Labor of love from Australia - Malachtgrun convertible running restoration

[Albie325]

Will make such a difference with the new dash in. It's not a terribly complicated job but just take your time, make sure to take plenty of pictures to remember how everything goes back together, and use some masking tape to label all your wiring looms/switches.

[Tzantushka]

Will make such a difference with the new dash in. It's not a terribly complicated job but just take your time, make sure to take plenty of pictures to remember how everything goes back together, and use some masking tape to label all your wiring looms/switches.

Thx for the words of encouragement!

The good thing is when I replaced the HVAC facia - I went slightly OCD with the labelling.



Aaaand the dash came out last night.



The usual clean-up of the crumbly HVAC gasket and 30+ years of dust in the ductwork is required.

[Tzantushka]

The good news is the re-skinned dash is in.
In the process, I did discover there is a difference in dashboards that affects vert owners.

And here's something new I learnt...
Apart from the last few production runs of replacement dashboards (E36 rubberised material & grain), I thought E30 dashboards were all the same.

The donor re-skinned dash was from an early E30.
I could tell as the original dash vents had the early style whole markings (solid white dot instead of an 'o' to indicate the closed position).
Plus the production date on the dashboard... 8)

When the reskinned dash went into the car, it wouldn't sit as far forward.
It was fouling on the LH & RH side where the A pillar and firewall meet.

As it turns out, comparing the dashboards side by side, you can see the convertible dash has an extra cut-out for the LH & RH brackets.
Can only only assume that this is due to the extra thickness pillar-firewall bulkhead (vert specific reinforcement)

Donor dashboard from early model car


Vert specific dash


I can only assume that BMW may have slightly altered E30 dashboards for facelift cars when the convertible was introduced into the range.
In other words, YES you can fit a coupe/sedan/touring dash into a convertible - BUT needs to come from a facelift car...

Oh yes, I made it fit by tracing and trimming off the mounting brackets on the donor dash to match the original dash.

Photos to come, but makes the car feel like a million bucks.

[Tzantushka]

Technically, we're still in COVID-19 lockdown.
But allowed to travel up to 15 km (9 mi.) from home...
The weather was nice and a great excuse to go for a drive, check everything works (and take the family for a walk).

Because we like pics - couple of photos of the finished dashboard swap....


(full size here)


(full size here)

This is one of those 'cosmetic fixes' but makes a huge difference and puts a smile on your face

[Tzantushka]

Also doing a few odds and ends.
The windscreen washer pump was a bit noisy.
Every time I washed the windscreen, the pump squealed like a 10 year old girl getting a pony for her birthday...

The pump had been replaced with a generic aftermarket one plus some sketchy looking wiring.

Ended up replacing it with a Febi unit and new OE plug housing and terminals.



Remove the reservoir, gave it a good clean, emptied the slime out and re-wrapped the wiring looms.



As it turned out the washer level sensor had crapped itself as well and someone had bridged wires together to make the check light go away.
The reed switch was rusted in the old one and the float filled up with water.



Tool a punt and ordered a Chinese washer level sensor from AliExpress for US$ 11.00 with free shipping.
Was pleasantly surprised - arrived in 20 days,



Installed fine, slightly tighter fit than the old one and works perfectly - no washer fluid level light on the check panel.

Also ordered a replacement glove box latch from the same seller to replace my busted lockable one - can only source non-locking latches locally.
Again, it's not a critical part so happy to give it a shot.

Quality looks reasonable, although does have a slightly different profile to OE.





Need to get some circlip pliers to swap over the lock barrel.

[Dirty30i]

Anyone have a rhd theyd sell me an send the the states?

[Tzantushka]

Nothing significant apart from the annual oil change (Penrite HPR 30 20W-60 full zinc mineral oil) and enjoying the hell out of the car over the Xmas summer break.

Took the E30 on a 4-day road trip around the Macedon Ranges just outside of Melbourne.
Covered approx. 750 miles // 1,200 km and it ran great.
Although it has an intermittent high idle every now and again.

Today it was approx. 74F // 23C and hardly a cloud in the sky.
More than happy to help with the grocery run in this kind of weather.







:D

Rear brakes & rotors are due shortly.
Collecting the bits for that.

[burkey001]

that all looks real nice 👍👍👌

[Tzantushka]

that all looks real nice 👍👍👌

Thanks - it's now in great condition, reliable and perfect for weekend and occasional use during the week.

Also, minor update - but PITA for me as I was never happy with the headlights.
Yes, after a mini refurb they were slightly better.
But the pass side (LH) headlight assembly was reasonably new as it looks like accident repair on that side.
And the driver's side (RH) was a mix of Bosch + Hella high beams.
Plus all four of them were way out of alignment.

Because the car is a 1988 production it had the Euro Bullseye lights as standard.
Picked-up refurbished Bosch set so they are now all matching.
Hat tip to e30_dan

After some research, fitted them with some upgraded H1 bulbs from PowerBulbs in the UK
- OSRAM Night Breaker Laser
- Philips X-tremeVision Pro150
Lubed the adjusters
And correctly adjusted them following the guide from Daniel Stern adapted for RHD.
I don't have hydraulic adjusters, so it's set & forget.

