My Forever Car: '89 325i Touring

[-J-]

I would say cut the valence behind the bumper where you can't tell, but I think you'll hit the front of the wheelwell shortly after. I didn't interfere with the valence, but did hit the wheelwell... Maybe centered CABs could be an option?

The centered CABs are definitely going on when I go to fit the 255s. The wheels are visibly sitting forward in the wheel well. Losing caster will be a bummer but having all the caster in the world is irrelevant if I can't drive it hard for fear of tire rub.

Once I get some centered CABs (that aren't blown out like my original stock ones) I'll experiment with seeing how much needs to be removed for proper fitment. The front fender liner had to be removed in order to get full steering but I'm going to try to make the main liner work (dirt road problems). Did your tires rub the metal structure that the liner bolts to?

[Northern]

You can always get more caster from the top as well if you need it. I wouldn't worry about losing the offset CABs too much.

Mine hit the front of the wheelwell where you mention. I gave it a whack with a hammer where the outboard liner screw is for maybe an extra 5mm of clearance. For reference, this was with 225/45R16's on a 16x8 et8, so your interference might be worse

[-J-]

Mine hit the front of the wheelwell where you mention. I gave it a whack with a hammer where the outboard liner screw is for maybe an extra 5mm of clearance. For reference, this was with 225/45R16's on a 16x8 et8, so your interference might be worse

Interesting, is that static or dynamic? With my 225/45R17s at et20 I clear that portion, but I haven't pushed the car yet.

Speaking of which, I finally test drove the car sans flares. I had a very noticeable ticking-grinding noise coming from the left front during low-mid cornering which I figured might be the ARB rubbing on something. Turns out I was right about the control-arm-to-rotor clearance:




That'll buff out, right?

A slight grind and a lick of POR-15 and all was well with the front suspension. I got under the car and checked all the connections and components and all seems good.

The brakes, however, are still very soft but do generate pressure at the bottom of the pedal travel. This is despite seeing consistent clean fluid at all four corners. This could be one of two things. One: air in the system still. When I rebuilt the calipers on my Spec Miata it took four session->bleed cycles before all the air was out, and considering I replaced every line it's very likely that there's still air trapped. Two: the big-ass calipers require more fluid and therefore require a larger master cylinder. I haven't seen this mentioned in any of the Naseig/Elcoy kit threads, but it's possible I missed something. To anyone running this kit: is a 25mm MC needed to restore proper pedal travel?

The last thing left to properly install is the Kamotors flares. I initially hit them with SEM Trim Black when I was thrashing to finish the car for a work sponsored car show (which I didn't make), but I always intended on color-matching them.

I wet sanded the flares down, cleaned them, then hit them with SEM high-build primer. Which, of course, promptly reacted with the underlying layers, causing huge cracks in the finish. In a cumulative moment of frustration about this project fighting me every step of the way, I forgot to take a picture. However once it dried I rallied, stripped down the reacted bits, and got back to work.


Stripped, cleaned, ready for primer. Again. I used Dupli-Color Filler primer this time around and had no issues.


Primed, wet sanded with 320, cleaned, and a fresh base coat of PPG Lachsilber.


Third and final coat of SEM 1K Clear.

I had my local Painters Supply mix up the Lachsilber and put it into a spray can for me. Unfortunately the can started to give up on the final coat on the last flare, which made the metallic a bit uneven. If it looks as bad in the sun as I expect it will I'll have have to suck it up and buy a real gun.

Once the clear coat cures the flares go on and she'll finally be ready for the road again. I can't wait.

[Northern]

Interesting, is that static or dynamic? With my 225/45R17s at et20 I clear that portion, but I haven't pushed the car yet.

I noticed when I was driving around, right after I added a 12mm spacer to bring the wheel to ET8. It cleared fine at ET20 but was noticeably further into the wheelwell than the rear. Maybe the offset does more harm than diameter

[moatilliatta]

Why 255s? 245’s fit 17x9 better IMO.

