Learning on the fly 1971 2002 restoration

[dondmar]

Things are continuing to move along towards having the motor in before the end of the year. I got a box of goodies from Summit in the mail on Wednesday that really kicked the wiring into high gear. Summit isn't the cheapest place in town but they had everything I wanted and I know they will ship it fast. Patience is not my strong suit.

So a full setup of Hella relays to relay everything that needs, a few distribution fuse blocks for switched and constant power to run accessories and switches, my distribution post (in lieu of the E30 one) and enough connectors to choke a horse. I forgot who posted the blow-ups of the wiring diagrams a while back but Thanks! I had a 24"x36" wiring diagram to work with that I have labeled and take notes on and it has made my life way easier. I have noticed the wiring diagram does not 100% match up with the wires in the car so there is still some tracing to do. I ran relays for high and low beams, the horn, electric fan, and fog lights (I don't plan to run fog lights but I am wiring them in anyway for use later). I know it's been said here before but hockey stick tape works really well for wrapping wires, sticky and has a nice look. I used standard electrical tape on wires that could be subject to oil or the weather since I removed the factory plastic tubing.

Still a long way to go but it's coming together nicely. I have the electric fan, headlights, horns, and fog lights all wired up and ready to go as well as a lot of the engine bay wiring taped and labeled. Next I will be putting in the 2 accessory fuse panels and get all of the 12v wiring in place before I move into the cabin of the car. I also put the trunk seal on using some generic Locktight auto adhesive and using a pair of clamps to do about 6" at a time, pretty painless that way and it's a nice tight fit.

Another thing I fixed was to replace to sunroof drain hose I drilled a hole in when removing the door frame, bonehead move. When I removed the old hose, I drilled a hole through it at the end and wrapped some wire through it so that the wire would serve as a guide when I put in the new hose. I drilled a similar hole in the new hose and pulled it up through the body of the car to feed the new line in. Worked like a charm!

I should be able to finish wiring everything in a few days. I can't do everything because not all of the this I am wiring to are there but I am running and labeling all of them so that when things get installed the wires are sitting there to connect. I will probably get the trunk lid on as well just to get it out of the way. I got my angel eye headlights yesterday but it's gonna take some creative work with the headlight buckets to make them fit, doable but it should be interesting. I'll post some pictures of that later.

[dondmar]

Been a busy last few days! Finished the engine bay wiring, rebuilt the pedal box and installed, put in the booster bracket, booster and 535 master cylinder, ran the brake lines and connected everything up (still no calipers but they will come later). Everything cleaned up and painted that needed to be. Next up is the heater box and the engine. Everything I need to put the motor together is coming on Monday and the goal is to have the engine in by next weekend. It's crazy that I got the car in August and I've only been working on it for 4 months. I'm really burning though this! That being said, I have burnt through the money I had saved to do this so the pace might slow a little. We'll see....

I put in 2 accessory distribution panels/fuse panels, one for switched power and one for constant. All of the power for the relays run through these blocks which allowed me to fuse the headlights (in addition to relaying them) and other things like the stereo and rear defrost (more on that later). I still need to run my battery cable and put in the distribution point stud I got from Summit but everything else is in place. I probably should not have taped it all up because I can guarantee there will be a problem once everything is powered up. I prewired for the 320i alternator (removed all the regulator wiring) as well as oil and temp senders and the 320 fan switch, there are also wires and a relay in place in case I want to run fog lights down the road. The two pigtails below the relays are all of the grounds, I am going to solder them into two leads and weld a stud on the front end of the frame as the universal ground point.

Really starting to get somewhere!

I bought a set of 7" halo style headlights from ebay that use two additional bulbs in the housing to light up the ring but they would not fit into the headlight buckets. I cut a pair of notches into the ring to fit around the extra bulb sockets and bent the adjustment brackets a little to make it work. This why I love my dremel. They look awesome when we tested them but I forgot to take a picture when they were lit. There will be a photo of that a little farther down the road unless I remember to take one sooner.

[Guest Anonymous]

Why didn't you paint the engine bay to match? Combined with that satin paint it looks like shit.

[Guest Anonymous]

Why didn't you paint the engine bay to match? Combined with that satin paint it looks like shit.

someone who's not comfortable with herself is using someone elses identity.

dont you have any christmas gifts to open? poor girl.

[GoFaSSter]

Why didn't you paint the engine bay to match? Combined with that satin paint it looks like shit.

someone who's not comfortable with herself is using someone elses identity.

dont you have any christmas gifts to open? poor girl.

I thought that was a strange comment coming from you Armond. I didn"t really see you as the type to bag on someones paint.

To the OP. The car looks awesome. I might have missed it, did you do all the paintwork yourself?

[dondmar]

I'm glad I read all 3 posts before I started spewing fire. I like the engine bay a different color, it's different and I get that it won't be for everyone but I think it looks cool and I love the satin paint too. Once the fenders are on and the motor is in it will look pretty bad ass and it is just something racy when the hood is up. If somebody doesn't like it.. that's cool, don't do it to your car.

