Project finished - 'MY22' 318is - bare metal, nut and bolt restoration

[Staszek]

WOW beautiful inside and out! How do you like the LMs

[89_325i]

Beautiful, and love the interior. Where do you get new seatbelt buckles? Did you get them before they went NLA?

[burkey001]

i put a bonnet on and aligned the gaps properly


also put on some evo 3 bonnet seals



kind of makes the seal gap more obvious... obviously :)



no peel

[Digitalwave]

The belt color kind of clashes with the leather IMO.

[burkey001]

maybe not the best photos in the world, but belts are in.
I think they look OK. Looks better in better light.





and this is the carpet colour i am going with

[burkey001]

Was just thinking about this thread the other day! I 100% agree with you with the "overdone" stitching and I think yours came out very tastefully. Nice little upgrade with the wider area for the arm, would have never thought to do something like that. These kinds of details are what really set your car apart, will be fantastic when done.

This project is utterly insane and can't stop loving it. Also that orange is just so mint!

Thanks for the comments, it should be done soon enough :)


I had my seat belts remanufactured with new webbing and new genuine buckles. I chose a light blue webbing. I hope this turns out OK... I am planning a light blue carpet (lol...) so hopefully it turns out and doesn't look like a train wreck.
Really happy with the services of the "seat beat king" - a local business that turned these around in 24 hours .







i reused the inertia reels as they seemed to work OK and the king was happy enough with them.
interesting that on the rear belts there are different brands of inertia reels... maybe one got replaced under warranty... maybe they just had different supplier parts on the line that day and Klaus got lazy... who knows :)

[onesecond]

This project is utterly insane and can't stop loving it. Also that orange is just so mint!

[Albie325]

Was just thinking about this thread the other day! I 100% agree with you with the "overdone" stitching and I think yours came out very tastefully. Nice little upgrade with the wider area for the arm, would have never thought to do something like that. These kinds of details are what really set your car apart, will be fantastic when done.

[burkey001]

Hello subscribers :)

Finally get around to an update. Been a bit occupied in other areas of life at the moment, but I have an almost complete interior. Which looks great (to me).

Quite a few subtle mods in the seats and trims. Looks like OE, is not OE.

The tops of the doors have been widened, for instance, to make it a better place to rest your arm. I always found the stock trims too thin. By itself, would you see it? Probably not. But I think it’s better



Various assembly and WIP shots




As the trims are actually multiple pieces to begin with spare doors were used to line it all up. Multi piece means a more efficient use of the hide and a way to bring a complementary detail between front and rear of the car because the rears are two piece.


I see a lot of retrims that seem to go overboard with the French seam or top stitch kind of just to make a point of it. Tried our best to minimise this kind of featurism whilst still trying to make it look differentiated.


Just a couple quick iphone pics during the install day.




Up next is a custom carpet and mildly restyled parcel shelf

Also finished off the exterior chrome by getting the kidneys and headlight rings black chromed. I like them, though depending upon the assembled look when done, kidneys may go back to ‘chrome chrome’

[econti]

M42 with a little turbo will be very fun. All stock just with ARP studs and a good gasket and you'll have a reliable and fun 200rwkw.

[burkey001]

Thanks all for the kind words, I truly am at a loss for powertrain. I have relented somewhat by taking all the M42 castings to a local vapour honer / soda blaster / walnut blaster / general finish guy to get them all looking schmick. So, all likelihood it will start with an M42. Which is probably fine, because if it’s slow there’s no evil genie on my shoulder.

Got a little time this weekend to do a few things, which was nice.

I wasn’t 100% happy with the finish on the side window trim, so I stripped that back to metal again… and we’ll do that again.
They should have more of the E30 aluminium, this must be the only body pressing not steel.






Also roped in the rear side glass finally. Few aborted attempts earlier, causing much grief.
Figured out that the metal trim has be installed in the seal FIRST and then you rope the whole thing in. Also learnt that its SO MUCH easier if you put the two nuts on the trim that hold it to the B pillar. Things you learn ;)


REALLY happy with the black chrome trim. For my car I think it matches really well and lends a bit of modern BMW shadowline to the car. I have decided to get the kidneys and the headlight rings black chromed too. I have some spares so it will be good to have the option to try that out when they arrive. Plater is closed until February, so that will be a while.









Side note, another E30 in the family (not mine). Bit of a time machine, one owner, 13,000km. EVERYTHING works and feels / looks like new. Unbelievable. Comfort seats are actually comfortable when they’re not flogged to death 😊. What’s even better is that it hasn’t been prepared for sale. It’s dusty and dirty just the right amount that you know it’s been stored in a bag for the past 20 years but that’s it. No compounding the paint, no trim goop. Just as new.
Unusual spec. absolute base model 318i with a tech 2 kit in Japan style 2 tone.







