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Engine Parts = Sexiness!!!!
At this stage in the game, the complete head, block and crank are all at the machine shop just waiting for the rest of the parts to show up. My machinist will be getting some custom piston rings made, as he has his own special recipe for increasing efficiency. He also did not want to start cutting on anything, until he had pistons in hand, so he could be 100% sure of every measurement we are working with. To that end, allow me to present a veritable smorgasbord of M10 engine internals.
The laundry list of parts includes a Cometic head gasket (.066” thick), ARP head studs, Glyco main bearings, and coated Calico bearings for the rods. There’s also some super sexxxxxxxxxy, Pauter 4340 connecting rods (144mm), and a set of custom JE Pistons for the build.
The one part left to really think about is the camshaft. I will be asking Elgin cams to give me a custom grind, tailored to the needs of this build.
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Driving Impressions
367 miles of the 500 mile engine break in complete. Spent 4/18 driving 168 miles on back roads from Brunswick to Freeport to Gardiner to Wiscassett to Damariscotta to Brunswick. Some of the roads were pretty rough and there are no squeaks rattles or clunks. Vern's handling is very tight and predictable, love the new H&R springs, feels very sure footed. Was able take a "recommended 15mph"turn at 35. Tomorrow it's back to VSR for for an oil change, head torquing and valve adjustment and a few punch list items.
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Houndstooth ready
Wow I understand why upholstery cost so much, a few months back I broke done these seats & it took me about an hour. Putting them back together takes time and patience. But I love putting things back together & make it new again. Houndstooth Fabic and vinyl looks great with new cushion. Still more to come, bottom section with leg extension and head rest on deck
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Current Affairs
Like the title says these are some pictures of what I have done past half year since I bought the car, it's not that much considering how much my work tempo improved but I can see porgress now.
I will need to replace the nose with the 'new' one I have already, I will also need to replace the back after an accident which 'cracked' the backside of the car. My 'new' back is nearly ready to go back onto the car considering what it looks like right now.
Also the floor panel passenger sight front needs doing, the replacement panel rear side left and I wanna, finally, do the rear axle left side like I did the right side.
Since I became very enthiousiastic again I am hoping to make some good progress coming period. I bought the car just after the summer, so finally some nice wheather and light outside.
I can' t wait for the car to get blasted, I will paint it myself at home and then start on the suspension.
Keep you updated when I' ll make some progress, cheers JP
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Progress before the break
Since I’ll be out to sea for more or less the next 10 weeks, I took the opportunity this weekend to knock out a bunch of projects on the interior:
cleaned up the wiring under the dash
ran the new sensors sensors for the gauges
more or less got the gauge wiring done
wired up the power and windows to the new switch panel
cleaned up under the back bench
cleaned up and required a bit of the aux fuse panel
trimmed the trunk boards so they fit flush
fit the new rear light lenses to replace the cracked ones
took out the passenger seat and replaced all of the bolts to the frame and bolts to the car
finished up the heater box rebuild (see previous post)
reconnected the amp and verified wires in place
when I get back I still need to do a bunch:
source a constant hot for part of the gauges
repair and recover the dash
run wires for AFR
figure our why I no longer have switched power from the aux fuse box
rewire the left turn signal- worked briefly but no longer shows on the speedo gauge
rebuild the heater valve and refit the heater box
refit the speaker pods and install speakers
install rear speakers in shelf
source and install third brake light
finish center console
fire our wiring for brake warning idiot light
at some point I’ll recover and refit the interior panels, get some seat covers for the recaros, and install the new rear seats
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Sealed up and closer to stopping on its own.
The primer finally dried so I was able to seal everything up. Michigan does not want to give up on winter yet. I sealed all of the patches and plugged holes on the car. I probably went over kill and sealed inside and out. I want a nice non-fumey, dry car.....
Then I got cracking on the rear drums. I picked up some backing plates off a 1980 320I, They are so much bigger than the stock drums. At some point i will upgrade to discs. Just hard to argue with a $200 near rear brake setup.
Here's to more productive weekends in the garage.
