JackBenny's 1991 318is Project

[jahnaboi]

Don't know if you did it or not... but did you skip changing the pilot bearing? tsk tsk tsk. Thi

[///m3]

that's a lot of work and all DIY. One day I will have a project like that too. Nice work.

[Kuhchow]

Nice work man! i'm about to buy an 84' 318i and hopefully be following in your footsteps....lookin great though, keep it up!

-alex

[BUDNUNTA]

Any more going on with these wheels?

[e30guydownunder]

I always knew those compomotives would look great! Any updates? Labour day has been and passed, i know that and I've never been to America!

[jackbenny]

Any more going on with these wheels?

Sigh, I almost got some tires when tire rack was closing out their RS2's but some other things came up. The wife would like a fence and a shed in the back yard. I'm not resisting because I could use a place to store some parts and clean up the garage. I'm hoping that there will be tires on the wheels when the car comes back later this year.

I always knew those compomotives would look great! Any updates? Labour day has been and passed, i know that and I've never been to America!

\

yeah, yeah I know I've been slacking. I've been sick this week and doing some work from home so I really haven't had a chance to download the pictures. The plan is to get this thread updated tonight.

There was no painting this past weekend. I'll explain in a later update. But I can't wait to get paint on the car. It looks really good.

[e30guydownunder]

:) im in no position to get on your case, i haven't even started the project thread on this forum about my car :p

I can understand how painfully slow bodywork is, been there done that, goodluck with it.

[jackbenny]

Labor Day Update

So the labor day update is a tad late. I know, I know, I'm a bum...

The day before departure I received a phone call from my father telling me that my uncle would not be available while we were there labor day weekend. Clearly I was disappointed but understood that with his son just married the weekend before, he had to play catch up. Instead we would use the weekend for the final block and prep for the final push to paint. At the same time I would bring various items over to the barn for installation at a later date. Things like the ...engine...and braking system.

You might remember we made a cradle for the engine. The wife and I were able to get it into the bed of the truck and secure it. We also broke down the engine hoist so we could take it out there as well. Needless to say, the back of the truck was rather full.



Yeah, that plastic covering the head would prove to more of a nuisance than a help. Halfway through the trip, I ended up putting the intake manifold on to keep water out of the head. Luckily all the tape stuck and the motor arrived in good shape despite rain for half the trip.

At the arrival of the barn, we elected to use the overhead chain/pulley arrangement to pull the engine out of the truck. Things went fairly smoothly.





That is until we ran out of chain...



No sweat, we put some wood underneath and readjusted the chains. Problem solved.

With the truck unloaded, we hit the grocery store for some provisions and turned in for the night.

The next day was rather intense. Instead of Saturday, lets call it Letsblowthecarcompletelyapartday.

We began with the doors...



The trunk lid and hood soon followed...





Much blood and flesh were sacrificed in the build of this car. Here the wife captures my grimace after cutting my thumb. I hope A+ blood makes this car go faster...



The last door was a little uncooperative, but we eventually got it out.



The car is beginning to look like it could cross Africa with the rest of the boys from Top Gear, no?



Block sanding began while I continued to sacrifice flesh to the interior of the car. Blocking occurred with 400 grit followed by 600 grit wet sanded.

Yeah it got a little dusty.



I also worked in the engine bay preparing it for paint.



Taking off the seatbelts...



My wife receiving instructions on how to sand and use a guide coat...



The hood after sanding...



And the decklid...



It's a shame that these pictures don't really show how shining and straight we got these panels. You can kind of see it in this door.



"you have learned much grasshopper, I pass the torch to you..."









I will say this, if the paint job comes out as nice as I think it will, massive credit will go to my wife. She did probably 50% of the sanding of this car by herself and her time put into it is beginning to show. She's even looking forward to color sanding!

With the panels complete, we moved on to the body.









Some of you are probably wondering what I was doing through all of this. Well, I was in the car, prepping to remove the windows and getting rid of stuff we didn't need inside.

Here I am working on the wipers...



And now some glass starts to come out...





