JackBenny's 1991 318is Project

[arubaru]

I love this project. Im going to buy some compomotive th mono for my car as well, your post made up my mind about what wheels choose. What tyres did you put on them?

Greetings from Spain :)

[JrCamacho]

I can't wait till this is done! This thread delivers!!!

I'm thankful that my e30 doesnt need rust repair, or extensive body work! I do plan on painting it down the road, but i havent even owned this e30 for a year yet :P

Reading this thread is helping me prepare... mentally and physically for getting the job done! Props to your wife for being AWESOME! I can't even get my friends to hand me tools when im under my car.. LOL

[blalor]

Glad to see this project still moving along! I can't wait for you to drive it. :) What'd you use to paint the rotor hats? I hit mine with some flat black high-temp Rustoleum, but it's not sticking well…

[Butler]

You. Are. Insane.

[M42Technik]

I demand photos of the BBS covers on!

Also, do you need some stickers made up for them? :D

[AdrenalinJunkie]

I haven't checked up on you lately, but the car's looking great! You'll have to bring that out to autox with us at Brookley. I'll be taking my e30 up to Talladega Grand Prix Raceway this weekend, but as good as your car looks, I don't even want to show a picture of mine. Keep up the good work Josh.

Later
- Ed

[jackbenny]

I demand photos of the BBS covers on!

Also, do you need some stickers made up for them? :D

I will need BBS RS's first! I've been keeping my eye out for RS001 and 003's. But alas, I am poor. Hopefully santa will be kind to me.

I do have some updates though. I've been pretty busy the last couple of weeks and just haven't had time to upload the pictures. I'll get it this week though.

[rstimpreza]

very nice build and informative.

[Savagefurai]

wow, this thread is amazing.
Fantastic car mate.:D

[mtlbloodshot]

great threadd. I too have a 318is swapping in a M52 and you've been a huge inspiration.. Quick question (maybe it has been mentioned), did you kept your 4.10 Diff and how did the driveshaft bolt up to it? Any changes made made to the drive flange or .... ? KEEP IT UP

[jackbenny]

great threadd. I too have a 318is swapping in a M52 and you've been a huge inspiration.. Quick question (maybe it has been mentioned), did you kept your 4.10 Diff and how did the driveshaft bolt up to it? Any changes made made to the drive flange or .... ? KEEP IT UP

I did not keep the 318is diff, I used one out of an M Roadster. With the M roadster transmission and diff, I used an E30 M3 driveshaft.

On a separate note, progress has been made...with pictures too. I'm hoping to upload them tonight or tomorrow but it's getting closer to going back on its wheels.

[TrentW]

On a separate note, progress has been made...with pictures too. I'm hoping to upload them tonight or tomorrow but it's getting closer to going back on its wheels.

Waiting.

[Nick_S]

Might have just read through the entire thread at work, ha. Incredible build!

[jackbenny]

Well it seems imageshack is being a little bitch today so I won't be able to attach all the pictures I wanted at lunch. I should have some time in the evening though. For now, I'll leave this here:

[jackbenny]

Once again now that I have control over imageshack (boo work for still using internet explorer 6!!!!) I can post some updates.

I received a couple of pm's regarding the exhaust system and I didn't remember if I posted any. As a result I took some pictures...









With that out of the way, my rear calipers were flaking paint badly and I really hated it. The natural choice would be to powder coat them but the local places are pretty expensive and I haven't acquired an oven, so I elected to go with an epoxy paint.

the starting point...



remove all that paint





and it looks like I don't have any pictures of the final product. :(
Well, the calipers are black but I was very disappointed with the finish. A lot of bubbles in the finish but it is holding up well to the brake fluid. Eventually the brakes will be upgraded so it'll do for now.

You may remember that I burned through the paint on the passenger fender. It has since been repainted and hung back on the car. I took great pains this time to avoid repeating the same mistake.

After some sanding, I polished the top to see how it would turn out.



It looks pretty flat.




So far so good, no burning of paint...





Fairly satisfied with the results I polished the rest of the passenger side, sealed it and coated it with wax. I still see tiny scratches. My wife thinks I'm nuts but I really was wanting and expecting perfection. You can't see them in the pictures but I only have so much clear coat.

Dejected to a certain degree, I focused on making the car actually look like a finished car. This consisted of putting on the is side skirts and the door protection trim. Levent and Blunt hooked me up with some new parts and the car is finally starting to look more complete.

I followed the instructions that are stickied in the body forum and the instructions are pretty good. I had some difficulties and elected to use the trim tape from 3m coupled with the standard hardware.

First, I laid some tape for marking...





make sure everything lines up...





Insert a large amount of time consisting of bruised thumbs, cursing, removing the skirt after installation, ordering new hardware, more bruised thumbs and even more cursing brings us to this...



You might know that the rear wheel is jacked up. I've been playing with ride height...

I'm looking forward to getting it back on the ground.

While waiting for parts, I sat out in the garage and had a beer or two looking it over. It isn't perfect, at least not in my eyes but this is the first real restoration I've done on my own. I know there will be mistake but I want to keep them to a minimum. Sometimes it's best to walk away when you're frustrated.

As I polished off the last beer, I decided to take this picture. I liked it, something foreboding about it.



Continued...