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

[mjweimer]

And down the rabbit hole I went. It appears that boiled linseed oil is the ticket, and requires little prep. Helps seal the porous paint, as well as exposed metal.




Thanks, man!



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Got her back from alignment today and took the car for a shake down. The powerflex rear subframe bushings were a bad move- NHV went up quite a bit, but the reduce in flex is noticeable.

The rear end is very crashy. I have the rear 5"x2.25" GC springs/adjusters as high as they'll go and the car is crashing over even the smallest bump. I suspect shocks are out of travel, but would still like to get the rear end higher, so perhaps a 6"x2.25" rear spring is in order, and potentially Mustang Konis.

The good is that the front end feels excellent with the GCs and E36 rack and centered E36 CABs. I wanted to see how the camber plates aligned out and found this....... only two bolts in the camber plates. Wondering what went wrong to require so much adjustment. Perhaps something in the plate is assembled incorrectly? Pretty sure two bolts per plate isn't going to cut it. I could see three, but two..... no way that adjustment is going to hold.

The other positive is that my rear fender roll worked well, and there is no rubbing!


Rear end still slammed after adjusting the rear all of the way up.


Oh, and in the process of sealing up the cabin I found my wiper issue. These three ground wires (that you can see by accelerator pedal linkage on the left) were exposed and touching the pedal box when driving, causing the wipers to actuate/spray. Sealed them up, and problem solved! Have an ignition tumbler rebuild on order as well as the two firewall plugs for the locations shown below, but BMW NA is taking their time on orders at the moment. The firewall grommet was mostly removed causing a ton of water ingress, so I was able to get that reinstalled as well. The heater valve failed, too, so am going to steal a few seals from mr EDC Matthew and rebuild the one on the car.

Somehow I knew that rabbit hole would be explored...ha ha.


Solid (but still rubber) FCAB's are always a great choice to improve the feel of the front end. I have been pleasantly surprised how much nicer the Z3 rack feels in my car, I think any upgrade to quicken the steering a bit is worthwhile.


Got to love the simple solutions to problems and appreciate when the present themselves....

[AWDBOB]

I've heard that folks use a scotchbrite pad to level the patina before applying clear but I've never tried it myself. My neighbor has a couple '60's Chevy's with nice patina and he uses some coating designed to preserve the look after he scuffed with steel wool....I'm sure there is a deep rabbit hole on this topic within the Google's.

I hate chasing water leaks but it sounds like you are all over it....I've got some 25mm plugs if you need them. Keep that thing solid.

And down the rabbit hole I went. It appears that boiled linseed oil is the ticket, and requires little prep. Helps seal the porous paint, as well as exposed metal.

nice work!!!

Thanks, man!



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

Got her back from alignment today and took the car for a shake down. The powerflex rear subframe bushings were a bad move- NHV went up quite a bit, but the reduce in flex is noticeable.

The rear end is very crashy. I have the rear 5"x2.25" GC springs/adjusters as high as they'll go and the car is crashing over even the smallest bump. I suspect shocks are out of travel, but would still like to get the rear end higher, so perhaps a 6"x2.25" rear spring is in order, and potentially Mustang Konis.

The good is that the front end feels excellent with the GCs and E36 rack and centered E36 CABs. I wanted to see how the camber plates aligned out and found this....... only two bolts in the camber plates. Wondering what went wrong to require so much adjustment. Perhaps something in the plate is assembled incorrectly? Pretty sure two bolts per plate isn't going to cut it. I could see three, but two..... no way that adjustment is going to hold.

The other positive is that my rear fender roll worked well, and there is no rubbing!

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr




Rear end still slammed after adjusting the rear all of the way up


Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr





Oh, and in the process of sealing up the cabin I found my wiper issue. These three ground wires (that you can see by accelerator pedal linkage on the left) were exposed and touching the pedal box when driving, causing the wipers to actuate/spray. Sealed them up, and problem solved! Have an ignition tumbler rebuild on order as well as the two firewall plugs for the locations shown below, but BMW NA is taking their time on orders at the moment. The firewall grommet was mostly removed causing a ton of water ingress, so I was able to get that reinstalled as well. The heater valve failed, too, so am going to steal a few seals from mr EDC Matthew and rebuild the one on the car.



Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[e30austin]

nice work!!!

[mjweimer]

fully agree re: the patina! I love it. I will slowly derustify the car over time as I drive it for preservation measures, but the car won't ever get paint. I wonder how much time/funds would be required to matte clear the car down the road. The paint is quite scaly, so I'd imagine it'd have to be sanded a good bit for a clear to adhere without the paint underneath continuing to fail/bubble.

