Project Armo "330i" M-tech 1

[Skarpa]

Are you going to cut new foam for Recaros yourself? You're so skillful.

It's probably easier to use black leather to make new seat covers. It's more difficult if you want to make fabric covers that look period correct.

I'll need to study cutting the foam. At the moment I have no idea how to do it and get a nice surface. Especially a contoured one. The Recaro's have a pretty stupid frame that's welded together from steel plates. It leaves fairly sharp edges that cut through the foam like in the driver's seat side bolster. So I need to remove all the foam and do some rounding for the corners. Maybe do complete welding in the protruding edges and then grind it round and smooth or maybe weld a section of small pipe in the corners to create a rounded edge. Black leather looks very nice in a red car even if it is a bit "boring" choice but currently I'm leaning on all fabric interior. Golf GTI 7 has a very nice retroish plaid cloth interior with a strong 80's feel.



In my opinion the fabric wouldn't look out of place in Armo but ideas come and go and upholstering the interior is not happening right now so we'll see about that. The current leather seats are nice and in fairly good condition so I'm not in a hurry to do anything about them.

[Vincenze]

PS. Keeping the possible future upholstery in mind I bought a pair of Recaro CSEs

Are you going to cut new foam for Recaros yourself? You're so skillful.

It's probably easier to use black leather to make new seat covers. It's more difficult if you want to make fabric covers that look period correct.

[Skarpa]

Otherwise I've lately installed small but important things. Some of the old side trim had broken fixings so I bought all new trim.




Sadly the driver's door trim was no longer available so I cleaned up the old one and gave it a coat of bumper and trim conditioner. It turned out pretty all right.



I also finished fixing the M-tech 1 rear valance meaning that I fixed it to the wheel arches and the rear valance





Then I could attach the M3 ground effects or whatever you call them.

[Skarpa]

So the car wasn't driving in the meet but trying to get the car there sure brought the project forward a lot. The winter is coming and many people are already stowing away their summer cars for the winter so there's no hurry anymore. Now I can take my time and have the car truly ready next spring (or as ready as a hobby car will ever be because I of course have future plans). I wanted to know what was wrong with the idling so I read the fault codes from the ecu. Nothing significant there. Next I zeroed the adaptations and lo and behold, the engine immediately started idling better and kept improving as it was running. The O2 sensors are so close to the ends of the exhaust manifolds that running the engine without the exhaust or with poorly sealed exhaust connection throws off the O2 sensor readings and therefore the adaptation values. I still don't have the cooling fan running so I couldn't run the engine for long but I trust the idling will fully stable once I can. Otherwise I've lately focused on pleasant little jobs like the seats. They had a little work before being ready to install. All the gas struts for the seat adjustments were pretty dead and the passenger side seat had something wrong in the tilting mechanism.


Compressing the gas struts for installation was a bit tricky. The struts for raising the seat are 500 N units. It probably is possible to compress them by hand in correct position but you are risking your hands in case something slips so Icame up with this:



Looks hazardous but the strut sits there surprisingly firmly. The same system didn't work for the seat back struts but those were pretty easy to put in place when you first hook the top end and then place a piece of wood under the bottom end. Then you can press down on the whole seat and hook the bottom end.



The visible lock rings for the gas struts are supposed to be covered by a domed cap and you can no longer get those from the dealership. You can use domed 6 mm starlock rings as a replacement. You just need to paint them black.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Capped-Star...KE32HK6WYZ16R0

The cables for the passenger seat tilting were fine but the pivot point for the tilting lever was partially broken off so it was just bending along with the lever. I didn't want to burn anything by welding on the seat frame so I repaired the piece with 5 mm pop rivets.



Next I cleaned and greased all the mechanisms and they work just as they should. Then I tackled the rear seat. It has holes for the headrests but didn't come with the rests or brackets. I ordered the headrest bracket kit from the dealership.



They are a bit fiddly to get into position without using too much force but eventually you figure it out. Before installing the brackets you need to install the bezels around the holes.






I couldn't find black leather headrests so I bought cloth ones instead. I spent some time bidding on original leather upholstery for them on the ebay but was quickly outbid beyound my limit so I let them be and instead ordered new ones from Lseat. They were dirt cheap: 20 dollars a piece +50 dollars of shipping. I've seen pictures of Lseat upholstery and expected them to be of reasonable quality. I wasn't disappointed.





The materials seem and feel like good quality and the craftsmanship is fairly good. They aren't perfect, though. The shapes of the end pieces vary and the fit is not as snug as originally but they are definitely worth the price. I actually like the E30 interior better without the rear headrests. It looks more airy and there's better visibility so I probably won't run them all the time anyway. Also, I probably will have the whole interior reupholstered eventually so I didn't want to spend too much on upholstering the headrests. But anyway, the seats are ready to go in.



PS. Keeping the possible future upholstery in mind I bought a pair of Recaro CSEs


After all you can't ever let anything be finished or you run out of things to do.

[Skarpa]

I wonder if it's very difficult to import a $500 zero-rust shell from California or Arizona?

