Less rust and hopefully some reliability- the Midwest Daily iS

[AWDBOB]

Making good progress! Bummer about the welder.

Awesome that you will be able to transfer all the lines over to the iX and that head looks really clean - that parts car is turning out to be a great purchase.


MJ

The welder thankfully only needed a $4 part- a hub for the drive wheel!

damnit... now i have to look at my back passenger side wheel well... I think for the battery box, just build that first, then worry about how the valence attaches to it. that's the only part that it connects again. I have had a fun time repairing rust, but starting to long for an actual driving experience.

Yeah, I would check it out and clean it up to stop as much rust as you can from developing back there.

The problem with the battery box is that there are several pieces of metal that come together at the battery box, so to do the patches right it gets a bit more complicated.


-----------------


Made some good progress today!

-Pulled apart the cluster to investigate an inconsistent fuel gauge, alas, no nut/washer! Replaced that and replaced the ODO gears, as the ones in there were original.
-I ordered a stock cam and rockers from Febi (OEM supplier), as well as guide seals. I was going to try the new INA rockers, but they were $5 more per rocker so I decided against it. I used Febi rockers on Linda's last engine with great success, not sure what all of the heat is about online.
-I spent ample time reassembling the interior today. One that that really irks me is interior work done caveman style. Missing clips, missing screws, incorrect hardware, broken brackets etc. Thankfully I have amassed a surplus of this stuff so was able to assemble everything correctly once and for all.
-I tossed in a drivers tan sport seat I had because the comfort seat was miserable (bent, flattened, etc). Bent the handle around the iX trans tunnel. I'm looking for black leather seats, but most are $$. Hopefully I can pick up an affordable pair sometime in the future. I chased the rusty threads, cleaned the carpet under there, etc. I've been spraying RP-342 on the small stuff as I go to slow down this rust as much as possible. This stuff is fantastic. If you drive your e30 regularly in the salt, I would highly recommend picking some up.
-My 5908 was shot (needs caps and a tape deck), so I ordered the Continental/VDO TR7412UB-OR Radio. I have always wanted one of these, and am very excited to get it in. I attached below of the radio in a member's E30 (earthwormjim).
-I installed my 370mm Mtech1 from Linda into the iX because there's no sense in just letting it sit while she is down for the 3.1L.
-When I got the car the driver rear door was pulled apart. I put it all back together today, only to find out why it was pulled apart in the first place. When locked, the door will not close (as in, the mechanism will not stay in the "locked" position. When unlocked, the mechanism stays in the locked position just fine and will stay closed. I rarely have passengers, so my focus was in getting the door to lock and stay close. I got it to where I can close the door with it unlocked, and lock it manually so the car is fully secured.
-I continued to grind down rust as well to see where I need to patch on the rest of the car.
-I installed sound deadening and ensolite on the rear doors since I had them apart. The main goal is to seal the large holes with the sound deadening to cut low frequencies, and use the ensolite across most of the panel to cut high frequencies. The nice thing about this stuff is that if I ever need to get back in there I can simply peel it back to gain access.
-I found a tire supplier that had some NLA Toyo Proxes all seasons and picked up a set in 205/55r15. Next week I'm having the iX weaves straightened and refinished because they're bent. Thankfully I have a hookup for that in Indy so it is quite affordable.


Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on FlickrUntitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
TR7412UB-OR by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[jeenyus]

damnit... now i have to look at my back passenger side wheel well... I think for the battery box, just build that first, then worry about how the valence attaches to it. that's the only part that it connects again. I have had a fun time repairing rust, but starting to long for an actual driving experience.

[mjweimer]

Making good progress! Bummer about the welder.

Awesome that you will be able to transfer all the lines over to the iX and that head looks really clean - that parts car is turning out to be a great purchase.


MJ

[AWDBOB]

Yes, I've invested in a few different face masks for my work as well, initially a bit uncomfortable but you quickly get used to it.

That's a good plan re: the brackets. I think it will be much easier to place the brackets on the patch panels rather than locate a bigger panel.

I totally agree there is no issue running the vapor line inside the cabin and even mounting the evap tank in the trunk above the fender well. BMW did this in the older cars (E21, 2002, etc.) and I can only assume they moved it all outside to avoid any smells from leaky hoses, etc.

I'm no expert welder but I have successfully used .030 wire (with gas) on the thin bodywork sheetmetal without any issue. The gas and non-flux wire really makes the big difference for my poor skills. The good news is that you can practice and get your settings right on scrap pieces before diving in to the real thing.

This work is not glamorous but it is also pretty fun and you can hone your skills in a fairly hidden area (and cover it all up in coatings ).



MJ

That's really good to know about the curing time (re: your other post)!