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Cardboard M10 rockers
I'm in crunch mode to get this damn build done for the 2018 Bay Area Show & Swap on May 5th.
Rocking it
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Exhaust work
Did some work on the exhaust... I was hoping to save the pipes, but I've decided to replace the parts. I think that I'd just be chasing my tail if I tried to patch it up.
Put in an order at Pelican for:
Muffler (Front)
Brand: Ansa Note: (1968 BMW 2002 Base Coupe)
Part #: 18-12-1-245-265-M125Muffler (Rear)
Brand: Starla Note: , Fits Auto Transmission (1968 BMW 2002 Base Coupe)
Part #: 18-12-1-245-484-M235I also orderd some hanger parts and gaskets... With some luck I'll be up and running soon.
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The Current State of Affairs
This is where I am with the build. I probably should have started this blog a long while ago but I'll try and play catch up. Right now as I'm trying to save money for paint and body work I've been busy working on other aspects of the car. As it sits once the car is painted I'll probably be about 90% done with it, I would just have to slap everything together. If any of you have Instagram you may have seen some of these pictures already, so apologies in advance as there are many of them.
Here are a few of the parts I'm done restoring/assembling:
Big shout out to the ever patient wifey as she let me keep some of these parts in the living room for months at a time (I never bring greasy or dirty parts inside the house only new or clean ones). As you may have noted there is a black theme to all of this. I HATE chrome with a passion, almost as much as I hate those cars that have "JDM" style stretched tires. The car will eventually be painted in Alpinweiss, a nod to the E30 since it will have the M20 motor inside. Also I like the black and white contrast with touches of "gold". All of my hardware has been yellow zinc plated, that includes door mechanisms, window cranks, everything steel. All the aluminum has been anodized black. All the trim, bumper, etc. has either been painted or powdercoated semi gloss black. That racing dynamics valve cover I actually nabbed at a pick-a-part here in Cali for like $20, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it. We weren't even there for that car; there was an E21 we were picking parts off and I just happened to walk over to this E30. Unfortunately that was the only RD goodie on the car (no 24v head, equal length headers).
Right now I have the tranny done, it's still at the shop though waiting to be picked up. The motor and cylinder head are at the machine shop being worked on. So in the mean time I'm doing as much body work as I have time for. My plan is to start at the front of the car and move back. I shaved the engine bay, I still have to grind out and smooth all the welds. Currently I'm welding up the 4 drain plugs, mounting the seats, trying to set up a date and time to fit the roll cage.
Speed holes? @AceAndrew did you say speed holes? I got some for ya. This took me FOR-EEEEEEEEEEEVER. Came out nice, although I didn't do it so much for speed but for looks. I should have weighed the hood before I started, but I can tell you now it weighs 39.75lbs. Next up for the hood is louvers, talk about perforation! I mentioned a build sheet last post, which I made but promptly forgot to bring home with me (it's on a flashdrive), so I should have that next time hopefully with a few updates as well. I made a build sheet for my reference and yours mainly in case anyone was curious and so I can remember where the heck to get replacement parts, but the car is not nor ever will be for sale. I'm having a hard time deciding whether I want it to be my casket or to pass it on to my children
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brake time.
I was just taking the car off the stands when I noticed that the rear inside wheel was wet. The only thing, wheels cylinder. This spiraled into another round of parts.
cracking the drum reviled bad new.
Everything was contaminated.
even the cylinders are not even worth rebuilding.
So new parts ordered. drums shoes, wheels cylinders, and since I was there I decided to new new flex brake lines all around.
I also cleaned up the rotors.
installed/
rear brake flex tubing
im assuming the the old ones were originals.
Thanks it for now,
Cheers.
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Trunk and interior
Some progress. Interior removed.
FedEx brown front seats and the original saddle brown back seats and rear door cards removed.
Fuel tank removed. Cleaned and painted the trunk and spare tire well with POR15.
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Weekend get away
Here I’d like to share memories from the last trip. My wife and I flew to Los Angeles for a few days to see the car
We wanted to spend a couple of days driving the car through scenic routes in the area. We drove Angelis Crest Hwy down to the coast then up to Santa Barbara. We met a nice group of E30’s owners on Angelis crest. Then we had delicouse seafood in Malibu. Finally we spent a couple of days in Santa Barabara relaxing.
