Project Armo "330i" M-tech 1

[Skarpa]

Nice series of updates. That wiring cover turned out great and has a real OEM look with the contour matching the opposite side of the main cover.

I have heard that an electric carving knife works well for shaping seat foam - I've not tried it myself but it seems like a reasonable option and not too expensive. I have also seen upholstery folks use a rotary palm sander to complete the final contour of the foam, however the foam would need to be fairly firm for a good outcome.

Keep up the good work.
MJ

Thanks! And thanks for the pointers about shaping foam. I'll see if I'll do it myself or let the upholsterer take care of repairing the bolsters. Looking back at my projects I'll probably end up doing it myself if I'm able to do a decent job.

[Skarpa]

Last weekend's small project was restoring the steering wheel. It wasn't that bad even to begin with:


The leather was in pretty good condition except the finish had worn through where the left hand rests. It also had a few assorted scratches and the stitching had ripped above the left spoke. As the first step I refinished the leather meaning I wiped it with degreaser, sanded it matte with 320 grit sanding paper and gave it four thin coats of Furniture Clinic leather paint. It improved the look tremendously. Next I took care of the worn stitches. I figured out the stitching pattern by looking carefully at the intact areas. Then it was just a matter of grabbing black stitching thread and a needle and copying what I saw. Before closing the leather I spread some glue under the leather where it had detached.







It turned out pretty well. Not quite as even stitch as originally but not bad for a first try. When pulling the thread tight to close the seam you need to be careful not to snap the thread. It helps if you use the other hand to squeeze the leather together and then just take in the slack in the thread. I should have repaired the stitches before painting the leather. When stitching, I left some scuff marks on the leather so I gave it another coat of leather paint to tidy it up. The M-stripes at the center spoke were pretty worn with the paint chipping at the blue and the red stripe so I mixed up right colors and gave them a touch up.







The end result is pretty nice



It's a little shy of an actually reupholstered steering wheel but repairing something old and doing it all myself is just very satisfying for me. Still I might buy a new M-patch for the wheel as I just learned that they are available individually.


Doing small updates like this might not give you very clear picture of where we are with this project. I have a detailed to-do list of about four pages in Google docs. but here's a small summary:

• Electrics:
  • Wiring for the cooling fan, AC and the rest of the engine bay (wiring loom requires modifying)
  • Installing the power windows and the central locking - door wire looms require some repairs
  • Finishing the connections for the cruise controls
  • Finishing the work on the oil temp gauge
  • Wiring up the radio
    • Sound system speakers (with some new speaker elements)
    • A small active subwoofer under the passenger seat or behind the rear panel
• Mechanics:
  • Sort out the problem with the hydroboost - relocate the pressure regulator?
  • Windcsreen washer (custom reservoir)
  • AC lines
• Body:
  • Adjust the panel gaps - front fenders need to be modified a little at the bottom edge.
  • Install the rear pop-out windows
  • Assemble and install the front bumber with M-tech valance
  • Blinkers and foglights
  • Repair and install the plastic undertrays
  • Install the side skirts
  • Touch up and install various trim

• Install all the interior
• Finishing:
  • Wheel alignment etc.
  • Test drive and tune the engine
  • Inspection and registration

[Skarpa]

When I go to the garage I work on stuff I feel like doing. That of course sometimes leads to me putting off less favorite stuff like wiring but I'll get there eventually. Of course I also need to consider the sequence of work. Often you need to do one job before being able to start another. Actually I've reached a point where I have a pretty straightforward path of work ahead to completion of the the build. I've kinda already done all the stray stuff. Last of them were various little jobs for the trunk. The trunk lid seal was worn out so I replaced it with a new one. I also worked on the trunk lid springs. The M-tech 1 deck lid spoiler is so heavy that the lid wasn't holding up securely. The cars with a deck lid spoiler actually came with stiffer springs for keeping the lid up. The stiffer spring for left hing was still available so I ordered it. For the right side hinge I made an extension that increases the tension in the spring even more than the original two slots.



This part and the new spring of course got a coat of paint. I also had another issue with the hinges. I suspect I welded the support for the right hinge in slightly wrong position when replacing the right rear wheel well as the lid rested a few millimeters below the correct position in that corner when shut. That was luckily easy to fix with some shims.



When you shut the lid and then loose the screws of the hinge the lid cannot move anywhere while you add shims between it and the hinge. That of course means you need to be in the trunk. I'm glad I don't have claustrophobia. While I was ordering stuff I pulled the trigger on a heckblende, a beauty cover between the rear lights. I got a black one. Actually I would have liked a reflective panel to tie together the rear lights but unfortunately that doesn't look as good in an early model as it does in late models because the rear lights and the indentation between them are of different height. But I really like the black one as well. To do the things right I also got the trunk lock seal with a small collar around it to avoid any red peaking from the crack between the panel and the lock.






A crisp new license plate ties it all together. The rear of the car is basically finished and I really like the look. The garage door was behind me when taking this pic so every time I come to the garage this is what greets me. I take great pleasure in it especially now that it already looks like a real car. I suspect that's also the reason why I was eager to get the car finished from this angle.

[Albie325]

Installed my MTech springs a couple weekends ago, wow that was tough. Busted my knuckles a good few times, can't imagine how tight it must be now with the extension on the bracket. Car is looking great brother! Nice work on the steering wheel too

[Skarpa]

Installed my MTech springs a couple weekends ago, wow that was tough. Busted my knuckles a good few times, can't imagine how tight it must be now with the extension on the bracket. Car is looking great brother! Nice work on the steering wheel too

The extension is for the loose spring as the stiffer spring was no longer available for that side. But yeah, installing the springs is not very pleasant. I was wearing gloves and still managed to get my hands mangled a bit. Thanks for the kind words!

