phenryiv1's 1989 325iC Project - SETA 2.7i Swap Complete and Running!

[phenryiv1]

Related, while I was working on the assembly my daughter decided to take one of the old Roundels and do this:

[dirty30]

I have a set of style 10 wheels with centercaps I am selling for $500, forgot to mention that the other night. They need a little tlc but are made specifically for e30 fitment. Let me know if you are interested.

[phenryiv1]

I have a set of style 10 wheels with centercaps I am selling for $500, forgot to mention that the other night. They need a little tlc but are made specifically for e30 fitment. Let me know if you are interested.

A different set of 15" aftermarket wheels are supposed to arrive Friday. I think I will move the Kumhos over to them for now (assuming that these wheels fit) and abandon the summer/winter concept for now.

DTD was very good about the return process. Sad that it has to happen (the DR-20s actually looked really good but wheels are useless if you can't drive on them) but in the end I save about $600-700 by sticking with a single wheel set.

[phenryiv1]

Nothing major here but I finally got tired of the glare on my Pioneer HU. My daily WRX has a double DIM touch screen Pioneer with an anti-glare screen but this single DIN has really bad glare.

Amazon and other sites had glare shields for $10-15 but I went to WalMart and got some phone screen protectors from discontinued model phones for $1. Not that I need that much coverage but $1 got me enough for 8 screen covers.

I did a quick test and it works well. Now I will take some of the remaining material and do a more precise cut and coverage job.



Additionally, I got tired of the ashtray (which I use for storage) having those metal tabs to tamp and hold a cigarette. They got in the way and stuff got lost under them so 30 seconds with a pair of pliers and I removed them, converting my ashtray to a storage tray.

[Thizzelle]

this car is like my house, it never ends.

[phenryiv1]

this car is like my house, it never ends.

You can see my house in the background of some of the pictures...that never ends either.

[White325is]

I havent been on the forums in forever! Nice to check in and see your updates on this..

[phenryiv1]

So the wheel situation has finally moved forward. After the Drag DR-20 wheels rubbed on the caliper body I decided to abandon the summer/winter setup (whoich woudl have only neen A/S for winter anyway) and to just do A/S on a single set of wheels. This is partially because my A/S tires were $65 for the set and the summers were $475.

So Discount Tire was willing to take back the Drags and my summer tires, since it was their mistake.

I ordered some new 15x8 Rota Grid Concave wheels as my year-round wheels. I have always like the Grid design (Rays ripoff) but so many Subaru guys run them that I never put them on my WRX. And the 15" Grids never looked good- too flat. But the new Grid Concave has a better "dish" look, so I went with them for the e30.

So the good news is that I got the wheels and really like the look. The bad news is that while the wheels fit the car there was still interference- this time on the caliper bracket.

I swapped in re-manufactured Ate calipers in place of the Girling calipers but that should not make a difference. In the end, 10-15 minutes of grinding, use of nail polish, adjustments, and the result was that they fit.

Wheels and hub rings:





Some test-fit shots:









BARELY clears the strut:



Caliper bracket interference:





Back of the wheel:

[phenryiv1]

Caliper grinding:











It fits!

[phenryiv1]

Outside, before settling:







And after:













15x8 ET20 Rota Grid Concave Full Royal Silver with 205/55/15 Kumho Ecsta 4xII tires on H&R Sport (convertible) springs, 15mm drop hats, Bilstein Sport struts/shocks.

[phenryiv1]

Little update:

Took some time away from working on the car to get some seat time.



In this:



My wife bought me some time in a GT-R for Christmas but the event was not until this past weekend. It was a blast and really made me miss track time...maybe after the car is "finished."

Anyway, some minor progress. First off, my Gates Racing blue timing belt came in so I am good to move forward with the head swap/timing belt task. It might be a few weeks but I'd rather be driving it than wrenching on it so I may wait until the temps cool down to do the head swap.

Next up, some more minor assembly. I got the fog lights installed (no picture- I forgot) using the inserts from the parts car. Same inserts as front speakers- who knew? My plug-and-play wiring adapters worked great and they fired right up.