I got most of the patch panels made tonight and got the head removed from the parts car. My welder feed gear (internal) is damaged so I can't weld everything up yet. Good ole CAD work and some patience nets a satisfying result.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr


Parts car has some freshie fresh brake and fuel lines. I'm going to snag them to replace the terribly spliced lines on ole rusty.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[mjweimer]

Yes, I've invested in a few different face masks for my work as well, initially a bit uncomfortable but you quickly get used to it.

That's a good plan re: the brackets. I think it will be much easier to place the brackets on the patch panels rather than locate a bigger panel.

I totally agree there is no issue running the vapor line inside the cabin and even mounting the evap tank in the trunk above the fender well. BMW did this in the older cars (E21, 2002, etc.) and I can only assume they moved it all outside to avoid any smells from leaky hoses, etc.

I'm no expert welder but I have successfully used .030 wire (with gas) on the thin bodywork sheetmetal without any issue. The gas and non-flux wire really makes the big difference for my poor skills. The good news is that you can practice and get your settings right on scrap pieces before diving in to the real thing.

This work is not glamorous but it is also pretty fun and you can hone your skills in a fairly hidden area (and cover it all up in coatings ).



MJ

[AWDBOB]

This is always the worst rust area on an E30...you were smart to start there and get it over with....

Isn't it fun to shower in hot rubber undercoating as you grind!!! At least you have solid metal around all the areas so the welding will be reasonable and you can grab the evap tank brackets off of the parts car.

Are you routing the hoses similar to this guy?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3ySsY3O7jk

I have yet to sort out the best way to handle my battery tray/valence rust. Mine's not the worst but there is no metal in the lower left corner where 5 separate pieces of stampings meet. I have a feeling it will be a series of small patch panels stitched together.

It is quite fun to shower yourself in hot undercoating. I bought a nice respirator for this job and I am glad I did, it's not fun.

I was considering cutting all of my patch panels from that area of the parts car with brackets installed, but decided I didn't want to clean all of the undercoating off of them. I think I'll just drill out the few spot welds for the brackets themselves and weld them onto the new patch panels.

And yep, that's the method I was going to use! I'm sure BMW did it their way so no evap pipe would pass fully through the cabin, but I'm not too concerned about running them like that for the sake of this car. The pipe to route those hoses was completely gone as well (inside the car and out), so this routing solves multiple issues for me.

As far as I've seen poking around, this section is much worse than every other section on the car, so I'm hoping I can get away with my original plan of just grinding back the rust and sealing it up for the rest of it.

I only have .03 flux wire in my ProMig140, but with how thin some of this metal is, I think I am going to need a tank and some .023 mig.

[mjweimer]

This is always the worst rust area on an E30...you were smart to start there and get it over with....

Isn't it fun to shower in hot rubber undercoating as you grind!!! At least you have solid metal around all the areas so the welding will be reasonable and you can grab the evap tank brackets off of the parts car.

Are you routing the hoses similar to this guy?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3ySsY3O7jk

I have yet to sort out the best way to handle my battery tray/valence rust. Mine's not the worst but there is no metal in the lower left corner where 5 separate pieces of stampings meet. I have a feeling it will be a series of small patch panels stitched together.



Look forward to updates!


MJ

[AWDBOB]

I attacked project #1 "grind back and seal the rust" head on tonight. The grinder informed me that I should've driven this thing to the scrap yard.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr



I cut back most of it and started to prep the surface for the new panels. I started with this area because I knew it'd be the worst out of the bunch and I wanted to get it done and over with. I'm routing the vent houses through the trunk to save time remaking everything that's gone. Going to use weld thru primer on everything, then por15 over the welds, then seam seal, then undercoat.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr



I'm concerned about functionality, thus my main objective is sealing off open holes. My parts car is rust free, which is going to come in handy. I still don't know how I'm going to tackle the battery box, since it has a few layers and stresses me out.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr


There's an open hole from the factory jack mount into the passenger wheel well. I'm just going to cut it out and weld a panel in it's place.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[AWDBOB]

Ah ha - having Kevin work the spare head and getting it ready to drop in is definitely the way to go, turns the whole job into one smooth repair. Service #2 sounds to be much more involved but all doable in chunks of time. Sounds like a good plan for making a solid daily.
MJ

Agreed! Gotta make things safe and leaky-free while making sure she's always on the road.

Good stuff!

I had an 88ix that I daily’d for 3-4 years. Heated the SRD Recaro and put extra sound insulation. Never got to enjoy stock suspension as the front dampers were seized like a 2x4 when I first got it. The Ground control with konis were quite compliant. It was such a solid car with rattles that I miss. It’s a lot of work to make another street / daily compliant E30.

