The Adventures of Golden Boy, my Rebound E30

[efficient]

hey when you drive your e30 around with your new mounts, can you check to see if the motor vibes from side to side. i bought some meyle and they vibe from side to side causing alot of vibes. so annoying

[CubbyChowder]

hey when you drive your e30 around with your new mounts, can you check to see if the motor vibes from side to side. i bought some meyle and they vibe from side to side causing alot of vibes. so annoying

That sucks man, I'll let you know how mine act.

[CubbyChowder]

Not a whole lot to report, waiting on a few things to come in the mail so I can finish this job up.

I was able to get back on it for a few hours today though and got a few things done. Last week I removed all the undercoating from the fender lips so they would roll flat. My last E30 had terribly rolled fenders from the previous owner and he didn't remove that undercoating, so it wouldn't roll flat at all. Anyways I got all that off and hit it with some black spray paint just to make sure any raw metal was sealed from the elements. I don't have a before picture but here's what it looked like after:




I was using a really shitty fender roller to do this, it was broken in like 3 places and had a badly stripped main bolt so I had to spend a few hours yesterday fixing it just so I could use it today. Got it done though and am happy that they rolled flat:



Today I also took care of a few little odds and ends:
- Replaced some grommets in the pedal assembly and got everything hooked up
- Changed the oil and filter
- Emptied the trans and diff fluid in prep for new fluid on Friday
- Got all the sway bar linkages hooked up

On Friday I should be receiving a new CSB for the driveshaft and some Redline MTL for the trans. Here's my to-do list for Friday:

- Fill trans and diff with new fluid
- Bleed brakes
- Bleed clutch
- Install heat shields
- Change CSB and install driveshaft
- Install exhaust
- Buy and install new battery
- Install air box
- Cross my fingers and hope I can take it for a test drive!

[efficient]

Good idea to take off the undercoating for a flatter/better roll.ill do that when I roll my fenders.

[CubbyChowder]

Got a nice update on Golden Boy :up:

After rolling the fenders last week, I still had a lengthy to-do list before the car was ready to drive. I was waiting for some parts to arrive in the mail before I could make any more progress since it all had to happen in a specific sequence.

Long story short, the parts ended up taking a couple extra days to arrive and finally showed up at 6:30pm on the day that I had to planned to install everything, so I went straight to the shop and worked until about midnight.

I ordered a new offset E30 CSB and assembled my driveshaft. The front half of a manual driveshaft I had laying around had an E36 CSB installed, and I reused the rear half from the automatic driveshaft. I was a bit nervous about this because I know how touchy driveshafts are, and this one was pieced together from separate cars. I figured it'd be worth it to try it out before shelling out $350 on a new driveshaft.



Once the driveshaft was in, I could install all the heat shields and exhaust system. I painted the Bosal catback with black exhaust paint a few days prior which I think hides it decently. I had to build a new muffler strap hanger thing since my original ones were totally toast. I also put fresh Redline MTL in the Getrag 260 and replaced the diff fluid as well.



Once all of that was buttoned up, all that was really left to do was install the new battery and bleed the brakes/clutch. I had to adjust a few little things here and there in the pedal assembly, slapped the wheels on and lowered it down for the first time. Moment of truth, will it move? I was able to reverse it out of my shop with no problems :) completely covered in sawdust:




Quickly installed the driver's seat and gave her the ol' 30 second hose down (I was too anxious to test drive it to spend any more time cleaning it). Then came time for the real moment of truth: to see if it drives smoothly through all the gears with no crazy vibrations or rattles and if the brakes work properly. I was all smiles when I went through the gears for the first time and didn't notice any problems, got it up to highway speed and felt zero vibrations from the driveshaft. That was a huge relief. Everything actually felt super solid! So happy.

