E30Pdee's 1989 alpine 325i rebuild and restoration project

[e30pdee]

first i just vaccumed everything using a shop vac, took VERY LITTLE amount of water and and course scrubbing brush and just scrubbed until it all went away, their are still a few stains that are pretty deep, i need to figure out how to pull those out also, maybe use some crazy intense carpet cleaner. I just left it to air dry afterwards. tommorrow im gonna try hitting the junkyard and maybe find an ellipsoid and some other stuff i need, i doubt ill find any headlight but we'll see! tommorrow will be an assembly of all the parts i find, a wax and finish up of the detailing. hopefully gonna get a lot of stuff done this weekend

[e30pdee]

here's some photography just for shits and gigs haha

[e30pdee]

alright guys a lot of work was done over the weekend here's some more photos!

[e30pdee]

got rid of the trunk rust, here's some pictures of the rust before, i dont have the after pictures just yet, but they will be uploaded sooner or later





Already did some priming a couple days ago in test spot to see how deep the rust would be





Then it was onto figuring out what to do about my ellipsoid. i definitly didnt want to spend 100 right now just for another ellipsoid, but it was also something i needed to take care of, so i took a chance!
Went to the junkyard pulled an ellipsoid off an e32, threw it in the oven for about 20 minutes preheated to 400 degrees so the glue would melt, gently pryed the glass off and dissassembled the housing. heres a few pictures.

745 housing to the left, 325 housing to the back right. you can obviosly tell that my 325 lens was also fogging up a little so i replaced that as well. the main hassle with replacing the lens, was getting the non tamper screws off, what i ended up doing was just using a flatheat and forcing the screwdriver downwards and twisting hard enough until it began to give.



My whole entire insides of my headlight were all kinds of messed up cause they were exposed to the elements so i just replaced the whole thing besides the bucket.

325 right on top, 745 on bottom



Put my lens back on and put some silicone sealer along with it water about three hours and reassembled my front end. Coming together slowly but surely.




I also put the interior back together, and cleaned it thoroughly, but i never got a chance to get pictures of that either. rest assured all of these pictures will be up sooner or later.


Oh yea, and do you guys have any reccomendations on how to pull this dent on my drivers side front fender? (here's a little glimpse of what the headlight looked like before too.)

[e30pdee]

by next weekend ill hopefully be getting my smog, and registration done, also take care of all my maintenance major maintenance (timing belt, water pump, accessory belts, hoses, thermostat, valve adjustment etc) and exterior detail all done

got a couple questions besides the dent though

i have a couple hard water stains on my paint that have probably been sitting for a decent amount of time, what would be the best way to get them off?

got some trouble getting my glovebox completely attached, the hinge in the back isnt properly attached to the glovebox for some reason, how is it secured on the glovebox side of the hinge?

finally, how can i go about figuring out the problem with my door, and trunk actuators?

[e30pdee]

to the top!!

[danielmp]

finally, how can i go about figuring out the problem with my door, and trunk actuators?

If the trunk unlocks everything, just install a keyless entry system and forget about the doors. Car looks promising, keep up the good work.

http://www.german-engineering.net/1_6_Products.html

[e30pdee]

keyless entry will be in due time, but for now i just want everything functioning properly. i checked my fuses, thats not the problem, and i dont think all the fuses would go out at the same time. what else could it be?

[e30pdee]

Alright guys quick update changed my o2 sensor got replaced. it was beyond screwed!

[e30pdee]

oh yea and a little surprise... whats in the box???






You guessed it!! its maintenance time!

[e30pdee]

alright guys its been a while since i an update. basically last week i installed all the parts over the weekend did a valve adjust, let it sit until friday, car was running good and pulled stronger. so i could take it in for smog this last friday. unfortunately it failed, it failed the preconditioning test not even the dyno so the guy didnt bother completing the test and decided not to charge me.

So on my way home i bought some carb and choke cleaner, and some seafoam just to see how things would work. next day i begin cleaning everything (AFM, intake boot, ICV) inspected for cracked hoses. then i went to seafoam it, upon seafoaming it, in the higher rev range i heard a loud clunking noise as if something broke. yep my rocker arm on my exhaust side cyl #1 broke. -_-

now im stuck on what to do, a lot of people say i have to remove the head, others say i remove the motor and tranny mounts and jack up the motor from the ac bracket just far enough to get clearence to remove the rocker arm shaft to replace. im thinking if im going through the headache of removing it i might as well all the rocker arms. am i right? what would you guys do in a situation like this? im thinking temporarily fix the issue, get it on the road, forget about the tranny swap, and save the rest of my money for a 24v swap and a suspension overhaul. then if i choose to i could either part out the motor, sell it, or do a rebuild just for a learning experience.

Oh yea, PS. the sound of a broken rocker arm getting tossed around not pretty XD

[e30pdee]

update!! finally

alright guys i know i havent made an update in a while just been busy with finals and my high school graduation. but basically after doing a lot of long and hard thinking, since i do have to pull the head to replace the rocker, i went to the junkyard and pulled a much cleaner head, ill just be running a cleaner head for a while until i do a 24v swap or do a slow rebuild on my original head. if it wasn't for this inconvenience happening i would have at least gotten my suspension completely done by now.
heres where i am so far!


Here's when i pulled her, got her off a 89 vert! much cleaner than mine, only a layer of oil glazed over it. gonna give her an acid bath and resurface her :).



post junkyard trip! dirty enough?



cleaned the bottom end a little with a wire wheel. machine shop will make a perfect though



heres another angle of the head


only problem is that one of the holes for a where the distributor screws into is broken, is that piece replaceable?




finally started to get to work on my original head.

got my intake manifold off



got my exhaust manifold to head nuts off, i just cant seem to get my downpipe nuts disconnected though, any tips? yea i know my exhaust many gaskets are all messed up too.



got my head bolts off some were pretty corroded too. jeez this guy did not take care of his car.

just need to get the exhuast manifold disconnected from the downpipe, and remove the timing belt and the head is off! that will be soon to come!

so the to do list until this is done

Get a gasket set, probably with a bmw headgasket.
resurface, and acid bathe the better condition head
remove timing belt, and downpipe bolts
and put everything new all together and were set!


hopefully all goes well!

[e30pdee]

bump

[XW70]

Nice purchase and work so far! Did changing your o2 sensor make a big difference? Im unsure if i should spend the cash on doing mine..

[e30pdee]

honestly it didn't make much of a difference, the car still runs rich and the exhaust sounds funky. you can do the stomp test to see if your's is bad, i think in order to fix my issue i just need to change all my exhaust gaskets, cause as i was seafoaming is smoke not only came from the muffler but also from the headers.