1991 318i sedan project - Saving a sedan!

[bmwsone01]

Looking good! I can't wait for the outcome. ( i am in the process of redoing the same car, year and color, and body type)!

...subscribed...

[freeride53]

byeah!!
diamond schwarz 318i 4d!!!

[s_ribs]

Picked up the rest of the body panels I needed - I love U-Pull it.

Been working on it all evening so there will be picture updates tomorrow! It's getting there, although it sure seems like every day of working I find more I need to do or more I want to do as long as I'm in there. Hopefully by the end of this week it will be down to paint and reassembly.

[iwantspeed]

very nice progress.

[Van Westervelt]

I save all the cookies for you ya fatty!

[Mot]

nice seth, making good headway.

[s_ribs]

Wanna cookie?

[Van Westervelt]

I told you about the chip, and the bushings you lame ass. lol

Get busy son!

[s_ribs]

Engine about ready to come out:



Getting the last few bolts underneath:



Done and out:



Did a quick test to see how much work polishing the raised lines will be:


Metal is very soft so it will be easy. The casting is horrible on these engines so a lot more metal needs to be removed than usual.

Next up, I need to grab the pressure washer and pick up an engine stand. Otherwise it's basically ready to start paint prep!

[s_ribs]

Found a couple of cool things while working on the car Thursday.

Already has Jim Conforti software:


Also has M3 offset CAB's too!



Brian decided my basic tweeter pod set up was sub par. Here's what he came up with.

Hot glue to hold the base on:




T-shirt stretched over it:



A little fiberglass to give it strength:






Filler to smooth it out:




Truck bedliner to give it a OEM plastic like texture:




Last I sprayed some satin black paint on it. Semi gloss would have worked better since satin is a touch shinier than factory plastic.





Pods do the same function as before but look MUCH better! One thing that will help a bit is that Brian mounted them higher on the panel than I did. This way they are above the dash for better sound. I'm super happy with how they turned out!

There is 62 sq ft of sound deadening waiting to go in now. There is a definite lack of mid bass on certain types of music. This will be vastly improved once the sound deadening is put in. A big issue is how open the factory speaker location is - not sealed enough for proper sound.

Brian has also decided that all of the factory ground and some power wires need to be replaced and upgraded. That will probably get done next week.

[s_ribs]

I'll have a handful of updates later today or this weekend on the project.

[e30s50dan]

since we are both working on the same model and color,here is a shot of my engine bay after painted

[s_ribs]

For anyone wanting to ditch brackets like that use an angle grinder with a soft pad. Work at the spot welds until enough metal is removed to pull the piece off. Then carefully smooth out the rest of the spot weld until things are flush. Pretty easy!

Big decision I have to make right now, what color to paint the engine? If I can figure out how to get Diamond Schwarz in a high temp paint then I'll likely do the valve cover, intake manifold, and timing covers in it. Engine block would probably be gold. If I can't get it in DS, then I have no clue right now. Something clean, not too loud... maybe.

[s_ribs]

Not many pictures today. You will notice that the driver side frame rail is on now. My crappy 90 amp wire feed welder has only been used to get things in position for now. This weekend my neighbor will pick up his gas welder and do the final welding.

Shaving brackets off:

COP and windshield washer fluid bracket-



Air box bracket before-


After-


Here's the big pile of wires I'm about to hide-


Here's what it will more or less look like-



I really like how it looks without the brackets and wiring in the engine bay. I've been thinking about boxing the frame rails but I'm not sure it's worth the time. Plus, I'm concerned about loosing the built in crash protection. Things being smooth just isn't worth risking my (or someone else's) safety.

When the radiator support goes in next week we will be replacing the bottom cross piece with square tubing. The thought here is to stiffen the front end up a bit and reduce some chassis twist during transitions.

Brian stopped by to check out my progress and see how the stereo sounded. For once I did a system that he didn't have anything to dislike!! I suppose that's cause I bought everything he told me to for it. ;) After a close look and listen with him, I decided to order sound deadening anyway. He strongly recommended it, not for noise dampening so much but for improved stereo quality (mid bass in particular). Also on his advice I skipped the closed cell foam (which is what pushed the cost high enough I wanted to skip it). So, 62.5 sq ft of RAAMmat should be on it's way tomorrow! I wanted to get the slightly thicker eDead 80 (80 mil thick vs. 60 mil thick), but there shipping was $40 instead of $15 for RAAMmat pushing the cost up too much.

[Van Westervelt]

You dont get to keep my hoist forever. ;)