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

[monty23psk]

Just wow. Props to you. What brakes you running in the front and rear?

[mike.bmw]

Such an inspiration. Thanks for keeping this updated and sharing your progress.

[burkey001]

Some more progress this week. I had a day off work finally and was able to get into it a bit more


Summary - Got the suspension in, the car on the ground and began power up testing the wiring harness I made from scratch.


Rear suspension tucked in, with some old brake rotors just so i can get the wheels on




I think the orange springs turned out well. The Eibach red wasn’t doing it for me.

I do want to switch dampers between E30’s – but I will do this later because the other one is on a trailer and too much stuff in the way. I want to run MCS 2 ways on this car because they’re a better damper and this car will get driven more so I want the better dampers on it. Will then put these 2 way AST’s on black car.

Got all the fuel tank gubbins back in. I sandblasted the metal trim piece that covers the vent tube because I wasn’t happy with the paint finish, so went and got it zinc and black powdercoated. Should last now


Was digging through some old stuff and I lucked out and found some ARP studs which helped getting the wheels on. Not all the same length, but they will be fine for rolling around purposes.




Suspension in the front. All rather low key and black.




I run a Torrington bearing underneath the coil, actually an OEM BMW piece, and when exposed to life they tend to get pretty gritty. I saw these ‘coilover covers’ and I am dubious about thm, but I will try them about.
Suspect the will get torn off by the tire 😊 May revert to sleeving the damper with a bike inner tube to keep the slidey bits clean.



Now begins the “how many spacers do we need to get the desired offset and look’ game



Am doing this because I plan to order some BBS E50 tributes from NTM and I want the offset to be just right (for me)
Not hella flush, not poke, “full lock” usable. Suspect it’s somewhere ~ET15 on a 7.5in wheel


Full droop ET15


Should pull in more and sits ok



Ignore the lug nuts, just what I had around.


And on wheels! Been a long time coming



ET15 seems OK


Probably wants to come down another 15mm front and rear, which it might after the rest of the car goes in and adds weight.




Power up begins now.



I was pretty happy with this because recall I made the harness from scratch and I am pretty pleased that my meticulous planning turned out OK.









Happy days 😊

[burkey001]

Hey thanks all for the motor opinions. I probably am going to keep it M42 just because I like the OEM vibe and I could not care less how fast it is
Starting to get more pressing as car got off the hoist this week

[onesecond]

I'm definitely in the m42 boat. Was actually hoping to see if you would try and increase it's displacement a little, something like the Metric Mechanic's engines.

[wazzu70]

Love this car and I agree with you on running the M42 for a while or it just is the never ending project (much like mine is). My car is on the road for maybe a couple hundred miles and then I get bored and do something which disables it for years at a time. Not worth it

Fixed this to be more accurate :) At least for my M42 never ending project!

Honestly I wanted to go M42 turbo or RHD ITBs but the appeal of an N52 or M54 swap is appealing. Still lightweight and I6 smooth tourquey power if you want to stay BMW. If not S2000 engine, K swap, or even SR20 (easier for RHD) are good options.

[Pootis]

Love this car and I agree with you on running the M42 for a while or it just is the never ending project (much like mine is). My car is on the road for maybe a couple thousand miles and then I get bored and do something which disables it for months at a time. Not worth it

[econti]

RE K swap, a friend of mine who runs a shop called Fast Farm up here new Newcastle is finishing a K swap kit. Would be worth having an ask to see how much his is. His work is amazing, he did my turbo manifold and it's so nice I almost don't want to fit it.

[TeXJ]

In my opinion* the m42 is still the ideal choice:

- keeps the car light and balanced
- proven to last nearly forever
- I don't need a particularly fast car to enjoy driving it.

I considered an engine swap as well and I might do electric one day when the technology has advanced more. But for now, I decided against it.

What are you planning for a diff? My 318is has an open 4.10, I was looking for a small case LSD 4.10 or 3.91 but wasn't ever able to find either of them.

true, really depends what you want out of the car.

[amcp]

My 2 pennies, this is not a OE concurs car. Put a decent motor with some power in it. Doesnt have to be a LS3 but something more fun that the weak m42.

[Vantablack]

In my opinion* the m42 is still the ideal choice:

- keeps the car light and balanced
- proven to last nearly forever
- I don't need a particularly fast car to enjoy driving it.

I considered an engine swap as well and I might do electric one day when the technology has advanced more. But for now, I decided against it.

What are you planning for a diff? My 318is has an open 4.10, I was looking for a small case LSD 4.10 or 3.91 but wasn't ever able to find either of them.

[burkey001]

Hey, thanks all for your input on drivetrain… It’s something I am putting on hold for the moment.
I have an OEM M42 looking nice and shiny and ready-ish to go in… so I might start with that… who knows.
I do like the K option. Kmiata’s kit looks very comprehensive but is a little spendy once I factor in exchange rates, shipping and import taxes. $8-9k local dollars for a swap kit is certainly up there.

Onto other news, finally have some more interior progress underway, the rear seats are being made at the moment. Some progress and prototyping pics…

Initial rough out


Slightly M3 / cabrio inspired shaping. Basically just trying to introduce a little bit of shape and texture to what was originally a very plain stretch of fabric. But with an arm rest




Laying out some ideas, tweaking a few rounds. This is an early view


Another early view. This was too much for my liking, so the sizes have been pulled back. This is all picking up styling queues from the front seats



Few stitches in the Spinneybeck Copenhagen leather



And here are the inserts, the sizing has been dialled back. Looking better (in my eyes)


Starting to do the squab




And lastly got my eibach springs powercoated orange…. Why not?




So, I will be able to put suspension in finally this weekend. Happy days.


Until next time

[TeXJ]

K24 swap seems to be the new "thing". You could do a m52b28 with a turbo, or like said above, S62/S54 swap. I want an LS3 in my e30...my redneck side likes the sound of a V8.

[rzerob]

As nice as this is, you could have it pulled by a team of horses and I could not see the purists complaining that it doesn't have a BMW engine. So my suggestion is try something new.

[Pootis]

LS Swap


But honestly S62 or S54 would be more fitting