1991 318i sedan project - Saving a sedan!

[N2MYE30]

Nice project.

[s_ribs]

Again, more pics up tomorrow.

Mounted all of the body panels to test fit things. Everything is close... only the hood gaps are funky. So, back to tweaking the radiator support into the proper position. The one I got is not that great and that may be causing a lot of our grief.

I got a number of engine related items painted as well. Coming out pretty slick so far! I underestimated and need more paint soon.

Euro headlights and grills should be here soon! Time to order up more HID items.


I will admit that this is a much bigger project that I initially anticipated and I am feeling like I'm at a bit of a low point enthusiasm wise. Best thing to do? Keep pluggin along!

[Van Westervelt]

The hood or radiator support isnt that great?

I might stop by this weekend. I will text you if I can.

[s_ribs]

Radiator support. Took a bit of fixin on the bottom to get it decent at best. Looks like them russians got there hands on it! Haha

[s_ribs]

Test fitting body panels-





Working through painting pieces from the engine-

Throttle body:



Intake manifold:






Factory headers:

[bmwsone01]

yes! you have to love pick-n-pull!

post pics of your dog...he looks cool!

[s_ribs]

yes! you have to love pick-n-pull!

post pics of your dog...he looks cool!

Thanks man! Moose is the shit. UKC 'PR' APBT, around 100 lbs so far, and will be 2 in December. Comes from a really slow growing blood line so I'm curious where he'll end up at. His pops was 96 lbs, so he'll be a touch bigger when all said and done.

Here's a few pics of him:

Just a little pup-


Not sure if he's half asleep or wondering what you're lookin at?


Out playin-



Teaser of engine painting:

[Schnitzer318is]

Nice work... been following your thread. I like how you left the throttle cable arm silver... that looks hawt.

Polishing those raised portions are easy with a dremel. Just repainted and polished the lines off today. Took about 2.5hours total due to paint dry time. Going to paint my cam cover black and then polish the lines on it as well, but that's not til after I get my turbo stuff hot coated and ready to reassemble. Don't want to scratch the cover after all.

ps: BTW, put the throttle body heater plate back on, but cut off the protruding input/outputs. It works as a throttle body spacer and I noticed a few extra torques after putting it back on. Our engines need all the extra torque they can get.

[Van Westervelt]

When are you gonna make some headway on this sonny boy? School starts soon... And I am gonna be in need of my hoist next weekend too. :P

[s_ribs]

ps: BTW, put the throttle body heater plate back on, but cut off the protruding input/outputs. It works as a throttle body spacer and I noticed a few extra torques after putting it back on. Our engines need all the extra torque they can get.

Yep, everything is going back on. I just set it up for a quick picture. Thanks for the props!

I'm not polishing the raised parts on mine. Primarily because the casting is terrible on mine and I could never find a smooth pocket free point on them. Secondary reason is because everyone seems to do that.

When are you gonna make some headway on this sonny boy? School starts soon... And I am gonna be in need of my hoist next weekend too. :P

Actually been making great progress the last few days. Working instead of posting on here. :up: You'll definitely have the hoist back by next weekend! Pending arrival of my BMA order, I should be done with it by the end of this weekend. Btw... school never stopped for me! I've been going full time all summer.

Minor backwards progress this week. Picked up a new radiator support yesterday and got it in last night. MUCH better than the previous one - very glad I was able to find a clean and straight one! I did get 2/3 of the car stripped and will begin paint prep soon. Trunk and interior are completely stripped for sound deadening install.

My Euro lights and grills showed up! They are going to need a bit of work to meet my standards for this car. Adjusters are all f'd and they need a bit of clean up. I didn't realize how much different they were from U.S. lights besides the projectors and lenses. Sometime in the next few days or this weekend I'll work on getting them apart for cleanup and smoking. I'm tempted to pick up some Krylon stained glass spray paint and do the inside of the lenses while they're out. Though I love the frenched/smoked look, I'm a bit torn on doing the low beams since it's technically illegal for the low beams to be yellow.

[evilnickwong]

Is it OK to just spray paint all over the throttle body linkages/mechanism like that?

[Schnitzer318is]

Is it OK to just spray paint all over the throttle body linkages/mechanism like that?

Yes... though with throttle arm movement it will crack the paint on the spring. Other than that... no big deal.


You aren't going to run the coolant lines to the TB heater though are you? Those are worthless extra failure points if you ask me. I got rid of the "atrium" hose and all that extra garbage.

As for polishing... I rocked it unpolished for a long time... just over a year. Now that they "fins" are polished, I look at my engine all the time. Of course it helps that I don't have a hood on the car as of yet, but I'd still look at it more because it is mad sexy.

If you have a spots that will be red, it won't look that bad BTW. I used a dremel and took down all but one low spot and no one has mentioned it yet. Just a thought, maybe you could do them black instead of polished. That would look hot too.

[s_ribs]

I haven't really thought through the TB heater hoses yet. I do know I spent 5 minutes reading through a thread on it and had a hard time wanting to do what a bunch of kids were trying out with no solid reasoning behind their actions. I do think there is a decent reason behind removing some of the hoses, I just need to sit down and figure out which ones.

[BraveUlysses]

I haven't really thought through the TB heater hoses yet. I do know I spent 5 minutes reading through a thread on it and had a hard time wanting to do what a bunch of kids were trying out with no solid reasoning behind their actions. I do think there is a decent reason behind removing some of the hoses, I just need to sit down and figure out which ones.

The reasoning is that the plate was not offered in all markets, and adds needless complexity to the hose setup under the manifold.

Plus, being able to replace the BMW hoses assembly with off the shelf hoses dramatically reduces the cost of replacement.

Do it, it's well worth the minimal effort.

[Vethen]

I always love to see people caring for these cars. I saw one in the "to be junked" section of a lot for cash for clunkers. Its depressing