My name is Earl, and I have a Stainless Steel bolt fetish =)

[Earl]

This ring has been on my finger for almost four years. No engagement here=) 

.

Also, I don't want the diff and trailing arms to be rusty. Not sure how it even happened since it had rust reformer and was rustoleum paint.

[jc43089]

I would use some serious paint like KBS rustseal, it is very easy and looks good when done, I prefer the gloss black.  You can buy it on their website or Napa usually stocks it, at least mine does.  Rustoleum paint has not been very durable in my experience.

[Earl]

I was thinking about grabbing some of that for when I seal my front inner fenders=) I will have to look into it. It wouldn't take any more than 15 minutes to drop the subframe again and a day to redo the paint.

[jc43089]

It is very durable, I just brush it on, it self levels nicely to a nice smooth surface.

[Earl]

My m44 crank pulley showed up yesterday=)

I gave it a quick wash

Then I gave it a coat of paint

[Earl]

A while back I was working on getting some vinyl cut to make my custom "Touring International" badges. A guy on Instagram saw my idea and told me he could make me a set of badges from lexan. He told me that he made a "BMW Compact" set by hand painting it from the back side and painting black over the top. I asked how much he wanted to do them and said he would make my "Touring International" badges and send two "BMW Compact" badges to me for free. I was excited. He never sent me any teaser pics but he mailed them from Europe around a month and a half ago. I was excited for them but lost hope because we both thought they got lost in shipping. The mailman came yesterday and dropped them off and I couldn't wait to open them. 

They turned out amazing. I thought he simply hand painted them from the back but it is much more than that. He actually machined the letters out from the back and then painted them in. This makes them 3D just like the OEM badges. I will take pictures of the backs when I get home and also some of the "BMW Compact" badges.

[B C]

That is very cool!

[KaiserRolls]

Neat

[Earl]

More front and back pictures of the badges

Saturday I started by installing my m44 crank pulley

I was very happy to see that the trigger wheel was the same as the m42 pulley. I never even thought to make sure before switching over. 

After that I threw the intake manifold on temporarily to get it off of the bench and to see how it is all coming together.

It is much bulkier than I would like but it is about as good looking as it is going to get without making a log style manifold. 

After that, John arrived and decided to attack the rear wheel bearings. These were a nightmare. Getting the hubs out was pretty quick and simple. The inner races were on them pretty tight and pounding them out wasn't working. We set them to the side so that we could work on getting the outer races out of the trailing arms. 

We were having a terrible time removing the snap ring for holding in the bearings. We ran to Napa to get a snap ring pliers in hope that they would work great. Well the pliers design for holding the tips wasn't exactly up to par and they kept turning when we were removing the snap rings. I ended up getting fancy with a straight pick and two screw drivers to work them out. 

After that, we figured the outer races would come out with brute force. That wasn't working. We then tried multiple ways of pulling them out of the arms with no luck. 

The piece of uni-strut bent before the race even budged. 

We went off to the hardware store and bought a dremel, figuring it would be our saving grace. It worked excellent for removing the inner races from the hubs. We moved onto the outer races and couldn't quite reach all the way through. 

The new neighbor to the shop then came home and upon introduction, recommended we use his air chisel. He walked on over with it and zipped them out in a matter of seconds........I should have introduced myself sooner. 

After all of that, John pressed in the new bearings. I brought the hubs to work so that they can be sandblasted and repainted. I will install them Saturday afternoon.

How the car currently sits

[jc43089]

Yep rear wheel bearings suck, I got one out on another e36 by cutting the outer race with a die grinder which took hours.  On mine I took the whole control arm to my neighbors shop and he pressed them out no problem.  Way easier to remove the control arm than fight with that bearing on the car.

[Earl]

Before

After

I painted them last night and will take pics of them dry today.

[KaiserRolls]

What hasn't been gone through on this car???!

[Earl]

From the firewall to the gas tank underneath=)

[Earl]

I took some pictures of how the hubs turned out. They're good enough for me. Much better than before

I also just sandblasted my rear sway bar at work and will be spraying it tonight or tomorrow=)

[Earl]

I sprayed the sway bar last night and will take pics when I get home

I also got my studs re-installed in my rear hubs and I put the rotor screws in so I don't forget them Saturday

[Earl]

Lets see how this holds up on the sway bar

The bar seems to be made out of either a very dimples piece of stock, or it just got that corroded over time. The surface texture plus the gloss black paint has a sort of hammered/wrinkled look. 

Fine by me=)

[KaiserRolls]

You'll never be able to see them anyways man.

It lays frame ffs haha

[Earl]

KaiserRolls said:

You'll never be able to see them anyways man. It lays frame ffs haha

Only in front though=P lol I agree no one will see any of this and that it doesn't need to look perfect, but it will bother me if I paint something half ass or leave it rusty haha

Also, this is the smallest diameter sway bar I have ever seen lol

[jc43089]

I was surprised at how small the rear sway bar is on the e30, it is smaller than my pinky finger.

[faja92]

Hey! I havent been on for a while but I thought I'd mention, I work at a powder coating place and I'd powder coat whatever anyone desires for cheap