Hello. My name is Dan, and today I doomsday prepped

[Boris3]

The HIK plate is a beast. Added benefit is that with the frame welds and the cross bar you can jack the car up by the plate.

[straight6pwr]

KaiserRolls said:

That's more of a bash plate than a skid plate holy shit. I think if you hit something hard enough to need that, you have bigger problems!

Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it though!

even if you have bigger problems, the skid plate still survives.  you may recall my last e30 leaving the freeway and finding a guard rail doing 75 and both the oil pan and the skid plate both surviving (even with a 100% f*d core support and bent frame rails)

[straight6pwr]

freaking great weather today. I putzed with the car and met a new local BMW guy - nice to meet you Mike! he is mkoepp here on the forums and has an awesome 535i that he is fixing up and a sweet alpine e39 touring daily.

joe was awesome and lent me a 4x100 spacer so I could test fit my new rollers before ordering adapters and tires. the front wheels are 16x7 et33 currently with a 205 tire, and with a 15mm spacer here is the clearance I got at the strut. i'm very pleased with this, I should be able to fit 225s with a final et18 offset. it will be almost an identical tire placement in the fender as a 16x8 et20/225 tire, which is common e30 setup.

rear will be no problem at all. 16x8 et38 with 15mm adapters with put me at et23, which is very close to the best e30 setup of 16x8 et25

here are the wheels in question. drove all the way to Minneapolis to get them. Seller was a nice guy who does automotive photography and daily drives a porsche cayman and a mini cooper.

and I think Earl must have accidentally ordered some parts for me. who doesn't love a bag full of new hardware?

I managed to get the coolant tank on (and flushed the system), got the washer tank and fuse cover on, installed a new trunk emblem and placed some of missing hardware bits around the car as well today.

[m42b32]

Thanks again for dropping that bleeder screw off at Mike's place! Those wheels are going to look absolutely perfect on there

[straight6pwr]

m42b32 said:

Thanks again for dropping that bleeder screw off at Mike's place! Those wheels are going to look absolutely perfect on there

No problem, and thanks!

Another great weather weekend (whats up with that?)

Finished another all red taillight DIY.

Previous e30s i've painted with the Testors model paint, but the e34 I used lamin-x with great results, so I'm doing that again with the e30.

It takes just 2x universal sheets 7"x8"

start at the inside and work around the corner, pushing out bubbles and making sure to leave no creases. some water and a credit card works well to push in edges

the lamin-x works around the edges really well. just keep forming it with the credit card

you have to work it between the groves on e30 taillights

then just trim all the excess around the edges

and done. the lamin-x has a great shine, just like the original taillight finish.

 

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

then I replaced the sunroof crank.  it was broke and the return spring was long dead. pretty much falling off the car:

yup, broken frame

new parts. also, I love this thing. way more fun than pushing a button.

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

3rd project: passenger side front seat was borked. it basically was leaning back against the rear bench and could not be reclined out of that position.  I found a guy in illinois who had a "fully working, just needs cleaning" set of black vinyl seats. well, like most people on Craigslist these days, he was either an idiot or just lied. drove all the way to some god-forsaken suburb (homer glen??) including $12 in tolls each way to find that the passenger seat was good, but the drivers seat was completely borked...well i needed the passenger seat, and he wouldn't sell it alone so I ended up with both seats plus another extra drivers seat bottom frame and mechanism. swapped the passenger seat in and decided to learn how to take apart e30 standard seats and see what was causing them all to be borked.

found mice nests in both seats...

mechanisms all seem fine, even on the non-functioning seats...

ahhh, jackpot. the seat bottom frame where the main pivot point of the mechanism is bolted is torn. not cracked, completely torn off.

so out of the 5 seats that i now have in my position, 3 (probably 4) are in the same state of broken. design flaw? i think so. at least I can save all the seat material which was in really good shape on all of these.

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

Project Front lights.  when I bought the car only the low beams were working.  highs, turn signals, euro 'city' lights, and fogs are all inop.

Turn signals were just not plugged in. only good news of the day.

High beam bulbs were dead. easy fix with a run to NAPA KNOW HOW

City lights were never hooked up or even bulbs put in, so I made some harnesses which connect the city light holder to the e30 stock side marker plugs.

Top: harness that comes with Depo euro headlights for the 'city' light.  Bottom: bulb holder for stock e30 side marker

merged together for an eternity of happiness.

All lights now working! I do need to get better HIDs, these are generic crap 1,000,000k ebay ones that are very dim. Also seen in this picture - new BMW center grill and Abraham Motorports 'Kopi' euro grills and smoked turn signal lenses.

#5: i also wore down my rear tires a bit driving around today

[Boris3]

Looking good!!! In addition to the seat material, you might want to save other bits that might be in good/OK shape such as the seat shocks, rails/sliders, plastic lever covers, etc. It's getting harder and harder to find decent seats as you well know, so repairs are going to be the trend.

[Jdesign]

Looking good man!!

[Earl]

^Ditto=)

[straight6pwr]

thanks, dudes.

Boris3 said:

Looking good!!! In addition to the seat material, you might want to save other bits that might be in good/OK shape such as the seat shocks, rails/sliders, plastic lever covers, etc. It's getting harder and harder to find decent seats as you well know, so repairs are going to be the trend.

yes, good point. i've made a bucket of seat stuff and gave it the very technical label of 'ass alignment parts'

[visian]

damn daniel, in the sincerest way possible.

