89 325is - Intro and Work Log

[delatlanta1281]

I may have one here. Let me check.

[delatlanta1281]

I have one.

[paulkeith]

ygpm

[paulkeith]

A little update....a month later.

Since the last post, here's the work that's been accomplished:

-carpet removed, scrubbed, pressurewashed
-peel'n'seal sound deadening under carpet and on rear seat firewall
-Alpine CDA-9886 installed
-fresh 14ga wire to all 4 corners, stock wiring bypassed
-6 channels of RCA run to the trunk



-parcel shelf and door panels painted black with duplicolor fabric&vinyl
-rear speaker shells painted satin with krylon
-brand new oem bmw black floormats
-rear leather seats dyed black






-purchased used cloth corbeau CR1s off craigslist
-recovered CR1s with brand new microsuede covers from corbeau
-installed with corbeau D158/159T brackets


before recover:



after recover: (chose not to cut shoulder belt holes, since i dont have harnesses)



installed:





-headliner dyed black with leatherworldtech dye




purchased but not installed yet:
alpine MRP-M500
elemental designs 110v.2 and .5cuft sealed enclosure


so what say the internet....should i paint the door handles and pockets black too? I left them gray to have something besides just the carpet be gray, but I'm not sure how i feel about it.

also, that flash made me realize how rough my steering wheel is looking. scrub and paint? mtechII? sparco 368?

In the plans are some microsuede shift and ebrake boots, and that's really about it. time to leave it alone and drive it.

more pics to come, this is just what i managed to snap while I worked. need to get better about that.
Paul

[iwantspeed]

how do you like the new shifter?
any slop still left?
I can't decide if I want the oem shift carrier bushing or the akg delrin bushing.
Do you think the akg product is necesary to get rid of 100% of the slop?

The bushings for the carrier arm. that go on the end closest to the transmission. They are made out of delrin and can be purchased from Akg.

http://www.akgmotorsport.com/e30products.html

[TrentW]

Car is looking great, you're doing many of the things I've got on my to do list. Like your attention to detail. How's the dyed headliner holding up? I was wondering if the sunroof opening and closing would rub the dye off at all.

Also, how did you install the gauge trim rings? Assuming the clear plastic comes off the front, but I had the gauge assembly out before and IIRC it seemed to be part of the housing. Advice is appreciated.

p.s.--You may already know this, but Jon Allen at Global Imports is a big E30 fan. Very helpful guy to know. My wife is originally from ATL one of her girlfriend's husbands (Robert) works in parts also, so when we're there visiting I always make it a point to stop in.

[evilnickwong]

Is this the dye you used? Was interested in trying this too, what size did you need for the headliner?

http://www.leatherworldtech.com/Products/Dye-Colorant__D245.aspx

[paulkeith]

how do you like the new shifter?
any slop still left?
I can't decide if I want the oem shift carrier bushing or the akg delrin bushing.
Do you think the akg product is necesary to get rid of 100% of the slop?

The bushings for the carrier arm. that go on the end closest to the transmission. They are made out of delrin and can be purchased from Akg.

http://www.akgmotorsport.com/e30products.html

The improvement was pretty substantial just from rebuilding with stock parts. I wasn't looking for anything super stiff, just refreshed. I'm happy with what I did, I dont think I'd need those delrin pieces....but at $15 they're not much more than the stock part, so why not. You might get a little more drivetrain vibration through the shifter though.

Car is looking great, you're doing many of the things I've got on my to do list. Like your attention to detail. How's the dyed headliner holding up? I was wondering if the sunroof opening and closing would rub the dye off at all.

Also, how did you install the gauge trim rings? Assuming the clear plastic comes off the front, but I had the gauge assembly out before and IIRC it seemed to be part of the housing. Advice is appreciated.

p.s.--You may already know this, but Jon Allen at Global Imports is a big E30 fan. Very helpful guy to know. My wife is originally from ATL one of her girlfriend's husbands (Robert) works in parts also, so when we're there visiting I always make it a point to stop in.

I open my sunroof every day and no problems so far. There is one spot about 1/8" wide and 1" long where part of teh sunroof structure is making contact, enough for me to be able to see it, but its not bad and should be easy to touch up if it gets worse.

To install the gauge rings you have to pop the plastic cover off. I used a flat tip and pried just a tiny bit and the whole thing popped off. Few dabs of superglue and it was back on when I was done.

I live literally 1000' as the crow flies from Global Imports, I'll have to roll over there someday. I was wanting to do a photoshoot with my car anyway and was thinking that'd be a good location after hours. My first impression of that place was pretty poor though. A few months ago I was seriously considering an E39 M5, so I rolled over there to talk to their used car manager. I sat down and said, "do you have any e39 m5s?" and he looked at me and said "what's an e39?"

the used car MANAGER. at the biggest bmw dealership in the southeast. they then proceeded to offer me a 2006 525i, or a 2004 m3 SMG.

I got up and walked out.

Is this the dye you used? Was interested in trying this too, what size did you need for the headliner?
http://www.leatherworldtech.com/Prod...ant__D245.aspx

That is the dye, but I bought this:

http://www.leatherworldtech.com/Products/LeatherVinyl-Recoloring-Kit__LVRCK.aspx

the recoloring kit includes the scuff pad and cleaner solution, which I wanted for doing my rear seats. I bought the 16oz kit because I had the seats and my headliner to do. I think if you were doing just the headliner, you could get away with the smaller one.

Paul

[oldskool3]

Awesome project. The seats look perfect, not to aggressive for a daily. I've wanted to do my headliner for a while but I am worried if it goes wrong I wouldn't have the patients know-how to put it back together.

[paulkeith]

I only took down the door seals and header/sunroofpanel thing. no other diassembly required.

Paul

[whysimon]

Yellow,

Think you could take some day pics of the headliner? Of course, only when you get a free moment.....

[paulkeith]

Yeah, sure. Daytime pics of everything are on my to-do list.

[paulkeith]

brace yourselves for the epic tech

here's my writeup on my latest mod:

shipment arriving:


carefully unpacking:


prepping for installation, only basic hand tools/pulse required:


installed:



cliffs notes: i'm retarded. did an oil change saturday and forgot to re-attach 1 of the 3 items i had to remove to do it..........:roll:

rookie move.

Paul

[Bimmerista]

^ Nice!!

[jweb]

Any new pics?