E30 Rally Build Thread

[iamsam]

No.

Well, i'll just go ahead and go back to my corner...

[iamsam]

Yes, rocks, sticks, leaves and small children fit through those holes at highway speeds. I would keep them as well. I have two of those same vents side by side and there is a lot of air flowing through the car. Plus it gives it a vintage look (my car will be eligible for historic class in two years).

My solution to the window lock bypass was to cut out the entire power window system. I am replacing the glass with Lexan at some point. It saves like 112 pounds of wire weight too.

Let's see that botched roof!

whoa whoa wait a sec... 112 lbs????

[seatown88]

Since I have the dash off, I have easy access to remove unnecessary crap from underneath. So, in the interest of doing so, can someone help me identify the four ECU-esque boxes under the dash? There are two on each side, numbered in the picture below. It's hard to see the ones on the passenger side, but one is quite large (1" x 5" x 10") and one is smaller, bolted to the bigger one. I assume at least one or two of the four deal with sound system or safety and can be removed, but which ones?

Pointers to a good reference will be gratefully accepted.

I don't know if its already been said, but 1 is the code box for the OBC. If you remove it, you need to jumper a wire across the connector, ill take a look at which wires need the connection.

I found out this the hard way with removing it and not knowing why I wasn't getting power to the coil. Jumped the connector and then had power.

[SlapDash]

"Thanks. Now to get off my duff and find an E30 so I can do more than lurk here and envy you guys."


Go. Now. Search. Find one. We'll wait for you.

[SlapDash]

whoa whoa wait a sec... 112 lbs????

I exaggerate sometimes.

Really, maybe two or three pounds...

[MasterOfPuppets]

Have updates, but first...

I have two of those same vents side by side and there is a lot of air flowing through the car.
My solution to the window lock bypass was to cut out the entire power window system. I am replacing the glass with Lexan at some point. It saves like 112 pounds of wire weight too.

Let's see that botched roof!

Good to hear that they flow well, I plan on using them heavily. And I don't know if power windows or the premium sound system has more wire weight... I have a few Walmart bags full of the audio stuff.

Thanks. Now to get off my duff and find an E30 so I can do more than lurk here and envy you guys.

I lurked for quite a while before I could lower myself to the level of BMW ownership...;)

I don't know if its already been said, but 1 is the code box for the OBC. If you remove it, you need to jumper a wire across the connector, ill take a look at which wires need the connection.

I found out this the hard way with removing it and not knowing why I wasn't getting power to the coil. Jumped the connector and then had power.

That makes sense, I eagerly await a result. I'll also try to find that box specifically in the Bentley, maybe I'll have more luck than blindly paging through.

[iamsam]

I exaggerate sometimes.

Really, maybe two or three pounds...

Ok, that was a particularly precise number for an exaggeration.... 3 significant figures in a 3 digit number.

[MasterOfPuppets]

So, made some good progress on both the roof patch and the dash. Sliced a few holes in my patch for two vents and riveted one on. I'll have more detail when I write up the (w)hole roof mod, but here are a few pics:



The blue is a paint I was trying out for the exterior, came out too blotchy for my taste so now it's on the inside of the car.

The vent riveted on and sealed, from inside:



And outside:



I wish I had thought about how much work it is to pop off 3/16" rivets before I decided to put 136 of them in the roof panel... tomorrow's gonna be a workout.

The flocking kit also showed up today. Again, I'll have more detail in the full writeup, but here's a quick before and after:




Assuming I got the fibers on the adhesive quick enough, it should look just like that when I remove the excess Sunday. If not, it will be half glossy. Only time will tell.

Tomorrow the roof patch goes on, and I try to find out what the clunking in my passenger-rear suspension is!

[iamsam]

Also, mike, go to www.realoem.com and search for that part. You will have to enter your car's make, model, blah blah down to the manufacturing date. It is pretty much an online BMW parts schematic database. That will give you a part number and then you can use that to further search.

[SlapDash]

Panel looks good, as does the dash.

Man, there's like a million holes in that panel (damn it, again with the exaggeration... but at least I do specific fake numbers to make it almost believable... 'a million' isn't nearly as believable as 1,090,435). But I digress...

That realoem thing is wicked!

As far as riveting, HF has an air riveter, that, while semi-problematic, would still be easier than hand-riveting.

And do you need that many rivets?

[iamsam]

yeah, I kind of like the natural aluminum look of the panel. It has high reflectivity also, so it won't get hot.

That flocking stuff looks pretty interesting too.

[MasterOfPuppets]

And do you need that many rivets?

I figure that in a repeated rollover situation, the last thing I want is for the roof to rip off halfway through the first flip and then have the hole start collecting huge rocks and dirt and stumps the next seven times around. So I'll get a good hand workout and spend an extra $5 on rivets now in lieu of a horrible blender-esque experince down the road. I even have washers for the back of each one to reduce the odds of the rivets pulling through the pathetically thin roof material. I think I'll be good.

Also, Sam, I dig the aluminum look too. My only fear is that it will corrode for any number of reasons and start to look terrible, in which case I'll respray the whole roof en masse and kill two problems with one stone.

[seatown88]

That makes sense, I eagerly await a result. I'll also try to find that box specifically in the Bentley, maybe I'll have more luck than blindly paging through.

It looks like you jump the green wire to the green/red wire on the connector. If you look at the linked diagram on page 36, which details the fuel injection system it shows the OBC code relay box (number 1 in your picture) which powers the ignition coil.

Diagram link...

http://www.wedophones.com/Manuals/BMW/1989%20BMW%20325i%20-%20325is%20Electrical%20Troubleshooting%20Manual.pdf

Great build so far, keep up the great work!

[MasterOfPuppets]

It looks like you jump the green wire to the green/red wire on the connector. If you look at the linked diagram on page 36, which details the fuel injection system it shows the OBC code relay box (number 1 in your picture) which powers the ignition coil.

Diagram link...

http://www.wedophones.com/Manuals/BMW/1989%20BMW%20325i%20-%20325is%20Electrical%20Troubleshooting%20Manual.pdf

Great build so far, keep up the great work!

I agree, looking at that diagram, that GN to GN/RD should eliminate the need for that box. The question is, what was the point of it to begin with? I'm not sure what the inductor-with-dotted-line-coming-out-the-side is supposed to be, but it looks like the box was intended to prevent powering the Motronic if there was a diagnostic problem? Either way, I can't see a need for it any more so it will be ditched.

This may be illegible, but in case the link breaks someday, here's the diagram in question:

[MasterOfPuppets]

Sunroof Patch and Vent - Post 1 of 3

I finished the sunroof patch today, so it's time to post some info.

I started by measuring the hole left, and decided that a 24" by 36" piece of metal would work well for a patch. I went to the local MEtal Supermarket and picked up a piece of 1/16" aluminum for $30. I figured that the aluminum would be corrosion resistant, light, and easier to work with than steel. Here's how the sheet sat when I bought it, and how the length and width compare to the size of the hole:





For the reasons mentioned a few posts above, I decided to err on the side of using more rivets than less to attach the patch. I used 3/16" aluminum rivets, in 3/8", 1/2", and 3/4" shank lengths (short, medium, and long by Home Depot nomenclature). The pattern I used in front and rear was two rows of rivets, 1 1/2" spaced, staggered between inside and outside. The sides were a single row, 1" spacing. A thousand words:



That picture also shows the corners after being rounded off. All I did was hacksaw off the corners and file them down until they looked round. Here's a closeup showing the rounding and how I did the holes at the corners:



After experimenting with some blue paint, I cut the holes for the vents (10.5" by 4"):



More to follow.