butters 318i project, S54door...

[butters]

I made some progress on the car on a trip home last weekend.

The anthracite carpet came in, and was in great shape. Faded a bit as expected but other than that, no real defects and vinyl in good shape at the pedals.



I brushed, vacuumed, and wiped down the whole thing, and hit a couple spots that came out pretty well.

After roadside came to give me a jump (ordered a battery tender for the future), I took the car on a warmup drive as one last carpet-less journey. I will not miss the noisiness. Out came the seats, consoles, kick panels, and bolsters. I vacuumed and cleaned the floor, very satisfying to have it clean.



The carpet went in with its share of struggles. Passenger side wasn't bad, but the driver footwell was a pain. I opted to disconnect the gas pedal and tilt it toward the rear of the car flat, then slide the carpet over it through the slot. Bentley insists that removed pedals from the base can not be re-used.

I will have to get a couple door sills, actually both driver's had issues with 1 clip and both passenger's went back in perfectly.



Then it was a matter of reassembly, topping off with new black floor mats:







Later will be the hat shelf as the last item, maybe in warmer weather I'll paint it and move the seat belt clip.

Here's a teaser of the wheels that are in my basement awaiting rubber:



Kopi Alpinas. Contemplating tire choice, will probably be April before they go on the car.

Having the car in Oregon and Mass with PA tags, I never worried about inspection. Nowadays I want to be legal so my dad can exercise the car occasionally without worrying about a traffic stop, and just for the sake of being done right.

PA does require emissions and OBD1 means a "dyno" rolling road test the old fashioned way with a tailpipe sniffer. I found a local garage and crossed my fingers. $55 later and I passed! Those vibrant metallic race cats (x2) work!

I got my sticker and went on down to a friend at the local BMW dealership who did the safety inspection and an oil change, I was planning on doing it myself so I had the oil and filter in the car anyway. The car is now fully PA legal and that feels great.

[butters]

Made a trip home last weekend and arranged to have tires mounted. I went for Kumho's softest summer tire in 215/40. They were/are on special at tirerack and come with pretty decent reviews.

Compared to the spare tire, same size as those that were on the factory steelies:



I need to get someone with a real camera to take photos, here are the few I snapped with my phone:



Best shot of the height^ (ST springs, stock shocks - planning a refresh) my driveway isn't perfectly flat.
Bought a new battery as mine was not holding a charge, the people at my local tires plus were kind enough to put it in for me.





One day I hope to have iS skirts and paint the lip. I don't want to do drop hats, but I am thinking I could use the 15mm up front..

[LuckyHenriksen]

I love your car Stephen, and I am so glad we had the chance to get to know each other when you were in PDX. I still miss those late nights, working on the S50 in the cold of winter haha. Nice to see you putting together a build thread, the car is looking even better after all the detail work and the new wheels

[butters]

I love your car Stephen, and I am so glad we had the chance to get to know each other when you were in PDX. I still miss those late nights, working on the S50 in the cold of winter haha. Nice to see you putting together a build thread, the car is looking even better after all the detail work and the new wheels

Absolutely! Those were times I'll never forget. Hope all is well in FL

[JCarp90]

Wow. I'm terribly jealous. Love Apline. Love sedans. Love alpina wheels.

[butters]

I took a slightly more permanent job in northeast PA in July, and although the place I found to live does not have a garage I found a free standing 1-car for rent nearby. I'm happy to have space for projects all to myself even if it is 2 miles from my house.



I compiled all parts necessary to add an oil cooler with the S54 oil filter housing - VAC AN adapter, fittings, black braided -10 hose, M20 cooler which I had flushed out at a radiator shop, and the bracketry and adapters for it. I even got a brand new valence grill for M20 cars, turns out it's a $15 piece. I have yet to put it in, as I'm working through the electrical side first with some things I've put off too long.

I sweated over the center console and installed E36 window switches, a lovely addition to any E30. I picked up an ashtray gauge "pod" and VDO oil pressure & temp gauges with senders and even a pre-made wiring harness from Parker Performance. I ran all the electrical for that so that I can install the S54 filter housing with the adapter block and be good to go.

I want to use the car for going to my hometown outside Philly which is a not-too-bad 90 minute drive down PA 476 through the Poconos. But being a 318i it does not have cruise control. I sourced a complete kit from another member, down to the ECU bracket, and just need to add the E36 throttle cable.

