91 318is Never ending project(s) journal

[CHIF8008]

OMG

You are awesome, and a pure winner in my book. Great job man. Beautiful. Just beautiful.

[monty23psk]

Today I added a second trunk light added LEDs instead of incadescents. Also replaced both lenses and you can see the difference in the clearness of the plastic after 20 years.

New on left (bad picture but you can still see the difference)


Here is the install with both bulbs on. Big difference in lighting. I just quick tap connectors and went to the junkyard to pull the wiring from another e30 so that the wiring color codes are the same.

[monty23psk]

Well still busy with new house, kid and work. Havent touched the car since last oil change. Just drive it daily with no issues. Still need to tackle rough idle. But I needed wipers and decided to get the Bosch Evoloution a try. I always liked my wife's newer Volvo ones as they cause pressure across the whole blade and have a nice sweep. These are the same type and from Blunt, ~$10 each. Not the $20 each for the newer Rainx ones. Here is a picture of them. I just washed the car and will wait until the next rainfall to give it a shot.

[monty23psk]

Haven't done anything to my car recently, due to baby and new house purchase. I just put gas and drive. But oil change is a must every 5k miles with Mobil 1 0w40 European car formula. I also decided to install the UUC magnecitc drain plug to catch little metal shavings. Also less than 20 miles before the odometer hits 200000.

[monty23psk]

Still looking for the foam piece to finish passenger seat. Free time has turned to new house purcahsed with my wife and baby. I did get my Bday gift. No longer availabe from BMW but some people have them in stock. If you want one, supply is limited.



And here it is resting in the new home:(also have the e39 BMW manaul holder with all my paperwork. Cleans up the glove box.

[monty23psk]

Received the parts to finish the seat hinges. I need to find a foam bolster for the other bottom side. Will try junkyard this weekend, if not, will go on the forums or ebay. I got my seat shock and all new clips. I cleaned the hinges with brake cleaner and then lubed up the springs and gears with bike chain lube. Here are some pics.

New parts:


After cleaning:

[monty23psk]

^ Yeah, thats what I hope. I have all the pads and products now and will be borrowing my buddies Orbital. Just need to find a good free weekend. Car is Brillant red though, not Zinno.

[KenC]

A good cut and polish would REALLY bring that car back to life. Zinno comes right back.

[monty23psk]

Here is an update of the works week at home during some free time at night. Keep working on the passenger seat re-cover. I removed the hinge mechanisms and gave them a good cleaning with brake cleaner. Then lube up gears and levers with bike chain lube. I only need one seat shock as it had a 600N version instead of the 350N. Everything worked fine but might was well fix it right will in here. So I have new one on order with the clips. I will take pics of them and post them up tomorrow. To remove and install shocks, I went to Home Depot and purchase this for $30, XPS600 clamp. Very powerful and a breeze on the shocks. Might be a pain due to the size to replace backrest shocks while the hinge is still on the seat. Since mine were out, it was simple.

Here is pic of the tool, $30 well spent:


Here is the thigh bolster frame and new(old) foam I took from the free sports seat I picked up from a forum member. Mine was shot and missing small chucks.


The thigh bolster all installed, you really notice Kevin's high quality when putting his kit togehter:


Here is the bottom frame of the seat with center removes and one side bolster skin off. You can see how bad my seats are looking at the right. I have cleaned out the frame from dust and will refinish the runners as they have a little surface rust.


Here is not the bottom frame with one new bolstered recover in the black micro:


From a different angle to enjoy the french seam stiching instead for piping:


I should finish seat this week but need the shock and clips to finish putting it together and mount it back in the car.

[monty23psk]

Thanks guys.

I used Por-15 product. You clean, then apply rust paint, then red top coat. Yup it works. Actually the more rust the better. Just can't be falling apart as it will be too weak and even with the new paint you can poke a hole in it if thin. I was still lucky as it was mostly surface rust except a few spots.

[A Sucked Orange]

Good stuff! I like the sound deadening. What did you use over the rust under the drivers pedal? Does that stuff actually work?

[Edev]

I can't believe I missed this thread. I wish all build threads were this awesome..as in, not filled with a bunch of BS like every other one has. Truly fantastic work!

[monty23psk]

Today I replace the rubber vacuum hoses from the ICV to the rubber intake boot with a silicone hose. So heater plate has been fully deleted and all hoses are silicone. I bought it from the same place I did the VC to throttle hose. This one is just a little wider. I kept ICV in the stock location and just bent the bracket that holds it just a little so the hose underneath ICV has room to curve without giving it a kink. My car has the recall valve kit for the heater core and if it wasnt there, I wouldnt have to bend the bracket. I kept the stock hose that goes from top of ICV to valve cover. It is so short and tight bend that I rather keep it stock to prevent any kinks in the hose. I order 2', the minimum and cut about 4 inches but could have done more but like to give the hose room to move if needed. In the end, buying these 2 hoses would have been the same cost as buying all the stock hoses if you wanted to keep the heater plate, but of course more expensive that just buying rubber vacuum hose.

Here is a better pic of the VC to throttle hose plus the new one installed.


Here is newly added hose, hard to see under ICV.


Here are how both hose look under boot/throttle plate:

[monty23psk]

Got the top half of the passenger seat done. Now working on bottom half and checking if I need any of the shocks or hardware. Will also clean up the metal base.

[monty23psk]

^ well hope you do something. Always detailed work.

After my last head rebuild, the flywheel blind plug would keep slipping out until I noticed last weekend it fell out. Probably due to the plastic ridges being worn out after the 20 years. I got my new one from Blunt and on it went. I have seem some m42s without them which can let debris get into the flywheel. Very hard to get something hard in there but don't want to take the chance.

Plug from BMW:


Plug installed, which took a little force to get it in there which means it will not budge.