.

Whats the diff temp sensor for?

Looking good! Looks like a blast to drive.

The differential temperature sensor goes to my Replica Alpina instrument gauge. There’s some more information about it on the first page of my thread.
And thanks! It indeed drives quite nice, love the raspy sound and lightness of the M42 engine. I drive it hard. We often do some rallystages or some highway pulls with a couple of friends that have M20’s. On the highways it’s hard to keep up with the 6 cilinders but in the small twisty roads i can keep up with the big boys 😊

[moatilliatta]

Whats the diff temp sensor for?

Looking good! Looks like a blast to drive.

[mike.bmw]

Lots of progress! Excellent work on the diff and interior cleanup. The brick building and stone parking lot make for a very cool photo of the two E30s.

Very cool to find the other BMWs. Build threads for those as well? :-)

[Tzantushka]

Also this morning I came on 2 cars that were from sale from an older gentleman. No online ad. I went to take a look and bought the two cars.
They look mostly rust free, E30 has some damage from an accident and they were parked 10 years ago.
The goal is to make them presentable and sell them on with some profit. The profit will be used to finance my ongoing addiction to E30.

There, I fixed it for you.

Nice photos by the way!

[AlpinStar]

Wow, you've been busy! Nice work on finding those two cars - that should keep you busy! And nice work on the diff too. Does it make any noise at all, like can you hear any rattling/knocking when letting out the clutch with no gas in reverse? Asking for a friend ;)

[PieterVN]

Double post..

[PieterVN]

Finally, the first days of nice temperatures, no rain and no more salt on the roads have come to Belgium. Already did my first rides of 2021.
Differential turned out great and without the noises it feels like another car. Just pure exhaust sound without bearing noises and I fell in love again.

Today I reinstalled the boot carpeting.

IMG_20210220_094650 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

Also this morning I came on 2 cars that were from sale from an older gentleman. No online ad. I went to take a look and bought the two cars.
They look mostly rust free, E30 has some damage from an accident and they were parked 10 years ago. The goal is to make them presentable and sell them on with some profit. The profit will be used to finance more IS parts and upgrade.

An Achatgrün 1983 316 M10 carburetor two door.

IMG_20210220_112119 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

And a Sierrabeige 1982 E21 M10 Injection Automatic

IMG_20210220_112110 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

In the afternoon I went for a drive with a friend of mine. First time I had the car in good sunlight after the polish job. This winter he let the bodyshop paint his IS front spoiler and mirrors. Damn the car looks good this way.

IMG_20210220_152941 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210220_170403 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr


IMG_20210220_170325 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

[PieterVN]

An update on some small things I tackled in the previous weeks. It's very wet and cold out here the last weeks so not really tempted to do a lot of work on the car.

The rear window fill strip shrunk over the years because it endured some heat in Spain so around the corner pieces I had these gaps of half and inch on each side.
A couple of months ago I bought a set of used ones but that were in better shape than mine.



I started with removing the old ones. in the corners you see how much dirt has accumulated over the years of not being mounted properly.

IMG_20210130_111254 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

I ordered some corner pieces some weeks ago and mounted one of them. The old one was all crooked and ugly shaped. Quite a difference in colour but I will apply some trim restorer in the start of the season to cover up the difference.

IMG_20210131_175803 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

I used a tool to replace the strips but It was a complete pain... if I look back on it I think I still used not enough soup. It got mounted with some scratches. here and there but in the end it looks already much better than before.

IMG_20210131_175808 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

Also when I got the 2nd hand fill strips from my friend he had another rear right side windows frame laying around without damaged paint. So I also got that one and finally got to installing it.

My old window frame:

IMG_20210130_171100 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

Window removed:

IMG_20210130_135249 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

New frame installed, hmmm how lovely.