This was a much needed vacation. This car has created many
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Wheels Part Two
So this is a pretty small update, but there's a change in plans with my wheel selection. Originally I was planning on building up the OZ Vega faces that I had sitting around. Given the 2002 was already converted to 5x120, I figured this would work out great. While I was told that 30-hole RS parts will bolt up to these faces, I have some concerns about the "how".
After breaking down my RSs to steal the barrels, I realized that the back of the Vega face doesn't have a machined lip for the barrel to sit on. My worry is, this would put a lot more stress on the bolts, as there isn't a surface distributing the weight evenly. There isn't a lot of information on this, so maybe someone can speak to the safety aspect of it, but it didn't sit well with me.
Note the lip on the back of the face. The RS barrel sits snugly on this.
The Vega lacks this lip.
If anyone has more experience with this, let me know. I'm still fairly new to wheel building, but I didn't want to risk this and have the wheel bolts snap on me. In any event, I've decided to put the Vega faces back on the shelf, and instead swap the 2002 back to four lug and run my RSs. With a one inch lip, they're the perfect spec for a 2002. I already have a line on four lug hubs, so I'll be trading for those to run my RSs.
I originally picked up these RSs in horrific condition. I blew them apart, put a two inch lip on them, refinished everything and threw them on my E30. I then sold the E30 about a month later, so they saw 0 road time.
How I first got them.
Post-restoration.
So I once again tore them down, I'll send the faces off to get powder coated (again) this week, and reassemble them with the original 1" lips (which are already off getting polished). This will put them back at 15x7 +25. With a 195/50 tire square, the car will be sitting perfect. If anyone is interested in buying some OZ Vega faces, let me know
Irrelevant to the above, my new license plate came in. The default Arizona license plate looked horribly out of place on my car, so I went with a copper historic. It's the little details that make a world of difference. The car is due for a photo shoot here soon, just posting photos of the car in my driveway is getting a little boring.
I always forget to clean up these damn newspapers.
I'm going to Stance Wars Las Vegas this weekend, which will slow progress on the 2002. I have some parts coming in this week, but likely won't have a chance to install them until the following weekend. So that's all I'll have for a while.
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Trim n Ting
So i had a few days off so i started work on finishing the center console and the rest of the interior bits. i do need some help with how to fit my wing mirror as ive lost all the clips/bits from the mirror so need some other ideas.
got a door card all together
got to finish the faceplate on it, smooth off where i have screwed it, paint it again, and then flock it before fitting.
nardi wheel without the wooden center, the horn is raised slighty so looking to get a flush one.
also gave it a quick wash and took some photos
paint looks great when its cleaned.
got the swage line trim fitted, wasnt exactly the most fun job as all the holes were full of paint, so i have to reem them out, nd then a light coating of paint on the inside to prevent any water going to the metal
quite happy with how it looks!
so next on the menu is the wing mirror, the drivers door interior bits, finish the center console and then maybe ill take it out for a spin
thanks for looking
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Down to 2 cars and a pile of pieces
Weather has been semi decent and there was a lull in paying work so I drug an air hose, a body saw, and a sawsall to the backyard. The '69 is doneski. I pulled the cracked windshield, removed the wiring harness, slipped off the firewall insulation and pulled the 3 piece dash. Once those items were safely stowed away I drilled the spot welds and removed the rain tray. I cut off both aprons, the drivers side frame rail, the lower windshield drip rail, and some rusty pant and shirt snagging bits n pieces.
When I first started removing rear panels from this car last year I felt kinda uneasy. As if I was doing something wrong. The more I cut off this car the better I felt about making that decision. The aprons were full of mouse nests. I'm unsure if the mouse nests caused the rust, or the rust allowed the mice in. Regardless, you could put your fist through the firewall from the interior through the cavity in the apron and either exit into the wheel well or hang a right and go into the engine compartment.
The front strut mount pads were convex and the outboard rear subframe pickup points hanging on by scraps of rust. The inner rockers, or at least what was left of them had detached themselves from the floor pan flanges. It was time.
