My 91 325i track car

[kts]

Had a few minutes to work on the car the other night and got a few things worked on.

Installed a rear plate filler.

Before :(



After MUCH BETTER! :)



I need to get some better shots I know, it was dark! I also need to get some screws/bolts that are more flush with the car and to find something to pad between the car and the plate filler. I think it looks much better now. If only we could use Euro-style plates in the US!

I also removed the Momo wheel that came with my car. It's been well used by the previous owner, something I didn't realize until I was at OG Racing the other day and saw a brand new Sparco wheel. It looked and felt amazing, I had to have it.

Old wheel:


It's an easy install, remove the 6 bolts, unhook the horn wire, and reverse for the new one. The only issue I ran into is that the horn button for the Sparco is a 2 wire vs the Momo which is a 1 wire and I'm only wired for a 1 wire button. I'm running the Momo horn on there for now. I will get another Momo horn so I can remove the decal off of it and replace it with the Sparco one I have. (I could do that with the current horn I have but I want to keep it all as it in case I ever revert back or sell it.)

No pics of the new wheel since I suck.

A bunch of goodies are arriving at my house today, I can't wait. :)

[kts]

The previous owner of my car removed the toolkit to save weight and probably make a few bucks selling it. While I have my own kit of tools for the track I kinda wanted the stock toolkit so I didn't have to take my toolbox with me in the trunk everywhere and I had enough stuff for any quick road side fixes.

I trolled several junkyards and managed to put together almost an entire toolkit. Only missing the 17/19mm wrench and the screwdriver as of today. When looking at an e34 at a junkyard this morning I noticed the large tool kit in it had an nice spot for the tow hook, something I don't have in the e30 since my trunk carpet is all missing. So I grabbed it and threw it all on the car this morning.

Before no tool kit and sad :(


Ready to rock and roll


The bonus of this is that the breaker bar w 17mm socket I use for my lug wrench for the lug and stud kit I have fits in the warning triangle spot perfectly. I also threw in the 21mm spark plug tool since that's the proper one for the car I believe. (Not that I'd use either but whatever.)

Now to find the 17/19mm wrench and the screwdriver.

Oh and when I got home last night I found all this stuff waiting for me:



Woohoo seats and mounts! I only had a few minutes to look over it but wow the VAC mounts look so nice.

[kts]

Had to do some work on the STi this weekend since it's a little over due for some of the 60k service. So I had to finish installing the new steering wheel so I could get it out of the garage.

Height comparison of the wheels. (New Sparco on the left, old Momo on the right. Forgive the cat hair.)


Installed


Driver's view of the cluster when installed.


Since this wheel is shorter it will be a pain to check the speed when driving around town but when on the track this will be great since it will be easier to see how fast I am going, something I usually had to guess before since the old wheel blocked the top of the speedometer.

I thought they were both 350mm but I need to measure them. I think the new Sparco wheel is actually 330mm.

Took the car out for a spin and WOW the new wheel feels amazing. Every time I touch it it feels like it's going naughty things to my hands. I love it.

Also found a jack at the yard the other day. It came out of an E28 and although the part numbers for the E28 and E30 jacks are supposedly different it looked just like an E30 jack and it worked on the 2 E30s in the yard that I tried. Other than 1 spot of missing paint it looks like this jack is brand new.



Also grabbed all the bits to tie it down to where it is supposed to mount since those were gone on my car. Now I just need to figure out the proper way to mount the jack so the handle isn't sticking out.


After that I had to focus on the Subaru. Got it all done. I always dread transmission fluid and diff fluid changes, the fluid really does smell like death.

Tonight I'm going to try to find the time to switch out one of the rear lights for a mint uncracked one I picked up and that's probably all of the work the E30 will see for a while, as I'm leaving for Europe for 10 days on Wednesday. When I get back I will tackle the seat install.

[iSOregon]

looking good. I have also been bitten by the track bug! I foresee a lot of money I dont have being spent...

[kts]

Back from Europe and had some time to work on the car a bit this weekend.

At my last track day one of my instructors thought my car was down on power. Pulled the plugs and did a compression test.

All the plugs looked like this: (Unknown mileage, probably under 5k miles)



Compression test results


cyl 3 I cranked over a few extra times the first time when a neighbor came to harass me and distract me so I redid it twice after, got the same 170 both times.

Engine was cold and the test was done dry. Numbers are all close which is good but they are a bit higher than what the Bentley recommends. Not sure if my gauge reads high or if I have carbon build up. Engine has 140k on it so I think it's probably a bit of both.

Attempted to fix my cigarette lighter with super glue. It held about 2 seconds.


Pulled my blower motor and found out why it sounded like an army of squirrels were fighting each other when the fan was on above 2.