As far as ride height, I like the way that Linda looks/rides, so I've been loosely going off of her measurements to get it set up.

The big issue I am chasing currently is water ingress. Several firewall grommets are damaged/missing, the trunk leaks like crazy, heater valve started leaking, etc etc. I need to get the cabin dry so as to not promote any floor rust, as the floors are surprisingly good in their current state.

I've heard that folks use a scotchbrite pad to level the patina before applying clear but I've never tried it myself. My neighbor has a couple '60's Chevy's with nice patina and he uses some coating designed to preserve the look after he scuffed with steel wool....I'm sure there is a deep rabbit hole on this topic within the Google's.

I hate chasing water leaks but it sounds like you are all over it....I've got some 25mm plugs if you need them. Keep that thing solid.

[AWDBOB]

Looking good on the ground! I'll be curious to hear where you end up on ride height, seems like a bit more travel would be good for a semi-daily. That paint patina has me thinking paintless dent removal and matte clear to lock it in forever....

Thanks for posting the diff info...new to me and will be going in the archives.

fully agree re: the patina! I love it. I will slowly derustify the car over time as I drive it for preservation measures, but the car won't ever get paint. I wonder how much time/funds would be required to matte clear the car down the road. The paint is quite scaly, so I'd imagine it'd have to be sanded a good bit for a clear to adhere without the paint underneath continuing to fail/bubble.

As far as ride height, I like the way that Linda looks/rides, so I've been loosely going off of her measurements to get it set up.

The big issue I am chasing currently is water ingress. Several firewall grommets are damaged/missing, the trunk leaks like crazy, heater valve started leaking, etc etc. I need to get the cabin dry so as to not promote any floor rust, as the floors are surprisingly good in their current state.

[mjweimer]

Looking good on the ground! I'll be curious to hear where you end up on ride height, seems like a bit more travel would be good for a semi-daily. That paint patina has me thinking paintless dent removal and matte clear to lock it in forever....

Thanks for posting the diff info...new to me and will be going in the archives.

[AWDBOB]

Admittedly, its not an e30, but with my ti I definitely prefer the resonator w/the Stromung. I have a Magnaflow cat, ultra quiet, then Stromung. Its still a bit loud on the highway though has no drone below 55-60mph.

That is good intel!! I will take that into consideration when I have this m42 exhaust made.

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The racecar went on to live a new life in Detroit with a first time E30 owner. He is going to keep me in the loop as he builds the car.

With the racecar gone, I finally got time to finish building/installing Hoopte's coilovers. Found a new set of front rotors in the parts stash, so I threw them on along with a nice set of caliper brackets. The calipers themselves were just rebuilt, but the brackets used were pretty blown out. Also bled the brakes with Bosch ESI6-32N which has a good boiling point for the price. This seems to have solved my spongey pedal feel, but time will tell.

I forgot bump stops, will get some and put them on when time allows.

I also took a chance on a $75 "open 3.73" FB marketplace diff, and hit the jackpot. I found this SRS concepts Diff Gearset ID link via KI4UJO, and opened it up to find an "H35" marking and a "25S" marking on the carrier indicating 25% lockup and 3.73 ring and pinion ratio. So Hoopty has a diff for the manual swap! This led me down a diff identification rabbit hole for diffs I had without tags, and found out that I had two med case S2.93s and a small case S3.45 that I'm pretty stoked about. Screenshot provided below in case that link ever goes down.

I have an alignment scheduled for Monday, so I'm trying to decide on a ride height! I think I will raise the rear a bit since she's going to get all of the miles. Headed up to see Jake sometime early/mid Jan and we're going to manual swap hoopty as well. I reaaaallly like this car.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

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

[KI4UJO]

Admittedly, its not an e30, but with my ti I definitely prefer the resonator w/the Stromung. I have a Magnaflow cat, ultra quiet, then Stromung. Its still a bit loud on the highway though has no drone below 55-60mph.

[AWDBOB]

If you are using a catted center section I'd try the Stromung without a resonator first....I think it would be just fine. Otherwise....absolutely use a resonator without a converter.

Sounds like a great plan on the Classic Daily work...

Sadly someone cut the converter off, and with the price of a 50 state legal converter I planned on putting a resonator in its place. Perhaps, since this car is going to be sold off, it may be best to put a cat in to make it easier on the next owner.

