Lacey, the Lachssilber 325iS - oem+ 5spd. swap daily driver build

[vtechnik]

Thanks man!! Yeah i'm stoked, pics will be up today so stay tuned

[TFJR]

Amazing results! I want to see pictures outside in the sun (likely will be June by then LOL). Great work.

[vtechnik]

Finaaallly forced my lazy self to finish buffing and waxing Lacey. I'm very pleased with the results.

So I left off on using an aggressive pad to level the untreated and abused clear coat. After finishing off with the aggressive pad I felt a little disappointed, sure it was shiny but I was going for nothing short of mirror-like.



After seeing a little orange peel and fine scratches still I decided it was time to sand. I went to town on the clear coat with a 3000 grit sanding disc and some water. I hand sanded the whole car methodically. I made sure not to sand off too much, just enough to smooth out some of the "blur" in the paint. Fortunately the 3000 grit disc I had absorbed some of the pigment from the roof of my last Honda, so it was easy to identify what I had gone over already because there was a pink hue to the sanding marks.

Nothing like a BMW bathing in the blood of a Honda





Camera didn't pick up the pink tone too much





Then after sanding I washed and dried the car for more cutting. I took the Griot's Garage "Finishing Pad" and polished the whole car again, this time with a finer polish. How she looked after buffing and another car wash (the car was still wet and it was raining. The neighbors were giving me strange looks lol):







Then I brought her under cover again for drying off and waxing, I used carnauba wax from mothers. I've found that the key to perfecting the waxing stage is to listen to R.Kelly, the music really brings you closer to the car lolol. In all seriousness this is always the most satisfying part of the buffing process. grabbing a fresh microfiber towel and wiping away the residue to uncover dealership quality paint never gets old. (sorry for photo quality, I'll bring my actual camera tomorrow when I take my real pics):





Used the buffer on all my windows, highly suggest doing this, so much easier to see at night. Especially since every car has overpowered headlights compared to our e30s.





That finishing pad really took a lot of the swirls out of the clear coat that the aggressive pad put in.



This picture really gets to me lol, pretty cool seeing the clarity



Final thoughts: I wouldn't of done it any other way, the results are outstanding. Pics don't do justice to the work I put in and how clear the paint actually is. Running my fingers across the hood feels as smooth as new lot cars, if not smoother. I am very happy with the results.

[vtechnik]

looking really good man! Lachs always looks so good when its super fresh. Hoping to get mine resprayed one of these days...

Thank you! Always nice when others give your build their approval. I still need to finish waxing the car, so i'm holding off on the fresh pics, maybe if I get off r3v I'll get to it soon lol

[wworm]

looking really good man! Lachs always looks so good when its super fresh. Hoping to get mine resprayed one of these days...

[vtechnik]

The funny thing is my friend and I were trying to get those wheels too a while back. We believe those are Sieg Fin wheels. They look pretty baller but I think I've wanted RS style wheels on an e30 as long as I've wanted an e30.

Yeah me too! Looks like the event is bringing in more support than I thought it would. Yea I've been eyeballing those events for a while, I think I'm roughly 40mins away so not bad at all considering. Thanks again for the feedback TFJR

[TFJR]

I sold them to a guy up north to pay for tuition. He ended up putting them on a roundie he's restoring so they went to a good home. I liked their design, but they were heavy as hell. I'm much happier with the enkei's being my future goal.

I was curious if they were these off this parts car:

https://bellingham.craigslist.org/cto/d/bmw/6420533769.html

Looking forward to the cruise later this Spring! You should come out to one of the Tuesday Dick's Burgers Meet sometime

[vtechnik]

what the hey, I guess I'll just post my skid plate update tonight given that I have all the pics ready to go.

All cleaned up. My 87 put this plate to work a while back so the front was more or less cleaning for pics

Thanks Red46 for sending the new hardware quickly! I used more locktite than any reasonable person would've used. I've seen steering rack bolts come loose with skid plates so I'll be checking in a couple weeks to make sure they're still tight.

[vtechnik]

Thanks!! I plan to post an update showing the waxed results tomorrow, along with my skid plate installation. I sold them to a guy up north to pay for tuition. He ended up putting them on a roundie he's restoring so they went to a good home. I liked their design, but they were heavy as hell. I'm much happier with the enkei's being my future goal.

[TFJR]

Great progress! Nice work on that paint correction. Cool seeing the car come to life. What happened to the other set of wheels you got for it?

[vtechnik]

Yeah they're sweet but they'll definitely poke to much with adapters. Looks like it might be a while before i get them mounted, i need to find a place that redrills cheeeap.

[bruner]

I like those vintage enkeis a lot. I think you're gonna have to get them filled and redrilled in order to get a true oem+ stance though. I think a 225/50 will fit with your h&r races without rubbing, but I'd do a little more research first.

[vtechnik]

So today I got around to buffing Lacey :)

First I washed her off





Obligatory JKU pic



My resources



turn signals were not used in buffing process...

Started with the clay bar, then I used an aggressive pad on the roof, trunk, and hood. Then for the sides where there's not so much wear I used a lighter pad. I'm pretty satisfied with the results. I'll be back at it again tomorrow to wax but this was a great start.



