My Forever Car: '89 325i Touring

[2mAn]

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€.

Yup, I had a smaller banged rear quarter panel and when I went to the PDR guy he literally pushed the panel from the inside and got 80% of it out and then spent about an hour smoothing it out to get it back to 98% Its only obvious when you look really close.

Give it a shot, I walked away with money in the pocket

[rzerob]

Maybe it is the angle of the pictures but that does not look that bad. I have seen PDR guys pull out way worse than that. It will need some body work and paint to make it perfect but that does not look like you have to replace it.

[-J-]

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€.

That's way cheaper than I expected. Do you have a link?

Yup, I had a smaller banged rear quarter panel and when I went to the PDR guy he literally pushed the panel from the inside and got 80% of it out and then spent about an hour smoothing it out to get it back to 98% Its only obvious when you look really close.

Give it a shot, I walked away with money in the pocket

Maybe it is the angle of the pictures but that does not look that bad. I have seen PDR guys pull out way worse than that. It will need some body work and paint to make it perfect but that does not look like you have to replace it.

I thought about that initially as well. However when I went to the body shop for the quote they pointed out that the door frame itself was tweaked. When the door is shut the ends are pulled in ever so slightly. That said, the tech said that it might be possible to bang it out but based on the amount of work required to bring it back it'd cost about the same to get a new door. I mentioned that it'd have to come from Europe and he didn't seem phased.

I haven't gotten a shipping quote yet, but in the meantime I'll try to pound it out (giggity) and see what I get. It's not like it's going to look worse.

[D.Martijn]

Here's a link to the lachssilber door I found;

https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/bmw-e30-325i-touring-tuere-hinten-links-lachssilber/1256398724-223-9397

[-J-]

Here's a link to the lachssilber door I found;
https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-...98724-223-9397

Thanks for the link. I'll look into shipping.

In the meantime I decided to change my S54 from this:



Into this:



Disassembling the engine was oddly therapeutic. Everything came apart cleanly and as expected. I just put on a playlist and leisurely knocked out the teardown over the weekend.

I took a ton of pictures for my own reference but I'll include the important bits here.


The flywheel looks pretty tired...



...As does the clutch. Guess I'll add that to the list.


This thing is diiiirty. Everything will need a hot tank.


The all-too-common upper chain guide failure. It'll be replaced with the Besain part.


The head looks good, just dirty. The valves all have uniform coloring and no signs of damage.


Same for the pistons.


Found this potentially terminal bit of metal in the pan after I pulled it off. Decision to rebuild the engine: validated. I looked at every piece of the engine and can't figure out where this came from. This engine was lucky it didn't find the timing or oil chains.


My camera refused to focus on it, but this is the front oil pickup screen. With a hole in it. A bit of research told me that S54 screens are know to start coming apart with age, but not quite like this. Also they're not individually replaceable; you have to buy the whole thing. For 750. I'm going to try to find a suitable replacement and weld it on. If not, peace out 750 bucks...


The crank looks good, with no gouging or nicks. A good cleaning and a micropolish and it'll be good to go.

And now the bit anyone who knows S54's has been waiting for: the bearings.




Holy hell. It's a good thing I opted for a rebuild.


Also the mains. This is the worst one. Change your oil regularly kids!


The bores look good minus this strange bit of corrosion. Fingers crossed a re-hone will clean it up.

Now that I know what I'm working with I pulled the trigger on some rebuild bits:

-OEM top and bottom end seal kits
-Various one-time-use bolts
-Timing and oil pump chains
-Water pump
-Belts and auxiliary pulleys
-Plugs and coils
-VAC/ATI vibration damper

Once the block and crank get a once-over from the machine shops I'll order up bearings, rings, and possibly pistons (if an overbore is required.

Also still need to select a flywheel/clutch combo. Does anyone have any recommendations for an S54 flywheel/clutch? I'm trying to avoid idle chatter if possible since this is mainly a street car, but I'm willing to give up some comfort for those sweet sweet S54 revs.

[moatilliatta]

The factory damper is pretty good.

Jb racing Chromoly
clutch master 2.5

Assuming your going with the ZF320 box?

The wood-roof keys in the oil pumps like to wear down also, I would buy and upgraded vanos oil pump drive hub over the ATI damper. I like to think they are an upgrade, but there is no data to back it up. And most street motors dont live there lives at 5-8200RPM

[moatilliatta]

Hows the MRT arms holding up? Any teaser shots of where the control arm angles are now?

Also new oil pumps have updated pickups that are less prone to coming apart.

[moatilliatta]

Bump!