Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Japandrew73's OEM Euro Restore

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Originally posted by Jparkr View Post
    Why is a map light mirror a safety feature?
    Well I sold my other mirror and just having a rear view mirror at all was a safety feature.

    Comment


      so no drivers or passenger side mirror???

      Comment


        Originally posted by raafhimself View Post
        so no drivers or passenger side mirror???
        :dot:

        Read the thread a little more

        Comment


          wow I just read all 21 pages nice project

          I've always been proud of being a Marine.
          I won't hesitate to defend the Corps
          "Supersquad"

          ‎"Prostitutes are a sub-category of Amusement Parks"-

          Comment


            Originally posted by Japandrew73 View Post
            :dot:

            Read the thread a little more
            i've been following your ocd adventures from the beginning...your statement is ambigious

            Comment


              Originally posted by raafhimself View Post
              i've been following your ocd adventures from the beginning...your statement is ambigious
              well i'm not exactly sure what you meant. I do have a driver's side mirror, i do not have a passenger side mirror. I didn't have a rear view mirror until now i have wired in and installed a maplight mirror. what's the question exactly?

              Comment


                twas all, just wasnt sure if u were still rocking the drivers side.....keep up the good work. might be interested in the euro valence that didnt make the cut :-)

                Comment


                  Originally posted by raafhimself View Post
                  twas all, just wasnt sure if u were still rocking the drivers side.....keep up the good work. might be interested in the euro valence that didnt make the cut :-)
                  hah ok ok. thanks, I still want to fit get it painted and fit it i just have a couple big spending items left to buy and it will probably get put on but i'll let you know if it doesn't make the cut

                  Comment


                    I went to Angel's Muffler shop in the middle of Costa mesa and for free he took my old tip off and put the new one on. He actually used a spot welder to weld an entire side off and then just pulled it off easily. It was astonishing since I spent about an hour trying to get it off. He actually used a little solid cone-looking tool to make the original pipe round again after I bent it up trying to take it out myself, and this is the result. It's a minor difference but with the rear euro bumper on it looks awesome. And yes I need to repaint my backbox.



                    So besides that, I did a cool little project which I have no pictures of, but every time i sit in my car is pisses my off how i look in between the seats and see tons of shit and gunk. So i took my seats out and cleaned off the rails and undersides and it makes a huge difference. It may not sound like it, but i challenge you to try this and you will see the difference. It's always the little things that make a change.

                    And then today the mail came with two awesome things. I got the large toolkit tray (along with the foam it rests against), and the extra set of rear bulb housings to retro-fit my rear fogs. I will do the rear fog project another day, but instead did some work on the tool-kit today.

                    Here are the connectors needed to take out and put into the blank spot where the rear fog is

                    Here is the toolkit tray, great condition minus a bit dirty with a few rust spots.


                    Here is the foam. My plan, is the foam is in decent condition, but I'm not going to reuse it. I have learned of a foam place in costa mesa, right near me, and tomorrow I will take the foam to them, have them remake the shape in front of me, and get brand new one! Here are pics anyways:


                    The toolkit tray did have those rust spots and some dirt all around but all it needed was some TLC. Came out like new!

                    Now for the transferring of tools to see which switch over and which don't

                    All three wrenches do not fit, they are all the correct sizes, but too short

                    The e28 emergency window crank transferred

                    The pliers look the same, but do not work on both, they are like the wrenches, too short

                    The Emergency sunroof crank switches over

                    The red screwdriver or grey or green (whichever you have as long as it's the small screwdriver) switches over

                    The Spark Plug wrench along with the emergency window hex rod thing switch over

                    I have recently learned the spare bulbs and fuses foam I have, was meant for the e28's not the e30's. It still looks stock and most people wouldn't know the difference, but I know the difference and that kills me. So I am in search of the correct foam but for now will use my complete e28 foam. The e30 foam should look different and is easily spottable by seeing the hole for the H1 bulb. one of the other foam projects I will ask the foam shop in costa mesa about, is taking the spare bulbs and fuses foam and re-making it with white foam, as it looks in the factory brochures. most foams you see now-a-days are all yellow and dirty. White would look clean and factory. Anyways, for the time being, the foam fits in...