Thought about going that route?

[-J-]

Why 255s? 245’s fit 17x9 better IMO.

Thought about going that route?

I did. Here's the thought process: I'm trying to fit as much tire as possible in order to balance the chassis to the impending S54 swap. Most performance FR cars run stagger, including the M3's from E36 and up. I believe this is done to help balance corner exit traction, but I've never talked at length to a chassis engineer about stagger, so your guess is as good as mine. Using Tire Rack's tread width measurement, the average stagger for M3's is about 1.2in across the E36-E92 range. It's important to look at the Tire Rack measurement and not the notoriously unreliable DOT width rating for the reasons outlined here: https://motoiq.com/how-to-properly-select-and-size-tires-for-performance/2/. Since the Touring has more ass weight that the M cars, it should need less stagger, so I made a scientific wild-ass guess and shot for 0.8in. I know I can fit a 9.5in tire in the rear, so now I just needed to match the fronts to that. In the Continental sizing, the 255 measures to a 8.8in, resulting in a 0.8in stagger. Perfect.

That said, the Conti 245/40 measures to 8.6in, which is very close, and has a 0.3in smaller diameter. The smaller diameter would only help fitment, and the chassis could be balanced out with bar and ride height tuning if necessary. If the 255's refuse to fit this could be an option.

[moatilliatta]

Most track orentated E36, E46, E90 runs square setup.

Most Rear / Mid engine Rear wheel drive cars are staggered.

[-J-]

Most track orentated E36, E46, E90 runs square setup.

Most Rear / Mid engine Rear wheel drive cars are staggered.

Interesting. Even the track-focused M cars run square?

[moatilliatta]

Interesting. Even the track-focused M cars run square?

At the shop, the track / Race cars run:
E36M 245/40R17 9 Wide
E46M 275/35r18 or 285/645r18 slicks 10 Wide

You can go wider, but rubbing becomes the battle under stock fenders.

Zach

[-J-]

So, super long time with no update. Mostly because of this...



...But lets Tarantino this and jump back to where we left off.

After letting the flares cure for a few days, I mounted them back up. The paint match was surprisingly good, but as I suspected the metallic didn't lay out as well as I would have liked. Time to get a real spray gun.


Color matching was absolutely the right call.


After all that suspension work an alignment was a must.


Good enough. For those keeping track, that'd be 3,036lbs with driver and full fuel load.

I dialed in about -2.5deg of camber up front and -2.0deg in the rear. Total front toe is around 0.5deg out with zero toe in the rear. Bars at full soft. Tire pressures at 34psi square. Front ride height at 169mm (at the front pinch welds) with 12mm of positive rake. Dampers retained their pre-work settings.

Next up was diff break-in. I drove gingerly for the first hundred miles or so, especially from intersection turns. I followed that up with a few minutes of parking lot figure-8's. After that, I let the diff cool and swapped the fluid again (AMSOil Severe Gear 75w90). I also inspected the gear as best I could from the drain holes and didn't see anything concerning.


Here's what came out. The oil's base color is the ruby red you see around the edges. The dark pool is all of the break-in particulates. There were some larger flakes, but they crumbled when handled so I'm not concerned.

Following diff and engine oil changes I was finally able to beat on the car. Driving impressions: Holy shit. The grip is absurd. This thing can do no wrong in the corners. Every on-ramp is now a pin-it-'til-you-have-to-merge maneuver. The humble M20 could not possibly hope to spin these Michelins. Even with the aggressive setup the chassis is noticeably more stable on the highway. With the smaller DZ102's the fronts wanted to follow every groove in the busted-ass Michigan pavement. The ride is also markedly improved, which is the most surprising thing to me. I figured it'd get worse. I don't know whether to contribute the newfound ride stability to the PS4S construction or their larger size. It's likely a bit of both.

