Absorbantnut's '87 325is

[AbsorbantNut]

been meaning to ask what the meaning of your pic and name are...

Hehe;)




The beginning



As you can see, things had started to get out of hand




Heres part of the old piece cut out, it came out as a whole, but for some reason, we chopped part of it off.



Fitting the new piece, we cut it so it could keep the original "U bar thingy" and be structurally sound



He began welding it on







Heres the new piece in place, and the beginning of the body work



Fixing the horrible quarter, if you look in the old pictures, it has a panel welded on that didnt quite fit and it had a gouge missing from what looks like a terrible hit with a grinder. So it was sanded down to the bare metal and was made a smooth as possible. Then we put on a massive ammount of bondo, and tried to get it back to factory specs.



This photo shows some more of the body work, but we werent done yet. I dont think I have any finished photos at the moment, but I figured this was a big enough update on its own.

[ieatmango]

been meaning to ask what the meaning of your pic and name are...

[AbsorbantNut]

Well school started a few weeks ago which has basically destroyed my progress. Then I got a job, and cross country started. As of two days ago, the car was sitting in front of the house as it has been for a few weeks. Then, I brought it up to the guy who would weld it, and it should be getting welded up tomorrow. I get to wake up at 6 to meet him and see how its gonna go.

Havent bought anything new for it, or used, but a member here, Silence, pointed me in the direction of a good junkyard, Ill drop by their on tuesday hopefully.

[AbsorbantNut]

I had worn tires like that on a couple of my E30's.

It gets real annoying, really quick.

Your telling me, and I think its happening to me because the shocks are blown. So when I go over a bump, I go down 2-3'' in the rear, so i tuck tire and the exhaust scrapes. Its like its screaming for stance or something But anyways, I get a buttload of pos camber, so I think thats whats up with the weird wear. Im just gonna use my two good spare tires, and buy some used tires for up front until I get a new set of rims, or I find a good tire deal.

Greeatt work ! This makes me get motivated to start doing more of the overhaul my 318is needs. First project need to try an learn as much as i can. Hesitant to start tearing apart wanna make sure i can figure out how to put it all back together. MORE PICTURESSS though helps me out a ton. Happy Building

Thanks buddy:D
I read a bunch before I just jump into things, so like you said, you know wtf is going on. I would love to take more pics, especially if I had a legit camera! I should start a fund

I priced some stuff up at autohausAZ some more for the front end bushings. I basically need them all, which gives me a great chance to upgrade!

So far, I only know to upgrade the stock CABs(control arm bushings) to the offset m3 bushings because they are solid rubber(stock has holes) and they are offset, moving the wheel back in the wheel well.

Any others?

[gannett43]

Greeatt work ! This makes me get motivated to start doing more of the overhaul my 318is needs. First project need to try an learn as much as i can. Hesitant to start tearing apart wanna make sure i can figure out how to put it all back together. MORE PICTURESSS though helps me out a ton. Happy Building

[MR E30 325is]

I had worn tires like that on a couple of my E30's.

It gets real annoying, really quick.

[AbsorbantNut]

Gonna go and see a guy about welding on my "new rear end" this weekend hopefully Ill get some pics of stuff up in a sec.



My boots! There are four, I just took one out



So much for 6 bucks!



Old, dirty grease on the joint



Cup the joint fits into also filled with dirt and grease



balls that allow it to move freely in joint covered in dirt and old grease




Joint parts all clean and shiny, and a good pic of what the old boot looked like



Finished product! After an hour of trouble, its done



shot of the nice, clean, new boots, no rips and leaking grease!



Shot of the other end, also a new boot. That black stuff is just some paint that was peeling off, I scrubbed most of it off and that stuck.



old boot trouble



And its in! And I cleaned up the wheel well area again. I had paintd the rotor hats real quick with some black paint after removing some rust from them when I took them off. Where the wheel mounts though, the paint likes to come off. Oh well, nobody will see there anyways when the wheels on, which is only like 20% of the time now



Those are my rear tires, fronts arent much better. Now is that a worn tire or what

[AbsorbantNut]

Good word. Did you sand the kidneys before you painted them? Car is looking better and better. Can't wait to see the green Valve Cover.

I did a scuff up with some 100 grit , but didnt really put that much work into it. I couldve made it turn out lot better if I took my time and sanded some more, but I didnt really care at that point. I just wanted to get it back together, and it turned out pretty decent.


So yesterday and today, I rebuilt the right driveaxel and put on new boots and cleaned out the old grease and such. Then today I went to put it back in and found out that the wheel nut had the first few threads stripped so it wouldnt thread onto the driveaxel. Off to the junkyard and 3 dollars later I had one driveaxel back in. Next I popped off the left wheel nut getting ready to remove the left driveaxel. Now Its sitting in my room waiting to be "rebuilt".

And as question
so my rear shocks are dead, and someone is giving away free 91 318 rears and I would just have to pay shipping. Do they work?

[trackjunkie21]

Good word. Did you sand the kidneys before you painted them? Car is looking better and better. Can't wait to see the green Valve Cover.

[AbsorbantNut]

what was the production numbers on those all copper internal'ed m20's??? i think aluminum would be better for daily driving myself

I think it might actually be tarnished gold. Ill polish it later and see how it turns out;)

[ieatmango]

what was the production numbers on those all copper internal'ed m20's??? i think aluminum would be better for daily driving myself

[AbsorbantNut]

Guess what finally came in today...

MY CV BOOTS!!!
After 2 weeks of waiting, they are finally here. I did a quick comparison with the old boots and they are spot on. and these cost me 6.25 versus the $50+ ones, and they came with grease, and the circlip and clamps. So I can finally put these on tomorrow and get it moving again! And I get to hear the sound of freshly adjusted valves, or should I say not hear;)

[AbsorbantNut]

Dude, I am really impressed with your dedication and perseverance. Top stuff!

Thanks man! CV joints should arrive today:o

[Ray Smoodiver]

Dude, I am really impressed with your dedication and perseverance. Top stuff!

[AbsorbantNut]

finally got around to adjusting the valves. Not as bad as I imagined it would be. I used a jump starter switch hooked up to the starter and turned the motor till both rockers were down and the valves were closed, then I adjusted with the feeler gauge. That sure beats the wrench on the crankshaft method I was going to try.

Also, I found out that the old spark plugs off the e30 vert were bosch super w8clr:D So because those are basically non-existent now, I cleaned them up, gapped them, wire wheeled them, and they look brand new! Just finished putting those in and now Im waiting for the valve cover to come back from the polisher so I can switch it with the vert's valve cover and paint it a green color.