Damage to the blower motor housing


At higher speeds I'm guessing this crack splits and opens up more thus all the rubbing and the burnt plastic smell I would get.

I kept digging to get to the wiper linkage which I also need to remove and replace but it was giving me some headaches so I stopped for now.

I need to hit up the junkyard this week to find suitable replacements for the blower motor and the wiper linkage.

I removed the passenger side seat so I could get the VAC floor/seat mouts in and a shiny new Sparco Evo 2 Plus installed. (Installing the passenger side first so I can figure it all out, then I will tackle the driver's side.

The crime scene under the passenger seat.


I unpacked the VAC floor mounts and discovered they gave me 2 different lengths. :(





Going to call them tomorrow to see if the shorter one will still give me enough space to also install their anti-sub harness mounting brackers. If so I'l get to installing them tomorrow. I'd still like both sides to be identical set ups so may see about getting VAC to send me another set of long mounts and I'll return the short ones.

Back to tackling the wiper linkage after the Ravens finish playing.

Oh yea, and I finally have a complete toolkit. Yay!

[FunfGan]

Nice work! Cars looking good. The jack handle should just stand up...

[Blackout]

Cig lighter orange trim does not like the crazy glue.
I used plastic epoxy, also made by super glue from 99c store. Worked great.

[kts]

The jack handle should just stand up...

Thanks for the tip. I just found a photo of someone's trunk with it like that the other day. It looks odd but it works. I need to fix a leak in my trunk and then I can finally properly store the jack back there.

Cig lighter orange trim does not like the crazy glue.
I used plastic epoxy, also made by super glue from 99c store. Worked great.

Thanks for the tip about the plastic epoxy, I'll have to give that a shot. I need to find something like that too for my E36 and the damn cheap ass plastic on my Depo headlights.

[kts]

Got a bit more work done after the Ravens won last night. And a friend of mine who has an E30 stopped on by to drop off a spare bottle cap + tire for me since he had an extra and my current spare is rotted out. I looked at his trunk and noticed he had a light in there. I don't have a light. Then I saw I had it all in there but no light. I'm missing the bulb. (And I forgot to look for one when I was at the junkyard this morning, doh!)


My friend mentioned I should try cleaning out the splines for my wiper blades with a pick so I gave it a shot.

In process


Driver's side looks and feels pretty good


Passenger's side, not so much. (And this is where the wiper keeps dying on me.)


Also yanked the cowls by the wipers so I can throw a new coat of paint on them. They need it.



At the junkyard I found a 92 vert with a good condition blower motor for me and a 528e with premium rear speakers for me. $28 for it all.


I would have liked beige speaker covers but this works well enough.

[ck_taft325is]

Hey, that's my old car!

Here's a few more for inspiration:












Ask Rennsport about my camber wear though ;)

[kts]

Hey, that's my old car!

Thanks for the pics. I love those wheels! I'm having a hard time resisting the urge to pick up a set of the Type As. They don't make any sense on a track car but maybe for driving around town?

- In other news, lucked out at the junkyard yet again. Easy to get the antenna out of the 92 325ic at the yard and I also picked up a defroster button out of the 528e that was there since mine gets stuck and doesn't seem to work anymore. $13 for the antenna. I just need to pick up a new grommet since the one on the car was seriously messed up.

- I also was in a BMW tool heaven since while I was there a 7 series, 5 series, and E36 were all dropped off in the yard and they were all filled with mostly pristine tool kits. I quickly added them all to my collect. :) I know, I'm an addict. I went to pull the DME out of the E36 but when I pulled back the cover THOUSANDS of little tiny ants started pouring out from behind the cover. It was something out of a horror film. I called it a day.

- Also picked up a toolkit strap from a 7 series (same length as the one in the E30 but in black) to see if it would make my E34 toolkit droop less. Worked great!

Before, super droopy:


Now: where it should be.


Ok, not more talking/posts about tools/toolkits/etc from me from now on. I have a problem I know...


- I replaced the coolant temp sender the other day and now my temp gauge on the dash sits just a bit over the 1/4 way mark and doesn't move. Before it would settle around the 1/2 way mark and it would often dance all over the place. The old one looked well used and discolored. I'm guessing it was not replaced by the previous owner. I have a new sensor for the DME as well but I need to move the fuel rail to get it out. I will probably do that soon so the DME isn't getting wrong water temp info.

- T-55 socket showed up this morning so I can remove the rear bumper finally and replace the gasket that goes around the sunroof drain on the driver's side, the gasket is bad and is letting water in to where the jack sits.

- Waiting for VAC to send me the correct passenger side floor mounts so I can get to mounting my seats. Probably should hold off on this for a few days as...