All-in-all, mission accomplished. The chassis feels better in every way, and even though I'm sure I'll make setup changes as I explore the limits, I was pumped to have my car back and was loving every second of driving it. With summer winding down in Michigan and things mercifully cooling off, I decided it'd be the perfect time to road trip it. Some friends were going to compete in the Empire Hill Climb up near Traverse City and I had a wedding to attend on the West side so I packed a suite of tools, loaded up, and hit the road.


The Empire Hill Climb was awesome. Pictured is the recce car ahead of Group 1 on grid, about to head out.

There were a ton more spectators than I expected for a small hill climb in northern L.P. Michigan. I'm used to SCCA club racing where the spectators are either crew, friends, or family. This event seemed to draw people from all over. My friends were running an LS swapped FD RX7 as well as debuting their freshly Merc-V12 swapped 240Z. That thing is expectedly amazing: https://autoweek.com/article/diy/eng...12-datsun-280z. Following the hill climb I attended a wedding, and the Touring didn't skip a beat.

The next morning I had to run to my mom's place to swap a valve cover on her Cruze to fix a rough idle. It was an easy enough job until I heard the sickening crunch of bending metal... My mom was living with a room mate at the time and shortly after arriving the room mate mentioned that she had to take off. I had parked her in, so before starting the car work I moved the Touring. She was amused to see a right hand drive car and made the typical do-you-deliver-mail-joke I've become accustomed to. No sooner had I turned the first wrench, I heard a dull thud. I was confused for a second but my mom's expression said everything I needed to know...


I had unwittingly parked in the turn around portion of the driveway and despite having just seen me park there, my mom's room mate made the same turn she always does and put the mother of all door dings in my Touring-specific left rear door.

I had a lot of.... feelings, lets say.... in that moment. I was doing my best to be civil but in my head I was screaming. I just kept staring at it and thinking "four months straight of work... only to get hit on the first weekend I have it out. How?" We exchanged insurance information and I finished the valve cover on the Cruze. As I drove away I screamed at no one in particular in the car. Just at the universe.

After cooling down for a bit I took stock and realized it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. The door was hit basically square and there was only a scuff on the front door. The B-pillar was completely in tact. The rocker panel was untouched. The freshly installed flare, wheel, tire, and suspension were unscathed. The door still closed, the car still drove. It absolutely could have been worse.

Mechanically the car is solid. Cosmetically, she's hurt. It certainly wasn't a show car before but now there was glaring body damage. I laughed to myself upon realizing that I always judged modded cars with body damage when I had seen them on the road. "Why would you spend all that money on parts before fixing the damage?!" Now I was that guy and it wasn't my fault. I don't judge anymore.

A month or so of back-and-forth with the insurance company netted me about 1500 bucks for repairs. I wasn't happy with that but the insurance company wouldn't budge on the quote. They probably wrote it up as a US market sedan, despite having taken it to a shop that specialized in BMW's. Whatever. With Michigan's shitty no-fault system I'm glad I got anything at all. I slapped a comically-oversized bandage on the damage and drove the car until MDOT salted the roads.


So, anybody got a Lachsilber Touring left-rear door they want to sell cheap?

[wworm]

aw MAN what a bummer of all bummers. Hope something comes through soon!

[mike.bmw]

Sucks about the door. Good luck getting it fixed. Post was a good read though!

[Glaede]

Sorry about the door!

If you have trouble finding a new door for a Touring, you could just get a door for a sedan and switch/weld over the upper window frame part from your damaged Touring door.
My buddy did that once (10-15 years ago though, so can't remember the exact details). Or maybe I can source you a door here in Europe. I just think that shipping is gonna be crazy expensive from Denmark to US.

[2mAn]

Take off the door panel and hammer that thing out!

[D.Martijn]

Take off the door panel and hammer that thing out!

This, You'd be suprised how good it might look. In the meantime you can search for a replacement.
I've found one on Ebay-Kleinanzeigen (German craigslist) in the same color as yours, 60€.