1991 318i sedan project - Saving a sedan!

[Simon S]

Don't know how I missed this thread.
You've brought that car a long way !

Can't get over how clean that transmission came out.. wow.
Kudos.

[s_ribs]

Wow, sorry guys. I completely forgot about this thread. School's busy this term but I'll see if I can fit in some picture uploading soon.

In the mean time, I finally started on refinishing my Euro headlights! I think I needed to not even think about cars for a while after I got this car on the road - I'm ready to do a little work finally.

Tear down:








Smoking the low beams:





Frenching the lenses:



I used a satin black high temp paint, and Krylon yellow stained glass spray paint on the INNER lens. The hope is that by making the inside of the lense yellow it will be a better, more permanent solution than simply adding yellow lamin-x. Besides, it looks like it came from the factory this way! Hope it holds up ok.

And yes, I intentionally left the city light portion unpainted. I always try to do things slightly different and I haven't seen any Euro lights done like this. Plus, this car is already stupid dark - even with gold wheels now - so can't have too much black.

[s_ribs]

Ok one more. I took the basket weave wheels off my '84 and redid them in gold. Since the Falken's were 195/60-14 I needed to get the proper sidewall ratio and went with some 205/60-14 BFG's. Definitely love these new tires.





Half cleaned...



Inner barrel painted, cleaned, dirty...:





Spokes in gold:



Finished inner/outer:

[Van Westervelt]

Mmmmmm, I like the way that spray came out. I want to see how it holds up, and then I have an idear. :)

[s_ribs]

Yup, I dig it! Btw, I need your expertise on converting the one self-adjusting adjuster to a standard one. Or how to make it manually adjustable - whatever.

[Jesse30]

i need a garage to tear into my 318i like this in.. :(

awesome thread

[harv]

Where can I see pictures of your 2002?

John

[s_ribs]

Mini update before I head off to class...

I was fairly set on selling this car a month ago. But after putting some time into it I'm set on keeping it.

A few weeks ago I replaced the open 4.10 with a 3.73 LSD - much improved driving manners for a DD. Not sure it's really best all around though, but it is staying and I do prefer it for my needs.

Teaser pic:


Just placed another big order to a few different places. Will finally have all the clips etc. to put all the trim back on soon!

At this point I've put almost 5k miles on the car and it's been pretty good. Slowly sorting out small details week by week now that the weather is getting nicer.

Biggest improvement was replacing the completely blown rear shocks. Curt and I test drove it after and had never experienced rear shocks making such a dramatic improvement.

Oops, better get this fixed asap!



One of those days when you're glad to be a car guy. Haven't felt, heard, or had anything to clue me in to this - just happened to be glancing around and noticed the crack. Spare sub frame is off being reinforced right now and will go in later this week.

New gaskets are on the way as well.

POS Alpine deck is now replaced:


Replaced it with a Kenwood KDC-X794 from crutchfield. Just put it in last night so I have no major input on it yet. I will say that it looks fantastic though and the controls seem MUCH improved in the Kenwood line (I hated them with a passion previously).

Upcoming project:



Never been happy with how these speakers sounded, especially with how much everyone raves about them. Learned that this location is particularly terrible on E30's so I will be moving them to the door panels soon. Even sealing them with the sound deadening did very little to improve them.

Other stereo bits, pulled the sub a few weeks ago and I'm back and forth on what to do with it. At this point I plan on building up the main speakers and going from there. I was quite pleased at how much better things sounded after adding the factory rear speakers back in. Especially after turning up the power to the PG components.

[s_ribs]

Oh, and a fun little side project I've been working on:


Gotta do what you can do in an apartment!

[freeride53]

this car is pretty win.

[s_ribs]

Ok, time to finish posting up the other pictures....

Looking back I realize that I stopped being as camera happy. Not too surprised by that.

I love this picture of everything laid our and ready to go on:



Carpet out for stereo work. Final trim removal in progress:



Sound deadening and wiring:






Engine bay being prepped for paint:



I didn't take any pictures of the prep, but the car is sealed:




Unfortunately that's really it for old pictures waiting to be posted. From hear on out it will only be new additions.

[s_ribs]

I have a decent list of remaining things to do on the car. Some of these items were noted in my post yesterday, but I'm adding them anyway to list everything all together.