IMG_20210130_153855 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210130_153900 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

Then I found out my rear upper strut mounts have seen better days. On the left one I got quite a bit of play and it causes a lot of noises. So I figured I replace both of these with OE Lemforder ones. I also checked my struts. They look original, they are not leaking but almost show no resistance when pushing in. This will probably increase the handling of the car with a noticeable difference.
I really like the stance of my car right now so I plan on keeping my springs and combine them with Bilstein B4 of B6. I plan on doing the fronts & the rears. But I did not make my mind up yet. I've read that the B4 are about 10% improved stiffness over the standard OEM struts. B6 are the performance dempers which are quite a bit harsher to drive with. I have 2 friends that both one one of these sets. One guy that has a 325i Touring with a Bilstein B6 setup with Eibach springs. The other one has a B4 kit with original springs. I plan to meet up with them and have drive with the springs to see the difference and make my decision afterwards. Really want to have a sporty but comfortable ride. I'm not planning on tracking this car.
There is also a 200 euro price difference, the B6 kit being the most expensive ofc..

I also started cleaning my trunk. It was necessary. Started with depilling my carpet.

Before:

IMG_20210206_093217 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

While doing the job notice 2/3 already done.
IMG_20210206_103440 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

After removing the woolliness and deep cleaning:

IMG_20210206_113156 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

Afterwards I also deep cleaned all the side carpeting.

IMG_20210206_131858 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

Before and after of the jack mounting spot. You get the picture..

IMG_20210206_114427 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210206_120439 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

Still have to deep clean the trunk itself with some water and lots of brushing. To be continued.

[PieterVN]

Finally made some progress, so today was a good day.

This week I received my adaptor sockets for my torque wrench so I started mounting everything to spec on my diff.

I torqued these on both sides to 30Nm and added a small drop op Loctite 243.

IMG_20210121_171539 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

The rear cover got a rather poor sandblasting job, my friend told me he had some problems with his nozzles. So decided to just install it like it was. I put on a new paper gasket and a small bead of sealant.

IMG_20210121_172654 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

I torqued to cover down to spec and added a new o-ring for the speedosensor. Gave the mounting bracket a small coat of paint. Nothing too crazy. Installed the drain plug (55Nm) and temp sensor for diff fluid. (25Nm). Then I filled her up and put her under my car. Oh yeah, don't forget the new bushing that has been installed.

IMG_20210123_133732 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

Final pictures before installing:

IMG_20210123_134739 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210123_134744 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

I installed her and gave her a few turns. Oh oh... rattling noise coming from the driveshaft that comes from the gearbox. Guess what... turns out I pulled it too much back and it came undone. The marking were pretty obvious to remount but I lost quite some time removing the exhaust, heat shielding and differential again. Luckily my stud kit made the install pretty easy.

received_1853594598126458 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

This is how I ended today. Everything back together and ready for testdrive tomorrow. But I forgot to mount the washer type banana shaped pieces to the bolts that mount the half shafts to the output flanges.. Guess that will be for tomorrow.

IMG_20210123_171405 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

[AlpinStar]

Yeah, i love this color too. I've seen quite a bit of Brilliant red, Diamantschwarz and silver iS's over here, but only seen one other blue one.. maybe it was more expensive from factory or '80's people weren't very fond of blue idk..

Thanks! Yes sir, in Belgium we speak Flemish (our own version of Dutch), French and some people speak a bit German. It's very complicated but comes down to this: Belgium is divided in 3 pieces regarding languages (Flanders, Wallonia & the German speaking community).
In school we all learn the basics of Dutch, French and English. Some do learn German depending on which education your following.

I only had one year of German in school but i'm very interested in this language and learned a lot on my own. Also my job as an international automotive purchaser helped me to expand my vocabulary in these different languages.

Guessing you're right 80s people weren't as fond of blue - I don't recall seeing too many blue 80s cars, though I did used to drive a metallic blue '86 Volvo!

Thanks for the info on languages - interesting that it varies so much by region. I wish we spent more time learning other languages in school; it makes traveling so much better. Also, your job sounds interesting and fun!

Love what you did with the rear parcel shelf and speaker install. It turned out great, and it's cool that you paid attention to the little details too, like going to the trouble of finding OEM screws and clips. Not many people would bother to do that for a speaker install, but I too enjoy those kinds of details.

