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

[burkey001]

How much time have you spent making sure your sockets/wrenches are perfectly clean before they touch a bolt on this car? lol

It's not entirely like that, but for sure there is no rush. As much about the process as the end result :)

Those seats are awesome man, great choice.

Thank you, I hope to have some updates shortly. I've been away and I got sent some progress shots and I need to go see one thing in particular. Not sure it's working. We'll see :)

damn just went through this whole thread. very nice work

Thanks :)

[burkey001]

Hi all,
Finally had some time to do some things to the car.
Have been steadily pulling the good bits off the old shell, cleaning, detailing and/or restoring them to reuse on the new shell. This is stuff like trans, diff, fuel tank, etc etc. I refreshed all this only some 5000km ago on the donor car – new fw/clutch, new driveshaft, new axles, new torsen diff etc so it was already pretty clean.


First out was the fuel tank, which I want to get powder coated black. No pic of the after but with the cosmoline cleaned off, it’s actually in good shape. I will get that balance tube replated (so much plating to do)



Gearbox cleaned up pretty good. Used an etch to give it the just cast look. I think it will pass muster


Then I paid attention to fuel and brake lines. These are the old ones, cleaned up and given some love and with new clips. I cant see I need to do new lines. Couple of stone chips in them, but whos really gonna see it… painting them would be a mistake… so OE it is







Lastly, the black chrome is growing on me. Think this is what im going to do



until next time :)

[econti]

What did happen to the other car?

[burkey001]

Hi all
Few updates

The M42 pull down has begun. All its raging 12 HP will be ready soon enough


It’s surprising how overengineered ‘the mess under the intake is” when you take it all out a single unit


I don’t plan to make any mods to the engine. Just redo it OEM. Still on the fence about an S54, so lets just make the M42 like new again in the meantime.

For engine accessories, I have this idea that a mix of wrinkle black and satin black is going to be better than the raw castings… So here is a MAF covered in some very wet wrinkle paint.


Before I did that I cleaned up the casting a bit. Knocked off the mould lines, smoothed it over a little bit… not that you can really tell under wrinkle… but I know.



I don’t think im going to do all of the engine bay deadening, probably just this main firewall & trans tunnel bit. Trying to balance OE with some orange zest.



Fuel lines and fuel filter.
I have a little bit to do on the fuse box, wiring wise, as can be seen. Thinking to replace the C101 with something autosport and small… then hide it out the way… kind of mulling that over.



Started to put some accessories in the engine bay, for fitment and some colour considerations. All new BMW hardware is galvanised, all NOS is yellow zinc. Putting together what I’ve got to see whether that becomes an eyesore I will have to do something about.
I forget who asked, but re hardware, it’s all BMW bolts and nuts. Depending on the order… sometimes I get gal, sometimes zinc… so if that looks a bit muddled I will go get the whole lot done one colour.

[burkey001]

Had some time over weekend to do a couple things…

Finished off some wiring. I had been leaving the AC part of the wiring for some time. No real reason, that’s just how it was.
Wired up the drier, the compressor and the temp switch




Been a while since I looked this, so I was glad I took the time to make some detailed wiring notes. Saved me





Finally got the aux fan situation sorted too. I had brought a new housing and a new fan blade before… and I was hoping one of these pieces would come with the motor… and they didn’t.
So i tracked down one of these from Schmiedmann. It’s not OE but it looks pretty close, except for the resistor unit.
I do not want to run a SPAL, even thought yes, I am aware that will work




Fan doesn’t look too bad, but the wiring is not where I’m at. But we can fix that…
3 different kinds of looming… very long cables

Shitty non mechanical solder joints on a brand new loom… all a bit lame

Cue after… Spec 44 wiring, twisted and loomed up to a new OE plug




But im a fool, because I lost the little rubber bushes that mount the fan to the condenser frame… so I gott go buy some.. grr…

Expecting new AC hoses soon, so should be able to wrap that stuff up soon enough

[Melon]

That wiring put me to so much shame.

I'm not sold on the wrinkle finish AFM just yet, I'll reserve judgement until I see it all together in the car.

[burkey001]

better view of wrinkle AFM, now it has dried and bolted to the airbox... i think once you see the intake plenum, valve cover, the mason engineering strut etc in the same finish, and the MCS two way canisters mounting to the strut bar it will grow on you as a theme

[econti]

I will trust in the process. Making solid progress on it regardless

[burkey001]

waiting for a spare day to go get my aircon bits installed and tick that off the list


scratching my head how the aircon lines are run, i wish i took better pictures of the before state.

[econti]

Fairly sure in regards to engine bay they run under where the coilpacks are, then up in between strut tower and inner quarter, then through the square hole at the corner of the firewall.

Were they pricey? Unsure if I can be bothered to run A/C on mine.

[burkey001]

Aircon run. Happy days. Need to get some o-rings for the seals





Nissens parallel condenser wasn’t great. The fan fittings were backwards, all the rivets were loose and the hose ends were tweaked. Fixed all that




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[Jordan]

I love seeing updates in here. Couple of points for ya.

Why is the brake booster rotated in that position? The two studs should be horizontal with the vacuum port at roughly 10 o'clock.

The bulk head grommet for the AC lines is inside out, as installed it is likely to allow water to pool around the lines, corrode them, and pass it through to the interior ultimately.

Replace the black washer fluid cap with Mercedes part# 163 869 05 08. Yes its MB, but it looks very close to the original BMW part and snaps on perfectly.

[burkey001]

Fairly sure in regards to engine bay they run under where the coilpacks are, then up in between strut tower and inner quarter, then through the square hole at the corner of the firewall.

Were they pricey? Unsure if I can be bothered to run A/C on mine.

I put out a facebook post asking for pics, the internet came through :)
They are quite expensive - especially for what they are - not sure it would make sense to buy new ones unless u really had to. Pirtek could replace all the rubber hoses for under $150

[burkey001]

I love seeing updates in here. Couple of points for ya.

Why is the brake booster rotated in that position? The two studs should be horizontal with the vacuum port at roughly 10 o'clock.

The bulk head grommet for the AC lines is inside out, as installed it is likely to allow water to pool around the lines, corrode them, and pass it through to the interior ultimately.

Replace the black washer fluid cap with Mercedes part# 163 869 05 08. Yes its MB, but it looks very close to the original BMW part and snaps on perfectly.

Hey thanks for the pointers..
The booster, well that's just a brain fart really. Other one runs a pedal box, so haven't laid eyes on an E30 booster for some time... I made a guess that the bolts go vertical from memory.
Bulkhead grommet, awesome, good pickup.

and the white cap, i like that too. thanks.

[Jordan]

No worries, a second set of eyes passing through doing quality control never hurts. Believe me I put my fair share of shit together backwards or upside down even after thinking about it only to realize once it was properly buried and needed considerable rework. These are easy fixes now!