Project ETHREEO

[blocke]

Almost done

Today was another productive day. Got the parking brake shoes on. what a bitch! The old shoes were coming apart. Old on the left, new on the right:


Got all 4 rotors, calipers and pads installed. Made sure to use a ton of anti-seize to avoid any pain and frustration in the future.
My old rotors was so far gone. There was a thick ring of worn, eroded area around the outside edge. Cant wait to see what improvement in driving this provides.

Old setup:


New setup:


So only thing left to do tomorrow is bleed the lines using my Motive Bleeder, and then throw the wheels back on and clean up.
I'm toying with the idea of doing a product review on the bleeder, since this is my first time using one.

[blocke]

Yesterday I got a a fair chunk done.

I replaced all the seals in the calipers, new dust boots, etc.


Then proceeded to replace all the soft lines. I did the outer 4 corners first, and saved the 2 bitch lines in the rear inner for last. It was a pain in the ass untill I found a tip from Jlevie saying to just cut the lines as close to the fitting as possible, and then use a socket on the back half, while using an 11 mm flare on the fitting. That worked like a champ.

Until this motherfucker fell down into my face:


Yeah, fucking black widow. Thats what happens when your car sits for 4 months when you and your wife have a baby. So that ended the work for the day. I made a quick trip to home depot, and picked up a pack of these:


Bombed my garage last night, so that no more creepy crawlers find their way onto my face while I am under the car.

Pads came in as well, hawk hps fronts, PBR rear, and new parking brake shoes. So those should go on tomorrow.

[blocke]

Not too much progress today, I didn't have much time do dedicate to the E30.

Got all 4 rotors off. Of course, all 4 hold down bolts were stripped, and rusted in. I'm not even sure how they go tightened down, the holes were so rounded.
Seeing as I was not re-using my rotors, I just went with brute force.
First attempt was just to cut a slice in the bolt and turn with a flat head screwdriver:


That was a no go. So I went another route, and used this cone shaped grinding stone in my drill to just bore the head of the bolt off, and open up the hole.


Worked like a champ, and with much persuasion from my BFH, all 4 rotors popped off.

This led me to discover that my parking break shoes are totally gone. On one side, the shoe was literally worn into 2 separate halves. Oddly enough, my parking brake was working this entire time. I knew there was going to be one of those "while you're in there" things that I would uncover during this job.
So ordered new shoes, and will have to wait to re-assemble the rear till they arrive in the mail.




On another note, I am debating on what to do with my calipers and brackets. Without my air compressor I cannot run my soda blaster, so I've been trying to clean them the manual way with degreaser and a wire brush. I don't that I can get them clean enough this way for a quality paint job.
I could send them off to be powder coated, but I don't want to turn a $350 brake job into a $600 brake job just for aesthetics.

[blocke]

looking good. this reminds me that I really need to rebuild my calipers. The brake cleaner melting the cup reminds me of Breaking Bad hahaha

I was thinking the exact same thing when I did it. :)

[Mr. Tasty]

looking good. this reminds me that I really need to rebuild my calipers. The brake cleaner melting the cup reminds me of Breaking Bad hahaha

[blocke]

Brake Upgrade day 1

So today I had time to get started. Jacked up the car, got the wheels off, and went about disassembling the brakes so that I can get them cleaned up and rebuilt.

Right off the bat, my air compressor shit the bed. No help of air tools this time...

Got all 4 corners unhooked, and ready to pop the pistons out. Had to pop them out on the car, rather than with air. So I placed each corner in a bucket, and pumped away at the brake pedal till they all popped out.





As expected, the pistons were full of rusty sludge.


Tried to place the pistons into some party cups to soak in brake cleaner...big mistake. I wasnt thinking clearly, and the brake fluid promptly melted the bottoms of the cups off.


So the calipers & brackets are soaking in degreaser in preparation to clean them up for paint. While they soak, I'll go about unhooking all the lines.

[blocke]

Brake Refresh Begins

Been a long time since I have had time to do anything on the E30. This last weekend I was able to replace the TPS sensor, CPS sensor, and 02 sensor...now running like a champ. Only problem, it doesn't stop like one.

My rotors are FUCKED. I'll post pics once I get them off.
So ordered the parts to perform a budget refresh, mostly referenced in this thread:

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=240008

Thanks go out to Lurker27 for posting Part #'s and such.

I did splurge a little, and buy a Black Label Motive Power Bleeder. :razz:
I went with Hawk HPS fronts, and PBR rears.
Plans are:
Remove all 4 calipers
Degrease, sandblast.
Paint Black
Rebuild caliper seals
Replace all soft lines
New rotors all around
New pads
ATE Blue Fluid

This will likely take a week or two, working for about 1-2 hours a day after work and before I have to pick my son up.

More pics to come!