BEFORE


AFTER












BEFORE


AFTER used an aggressive pad on a high speed w/ pretty slow passes. paint got pretty warm. the results are a huge improvement.
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Lighting is terrible but I couldn't resist going out and seeing what it looked like tonight. Hard to say without seeing it in direct sunlight but so far I like what I see :D





Time for a new hood emblem :/


Then after test driving the car I realized my front passenger tire is reaallly low. I just filled it up to 40 psi yesterday so it has a hole somewhere. The logical thing is to pull the wheel and to fix the hole. Admittedly I'm not thinking logically lol. My mind is more set on this idea?





I got this set a while ago for cheap and I've been trying to flip them since but no one's interested on offerup or cl it seems like. Personally, I love the look of them held up against Lacey. As soon as I propped them up there I sat down and stared in awe for a good 5 mins straight lolol. One concern I have is the cost. I need to find a place that cheaply fills and redrills wheels because these are 4x114.3. My other concern is the fitment I'm going to be able to get with these. These enkei's are 15x7 et19. I don't want to roll fender at all. I want my look to be like this car but a little lower? Is this car stock height? I like the OEM+ look of it but I think my car is a little lower, if I can achieve this stance with Lacey I'd be one happy camper

https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=77844

I don't know what tires I should be running to get a good OEM+ stance. I asked Eurospec and he said those tires were 225/50/15. I'm not sure I can fit a 225/50 with H&R's without rolling fender? I need to do more research definitely and I'd really like to hear your guys' thoughts on the matter. I'm still not entirely convinced to go this path yet though, I want to stick to my original plan that I had but it's so hard to do that when I look at that picture^^ lolol. Stay tuned for waxed e30 pics and updates on wheels. Let me know if anyone knows a cheap fill and redrill shop in Seattle-Tacoma area. Or if you have a tire suggestion let me know. Or if you just like the idea of the wheels let me know. Thanks.

[vtechnik]

Alright so I didn't get much work done as I had hoped to yesterday. After school I did my oil change, my dad's Jeep oil change, and cleaned up shop a little.

Soo first I dumped a little under a third of the seafoam into the engine and ran it for about 2-3 mins at idle. Then I drained it all out and used the Rotella T5, half of the MMO and the rest of some Castrol I had lying around. The engine idles a lot smoother when its fully warmed up from what I can tell. I hardly get any vibration through the steering wheel now too. It may be a placebo effect but I think it feels a lot better now and it sure is a lot quieter. Ill post before and after pics of the valvetrain after that MMO has been in there for a month or so. As of now I will be using Rotella in the future especially since its only $15.27 shipped using Amazon prime, plus I bought my OE filter off FCP so as of now my oil changes are only $16, plus some oil I have lying around. Castrol gtx 20w-50 is only $17.47 on amazon prime too. I still go to auto part stores and buy a lot from them but it's hard to justify spending $30 oil and $7 for a non-OE filter from them when you can get them both for less than half on amazon / fcp.



Anyway, then I cleaned up shop a little because it was an absolute mess after the timing belt job.





My plans for the weekend are:
- buff / wax
- clean air filter
- vacuum trunk / clean it out
- clean interior / reapply leather conditioner to dash
- hopefully bring the trim back to life
- adjust window

Pretty excited to buff Lacey, if my reputation precedes me it should turn out mirror-like hopefully

low res pic






Not trying to say the Jetta was all that cool but it was fun getting that paint to really shine

*CAUTION* more Honda pics ahead, viewer discretion is advised:



The paint was realllyy bad when I got le hoonda but once I finished buffing, the civic was pretty presentable





Annnd my plans for next week:

[vtechnik]

So now we're on to today.

Today I installed a new antenna grommet which was possibly more satisfying than the whole tbelt job lol





YESSSS


No more leaks!!! I'm gonna vacuum it out tomorrow and assess the damage.


Adding mental note to polish up tool kit and find missing components


Were there only one trunk lights on some cars? I don't see any plug ins in the hole so I assume so?


Then I went ahead and swapped out the fuel filter for a proper Bosch one instead of the Chinese one that was in there.


I cut the ends of the hoses off so the clamp had something pliable to squeeze


Then I cleaned out the ICV, no pics, but the car idles pretty steady when warmed up. vacuum lines will be done before the picnic hopefully

After that it was getting late so I finished some errands I had to run

On the way I cleaned the engine bay, pretty satisfying. I'll get in there with a brush and detergent once car show season has arrived













I don't really mind the cosmoline on the strut towers. Fun side story, when I bought the car it was at night and I thought the car was bronzit because of the strut towers. Needless to say when I woke up in the morning I was pleasantly surprised and knew I had to keep her. I however do mind the cosmoline on the intake manifold. If I find the time this weekend I'm definitely taking a heat gun, paint stripper and a scraper to the manifold. Definitely makes the engine bay look dirty'd up.

Then after that pit stop on the way to my sister's house I took a picture at the BMW dealership, I didn't take one when I reset the radio there and regretted it so I went back. Terrible lighting and I'm no good at shooting photos anyway. While I was stopped there a minty black E36 M3 pulled in and left their car there for service. Made the stop definitely worth it.