Non-BMW Stuff on a BMW Forum

[gilber33]

straight6pwr said:

so the bushings fit fine, but you've pulled one side out (and created that gap) to match it to the length of the metal sleeve?

Bushings fit into the arm fine. I installed both bushings flush. Pressed in the sleeve and it sticks out one side pretty significantly. The gap is shown between the arm and the lip of the bushing because they must have shifted around during install. I didn't intentionally create that gap there. I had installed the arms with the bushings flush against the arms and the gap at one side (as shown in my pic below). But the act of pounding them in must have created the gap where it is.  

straight6pwr said:

does the length of the metal sleeve match the gap between the subframe brackets?

Not at all. I needed to use a mallet to pound the trailing arms into the brackets. Here's a rough sketch to show the difference between the bushing and the bracket. 

Edit: I finally got a hold of someone at Revshift and they said that the small gap is to be expected. He said that their bushings and sleeve have a small amount of "play" in them to ensure they fit for variations in the size of the subframe brackets due to age of the car and inconsistencies in production of the car. He said that once everything is put together; springs, shocks, swaybars, etc., that little bit of gap will not affect anything. He did say he has had customers trim down the sleeve to fit their car better, but that you need to be careful doing that because you do not want to be tightening the subframe brackets against the bushings since the bushings need to rotate on the sleeve, and the not the control arm rotating on the bushings. 

Still a little skeptical. Part of me wants to toss in OEM rubber bushings and call it a day.

[The Full Banana]

Looks like they've designed them to enhance snap oversteer for additional ditch trajectory.

[Jdesign]

Just shave it down a hair and be done with it. you will find out later if it matters or not when you are winching the car from a ditch.

[gilber33]

I'm taking them out and trimming the sleeves.

[jc43089]

Maybe measure the length of the sleeves on the original bushings and trim these to match?

[gilber33]

jc43089 said:

Maybe measure the length of the sleeves on the original bushings and trim these to match?

That is a really good idea had I not thrown the old ones away after I melted them.

[gilber33]

Bushings flush on the arm and the sleeve flush on one side. This is how much it sticks out. 

 

Sleeves trimmed and test fitted. I have new poly grease coming from amazon to lube it all up. 
 

[straight6pwr]

that looks better!

[gilber33]

Passenger footwell done. 

Found these two little rust holes under the rear seat. Anyone know what’s right there? Both sides have a small hole in the exact same place. 
 

 

I found this other rust hole. Any suggestions on fixing this one? Removing the battery cable to make access would be easy, but the rest of the hoses are fuel vent lines, correct? And they look like they would be rather difficult to move out of the way. 
 

And needs a couple more coats, but the carpets are getting there. They look stripey because after each coat I have been brushing it in. It’s dry this morning and looks significantly better. 

 

Also had some beer going while I was working tonight. 
 

[straight6pwr]

not 100% sure, but the brackets for the two rear gas tank mounting bolts might be hung under those square sections. I've never had the gas tank out of an e30, so I do not know for sure.

this under chassis  picture leads me to believe they are, and the three rust spots you're seeing on them are the spot welds that hold that bracket on.

[gilber33]

I believe you are correct. I looked at my posts earlier of under the car and those brackets seem to line up when comparing them to the grommets where wires pass through the floor. I was going to just do a topical patch with seam sealer, but I need to pull all the tank vent lines to fix that hole in the wheel well, so it might just make sense to pull the tank out and properly fix those two spots. They’ll be easy ones to fix. 

[gilber33]

Confirmed tank mounts are what’s rusted out. 

[straight6pwr]

glad you caught this now instead of later when your tank would be riding on top of your driveshaft!

[gilber33]

straight6pwr said:

glad you caught this now instead of later when your tank would be riding on top of your driveshaft! 

I didn’t even think about that since these are the only two brackets on the backside of the tank.

[gilber33]

One down. Marked some guidelines for the mount.

Cut it out. Then cut a patch piece and used the mount cut out from the car for some guidelines on the patch. Cut off the actual mount and welded it on to the new metal.

And then welded that into the car. 

 

Coated the seams with seam sealer and then will do the same as the footwells and coat it with Por15.

[jc43089]

Nice work!

[gilber33]

jc43089 said:

Nice work!

Thank you! 
 

Got the rest of the interior matted and carpet back in. 
 

I also pulled out all the vent hoses. I will need to cut down the pass through pipe in the car as the end of it was rotten. 
 

My goal now is to start getting things back on the car: rear subframe, interior, gas tank, etc. I need to free up space to get my wife’s car back in the garage and I have struts and shocks for the wagon to do.

[gilber33]

Got the rear subframe back in (more like resting back in its place)! It was kind of annoying how difficult it is to get back in if it’s not completely straight. But it is one less thing on the floor. 

And the underside of the new fuel tank mounts. The seams have seam sealer, Por15, and then underbody coating  

Went to Home Depot for Black Friday and got a new pair of work gloves and a Husky 650 ft lb pneumatic impact. I had the grinder with a flap disc slip and go through a thin pair of work gloves and fillet the top of my finger. I’m always going to  some type of reinforced glove going forward. 

[Jdesign]

gilber33 said:

Went to Home Depot for Black Friday and got a new pair of work gloves and a Husky 650 ft lb pneumatic impact. I had the grinder with a flap disc slip and go through a thin pair of work gloves and fillet the top of my finger. I’m always going to  some type of reinforced glove going forward. 
 

Ive been there. Weird how it takes that one time to change your mind on safety LOL.

Progress is looking good!

[gilber33]

Haven’t done much to the bmw. Tonight I painted the seat rails with Por15 to clean them up. 

And then I was putting in the heater core and there is this gap at the bottom of the heater core and heater box. I can only assume there is supposed to be some insulation there? I ordered a behr unit and they only gave me enough to wrap around the sides of it. Am I correct there should be a strip of insulation that covers this gap? If so, what can I do/use since I don’t have any more with the new core that I ordered. I removed and tossed out the old one without thinking of looking at how it should be installed