Panici's '87 325is E30 - Boosted In Bronze

[s-thetikz]

interior is gorgyus

[e30m3s54turbo]

I like reading on your progress and pics. 👍

[Panici]

Rear subframe is finally back in as of Saturday Feb 25th!
Was a challenge wrestling it back in there by myself. I was using the custom scissor jack and both floor jacks at one point!

Installed some new rear soft lines to match the fresh hardlines and bolted up the ST Suspensions 19mm rear swaybar.
Test fit the Garagistic Secondary Diff Mount, and painted the brackets.
Painted the rear wheel tub repair and new diff mount holes into the trunk.

Still have to button up some things before I can call the rear end complete.
Next up will be the exhaust modifications. I have a metal band saw blade on order, going to attempt gearing down my wood band saw to work with metal. Failing that, I bought some fancy Diablo sawzall blades as a backup.


In other news, I finally picked up a dedicated trackbike today! Going to put my '05 R6 back to street mode permanently and use this race-prepped '03 R6 as a track rat.
Will be some wrenching coming up in my R6 build thread (http://r6.panici.ca) if you're interested, but not before the E30 is back together!

[Panici]

Just for reference - here's a pic I found from one of my previous E30 builds, when I had the subframe out and replaced the rubber soft lines with braided steel while I had it out, so you can see how it's routed from factory (this is how every E30 I've had apart looks). You might even still have the factory tabs for the soft lines there.

Saturday Feb 18th
Thanks for that pic, I printed it out and used for reference!
New lines aren't perfect, but they're a big improvement over the previous routing. I've ordered a new set of soft lines to connect the chassis hardlines direct to the trailing arms.

Today I also boxed in the rear swaybar mounting points with weld-in reinforcements from AKG Motorsport.
That was a bit of an adventure as the full gas tank started pouring everywhere when I removed the filler hose. Ended up catching three drain pans worth of gas and putting it in the E36.


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Monday Feb 20th (Holiday)


Started by removing the connector and extra wire for the rear pad wear sensor which was coiled up under the car since 2016.

Took out the driveshaft and set to making a custom DSSR.
Used a section of spare steering stabilizer bolt from my jeep as a solid spacer.
It took three or four attempts of tack welding and testing before I was happy with the position.
The longer rod puts the knob closer to the dash, and I gave it a slight twist towards the driver's side as well.
I then made some pins from (starter/trans?) bolts, and installed with double-nuts and red loctite.

Applied seam sealer inside the trunk and in the rear wheel tub where I repaired that rust previously.
Painted the swaybar mounts with a couple coats of black fleet/enamel paint.


Check out the pictures of the shifter in 1st gear. Position and throws are perfect. Feels amazing now that it's all dialed in!

[CubbyChowder]

Just for reference - here's a pic I found from one of my previous E30 builds, when I had the subframe out and replaced the rubber soft lines with braided steel while I had it out, so you can see how it's routed from factory (this is how every E30 I've had apart looks). You might even still have the factory tabs for the soft lines there.



It's possible your current configuration will work just fine, but yeah I agree any movement of the subframe seems like it would transfer into the copper hardlines that route into the soft lines on the trailing arms.

[Panici]

Oh it's totally possible, I've just never seen it like that. All the E30's I've taken apart have it hidden right above the subframe. So it's super tricky to swap the brake softlines out without removing the subframe.

Now that you mention it, I looked at some pictures on google and the setup doesn't look OEM.

My car is hard piped from the (relocated) T-piece to the rear subframe.
Then there are soft lines that go from the rear subframe to the trailing arms.

I always did think that the washers welded onto the subframe to hold the soft lines looked unoriginal.

This setup doesn't look like a good idea as any movement between the subframe and chassis will stress those hardlines.
Not sure when or why it was changed, and I just copied the hardlines with copper lines when I refreshed things in 2016.

Assumingly the previous owner didn't have problems with this, although the car is driven significantly harder now then when it was an Automatic M20.
I got away with it plumbed like this using the factory soft bushings with a lot more subframe movement, but it had to be flexing those copper hard lines when it wheel hopped.

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From what I gather, the car should have soft lines from the chassis directly to each trailing arm?
Part number 34321159878

I'll take a good look at things before/when I install the subframe and will re-plumb for piece of mind. Might as well put in some new chassis-to-trailing arm soft lines since you said they're hard to replace with the subframe in place.

[CubbyChowder]

Oh it's totally possible, I've just never seen it like that. All the E30's I've taken apart have it hidden right above the subframe. So it's super tricky to swap the brake softlines out without removing the subframe.

[Panici]

That sucks about your eye man, weird that you couldn't feel it until later. Normally you get something stuck in your eye and agonize over it until you can flush it out somehow. Nice to see the subframe all back together ready to provide years of service. So you rerouted the brake line T-fitting near the diff hanger? Was that so that the soft lines don't land right above the subframe for easier future replacement?

Yeah it was strange, I've never had it delayed like that either. Flushed it under the tap and it didn't come out. I went to the eye doctor yesterday and he said it all looks fine, no damage. I could read all the little letters too so that's good.

Is that not the original location for the T-fitting?
I did those lines in 2016 when I first had the subframe out. Copied the hardlines as were already installed on the car.

Post 136 & Post 138 have pictures:
https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/for...10#post6668687

[CubbyChowder]

That sucks about your eye man, weird that you couldn't feel it until later. Normally you get something stuck in your eye and agonize over it until you can flush it out somehow. Nice to see the subframe all back together ready to provide years of service. So you rerouted the brake line T-fitting near the diff hanger? Was that so that the soft lines don't land right above the subframe for easier future replacement?

[Panici]

I think the real reason I stopped was because I had to buy/ship it and as soon as I opened the can, it seemed to harden within a few weeks.