                    Along with all it's spare bulbs and fuses. the fuses for the e28, are supposed to go 5, 10, 20, 30 - but since I don't have the matching fuses for those numbers and my car only uses 7.5, 15, and 30, I put 7.5, 10, 15, and 30 in and it looks good. That's how it will remain until the e30 foam is found.

                    I dug into my dad's e34 toolkit to see if any of his tools fit into the large toolkit but found none of them do. however his wrenches are the same as my small toolkits


                    So from this picture you can see the tools that can switch over to the large toolkit have been switched and the ones that don't remain in the small toolkit.


                    So here is how my toolkit sits now. Kind of bare:( I'm still happy with it though. It will continue to grow and looks better with every tool.


                    Like I said I will work on getting the correct foam tomorrow, for the next 24 hours, the small toolkit foam goes in




                    Almost forgot!

                    The BMW polishing cloth actually has no designated spot in the large toolkit, however did come with it originally. So for now it will sit in lack of the tools.

                    Comment


                      Love it! Keep up the good work! I will let you know if I spot anything OEM that you would need.
                      -Pierre
                      1987 535is
                      1988 325is

                      Comment


                        nice

                        I've always been proud of being a Marine.
                        I won't hesitate to defend the Corps
                        "Supersquad"

                        ‎"Prostitutes are a sub-category of Amusement Parks"-

                        Comment


                          Today I finished making the provisions in the rear light clusters for the rear fog lights to work. These are the wires I pulled from the spare clusters I got yesterday.


                          Looking at the connector you can see where there isn't a wire

                          Again, looking at the male side of the connector you can see where there isn't a spade connector

                          Opening up the cluster. You can see on the right where there isn't a connector for the rear fog light.

                          Connected.

                          Connected to male side of connector

                          How I ran the wire

                          Back together and there you have it. A euro rear light cluster wired up for rear fog lights. All gaps filled.

                          When putting it back together it occurred to me that I would have to buy another connector to connect to the female side, but it turns out, the extra connectors that ended up being the wrong connectors for wiring in the intensive wash setting, are the correct connectors to wire in to the female side of the rear light clusters! Works out perfectly.

                          So all I need to do to finish the rear fog project, is run the wires from the rear lights into the dual fog light switch, and then one wire into the cluster so the rear fog cluster light lights up when I turn them on. That will happen another day.

                          Besides that, I went to that costa mesa foam shop i was talking about and they replicated the foam shape nicely. They said they couldn't do any cutouts so they could do the rectangle in the middle or my spare bulbs and fuses foam. I told him i wanted the spare bulbs and fuses foam white and he said even if he could replicate it, the white foam would turn yellow inside a year. My best bet would be to get an airbrush, water the white paint down to barely any paint, and then the foam will absorb the white paint and it will last for a while. I don't have an airbrush, but i'll see what I can do later. Anyways here is the replica he made. As you can see I had to make the cutout in the middle.

                          Same size

                          Weapons of choice

                          Trace the shape

                          Cut it out

                          Clean it up and you get this. (The marker line has been cleaned off of the side since this picture was taken)


                          Goodbye old ratty foam, hello fresh foam

                          Taking the old yellow foam was very interesting. I started to pull it off just with my hands and got this far


                          Then I used a sponge and chisel or whatever you call it


                          It scratched up the paint under the foam, but it's under the foam. Nobody can see it.
                          So since it wasn't coming off I decided to get some sort of thinner. I didn't realize what I got into. I checked my garage and found this

                          It was the most toxic stuff i had ever dealt with. I unscrewed the lid and it started fizzing and i almost threw up due to the horrid stench. I applied it to the spots, and it made the surface smoother, but the stuff didn't come off - although a bit of my paint started to! So that's when I stopped and figured that was good enough.

                          So I went down the street to Ace Hardware and got some 3M heavy adhesive 77 or something like that.

                          I put some newspaper down, sprayed the adhesive to the back, ran over to the trunk and placed it on with some tape to hold it for a few minutes. Worked like a charm. WOW does that stuff stick good and quick

                          Here it is





                          So nice:p Now I just need some tools to complete the kit! Working on it...

