JackBenny's 1991 318is Project

[Dragowl]

very well documented! ANd I certainly agree that the wife is a keeper (as if you didn't know) :)

Engineers....discipline? My wife was a LMCO employee, we are both EEs

[r75]

the detailed pictures are appreciated, particularly the rear subframe chronology.

best of luck on the rest-

subscribed.

[jackbenny]

very well documented! ANd I certainly agree that the wife is a keeper (as if you didn't know) :)

Engineers....discipline? My wife was a LMCO employee, we are both EEs

Both Mechanical. I in design and she in stress analysis. We both met while working on JSF. I later moved on to Skunkworks but there wasn't enough work towards the end. Thought we'd try Airbus. They treat their engineers very differently.

I do miss the JSF though. That is a neat airplane.

[Mtriple]

Nicely done. You're attention to detail is more than evident in your pictures. I'm looking forward to your progress, keep up the good work.

[iamsam]

wow this is am awesome project thread! makes mine look very juvenile and inferior. i also have an alpine 318is that i am trying to improve, but to not near the effectiveness of your 318is improvements.

You have mad props.

[kishg]

very nice build.. looking forward to updates.

[Gnarles]

very nice build. I worked stress analysis on JSF in Fort Worth for 2 years. I currently work in Hurst at an aerospace company called D3 Technologies.

Oh and I totally agree about the treatment of engineers at LMCO. Couldn't get out of there fast enough.

[Julien]

You seem to do quality work, props. Btw next time eads moves you.. ask to go to toulouse instead of germany ;-)

[dashboardmonkey]

Very nice progress, keep it up

[ZM Blue Devil]

Awesome, great way to fix an oil leak. Subscribed!

[Eric Giles]

Excellent attention to detail-that takes a lot of time and patience to attain. And I am glad to see there is someone else that is 'local' doing an S52 swap-I may have to throw a few questions your way when I do mine in the next couple of months.

[iwantspeed]

very good work

[Philipangoo]

hey OT but is that the jack and jackstands from Craftsman ? The ones that are like 40$ on slickdeals.net

[jackbenny]

Sunday Update

Not too much to report here as most of my time has been spent indoors doing chores. Thankfully I did manage to get some time in the garage and get a few things done.

Threw on one of the rebuilt rear calipers on the back. The LHS still needs to be rebuilt so I'll try and tackle that in my spare time this week.



I decided to take a look at the damage on my rear quarter panel. Up until this point it had been covered with Air Conditioner Ductwork Tape (the sticky aluminum tape) because there was a puncture through the metal.



you can see it by the taillight.

I decided once and for all to pull the tape and see what I was going to be faced with. I freely admit that I whimpered a bit when I saw this...





I decided to try and clean some of it up and see if the rust was just surface. It looks like it is.



I banged on it with a hammer and the metal is moving...slowly. I think this will be the "project I work on while I'm waiting on parts or because I don't have any money to spend on the car this month" project. Word of advice, try and make sure your hand is away from the surface you are striking with a hammer. I of course did not and had limited mobility of my thumb for the majority of the week.

Looking at the back of the car I saw some cracks clearly from Bondo. Since I was already in a bad mood, I thought I would push the pedal to the metal and work myself into a frenzy.







so quite a bit of Bondo on the back panels. Car had a pretty good wallop in the back. I sent some pictures back to my folks and my Dad thinks we can fix it. Since he is the one with body work experience (well, two cars, his 1980 911 SC and his brother's AMX) I tend to agree. I think I can get most of this smoothed out. It's just going to take time and patience. As always with this forum, suggestions are welcome.

I decided to tackle the front end this weekend and yanked it off the car. The front struts are going to be replaced with the new ones that have the c3 coilovers. The whole suspension is covered in oil from the M42 so I thought I would pull it all apart, clean it up, repaint the subframe and put it all back together. I also managed to acquire a rebuilt E36 M3 steering rack so now is the perfect time to swap it out.



rebuilder went a little nuts with the repaint but it looks pretty good. I'll be running E36 inner and outer tie rods.



I freely admit that I jumped when the lower ball joint popped. Yes, I'm a little girl.



The LHS was much cleaner than the RHS. (sadly I thought I had a picture of the RHS)





An empty bay. I should use this opportunity to remove the cosmoline.



And the subframe stripped. So far I have primed it and given it one coat of black. I'll try and get a picture when it's finished.



and the suspension parts cleaned up.

And for the last of the updates, I got a new engine mount arm to replace the one that broke. I threw it on the engine along with new header studs, gaskets and nuts.









Thats all for this week. The goal for next week is to get the front suspension back on and rebuild that last rear caliper.

Subframe is out.

[jackbenny]

hey OT but is that the jack and jackstands from Craftsman ? The ones that are like 40$ on slickdeals.net

i must have missed this post.

Yes, both jacks are craftsman. I cannot recommend them though. The little jack doesn't have enough throw when the car is on the stands and the big one keeps jamming up for some reason. I am satisfied with the stands though. For now they do the job but I would like something nicer in the future.