My Hoopte30 Project Attempt #6 - the painless way to earn cash back every day

[AWDBOB]

YESSS...moves under its own power is quite the achievement and the Tunes work...so half your problems can be solved with some volume adjustment...ha ha.

bahaha yes, if only I could tell a potential buyer that.

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Had a bit of a rough realization with the official hoopty. The car originally came from North Carolina and really didn't have much rust, which was why I was okay dumping so much time into the chassis. I only made one winter drive with it, which was when i went up to Jake's to manual swap it. I drive it a lot, but never in winter and barely in rain.

I've been over capacity for a little while by 3-4 cars, so while i finish up backlog so I can bring it in to do the head gasket, the car has been sitting outside, for 6mo or so.

I went out today to install the sound system and button the interior back up, and upon pulling the drivers side footwell speaker, realized that rust was spreading at a rapid rate on this thing. I got to grinding, and discovered the inner rocker letting go, the floor corner behind the fender was letting go, along with all of the terribly quarter panel and rocker repairs on the drivers side. It was really disheartening to see your car more or less evaporating, and was a hard realization that these cars aren't long for this world, and once the shells start to go, it's really tough to stop them.

The rockers were rotting through in multiple spots, as well as the quarter underneath the 1"+ of bondo, so it all had to come off. Now the rust is stopped, but the car looks so bad. I don't have the energy or time to put into another shell. I recently found and stopped rust starting in the passenger rear wheel well that wasn't there when i got the car, along with various spots all over the car. Such a shame that, while these cars are meant to be driven, they're more or less becoming one with the earth, at some rate.

The transmission that I resealed is leaking like crazy already, the power steering system that I totally redid already is puking fluid from various locations..... it's genuinely difficult to keep a shit box on the road, let alone a nice car.

Idk what this means for the future of the hoopties, but I am burnt out, and it's hard to enjoy stuff that, for every hour of driving, you have to put in that same time or more back in, in labor.

Inside the speaker cavity:

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr



Behind the fender:

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This whole vertical seam isn't looking very healthy:

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr



The rocker holes that appeared recently:


Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr




Back of rocker:


Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr




Back of rocker pulling away from floor:

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr



Alarming amount of bondo:

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Multiple rust holes all behind the bondo, where it was cracking, causing water ingress:

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Stopping the rust, but looks absolutely terrible:

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr




To top off the minty premium sound stuff I found for my audio repair/upgrade, I'll be installing it all with a lukbox, and saw that these went discontinued on Crutchfield again, so found some left over stock and made a forever head unit purchase:

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[mjweimer]

YESSS...moves under its own power is quite the achievement and the Tunes work...so half your problems can be solved with some volume adjustment...ha ha.

[AWDBOB]

One of the OG hoopties has been the bane of my existence. A source of deep misery. The '91 318 sedan featured previously in the thread has fought me every step of the way. As the issues piled up, as did my time invested into the car, so I couldn't jump ship.

But today, I drove it. Likely the first time the car has been driven in at least 10 years. But it knew that its job wasnt done. The test drive, as most do, only revealed a host of other issues.

But it moves under it's own power!

Newly discovered issues:
-Bad dual mass flywheel, so I have to pull the trans again.
-HVAC blower motor is hitting something
-Power assist braking doesn't power assist
-Car won't idle
-Exhaust rubbing all the things

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[AWDBOB]

Things are happening......two new cars appeared in the stable.

Rust free 318iS that needs some sorting

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S50 swapped early sedan that is a ripper. I haven't had this much fun in an e30 in quite some time. Was never a 24v guy but this car has changed my mind....

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And I did a rear end overhaul on hoopty, replaced all of the poly with rubber, swapped out S3.73 to my leakiest S2.93 for future things, and added a 14.5mm rear sway.

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Gonna put the car back on my beloved e38 style 5s from Linda, but the other two are in Michigan still.

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Jake's photo, but I bought an e28 goodies twin scroll manifold with t3 TS to t4 TS and a pulsar g30-660 turbo with a TS t4 exhaust housing. Have megasquirt, deka 60lb injectors, wideband, and am going to be running Jake's new M20 turbo kit for testing purposes.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[AWDBOB]

I see nothing wrong with bringing cosmetics back to a 10 and just enjoy the wear and tear... Mechanicals > Cosmetics

Is that MS2 or 1 in the box?

I agree in regards to mechanicals > cosmetics. Unfortunately with the price of bringing cosmetics to a 10, there isn’t a chance that my brain would enjoy driving the car as such, so the progression will likely be: mechanicals——> enjoy——>cosmetics——>Sunday driver.

It’s whatever he uses- I opened it up and it’s a micro squirt board atop another board. V1.4 of his stuff. It has wasted spark, which will be good for the fate of hoopty.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[moatilliatta]

I see nothing wrong with bringing cosmetics back to a 10 and just enjoy the wear and tear... Mechanicals > Cosmetics

Is that MS2 or 1 in the box?

[AWDBOB]

I think the real question here is whether you actually want to drive the M3. If yes, take the hooptie approach and enjoy! Then again, I always advocate for getting the car on the road end enjoying it over making it shiny.

I want to drive it! I've joked about spending all of my time and energy restoring the mechanicals and leaving the exterior as-is for a few years to really enjoy the car.