- I'm picking up a roll bar this weekend for the car. Yay! 6 point harnesses to follow.

[kts]

Picked up a Kirk roll bar yesterday. Woo hoo! Time to order some harnesses.

Today it has all gone downhill:

- Tried to put the "new" blower motor in and the stupid tension clip that holds the motor in place did not want to stay in place while I put the motor back in and in a fit of rage I bent and broke the crap out of it. Whoops. It did make me feel a little better at least. Time to hit the yard or worst case a new one from the dealer is $6.

- Tried to use the T-55 torx socket I have to remove the bolts holding the rear bumper in so I can fix a leak by the sunroof drain on the passenger side. Bolts are rusted and stuck. One of them started to strip even. I hate torx bolts. Need to figure out how to get these stupid things out. Used a jack handle (~4 feet long) as a cheater bar and it wouldn't move. Maybe I can try to heat it up without melting the bumper. I also need to see if I can find new rear bumper shocks for cheap, they look rusted as hell on my car.

- Found a hole in the trunk where the jack goes. Time for some seal sealer.

- Still investigating but it looks like the side moldings on my car are some weird rubber thing that may be glued onto the car and hard to remove. I will not be happy if this is the case.

- Cleaned up the new spare my friend dropped off. That went well unlike everything else with the car today.

Basically this is me today:

[kts]

- I hate torx bolts.

The 4 T55 torx bolts holding the bumper to the bumper shocks I tried on cars at the junkyard all came off with ease. Not so much for my car. :( Even with some heat they didn't want to come out. I ended up with this:



Lisle will warranty it but I need to ship it back to them. $2-3 to mail it back and waiting for $5 for a new one from Amazon w free shipping? Guess I'll just order a new one.

Looks like I'm going to have to see if I can remove the bumper from the bumper "carrier" if I remove the black trim. The one at the yard still had the bumper shocks + carrier installed but the bumper was removed. Or I think I can undo the bumper shocks from the car and remove everything. Will need to drop the exhaust for that though.

- Old spare was rotting out as you can kinda see with this crappy photo:



Also don't know how I missed it but it's also down to the cords on the inside. Got camber?



New spare has a bend in the wheel but it holds air and the tire is good enough for emergency use



On to more important stuff:

- Picked these up last night. They feel like I am holding air. Pretty much a waste of $ since they aren't going to do much more than the stock steel units but they look pretty. (Euro aluminum engine mount brackets if you are wondering what they are.)



- Roll bar is begging to go in



- Harnesses arrived from OG Racing. 6 point G-Forces. Yay!



- The correct passenger seat floor mount finally arrived from VAC. Double yay!

If I'm not too hung over on Sunday from Halloween plans hopefully I can get to installing some of this stuff.

[kts]

Rushed home Friday afternoon to go pick up a new head unit for the car. I went with a JVC KD-R520 since it was cheap, had front aux + USB inputs and it comes with the JVC removal tools which I need to remove the JVC unit that came with my E36 that I don't like and want to replace. (Probably just with another KD-R520.)

It's not fancy but it was cheap and it will do what I want. Hopefully I'll get to installing it and the rest of the stereo soon.



Then I headed home and my friend Mark came over to drink some beers and maybe work on my car. Grabbed pizza from a place across the street from me, drank a lot of beer and then had some ADD on the car working on misc things. I got the blower motor back in the car and running, yay! I think my blower resistor is going since on the 1 setting you feel nothing come out of the vents and the motor barely turns. 2, 3, and 4 it's beastly. It might have been like this before I removed it and cleaned it when the old motor was out. Will probably order a new one.

Then we looked at my roll cage and decided to put it in the car to check for fitment. Well that was easy. So we got to pulling the rear seat out and the side panels and then the seat belts and then well we have it in place, let's drill some holes and install it!

What my interior looked like at 6pm on Friday:


What it looked like later that night


My friend Mark pretending the rollbar is a set of monkey bars


I didn't realize how late it go by the time we finished everything, it was 2am. (We spent a lot of time drinking beer and pointing at things.) I'm sure my neighbors had to have loved me pounding the shit out of the backing plates to shape them to the wheel arches at 1am. Whoops!

I also discovered 3 different vintages of stereo wiring running the length of my car when the rear interior was removed. It's going to be fun sorting this stereo out.

I wanted to finish up by installing the seats the next morning but ended up sleeping until almost noon and then had to throw the winter wheels on my Subaru and head out to a halloween party. Something to get to this week so I can drive the car to the College Park meet this Friday.

[dnick]

lookin good man!!! where are ya in md? im in howard county.
the roll bar.. whered ya get it and how much? (if you dont mind me asking)

But, love your thread and keep up the work!