We were all hurting by now so we packed it up and went in for the night.

The next day I took the remainder of the interior out.



Most of this will be wrapped with left over alcantera from my father's 911. I've also been talking with Kevin (tricked 323i) about getting an alcantera head liner. I'm beginning to wonder if I should call this a 332rs!

Work continued in the preparation of the engine bay and the trunk for paint.











All the radio wiring was pulled out of the car...







This is a fairly daunting reassembly for sure.



Sadly there weren't a lot of pictures just because we were so busy. The current plan is to spray the engine bay, trunk and jams in October and the whole car in November. I may not be out there due to some commitments but hopefully pictures will be taken.

[jackbenny]

continued...

On a side note, the Missus has been getting into this BMW stuff so we looked at getting her a project of her own:



Finally got that orange 320. One of the most painful car purchases I've ever made. Total flake of a seller. Luckily it's in the hands of an enthusiast. We will rebuild and swap the M42 into this beast. So far HER plans are to tuck the bumpers, fix the brakes and try on the basketweaves to see how they look.

Has the IS interior...



And a 100 screaming , angry horses on a good day.



It's not the greatest repaint but it will do and she wanted an orange car. I've convinced her to lower it as well so this should be a fairly economical build. So far I've removed the hacked in alarm system, fixed the tail lights and the turn signals. Only thing not working is the reverse lights. I'll trouble shoot that this weekend. Poor truck will have to go outside I'm afraid.

That's it for now. I might maintain an E21 build thread here if there's any interest.

[thedeal]

For an Airbus engineer you do great work ( Being a Boeing Mechanic, I have to raz you a little bit.) In all seriousness though this is a great build and the one project thread that I watch the closest on my subscription list. Can't wait to see more progress.

Your wife is quite the trooper too. She deserves a project BMW for putting in such good work! Keep the updates coming.

P.S. Is it true Airbus Glues their planes together?

Cheers,
Garrett

[jackbenny]

For an Airbus engineer you do great work ( Being a Boeing Mechanic, I have to raz you a little bit.) In all seriousness though this is a great build and the one project thread that I watch the closest on my subscription list. Can't wait to see more progress.

Your wife is quite the trooper too. She deserves a project BMW for putting in such good work! Keep the updates coming.

P.S. Is it true Airbus Glues their planes together?

Cheers,
Garrett

Believe me I get plenty of razzing from all kinds of my aerospace buddies. I'm used to it by now. There was a time I was in the same boat regarding Airbus. I'm coming around now. They do some neat things but maintenance is one of those areas that could use some focus.

And Airbus does use structural adhesive but not exclusively. There are still chicken rivets to stop the zipper effect in case of delamination. I saw more bonding going on at Lockheed than Airbus. That may change with the 787 competitor, the A350 but my experience was pretty limited to 2 months doing joint trade studies...which had fasteners.

Shoot, when I worked at Cessna they got pretty good at bonding stringers directly to the skin. They got their technique down pretty good though.

[iamsam]

when you finish this project, i am going to go back and save all the pics in this thread and make a super photo montage of your project.

[s_ribs]

You're definitely going a few steps further than I am! All the same, I know exactly how much fun all of that is. ;)

Project is looking great! Look forward to more updates.

[Spaz]

I love coming and reading your updates, your project is turning out great, you got some great help aswell it seems!

-Cam

[jackbenny]

Thanks guys. I've got some interior stuff to work on in the interim so I'll try and add that between now and the next barn trip.

Sadly the ole silver hauler got rear ended this week pretty bad. It will need a new bed at a minimum. It's probably close to being written off but I'll know more later after the adjuster looks at it. The Tacoma did a good job keeping me safe, so a big thumbs up from me. As a result I need to get the new 320 into shape so I can drive it. Bumper tuck is this weekend as well as some various suspension goodies. Still needs to be registered and transfer the title. I'll check out the brakes and work on the WUR so it starts better. I'll probably start a build thread for it either here or at bimmerforums.

Never knew how much I liked that truck until it wasn't around anymore. :(