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

[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.

[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

[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.

[AwakenNoMore]

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

LOL, Same here.

This thread is pornographic.

[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.

[ST1G]

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

[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.

[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.

[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]

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]

Maybe I'll find a way to keep it long term, maybe I won't. We shall see. I grow increasingly more fond of it as I work on it, so who knows. Regardless its not like I'm going to finish it and immediately sell it. I will keep it for several months before its sold on.

Last night I installed the body harness in the car. I got it all laid out into its final position(s) as well but neglected to take a picture of that.



I also got the under dash firewall insulation installed. I would have liked to have this new, but it is NLA. Since its concealed under the dash anyway I settled for a good used one from a donor car.

Just getting a chance to read this whole thread.. I just purchased this part (underdash insulation) new from ECS.

https://www.ecstuning.com/ES125456/

You mentioned you charge your rates at $40/hr.. want to come work on my car??

[0-60 freak]

I think your seats look great

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

[Jordan]

Go back 2 pages (23) and there are pictures of the seats, although everyone seems to think they can do better.

They were completely redone with 3 OE BMW hydes of leather by Jordan @ StitchedWheels. He drove down from Mississippi to install them last weekend.

There is no one worth a shit in Houston where as upholstery is concerned. Not that I have found.

[mcm185]

Thanks.

Are you redoing your seats? Using someone local or covers?

Doing a similar project and will do my front seats eventually.

[Jordan]

got a PN?

The sunroof seal I've got is 54 12 1 903 725.

Where did you purchase that hood insulation material? Link?

Also I am in Houston and in need of a decent sunroof/visor trim panel if the other two you have are decent please send me a pm.

Hood insulation was ordered from the dealer, BMW of Houston North. PN 51 48 1 925 437. There is no US stock it will have to come from Germany. It lists around $50 for the set.

Sorry but the other 2 panels were not really in good shape with cracks in the press board and various missing mounting points. I combined the mounts from all panels to make one good one. What was left over was broken and has already been binned.