Long time build and restoration of an ix

[Bimmer_man]

Replaced the control arm and installed the missing knee bolster and interior looks nicer to me and it rides quite a bit better. Far less vibration. There is still some vibration but we will see what happens when I replace the struts and mounts as well as the front axles.

[Bimmer_man]

So I have an update on this car it's been a while. But I just bought new tie rods from a fellow r3v member they are brand new so that's cool.



Picking up some headers tomorrow and hopefully going to get them installed but we shall see.

Black Diamond has some new eyes too.
Left are the Bosch smilies with euro grill right is us grill and us ellipsoid


Fully operational

[Bimmer_man]

So as it sits on this car this car is going to be the test subject for my own head work and itb tuning. I have a lead in a e36 euro itb set up. Once I get my tuning right and the head is properly flow benched and everything lines up perfect I'll be able to mount a new head with a e36itb and have even more fun with my car than before.

[Bimmer_man]

I have been looking and looking and looking wanting to see what I want my black Diamond to look like. I think I may have found just that. I was surfing the Web and I found this pic on r3v and this is what I want my car to look like subtract the decals.

[e30s50dan]

^^^ like those wheels

[Old city bimmer]

those are tits..

[Bimmer_man]

So as the car is a daily it's a little hard to work on it but I've done a few things.

I installed new bilsteins in the front along with new sway bar links and installed rebuilt front axles. So as she sits she no longer clicks when I turn the wheel and no more clunking with every bump.

Also I replace all the brake duct cooling parts and installed a splash guard.

After that I installed blue back seats and rear deck that had blue premium speakers in it. Now that the car has the rear speakers finally the radio sounds superb. I also installed a engine harness cover as well.

Aftermath of the install my garage was near spotless


New ride height


Blue rear seats


And the harness cover


Before all this I replaced the steering wheel, obd, a few buttons, and I detailed it.

[Bimmer_man]

So I was doing some tinkering late tonight and I decided hmm what's in the brains of my white car and the spare ecu I have. So I pope open. The spare ecu and it had a pro formance chip in it. I was like hmm let's try it.......it sucks.

Then I piped open the brain in my white car and wow I see a real dinan chip. So I hooked it up and it ran fairly well better than the oem chip. Only issue is it now at some times will have a surging idol and it stalled on me once.

My guess is the surging idol can be attibuted to a hole in my exhaust before the o2 sensor. Correct me if I'm wrong. But other than that the car dose feel slightly more powerful. I was pleasently surprised.

[Reichart12]

Ive had that JPS car as the background on my phone for over a year. So much want on that look.

[Bimmer_man]

Did a little bit of work on the ol gal today.just some small bits, like installing new hold down screws, ripped out some old sub woofer wiring the po had in there. Replaced some of the trunk trim.

My repair list for this car is getting smaller and smaller.
Here all that's left to repair on the car.

Headlight wiring
exhaust leak ( getting fixed this week )
Right blinker issue
new fog light glass
repair oem amp wiring
Crack free dash
blue carpet
left rear quarter panel
new radiator support
new cat back exhaust ( stromung )

That list used to be about 5 times that long.

There is still quite a lot I'm wanting to do to the car. The interior is pretty much all Done all that's needed/ wanted is ; front floor mats, 13 button obc, and a rewrapped steering wheel.I'm still going to install a ms3 on the car and run coil on plug set up of my own design using bmw s52 coils.

Still going to get an upgraded spline for the front driveshaft, a uuc short shifter, stainless steel clutch line; wile I'm doing that I'm going to do the master and slave cylinders. Also going to have the control arms redone. New powder coating new ball joints and m3 offset bushings.

As for the cars exterior over all look. I really love the way hartge cars look. So I want to get the H27 body styling. It just looks amazing.

Other than that it's getting a freshly rebuilt motor as well. Still a little on the fence with what I am doing with the engine as far as in turn as are concerned. I don't think it will get a turbo the front diff is just too weak for lots of power.

We shall see. I can't wait till this car is looking beautiful again. Got to love Diamondschwarz metallic.

[Bimmer_man]

So as of today I've only got a fee things done on the ol gal.

New speakers and new ebrake leather boot ingot from England of all places. I also had to replace my passenger tail light cause the gasket was failing and I had a spare.

Ill post up pics when I wake up.

[Bimmer_man]

So I have a pretty large update on this car.

first what I cant get pics of.
Recently my shifter selector linkage broke. So I ordered a new one from BMW. It took forever to get here but when i got it i installed it and went for a nice cruse. I tucked away some of the wiring that was exposed under the hood and I installed new front speakers to replace the OEM ones that where installed. The new speakers make the sound system sound so much better.

First up I installed a 13 button in my car. I did it in a total of like 3 hours. Never did find that fuel plug so i can know my range and whats left in the tank. Wile I had the climate control panel off i replaced it as well for the spare one that I had that had the Numbers on the temp selector. Details man details.



Here are a couple of pics of the new leather shift/ebrake boots. They are hella nice.




New engine loom cover. This thing really cleaned up the bay imo.


the roof rack im using may buy it off a friend

[Bimmer_man]

A little update. I purchased new blinker housings along with Kopi MHW blinker lenses. They look a lot better than stock and I fixed the wiring so now the blinkers dont blink like they are on speed haha.



I also painted my valve cover a metallic black to closley match my cars exterior paint. It sure looks a lot better than it did.

[Bimmer_man]

finally got around to installing my damn steel braided brake lines and there is a little difference in pedal feel. and yeah i know my rear brake rotor is horrid. It needs replacing too.

[Bimmer_man]

So ive been working on a few things with my ix.

I moved my OBD port and my fuel relays to my fire wall under my harness cover. It cleaned up the bay a little more its quite nice.



Also im repainting my spare front bumper to diamond schwarz metallic, so i can ditch the broken one thats on my car currently.