[straight6pwr]

visian said:

damn daniel, in the sincerest way possible.

lol, back at it again with the white e30

today was tire day. cue E*trade commercial. Mr. P's Tires in Bay View will due 4 tires mount/balance for $60 cash. first come first serve and they weren't busy today so I made two runs.

here are the e34 snows mounted and the new e30 tires mounted. if you aren't using General Altimax Arctic snow tires on your car, you should be. Better snow/ice performance and cheaper price then any of the big brand name snow tires. anyways, i'm hoping to due a test fit of the e30 wheels tomorrow if the weather is OK.

I went with a 225/45r16 square setup. I've always wanted 225s on my e30, but have usually gone with a 'stickier' 205. unfortunately by now, 225/45 is nearly an extinct tire size, and the only reasonably priced option is Nexen Nfera so we'll see how they work.

so the next easy (or so I thought) project was putting on my new M-rain shift boots.  5 min job right? NOT ON THIS POS. the shift knob is completely and unequivocally fused to the shift lever.   

i know the e30 tricks. I'm sure you guys can picture me straddling the center console and pulling up on the shift knob straight towards my face waiting for it to give way and punch myself. well, that didn't work. next idea:

didn't freakin work either....the wrench and shift carrier were beginning to flex so I had to stop so I didn't bend or brake something on the trans/shifter.

so what's next? well a torch, of course! i'm still laughing at myself for this, but it was worth a try. there is too much rubber/plastic inside the ///m shift knob, so i couldnt get it hot enough before the fires started. the tinfoil idea worked though!

so the next step is of course removing the entire lever in hopes that i can separate them in a vise or something. so i cut the old boot off and removed the rubber shift boot, which was wedged and ruined due to the placement of the shift carrier when using e36 parts in an e30 swap. (i will fix that later)

yaaaay another $20 part in the trash.

this is so far the only good surprise i've had working on this car. a dssr!

well, I got the shift lever out, but more bad news.  all that damage is not from me. my guess is someone else did exactly what I'm trying and that damage is the result of a failed attempt to separate the lever from the knob. i really would like to save the zhp knob, so not sure what I will do with this..son of a bitch, get me a drink.

on a side note, this is the z3 ///m shift lever, which is super notchy. I think I'll replace it later on with a regular z3 lever

so after all this, still no shift boots installed.

[m42b32]

+1 for the general altimax arctic, I have them on my M3 and they are worlds better than the old blizzaks I had before them, I was pretty much a snow plow in some of the storms last year and could go anywhere I wanted. For the price you definitely can't beat them. 

Sucks about the shifter though, is it possible someone glued it on?

[Boris3]

+2 on the Altimax Arctics. Good in snow, cheap, and when the roads are clear you don't have the dry squirm/float of the blizzaks.

[straight6pwr]

good to see other people using those tires with good success.

m42b32 said:

Sucks about the shifter though, is it possible someone glued it on? 

must be. with how tight the knobs fit already, it wouldn't take much super glue to get a near-permanent stick. i'm going to try to soak some acetone between the two to see what happens.

[KaiserRolls]

+3 on the altimax. That's what brooke runs and they are beastly.

DSSR is a good find.

FWIW, I used all e36 parts on my swap in the shifter region and dont have alignment issues?

Did use the e30 rear carrier though. And also +1 to the notch feel of the z3m, I believe that is what I have. I like it :0

[straight6pwr]

when setup with e36 trans + all e36 shift parts (carrier, lever, selector rod, selector joint), the center of the shift carrier is forward and right from where the stock location is. the rear bushing that holds the carrier doesn't make any difference, and has to be the e30 part anyways.

where did yours end up?

[KaiserRolls]

straight6pwr said:

when setup with e36 trans + all e36 shift parts (carrier, lever, selector rod, selector joint), the center of the shift carrier is forward and right from where the stock location is. the rear bushing that holds the carrier doesn't make any difference, and has to be the e30 part anyways.

where did yours end up?

I will check tomorrow, but as far as I know, it wasn't out of whack. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think I'd remember if it was shifted (punz) that much

[Bassboy3313]

Good to know about Mr P's tires with mounting/balancing for when I get tires for the e21.

Sent from my SM-G930R4 using Tapatalk

[KaiserRolls]

I lied I didn't check today

[straight6pwr]

well, i was unsuccessful at pulling the shift knob off. i soaked it in acetone overnight but it didn't help. I wrenched on it a little until the point when I was starting to damage it, then gave up.  until next season, i'll just leave it be.  for now, i mounted the shift boot with the lever off, then reinstalled the whole thing at once. This is 'M Rain' fabric for those unfamiliar. Matt-B on r3vlimited makes and sell the sets.

and all mounted in. i also had an e34 leather ebrake handle from the parts car that I threw on.

I test fit my wheels today. full specs on the wheels I picked up are:

BBS RS243 16x7 et33 (Fronts)

BBS RS310 16x8 et38 (Rears)

All original finish (very happy about this) is in pretty good shape, maybe a 8.5/10. some pitting around the bolts, and the inner barrels obviously look 20 years old. I'm glad they aren't perfect so I don't have to worry about them.

4x114.3 with 66.1 centerbore

Got some Adaptec adapters made up with the 4x100 to 4x114.3 pattern. 15mm all around (thinness available)

my maths were correct. et23 rear and et18 front. i got no rubbing anywhere on my test drive, which is awesome. however the adapter bolts are a little too long so hopefully they will send me some shorter ones.  front strut clearance:

and had to get a good picture before taking off the whole setup after the test.  i'm happy with how far I've gotten the car, and I think I'm done working on it for the season with the weather swing finally here.