6/83 grey market 323i.. mtech I S50 5-lug

[kronus]

Catching up on some work done in the last few months.

- E30 M3 front 5-lug installed. Nothing super wacky here. Since this car didn't come with ABS from the factory, I didn't have to invent anything too crazy and just used E28 front bearings.
- interior is finally all together. Front covers are installed, and I made the whole backseat from scratch. Pretty much the last little problem here is the carpet color under the backseat, but I have some dye on the way to address it.

These bad boys went in:





The rear seat bottom was of particular interest. I had unwisely gotten rid of my old one, assuming I could replace it with a later foam one and not have to deal with the horsehair. Unfortunately, turns out '83 rear seat bottoms are completely different and 1-year-only. After a couple years stalking ebay, I was able to find one out of a 318i in Oregon.


These bad boys came out:



I'll be doing some restoration work on them to fix various foam, metal, and cloth issues. Maybe worth a thread?

[kronus]

now we're cooking with napalm..



Fresh out of the zoomzoomzoom-ing custom shop. I'm installing these on a set of E24 Recaro LX seats that will sit on a set of Massive Recaro mounts. Rear seat in production soon. With a set of black leather doorcards and some carpet dye, the interior will finally be in a consistent and presentable shape.

[kronus]

jm - thank you! I hope you've been well. I'm still finding uses for the iX parts I picked up from you.

euroweaves won't work on mine since it's 5 lug and has big front brakes. I have had some idle thoughts about the 16" E28 M5 weaves.


I've also been thinking about moving this car along. I've got something fun cooking, and need the space..

[2002jm]

Well, this is such a nice car. reminds me of the one I had a few years back. I had the euroweaves on mine. Have you considered euroweaves? But of course now they
cost a bunch of money.:).
Side skirts were a pain on my car too; hard to put on, but made the car look so good....like yours!
jm

[kronus]

it's running well since the head change. I'm getting oil smoke when running it at high RPM, though, which is supposed to be caused by loose valve guides. Annoyingly, they were done on the new head before it went in, so I guess they just weren't done very well.

Few major things left to do:
- interior. It's in an awkward place where the seats are Alpina, the door cards are houndstooth, the carpet is black, and the rear seats are natur leather. Ideally I'd like everything to match.. something.
- E30 M3 front struts. I have some, and everything for them, but they were bent when I got them and have been at a friend's uncle's fab shop for a while getting straightened and reinforced. Once they are on, I can put the Weds back on as well, although the RCs are growing on me.
- I'm also thinking to remove the tunnel-mounted shifter and go back to a traditional shift console, as I've never had a reliable 1st gear engagement with this setup, even with a 60k mile ZF that ran perfectly in the m coupe it came out of.
- I've thoroughly verified that the m coupe motorsport LSD in the car is roasted. Many 1-tire fires happed during this recent drive.

[FredK]

Very nice car, and thank you for the biennial update!

How's it running? Are you going to keep it as is, or are you eyeing any upgrades?

[kronus]

happy 2023! I went out to a classic meet/drive and some photogs were out.




more photos of the whole thing, which was pretty cool

[2mAn]

Times running out on a 2022 update

[kronus]

Thanks folks! It’s been a long time in the making. There’s a lot more left to do than it looks..

yes - oem French fogs. One is cracked and superglued back together :(

[lukeADE335i]

Well done on the side skirts - they look great!

I'm about to embark on an '84 coupe project myself, so am going to go for an M-tech 1 kit when I get it resprayed. Just ordered the hardware to retrofit the coupe tilt mechanism to my 4-door sport seats to fit into it

[moatilliatta]

Looks good! Those oem French fogs?

Excited to see what it looks like with the Weds.

[e30m3s54turbo]

It looks great…

[dahows]

Mtech cars look great in any color but there is something special about white...nice job.

[2mAn]

Dayum... I love it.

[kronus]

skirts are on. to celebrate, went for a drive with Julien and his black car.






currently chasing a bad oil burning smell when I get on it, as well as a leak down the front of the motor - I'm suspecting a bad VCG but it may be the head.