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I found a WhodWho Megasquirt unit set up for wasted spark and an LC2 wideband in a box at the warehouse and ordered head studs for hoopty..... it's a sign

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[KI4UJO]

I hope to restore the M3 to a high level of quality to get back to not just fixing shitboxes, but the temptation is there to treat the M3 the same way (mechanically strong, ignore cosmetics) until I have the coin/desire for some high end body work.

I think the real question here is whether you actually want to drive the M3. If yes, take the hooptie approach and enjoy! Then again, I always advocate for getting the car on the road end enjoying it over making it shiny.

[AWDBOB]

1(800)Hooptie

I'm loving the progress and lust the time to do the same.

You do a mighty fine job at executing detailed work at a high level. The E30 world needs you. I'm not sure the E30 world needs me to save hoopties, but maybe some day in 15 years there will be a couple extra cars on the road that didn't get parted.

I hope to restore the M3 to a high level of quality to get back to not just fixing shitboxes, but the temptation is there to treat the M3 the same way (mechanically strong, ignore cosmetics) until I have the coin/desire for some high end body work.

I think a hooptie is a good addition for most people, vs a second car that is also nice. Jake has plenty of nice stuff, but the hooptie excitement is something very unique to this flavor of endeavor. An itch that isn't quite scratched by nice paint and mint tail lights.

[moatilliatta]

1(800)Hooptie

I'm loving the progress and lust the time to do the same.

[AWDBOB]

+2 Hoopties saved

the mission has called me and i must follow

[2mAn]

+2 Hoopties saved

[AWDBOB]

ole Jakey boi came down for some PRI hangs, and to finally get to the bottom of his m20 test mule '89 325i that we've been trying to get running right for ages. Over the past 7-8mo he's tried everything possible to fix an extreme rich condition, including swapping an entirely different m20 in. We rewired the c191 when I was up there working on Linda, changed AFMs, ECUs, coolant temp sensors, all new vacuum hoses, etc etc etc.

This time around, we figured it out! We were getting ready to swap the engine harness, when we discovered that the car previously had a Miller MAF on it, which means someone was sending 12v to the 5v AFM reference wire to power the MAF, and overdriving the AFM. This was the entire issue the whole time. The old motor was fine, none of the billion sensors and things we changed were bad, but it was super rewarding to finally hear it run right after a painstakingly long diagnosis.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr


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The other crown jewel of the weekend was getting the slicktop 318 sedan M42 running!!!

For those who don't remember, I bought a slicktop m42 back in April out of West Virginia for a song that someone did a ton of work to, including swapping in a new engine out of an e36, new clutch, cooling system, etc etc. I bought the car as a non-runner, under the understanding that the car ran, but only for a few seconds until the car blew the fuel pump fuse. I haven't had time to look at the car since its purchase, so I never verified any of this.

With Jake's car diagnosed a day early, we had time to mess with it, and put a battery in the car for the first time since I bought it. We triggered the fuel pump through the C101 to see if the fuse would blow to narrow down the issue.

We quickly realized the car never ran as stated, as the new fuel pump the PO installed was for a 325 and thus didn't have an integrated return line into the fuel sender, so if the car would've ran it would've dumped fuel all over the top of the tank. New hanger on the way from Alibaba, since my only other high pressure-in tank-single sender-integrated return-pump option was $500. Will toss a quality pump in the new hanger before install.

With a temp hose ran into the tank via the fuel sender hole, we could trigger the fuel pump, and the fuse blew immediately. We put a meter on it, and saw that the fuse 11 had a hard short. Going back to the tank, we found the hard short at the fuel pump connector itself, on the new pump. Pulled the pump, and saw the pump wiring smashed in the tank, shorting out. If someone had put a bigger fuse in the car, I suspect this car could've possibly burned to the ground.

With a different (still incorrect) pump in the car, it was clear the car wasn't firing correctly. A quick look at the plug wires revealed cyl 3&4 were swapped.

Fixed the wires, and the car fired to life, for likely the first time in many, many years. With the car running, I started looking over the engine work and every vacuum leak possible was present, so I have my work cut out for me, but now that I know the car runs, it changes the nature of the project.

I have wanted a car that gets better mileage to use for daily duties, so my goal is to make this car safe to daily, add A/C and Cruise, and enjoy it all of next year and experience an M42 car for the first time.

I have spare b8s, H&rs, E30m3 sways, and 15" Kosies that I'll toss on and think it'll really bring the car to life.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[AWDBOB]

Do poly subframe bushings come out easier than rubber ones?

They usually do- this time around I used a late model dropout I was saving for this and the bushings I had to remove were rubber.

Tight spaces can be tough, big spaces get filled up with junk.

Glad to see some more hoopty wrenching.

What CR you going with?

Yep, my garage is made up of piles of parts that should all be at the warehouse, which is also full, lol. I have been focusing on turning my garage back into a breathable workspace. I would say it's getting there, but I'd be lying if I did.

The 2.7 build ends up being 9.4:1 compression using the above pistons, 325e 81mm crank, 325e 130mm rods, and shaving the block ~2mm.

I don't think I'm going to jump right into the 2.7 though, as I don't want the car to be down for any more time than it has to be. Just gonna toss a head gasket on it for now and reassess later.

[moatilliatta]

Tight spaces can be tough, big spaces get filled up with junk.

Glad to see some more hoopty wrenching.

What CR you going with?