I love the 88 iX. When I swap over to sports seats I'm adding heated elements and switches, and I have some RAAMmat and ensolite from the sound deadening work I did on my Subaru that I was planning on using on this thing.

I planned to cover bigger door holes with the RAAMmat and also put pieces on large panels to dampen vibration. Then ensolite as much as I can to cap some high frequencies, as well as a small square of deadening and ensolite behind each speaker. Was also going to throw a few pieces on the rear wheel wells. Any other key areas on the E30 that I'm missing?

Thankfully my definition of a "daily" is much different than most, as I have a take home vehicle for work. This will see much fewer miles than a typical daily driver, which gives me some flexibility on a few things. I love me some GCs, I just don't want to lower the car any to avoid needing camber plates and putting extra stress on the axle boots. A full length GC setup with stock USMs isn't out of the question when the time comes. I don't think the GC iX rear setup will go high enough to match stock height, but it has been a while.

I will have actual updates after the first of the year!

[moatilliatta]

Good stuff!

I had an 88ix that I daily’d for 3-4 years. Heated the SRD Recaro and put extra sound insulation. Never got to enjoy stock suspension as the front dampers were seized like a 2x4 when I first got it. The Ground control with konis were quite compliant. It was such a solid car with rattles that I miss. It’s a lot of work to make another street / daily compliant E30.

[mjweimer]

Ah ha - having Kevin work the spare head and getting it ready to drop in is definitely the way to go, turns the whole job into one smooth repair. Service #2 sounds to be much more involved but all doable in chunks of time. Sounds like a good plan for making a solid daily.


MJ

[AWDBOB]

sounds like the simple daily is turning into a project. haha! Be sure to document the whole oil pan gasket process on the IX. I know i'm going to need that at some point.

Meh, I am just addressing legitimate concerns in two different weekend services that’ll be months apart. Compared to my usual snowball, these are just two maintenance projects.

If the HG wasn’t leaving puddles in my driveway I’d just throw on a timing belt and be done with it, but unfortunately such is not the case.

The car sat before I got it, so all of the vacuum houses, intake elbow, etc are all dry rotted, so I’m essentially just fixing what’s broken.

The key, though, will be making sure I stick to the above.

[jeenyus]

sounds like the simple daily is turning into a project. haha! Be sure to document the whole oil pan gasket process on the IX. I know i'm going to need that at some point.

[AWDBOB]

Makes total sense to do all the head related work at the same time, half the head removal process is timing related. I'll check out my remaining M20 parts and see if I happen to have any misc seals for the head.


Besides the fact that the "wreck" is currently stranded on the lift you don't want to pull it in for fear I'll start wire wheeling and grinding on the underside....I have this problem with opening up cans of worms....


MJ

Bahaha good enough for me! Thankfully I have this iS parts car here (also with 130K on the clock, ironically) with an 885 on it. I'm getting that head done in the meantime to have it ready to just swap on in one fell swoop. Valve guide seals, pressure test, a nice valve job, new Febi rockers and a good clean up from Kevin should do the trick (notice no cam or HD rockers in that list)!

....I don't do well with downtime. The less time I have this thing off the road, the less chance there is for it to snowball.

I had to change quite a bit with my iS build, so I have some fun parts for the iX like some rebuilt M50 injectors, a BBTB, a K&N drop in filter, and an old Squid chip I'm going to have him burn an Eco tune on for this thing. I also have all of the stuff to delete the TB heater and simplify/tap the TB vacuum ports, so I'm going to do that when I do the cylinder head. This will all be Service #1.

Hoarding parts is good when you get a new car that needs some love.

Service #2:

The steering rack has some play, she needs outer ball joints, CABs, front struts, and front lower case seals and an oil pan gasket. The iX front lower case seals to the oil pan gasket, so I'm going to do all of that at the same time. I'll pull the subframe and hoist the engine up and do all of this at once. The kicker will be front struts, as I'm going to have to likely weld new tubes on these strut housings. At that time I plan to change the endlink location as well since it's only a few extra bucks so I can run an E36M3 front sway.

[mjweimer]

The snow has been a blast! I've been playing with fire by putting off changing the tbelt. This HG leak is pretty bad, so I am waiting until I can do the HG/Tbelt/seals/etc all at once.

Lets make sure we don't put it on the lift. Ignorance is bliss, right?

Makes total sense to do all the head related work at the same time, half the head removal process is timing related. I'll check out my remaining M20 parts and see if I happen to have any misc seals for the head.


Besides the fact that the "wreck" is currently stranded on the lift you don't want to pull it in for fear I'll start wire wheeling and grinding on the underside....I have this problem with opening up cans of worms....


MJ