325ic Calypso Euro Conversion - Houndstooth & dbilas now, MT1 & MM 3.2 stroker coming

[bradnic]

Congrats OP, you're the first cabriolet that gets the c0rbin9 "Ballin' Out of Control" Seal of Approval.

ha thanks man! glad you like the ride

Probably the only cabrio i'd ever own. Car is amazing man.

Damn thanks Brandon. Bring that M30 down to Asheville next month. We can probably meet on the way

I got mixed emotions of the painted bumpers. I just think the chrome bumpers help the paint stand out more.

Yeah I definitely get it. I'm lucky that I had picked up a set of OEM chromes initially and ended up with a horrifically bad chrome job. I ended up picking up an ECS/Polcar front kit, some repro rear chrome from Italy and OEM rear hardware kit, end caps etc., so it left the original set available to paint.

I don't envy e30rapidic... If I only had one set of bumpers I'd probably leave it chrome. As I wrote earlier here I wanted to make sure I can revert back to my last year's setup, which was OEM polished aluminum trim and chrome bumpers. So since some of my original bright trim was scratched I bought new replacement pieces for them and shadowlined the originals. The convertible deck lid trim is new OEM shadowline. You can't tell the difference even up close which is sweet.

Now that I know how to do trim well I can switch the car out completely in a day, working slowly and carefully. That's kinda cool right? Once the mtech1 kit is finished I'll be able to swap that in and out too lol.

[bradnic]

picked up some spare and NLA parts for the electric top conversion. Especially relieved to get the 2 aluminum pieces used in the back of the top compartment to hold the end of the Bowden cables that connect to the lid motor


EDIT: Lol on that rod. It's supposed to have a slight bend in it, not a severe angle like that. My bud Kyle's rod sheared when his top got stuck. This one obviously got severely twisted. The strange thing is that there were no clearly visible stress marks where the bend is.

source of the parts is my local bud with the same color 92 S52 vert. Car was converted to manual top. Not much of the electric bits left. Note the hook extending from the deck lid. Can't be retrofitted without separating the lid skin from the back side. The black plastic trim piece still had a BMW part number sticker on the back side of it


Also picked up the original OEM washer cap I've been hunting for!
Part number is 61-66-1-364-807
]

Many thanks to robrez for pointing me to a bimmerfest thread

installed

[Stapes]

we were genuinely surprised at how much we love the body color bumpers and shadowline trim. rich color+black is just yum

Great job on the bumper color choice. I Thought the chrome look would had been a better choice but I think it turned out pretty solid. I might seriously consider the same for mine.

How hard was if to find the right paint shop for the job? My only concern is the paint peeling off. Can a chromed bumper be painted over?

[bradnic]

Chrome should be completely sandblasted off. In my case I have no choice because the rechrome job on these bumpers was horrifically bad.

It's buried a bit in prior posts, but I was just trial fitting them to see how we liked the setup. I still need to take these off for sandblasting and repaint. The body guys decided they only needed to prep the top since the rest of the bumper would be covered by the MT1 bits. I never authorized that, but they don't sandblast (and didn't tell me they didn't). Shop went ahead and left the chrome on the front and bottom of the bumper in place... both the chrome that was left and the paint on top of it are already peeling off.

Anyway the shop is really good so I don't want to burn bridges over this. Finding someone else to sandblast, and eventually they'll be painting this car stripped to the shell and my IX.

[bradnic]

OEM radio and premium amp reinstalled, amp bypass in the harness reversed. Just waiting for jaysterling's BT prototype board now.

Top lid motor installed, electric top harness installed through the rear seat firewall and sitting under the rear seat. Very cool to see the electric top switch receptacle on it :-)

OEM canvas top arrived the US and will be delivered this week

Also scored the driver rear speaker trim panel for the electric top (without the hole for the deck lid handle).

Looks like next week for the rest of the top parts stuff.

[bradnic]

electrical gremlins are piling up.

oem radio I just installed won't retain the keyed in code. have to re-key every time I start the car

tachometer just stopped working. other gauges ok so prob not the SI board

driver brake light and license plate lights stopped working, bulbs are ok. check panel lights are on (probably me messing with the trunk wiring.

looking forward to focusing just on wiring for a bit, completing the electric top harness install and replacing the OBC with an analog clock. I do like the 12 button OBC, but the temp is never accurate (even after adding a George Graves temp sensor. Fuel consumption is no longer accurate either after the m30 AFM and re-chip.

EDIT: Just gonna swap out the SI batteries when I pull the cluster. Great opp to install the aluminum gauge rings I bought 3 years ago lol

[bradnic]

Looks like they changed the body harness on verts starting 1/90. There's a connector under the dash near the cluster that's taped back. I'll add harness pics to show this later.


