Project Lessmeister: 91 318iS Restomod w/ MTech2 and modern drivetrain

[Jordan]

Interesting, it was NLA from the dealer 2 months ago. Guess it went back into production? Not really a big deal on that part, the one I got from a donor was pretty nice.

Yes, that is my labor rate, but I don't generally offer mobile service. That and I'm backed up with work always a few weeks out.

[mcm185]

Part number may be slightly different cause I searched under m3 not 325.. maybe it's the same I didn't check.

I was sort of joking about working on my car but you are local and I am just starting to put my e30 m3 back together. Picking it up from paint Monday, just had to have the engine bay done after some rust repair.

I may hit you up with some more questions via PM.

Btw what is the PN for that condensor and evaporator you used for AC? I am also going to add AC which was removed by the PO. I want to convert to 134a also. From other searches I've see the evap people have used is NLA and I'm not sure which condenser will fit.

Car looks awesome man and I hope to see it somewhere in Houston some time! You plan to take it to C&C or anything?

[Jordan]

Feel free to PM with whatever you need. Happy to help.

The condenser is a Nissens PN 94172, the only one they offer for E30's. Pictures may show an older style but what you get the is parallel flow unit ideal for R134a. You may use your stock evaporator, but change the expansion valve to a R134a one.

C&C is too early and too far away for me, I live up in Kingwood. An hour drive at the asscrack of dawn isn't my thing lol. You're more than welcome to come check it out in person if you like, several others have.

This morning I went to install the brake booster and found the intake was going to have to come off. No big deal it literally comes off in 3 minutes at this stage. Up and off and the booster dropped in easily.

With the manifold off I decided to go ahead and plumb the heater core. I bent both nipples straight down about 1/2" so the hoses would best clear the intake plenumn.

I brought home an armful of various hoses from work to adapt for use, not knowing exactly what would fit. Here is what I came up with:



The lower hose that comes from the back of the plastic block pipe to the heater core is part of PN 17127548223. It is used in a slew of late model I6 BMW's like the E9x. All you need is the rubber portion, cutting the crimp rings at both ends to free it up. You'll need a straight oring adapter to hose clamp back on.



The upper heater core hose needs to tee into the lower plastic block hose and they both go to the expansion tank. It also comes from an E9x, PN 64216951946. It clips to the far end of the hose referenced just above. This hose has a good natural shape is droops into the appropriate position without tension and has a nice abrasion resistant cover on the portion that passes by the intake and booster.




Its raining and really really windy today so I likely won't get much more done. The weather is supposed to get pretty nasty later today. Yes the car is in the garage but the wind is carrying the rain half way into the garage! Its annoying me and I don't really want the car getting wet.

[Jordan]

Anyone watching on R3V today had the sneak peak on the completed wheels that Paul @ Ehrlich Wheel Works is wrapping up. They should ship this week! Paul has been working on these for me since just after I picked the car up. He really knocked it out of the park with the work on these wheels and they are going to look killer on the car.

The wheels are 16x8 ET24.







Paul really stole the show today, all I got done was installing the gauge cluster with the freshly polished lense.

[ST1G]

Damn those wheels are nice. I also rolled my miles back to zero, it's fun knowing the exact miles I've driven.

[vitiokas95]

It became my daily routine to check this tread out for new posts. You are doing awesome job on this e30. Keep it up. Wheels look incredible.

[AwakenNoMore]

It became my daily routine to check this tread out for new posts.

LOL, Same here.

This thread is pornographic.

[Jordan]

Not a whole awful lot to talk about today...

Yesterday I spent the bulk of the day at a friends shop hunched over a blast cabinet cleaning four calipers and a large assortment of hardware. I'll need to go back tomorrow and finish blasting more loose hardware.

All of the parts will be dropped off for yellow zinc chromate plating, to reproduce the original finish. Many of these parts are either not available at all, unreasonably expensive, or available but no longer in the original finish (dull gray zinc or something like that)

Unfortunately the blasting media leaves a fairly rough surface finish, and plating over that will result in a satin look to the parts. Each part needs to be polished with a steel wire wheel to give it an appropriate surface finish for a nice iridescent sheen after plating is complete.

The small pile in the front are finished and ready to plate, much much more to go.




Today I worked on sidework most of the morning only getting back to the e30 in the mid afternoon. I tackled dropping the rear suspension out of the car today, which would be discarded as a whole. I took a complete donor rear suspension from a low mileage 92 325iC at work that was clean and free of any corrosion. There is nothing wrong with the suspension coming off per-say but all of the parts have surface corrosion typical of a car that spent some time in wintry climates.

Dropping the rear suspension was straight forward except for the drivers subframe bushing, which was inexplicably seized in the body. The passenger side literally fell free when I rocked it with the big nut loose. It took a good 2 hours of pulling, prying, PB blastering, cutting and swearing before it finally came free. Luckily it came out intact and did not break off inside the body as all to often occurs.

[parkerbink]

The I could or a friend could or someone could do better responses make me lol.

Do it & post it up. Let us rate your work.

He has, is and will do it better than 99.999999% of the azzhatz that will post sh!t.

/rant

[csermonet47]

Del's Plating in Houston zinc plated my RS bolts for me. Quick turn around, great price and the work was great as well. I think they charge $55 for anything under 30lbs, no matter how many pieces.

[Jordan]

I've been using Del's for years, and everyone outside Houston knows about them from my RC090 rebuild thread on BFC ;-) Del's will be doing my yellow zinc chromate. They do great work for the money, they have got to be a bit more picky about the condition of parts over the years though. They said too many people send them rusty crusty bolts and whine if they charge for the surface prep to get the results they want...

Hence why I spent several hours this morning continuing to work on the sand blasted parts and polishing them to a nice luster.

Took a break to go catch The Force Awakens with the family. It was pretty good, not sure if it was all up to the hype however.

This evening after the movie I spent some time on the rear suspension parts, cleaning the trailing arms, subframe and axles.

Right rear trailing arm, before any cleaning with one test swipe. Roached half pulled apart wheel bearing in place.



She cleaned up real nice, all of that dirt revealed a good deal of cosmoline that was removed with lacquer thinner. New wheel bearing ready to go back in.



Wheel bearing installed, new brake backing plate, parking shoes, springs, etc.




The other arm will get the same treatment tomorrow, along with the subframe. I already pressed the old subframe bushings out and new ones in.

[0-60 freak]

Nice!!!

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[Jordan]

Both trailing arms are back together now with the hub and axle pressed together. I somehow forgot to order the trailing arm bushings but those will be here tomorrow. Not a big deal as I will be waiting on hardware to come back from plating before I can throw the rear suspension back on the car.



I spent the remainder of the afternoon cleaning the rear undercarriage of the car. Leaky diff sling and grime of that sort. I think I am going to relocate the carbon canister and the MS43 fuel filter/FPR to the location of the original fuel filter. It looks like it may fit and work well there with minimal modification to the metal hard lines that run up to the engine bay.

[0-60 freak]

I stopped by Jordan's house today (2nd time) and the quality of his work and knowledge of these cars is very impressive!

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[Bimmer_man]

His work is impressive that's for sure. I'll be picking his brain on the wiring a lot I'm sure if he's willing that is haha. I'm going to pull my car down to the shell and catalog what needs replacing and pretty much use this thread as a modle