GoFaSSter, thanks for the compliment. I was going to do the bodywork myself but after an hour or so of sanding I thought the better of it and had everything done at a body shop that came highly recommended. Set my budget back but I would have screwed it up pretty badly had I done it. The engine bay was done by the previous owner who planned to paint the whole car that color. I'm not super into having a red car but I liked the idea of the red engine bay.

I did get a few things done this weekend despite it being Christmas, used they few hours of free time I had to get some time in at the shop. I have everything to assemble the motor coming in a day or two so I got the block taped up, cleaned and painted and started getting all of the peripherals ready as well. I used the Duplicolor Engine enamel and i was pretty happy with how it laid down. I also redid my gauge cluster and got most of the heater box rebuilt. I still need to drop my heater core off to be pressure tested then I can put that together. Don't want to have to remove it later! Once that's done I can get the dash in and start to wire everything on the inside of the car. Here's a few pics of the progress.

For some reason the car came with a bunch of valve covers, so when I feel like something new I paint them up. I have no intention of running this one but it looks cool hanging on the shop wall.

[GoFaSSter]

The cluster looks great!!! Do you have any pics of the way you did it? Did you paint the rings or were they like that? I am really liking your build.

[dondmar]

The cluster looks great!!! Do you have any pics of the way you did it? Did you paint the rings or were they like that? I am really liking your build.

I painted the rings with Krylon Matte Aluminum Metallic paint and did the outer edge but with a paint pen of the same paint ( I tried to tape it off but it was too much of a pain). Everything was painted after the whole cluster was disassembled and I sanded down the painted areas a bit. I didn't take any pictures of it apart though. The needles (this is going to sound super ghetto) I colored with red sharpie. It sounds like it would look crappy but it actually comes out looking good.

[fxtbass]

Why didn't you paint the engine bay to match? Combined with that satin paint it looks like shit.

Who ever you are you're and idiot. The car looks great and when all of the body is complete the red bay is going to be the hotness'.

[bluebmw]

That valve cover is sexy!

[dondmar]

Happy New Year! Heater box has rebuilt and installed. It was relatively easy, there isn't too muck going on in there. I had a printout of the FAQ instructions but honestly I only used it for the parts list. Once you open it up it is pretty self explanatory what to do. I made sure to use weatherstripping foam on all the flaps as well as around the top before I put it in to be sure it seal watertight. The exciting thing is that the engine is built and ready to drop in! Fortunately I had a friend and experienced mechanic to look over my shoulder to help me not make any irreversible mistakes, but it went pretty smoothly. I put a light coating of RTV on all the timing cover gasket surfaces, running a small bead in the corners to help make sure I have no leaks. I know there was some discussion recently about the methods for torquing the head recently. I did mine in 3 stages 33, 47, 52 in the recommended pattern. Everything looks great and I'll get to drop it in in a few days! I also finished up the brake lines and got the reservoir and fluid lines installed, getting that hard line tin the Clutch master is a real pain in the ass! Oh yeah...if anyone knows if BMW OE braided brake fluid hose is rated for fuel as well, let me know. It turns out the part number for this hose is for a meter of line not just the small piece, I have 2.5 meters left over I want to find a use for and I thought it would look good if I could use it as fuel line in the engine bay. Another thing, If anyone has a good crank pulley, aluminum or the cast iron one, I need one. Mine was bent up pretty bad and had some deep grooves on the sealing surface. Thanks!

[dondmar]

Motor is in! I feel like I just passed a major checkpoint in the project and I like it. Motor went in really easily thanks to some help from a friend. I did finally figure out what the kink in my sway bar is for, it looks like I'm going to have to pull it out and switch it. For whatever reason I have no picture of that but the kink lines up with the deep spot in the oil pan for extra clearance. The motor fits but if it jerked while driving it would hit for sure. Now that it's in, I took some time to shorten all of my wires to the correct length and connected. I still have to run my battery cables but it's getting there. I also got the cabin of the car wired and taped up. I really wanted everything wrapped up at the same time so I ran all the stereo wires as well as everything to the trunk for the fuel pump and rear defrost. I also got my alarm installed on a little rack I had laying around, this way there are only two holes in the floor. I will have keyless entry (door actuators will go in when the doors get assembled), LED in the door pins, dome light security and a few other neat things I wired in. Fortunately I got some great help and answers along the way as I am not the greatest electrically. I did spend more time with my soldering iron than my dog that week though. So everything inside is wired and connected, there is just the bundle to connect to the gauges and stereo when I get the console put together. I did stumble into one unexplainable wire which turned out to be the wiring for the warning buzzer but I have no buzzer. I think I might just eliminate it anyway. With the wiring done I put the dash in, pretty straight forward but the tabs had broken off of the defrost pieces so I just epoxied them to the dash in their original spots. So after I get the sway bar issue fixed and get some things in the rear end fixed I think it might be time to get the rest of the drive train together and finish off the brakes.

I had to take a picture with the fancy valve cover.

Before...

After...

[zippy500]

On your 1st car (blue) that is a nice stance, what sort of suspension setup was that.

[dondmar]

On your 1st car (blue) that is a nice stance, what sort of suspension setup was that.

It was ST springs on Bilstein HD, 1-1/2 coil cut in the front if I remember correctly

[AceAndrew]

Dondar - I am really enjoying watching this go together, it should be a blast to drive.