Plastic cling wrap under the can lid, hammer the lid on. Then cling wrap over the can lid. Put the whole can in an airtight ziplock bag.
With that method only the very surface of the can hardens up, and I'm able to reuse it multiple times (3-5?) until the can is empty.

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Made some good progress this weekend, there is light at the end of the tunnel!

Filled the diff with Royal Purple 75w140, and used a new crush washer on the fill plug.
Re-flared the hardline and replaced the stripped brake fitting I cut off.

Rear subframe is reassembled and ready to go into the car!

Brake pads installed in 2014 still have plenty of meat on them. My driving style is easy on brakes as I rev-match downshift every time i'm slowing down.

Also fixed a rust hole in my passenger side rear wheel tub (where the plastic fuel overflow tank was mounted). Other side passed through into the trunk.
It's in epoxy primer now, will get seam sealer, paint, and undercoating as time allows.

Woke up at 2am with a painful right eye. Managed to go back to sleep but ended up going to the ER at 5am. Turns out there was a tiny (smaller then a grain of sand) piece of something in my eye.
Doctor got it out but said the eye is all scratched up. Said it should heal up fine over time though.

Usually when you get stuff in your eye from grinding etc you can feel it in there and flush out accordingly. This was a new one for me where hours later it starts hurting.
I'm going to look into some goggles that aren't annoying to wear (don't fog up etc) because obviously safety glasses and a face shield isn't enough sometimes.




Tried to use an OLD Nikon D50 DSLR for these shots; Pretty sure my iPhone 8 looks better.
Think the autofocus is damaged on the D50, as I had to sharpen these in photoshop.

[Northern]

Gave it the Ol tractor paint job. I find Por 15 just falls off after a while. Twin ear is exciting.

I used to use a lot of POR15 but I found the same, probably because I didn't etch and it would overlap other coatings on the edges.
Was especially bad when I had the grey stuff and it was inside the trunk seal channel and saw some UV.
I think the real reason I stopped was because I had to buy/ship it and as soon as I opened the can, it seemed to harden within a few weeks.

I just prime/paint stuff now because I'm cheap.

Diff looks great. Interested to see how the garagistic mount fits. I have one in a box that I'd like to get around to installing this year...

[Panici]

Gave it the Ol tractor paint job. I find Por 15 just falls off after a while. Twin ear is exciting.

I've had the opposite experience, did the rear subframe in 2016 and it's been rock solid since then.

From what I've read, a lot of it is down to prep. Here is a copy-paste of my POR15 notes FWIW.

POR15 Process:
0. Sand down to bare metal with flap disk
1. Degreaser (POR15 or other)
2. Rinse
3. POR15 Metal etch (keep wet for 10 mins)
4. Rinse
5. Dry
6. POR15 first coat
7. Wait until finger drag is slightly tacky (6hrs?)
8. POR15 second coat

Notes:
-Clean off rust scale first
-Bites into rust, although I've used it on bare metal after etching.
-Use flashlight to see bare spots
-Wear face mask - well vented area for curing
-Cures faster with more humidity
-Maintain 60F+ for 96 hours of curing
-Not UV stable, topcoat if exposed to sun

As a side note, the price point of the POR15 products has really gone up.
Yesterday I bought new containers of the degreaser/etch/gloss and paid just over $160CAD for the set.

[moatilliatta]

Gave it the Ol tractor paint job. I find Por 15 just falls off after a while. Twin ear is exciting.

[Panici]

Thanks econti for the pipe trick. I took the end off an old snowbrush as it was the exact diameter I needed. Both trailing arms check out straight! 😃
Last weekend I gave all the reinforced parts the POR15 treatment. Hung them in the shed with the 240v heater on, and by the end of the week they were cured rock hard.

Made some decent progress today, subframe assembly is almost ready to go back into the car.

Pressing the Revshift 80A Polyurethane bushings into the trailing arms, subframe, and differential was uneventful. I was able to put it together mostly by hand.

Replaced the differential input shaft seal & lock washer with OEM BMW parts. Definitely the source of my diff oil leak. Edge of the outer mating surface wasn't the best, so cleaned it up before the new seal went in.

Drain plug stripped out (welder to the rescue!). I previously saw how rough it was, so had a "Deluxe Magnetic Differential Drain Plug" from RaceGerman on hand. It's got a sticker for "Drainplugmagnets.com" just for reference. I'm impressed with the magnet strength, it was sticking to anything within reach when it was sitting on the bench.

Installed a RaceGerman HD Differential Stud Kit. When last installing this diff with the subframe in the car, I crossthreaded one of the lower holes quite badly. Consequently that stud wasn't as tight as I would have liked, so with the welder still set to kill from extracting the drain plug, I made it a permanent stud.

Finished things off with a Garagistic Secondary Diff Mount and a freshly resealed cover with an OEM paper gasket + skim coat of RTV Ultra Grey.

[Panici]

Same bit of pipe, if it passes through then you're good. If it binds up more than a little, you're done. Typically the bushing points will move towards each other but they can go any way. If you were careful with the heat management it's probably OK, but better to check now than continue with time and money on assembly and then find out that they're out of alignment when its all back together

Noted, thank you. Will have to find some pipe.

I didn't run long stringers, and went evenly side-to-side while working on other areas in-between. If I had known ahead of time they were prone to warping I would have built a jig and/or given even more cooldown time between passes.

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So the main concern is warping of the "A" shaped arms in relation to each other, not so much the knuckle?

I wonder if some of these reports of warping were 30+ year old arms already out of spec before welding.
I find it hard to believe they are able to withstand decades of suspension cycles while supporting the weight of the car and remain in spec if they are so weak.