M52 Swapped E30 Build - SPANNER RASH

[Panici]

The exhaust noise is more like a clanging when I lift off, I thought it was all in the ECU tune, but evidently not. I think a physical change to the exhaust is the only logical next step.

Does it happen when you launch the car or downshift roughly?
Wondering if the exhaust system is physically hitting on something when the engine/trans torques over?

[SPANNER RASH]

Does it happen when you launch the car or downshift roughly?
Wondering if the exhaust system is physically hitting on something when the engine/trans torques over?

I had that thought too, but I've swapped the exhaust brackets to some much more solid ones and its still doing it.

When I get under the car and shake the exhaust around vigorously it really doesn't seem like it could clang on anything. I've become pretty confident that its inside the exhaust.

[SPANNER RASH]

It's been a minute since the last E30 project update but I'm back on it.

I decided while the car is laid up int the garage, hiding from the winter salt, that I will turn my attention to the interior of the car, and pause on the complaints I have about the pots and pans noise, and the stiff suspension.

I have picked up some covers to restore the sports seats, but before that I want to make sure they are functioning properly. Unfortunately, neither of my seats are operating correctly.
They can slide back and forward, but the seat base height and backrest lean adjustments have failed.

The lean is a particular issue as the seats back rest flops all the way down when you pull the lever. It can be either hilarious or dangerous when you forget and do this while driving.
I ended up setting the drivers seat to my taste a long time ago, and have been careful to leave it alone and not try to mess with it since. Although I would like to be able to refine the driving position for myself going forward.

The sports seats I have were included when I purchased this otherwise poverty spec 316i. I was very lucky with that because they are worth a pretty penny these days. They are houndstooth which has really grown one me, and stamped 1985 so likely to be from a prefacelift 325i Sport M-Tech 1 which is very cool.

I found out the seeat adjusters are operated on little gas shocks which are no longer available from the dealer. I was able to source some aftermarket direct replacements from a company called NineStitch. These little struts are remarkably strong so I also had to get creative with how I installed them. Luckily this was much easier by the time I got the seats out and stripped the backrests off giving me access to remove the entire hinge assembly.

I will have to wait to find out how much sturdier they will make the seats feel, as the next stage is to change the covers, something I've never done before so sure to be a learning curve!

[SPANNER RASH]

More progress on the E30 interior overhaul. I turned my attention to reupholstering the rear seat bench using the Lseat leather E30 seat covers I've had sat on the shelf for years.

I thought I was going to be doing this much sooner when I started the project, but here we are. The good news is they have stored quite well and don't appear any more creased up than when I first got them.
I laid them out in my front room and allowed the leather to settle for a while before getting stuck in and removing that nasty old rear seat material.

I thought it wise to take on the more simple task of reupholstering the rear seat first, so I could learn all my hard lessons before doing the fronts, which look to be much more complex.

My biggest fear when doing this is ending up with baggy seats that stick out like a sore thumb, and according to my research the key with this is not only to stretch the leather properly to the shape of the foam base, using hog rings, but also using a good quality spray adhesive to encourage the leather covers to follow the shape of the foam into the concaved sections.

I ended up extremely pleased with the result on this, lets hope I can get a similar finish on the fronts!

[SPANNER RASH]

Following up with my front E30 sport seat restoration, the fronts came out great too, I think even better than that rear bench in the end.

Restoring E30 front seats is a challenging job, even after you buy the Lseat cover kit, but at a fraction of the cost of paying for a professional to reupholster your seats, and the results are comparable in my opinion.

I've kept a lot of detail in which has made it quite a long guide video, but I took the opportunity to make it a useful resource for anyone else trying to restore e30 seats. I only documented doing the driver's seat and the passenger one was off camera, both came out brilliantly and I couldn't be happier with the results.

Like the rear seats, I got handy with the spray glue and hog rings again to make sure there were no baggy parts. I found out the hard way that you need to let the center cushions keep their own shape without pulling much if any tension on them, which is quite different to the bolsters which require some real manhandling to pull enough tension to get them situated perfectly.

Cheers!