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

[Earl]

Yeah they were original to the car. I am not sure why he parted it. He was some random German guy that doesn't speak english. I would assume super low mileage though.

[RamRod E28]

Would ya possibly part with the old wooden steering wheel??? That may look good in the e28!!! And damn good finds on the interior and the steering wheel might I add, this car is gonna be beyond awesome!!!

[patsbimmer1]

Earl... I'm a little jealous of your damn seats!

[Earl]

Ramze46 said:

Would ya possibly part with the old wooden steering wheel??? That may look good in the e28!!! And damn good finds on the interior and the steering wheel might I add, this car is gonna be beyond awesome!!!

Thank you. I sold the old steering wheel to Jake a few months back. He has it in his e30=)

Haha Thanks Pat

[B C]

Go to sleep

[Earl]

Snap said:

Go to sleep

I slept. haha Went to bed at around 9:30 and got up at 2:40=)

[REKIII]

Never trust early risers.  They are shifty.

[RamRod E28]

REKIII said:

Never trust early risers.  They are shifty.

LOL couldn't resist

[Earl]

I got a bit done Saturday.

I started off the day by working on dying my "new" carpet. It had light fading in spots and I wanted to make it look as new as possible.

I went with Duplicolor Vinyl and Carpet dye. I brushed it in after each coat and then brushed it in the end. The feel of the carpet is no different than the feel of my old carpet.

Before:

After: (it is darker in person, white balance sucks on my phone)

I drug my old carpet out too to get a comparison:

After that my buddy Dustin stopped by and dropped off a set of center caps that he has been working on for me. The agreement was that I wouldn't get them until the car was done, but he was sick of them sitting in a box in his kitchen=P 

They are concave but it is hard to see in the pictures. They also have an o-ring groove to make them easy to pop in and out. I am not sure if I should leave them as is, polish them, or have them powdered to match the faces. Right now I am leaning towards leaving them as is.

[Earl]

After that Dustin and John had an idea to get the valve cover clean inside. We cycled the fuel pump with a battery and used the old gas to slosh around in the cover to remove the aluminum chips. It took a few times but it worked great. 

I then installed the valve cover gaskets:

John and I then installed the cover and the mounting plate for my COP kit:

Since I don't have plugs yet, we just set the coils in and hand tightened the bolts to keep debris from getting in the cylinders:

Since we were putting the engine together, I installed the lower intake manifold gasket and also got my knock sensors cleaned up and re-installed:

John wanted me to keep installing as much as I could on the engine so the next step was the fuel rail. It had some scuffs and minor surface rust so we ran to grab a can of my favorite paint....Wrinkle Black. I didn't get any after pictures since we weren't there long enough after I sprayed it to see it wrinkle, but I will get them sometime this week. 

After that we finished up my axle refresh. The boots were in great shape so we just redid the clamps. We used stainless steel ties which seem to work well for people.

Other than that my interior should be coming soon so I brought my rear seat bottom home to uncover so that I can wrap it with the new seats fabric when it arrives=)

[B C]

center caps look amazing

engine looks amazing

it all looks amazing

[Earl]

Thanks Snap=) I really like how it is coming together. Once I get the quote for finishing up the metal work and painting I will be really happy.

[ClassE]

Looking good!!!

[Earl]

Thanks Collin=)

[patsbimmer1]

It all looks good Earl!  Great progress!

[Earl]

Thank you Pat=)

[RamRod E28]

Things are getting real, real fast!!! Looking good man!

[YoungCR]

I agree leave the caps as is, its very unique! Carpet turned out great too, ill have to try that on my black interior.

[Earl]

Thank you sir=)

Thursday I arrived to the shop to see how the fuel rail turned out.

I also installed a little more hardware from Fastenal.

Before

After

They gave me an m10 nyloc nut instead of an m12, so I had to put the old diff bolt back in until they get that sorted. 

I went to Summerfest Thursday as well and saw this

I wanted to take it for a ride so bad=)

Saturday I decided to make it my goal to get the car back on all four wheels. With me patiently awaiting my quote, I figured that the car needs to be ready to roll as soon as possible. 

With that I started by priming the front subframe and control arm mounting areas. I wanted to make the surfaces as nice as possible to keep from dirtying up my new parts. I didn't want to install any of this until the entire front end was cleaned up and undercoated, but they will be doing that when they paint so I will be dropping this all once it gets to the bodyshop anyways=)

I started by laying everything out (I didn't lay out the struts and calipers since the cardboard was too small)

I then installed the front subframe

After that came the control arms and Treehouse Racing mounts

I then bolted the front knuckles to the struts and then installed them on the car.

[Earl]

After that I installed the front rotors (with my stainless ECS retaining bolts)

Followed by the front calipers

Once the front was tackled I moved onto the rear. 

I installed the axles

Then it was time to toss the wheels on and drop it back onto the earth

We were going to drop the engine in for shits and giggles, but didn't have the proper straps and I couldn't air the front of the car up high enough to get the engine hoist legs to slide underneath. 

Things are now happening at a steady pace=) I am hoping to get the car out to paint within the next month. My interior and other small tasks should keep me busy while it is away