My long finished e30 project

[anthonymax007]

Car looks great man! You may have already answered this, but did you go with the GC Conversion kit or the full coil over set up? I like everything you've done with the car!

(http://www.ground-control-store.com/...p/II=121/CA=98)

[KIRIEIW]

Car looks great man! You may have already answered this, but did you go with the GC Conversion kit or the full coil over set up? I like everything you've done with the car!

(http://www.ground-control-store.com/...p/II=121/CA=98)

I actually bought this kit here:

http://www.ground-control-store.com/products/description.php/II=912/CA=8

And then a week later decided I needed camber plates to get the most out of my tire life:

http://www.ground-control-store.com/products/description.php/II=859/CA=8

I also asked them to include new spring perches with the kit and they included them free of charge.

[anthonymax007]

I actually bought this kit here:

http://www.ground-control-store.com/products/description.php/II=912/CA=8

And then a week later decided I needed camber plates to get the most out of my tire life:

http://www.ground-control-store.com/products/description.php/II=859/CA=8

I also asked them to include new spring perches with the kit and they included them free of charge.

Gotcha. Thanks for the info!

[KIRIEIW]

Well tomorrow I'm getting new tires, along with having my wheels freshly powdercoated! I ended up going with the Yokohama S.drive's as my all time favorite BF Goodrich G-Force's are no longer available in 15".

I disassembled the center caps down to the aluminum waffle, so the waffles can also be powdercoated. The rest of the parts are plastic, hence why it needs to be taken apart. I plan on dropping the wheels off at 8AM, the shop I use for getting wheels powdercoated promised them to be done at 3pm. After that I'll run over to americas tires, get the tires mounted and balanced, and get my car off jack stands all in one day :D

Well at least that's the plan.

IMG_2878 by Kevin O'Brien, on Flickr

IMG_2880 by Kevin O'Brien, on Flickr

[KIRIEIW]

So I can't believe it, but it was possible! Got my wheels powder coated AND brand new tires mounted in 1 day, 8 1/2 hours to be exact. I went with a color called "Bengal Silver" and couldn't be happier. It's light silver at some angles, dark silver at others, and has metallic flakes when you look at it close up. Best part is because I disassembled the center caps, they where also powder coated so they'll be a perfect match! The only complaint would be the tires where extremely pricey, at basically $500 bucks for the set balanced and mounted with no rebates.. Might have trouble sleeping tonight but they do suit the car well, what do you do.

[ArtFoodBMW]

Those wheels though. Looking good!

[bangn]

god even the tyres look pretty!

[Jonnybravo]

Nice dude! Now lets see the vert's build.

[KIRIEIW]

Thanks guys! I made a huge parts order the other day for the car but I've been working non stop on this new convertible I haven't had any time to install. Basically its a bunch of Lemforder suspension parts to re due everything up front. I probably should have gone this route 3 years ago rather then using my parts car's suspension parts, but I guess on the plus side it'll have 20k miles less compared to if I would have replaced everything in the beginning of the build? Only plus side I really see..

As for the Convertible, I don't really think its worthy of a build. I detailed the heck out of it, pulled the seats, scrubbed the carpets + seats, waxed it, euro clock, new shift knob, to much to list. I never thought I'd buy a car that needed paint work but the plus is the clear coat peal is limited to the trunk lid, and rear plastic bumper. I'm actually surprised that the rest of the paint is pretty decent besides a ton of rock chips up front. Ahh what the heck, here's some pics. Notice I didn't take a pic of the back showing the clear coat peal I'm ashamed of :D.

[2mAn]

love it! Royalblau?

[KIRIEIW]

love it! Royalblau?

Thanks! I thought it's a pretty sweet color myself, has a hint of purple in it at some angles. Color label says "Mauritius Blue Pearl 287" in the engine bay, but ya basically royal blue. It's a color I've never seen before in person though on a e30, at least I don't think I have.

[KIRIEIW]

So I got a ton of work done today which I've been meaning to get done for a while now. First off, I'd like to say the little 318i I have picture's of above was sold, but I now have another Black 325i convertible project I've been spending most my time on. We'll see how long I keep it until I get bored, I really enjoy wrenching on project car's but there get's to a point where the project car isn't a project car any longer, but rather a nice weekend toy or new daily driver. I don't have the space for 3 cars, so later down the road there comes a point where I need to sell a car in order to have space for the next.

Enough chit chat and onto the build. I'm tired of doing this job, the driveshaft in this car failed yet again. The U Joint's are bad, causing a vibration to occur and take out the center support bearing. It's happened 3 time's now. Not only that, but I think the driveshaft needs to be balanced. Usually the bearing would last about a year before it needed to be replaced, but this time it lasted maybe 8 months if that. After removing it this time around, you could easily tell the U joint are binding and not operating smoothly while before they still felt good. I've been assuming all this time maybe the driveshaft was just un-properly balanced but now I know it's been the U joints.

I got lucky, I decided to take my chances and buy a used driveshaft at my local junkyard. Well the one car there happened to have a rebuilt one, along with a 3.73LSD :D

I've been working since Noon and packed up around 5pm, all I need to do now is re install the rebuilt driveshaft, with the brand new center support bearing (The one on the rebuilt shaft was in great shape, but off a 88'. My car required the older 87' style).







My Ground Control suspension is a bit dusty, but working great! I plan on whipping it down with a rag before pulling the car off jacks.



Pic with the original 2.93 open dif and driveshaft off the car



I ended up using a ratcheting wrench to get the top bolts undone. Those bolt's are TIGHT! Really need more leverage which you can't get with a wrench alone. I ended up using a pry bar, If you ever try to swap out your diff and your reading this a ratcheting wrench is almost a must. There where plenty of area's I found that I could use to wedge the pry bar. The biggest concern was I might scuff up the undercoating, but I didn't which was awesome.




CV Joints disconnected







I also had to transfer sensor's over. My car's use's the older style pictured on the left.





Rebuilt driveshaft is the one on top. Notice the red arrow stickers and a "bar code" sticker on the right side. Sadly, the U joints aren't serviceable/ greaseable but at lease there buttery smooth.

[KIRIEIW]

And a pic of the 3.73LSD installed. I scrubbed it up clean before installing, but the old cosmoline was suborn and stayed on the differential so that's the weird splotch's of color's your seeing.

[stonea]

Beautiful looking car man. My dream e30 is an early model Alpine white with plastic bumpers.

[KIRIEIW]

^Thanks man, I actually had a set of white plastic bumpers a while back I was seriously considering putting on the car but for some reason ended up selling.

Well today I got the driveshaft installed and the whole exhaust system bolted up. It's been raining on and off today but the good part about working under a car is you stay dry! After finishing up the driveshaft, I drove over to my Dad's house and he helped me install a front wheel bearing. It's gotten so loud over the past 2 weeks, glad I got that fixed. The wheel bearing replacement was possibly the easiest mechanical job I've ever done on this car.

The bad new's.. My whining in the rear still remains when I make 90* turns. It's only for a second or two you'll here a High pitch "Wheooo Wheooo Wheooo", usually hear the tone 3 times and it'll stop. I thought the original differential was definitely the cause of the whining sound. Not only that, but since fixing the front wheel bearing, you can now hear the rear wheel bearings going out.. I estimate them to last about 2 weeks till they sound horrible like the front did. I'm wondering if the high pitch sound is related to the wheel bearing's. I highly doubt I have two bad differentials making the same exact noise.




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