1991 318is Restoration Project...Now with some Air!

[BoxDriver86]

Good for you man. Car is coming along nicely. I hope you got your fuel line fixed.

[Tuee]

Good for you man. Car is coming along nicely. I hope you got your fuel line fixed.

Thanks man, ya fuel line was fixed long time ago, couldn't live with knowing it was leaking.

[Tuee]

got the seats cleaned up and just put in, nothing is bolted in yet...just had to start clearing the garage

Before


After

[Tuee]

Finally got some more work on it...most of you probably will hate me for this but I picked up a replica mtech kit. As much as I wanted the real thing, its hard to come by here and its gonna cost a leg and an arm. However if I ever find the real kit, the replica will be replaced with the real deal. Till then this would have to do.

More on the kit, its made by extreme dimensions....its a 7 piece kit, the side pods were molded to the skirts with the exception of the door pod. Just as expected the door and side pods don't fit so I cut them off and I'm gonna go with just the skirts and shaved doors. The valence cover was a alright to install, I had to make my own brackets to install it. The bumper cover and rear bumper cover I used the factory mounting brackets from the original plastic bumpers. Nothing is set in stone yet, many adjustments still need to be made, but here's some pics. Oh ya, I only bought this kit cause I "thought" it was good deal.






One with the tails that are going on it,


Still got a long way to go and its pretty cold out to work on it so progress has been slow.

[Simon S]

Your grit, determination, and thoroughness are commendable.

[Tuee]

No updates but here's some pics outside,

[Big Willy]

Great work, it is going to look sharp when finished

[mach schnell]

More?

[Tuee]

More?

Nothing yet, I'm just finishing up school so updates should start coming in April. I've been dieing to get to work but school just bogs me down.

[Tuee]

Well, I'm back on the project now that schools done with. I've been trying to get this stupid kit to fit and its just so horrible I can't do it. So the plans are to run the valences and skirt from the kit and the stock bumpers. Nothing really to show with the body work but here's some side projects that I've been working on when body work gets boring.




I know I'll probably end up getting ellipsoids but somethings gotta keep me busy so here's the headlights getting some new life.

Before



During


After


Some wheels that I picked up for cheap
B4

During

Final-Not done yet.

[Tuee]

Bit of wet sanding and mock up today,



M-tech valence cut,


Rear end mocked up,

[Tuee]

More sanding and sanding...also blacked out kidneys,





How the sealed beams turned out

[MR E30 325is]

A lot of good work going on ITT.

[Tuee]

A lot of good work going on ITT.

Thanks, the weathers been crap lately so not much work on the actual car itself but I did end up redoing the taillights and decided to paint the spare valve cover wrinkle black.

I wasn't planning on redoing the taillights but I happened to find the red tint at a parts store nearby, I couldn't find any for the life of me anywhere near by.


A few coats before wet sanding,


This idea goes to a forum member who did it and I thought I'd give it a try,



Before clear coat,


Cleared,


Valve cover before,


During..cause apparently your supposed to wait for the wrinkle effect to dry in.

[Tuee]

I've been getting some pm's about how I've mounted the kit, so I kinda did a write up of the process. All the pics above in other posts, the front valence cover was just held in with clamps.

The metal brackets that I used were used for securing fence posts to the "fencing" material, on the left is the piece and on the right its the same part but flattened out.


The bolt that's used to secure this is shown below,


You can see that the one on the left, the head was shaved down so that it would sit flush with the surface,


So the two pieces together look like this,


Next, holes were drilled in the metal valence piece,



So that the bracket sets like so,


And would bolt down like this,


I don't have pictures of the next step but I'll try to explain it well. The mtech valence was placed over the metal valence and secured with clamps. Then we sprayed primer or any color in between the metal and metch valence, where the brackets were. This was done so that an outline of the bracket was left on the mtech valence. Once we had this outline we know where we'd have to secure the bracket on the mtech valence.

We glued in the bracket temporarily with hot glue gun.


Next using fiberglass mat and resin we fiberglassed the bracket to the valence.

As for the sides we kept changing the way we mounted it so again I didn't get pictures of this step.

For this step we used the same bracket flattened out. Instead of a bolt we used one of these, (don't mind the location of these as this was our first attempt, just note the end pieces)...these were found in the furniture hardware section at home depot.


Then this piece was jb welded to the bracket (no pics, sorry) and then this whole bracket and piece to the mtech valence.

Don't mind the L bracket, it was eventually ripped out.

Approx. location of brackets with respect to mtech valence,


This side piece was also fiberglassed,


This is where it screws threw the metal valence (circled in red),


Leave the fiberglass to dry,


Then it can be mounted,
The one in the middle, washer and nut,


Side mount, washer, furniture screw and nut as this was too long, so a proper one will be placed in time,


I hope this will help some considering the aftermarket mtech kit, personally I think this kit was horrible to begin with but I wanted to give it a try. This one in particular was made by extreme dimensions, not sure how other kits fair. I'll try to do the same for the side skirts and the rear valence once those are done.