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

[AWDBOB]

FIRST VINTAGE TRIP WAS A SUCCESS!!!

On Wednesday night at 5:30p, hoopty was still fully apart. I had just sealed up the new water pump the night before, and had 5-6hrs Wednesday night to put the car back together for the caravan the following morning with the Rivertown Gear Busters down to Hot Springs, to meet up with Simple_Smith, JakeB and Tim, who caravanned down from Michigan.

No HVAC box, no dash, carpet, etc etc. I somehow pulled it off, and was bleeding coolant by 11:30pm.

The trip down was flawless, and the trip was a blast. We stayed in Hot Springs, and Corey showed me the ropes of NC back road ripping. Out of all of the cars that I've had over the years, this is the most intentional seat time I've ever had in an E30, and it was incredible.

Unfortunately, part of the way through the trip, I discovered that my cooling system was pressurizing due to a small internal leak in the HG. The car held steady temps and performed great the whole weekend, and didn't pop a radiator line until I got home. It was pressurizing the system so much that the air was building up in the coolant res and pushing the coolant down throwing on a low coolant light. On the way home, I kept burping the system of the air at the top and made it home! This explains why I've gone through two heater valves and a water pump already. Sorry Febi for talking smack on your water pumps, when the fault was my own, lol.

We barely spent any time at the show on Saturday, but turbo'd Jakes 02 in the parking lot of the Clarion Friday night. Drove it there sans turbo, drove it back to Hot Springs at 3am making 4psi.

Overall an amazing trip, and can't wait to do it again next year.

As for hoopty, I have so many other projects that need to be finished up first that I won't be fixing the car any time soon, but have some cool things plan in the engine department.

Anyway, here are some photos!


When I started working the night before I left.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr


Repaired a ton of hacked wiring down in the drivers footwell, a pillar and passenger footwell. And fixed my cruise by bypassing the clutch switch, so I had cruise the whole way down!

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

Carpet in

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New HVAC box foam, r134 expansion valve, green orings, and new OEM heater valve

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


HVAC box In

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Ready to rip!

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Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr






Vintage photo dump


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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 Flickr
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 Flickr

[AWDBOB]

You did say the heater box was disgusting.. the under-dash area lives up to it. I bet it smells significantly better now

Yes- it was a bit intimidating how nasty it was.... but we are getting there one step at a time!

Got the nasty carpet out. With a good clean it'd actually be nice. Not too many uncut gray carpets floating around. I am reinstalling a lesser quality carpet in the car.

Floors looked rusty, which worried me, but with a quick hit of a wire wheel it was all superficial outside of both corners, which I can fix at a later date.

Rust converter, and then am going to use black farm&implement paint, as no one had a POR15 style option available, and time is of the essence here.

Gross

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Better

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



Ground down


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Converted


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




Letting it cure for 24hrs and then will apply farm&implement.

[KI4UJO]

You did say the heater box was disgusting.. the under-dash area lives up to it. I bet it smells significantly better now

[AWDBOB]

Man this car is disgusting. Also finding chewed and pinched wires everywhere, so I am going through EVERYTHING.

It's going to be a crazy week, as I work until 6:30pm every day up until Thursday when I leave early AM. I am pulling the carpet tomorrow and going to see what I find underneath and will do a deep clean with a pressure washer and extractor, then throw it all back together with a deep cleaned dash, new HVAC box, deep cleaned carpet, LUK box, etc etc.

Cluster bulb wiring cut and just sitting bare in dash

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr


Map light harness sliced open behind a pillar

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Mouse grossness

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



Cracked dash FTW


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Yoink


Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[AWDBOB]

Hoopty vintage prep is under way! Snuck up quick.

I put a new Graf water pump on it, and got all of that buttoned up. I found a rough but waaaay better valence at the warehouse, so I threw that on. The drivers side bumper shock needs to be replaced, but hoopty doesn't deserve it. It is way better than before, IMO. The drivers side headlight was held on by zip ties and the bracket was broken in several different places, among a bunch of other hillbilly fixin's that I reversed to the best of my abilities.

