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

[burkey001]

Have been able to spend a bit more time on car today. Happy days. Had some new parts arrive from uncle schmiedmann.

Finally got a parallel flow condenser, so set to get that installed with all new matching bits



I trawl realoem and basically ‘add all to cart’ I’d never seen this bit before on an E30. Directs flow through the rad (novel idea…) and includes some little rubber flaps to guide airflow. Nice



Radiator ‘air flow seals’


Also got a new rad and matching bits.





New water valve for heater box came in too… backorder


Air guide fits in pretty neat


New rad and shroud


Am I the only one who ‘flames’ plastic with a blowtorch is the finish isn’t quite right? Some of these ‘new’ bits come out of very OLD injection moulds. Marks galore on occasion. Sand that stuff out, hit it with the torch… all shiny again ��





Aaaand back onto the wiring harness. Steady progress figuring out my branch points, earth runs, groupings and such.. coming together OK.

It’s a bummer you cant buy the plug, you need to buy these pre-termed leads. Works OK I guess. But means I need an extra step to terminate and shrink the fly leads… as you cant slide tube over the plugs,… ways and means to overcome have been made




Bit of a play with placement





Had to phone a friend to get some pics of their standard e30 in this area.. wanted to recall what the aircon line looks like. Thanks crew ��




Starting to pull a few things through and see where it lands


And pairing the earths with the powers to the plug ends.



Starting to look like something


This is not the final shrink, consider this a dry run




And this was the end of the day


Cya
burkey

[burkey001]

Hi,

Have begun with wiring, specifically remarking it and making it a little nicer.

The factory wiring is OK, guess it works and such. You can’t buy a new loom. SO, when doing a car like you begin to pull the OEM harness apart and take a look at what you’ve got.

And what you’ve got is basically 30 year old brittle copper and even brittler PVC. Stuff is not flexible, when you try and straighten it the insulation can crack. Around the plugs the insulation is cracked and the copper is starting to (already quite) oxidised. And the plugs crumble like a crumbly thing…
Lucky, you can get new plugs.

But, the rest, well you kinda have to take it back to the fuse box and redo it.
This needs HEAPS of documentation cos you don’t really want to cock it up…
I am using Raychem spec 44 wiring here, and it’s all white, even more need for excellent documentation…

First on paper


Then a few double checks and into excel and vision






I think I’ve shown these before, but I am using these little Tyton Hellerman cable standoffs, secured by4mm rivut into the OEM Christmas tree hole.
Heaps tidier and keep the cabling off the body, so no rubbing. And no Christmas tree clips to rub either
Here is a sample, as I’m checking how its all working

Same in the front, as we carry the light and AC loom over the driver side
Little rivnuts… love them


And, it’s not a cable tie unless its Thomas and Betts



So, onto the wiring itself. Once all cables are known and verified, time to cut them the board and redo them… bit of fiddling about needed…

Always helps to have something like this handy… sanity checker


I also stick a little bit of the original colour onto the end of the cable too, so I can cross reference the OEM colours during assembling & adding new plugs



Yes, I am not concentric winding this… yet….probably an oversight and I should just man up and do it. None of this is in the end state, it’s just to get it semi assembled so I can sanity check a few things and then move on.



I should go do that HPA wiring course on motorsport wiring.

cya

[TeXJ]

so clean!

[wworm]

Awesome! Thanks for the tips.

Oh man your car really is going to be a joy to sit in, let alone drive lol.

[burkey001]

that interiors gonna be fantastic. Where are you ordering your fabric from? I've been looking at samples from maharam but they're mostly for interiors so I'm concerned with durability...

Hey dude,

You're correct, the main limitation of residential upholstery is that MOST of it is not colourfast. The fabric I am going to use falls into exactly this category and I am rolling the dice a little bit. It WILL fade, and probably unevenly, but this car isn't a daily and wont be parked outside so I'm going to live with it.

Durability is not your worry, really, its lightfastness. Amazingly companies like Sumbrella (yes the outdoor furniture company) have some seriously nice looking fabric that IS lightfast as its indoor/outdoor rated. Just got to search and get samples galore...