I drove it around for a little bit and decided to take it down to my dad's house so that we could pressure wash the engine bay from top to bottom. My dad loves to help me work on my cars, and unfortunately he was out of town for the past two weeks while I did all this work on the E30, otherwise he probably would've been there with me nearly every day. He was super excited that everything was working properly and took it for a little test drive. His golden locks were blowing in the wind:



We brought it back and started prepping it for a deep clean:





Then my dad changed his shirt, threw on some Crocs and started getting down to business:



I offered several times to take his spot, he was getting all soaked and greasy from laying down on the ground, I felt bad haha but he really wanted to do it. He's the best. I ended up just snapchatting videos of him the entire time.

It made a huge difference, hard to tell in photos but it is SO much cleaner in there now. Really wish I could've done this before I started this big project, I would've come home way cleaner every night. You can actually see aluminum now, everything was caked in black oil/grease/dirt before:




The intake manifold and valve cover look hideous, but at least they're clean. I'll be doing a big round of maintenance next, so I'll probably take care of that then.

After that I took the long way home, through all the back roads and just thoroughly enjoyed the car. It feels fantastic! Truly, I am so excited on this thing right now.

The CAtuned coil overs feel amazing, very nice and comfortable ride quality. All new OEM rubber bushings provide the fresh and tight feeling I was after and the IE sway bars keep this thing very planted. I think it's the perfect combination of daily drivability and performance for me. I still need to dial in the coil overs after they settle for a bit and take it to get an alignment.

Took it to my favorite park to snap some pics:






Have an appointment to get it smogged later today, so hopefully that goes good.

I'm only having a few small issues to look into, the main one being that one of the brakes seems to whine pretty loud during moderate to hard braking. They all feel like they're working properly, but could it be the drilled and slotted rotor that's creating some noise? It's the rear driver's side.

I need to do some maintenance on this thing now. I want to do a cooling system overhaul, timing belt service and valve adjustment, it needs it badly. The car feels great but I think I'm slightly missing out on some lower end power with this M20, hopefully my tune up will take care of that (I'm open to suggestions/input as well). The plugs, wires, cap/rotor all look new, the previous owner did a lot of maintenance. I'll do a compression test before anything just to see where I'm at.

Thanks for looking!

[efficient]

nice dude. your car looks very nice.keep up the good work

[2mAn]

Its looking great, but I truly hate how front plates look on cars. It cleans up the front end so much when you remove those things and add those smooth delete panels that you can get for the diving boards.

[CubbyChowder]

nice dude. your car looks very nice.keep up the good work

Thanks!

Its looking great, but I truly hate how front plates look on cars. It cleans up the front end so much when you remove those things and add those smooth delete panels that you can get for the diving boards.

Haha I fully agree. As soon as I have this thing running and driving reliably I will be switching over to cosmetics, where I plan on fixing all of these early model eye sores. I have a plastic bumper swap lined up, but am planning on keeping the early model IS airdam. Still need to find a clean late model rear valance to cut out of a parts car.

[efficient]

When you took off the undercoating from your rear fenders did you use a wire wheel?

[CubbyChowder]

When you took off the undercoating from your rear fenders did you use a wire wheel?

yep, wire wheel on a corded drill

[CubbyChowder]

Golden Boy failed miserably at smog today, so that sucked. The tech said it was misfiring. I'll be looking into it sometime later this week, gonna pull the plugs and do a compression test, hoping for the best!

[florida_dirt]

Those wheels are great dude! Btw I've had drilled and slotted rotors and never had any unusual 'whine' noise ever. Maybe it's the pads? Could be just breaking them in?


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[AWDBOB]

You are building the exact car I've been trying to build for years! Congrats man, probably feels great to have such a solid foundation to work with.

Also, I really really don't mind the bronzit at all.

[stonea]

Car is looking really nice! I don't think the diving boards look to bad on your car. I Paint the trim black and polish the bumpers I think it'd be perfect.

[rzerob]

Golden boy is definitely coming along nicely. Good job, keep up the good work.