                          Comment


                            I sat down and started to troubleshoot the problem I caused when installing the maplight mirror. all my instrument cluster lights and dashboard/HVAC lights weren't working at all. Co-incidentally, neither was my right rear tail light. So i took the bentley with my dad and started with the volt meter. we played with the switch and tons of places and they were all positive. Finally my dad says, check the fuse, i said "i did" he's like "check it again" and i had forget to replace the blown fuse. :smt092 god i am an idiot. So it fully works and i just kept thinking, not putting in a fuse, is the equivalent of "forgetting to plug it in". that always seems to be the problem...

                            Anyways, I made a small step towards the rear fog project today. I went to Kraigen Auto and got some fuses with matching font so it looks nice and put the correct fuses in my spare bulbs and fuses foam along with two more bulbs for the rear fogs. The only fuses my car uses are 7.5, 15, and 30 so I put those three and added in a 20 for nice color coordination :D

                            Then I went to plug the bulb clusters back in and it didn't even occur to me that they had blocked it off! It's amazing how far they went, to make American cars have no rear fogs. You can see in the pic the little plastic bar they have incorporated into the light to make it so you can't fit a bulb in there.

                            So I took a knife and cut it. It's a bit sloppy but nobody sees that kind of stuff and as long as you cut the hole as big as the others, it will allow the rear fog light bulbs to go in there.


                            So here you can see all holes, connectors, bulbs, and provisions are made in the lights and rear light clusters for the rear fogs to be incorporated. All I need now is to run the wires like in the diagram I posted a few pages back. I think I can get that in tomorrow.
                            Last edited by Japandrew73; 05-14-2009, 10:42 PM.

                            Comment


                              Well today I dove into the big wiring escapade. I learned a lot and it was very interesting. I'll start from the beginning...

                              Here is the connector behind my rear fog switch. See how it has two connectors for front fog lights, and it needs two more for rear fog lights.

                              In this picture you can see in my thumb the part I thought was the right one, didn't fit correctly. I decided for the day, I would cut off the plug housing to just get functionality and then come back to clean it up.

                              Here is what the two elements connecting look like side by side

                              After cutting you can see I am left with 3 wires. I thought, the white wire was ground, the two greens were a power and a wire going to the front fogs. in case you didn't see from the pics, the two green/yellow wires came together in one connnector and the white went to the other connector.

                              So i got my connectors and did my sketchy retard connections

                              I got a huge strand of electrical wire completely winging it by distance, not measuring or anything. Started at the fog light switch and went from there

                              Down the kick panel and under the door sill (man those things are hard to get off without breaking)


                              at the end of the door sill you get to the B pillar where the wire will run up the rear door cards. It was really weird, i had never taken off the rear door card before and there was insulation with a bit of tar and sticky stuff, and then the quarter panel was right there. I had never seen the actual body of my car from the inside.


                              Started taping the wire so it doesn't get caught on anything and tear

                              Rear seats out

                              I think I found the factory grounding point haha

                              The factory wires run up into a boot much like the fusebox, however I didn't want to have to deal with the boot...

                              Everybody always says everything in our e30's are prewired and stuff including the ski hole, but I don't see where i'm able to punch it out. If I wanted to i'd have to get a chainsaw or something and cut through huh?

                              you can see from the trunk, the hole showing light through it. This seemed like a much easier and simple way to run the wire.



                              and it's all out the back

                              taped it up to hold still

                              rest of trunk carpet out to make room

                              and the wire ends up right where it would if it had gone through the boot. perfect.


                              ran back behind the antenna

                              and with no slack to go, ends up just at the left taillight! man I'm good


                              Now this is where I needed to insert the wire into the plug with the factory connector I had left over

                              In order to connect to it to the connector, you must unlatch the cover on the plug housing, insert the wire connector, snap it in place, and close the cover.
                              All connectors, wires, provisions, and bulbs placed to create a rear fog.

                              So thinking it needs a power and a ground, I thought to apply direct power to it first to make sure it works. I went to the indicator gong because of easy access.

                              Quick little touch of the wires

                              Bingo



                              So here is where I'm going to stop the little adventure and save us about an hours worth of my troubleshooting and retardness.