I also went for the LED volt meter from the classifieds here, and got around to installing that as well as the GE e46-style keyless while I was wiring behind the dash.. Very happy to have that done.. I had the keys cut back in Ohio.



I put my volt meter on the fog switch blank, I'd rather not have it so obvious in the interior. I put a switch in line so that I can flip it on and off as needed. I need to run the signal wire over to the positive terminal, I am getting resistance by going to the headlight switch.



Running the cruise loom wasn't bad, and I was able to get the bracket mounted despite hearing that it's a bitch. Mounting the clutch switch bracket took patience but also wasn't terrible. Pulling the cluster I cracked a corner of its lens, but luckily I have a friend building a drift E30 (Dan, doing the RB20 swap) and he sent me a clean lens at cost of shipping.

Here's how she sits, I fiddle each day after work. You can see the gauge pod but it's not screwed in all the way.

[butters]

Wow. I'm terribly jealous. Love Apline. Love sedans. Love alpina wheels.

Thanks :)

Also coming soon:

[butters]

I polished the new cluster lens with my Porter-Cable 7424, a compounding pad and Menzerna power finish (similar to super intensive polish) followed by a medium polish pad and PlastX.

I'm pleased with the results, but unfortunately I put a damn crack in the lens while polishing. I have to be more careful about supporting the little thing while I put a 6" pad to it. Ugh. Better luck next time, I will try again soon.

Before:



After:

[butters]

PSA to anyone planning on a Lukebox - do your RSMs before or during the install!

The box could come out and make the job alot easier, but for me getting the box out would have meant pulling quite a bunch of wires that Luke neatly tucked in the tight space above the box. Plus the DVD player and satellite receiver.

So.. I peeled back the side liners and saw an approach, and blindly turned a ratchet 1/4-turn at a time.



I went with Rogue RSMs so I won't have to deal with this again, and was able to just drop in the new reinforced stud plates.

After that it's a breeze.. (excuse the poor quality, not alot of light in the back of my garage)



Happily I found that my stock RSMs had quite a bit of play, likely explaining the occasional knock over driveway and garage entry/exit. I probably picked up a few mm's of ride height, but that's fine by me.

[butters]

I took a 3/4-in hole drill to the pedal panel for some hidden switches.



On the left turns on the voltmeter, which is pretty bright and I want to be able to just check it when I want rather than have it on all the time (at night).

On the right I'll probably wire to the ashtray gauge backlighting, again to turn off on long drives at night.

But at least this way I have less clutter in the interior, and the switches are completely out of view.

[butters]

Looking at photos of my car, I think the front could use a little more of a drop to make the 17s look right. Before putting in the front struts I did a little research into coilover options.

Ground Control is arguably the best option as far as price and quality, and the conversion kit is not a cringeworthy price.

I gathered an understanding of what it takes to shorten the strut housings, talked with Mark at GC and decided that since I can still return my front struts to BavAuto, I will do it right the first (er.. second) time around.

Going with shortened Konis, 440F/700R springs and running without camber plates for now to maintain a level of comfort. I want to be able to drive the car without worry of bottoming out. If the OE strut mounts and bearings die quickly, I'll look at the touring camber plates from GC.

Really getting excited to have the car put back together again, goal is 3 weeks from now.

[JCarp90]

I want your car. Gimmegimmegimme

[Nick_S]

Wow, fantastic work. Such a clean, well modded E30. A true example of OE+.

[butters]

Thanks guys. OEM+ is what I like best.

Update on the cluster - I think I marred the plastic while polishing the 2nd attempted lens. It was in pretty rough shape and somehow scuffed on the inside. I must have done the equivalent of burning paint and put too much heat into the plastic.

I came across "e30_dad" on instagram of all places (haven't seen or heard of him on r3v) and decided to send him my cluster for repair. Reasonably priced, he'll also paint the needles red and put a small M badge above the VDO insignia. I think it's appropriate given that the heart of the beast is an M3 motor, and also to better tie in the VDO gauges which have red needles.

I'm not going for the cluster rings, I think it's too modern a look for the E30.

[StereoInstaller1]

Car is looking stellar! Good to see you are continuing the work you started.

Keep it up!

Luke

Oh: stickers are on the way