Project Armo "330i" M-tech 1

[gnmzl]

So happy to hear that roar into life in the car and with exhaust! Congrats, this project has come a long way and you did a great job!

[Skarpa]

For a change I wanted to do something other than boring, purely functional hose work and leak repairs so I undertook installing the headliner. A while ago I bougth an M3 anthrazite headliner when I got it for cheap. Unlike the regular models it's made of softer fabric instead of vinyl. It comprises of two layers of fabric laminated together.



However, in this example the laminating glue has long ago dried up and was crumbling into tiny flakes. I was still interested to see if it can be rescued. I whacked the liner with carpet beater to get all the glue loose and then vacuumed it. Next I put it in washing machine. I was left with a clean tidy headliner separated into to layers. I was considering the possibility to glue the layers back together but abandoned the idea. I'm fairly certain I wouldn't be able to do it and get a decent result. There are so many things that could go wrong including wrinkling, getting wrong stuff stuck together and glue penetrating the top layer. But the top layer is actually strong and doesn't stretch so it doesn't need the layer behind it for supporting. I think the cotton fabric under it is there just to give the headliner a bit thickness, to ensure it lays smoothly over the sound deadening and to protect the top layer from wear and tear where it needs to go around hard edges. So it doesn't really matter if the layers are glued together or not. I sewed the fabrics together at all edges and around all holes and openings to make sure the line up correctly. I also needed to do a little repair work for the bottom layer.



The front panel was otherwise neat, but had had a little crack at the rear edge.



I peeled off the vinyl a little, spread some glue in the crack and pressed it back together. In the end I glued the vinyl back with contact adhesive.







You almost couldn't tell it's been repaired. Before installing the headliner I had to install the wiring for the check control and the rear view mirror map lights. Of course my mirror came without the wiring set. In both ends of the mirror wiring set there's an exotic small connector that's no longer available. (the side blinker stalk for air bag cars actually has the same connector). But internet told me that Molex KK100 series two-pinned connector would fit in place when you cut off the locking tabs and so it does.



I'm sure there are better alternatives but I'll use this one as long as it works. The mirror wires are protected by shrink sleee and run inside the A-pillar and the channel at the front of the roof. Chec control wiring loom runs in the groove at the front of the A-pillar. It has special plastic clips that are no longer available so I'll need to get some secondhand. I made a few of my own for the front edge of the roof to be able to install the headliner.



Then I hanged the headliner in place with the metal bars and screwed on the handles, indoor lights and sun visors to get it correctly lined up. Next I glued all the edges with contact adhesive.


A little word of warning for those of you who might replace your c-pillar sound deadenings. The factory part doesn't seem to hold in place with just it's own adhesive. It feels very sticky and reassuring but at least for me it just fell down in a week. Masking tape didn't help to hold it in place. After a few tries the sound deadening was so beat up I just ordered a new one and installed it only after I was ready to pull the headliner over it. But man, did the headliner came out great!





I really couldn't be much happier with it. I'll install the rear view mirror and the check panel once the windshield is in.

[mike.bmw]

Wow, that headliner turned out great. Nice work!

[Skarpa]

Wow, that headliner turned out great. Nice work!

Thanks!

[2mAn]

Wow, that headliner turned out great. Nice work!

2nd that!

Wow. SO much better than the regular E30s headliner

[econti]

That's a million bucks. Only M3 had the soft one? Guess I'll have to find one of them.

[Skarpa]

That's a million bucks. Only M3 had the soft one? Guess I'll have to find one of them.

Yeah, only M3 as far as I know and ETK tells me. There are plenty of curious differences between the M3 and other models.

[Skarpa]

There's a big E30 meet in Finland in three weeks and that has been my target for getting the car to run and drive. If I want to be able to drive my car there I really need to focus on bare essentials. I won't have time to have the car inspected for legal road use so I'll have to get a temporary driving permit. I'll also have to speed up the process otherwise. I was planning to assemble the whole car and lower it on wheels to see how long sway bar links I need for the front but to get the job done, I did some mocking up with floor jack and fender to get a guestimation of ride height and ordered the links. The target is to have the links perpendicular to the sway bar at ride height. We'll see how close I got. I noticed one thing about the current link length. At full droop the sway bar touches the wishbones before the shocks come to full extension. It doesn't really matter, though. I don't plan to reach full droop at both front wheels under any normal driving conditions.



Installing windows would have required more hands so instead I assemebled and installed the rear bumper. I need to have that in place to get the rear muffler hangers right.





The rubber trim is (or at least should be) M-tech 1 specific ie. a bit longer than stock but it wouldn't hurt if it was longer still. Now it just about goes inside of the bumper end trims. Tech 1 bumper specialities also include the extra rubber strip at the top of the normal rubber trim.



When I had the bumper in I wanted to have even better look at how the rear of the car would look just for fun so I installed the trunk lid also. I already had assembled it before. My deck lid spoiler was pretty baked by the sun on top side. I used some spray on rubber paint to see if I can restore the finish.







The result looks awesome but I'm a little doubtful about how well it lasts. We'll see. I got the seals for the spoiler ends from a dealership but I guess they are a rarely bought product as one of them was already expired. When the seal gets too old the glue fuses with the backing paper making it impossible to remove. I didn't want to waste time ordering another potentially old piece from the dealership so I just used double-sided tape. The same as for the front edge of the spoiler.



The rear of the car look awesome when assembled:



I didn't remember to take a photo of the top of the spoiler, though.

[econti]

3 weeks! That's a lot of work to do. Good luck on it, I'm sure it'll look fantastic anyway

[mjweimer]

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

[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)

[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]

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.

[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)

[gnmzl]

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