As I understand It's not difficult per se, but a bit tedious and fairly expensive. If you bring it as a car it costs around 4000-5000 euros with the shipping, taxes, regisration and other costs. However if you just bring it as cargo and use the VIN of a Finnish car, it would of course be cheaper. It might make sense if the shell is really good, especially if you're in position where you might get the shipping at a lower price.

[Vincenze]

I wonder if it's very difficult to import a $500 zero-rust shell from California or Arizona?

[Skarpa]

So did I make it? Not quite. There's not so much left to do do but at some point the hours in the day are just not enough when you also have to sleep and have other things in your. So we had to take my brother's E24. But the meet has been a blast as always and full of beatiful E30s. Next year Armo will be among them.

[Skarpa]

See new update above. After that where are we right now? I bled the brakes and the clutch. It was a breeze with the vacuum bleeding system. The clutch only releases at the very bottom of the pedal travel so I'll probably need to extend the clutch cylinder rod later to have the pedal feel I want but it works for now. I also bled the ATF and cooling systems but then we come to problems.

1. The power steering pump gives an extremely loud whine on higher revs and heats up a lot. (I don't have an infrared thermometer but my well calibrated hand says 50 - 60 degrees celsius after a short period of running.
2. The engine will not idle smoothly. The revs hump between 2000 and 3000
3. My laptop with INPA has lost connectivity (classic INPA problems)

For the power steering I'll need to try and find hydraulic schematics for the hydroboost system and E36 power steering system. Without the exact knowledge mys hypothesis and reasoning is this:
Hydraulic pump always produces a flow. In hydraulic systems there always a pressure valve that opens at the maximum design pressure of the system and allows the fluid to circulate. Circulating fluid heats up and normally the circulation goes from the pump to the cooler and then back to the reservoir. In power steering system the cooler is at the return line from the steering rack. So I assume that in normal E36 power steering system the fluid goes from the pump to the steering rack where there is valve that lets the oil flow back to the reservoir through the cooler. In addition there's an emergency high pressure valve built into the pump. This is by educated guess based on what I know about the hydraulics.

Now in my system the fluid goes from the pump to the hydroboost pressure regulator. It seems that the fluid doesn't flow through the pressure regulator so it just flows back through the built-in high pressure valve at the pump and keeps heating up. If I can find the hydraulic schematics I can confirm the differences in the systems. But this seems like a strange problem because I know people are running hydroboost systems in engine swaps with no problem. I do have the pressure regulator installed upside down to I have hard time believing it would cause a problem like this. Otherwise the hydroboost works fine so the steering assist and brake booster work fine and the pressure accumulator holds pressure for three or four full travels of brake pedal after the engine is turned off. For now I swapped in a shorter multi ribbed belt to run the engine without the power steering pump.

EDIT: After researching the schematics it appears that in the hydroboost regulator there is a flow divider valve that should allow most of the flow from the pump to go directly to power steering. Also, power steering control valve should let the fluid flow back to the reservoir when the wheels are not turned. In my case some link in this chain seems to be not working since only the pump and the pressure line to hydroboost regulator are getting hot.


For the engine idle problem I can't say much more until I can read the fault codes and zero the adaptations but it may that we'll have to go to the meet in my brothers E24.

[Skarpa]

All right, I promised to do a full writeup after the meet but decided to do a status update of where we are now. I've spent quite a bit of time at the garage and made nice progress. One week was pretty much lost because my daughter and I had a flu. Just an ordinary cold but we had to go through corona testing process until she could return to daycare and let's just say that the testing capacity was not quite up to task of testing every single toddler with a runny nose. If it wasn't for that, I'd be much further in the build but it's not bad. All the doors and hatches are installed with the locks operationa. Also all the windows are installed. I used manual window lift mechanisms because they were faster to install and to door wiring looms still need a little work.









I made an initial alignment for the doors, hatches and fenders so they close without problems and there's no huge misalignments but I'll do proper aligning and adjustment of panel gaps later. It requires a bit of work. Last year I didn't have time to test fit the fenders before they were painted. The bottom edges were pretty rusted so I had to try and guess the original shape and apparently didn't get it quite right:




It will probably take a grinder and a welder to get the alignment correct. I'll need to narrow the bottom of the fender to get it flush with the rocker panel. It's a good thing it will be covered with the plastic skirt. I took the faded trim to painter and he gave them a coat of black paint and matte clear coat. The finish matches nicely with original parts



The mask grilles are not painted. I just gave them a good cleaning and a coat of plastic conditioner. The kidney grill looks good from far away but has so much corrosion that I'm getting a new replacement part. Propapbly the Sport Evo one as it has the most open area and doesn't cost much more. The most attentive people will notice black door top trim among the parts. I haven't made the final decision on the color of the trim around the windows. The chrome trim I have is slightly corroded and matted and it's not easy to find parts in better condition. And if I polish the parts it will take away the protective anodizing finish. The outmost trim will stay chrome (the trim at the roof edges and under the windows. But otherwise I may have them painted black mimicking the late model style.










