Sina's BMW 318i: Project Re-Shell & Beyond! (Starting Page 46)

[freeride53]

Picked up some OEM goodness out of the original 1990 BMW Acessory brochure yesterday morning. :D
Have super nice and expensive tires on them too.

Was planning on mounting them yesterday, but I injured my leg squatting last Thursday and haven't healed up enough to be able to mount them yet.

Will be also installing my set of OEM mudflaps to compliment the new wheels hopefully some day later this week if I can heal up in time.

Other work to be tackled in the short-term (within the month):

• Replace Oil & Oil Filter
• DIY paint repair on the LF fender (lets see how this comes out lol)
• Independent Foglight wiring conversion
• Order OEM BMW 181 Dschwarz Paint kit
• Paint the small trim panel below the grilles
• Install French euro smileys
• Install E30 M3 H&R Front Race springs (reds)
• Install E30 m3 cabs
• Repair wiring between Drivers front side premium speaker & Door tweeter
• Hammer/flatten front floorpans with mallet
• Remove, sand, paint Front bumper
• Clean, sand-down, repaint iS Lip
• Get allignment
• Replace the Hirschmann Antenna (which recently broke) with a new one
• Fix front wheel bearing
• Fix tranny mount
• Replace motor mounts
• Order/Install OEM Euro bumper trim (my DIY work now looks like shit lol)

To be done before the summer's end:

• 4.10 Limited-Slip Conversion
• Aluminum pedal covers
• Fender-roll
• Leather or metal ebrake lever
• Muffler Tip

[e30saam]

Let me guess. You got some style 10s?

[freeride53]

Let me guess. You got some style 10s?

[freeride53]

Look as of right meow. need to take care of some misc. jobs on it this week.

[e30saam]

Look as of right meow. need to take care of some misc. jobs on it this week.

Knew it! Looks great Sina.

[freeride53]

Snapped selector rod left us on the backside of Lombard street. :(

So now I need a new selector rod - thinking it'll be a good time do a short-shifter upgrade.

I've seen various options out there - what would you guys recommend as the best bang-for-the-buck?

[Balleristic31]

Just go for any of the oe Z3 or whatever levers. Redo the carrier bushings in delrin and then do the selector rod joint on the trans.
I have the x5 lever and I enjoy it because the height is slightly higher than oe but much shorter throw.

[freeride53]

Installing my new selector rod and z3 1.9 SSK today!

Oh, and the H&R M3 Race springs up front as well :D

[freeride53]

Update on le P.O.S.

The car handles considerably better with the H&R M3 race coils in front.
It's way stiffer and makes driving on bad roads exponentially worse, but FUH RAZE.
Car is also noticeably lower in the front now with the H&R's vs. the Eibachs.

Also, I love the Z3 1.9 SSK. It's fantastic.

Side notes: My car is backfiring more than ever before.
Upon hard acceleration/high-rev shifts, I'm blowing smoke out the tail pipe.
I'm also smelling the scent of oil more than ever before, driving the M42.
Any thoughts? Bad Valve seals? Bad HG?

[freeride53]

Just ordered another DS door tweeter from a member or r3v. Cannot wait to have the sound system fully together and working in a few days.

Also, now have two brand new 10" JBL's in the trunk - sounds worlds better than the blown out JL and blown out "legacy" which occupied the trunk for the last few years.

What do you guys think about euro side markers? I wanna slap some on my car but sorta scared to do it myself. Almost wanna give it to an indy bmw shop like LJI haha.

[e30saam]

Just ordered another DS door tweeter from a member or r3v. Cannot wait to have the sound system fully together and working in a few days.

Also, now have two brand new 10" JBL's in the trunk - sounds worlds better than the blown out JL and blown out "legacy" which occupied the trunk for the last few years.

What do you guys think about euro side markers? I wanna slap some on my car but sorta scared to do it myself. Almost wanna give it to an indy bmw shop like LJI haha.

Meh. Not a fan. I would keep it clean. Looks good without any side markers.

[freeride53]

With finals week upon us at school me and Constantine are gonna tackle the alternator, belt, and Euro Smiley Conversion.

Hopefully the car will be running before next Thursday! :D

[freeride53]

Here's a little update. Exactly a month ago, while driving from San Diego-San Francisco via the Pacific Coast Highway, a rock-slide wrecked the car.

I was able to assess the damage, but in the first few days of Xmas break, I threw in the towel due to the fact that I wouldn't have been able to get the parts needed to fix the car in time before heading back to school on January 3rd. So I transferred a bunch of my stuff over to the Volvo, which is one of my family's spare cars.

Volvo's been treating me very well, but it just isn't an E30. So about a week or two ago, I decided to resume fixing it.

What I have purchased for the repair so far:

-E30 Subframe
-E30 M3 Control Arms
-E30 M3 Tie-rods
-E30 M3 CAB's & Lollipops
-E30 M3 Sway Bar links
-Straightened the Skid-plate
-Oil Pan & Oil Pan Gasket
-E28 M5 engine mounts

What I still need:

-A Steering Rack. Still undecided between E30 m3 and Z3. M3 Will be cheaper to do for me.
-Front Sub-frame Reinforcement/bolts
-A new iS lip :D

Note: the European Smileys I had just installed, with French Highs.
I had also painted the faded front bumper and fascia below the grille right before the install.

:(

I only have a little over 4 months left in California, so I'm determined to get this thing back on the road ASAP.

-SP

Here's a photo from right before Mother Nature decided to end our road-trip up the PCH, somewhere in the Los Padres National Forest

[kronus]

m3 sway bar end links? are you going to get tabs welded on to your struts?

[freeride53]

m3 sway bar end links? are you going to get tabs welded on to your struts?

Yeah I had done some reading on it and was planning on getting them from AKG.

Thoughts?