This is the add-on plate you weld to the tonneau lid on manual top cars - NLA now, so you need to get an electric top lid to get the lever you need for the top lid motor


The top motor mounting area needs to have a steel reinforcement welded in. still waiting for the part from Germany.

[bradnic]

harness installed up to the driver foot well. no luck finding the "mating plug" electric top connector near the firewall that routes to the fuse box. I do have all the wiring color codes though so patience..

First of the parts from Germany - OEM canvas top just arrived..

[brokecollegekid]

I'm not really a fan of cabrios but this looks so damn good. The interior and paint and wheels all go together so well.

[bradnic]

Thanks.. I have a lot of work and love into this thing. I suppose most folks would pick a coupe or sedan over a vert if it came down to deciding on a single car. We're lucky enough to have an IX coupe and also not to need this car as a daily driver.

Got the kick panels painted last night so the interior is now fully matching for the first time since I've owned it. I can honestly say I have never seen a light colored e30 interior that matched until now. Black is usually ok, cardinal too, grey and indigo a bit iffy. natur and pearl beige never match well from what I've seen. It's always the map pocket is off, arm rests don't match, kick panels look different.. I think the convertibles make this more noticeable because the deck lid is vinyl wrapped when stock, and the quarter trim panels wrap around to the top.

[bradnic]

Wrong top???? DAMN.

Well... certainly looks like I've been sent the wrong convertible top. It's quite nice, but not what I ordered.
-- definitely German.
-- definitely a sewn in plastic window
-- definitely a sewn in sleeve for the front rod seen on electric tops
-- definitely a German WOPAVIN embossed logo for OEM PVC rear window material
(see http://www.mgfcar.de/softtop/ for info on WOPOVIN)
-- definitely OEM quality stitching
-- no BMW logo on the window or on the top canvas.




Thing is there are two top canvas part numbers and conflicting info about them. The 'expensive top' is 54348134876 and the less expensive one is 54341468010. The 010 part does not exist in realoem as of this writing. The 876 part shows as active since 9/91, which is the date the zip out electric tops were introduced. So it SHOULD be the right top.

Here's the thing.
- If you go to BMW Morristown's trade motion website and look up the 876 part number, their catalog says it's been superceded by the 010 part number.
- If you go to another BMW source they'll show the 010 as NLA and the 876 as in stock in Germany.

realoem lookup for 010

realoem lookup for 876

trademotion lookup for 876


I ordered an 876, because my source told me 010 was showing NLA and 876 had 9 left in Germany.
But I think I received an 010. No way to tell from the packaging or the top itself though, except that there's no BMW logo and the plastic window is glued in.

SHIT.

Here's what I was after - the original tops came this way and these pics prove it
BMW logo on the front inside edge of the canvas top

BMW logo on the driver side lower part of the rear window

enhanced detail on the rear window logo - note the same WOPAVIN squiggle symbol on the original window. Different vendor though, RHENOGLAS
[

Looks like BMW continued using both rear window suppliers for the E36. note this graphic from cristal-cabriolet.fr, and also note the same WOPAVIN numbers as above.

[bradnic]

The saga continues.. stay tuned.

[bradnic]

So.. BMW Morristown's trademotion listing is WRONG.

The 54348134876 top I ordered is the only one that can be ordered. the 54341468010 part number is NLA, despite what trademotion says. BMW Morristown themselves confirmed this.

The folks I ordered the 876 from found the package label from BMW. It confirms they sent me the part number I ordered. As expected, they did exactly what they said they would do and are completely blameless here.
[

Again, beautiful top, OEM new, but no zip out window, no BMW logos. I have a couple of options:
- whine to BMW NA about the 2 part numbers, hope for a refund of the difference. weak case though because 010 is NLA
- try to restore the original top I have, roll the dice and order an OEM zip out window
- suck it up and install what I have

What I need to come to terms with is BMW either mislabeling a glued in top canvas as an 876, or that the original zip out window top just can't be bought anymore.

[bradnic]

Gonna first try restoring the original electric top as best I can. Went ahead and bought a tinted zip in window for it. If it turns out well enough I'll consider an OEM rear window for it later on.

Looks like they changed the body harness on verts starting 1/90. There's a connector under the dash near the cluster that's taped back. I'll add harness pics to show this later.

Found the body harness connector for the electric top harness! Right where it needed to be, in front of the driver side speaker. Correct connector shape, wire colors all match. So I now have power to the top motor harness and the convertible top switch. Will post a pic of the switch lit up in a bit.



Next is the cluster wiring and microswitch wiring to the pass side top latch (they are the 2 harness stubs heading off to the left in the bottom pic).

[2mAn]

If you can get the electric top you might be the ONLY person that has one that works :rofl: