316i to 325i Sport........can i do it? Change of plan!!!

[l16ydl]

Progress has been really slow as i've been really busy and my mate has been really busy but i've been getting little bits done. I thought i would tackle a driver's sill, one of the worrying things was drilling the holes for the holding clips. I looked through the instructions and it said i needed a template which made me worry even more!!! So then i had an idea, i would put masking tape over my donar car sill and make a template that way. I was very careful and was very neat and managed to match it up to the new car and drill the holes. As far as i am aware, i think i did a good job.










A tester shot of the side complete:



Till next time.

[l16ydl]

Progress has been slow lately, managed to get most of the kit on but needs some clips and some alignment doing. Went to see BMW-Mad on tuesday to spend a small fortune on the following:

Sport headlining


Sport gear box:


Headlamp wash kit:


Shadowline kit:


Ignition leads:


Maplight mirror:


A set of 15" BBS's with Toyo T1R all round amd some other little bits and bats. Hopefully will get some stuff worted this weekend.

[Alex]

Superb Keep the updates coming

What happened to the cab did that get finished ?

[Tan91]

awesome work mate, credit to you!

[johnl320]

Looking superb, I would of been proper bricking it drilling those holes, you filling the sills with waxoil?

[l16ydl]

Superb Keep the updates coming

What happened to the cab did that get finished ?

Cheers Al i will do. The cab is in my mates garage at the moment but im hoping to get the paint done before Xmas and before my mates move back to Lithuania.

awesome work mate, credit to you!

Cheers mate.

Looking superb, I would of been proper bricking it drilling those holes, you filling the sills with waxoil?

Cheers, they were filled after is was painted as i ask my mate to make sure everything was undersealed and done properly.

Its been a busy day today, my mate had some free time so had a chance to remove the rear axle and front end off the donar car:






After work i got a few hours graft taking the rear axle apart so i can fit Powerflex bushes into the whole rear and some new bearings.



Got the engine and the auto box off the sub frame:




Here some pics of the car:




The headlining in place:



Got a busy day tomorrow, need to go to Euro and BMW to pick up parts for the car, small fortune but i guess it'll be worth it.

Need to order some more bits for the engine and front end but i'll do that in the week.

Does anyone know what seal i need to get for the manual gear box? BMW-Mad said there was i seal needed when taking the auto box off and fitting a manual one??

[l16ydl]

Right, spent a small fortune over the last fortnight:



virtually rebuilding the back end. I'll show all as it goes on, first thing i did was push out the rear bearings:



Easy job when your mate has a press but make sure you take the circlip out before you get the bearing out!! lol The rear beam bush's were an absolute PITA!! Took ages to get out and ended up burning one of them out!! But it was done:



The diff was easier, lump hammer and some anger , out it came:



The rear trailing arm bush's were a slight nightmare as i drilled and punched them out. Also bought some new back plates as the old ones were slightly fooked!!



New nut and bolt:



Goodridge braided hoses:



Manual Prop:



And how i left it at 9.30 tonight:



Need to get the one off the 320 now!!

[shanehaward]

doing a good job! reminds me that ive got to pull my finger out and sort mine out

[Sanchez]

Does anyone know what seal i need to get for the manual gear box? BMW-Mad said there was i seal needed when taking the auto box off and fitting a manual one??

Spigot bearing I had to get for a manual conversion.

Around 8quid from BMW when i got mine a year or so ago.

[Alex]

Looking good.

I wouldnt be fitting them q drive branded suspension bits mind, they will last 1000 miles and be worse than 20 year old bmw ones.

ive used there bits a few times and havent lasted long at all, i used a q drive wishbone on my touring lasted 5000 miles and the ball joints are banding like a bitch


Lemforder are the suppliers to bmw thats what you want

[l16ydl]

doing a good job! reminds me that ive got to pull my finger out and sort mine out

Cheers mate, just need a few more days of graft and it'll be ready for MOT!!

Does anyone know what seal i need to get for the manual gear box? BMW-Mad said there was i seal needed when taking the auto box off and fitting a manual one??

Spigot bearing I had to get for a manual conversion.

Around 8quid from BMW when i got mine a year or so ago.

Cheers, managed to sort it out.

Looking good.

I wouldnt be fitting them q drive branded suspension bits mind, they will last 1000 miles and be worse than 20 year old bmw ones.

ive used there bits a few times and havent lasted long at all, i used a q drive wishbone on my touring lasted 5000 miles and the ball joints are banding like a bitch


Lemforder are the suppliers to bmw thats what you want

Cheers mate, i know what your saying about the Q Drive stuff but those boxes are for the engine mounts. Might see if there is another option on them.

[Kedge]

You not painting up the running gear before refitting?

I hope to god you got some paint in those holes, really should've drilled the sills before painting.

[l16ydl]

You not painting up the running gear before refitting?

I hope to god you got some paint in those holes, really should've drilled the sills before painting.

i was going to paint the diff but as i've put it all back together. I will clean it up and see how i feel from there.

I did paint and grease the holes. I did want to drill the holes before my mate painted it but i ran out of time and he was abit eager!!

[Kedge]

Good stuff! An eager painter, that's a rarity!

[Rav335uk]

Nice work Lloyd

[G-Bear]

Nice project, the cars looking good.

sorry for my nonsensical post last night if you read it (I deleted it), was reading your thread last night and fell asleep on the couch got woken by a text and thought I had replied but realised this morning that I had posted it on here instead

[mcbonio]

Love a good resto thread.! Nice work. What wheels you gonna put on it?

[l16ydl]

Good stuff! An eager painter, that's a rarity!

I know, he needed the money!!

Nice work Lloyd

Cheers Rav

Nice project, the cars looking good.

sorry for my nonsensical post last night if you read it (I deleted it), was reading your thread last night and fell asleep on the couch got woken by a text and thought I had replied but realised this morning that I had posted it on here instead

Cheers mate, must have been a long night, haha.

Love a good resto thread.! Nice work. What wheels you gonna put on it?

Cheers, i've got some standard 15" BBS or i've got some 16" BBS RX's that i could put on but they need refurbing, will put both sets on and see.

I've not took any photos but mu mate has been kicked out of his unit so i had to shift everything out and make sure the car was water tight. I got it done with the headlining and the sunroof in but i need a new sunroof seal and some other bits and bats. Going to make an attempt on the rear axle tonight, hopefully its a fairly easy job.

[l16ydl]

Last night when i pulled the car in, i said to myself i should be done in a few hours. That was 9pm, i eat my words with a Mcdees breakkie this morning at 5am!! Taking the rear axle off the donar only took 2 hours but on this it took almost 3 and half. Getting everything ready for the new axle to go on, the brake pipes went, bolts were seized, it was a nightmare!! But i get it done in the end, here are some pics:

On the stands:



Old axle out:



G Max suspension i got off Adi T ages ago:



New handbrake cables:



Sliding the new axle in:



All bolted up:



New shoes:



Battery on the phone died so i couldnt take any more pics. But here is one now:




Just spent £175 on new bolts and bits i need, i need to get the push rods off the car and see if my mate can burn the bolts out as i rounded the heads off and had to cut them off. All fun and games!!!

[l16ydl]

Sorry for the lack of the posts over the past 12 months, its been a massive roller coaster ride and i've been through some rough times but there is finally some light at the end of the tunnel. Since leaving Mercedes Commercial, i decided to give a bit of self employment a try with a bit of wheeling and dealing and giving my acting a good throw of the dice. But over the past 6 months its been a massive learning curve and i've been pulled through the hedge in all different directions but i am happy to announce that i will be starting at Williams BMW Manchester as a New Sales Executive.

So on that note, I have had to put some hours in on this project as its been stuck in my mates garage for the past 6 months hasn't done any one any good. I started about a month ago with the car looking like this with all the bits that needed to be sorted:





I took a day trip to see my mate Wahid in Birmingham and spent my usual £4-500 with him. First thing i needed was to change the front struts from 45mm to 51mm to accommodate the Gmax suspension:




The original shocks were shot but that didn't matter as they were going. Got both done and put them on the car with the braided brake lines:





When me and Alex was fitting the engine, i remembered that the connector for the injectors was connected using terminal blocks so i wanted something more tidier than that so i bought a kit that would help:







It was abit fiddly but i got there in the end.

The next thing on the list was the oil sump, there was an oil leak when we installed the engine and i was baffled at where it was going from until i had a good look under the car and realise there a graze on the sump which must have happened when the donor car had the crash. I took me a while to get off with the pick up pipe being the pain but it came off. I took it to my local welder and he took a few days to sort out:



As the original gasket had seen better days so a new one was ordered and put on top the car:



I bought a new earth strap so that was replaced:



As the donor car came with ABS, it was rude not to install it on this car but it needed the mounts and then have them welded in. I got Wahid to cut some off a car he was scrapping so i could fit them in. It took a bit of working out and a few stages but i got there in the end:





With everything plumbed up, I decided to try and turn the car over and see if it would run and it didn't. We tried some easy start and it back fired so i thought i must have got the timing wrong so stripped it down and checked the timing and it was right. I then realised that i got the ECU's mixed up and had the wrong in. So we tried again and would turn on the key, so tried putting power to the starter and fuel pump but no fuel was coming through, so contacted someone who was breaking a car close by and bought one off him. Got it replaced and tried again and still no luck, so I was starting to lose hope. Marek, the guy who i was helping had one of his work colleague's come in for some work on his van, we get talking and find out that he use to be a car alarm fitter and said that he use to cut some wiring to use on the immobiliser. So i had another look under the dash and realised i didn't reconnect one of the main wires, so soldered up and gave the car a turn of the key and it started!! Massive relief but still needs a lot of work to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The manifold gaskets were shot so i had to take it off, and while it was off i gave it a lick of paint:






I had a fuel filter so was rude not to replace it:



I bought new rear subframe brackets as i has to cut the old ones off:



I was at the point where i was ready to finish the under side of the car so i needed to fit the exhaust, the manifold only had 2 studs, not nuts, not gasket and no rubber mount, so on the phone the dealer to get organised:



While i was waiting for the bits, i wanted to bleed the clutch and the brakes. I started with the clutch but something wasn't right, it would get to a point where it felt like a brake pedal so i replaced the master cylinder which didnt work. I took off the slave cylinder and the fork lever was non existant. I had to take the gearbox off and see what was going on, in the hast of putting the engine and gearbox in, me and Alex had forgot to put a release bearing in. On the phone to Manchester Motor Factors who delivered an LUK version.





Before everything went back up and tightened up, i changed the gearbox oil:



I finally managed to bleed the brakes with my new tool:



It didnt manage to do the full job as i needed to get some one to build some pressure in the system. I also cleaned out the bleed nipples as they looked a bit manky. After that i gave the car a oil service as i was using some motor flush to clean out any crap that might have been in the system:




I didnt know what oil to use so i was recommended to use 10W40 semi as thats what it was most likely on when i came out of the factory.

Over the past few days, i hadn't been able to touch the car and was getting moved about until it would start. I thought it ran out of petrol so topped it up and wouldn't start, so today me and a mate had a quick look and it turned out the pump i bought failed and was seized. I had one from another project lying around luckily enough and got it in and it started up first time. Before i left, i got the bonnet on, lined up and fitted the washers:



Will get some more pictures tomorrow when i get some more bits done on the car.