You could reduce the impact by having UV tinted glass and using a sun shade when parked.

Re vendors, Maharam and Kvradat (sp?) have some great stuff. I have a few hundred samples from around the world, after everything I came across a remnant of this fabric in a shop. Out of production for a few years and I kind of don't really have enough, but I think we can make it work... just use more leather.

Speaking of leather, has been an educating process. SO many different grades and qualities of leather. Have picked Copenhagen from Spinneybeck. This is a full aniline, untreated, uncorrected hide, so again, it's going to change and mark and darken over time. Bit of a gamble, but given the intended usage I think it's a managed risk. The way this leather feels, compared to other SPinneybeck products, let alone something from say Relicate or even OEM BMW leather.... no comparison. So luxury :)

[wworm]

that interiors gonna be fantastic. Where are you ordering your fabric from? I've been looking at samples from maharam but they're mostly for interiors so I'm concerned with durability...

[Pootis]

Love getting updates on this build

[Melon]

Daymn!

The little bits like hardware make such a big difference.

[burkey001]

hello everyone :)
I finally did a few things. SO NICE to not have broken bones and be able to do stuff again…


HVAC box is finally fully rebuilt. Stripped and cleaned. New foam seals. Cleaned & rewrapped wiring. New relays. New sensor. New blower. New heater core. New expansion doo-dad and valve. Allll ticked boo






Also transferred the HVAC pipes and wiring loom from my old dash to the new dash. HVAC pipes got a clean and they have had some sound deadening applied to hopefully drop some of the drumming / roar when blower is on high. Not too much, I know they only hang onto the dash with a few very small screws.





New window seals installed. These are pretty tough to install, particularly the rear window around the new, super tight head-lining


New rear window seals




Few more trim bits you will never see, like the AC air guide and the belly pan



Some new horns



Put my hood strut in… shiny and good, with 12pt ARP stainless hardware



Quick test the rear seats still fit with all the sound deadnening…


Poor thing has been ignored since Feb… so nice to be back into it


AND finally have an interior combo…


Am currently slightly re-profiling the door trims, because you need to be a little custom

[econti]

Blue would be my pick for sure

[lukeADE335i]

Have to admit I'm a sucker for the blue - looks very nice!

[burkey001]

Not much has been happening past 7 weeks as I've broken a collarbone (again) and intentionally not had surgery to pin it (it's a shit experience... so I have just been taking it easy and letting nature do its job)

I have been testing out a few interior commbinations.

Long story short, it all boiled down to some kind of brown or some kind of blue.

I think blue is winning. So now testing out a whole bunch of dark blues from Spinneybeck.


there was a temporary dabble in red, but it was only a dabble... was never going to win, maybe for another exterior colour


brown has had a fair run, but it has been difficult to match it to a nice looking fabric i like
this is kind of heading in the right direction



but blue has been striking a chord with me
i think this is shaping up as fairly likely


so now i want to check similar colours and also qualities and kinds of leather.

[Jokester]

You've purchase a replacement serpentine flow condenser for R134a? A parallel flow is what you want.

This. Performance is gonna suck with serpentine and I’m not even sure if it can cycle r134a efficiently.


Also, I think the black rings would look better, you don’t have a lot of silver bits on the car, if it was chrome like the kidney grills it would be a different story.

Keep up the good work, looks amazing.

Edit: whoops didn’t see Jordan beat me to it. My bad.

[burkey001]

perfect, thank you

bookmarking this for myself

https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=246743&t=246743

[Jordan]

Damn, there’s a point. Part number roulette fail ��
I *usually* only pull aircon OUT of E30's not put it in.. Plus I have never dabbled in aircon, so thanks for that advice.

is it only the condenser or the unit that goes into the HVAC box too?

You wouldn't have a part number for a parallel flow condenser would you?? :)

Nissens 94172 is what you want. OEM fit, accepts original cooling fan, but parallel flow.

No need to change the evaporator but you'll want a R134a expansion valve, you can't buy the R12 valves new anymore anyway so any you order will be R134a.