[blocke]

Motor Mount Mayhem

So recently I was trying to track down the source of a bad vibration felt through the brake pedal. It was thought new motor mounts would help to clear it up, so I placed an order with BMA. In the meantime, I found that it was my Power Steering pump making the noise and vibration, and I got it fixed.

So today I was bored, so I decided to throw the new motor mounts in anyway.
What should have been a 1 hour job turned into a 4 hour job. The lower nut on the passenger mount was stripped, so I ended up having to use a Dremel to remove the stud. The drivers sound mount was also a bitch and wouldn't break loose, so I had to remove my intake boot and charcoal canister so that I could get a better view and grip on the nut. All turned out well in the end, I just need to grab a new 17mm nut and washer from the hardware store today.

Old mounts:


These were so soft, one was squished like a donut, and both mounts I was able to squeeze and leave impressions with my fingers.

New mounts ready to go in:



I also ordered a new DME relay, and a new Fuel Pump relay. I was having an issue where it either took several seconds for the DME relay to click on and supply the fuel pump relay with power, or it took several cycles of the key to get it. This was the source of all my hard start/long cranking issues.
Popped the new relays in, and they click immediately, and the car starts like it's brand new. This was a relief, I've been chasing this issue for some time.


Next on my list is a Center Vent Gauge pod. Awaiting my order from HighBoost to arrive. I'm going to go with VDO Vision series electric gauges.
Volts, Oil Pressure, and Oil Temp. Already scored a brand new Volt Gauge from Fleabay for 18 shipped.

[blocke]

New Interior In

Finally picked up a new set of seats. Scored a full set of Front and rear vinyl sports, along with front and rear door cards. Got everything thrown in this weekend.

Fronts:


Rears:


Also fabbed up this adapter so that I can use my Miller MAF with my stock air box. I want to keep the engine bay looking a stock as possible, and I am not a fan of running the "hot air" K&N setup.

This was just a $9.99 ebay MAF adapter. I had to trim off the corners, and also shorten one side about 3mm. This allowed it to fit on the stock air box, lined up correctly and everything. Hit it with some high-temp black paint just to keep it OEM looking.




And finally after work today had time to wash the car off and take it for a spin. My paint is so faded, it only looks good when soaking wet :(

[SoEm0]

Looking good. This will be up on my list of things to do once it warms up a bit.

[lambo]

I can't fuckin' wait for summer so I can THOROUGHLY clean my interior...

[blocke]

Update 3/02/2012. Carpet Dye time

So today I finally had time to play around with dying my carpet. I have read several threads here on R3v, and on other auto forums pertaining to the various methods of dying, from VHT paint, to removing the carpet and soaking in a trashcan of dye. I decided to go the cheapest route, and experiment with using RIT dye. At $1.66 a box, if it doesn't work, no big deal.

Materials used were as follows:
(2) boxes of RIT black powder Dye-$3.32
(1) Home Depot Spray bottle- $.99
(1) Hard bristle Brush -$1.99
(1) Pair Latex gloves - Free

I started by rolling out this old window shade I found in my house when we moved in. Its thick, perfect for covering my garage floor when I am painting or making a mess. I decided to experiment with the little piece of carpet that goes under the rear seat first. I figured if it looked bad, it was easy enough to replace.

Next I boiled water in a kettle. Put both packets of RIT dye into the home depot spray bottle, and poured the boiling water in via a funnel. This was somewhat of a mistake. The boiling water was too hot for the bottle, and nearly melted it, causing a huge mess. Next time around, I will only use hot. water. Shake that shit up and mix it, and then time to get spraying.

Carpet Before:


I adjusted the spray bottle to spray in a fairly broad pattern, more of a fine mist than a stream. I didn't want to create streak marks or darker spot in the carpet. Sprayed the whole thing till it was even shade of black, and then used the hard bristle brush to work the dye into the carpet. I went both against the grain and with the grain of the carpet to make sure it was worked in evenly, spraying more where needed.

Ended up with something like this:


At this point I still had a good 90% of the bottle left. The little piece of carpet looked good enough so I figured "what the hell, I'll try it on the rest of it". So I went to town on the rest of the interior carpet, following the same pattern: Spray evenly, brush it in, spray more, brush it in, spray more....

Interior before:


Interior after:




Once I was out of dye, I set up a box fan to blow downward through my open sunroof, and let the carpet dry overnight. It is already much darker than it was, but I think I am going to hit it with at least 1 more coat of dye before I'm done. Overall I am very pleased, the color is even, it's dark, doesn't smell, and did not leave the carpet feeling crusty. No clue how it will hold up to wear and tear, but I will find out. If it get's f'd up, I can always use another product down the road.

[RoadWarrior]

Looking good man. I woulda pulled my hair out with all the leaks.

[SoEm0]

Hah they are mine all mine..... sort of

[blocke]

how much are you asking for the seats?

$250 picked up, but there's a dude on his way to get them right now. Sorry.