Non-BMW Stuff on a BMW Forum
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Yep, sounds like a solid one to ignore lol
Haha. I was planning on ignoring it for the rest of the year - except once I got the skid plate off I could see it was coming from the weep hole on the water pump and not the gasket.
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Parked.
I'm starting to put together my winter plans. Here's what I HAVE to do:
- Replace water pump.
- Replace RMS.
- Get rid of the garbage Garagistic solid gear selector rod joint.
- Replace rear DS axle and wheel bearing to get rid of the vibration.
Here's what I WANT to do:
- Rebuilding the HVAC box. One of the recirc flaps is broken from the rod. Confirmed last night that both motors work and the fan turns on to low speed when the button is pressed. I also would like to replace all of the foam seals.
And here's what I've been contemplating. I have to take the front of the engine apart to do the water pump. I have to take the transmission off to do the RMS. By doing those two things, half of the work is done to just remove the engine/trans. And now I have a lift and could easily drop the engine out the from the bottom. With the engine out there are some places with surface rust that I would like to address within the bay. And in general, the engine bay is poor shape. I would love to clean it up entirely - not talking about a full shave here - just a clean up and spray.
A question about a general clean up of the engine bay. I wouldn't be going for full a fully shaved bay, but I would take a grinder to it to clean up the surface. Are there any negative affects that would come from smoothing out the seam sealer to an extent that would allow me to effectively prep the surface for paint?
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- Get rid of the garbage Garagistic solid gear selector rod joint.
A question about a general clean up of the engine bay. I wouldn't be going for full a fully shaved bay, but I would take a grinder to it to clean up the surface. Are there any negative affects that would come from smoothing out the seam sealer to an extent that would allow me to effectively prep the surface for paint?
do expound on the Garagistic part, please.
given your car is no longer seeing daily or winter use, i dont see removal/reduction of seam sealer being a problem. i have no idea if the 30 year old seam sealer will give you a nice finish if you start grinding/sanding it though.
there is definitely someone here that has shaved their e30 engine bay though, Sam with the drift car I think?
Dan
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do expound on the Garagistic part, please.
It appears they now have a Version 2:
@The Full Bananaand myself went in on the preorder for when they first made them and the first version, the bearing is flush with the housing. On this one it protrudes. So after you install it in the DSSR, the bearing doesn't do shit. Plus - they made it about a mm thicker than the oem one, so I had to file down the DSSR for it to fit in it. Basically ruining it if I want to replace the selector joint. I will be replacing the joint with an OEM piece and get a new DSSR from anyone else. I don't need anything else from Garagistic anymore.
given your car is no longer seeing daily or winter use, i dont see removal/reduction of seam sealer being a problem. i have no idea if the 30 year old seam sealer will give you a nice finish if you start grinding/sanding it though.
there is definitely someone here that has shaved their e30 engine bay though, Sam with the drift car I think?
Is the seam sealer intended to provide some structural rigidity to the body or is purely for keeping the seams sealed from moisture/rust?
But valid point on the quality of finish after it's sanded. Someone posted pictures in this thread a while back. I'll have to go back and check them out. Is the seam sealer solid if it is sanded down or does it stay kind of gummy?
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I know I'm late to the party on the comments, but my engine bay had been shot with a home depot HVLP, and a 10 gal craftsman air compressor.
The only large difference is that I didn't have large flat areas that I had to worry about air consistency as much. Using an inline water trap, and a water trap right at the gun makes the largest difference.
Painting is something I always wanted to spend more time with, but takes time and space!Engine bay for reference.
Here it is. @GunMetalGrey can you share what you did the clean up the seam sealer?
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I saw those selector joint things when they had the first release. Passed because garagistic lol
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Can confirm, the garagistic selector joint is total bullshit. How they decided to release that is beyond me.
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Seam sealer will not sand. it It is soft and turns to melted shreds and smears if you use a wire wheel on it too. It's very difficult to remove. It's about like working with the undercoating. After my experience messing with it I would recommend leaving it alone lol.
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Seam sealer will not sand. it It is soft and turns to melted shreds and smears if you use a wire wheel on it too. It's very difficult to remove. It's about like working with the undercoating. After my experience messing with it I would recommend leaving it alone lol.
I’m not opposed to that. Given it’s texture, I would be concerned I wouldn’t be able to clean it well for paint to stick to it. But maybe since it’s so textured paint will stick to it really well.
Removed the dash today, was pretty straightforward other than the write up failing to mention all of the wire harnesses pass through the ducting on it.
I’m going to work on cleaning up all the wiring. I’m going to remove most of the stereo stuff since I’m going to do an amp and new speakers and will reroute all the wires a cleaner way. Also taping everything and probably use the wire loom I used in the engine bay in here too.