The plan is to use the rain tray, rear parcel shelf, right outer wheel well, rear subframe and susp. for the '68. The frame rail, floor pan sections, nose, and possibly the roof skin will be used to save the '73. Another FAQ'er asked about the rear seat kick panel and a portion of the lower rear windshield metalwork. The '69 will live on in other cars.
I left the bulk of the right apron intact. The block matches the apron, and I have an IL junk title to match both. Not sure what to do with those items, but I think they should stay together.
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With the dolly done, I've been working on pulling parts off of and out of the car in preparation for soda blasting and paint. First, I drained and removed the gas tank. I have a small marine gas pump and an extra 4 gallon gas can, which I completley filled 3 times (and dumped the gas into my truck). So that was over 75 lbs in gas and another 15 lbs or so for the tank.
Then I took the seats out. The seats are a bit of a mystery. The latches for both backs are broken and the headrests don't move. I have new covers for the seats, but this was the first time I was able to take a really good look at them. The back seats have no padding at all on the bottom but some foam padding that somebody may have added on the back. This makes sense because the seat bottom is newer and doesn't match the back. The front seats have horsehair pads but the bottoms have been repadded and include some foam. I recall the horsehair on my other BMWs was constantly depositing hair on the carpet under the seats. No horsehair under the seats on these. So if I'm really lucky, somebody replaced the horsehair pads and supplemented it with an extra foam pad. I won't know unti l start dismantling them.
The front seat backs are a different story. They are clearly the original horsehair, which is in bad shape. Since getting foam density right is such a dark art, I think I might try to find some replacement foam from a similar seat from a different car and cut it as needed to make it fit. Newer car seats often use multi-density foam that you can't just buy at a fabric store. (i.e. softer layer on top, stiffer bolsters, stiffer on bottom, all in one gradual foam pour rather than layers of sheet foam.) If I can find something close, I'll try it and let you know how it goes.
Back seat bottom. New cover. No padding at all other than the backing on the cover. Note surface rust everywhere.
Seat back. Looks OK. Old cover. decent foam. More surface rust. Was there originally horsehair here? My '76 530 had horsehair everywhere.
Front seats in the original US-spec vinyl and velour. Just a bit too ratty to be cool.
Front seat bottom. Padding and a piece of plastic. There is some light colored, non-original horsehair in there that is not disintigrating. More surface rust.
Front seat back. Kind of scary. Original horsehair is disintigrating, of course. Headrest rods are rusted so badly that they won't budge. (I'll hit them with barkeepers friend) Note stray wire on left, that is the broken back latch release. Parts for that are NLA so I'll have to get creative. I am determined to put these or equivelent original seats back in the car. I might have the frames soda or media blasted in an effort to remove the rust.
I was also able to remove a bunch more trim including the lower trim, the midline trim, the waistline trim and the gutter trim. I still have to remove the trunk and remove the trim from the trunk and the hood. And of course I have to remove all of the little plastic trim keepers from the body. And I have to remove the front fenders.....
The new reproduction fenders came in from Restoration Design. I posted some info in a thread elsewhere, but here is an image of one of the fenders. These are wallothnesch fenders and they look OK. Might have to fiddle with the openings for the corner markers a little and there is some drilling to be done, but they will work. Sorry, I just realized I don't have an image of the entire fender as I was most concerned about the light fitment.
I also got the Ireland Engineering front air dam as well as the rebuild kit for the steering box. I haven't opened them yet, but I was a little surprised at the way the air dam (and steering box kit wrapped inside) was packaged. I don't think I've ever recieved an auto body part that was just wrapped in saran and shipped like this. Normally, $56 in shipping would warrant a box. This "package" weighed 2 lbs, 12 oz! To be fair, Restoration Design charged me $70 for shipping but that was for 2 fenders and they were large, well padded and double boxed, total weight of the fenders: 25 lbs. I like Ireland Engineering a lot and will keep buying stuff from them, but geeeez guys! Presentation means a lot!
That's it for the past week. I'll post what I did this weekend shortly.
