'86 E30 325i maintenance/restoration/build

[Europeaben]

Cheers guys

So, hungover as fuck I got stuck back into it today.

The car was leaking oil pretty bad (or had a lot of horsepower sweat), so while the subframe was off I decided to drop the sump and replace the gasket. Was quite a waffleswaffleswaffleswaffles to get off, a few very hard to reach bolts happened to have nicely rounded heads and had to be carefully cut off with the dremel... Once it did finally come off though it was all good news, was pretty clean in there which is a good sign that the engine is healthy, and the old gasket was fucked (and most bolts were literally only finger tight) so hopefully the oil leak was just from this gasket, and not the rear main seal, which would not be as much fun to change.

Cleaned the sump up


Stuck it back on with some sealant, put in a new magnetic drain plug, BMW oil filter and fresh oil (which was well and truly overdue)


Then got back to the suspension. Stripped the subframe and everything attached to it down and pulled off the front hubs/wheel bearings. The old bearings were fubar.


Then I pulled the springs/shocks out, and cut off the old spring perches (plus while I was at it gave myself a nice cut through the thumbnail, deep into the thumb. Fun stuff.)


Old engine mounts are pretty shagged


Brakes were pretty filthy. Cleaned them up and gave them some paint.



Couldn't do much more as far as putting things back togethor yet, as I still need to reinforce the subframe, and am waiting on more welding gas and want to sandblast the subframe before I weld it up anyway


Also cut out the old rubber steering guibo, and cut out the rivets for it. Need some bolts before I can finish this.


Gave the steering rack a quick clean, but still wasn't happy with it, so gave it a quick lick of paint aswell


New full tie rods, locking plates, boots and clamps fitted

[Europeaben]

More suspension work

Cut/ground off the brackets for brake related wiring (removed the wires long ago)


Replaced the rubber steering guibo with aluminium


Removed 1.5" from the strut housings


Tack welded up with magnets and old shock in to ensure its perfectly straight


Tig welding


Welds ground down


New spring perches welded on


Etch primered and painted red (let the lady friend pick the colour)


Subframe reinforced around the engine mount area, as they are known to break with hard driving, especially with stiffer engine mounts. Sand blasted and painted.


Steering rack and linkage fitted, along with new turner motorsports engine mounts/buckets


Ground control stickers stuck


Brake dust shield things painted and put back on, new wheelbearing/hub assemblys fitted, and the shock, coilover adjuster sleeve, spring, camber/caster plates fitted.


Brakes back on


New control arms, with UUC swaybar hardware


Offset solid M3 control arm bushings in new lollipops

[bradnic]

solid.

[JCarp90]

*golfclap*

[Ray Smoodiver]

like where this is headed.

[ak-]

Front shocks used?

Everything here is excellent man.

[Europeaben]

Cheers guys.

Using the koni adjustable shocks and spacers cut to size that come with the ground control kit. Got it all back in the car today, more photos will come when I have time ;)

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[Europeaben]

Well been a while since an update, have been insanely busy, havent had a spare second in ages (too much hanging halfway, whitsundays holidays and a few days of work inbetween :P)

Got a bit slack with photos, as was in a mad rush to get everything ready for halfway hangs. Basically put all the suspension back in. Everything in the front bar the subframe and steering rack (which still got cleaned up, reinforced and painted), down to the bolts and washers, is brand new.

The camber/caster plates from the top


UUC Swaybarvarian front sway bar and hardware. Overall this was a very nice kit, the sway bar, endlinks, bushings, and reinforcements are all top notch. The only complaint I have is probably a pretty petty one, but it uses imperial hardware and the instructions give unrealistic torque figures, which is a real pain when you snap a bolt trying to tourqe it to "spec" and only have metric spares...



Everything back in


Didn't go overly low (4wd height compared to my past cars even), but certainly sits a lot nicer than it did before


Got it aligned (with some pretty aggressive specs, considering I don't have to daily this anymore I got it set up for more serious driving ;)) and it feels great to drive. Can't wait until I give the rear the same treatment.

Gave the car a quick wash and tidy up, tidied up some wiring, put the front end back on properly etc, all the little things to get the car somewhat driveable/presentable and drove it down to halfway hangs (which was quite possibly the greatest long weekend ever)

[E30NJ]

How'd you paint it so clean?

[Europeaben]

Used special clean paint

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[sector6]

Used special clean paint

:p:p

[Europeaben]

Have been pretty busy lately, with very little time to work on the car. Had a bit of spare time today though, so decided to finally make up some sort of intake (have been driving it with nothing past the throttle body for the last few months haha)

Cut up a 3 inch aluminium bend, drilled a hole and tig welded up a bung for the temp sensor (first time welding allu, was heaps easier than I was expecting). Drilled a big hole in the oem air box and expoied in a bit of pipe to delete the restrictive afm, painted everything up and joined it all up with some silicone reducers/couplers. Also cut a big chunk out of the corner that gets cold air from the lower section of the airbox, and put in a new filter. Not the prettiest, but will do the job. Couldn't be too bothered with smoothing out the exterior of the airbox for cosmetics, as I'll be redoing everything when I turbo it anyway ;)





Doesn't have an ear piercing high pitch squeal at low rpm like it did when I was just running an open throttle body, and once the engine heats up it definitely feels better, not sucking in hot air haha. Having a filter is always a bonus too :P

[Europeaben]

Over the last few weeks I've put some serious time into refurbishing the Azev's. Seem to have misplaced my memory card with the photos of the process, which is a shame, because a hell of a lot of work was done, and I don't think any of the photos I have up show how rough the wheels actually were (3/4 had extremely bad curb rash (previous owner), paint was absolutely rooted, etc etc).

Took them down to bare metal all over (many many hours of paint stripper, sanding, etc, wish I'd just had them blasted), fixed up rash/missing chunks in the lips of the wheels with filler, use a 2k primer specifically for bare aluminium, then a 2k primer filler, wetsanded, 2k colour, and then 2k clear. Turned out pretty nice ;)











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[MPLFoster]

looks good...real good.

[econti]

+1. Good to see Australia repping it. Love the wheels