All of this stuff running over to the glovebox area I never used. Would it be safe to just snip them off and heat shrink the ends? The only purpose of that would be to clean and simplify things.
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@jc43089 would a needle gun be gentle enough to chip the existing paint off the seam sealer but not smash it like play dough? Even then I'd recommend that tool for most of the paint/rust removal as well. It's great for any scaly rust areas and harbor freight has 2 sizes available.
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@jc43089 would a needle gun be gentle enough to chip the existing paint off the seam sealer but not smash it like play dough? Even then I'd recommend that tool for most of the paint/rust removal as well. It's great for any scaly rust areas and harbor freight has 2 sizes available.
Not sure, I would guess poor results but maybe it would work.
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@jc43089 would a needle gun be gentle enough to chip the existing paint off the seam sealer but not smash it like play dough? Even then I'd recommend that tool for most of the paint/rust removal as well. It's great for any scaly rust areas and harbor freight has 2 sizes available.
I forgot about those. Would make cleaning up the frame rails a lot easier - which are the main spaces I need to clean up, closer to the firewall.
There was one spongy spot under the washer fluid reservoir that I could push my finger through if I wanted to.
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Not sure, I would guess poor results but maybe it would work.
Is there a special primer I could use that would adhere to the painted surfaces better if I couldn’t fully prep the seam sealer surface?
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I suspect I may need to get somewhat creative with the non-return flap found in the HVAC box. It's this:
It looks like I could open the "clip" at the top and swap in a new piece of rubber. Other than roaming the isles of Menards looking for a suitable material that I could cut up, does anyone have any suggestions of a comparable material I could use? It's just rubber.
I ordered this and the blower motor cover straps from ECS and they were both about two weeks out and I just received an email that they are now 3-5 weeks. My fear is at 5 weeks they email again and say they're another 3-5 weeks out or unobtainable. BMW of North Milwaukee had the straps in their system and those will be here in a few days, but this flap is coming from Germany. It doesn't appear to be available on any of the other online stores.
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https://www.amazon.com/SPAL-30130012-Replacement-Rubber-Shroud/dp/B019XDLULW
rubber flaps for radiator shroud pass throughs might be the right “weight/thickness”
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https://www.amazon.com/SPAL-30130012-Replacement-Rubber-Shroud/dp/B019XDLULW
rubber flaps for radiator shroud pass throughs might be the right “weight/thickness”
Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!
Got the HVAC box completely apart last night so I can clean it out and replace all the foam on it. It is pretty disgusting. Lots of dead bugs inside of it. I guess that's what happens when they didn't come with filters.
Crusty "non-return" flap:
Broken recirc flap and the other one starting to crack:
Interior wiring all cleaned up. Re-loomed all the wire harnesses. Speaker wire and RCA cables coming today and then I can run all the stereo wires to the trunk and put the carpet back in.
I was really considering doing more insulation inside the car to reduce road noise but I read quite a few reviews of the sound deadening mat and other insulations (some specifically being used in an e30) that explained how the results were negligible at best. So rather than spend the couple hundred bucks on more insulation, I'm just going to leave it and turn up the music instead.
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Here it is. @GunMetalGrey can you share what you did the clean up the seam sealer?
Man, I want to do another engine bay like that again, I appreciate you bringing up the photos again!
I believe I used a wire wheel to strip the seam sealer off. I used Eastwood seam sealer with lacquer thinner on my finger to smooth the new seam sealer.
Very therapeutic activity when it goes properly haha -
Man, I want to do another engine bay like that again, I appreciate you bringing up the photos again!
I believe I used a wire wheel to strip the seam sealer off. I used Eastwood seam sealer with lacquer thinner on my finger to smooth the new seam sealer.
Very therapeutic activity when it goes properly hahaDo you recall how removing the seam sealer went? Was it a shit show? Did gum up or with the wire wheel did it come off pretty easily?
Your engine bay was much cleaner and, I'm assuming because of the swap, has much less stuff in it than mine does. So I'm not even sure if the extra work to remove the seam sealer would be noticeable.
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A wire wheel on a grinder will take off seam sealer. On a drill it probably won't do much. Wear a full face shield. Also check clothing for little bits of wire that will stab you later. Can't say much about painting over it. Good so far, but my car doesn't get used...
Seam sealer as a structural component is an interesting thought. I suspect that the flexibility of the seam sealer would allow the two panels to move slightly relative to each other before it resisted. Since the panels are spot-welded together, they won't be able to move, so the force would be transferred through the weld without the seam sealer doing much. Could be wrong, but that's the best I got.
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