We were hoping to tune Linda on his dyno & fix battery box rust before winter, but he ended up selling his old dyno and is transitioning to a newer dynojet! So I’m just going to wait until post-winter to take care of that, and get hoopty 5sp and on megasquirt in the meantime!

Proof:

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[mjweimer]

A supporter of the hoopty series offered up a stromung catback for this that I'll be using when I have the exhaust built (still have to retrieve yet, but that's the plan). I'm going to use an ultra quiet resonator in conjunction with the stromung in hopes to keep sound and drone down.


In other hoopty news, hoopty #5 (325iS) is going to cruise up with me to the ClassicDaily HQ some time this winter where we will be manual swapping and doing a before/after dyno Megasquirt conversion! Will likely report back this weekend (bday is sunday), with whatever I'm able to get done over the next few days. Coilovers are welded, should be able to build them and get them on the car, maybe get m42 hoopty running, etc etc. We'll see!

If you are using a catted center section I'd try the Stromung without a resonator first....I think it would be just fine. Otherwise....absolutely use a resonator without a converter.

Sounds like a great plan on the Classic Daily work...

[AWDBOB]

Hooptie #4 looks to be coming together well really well. You are spot on with your thoughts on the difference between the 4 and 6 cylinder cars, the 4 cylinder E30's are underrated by many but when you spend some time in one they have a different dynamic....and this applies to the M10 powered cars as well. Add lightness and good things happen.

Thanks, man! With how much I ended up having to do to the car, I think it will be rewarding to see it/feel it finished up. I am planning on keeping it around for a bit to experience the car with the 4cyl when it's done to 'say I did', and work out any kinks that may arise. The goal was to get it sold before winter, but now that we've already had one snow, it doesn't look like that's going to happen, so I won't be offended if it hangs out until winter passes.

Definitely interested to see how you like the m42.... the most fun I've ever had in an e30 was with an m42. In general, it felt about perfect.

I am excited as well! Just "handling" the engine/trans when putting it in the car gave me a perspective on how light it is. Curious to see how it all translates to the drive, overall.

I had a 318is and loved the handling. I like the sound of the six cylinders better, and that's why I originally sold the car.

A supporter of the hoopty series offered up a stromung catback for this that I'll be using when I have the exhaust built (still have to retrieve yet, but that's the plan). I'm going to use an ultra quiet resonator in conjunction with the stromung in hopes to keep sound and drone down.



In other hoopty news, hoopty #5 (325iS) is going to cruise up with me to the ClassicDaily HQ some time this winter where we will be manual swapping and doing a before/after dyno Megasquirt conversion! Will likely report back this weekend (bday is sunday), with whatever I'm able to get done over the next few days. Coilovers are welded, should be able to build them and get them on the car, maybe get m42 hoopty running, etc etc. We'll see!

[twright]

I had a 318is and loved the handling. I like the sound of the six cylinders better, and that's why I originally sold the car.

[KI4UJO]

Definitely interested to see how you like the m42.... the most fun I've ever had in an e30 was with an m42. In general, it felt about perfect.

[mjweimer]

Hooptie #4 looks to be coming together well really well. You are spot on with your thoughts on the difference between the 4 and 6 cylinder cars, the 4 cylinder E30's are underrated by many but when you spend some time in one they have a different dynamic....and this applies to the M10 powered cars as well. Add lightness and good things happen.

[AWDBOB]

Bringing the Carolina Squat to the E30 community....love it. Needs moar front height...time for iX springs.

Bummer on the front coils but it will be all worth it in the end and it will be right.

I kinda like the Ronals without the caps...maybe paint the center lug dished area black or dark metallic gray?

Bahaha I love it- if it didn't take time it would make for a hilarious photoshoot.

Yep, I had a similar thought about doing black or nogaro centers, akin to many of the Alpina wheels!


Prepped hoopte #5's original housings to get welded! Came apart like buttah. I love working on cars that havent been showered in brine all of their life.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr




Gettin' hoopte #4's new M42 together! Prepped a bunch of small stuff, mapped out all of my new hoses for the "mess under intake" simplification, etc. The new M42 had some head work done recently and also has a coil on plug conversion. I hate to admit this because #m20life but I feel like an M42 stroker would be a really neat motor with how light these things are. There is just so much room for activities, and the weight difference between m20 and m42 is more noticeable than I thought. The more I work on this car, the more it seems like it doesn't have many miles. Lots of small things are very clean/pliable/etc that I didn't notice initially. I didn't get a cluster with the car, so it's TMU, but it shows better than all of the 100-150k mile cars I've had.

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