Stereo:

First, sub was pulled. It was primarily removed because my 110A alternator just doesn't like that much power. Secondary reason was that I just wasn't happy with the stereo performance. Most of the sub deficiency is likely because of the box (standard rear firing) and a POS deck not controlling things well. I remain undecided on if this sub or something smaller will go back in.

Now I am starting over and working through things one piece at a time and will make a decision on a sub once I feel everything else is sorted to my liking. To keep things simpler, lighter, and less overwhelming I am strongly considering a small eD e3.6 6.5" sub in a ported box firing through the ski pass.

New deck Kenwood KDC-X794:
It may not fit period correct styling but I like the look. Clean and simple with few buttons and a big dial. Really like that the remote controls all the functions, and especially that when I burn a mix cd it pulls up all info including the title I gave it in iTunes.




The tuning adjustments are strange feeling to me so I need to spend some time learning it. Right now the sound is not as full compared to the old deck.

As mentioned, the front PG RSD components will be moved up to the door soon. I never put sound deadening in the doors so I will do that at the same time. I have a bit of RAAMmat left and plan to put one layer inside and also on the outside to seal it off. Since doors are the primary culprit for road noise I ordered 20 sq ft of eDead V4 teklyte (closed cell foam) and will put that inside.

I like rear fill - rear speakers are staying. But they need to be upgraded and I'm very undecided on what to put back there. Decent chance I'll just pick up a second set of RSD components, possibly some RSD coaxial speakers.

[s_ribs]

Suspension:
Undecided. I replaced the rear shocks with some cheap KYB's since I wasn't sure if I was keeping the car. In every aspect they are just fine - no complaints. But I wouldn't mind a stiffer ride and the rebound on cheap shocks always annoy me to no end.

Since I will likely be in WI this summer I don't know if I dare go any lower. These cars don't have a lot of clearance and going lower may be a bad idea come winter snow.

I am considering adding some IE fixed front camber plates and possibly some E90 front spring hats. A bigger front sway bar is a strong candidate regardless of anything else.

Will certainly be refreshing the rear bushings with new stock rubber!


Lighting/Electonics:
I need to finish up the Euro lights! I have new adjusters on order for them.

-DDM 55w digital ballasts with 3000k and 5000k are on the way for low beams. I wanted the option of different color so the 3000k will sit in the glove box.

-Already have DDM's standard 35w kit on my US ellips and those ballasts will be moved to the fog lights. 3000k bulbs are on the way for them. Will be replacing the cracked factory fogs with some cheap ebay fogs.

-The city lights will be wired to light up anytime the car is on. I love city lights and I want them to function the way they were intended to.

-I need keyless entry!! Luke is trying to convince me to go all out and get his remote start. Not sure if it's worth the extra money though.


Some ideas floating around:
-Add a second trunk light

-Wire in rear fog lights as additional lighting (not interested in actual rear fog lights)

-Build a front under panel. Probably out of aluminum or whatever that stuff is called that race guys use.

-Fab a trunk lid cover (like the euro part)

-Trunk tool kit box. Curt and I were chatting about this and agree that a bigger tool kit would be a nice addition! Need to see if I am adding a sub box before I move forward on thinking this through.

-Window rain gutter trim needs to be painted. Definitely not going black but thinking silver might look good. Thoughts??


Exhaust:
Part of pulling the sub was realizing how much I missed the other aspects of driving. All of my previous cars had exhausts built and that sound always makes me happy! I am super picky though so I have been tentative on tackling this.

At this point I am leaning towards the Magnaflow street series 14814. Comes with a nice tip so it will look more finished than adding one myself. This series of muffler is quite popular with the E39 guys so I found a lot of positive reviews on it. Everyone said the volume pretty quiet and no drone. Drone is obnoxious.

Only hesitation is the 4" tip on it. That's pretty big...



That's more or less it for now. I will keep ya'll update on the development of things! And hopefully it won't be 4 months between updates this time. :yawn:

[SiGmA_X]

4" tip on a NA car, let along a 4 banger! Did you forget to say you traded your beautiful 318 for a Honda? ;)

[s_ribs]

That was supposed to be a secret dude. :p