Project Armo "330i" M-tech 1

[Skarpa]

I switched the employer and my previous employer suggested that I use my annual vacation at the end of the employment since things are a bit slow. So I've had quite a lot of hobby time but nothing to work on since the car is at the paintshop. For starters I cleaned and organized the workshop and arranged a bit more working lights, tables and such and hanged some of my tools on the walls.



The shop is not my own and I'll probably need to leave it at summer so I didn't see too much effort in decoration but now It'll be much more comfortable to put the car together. Next I took pretty much all the parts to the shop, checked all the boxes, organized stuff better and went through everything cheking I have all the bits and parts that I need. I still found some things I need to buy. I also bought various tools, accessories and chemicals.






(I'll need to clean up that plastic inner guard)


I splayed out most of the parts one group at a time and checked side by side with the online spare parts catalogue checking that I have all the things I need. While doing that I bagged all screws and fixings related to the part group in question and wrote down the tightening torques where needed so it should be relatively quick to put together. (well, quick in relation to the normal glacial pace of this project, anyway) One of the air guide plates of the gas tank was cracked and I got a new one but it was in metal so I painted it black to match the other side while I painted some other parts.



For ages I've had a Walbro 255 lph fuel pump for the project. I wasn't worried about possible switching to E85 either because when I bought the pump the Walbro's stand was as follows: "Walbro fuel pumps are designed with components that prevent pH from being a problem, making them truly 100% ethanol compatible. This means not using copper commutators, for example." Later, Walbro has issued actually E85 proof pumps and the 255 is no longer considered E85 compatible. Some people have used them with ethanol for a long time with good results but I've also read about worse experiences. Replacing the fuel pump sucks so I decided to invest in peace of mind and replaced the Walbro with AEM's E85 pump.



Another thing that was nagging at me was the poor condition of the M-tech 1 front valance so when I was offered one in excellent condition, I went for it. The valance includes the bumber and most of the M-tech-specific trim and accessories and even the color is the correct so it was a lucky find. I'll just need to check it matches with the other parts.


Too bad that this valace didn't come with the brake air ducts. I've been missing the left one. I think they were NLA for a while and I've been trying to find a used one with no luck but they seem to be available again so I ordered a new one. Now everything is getting ready for the body to come home and the painter sent me happy news with perfect timing:







Now I'll just wait for a good dry cold winter day and get the car home and start assembling.

[Skarpa]

I got the car on wheels again. It's been a while since the last time.


I gave my little finger to sticker tuning.




The suspension color was inspired by the Team Jägermeister.





Now that the body was ready for painter, I had a look at the front fenders. The day I bought the car, a Mercedes driver bumped into the front corner bending among other things the front fender. Since then the fender has been bent. I just tapped it a bit into shape with a rubber mallet. I've had a straight replacement fender for quite a while but having a closer look at it, it had a lot of hidden rust. Especially in places where the metal overlaps and it's not easy to repair well. I decided to try and straighten the original fender which had only a little rust.





The dents don't show well in the pictures but all the faces from the wheel arch to the top of the fender were bent with a sharp crease going across them. After a while of careful tapping with various hammers and dollies the fender turned out surprisingly good taking into account that I have no former experience of panel beating. Half of the work was repairing the marks left by my previous crude work with the rubber mallet.



Both the fenders had a little rust at the rear end of the wheel arch while the drivers side had a rust hole in the front as well.













Then it was the time to take the body and the fenders to the painter. Damn, I lost by a few weeks to project Binky!



It was a good day for transporting with nice dry, cold winter weather. In return I received the separate parts with damn fine paint. (pictured in previous post) The paint is better than I dared to hope for with very deep red shine to it. 5/5

[rzerob]

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Every where we go.

[Skarpa]

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

[Skarpa]

Looking great

Nice.

Thanks!

[rzerob]

Nice.

[eternal24k]

Looking great

[Skarpa]

Lately I've been assembling the suspension.
.



Although I've had quite a few minor setbacks hindering the progress. I forgot to install the dust shields behind the front hubs, the half shaft bolts were wrong size as well as the hub nuts, the bolt holes in the cv joint rubber boots had to be drilled to correct size and while doing that I of course managed to mangle my thumb, quite a few screws and whatnot were lost or missing and one of the trailing arms was bent open about five millimeters.



I'm guessing someone has bent it when removing the trailing arm bushings. Not me, though because I used a puller that applies the force to the housing of the same bushing. Anyway it was fixed with hydraulic press and some touch up painting. Regardless of the hindrances, I was able to slowly progress with the assembly:





Once I get the drive shaft bolt washers and the hub nuts, I'll drop the body on wheels. And it's about the time because the rest of the parts are well on their way to be painted.

[Skarpa]

I bet you still have "katsastus" in Finland, so all the cars need to be in good working order. We don't have to have our cars inspected any more in Canada (at least not on the West coast)

Yeah, that's true. Usually cars end up parted out or crushed when thwy no longer pass the yearly inspection with reasonable amount of work which is good because lord knows what kind of deathtraps Finnish people would drive without it. Although the inspection is also a pretty big limiting factor when modifying cars because there are fairly strict regulations concerning engine swaps and whatnot. So no LS-powered E30s in Finland. At least not without trickery.

[finnmole]

I bet you still have "katsastus" in Finland, so all the cars need to be in good working order. We don't have to have our cars inspected any more in Canada (at least not on the West coast)

[Skarpa]

Glad you like the 3M glue, thanks for the pointers as well. I'm getting ready to start prepping my MTech kit and it's nice to see that this worked well in case I need it.

I'm glad if I can be of help. Hope your project turns out well!

WOW, it's going to look awesome...I'm so impressed by your fabricating skills, and the armo on the valve cover is very cool. I bet you will have the nicest E30 in Finland when your done, I only saw one when I visited this summer.

Thanks! I don't know about THE nicest one. There are some damn fine E30s in Finland but I am aiming to be among them. Nowadays you don't see that many E30s in traffic anymore but when you do, they are usually pretty nice and well kept. I quess most of the POSs are already either parted, crushed or project cars.

[finnmole]

WOW, it's going to look awesome...I'm so impressed by your fabricating skills, and the armo on the valve cover is very cool. I bet you will have the nicest E30 in Finland when your done, I only saw one when I visited this summer.

[Albie325]

Glad you like the 3M glue, thanks for the pointers as well. I'm getting ready to start prepping my MTech kit and it's nice to see that this worked well in case I need it.

[Skarpa]

Very informative, thank you very much for sharing! Coming along nicely, hopefully for the next season this beast will be on the road!

Thanks! I'm pretty invested in putting Armo on the road for next summer. It should also be doable even with my limited hobby time/week. Some people put a car together in a week so I should be able to do it in five months.

[gnmzl]

Very informative, thank you very much for sharing! Coming along nicely, hopefully for the next season this beast will be on the road!