318ic restore

[stevofthahill]

Damn Jason, this project is coming out sick. I've been spending my nights the past couple weeks tearing down and rebuilding my friends 325ic. Between doing that, and now seeing your car...I've got the itch for a cabbie bad.

Keep it up!

[decay]

thanks man :) i got to sit in it while i was home on leave last half of december, and that made me glad i had snagged my 3rd e30 rather than another WRX. it hadn't been touched at that point; but things are starting to pick up on it now. Robert is cleaning off (and possibly welding the TMS reinforcements to?) the front subframe and after that it should be ready to sit on the new wheels.

[decay]

S52 M3 control arm overlaid on E30 control arm, in case anyone was curious what the differences are



front subframe out... factory header makes me smile





reconditioned/reinforced subframe (TMS kit again). pointing with screwdriver indicates a few cracked points that needed to be repaired. this is why you don't let your bushings/mounts/links go bad...

moar again soon.

[george graves]

Nice start dk!

[shmutzigE30]

more more more haha. looks good and update us when things change ;)

[decay]

thanks george. definitely going to be looking at some of your stuff for look&feel changes when the "getting it solid" part is finished with. (i know, the aluminum interior stuff doesn't really fit that, but you should have seen the fucking shift knob that was on there.)

shmutzigE30: i am as impatient for updates as you are :D things should start moving more quickly from here; robert is going to be moving his ops into a shop by the end of the month, and the gf wants to get rid of her civic, so there is incentive on all sides to get this wrapped up. all the parts are there, just need to get it assembled and decide what to do under the hood after i get back home, and see if the gf will tolerate losing the car a little longer to get some aero trim bits painted/installed. almost going to be sad to see it on the road; seeing stuff get done has been a great morale-upper over here.

[decay]

getting to the good stuff...


had to enlarge hole for abs sensor slightly


robert sez measurements are: 28" across wheel well, 0" at rear lip 14" center point, hub is one inch FORWARD of center at 15".
wheel centering/caster shouldn't be an issue, i'm thinking?


switched to H&R sport springs for Z3. if anyone wants a set of weitec/tunershop springs for an e30 cabrio, lmk.




of note here are THR control arm bushings and the TMS reinforcement kit on the bottom of the subframe


pads are porterfield R4S; been using these for ~10 years, they've never let me down


for anyone else who doesn't like the idea of drilling their strut towers:
"And to mount the E36 strut to the E30 mount you need to get a new 14mm washer. The strut nut is still 19mm flat, but thread major increases from 12 to 14mm"

approaching the last mile, work will continue after i'm home in late-july/early-aug... itching to see the new rolling stock mounted, though. :D

[Cobra Jet]

Very nice M42 cabrio build! M42 cabrio owner here as well! Production numbers were pretty low on the US M42 cabrios and I surely do not see too many M42 cabrios around in my area vs seeing the more common E30 325 cabrios...


Best of luck w/ the build & thanks for your continued work in helping to keep our country safe!

[decay]

forgot i had a thread over here... have made a bit of progress since the last update.

i'll skip the inbetween pics of it sitting on the placeholder E30M3 wheels and go straight to the good stuff...





OZ ultraleggera; 17x8 et40 F, 17x9 et41 R

tires are 205/45 falken 512's in the front and 225/40 nitto 555s in the back

finally on its own paws:











4.10 med-case LSD; the original 4.27 peg-leg would not have suited the ultimate powerplant goal.

the ride height could be a bit lower, maybe, but i don't have any way to correct rear camber yet and it's on the hairy edge as-is.



PS delete blockoff, because i like road feedback... AC also gone, because it's a convertible. gotta get one of those understeer.com fan deletes also.



AKG pedals. i lurve aluminum accents



replaced both taillights because one was cracked/holed, and i figured the other would have been noticeably faded after ~18yrs



"discreet" chrome slash tip



"non-discreet" lack of muffler :D

just got a MarkD 91-oct chip from the GB as well. looking forward to the sound of an uncorked M42 above 6000rpm. after that i am going to call it done and drive it for a while, but there is a near-complete T3 setup either sitting in or en route to the spare room at my house back home.

t minus 2.5 months until i leave the planet's asshole, and the less said about this place the better. thanks for all the well wishes.

[CorvallisBMW]

Wow, nice build! Reminds me a lot of my 'vert resto. Take some vids when you get a chance, I'd also like to here that 'uncorked' m42 :)

[shmutzigE30]

why no muffler? must be so loud

[gearheadE30]

Interested in the 'uncorked' sound too :). these motors tend to be a bit raspy...

[decay]

why no muffler? must be so loud

gonna be redoing the rest of the exhaust when the turbo gets installed- between the hotside and a muffler, it should be reasonably quiet again.

i'll ask for some video after the chip is in :)

[bimmerboy12]

great job! keep us posted..

[decay]

got a few more pics when the gf went by robert's new shop in HB...



yes the ride height is higher than i wanted it (H&R Z3 1.9 springs on it now). since i chose E36 non-M front hardware, that means either sticking with Z3 fitment springs (and vorshlag is about the same), or changing to E36-M shocks and using the weitec e30m42-vert springs i have (also roughly the same), or just giving up and getting a set of Z3-fitment coilovers (fucking more money, but i should have done this in the first place) and deal with the inevitable flexi-flyer feeling from having them on a convertible.

we will see if the turbo setup significantly affects ride height in the front. probably not. on the plus side, the wheel fitment is pretty much what i envisioned. just... lower



fuzzy phone cam image, but you can see all the AKG interior bits installed here.



yes the front camber is fuctup. yes i have vorshlag camber plates on the way. it's not as bad as it looks in this pic... the rear actually has neg cam and you can't tell here.



best overall shot i have atm. ellipsoids are in. robert's 4-door immediately behind, the new 330xi behind that. yes, i need a new front valance. gonna hold off on that till i NEED it to clear an intercooler; not going to try bending it straight just to put the front lip on.

robert sez the chassis is noticeably flexy even with just H&R/Tokico suspension combo, so on CorvallisBMW's good review i bought the mason strut tower and X-braces... what's another ~$500 at this point.

kelly (gf) says the exhaust is LOUD and she won't drive it till i do something about it. i plan to respond by putting the MarkD chip in and bouncing it off the ~7K rev limit a few times. :D well, we did get her a nice, comfy, quiet e46 for a reason...