                              I have made another diagram that overrules my old diagram. don't read my other diagram. This is the back of the rear fog light switch.


                              Despite me thinking the 4 connections were ground and to fog lights, I was wrong. This is how it truly goes. Forgive me, as I am new to the electrical world. Now i know how the concept of a switch works.

                              So....
                              The top two switches are for the front fog lights. the far right upper corner connector (white wire from factory), comes directly from the fusebox where it gets power directly from the fusebox. The Middle Right switch, has two green/yellow wires that come together in one connector at that spot; those two wires go to the left and right fog. The factory apparently ran the front fog lights in parallel. So that is how the front fog lights are ran. There is no need to run a ground wire, since each fog light has it's own ground.

                              The bottom two switches are for the rear fog lights. The far bottom left corner, much like the far corner for the front fog light, is the power connector. So remember, the connectors in the far corners, are the power connectors. The best route of action for tapping the rear fog power connector is to tap into the power connector for the front fog! Sounds simple, but it works. It doesn't matter which wire the power wire gets it's power from as long as it gets power on ignition. When first doing this project I was thinking if i tapped into the front fog power connector, then the switch would be all messed up so that when i turn on the front switch the rear turns on at the same time and it starts to get super confusing.... I was wrong. I now understand the concept of a switch. The power wire goes into the switch. The switch takes that power, and holds it until you release that power by pressing the switch. So in a way, the switch is redirecting the power to the other connector which runs to the fogs. So the middle left connector, as you can imagine by process of elimination, goes to the rear fog lights. You can be super anal and run these wires in parallel (two wires side by side) just like the front fogs, or you can be smart and run 1 wire to the left tail light. Then, once at the taillight, tap into that and run a wire about 2 feet to the right to the right taillight. Then you are done. There isn't a ground required on the rear fogs either, as the rear taillights have ground built in to them.

                              I do not have the rear fog power connector run correctly. As you guys hopefully know, your fog lights are hot on ignition. I ran my power wire for the rear fog light into the indicator gong. Turns out, the indicator gong is hot 24/7 even when the key is out of the ignition. No problem since all i have to do is remember to turn the switch off, but I will rewire it tomorrow to be hot on ignition like the front fogs. I also did not get to wire in the right rear fog as day light was working against me and very quickly, the sun set. I didn't wire into the cluster the bulb that shows I turned on the rear fogs yet either. A job for tomorrow or another day.

                              So what I have done today, is make it so when the key is out of the ignition, I can press the rear fog light switch and the left rear fog will come on. Some people like only one rear fog as to not fool drivers into thinking they are riding the brakes... but that is one of my main reasons I'm doing this. Next time somebody tailgates me, instead of tapping the breaks and possibly endangering myself, I just press the rear fog light switch a ton of times and hopefully the tailgaiter things I am slamming on the brakes and runs off the side of the road and crashes. Anyways, the factory spec for rear fogs (confirmed in numerous places) is that both rear fog lights were wired in, however you may do whatever suits your needs.

                              Comment


                                Back to the pics of the process.
                                Here is the pic of my shitty retard connectors


                                And here is how it currently looks when the following buttons are pressed.
                                Key is in ignition turned fully with lights on; front fog light button pressed (even though I currently have no front fogs)

                                Cluster Light Comes on

                                Front and Rear fog light switches turned on

                                Front Fog Cluster light on, but not rear fog cluster light due to the fact that i haven't wired it in yet.

                                but.... (i balanced the tail light to shine me so i could see it during testing) It lit up the left rear fog.


                                By this time it was dark and really hard to see and my photos are shitty quality and everything but I do have pics.

                                Regular Taillights


                                Taillights off, Rear fog light on


                                Taillights on, rear fog light on


                                Those are unfortunately the only pictures I have. It's one of those things that just looks better in person. But I will try to wire in the correct components and the other rear fog light tomorrow, also I'm ordering the correct connectors so I can re-attach the plug-housing to the back of the dual fog light switch so i don't start a fire and it looks more professional.

                                On a minor note, I got the replacement maplight stabilizing screw today. It even came with a little rubber plug that goes on the end of it that my previous screw did not have! This helps stabilization a lot.


                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X