The Red Cabrio Barn Find Project

[jeffnhiscars]

Mind blown...

Turning on the AC to defog in winter is actually in most owners manuals

[jeffnhiscars]

I did this today in preparation for a Leatherique dye job. I'm clearly out of control.


Is there a place for e30 owners to go for rehab ?

[pilotskillse30]

stellar work bro!

[jeffnhiscars]

stellar work bro!

Thanks Mon !!

I posted a better pic. I figured Id do as much as I could without removing the seat. The Leatherique restorer literally disappeared in an hour. YUM !

I'll pull this seat out soon, swap in my spare indigo seat as a temp, then once it's done I'll strip the cushions and put them on the drivers seat (which has a torn bottom cushion). Ill then refinish the drivers cushions along with my spare indigo bottom (re-dyed to Pearl Beige) and those will then go on the passenger seat.

Left PS bolsters become right DS bolsters and vice versa. Get it ? ;)

[jeffnhiscars]

Now that the AC meets the challenge in all kinds of weather I am on a bit of a plateau...basically just enjoying the car without the pressure of things that need to be done although I will have to do front wheel bearings fairly soon since I have a directional growl that gets louder turning left and goes away turning right. I know 106k is low for a bearing to go out but I may have caused it by doing something dumb so thats probably next on the list.

There is still the rear subframe to do but for now I'm working on some cosmetics and esthetics. I bought a new drivers side under dash since mine was cracked & patched with pop rivets so everything is nice and snug.


I also broke one of my cardinal rules about "borrowing" parts from the cars in the fleet, but since this is an aftermarket accessory and the coupe is not being driven til I get it in to the body shop, I swapped this over



I actually bought the Husco brand new from BavAuto for about $110 IIRC. A new leather top is in its future.

Speaking of the coupe, I came home the other day and found this, which I assume to be the result of heat stress since there was no evidence of anything hitting it.


Fortunately, my bmw breaking bud had just landed a coupe so I got the replacement glass for $20 along with the replacement fog light for the barn find that got taken out by a semi tread on the interstate. It's rough out there :-)

[jeffnhiscars]

According to the BMW r12-r134a conversion bulletin a temperature differential in the upper 20's with avg humidity is good so if you really want to know how well your newly converted AC works you cant just check the vents temps. I mean what good is 45 degree vent air if its 65 outside.



FWIW I was in the interstate...driving...holding my IR gun and taking a pic. Do not try this at home :-)

[jeffnhiscars]

There's no other way to say it...sealed beams are crap. One of mine has moisture inside as well, which makes no sense since it still worked, but it didnt matter. I picked up a set of ellipsoids from e30ragtop and it was time to make the change.

I read all the write ups on them and for the most part they seemed too complicated. Billswebspace was very detailed but I had no intention of reworking the innards of my fuse box, so I printed the wiring diagrams from both the 87 Electrical Manual (my car) and the one from the 89 Manual which came with ellipsoids. I sent those to a friend of mine who is an acoustic engineer and his advice was consistent with the simplest writeup I saw...jump 87a and 30 on the high beam relay and remove the jumper from the high beam to the dual filament low beam since obviously my ellipsoid projector only has 1 filament.

I managed to get the cover off my purple relay with only slight damage and using my VOM figured out what was connected to 87a (the post supporting the outer contact) and 30 (the coil chassis).


and the jumper soldered in place


This does 2 things...first is it maintains current to the low beams when you switch to high (so dual beams) and second...it bypasses the fog light unloader so the fogs will not cut out when you put the high beams on. Here are the original sealed beams & fogs after the relay mod. Keep in mind there are 6x7.5A fuses protecting these lights and the wiring is the same .75 wire that powers the auxiliary fan on high with its 30A fuse so even if a fuse did blow I would not hesitate to swap in a 10A.


I had bought 3 pronged male sealed beam pigtails with the intent to keep the factory harness intact but since my low beam check light came on whenever the lights were on I decided that reducing connectors and resistance was a better option.

My soldering has improved


Here we have the pigtails with heat shrink. It was definitely easier working through the headlight openings rather than doing this from the engine side


Here is the finished harness. I use bat (friction) tape that I buy at an sporting goods store as its a virtual duplicate for the factory wrap


Here's the scrap. There are 2 Wh\Vi wires to the low beam connector. One is the jumper and one goes to the relay. You dont want to cut the wrong one but since my original harness was unwound I just tugged on the two wires and it was easy to tell which was which. Im also sure the weight reduction will improve handling especially since its in front of the axle ;)


and lastly here is the end result.


Now we will see how many drivers I blind before I get the headlights dialed in :-)

..oh....and my low beam check light no longer comes on

[frankenbeemer]

Wooooot, slow down, I'm still trina grasp that latent heat of vaporization concept and you've moved on to Kirchoff. Nice job on the lights!

[TrentW]

Does that jumper on the relay also allow the fogs to light independent of the low beams?

[jeffnhiscars]

Does that jumper on the relay also allow the fogs to light independent of the low beams?

It does not. The headlights have to be on.

I'll give that some thought but I would think you would at least want your parking lights on for the fogs to work cause a) you probably need some corner lights if visibility is bad enough to want your fogs on and b) you are less likely to forget them if your dash is lit.

[jeffnhiscars]

I installed my redyed rear seat bottom today and then did a rear trim panel. Feeling somewhat full of myself and having viewed the custom interior thread here, I am on the verge of deciding to 2 tone my interior.

Looking at Ferrari leather colors :)

[frankenbeemer]

Black and yellow, black and yellow.....

[evandael]

blargh, do a single leather color. your car is so period-correct and classy and two-tone is too pep-boys.

[jeffnhiscars]

blargh, do a single leather color. your car is so period-correct and classy and two-tone is too pep-boys.

the responses to my color scheme are all enthusiastic so my leather sample (borrowed from the dealer) is on its way to Leatherique for mixing.

I can let "period correct" being a strait jacket or just have some fun until they bury me in this car

[bradnic]

Pics Jeff... Pics...