Got an r134 conversion coming, but that stuff won't be ready for vintage. Pulling dash tonight/tomorrow to replace HVAC box and get the rest of the grossness out of the interior. When dash is out I will be replacing expansion valve and adding HNBR orings, and will also be installing a Lukbox and sound system I bought from a generous r3ver from Ohio. I suspect the cruise is inop due to rat infested cruise module, so am going to replace that as well. Would be quite nice to have cruise on my way down to NC.

Finally installed the roof rack as well!

As always, I love this thing.

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

[AWDBOB]

Did you sell the black hoopty ? (no idea which number that is at this point lol)

Nope, slowly working on it here and there as I have time.

Got the new M42 running recently, need to change SI board out, install cooling system, have exhaust made, wire radio, etc. It’s almost done though…. Or at least way closer than it was before.

[2mAn]

Did you sell the black hoopty ? (no idea which number that is at this point lol)

[AWDBOB]

Whoot! Vintate! More space for more stuff!

oh yeah!! Stoked for my first vintage experience. It's looking like I'll take hoopty iS. My time is limited week-of, so flying up to pick up Linda from Jakes to then drive it down to NC from MI is unlikely

[moatilliatta]

Whoot! Vintate! More space for more stuff!

[AWDBOB]

More m42! I am definitely 100 percent onboard.

Yes!!! I was joking the other day about m42 swapping everything I have now that gas prices are crazy.

This car will be fun to finish off- it just had an e36 m42 installed with a fresh clutch and whatnot, but won’t stay running due to the fuel pump fuse blowing.

[KI4UJO]

More m42! I am definitely 100 percent onboard.

[AWDBOB]

I didn’t know Febi even made water pumps! So many sketchy parts out there!

That 318i pump worked out? Glad to hear it’s running!

Neither did I, lol, I had it on the shelf from an old project and figured quality couldn't be that bad..... and here we are!

Yes, feels so great to have 318 running that I bought another one!

Fairly not rusty '91 318 slicktop.

I also overflowed into the bay next to my current warehouse spot and it's waaaay nicer than spot #1.

Vintage is booked! Don't know if I'll be taking Linda or Hoopty yet, but I'll be there either way.

After the vintage, things are about to get wild.... will update more on that later.

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

[moatilliatta]

I didn’t know Febi even made water pumps! So many sketchy parts out there!

That 318i pump worked out? Glad to hear it’s running!

[AWDBOB]

Hoopte 318 runs!! Jake came down last weekend to pick up an e21 parts car he was stashing at the warehouse and we tried to get the M42 running to no avail. Pinned out coil packs to ECU, manually pulsed injectors, etc etc.

He had to head back to MI and it sat for a week. Yesterday I had the thought to swap the oil/coolant sensor plugs on the side of the head and she fired right up! Super stoked, because this means I can start to button up other areas of the car, get exhaust built, etc etc.

It has been daunting getting this car with a cut chassis harness and blown motor, to now hearing it run!

The cluster I put in the car apparently was on its way out, because I now have a maxed out coolant gauge with ignition on.

The new Febi water pump I installed on Hoopty #5 (325iS) failed so I have to fix that. I also dropped a 2.7L crank/rods with a nice late model i block off at the machine shop. With how slow Kevin works I suspect Linda and 318 will be sold by the time he's done. Going to put a 9.4:1 2.7L stroker in hoopty on the cheap since I had the parts, whenever the other projects slow down.

Also, hoopty #5 is still pretty biohazard, so I'm going to pull the dash and rip the interior apart and do an extensive clean, so if anyone has any leads on a nice but still damaged in some way dash, I'm in the market.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[Elysian]

I disassembled Hoopty #4 a loooong time ago for the chassis harness job and haven't felt like buttoning up the interior, until now. She's lookin' good with the black vinyl with houndstooth cards. Going to put a continental radio in the car to finish it off. If anyone has an a/c switch they want to sell me, shoot me a message.

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Gave the trunk a quick tidy up before tossing the panels in.

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Engine harness is coming along! Put a new accelerator cable in among a million other small things. Waiting on an intake boot and TPS from Jake and the car should run!

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Post notes: I'm glad I gave this car the time of day. It's really, really solid. The way the doors shut just feel good. I fear potential buyers won't notice what a good E30 feels like in a sea of shitboxes.

Hopefully next post is a start up and exhaust fab!

I'm pretty sure my 88 has the A/C switch, I'm not going to be using it.