Night vision is much better.
With the Elipsoid Bullseye headlights the cutoff is great and now they are aimed properly I'm not dazzling oncoming traffic.
LH side (our Kerb in AUS) is illuminated nicely and the correctly adjusted high beams are awesome for extending vision.

Some pics from the local shopping centre car park during set-up & adjustment.

[Tzantushka]

Only a few minor updates as the car is running well (knock on wood).

Engine mounts were original and flat as a pancake, so swapped those out.

The main one was the ignition switch.
For no consistent reason the car wouldn't start - some times no problem, others it took 7 or 8 goes for the engine to fire.
Accessories fine.
Ignition on fine.
Turn to crank - nothing.
Only after multiple attempts with the key forced into the start position and lots of jiggling would it crank.

Bit the bullet and bought a new ignition switch & loom.
The new version with the red switch part is much sturdier and has a solid spring loaded click when starting.
Starts first time now like a treat.

Out of curiosity, pulled apart the old switch and it was certainly worn & gummed up with crud.









Sure I could have carefully cleaned it and re-installed and hoped for the best.
But wasn't going to risk a 30 y.o. part that would crap out at any time.

[Tzantushka]

Well, this happened.



Rather than replace with exactly the same flat tinted glass, went for a convex version.
eBay listing showed a LH & RH convex, but they sent 1x flat one.



You can see the difference.



Ended up separating the mirror and retaining ring and flipping the mirror so it fits perfectly
Still works a treat with better field of view!

[Tzantushka]

When I bought the car back in 2019 the rear brakes were serviceable.
Pads were about 50%, but the rotor had scoring, was very rusted and the park brake only really held on one side.
Thanks to COVID-19 induced shipping delays what would normally take a week or two was drawn-out to 2+ months waiting for parts to arrive in.

Good news is it's all done.
We don't have salt on the roads here, so the backing plates are fine.
Swapped out the park brake shoes & spring hardware

Hub flanges were fine, so rotary wire-brushed those and cleaned up residual rust with some phos acid rust converter.
gave the mating surfaces a think smear of nickel anti seize to retard corrosion & help with disassembly later.
Went with DBA T2 rotors which have a mild slot to keep pads true - For the AUS viewers, another purchase from DVS Performance Parts.

Calipers also got a refurb with new seals & rubber guides.
Wire-brushed, cleaned & and a good coating of Duplicolor ceramic caliper paint.
Sure, re-plating them in yellow Zinc would have been true to original - but I wanted a coating that would be resistant to the occasional use of thioglycolic acid iron removers (e.g. IronX)




Reassembled with high-temp brake lube, correctly adjusted the park brake and I am all set!

[Tzantushka]

After all the money spent on bringing the car up to scratch, I'd hate for a 34+ y.o. part to crap itself and cook the head.
I know the fan clutch was original and working, but it was starting to get noisy when you spin it by hand and starting to weep from the front.



It was a 30 min remove & refit job.
- pull out 2x fan shroud push pins
- remove shroud
- 32mm fan clutch spanner (which I had to buy... and glad I did) with a tap on the spanner with the hammer
- Unscrew fan assembly clockwise when looking at the front of the car
- swap over fan & reinstall.

But took the time to clean & check the blade assembly and fan shroud.

Ended up using a German made Behr Premium Line clutch - part no CFC64000P & 8MV 376 732-231.

If the Behr unit coming out of the car is any indication this will last a decade or two.

[Tzantushka]

In other updates, made the windshield wash function work as intended.


Every time I went to wash the windshield it would take a few wiper passes before the washer fluid came out.
I know the washer hose was tired and needed replacing.
Well, as it turns out the check valve was missing - was replaced with a simple 'Y' joiner - so that would explain the drain-back of washer fluid between uses.



I don't have headlight washers or heated nozzles, which makes life simple.

You'll need item 15 (Valve) P/N which is 61661374978



OR do what I did and source the OEM part which I understand is BBR Automotive P/N 003-60-12387 from FCP.

Also replaced the washer hose while I was there.
Sure, I could have used a generic 4.6mm hose, but wanted to keep things period correct.
From memory you need about 2.3m (7 1/2 ft) of hose to do the main run from the pump to the check valve.
Plus a bit more from the check valve to the washer nozzles.

Few pointers to avoid unnecessary work & make installation easy:

Tape the old hose to the new hose with some strong cloth tape



Pull the old hose out through one of the openings in the hood.



While feeding the new hose from the top



And keep feeding it down past the RH headlight



Check there is the right amount of hose near the hood hinge.
- not too long so it gets caught when the hood is closed
- not too short so it under strain when the hood is open

If you like taking off your hood frequently, you can add a joiner here for quick disconnect/reconnect.

Interesting to know that VDO made the original hose...



Windshield washers work brilliantly - water on the glass before the first wiper sweep!

[Tzantushka]

Nothing significant to report - apart from lots of driving and a steering wheel upgrade from a local enthusiast on FB...

I have the rubberised 'is' spoiler at the back so wanted a MTech1 to help complete the interior.