91 318is Never ending project(s) journal

[FL318is]

Yep. Gonna pull the seats and take a look.

Who makes a rear apron with a single exhaust cut-out?

[monty23psk]

Gary, will text you.

[CrniE30]

What happens to the car, give more pictures? can not wait for the project to be completed :D

[evil-diesel]

love the attention to detail... nice build!!!

[BacDoc]

Subscribed to the "Ultimate 318is" thread. Excellent work and tutorial as I'm looking to begin a restore on my 318is soon.

By the way can you mention how/what you did to clean/paint the carpet? I have the nasty gray and would rather clean than replace.

[monty23psk]

Chemspec is the brand of carpet cleaner. I bought the gallon used for steam cleaning machine, used the formula for a spray bottle. Then hot water and wet vac to clean. Also get a good carpet brush as the bristles are softer.

I used colorbond from brydana carpet spray paint. Brush/massage it after every coat to make it get into a the fibers. I used a sock to massage it.

[BacDoc]

Thank you sir.

[monty23psk]

I have been a little busy, as I got a 01 530i to split daily duties with the e30. Better to take girls out to school and not hinder the interior of the e30. But finally got all the parts for the e30 m3 suspension swap.

So starting with the removal for of the stock e30 parts.

[monty23psk]

Got more time to continue on project.

Got BMW OEM control arms just a few dollars cheaper than Lem. arms which I had. My old outer ball joint was sloppy due to a bad shock strut insert nut that had gotten loose. This also caused the sway link to be sheared on the bottom side.

Here is the new with old. Notice one side of the arm does not have the holes. More solid. Got a new nut for both ball joints also from BMW.


My AKG m3 offset bushing is still good but had spun a little due to worn parts. This time I used a 6mm hex set screw on the top of the lollipop. Highly recommended after what happened with me. I forgot to take pictures of it before I mounted it. Here it is when I removed it.


Here is the Bilstein sport strut from the old housing in the new m3 housing. Previous owner bought it and never installed it but had it painted a nice deep black. I also got the bisltein tool to torque the strut insert nut. Disregard breaker bar in pic, was using it for something else.

[monty23psk]

Have washed the parts a little before installing. Renting the spring compressor tomorrow. I got an OEM strut bearing. I want the camber correction one but for the price, I rather save a little more and get the Vors. camber kit in the future as I would like GC coilovers in the future.

[monty23psk]

Strut installed....





I still need to install the backing plate/dust cover. The wheel bearing is not spinning like my old, so I want to install it all and see how it goes before I add the plate. I also want to add the OEM brake ducts and see if I can get it to the backing plate. I don't want to take hub out then put it back in and have to remove the bearing.

The only none BMW brand item, the rotors. They are from Balo which is same as past hub and good enough. BMW ones are very expensive. Set screws are BMW.



Here is the old rotor, still mounted to old strut with new one. The m3 rotor is 1 whole inch larger in diameter. From the angle a little hard to tell. I took my tape measure. m3=11", e30=~10"



Here is a comparison of the carriers. I need to trim a little of the powdercoat on the inside of the carrier as the bottom opening rubs the disc. Not much tolerance there.

[Ga325is]

Amazing work sir!!! You truly are an inspiration.

[monty23psk]

Here is a pic of the difference between the stock e30 sway bar link compared to the e30 m3 which connects to the strut housing instead of the control arm. Went with the BMW part also.

[monty23psk]

here is picture to show the difference between the stock e30 and e30 m3 brake pad size:

[monty23psk]

I had a small ordeal with the brake pads. They were too thick. After shipping them back and getting the new ones. I get everything installed last night. I even installed new anti-rattle clips from BMW. Just need to bleed the caliper and tighten the swaybar link nuts. I can't find my 16mm open wrench so will borrow one from my father today. Then I can start on the driver side. I have all the parts for that side already.



After the car gets aligned and I make sure the wheel bearing is fine, I will need to add the backing plate but will also run brake ducts to them.