[PieterVN]

This weekend is all about anticlimax .

Yesterday went and got my new torque wrench that I will be using to reinstall everything. I need an adapter piece to use the 3/8 wrench with my 1/2 & 1/4 sockets, I don't have a 3/8 set (yet).
Well what do you guess, they ordered the wrong adaptors.. "No problem!" he told me, "I will order them and they will be in tomorrow." (so todays date).
Rang them up before getting in my car; "Yeah, we can't seem to find the adaptors, they got lost in transit so it will be Monday or Tuesday..."

Damn...

I admit it, it are these small things that sometime screw up your weekend. In the week I always look forward to the weekend and think about all the things that I'm about to do. This weekends planning I was going to finish the differential and install it back in the car... Even more frustrating is that there is nothing much to do next to working on my car here in Belgium. Because of the pandemic everything is closed, you can't meet up with your friends, the weather is shit...


At least there is some small progress, yesterday I went to see D.Martijn. He has a seal driver kit and put in the new oil seal into my carriers. Thanks again man!
I also installed two new O-rings (81x2) that go around the carriers.

IMG_20210115_173907 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210115_174220 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

With the new seal installed I cleaned up the shims that go behind them, oiled up the o-rings to prevent them from ripping or damaging them and then tightened them by hand in diagonal order. When searching torque values I found that these should be torqued to 30Nm. I want to make sure it's installed correct, but I need the adaptor for my torque wrench to finish this up... Both sides installed and waiting to get checked.

These are the torque numbers I found for all the differential bolts. They are a combination of Bentley Manual and numbers I found on forums.

Carrier bolts to housing	8x	30Nm
Differential bushing	1x	87Nm
Speedosensor	2x	10Nm
Fill/Drain plug	2x	55Nm
Halfshaft bolts	12x	58Nm
Driveshaft bolts	4x	72Nm

Differential cover.

6x.

36Nm

IMG_20210115_161530 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210115_160950 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210116_102908 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

Next up I installed my mounting studs with a small drop of Loctite.

IMG_20210116_104458 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

And to finish the "differential chapter" of today I cleaned up all the old hardware so mounting goes smooth. Also halfshaft bolts got a clean, when installing these I will also add some theadlocker. The differential cover also has its new bushing installed and got quick blast in my buddies blasting cabinet. Still have to pick it up though.

IMG_20210116_140744_01 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

On Tuesday I went to get my dealer order that I made the last week of December. Finally I had all my clips and screws to finish the speaker install on the rear shelf.

IMG_20210116_142339 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

I'm happy with how this turned out eventually. All ready for blasting cassette tapes when I'm back on the road again at the end of the winter/beginning of spring.

IMG_20210116_150337 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210116_150326 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

IMG_20210116_150403 by Pieter Van Nevel, on Flickr

[mike.bmw]

Heheh, you make me want to install my diff again as soon as possible! Good things to look forward to. I must say, I'm a jealous of your S4.10. Are price also crazy on your side of the pond?
Here in EU the small cases easily go for +- 700 to 900 Euro (+- 850 to 1100 $). Looks like a lot of US cars came with these

Yeah, it's not a hard job with the stud kit. The small case S4.10 was an option in the US on the 318i/is, unlike the standard equipment LSDs on the 325is. So they aren't plentiful here either, unfortunately. I've seen them range in price from $400 to $1000 USD. A lot of people advertise they have a "small case" when they actually have the "medium case" version. I searched for a decent condition small case S4.10 for a while. I eventually found one and took a road trip with my daughter to pick it up.

Good luck with the pending installation! :-)

[PieterVN]

I do! I have a spare small case S4.10 that I've test fitted (long story) that has a stud kit:

Heheh, you make me want to install my diff again as soon as possible! Good things to look forward to. I must say, I'm a jealous of your S4.10. Are price also crazy on your side of the pond?
Here in EU the small cases easily go for +- 700 to 900 Euro (+- 850 to 1100 $). Looks like a lot of US cars came with these