It will be a real good reference point for the question “how did BMW do it from factory?”

[Albie325]

But either way you could keep this car as a rolling shell and it would still wipe the floor with 95% of E30 builds around.

Seriously. All the little extra custom details and performance upgrades that you wouldn't even know were there just looking at the car, whichever engine you put in it this car is pretty ridiculous already

[econti]

N52s are pretty great, M54 is obviously an easier alternative but not quite as good, either will provide you with enough power to have a lot of fun. M54 in my brother in laws drift e36 will spin 2nd from a roll. Yeehaw tune helps but they are a potent unit.
But either way you could keep this car as a rolling shell and it would still wipe the floor with 95% of E30 builds around.

[wazzu70]

This build is mental in all the right ways. Love how the interior turned out. Something unique but fits right in.

N52 is my dream swap I want to replace the M42 with. Thankfully there are a few swaps underway locally so there is plenty of knowledge :)

[burkey001]

Hi again,

That S42 is a fun idea, but I can’t see that being a docile motor to cruise about in that passes emissions testing and is semi fuel efficient :) I need all of these things for this is very much a daily drive type car (not that I really drive daily, maybe I should call it a fortnightly drive) as that’s about right.

Just having a look back through here to see where I’m up to in this story.

First up, have almost successfully replaced every bolt in the car with the more modern “ZNS3” aka zinc flake finish rather than yellow zinc. Have I talked about this already? Anyway some have been tough to find because the more modern BMW bolts seem to prefer torx over hex, so some parts bin hopping is required. For example, the suitable size bolt for E30 rear dampers in ZNS3 comes in a huge range of modern BMW (07119906489) whilst the sway bar bracket is 07119903076 and is from Z4’s. I found ZNS3 for the steering rack - 07119905870 - from an E70.
Fun fact every bolt, washer and nut so far installed on this car is new and genuine. Seems a bit mad, but having all the hardware the same colour and in the modern finish… just makes the car feel more modern.

Small stuff, but it ties it all together I think








I potted the rear speed sensor and wired in it in a DTM


Besides that, also arrived was some small rubber trims and seals for the rear windows, glad to get these installed. Still need to persuade a helper to help me rope the windows in.









Other things I’ve been up to is reinstalling wiring to inside the cabin and finishing it up in the dash. I didn’t remake the ignition loom, so I have pulled out the old alarm which featured heinous crap like this


fixed that with a TE buttsplice and some glue line.


Got onto using the Pukar designs rub on transfers to restore my turn and headlight switches. I am blown away how good these turned out.



Satin black and a satin clear on top. Just awesome



Now, I know I don’t have carpet in but I have been reinstalling the dash and getting all tucked away.
I am getting custom carpet made that’s going to be individually edged and clip together bits like an old Porsche, which in my mind will work out fine and the trimmer thinks it will be fine too.

So reassembly.
Little dark I actually order a few LHD parts too… which means back to uncle Schmiedmann.. don’t know how that happened but it did :)

Steering column bits




Binnacle bits





Have installed front and rear Garmin dash cams too

Ran the front power through the hole for the rear view mirror and down the a pillar



Dash going back together






Feel amazed that all this trim is new and genuine, in the sport evo wheel

And big news, rear seats are almost done. Few small tweaks to make, but this was a test fit today
Super pleased. Bringing back the 80’s full time.

The leather is superb, genuine comfy place to be.





The subtle reshaping has turned out really nice, in my opinion, and the covers are all wired, pulled and hog-ringed not glued in place, so they have some movement between the seat which means they all feel quite soft to touch and giving when you sit in them.

Ignore the carpet (and lack of) :)


Bad lighting in the factory today, quite overcast so hard to photo well













I also did a power up test, with fingers crossed, to all of the wiring I made from scratch worked OK.
Good news… it does :) all that visio, spreadsheeting and ETK time paid off, despite my best effort to make life difficult by using white wire exclusively


All this malarkey turned out OK









If I had an engine to drop in it would be pretty much good to go except carpet and door trims. Both of these are next.


Someone told me that “people” have been able to flash the MS70 to let N52’s run standalone from CAN and all the other modules in an E90
This is actually a really appealing motor because it’s a great engine, and its modern, torquey , good power and fuel efficient-ish. That plus a bosch e-booster could well be a recipe I want to cook !

thats all for now