Next up I decided to paint my spare door handles. One of the originals had a slight bend (nobody would ever notice) and the paint was chipped in a few spots so I took the spare set, shot them with John Deere Blitz Black, and installed them:



Also painted my Mike Potts door plate reinforcements:



Since the car was painted the driver's door had been a little low on the latch end and it was irritating me. I had it on my punch list for the painter but they did not fix it so I took 10 minutes and a jack and did it myself. Now that the door latches perfectly I can re-align my windows so that they nest properly with the weatherstripping for the convertible top frame. After that I will (finally) get my door panel and armrest back on.

I also installed my nearly-complete "large" tool kit.





Realized that I am missing the strap but that can be easily replaced.

NOW, for the FUN part. I have been sitting on the stereo install for a while, doing a little bit at a time. I have the GAS enclosure for my 'vert but with 2 little kids I just don't know if it is the right way to go. I drive with the top down 98% of the time (I drive my WRX if it is supposed to rain) and even with the GAS setup I lose nearly all of the SPL to the open cabin. With the top up it will be different but I don't put the top up unless I am stuck in an unexpected storm.

This got me thinking, which can be dangerous. I started researching other convertibles- Miatas, S2000s, etc. Several use (from the factory or recommended in aftermarket installs) some variation of a tactile transducer. Some Miatas even came with them. So I looked at the various options from AuraSound, ButtKicker, Clark Synthesis, Dayton, and ADX. After much research, I settled on the Clark models, specifically the TST209 or TST329.

http://www.parts-express.com/clark-synthesis-tst209-tactile-transducer-bass-shaker--300-861

http://www.parts-express.com/clark-synthesis-tst329-gold-tactile-transducer-bass-shaker--300-862

I talked to the engineers from Clark about mounting, powering, and other technical tomfoolery and decided on a single TST329 under my seat (I rarely run the stereo with passengers) for the time being. The 329 is about 180% as powerful as the 209, given the same input.

After a mockup using the finest quality cardboard and running the seat through all possible positions to be certain that there was no interference, I was ready to order.



Powering this is tricky, as they have a narrow band of acceptable power - basically 75W (minimum) to 150W (max). Rated max is actually 135W but ~10% over is not an issue unless I am cranking it. I was all set to buy a small Alpine amp that put 150W mono into a 4 ohm load when I decided to check my storage cabinet in the shop. I found this little beauty from a past install:



Typically they were under-rated so while the specs are 2x25 @ 4 ohms or 1x100 @ 2 ohms (into a 4 ohm load) my guess is that this will push closer to 125-135...pretty much perfect for the TST329. If I don't like it I still have the GAS enclosure and subs and can buy a bigger amp. The return policy on the TST329 is pretty liberal for the first 45 days.

[phenryiv1]

Frustrating night in terms of the stereo install.

So a month or so back I got a set of the Premium E34 speakers - front, rear, tweeters. Unfortunately, one of the fronts had some shipping damage so the seller said he would send me a replacement...but it was all rear speakers.

I decided last night to try to install them anyway but the process was a failure.

Removed the existing Pioneer coaxials. Not bad speakers, in terms of cost : performance ratio. Pioneer TS-A speakers are far from the worst option in the cheap coaxial category.



Wired up the GAS passive crossover network (PCN) and installed it in the kick panel:



Installed the (damaged) E34 woofer:



Fired it up and the speaker was damaged beyond just visual issues. It huffed and chuffed and sounded generally horrible. Having only 1 other in the pair (the rest are all rears) I decided to go with something new rather than searching for a "mate" to the remaining 608 that was undamaged.

I nearly ordered a set of the Pioneer TS-D1320C or TS-D1330C but I decided to stick with Luke's recommendation of the E34 Premium woofers and ordered a new set of the 65138370935 woofers from ECS Tuning. I hate paying ~$85 for a pair of stock midranges (the TS-D sets can be had - complete- for about the same price) but if they sound best, I guess that is the way to go.

http://www.ecstuning.com/ES181850/

Now I wait.

[phenryiv1]

Foggy day so I had the fog lights on today and remembered to snap some pictures:

[Staszek]

Wow looks great!

[phenryiv1]

Wow looks great!

Thank you. Much sweat and many curses later, she is still evolving.