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BMW M2 with S54 engine - As it sits
Haven't posted in a while. Thought I'd provide a pic of the car as it sits now. Drove this junk up from Texas through New Mexico, Oklahoma, Missouri (Misery), Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, to PA. Handles beautifully, not too harsh considering the suspension spring rate. The Toyo HP's performed flawlessly when I hit a snow storm on the Penna Turnpike. You may notice I lost a wiper blade and arm, also on the turnpike. If anyone has a wiper arm with the airfoil please let me know. Waiting till spring to get the seats and door cards reupholstered, but otherwise I am super happy with the car. The thing is stupid fast.
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Home Sweet Home
Recently I got the car home. I elected to postpone the final sand and polish until it's mostly assembled in case it gets a minor nick or scratch that needs to be fixed. Everything turned out amazing.
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She got her new kicks!
Back from the shop with a rear drum upgrade and new kicks. Still not sold yet on the front stance. May install coilovers to bring her down a bit. Aw, what to do, what to do. It never ends......
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We have Bristol !!
Got new photos today from the garage. The car is finally painted and looking good!
Next step is going through all the parts we have and figure out what we still need. Its going to be a massive jig saw puzzle and is one of the many downsides of buying a restoration project that someone else has taken apart.
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AlpinA Gr. 2 Cooling & Oil System Mock-Up
Doing some 'mock-up' work on my radiator/cooling system and dry sump oil system. There is a method to the madness you see on the various car shows as far as basically building the car then tearing it apart, then painting and putting back together. It definitely saves on drilling and cutting through fresh paint which is never a good thing....paint is over a year old now so maybe not so fresh.
I feel like i have the radiator and expansion tank just about right, maybe need to raise the expansion tank just a hair. Biggest problem at the moment is that somewhere I need to mount a 1 liter catch can/bottle - with the oil cooler and hose running through the front of the nose, nowhere to mount it there....maybe in the wheel well (will need to confer with my expert fabricator friend on that one).
Dry sump plumbing/hose is working out well I think, I used one of the old oil coolers as a mock up. According to Setrab, it needs to be a little bigger (the cardboard behind represents the dimension it would want to be). The one hose I have in now is the inlet (pressure in), the scavenge/outlet is slightly smaller and would connect into the oil cooler on its way back to the tank in the trunk. The oil cooler gets into the plane of the radiator some but now way to avoid (either side is the same way), + the bulkhead support/hood support blocks some of the cooler so I am thinking about whether I could remove some of the material (hole or holes) to allow air to connect with the cooler (another reason I am looking into a fiberglass or CF hood.
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KoogleWerks 'how to' installation videos
We just put together this (kinda silly) little video to help customers install their kooglewerks air dams....hopefully it provides some useful information.
(on a side note: the air dam I install in the video is a new "slim" version, smaller than any previously offered!)
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5 Speed Install
When the body work was done the 5 speed was already part of the plan so the BFH work was included. All relevant threads were studied and Parts gathered along with a transmission lift. Nothing left to chance so I thought. I even took a 5 minute drive to the local BMW dealership to talk to the foreman and came away feeling confident.
To be sure I hung out with my local independent shop manager and watched him prepare to install one in this
Again I left with confidence.
But reality bites...
jgerock reminded me to lengthen the reverse switch wiring (wasn’t on the punch list) so I did that.
I took my time with the pressure plate + clutch torquing (1 turn at a time on each bolt diagonally),
Then I was ready.
Box on lift, forward, up, input shaft too close to springs, back, bumping tunnel, down, snag plate lip, back and down, too far left, wth I’m moving in the wrong direction. Ok, up, forward, stuck on tunnel again, down, right, up, check input shaft placement, up, shove, crush reverse switch blade connector ...
Aargh@$67hg#!!?!!!
4 days later new switch arrives, along with
the 2 quarts of Redline MTL I forgot to put in the gearbox.
Yesterday, went smoother though it still required a bit of adjusting positions and some physical effort. As Zaza Pachulia once said “nothing easy, NOTHING EASY “
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Head came back today.
Head just came back from the machine shop today. Bored for the 84.5mm forged piston set.
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