The Journey of Linda and Friends - the M20b31 Lives

[AWDBOB]

That garage is begging for a lift!

It really is! Its unfortunately not wide enough. Breaks my heart. Surprisingly, there's hardly any room to work in there on the sides of the car. I think it was effectively built as an "old man camper storage" garage.

[AWDBOB]

Snagged a set of Style 5s and shipped them off to VR wheels for a fill/drill! I'm so damn excited for this car to be finished up.

[iXguido]

Nice score on the wheels, 16 or 17?

[AWDBOB]

Nice score on the wheels, 16 or 17?

They're 16" E38 style 5s!

This is the look I'm after:

[AWDBOB]

Put my (thrashed) tan leather drivers sport seat in over the weekend! Someone could make a killing if they reupholstered sports seats for a reasonable price. This seat doesn't have the mechanism that relinquishes the left rail to move the seat forward and backward- only the right rail is released by the lever. All other functions work, though.




And since it was so nice out, I kindly removed my landlords AC units, bed frames, fans, vaccuums, etc, and "relocated" them to above the laundry room so I can finally start on this thing.

Started tearing down the motor for a top end. I have my 5sp swap, I just don't know if I should complete it while I do the top end or not.

[iXguido]

This seat doesn't have the mechanism that relinquishes the left rail to move the seat forward and backward- only the right rail is released by the lever. All other functions work, though.

It's just a piece of bent wire between the releases on each side. A bent coat hanger would work fine as a temp solution, or other stiff wire.

Sport seats make such a big difference in the appearance of the interior! Keep up the great work.

[AWDBOB]

It's just a piece of bent wire between the releases on each side. A bent coat hanger would work fine as a temp solution, or other stiff wire.

Sport seats make such a big difference in the appearance of the interior! Keep up the great work.

Cool, I figured as much. I need to rig something up the next time I'm over there. They really do! This already had sports seats, but the drivers side was black vinyl, and the rest of the interior was tan leather.

I have so many seats that need to be refinished. I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and tackle it. Now we just need upholstery kits that aren't a grand.

[AWDBOB]

Guys, I found a '98 328i for parts a few miles from my house, for cheap.

Think it'd be worth it to do a budget M52 swap?

[Nader393]

Why did you name your car Linda?

[AWDBOB]

Why did you name your car Linda?

Well.

In Spanish and Portuguese, linda means "pretty/beautiful", and in "Italian," clean. It's also an ancient germanic element meaning soft/tender.

And here in the US it's a very common name associated with grandmothers.

I suppose it's a win/win?

[Nader393]

Huh. I was curious why you thought it may be lesbian or bisexual, too.

[AWDBOB]

Huh. I was curious why you thought it may be lesbian or bisexual, too.

Just a preference, really. As far as I know, she's still on the fence.

[AWDBOB]

Finally had another couple hours to work on the car today. I'm trying to tackle things in waves, with the first wave being the engine bay.

While I don't want to "shave it", I do want to clean it up a bit- specifically the drivers side. I'm keeping ABS and cruise because Function > Form.

I'm going to:

-Relocate the little relay block to behind the strut tower, and extend the AFM wiring to compensate.
-Run drivers side harness underneath fender.
-Remove airbag sensors (because I've already deleted my airbags).
-Cut off a few small obtrusive brackets.
-Relocate coil to underneath battery tray.
-M42 Rad
-Powdercoat IM and VC
-M3 Harness cover

I think this will simply and effectively really clean up the engine bay without going all out.




All Clean





The infamous 'one bolt' ignition coil relocation:

[AWDBOB]

Look what showed up today! Just some unassuming e38 style 5s.





But wait, how are they going to fit on an E30 since they're 5x120?

[c0rbin9]

Step away from the angle grinder, slowly. Turn around. Give your E30 to me, I'll put it in a garage and won't cut anything off it.