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

[TeXJ]

wow! really cool update!

[Tzantushka]

What an update!
Well worth it though.

[burkey001]

Hello, long overdue update.
Things are happening but perhaps a little slower than ideal… Never the less, progress has been made.

First up, interior is very slowly inching towards being done. Latest bit of tweaking was to fit a standard E30 headrest into a Recaro Expert. The spacing of the headrest is different, so had to cut the BMW part and widen it so it would fit into the Recaro frame.
Now, I could have just welded a bit in the middle and call it done, but I had this idea to turn down a shoulder and then press fit a sleeve on. In my mind at least this is the stronger. So, chopped the head rest on half and made a collet to hold it in a chuck. Trued it up with a dial indicator and then turned down a 25mm shoulder on each.


Then made up the sleeve and pressed it all together with some loctite


The end result looks something like this.





Had a bunch more powder coating done as I’ve been steadily prepping old parts, and new parts, to get the same colour coating at the same time.

Quite like the look of satin black powder with BMW’s ZNS3 hardware, flaked zinc coating or whatever they call it. I am trying to arrive at some kind of OEM+ vibe.

I particularly like the brake hose clips in black
More parts off to powder



Have had the subframes subtly ‘hotrodded’. i.e. smoothed and filled. The front subframe has had a 6mm plate blended into the bottom to make it a little stronger


So, progressively getting ready to join subframes to car



Have pulled a lot of engine hardware, studs etc, cleaned them up and sent them to get black chrome plated.

Have also been switching over from yellow zinc bolts to the modern flaked zinc finish, assembling into packages to help with reassembly


Next up was the fuel tank. Time to refinish it.

I want a couple of textures to black, so for the tank I sprayed it with Upol Raptor, thinned 30% through a 2.5mm putty gun to lay it down pretty flat but with some texture. This will contrast with the hardware with is satin black powder and the balance pipe which is black chrome.



New washer and plug


Next up is half shafts. These shafts I purchased as “new” about 10,000km ago, but the paint finish was shit and they were 10,000km old, so time to strip down and get powder coated.

As a home gamer it’s not really feasible to remove the outer CV, as its friction welded or shrunk onto the axle…. So clean that crap up, sand blast it and mask it with Kapton for powder

Tada… black

Tada…. pretty


I have some AST 4210 for this car, which I shipped off to Moton in the Netherlands to get rebuilt, but am debating whether I want to put my 2 way MCS on, as this car I will drive more than the other one… so may as well have the better suspension on it. Mounting the remote canisters in the back will need some custom fab



Last month I bit the bullet and chose black chrome for window trim, so I packed that up, plus a few more spares off to master electroplating. Should be ready this week


It will be a little shiny, but my plan is to move it closer to modern BMW, which is shiny shadowline.
I had a sample done, looks like this


Next up is new brake hard lines and clutch line for engine bay and back of car

Until then, cya 😊

[lukeADE335i]

The interior will look great Burkey!

Have to admit you're inspiring me to think about another e30 project... have been offered a straight rolling shell of a 2 door '84 318i with tired paint, but very little rust + a shed full of parts if I want them. Only catch is I probably need to build a new shed to actually take it on. If I go for it I'll probably turn it into a 333i replica with an m-tech 1 kit & M30.

[burkey001]

wow really no progress lately... have been flying in/out a lot for work..
small pic from my trimmer... interior progress.
Very slow, but I'm in no rush


I also dabbled in some powder coating. I was getting some lawn furniture done, and i kind of had a knee jerk decision to try some car parts...
the black bits I think look great. Not sure sure how I feel about the silver.





i like the black bits i've had coated for the engine bay, may have to see about powder coating the AC lines (is that even possible?)

have committed to the black chrome on the window trim, taking that to the platers next.

oh wait, i was also busy polishing some glass bits, to find the best ones from my stash, and also one that had a working demister!

[Melon]

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.

Thanks for this. I've lose two already from thermal expansion popping them off.

[econti]

I'll take a punt and assume they have antiseize

[Vincenze]

Don't stainless steel bolts seize quickly? That's why you rarely see them in cars.

Or are they chrome-plated?

[burkey001]

Jordan, if you had a new one of these lying around... 12521707284....i know someone who'd buy it

[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!

[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.

[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

[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]

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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[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.