[Skarpa]

Made a super awkward vlog post about the project on youtube. Nothing new to people who are familiar with this project thread but go see it for the laughs or if you want to know what I look like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0S18g8e63I

I've made some actual progress as well but more on that later.

[Skarpa]

Finally I fot the electric fan and the thermo switch wired. Meanwhile I also made a new wiring loom for the A/C from scratch. I chose FAE 37935 as the heat switch and placed it in the radiator return hose. The switching temps are 74/78 the idea was that the fan only comes on when the radiator isn't able to cool down the coolant enough by itself. In short testing it seemed to work well. The fan isn't running all the time butreacts fast when the heat starts rising. Next I startedworking on the rear pop-out windows.



The chrome trim was in a sorry state. I decided to go with a facelift look and have the top trim painted black. The bottomtrim I had to save some way. I tried polishing but it didn't work so I had the bottom trims taped with chrome tape and they came out great. Time will tell how well they last. The roof edge trim was luckily in better condition and only needed a little polishing.



Next I took off the fixed side windows that I had on as a sort of mock up.




All trim was of course fixed with new hardware.



It was also a good time to install the B pillar trim to the inside of the car. The foam behind them had deteriorated over time so I got rid of the remnants and replaced it with thin foam by StP. It was annoying to glue to such complex shape but otherwise worked well.





Then it was time to install the pop-out windows.






Adding the trim sure improved the look of the car. I installed the feont door trim as well apart from the window bottom trim. That'll need to wait unril the windows are in.

[finnmole]

Enjoyed your video...you do such good work.
I wish I had the know how to do more on mine.

I was hoping you would of fired up the engine...I bet it sounds amazing!

[Albie325]

The video was great, didn't even realize how far you broke the car down initially for all the rust repair. Very impressive, also would have loved to hear the engine!

[Skarpa]

Enjoyed your video...you do such good work.
I wish I had the know how to do more on mine.

I was hoping you would of fired up the engine...I bet it sounds amazing!

The video was great, didn't even realize how far you broke the car down initially for all the rust repair. Very impressive, also would have loved to hear the engine!

Thanks! The car was indeed pretty rusty. Not worth saving, someone might say but a very good lesson in doing body work. I was planning to run the engine on the video but it turned out there was a small electrical gremlin at play. When wiring the fan I accidentally lost power in half the fuse box so the engine wouldn't start. It's fixed now and I will run the engine on a future video. There are couple of older clips of the engine running on my channel.

[Skarpa]

No posts for the entirety of February? Damn, I need to pick up my game. Also the summer is already close ans I still have a lot to do. Lately I've mostly been busy at work, building a climbing gym for our club or being ill but it looks like I should start having more time for the car project. In celebration of that here's a short video about widening the front wheels to get a better tire fitment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-A-lPH-368

[moatilliatta]

This thing has came a long way, Exciting! And loving all the tedious details that make these builds take the time they do.

I should make it out to more E30 meets event though mine isn't running yet.

[Skarpa]

This thing has came a long way, Exciting! And loving all the tedious details that make these builds take the time they do.

I should make it out to more E30 meets event though mine isn't running yet.

Thanks! And yeah, you should definitely go to meets even though the car isn't running yet. I've been doing it for years and it's a good way to pick up inspiration and ideas.

So more about the wheels in text format: I rebuilt the BBS RS's way back. (you can find a post about it here (post #14):

Post #14

The idea was to have wheels as wide as possible without needing to use stretched tires or tucking in. The rear arches are lightly rolled. When I had the tires on the wheels I was pretty happy with the fitment especially at the rear:

(obviously at full droop)









At the front the tire fits nicely in the wheel arch but I had one issue:



The tire fitment on the wheels just looks too different. The side wall on the front tire is way more rounded. At this point the wheel widths were 7" at the front and 8,5" at the back. The tires are 205/50R16 and 225/45R16. Suitable tire sizes for 16 wheels in E30 rolling diameter are not plentiful. The issue with the tire fitment is understandable as the difference in wheel width is 38 mm and in the tire width just 20 mm. When rebuilding the wheels I skimped on the front barrels and reused the 5" barrels I had even though I could have gone 0,5" wider. Oh well, you reap what you sow so I ordered 5,5" barrels and took the front wheels apart again.



I had the barrels powder-coated black and then reassembled the wheels.





Much better:



The sidewall of the front tire still looks slightly more rounded but that's mainly because the tires are of different brands. I'm happy with the change. The wheel specs now are:

Front: 7,5x16ET21
1,5" lip and 5,5" barrel
205/50 tire

Rear: 8,5x16ET20
2,0" lip and 6" barrel
225/45 tire


I also did a couple of small details inspired by Albie325. The chrome on the button screws for the vent windows was a bit pitted and anyway the chrome buttons didn't work that great with the black window top trim in my opinion so I got new ones in black.







I also got the hood hinge stopper bushings for that little bit of extra cushioning.

[Skarpa]

Here's a video about future wheels for project ARMO (TRX-1 3-piece conversion)

https://youtu.be/u4q2m2kZMYE

[Skarpa]

Fresh Youtube video here:

https://youtu.be/wApF1D5fJ80

Forum post in near future.