Finishing the exhaust system has been on my to-do list for a long time. Originally I tacked together the whole exhaust and then took to a welder for complete welding so it's not a big surprise that the v-band connection doesn't quite sit correctly The one with the flex joint is fine but the solid one is off. I planned to cut it off and re-weld it in place but decided to put a flex joint in that one as well. It will ensure proper fitment for the V-band and reduce the movement of the exhaust under the car. I have the exhaust mounted pretty snugly under the car and don't want any rattling.







I had to mount the flex joint on the horizontal part of the exhaust because there's just not enough room in front of the V-band. It's a bit more exposed for ground contact but there's not much I can do about that. I also finished the exhaust support at the back end of the transmission.








The last job was to make the supports for the rear muffler. There are E36 exhaust mounts under the car so I had to make brackets to match their location. For that I used 2x20 stainless flat bar.









The welding seams are not very pretty. I have just 0,9 mm flux core wire for welding stainless and it doesn't really weld neatly. Lots of spattering. But the exhaust fits exaclty as it should. I'm not a big fan of the diagonal exhaust tips but with the M-tech 1 rear valance there's not much choice. The do look better in my eyes with the exhaust tips stepped so each tip sticks out the same amount. The stock exhaust where the tips are parallel and the inner one sticks out more looks stupid in my opinion.

[Skarpa]

I really really want you to make it for the meet and hope you have a blast there.
Good luck, sir!

Thank you! Here's me working hard on the car with my daughter.

[gnmzl]

I really really want you to make it for the meet and hope you have a blast there.
Good luck, sir!

[Skarpa]

A week to go until deadline. Not so far off anymore but still plenty of work to do.



Will post proper writeup when I have time. (after the meet)

[Skarpa]

I LOL'd at this, and this:




Looking great brother, congrats on getting her running!


Quick question:

It looks like you had the unibody and the fenders painted separately, so won't be able to seam seal the fenders to the body in the "oem" spot just under to windshield cowl. Any plans to do so, or just going to leave the seam sealer out? Only reason I ask is that I'm just about to paint my unibody, and have been debating for awhile (usually at 2am when I can't sleep) on whether to do so with the fenders installed and seam sealer in place as is more "factory" appropriate or paint the fenders separately and install without seam sealer. I'm doing the painting myself, and painting so much territory in one shot is a stretch for my current setup. It would be much easier to paint separately, but want as factory a look as I can achieve. Any insight is very much appreciated!

Thanks! I also pondered this for a while. I came to conclusion that I want to be able to remove a fender if needed without ruining the look of the seam. I'll put a strip of butyl rubber seal under the top edge of the fender. I'll use the same stuff for the lip under windshield seal (as factory did) and to glue the plastic sheets under the door cards. I am still slightly unsure what to do with the front of the fender where it meets the front panel under the headlight. I may put a small bead of seam sealer there to prevent any rusting if the parts scratch each other when installing or because of vibration. I'll just wipe away the exess from visible surfaces. For me these kinds of problems are easy in a way because even though I'm going with pretty much factory look, I'm still not doing full restoration so small differences don't matter as long as they work and look good.

[Albie325]

While connecting the hoses and especially installing the rubber grommet around them I tried to come up with an equally difficult task. It was like putting on a condom, in the dark, when you're already in. So it wasn't quite easy

I LOL'd at this, and this:

The offspring was a big help. (right)

Looking great brother, congrats on getting her running!


Quick question:

It looks like you had the unibody and the fenders painted separately, so won't be able to seam seal the fenders to the body in the "oem" spot just under to windshield cowl. Any plans to do so, or just going to leave the seam sealer out? Only reason I ask is that I'm just about to paint my unibody, and have been debating for awhile (usually at 2am when I can't sleep) on whether to do so with the fenders installed and seam sealer in place as is more "factory" appropriate or paint the fenders separately and install without seam sealer. I'm doing the painting myself, and painting so much territory in one shot is a stretch for my current setup. It would be much easier to paint separately, but want as factory a look as I can achieve. Any insight is very much appreciated!

[Skarpa]

3 weeks! That's a lot of work to do.

I'm acutely aware of that :D

Good luck on it, I'm sure it'll look fantastic anyway

Thanks! Even though I have a tight timeline I have no intention to let my standards slip. I'll rather do bare essentials carefully and have a bunch of interior and trim missing than slap on everything in a hurry. And if I don't make it then I don't.

Looking really good! I will be interested to see how long the rubber paint lasts on the spoiler, did you use a Plasti-dip type of product? I have been looking for something similar to spray a FOHA front spoiler but am afraid it will start to peel.


Wishing you luck on making the car show!

MJ

Yeah, it's plasti dip type stuff. I'll try to be gentle with it when washing and such. If it doesn't last then I'll need to look into proper industrial rubber paints or dyes. Parasol inc. makes stuff called Rubber dye (rubberbond) which might be good. I imagine rear spoiler is under much less mechanical stress and abrasion than a front spoiler. Although it receives more sunlight.

The event isn't really a car show but more of a drive meet and overnight getalong of E30 minded people. But of course cars are of interest and the car voted best gets a price. (that won't be mine with all the missing trim, though)