325i Touring restoration "the wrong way around"

[mick_318is]

Just spent a magical hour and a half ( 2 beers also ) reading this entire thread.
Been through 2 full rebuilds myself , not quite to this level. You are now at the hardest part. Making sure that you keep the quality up while trying to get it finished. Can't wait to see the finished article.

[DanThe]

I take it you like soldering then

I think Ian used a loom from a left hooker to get it to reach, not sure what Buster did though

[maxfield]

Contact dips about wheels he can normally get hold of decent wheels

OR i'm sure someone has Markuses email he can get top wheels

[buster]

Dameon,
I stuck mine in the glove box,im sure i put a pic up somewhere.Ian did indeed use a LHD loom so that he could mount it in the original position (clever clogs) !.



edit,pic below,i partitioned the glove box.The only other place with a rhd loom is battery box,unless you extend the wires .

[old_skool]

Cheers Buster,

I'll have to have a look at this tomorrow. I'll wait and see how the ECU wiring looks when the engine is in I think.

I take it you like soldering then

Not really fussed, and to be honest, the amount of time it would take to do would pale into insignificance compared to what time I have put in so far

Meanwhile - A load more bits came in from Germany today so there will be plenty to do tomorrow

Also I have done the "battery relocation to the boot" today

Pics tomorrow....

[DanThe]

The loom extension isnt too bad if you get another ECU plug with a length of wire on it, only one joint per wire that way, im about to start my third one

[jaistanley]

Plus, a decent flux, decent solder and some proper heat shrink and the joint will be fine, it'll never come apart. I totally re-wired my golf like that and everything worked first time (to be fair a MK2 golf wiring is as complex as girls aloud)!

My MCoupé loom has the ecu where the battery tray is in a weather proof and cooled (tiny fan) box. I was planning on bolting this onto the inner wing a la Mcoupé. Might even remove the metal of the tray and re-paint.

That said, I haven't got the eingine into the bay yet, let alone had a look at the wiring.

Jai

[Jhonno]

think im gonna go the extend the wires route, end of the day its only a couple of hrs work n will locate the ECU where it should be on an e30

[ian332isport]

I know the wiring is not as extensive, but I was able to get Ste's M52 ECU in the standard E30 position without extending any wires. It was just a case of rearranging everything.

I was also able to get a 3.0L M3 ECU connector inside the car very easily, but never had a chance to see if I could get it in far enough to hook up and mount the ECU. Most of the wires are actually long enough, but you may have to extend a few wires to get it all the way in. You certainly don't need to extend every single wire.

Ian.

[jmc330i]

Ive mounted the ECU for my S50 in the original position on the E30.

It took some rearranging of the wires (in the wiring cover in the engine bay) but they didnt need extending. The ECU is mounted with the plug facing the steering column rather than back into the cabin, but thats not a problem.

[jaistanley]

Is it particularly hard to rearrange the wiring?? I want to fit the M3 scuttle trim panel and the 318iS wiring cover when fitting the S50, I think it looks a little more 'factory'. I guess I'll have to un-pick all of the loom in there to do so?

Jai

[Andy335Touring]

Also I have done the "battery relocation to the boot" today

Pics tomorrow....

[old_skool]

Also I have done the "battery relocation to the boot" today

Pics tomorrow....

Doh!

No probs, I guess I've been shirking a little on the post updates! I'll post up everything to date when I finish tomorrow. The front struts and hubs have been powdercoated, painted and reassembled, the pedal box is refitted, brake linkages adjusted and the brake relocation finished finally. Plus loads of little things

Andy, everything you need is really there for the battery cable routing. Except for a hole you need to make through the rear beam in the boot floor. The bit that the back seats butt up against. Pics tomorrow - promise

[Andy335Touring]

Thanks for the info dude

[jmc330i]

Is it particularly hard to rearrange the wiring?? I guess I'll have to un-pick all of the loom in there to do so?

Its not all that hard to do, just time consuming. Some of the wires are twisted through each other, so to make it easier I cut and rejoined them (5 or 6 wires IIRC). The main problem is getting all the wires to sit back down neatly so the cover fits back on - the plastic tray on mine was actually broken so I cut it off completely and will be using the E30 4pot wiring cover.

[old_skool]

Figured it was time to blow the dust off the old thread and give you all an update.

Firstly, I have tackled the "battery to boot" conversion.

There was doubt in my mind that all the holes were already in place in the bodyshell for the main cable routing from the boot to the 'phantom' terminal on the O/S strut top. I was sort of right.

The hole is already in the O/S inner wing by the original battery location but cannot be seen at all as there is BMW brush seam sealer all over the area. So it just needs a prudent tap with a centre punch and hammer in the right place:



Note the new sound insulation panels:



You can see that I also punched out the other piece to the left to make way for the air con setup. Grommet fitted.

The cables then loop under the fuel breather pipe inside the OSR floor:



And then into the boot:



The hole that you can see the yellow sleeve going through is not there in the touring. I don't care what anyone says. There is a small screw hole for a trim clip there and I drilled it out to 10mm then used a die grinder to open it out to approximately 20 x 30mm. After grinding it out I deburred and painted the area. The other side of the seat beam is open and doesn't need any more cutting or grinding.

The battery cable has a short protective sleeve already fitted to it. I pulled it up to protect this area and then heatshrunk the whole thing to hold it in place for further protection. If you look at a coupe boot you will see there is a protective plastic capping that covers the cable in the boot. This will not fit in the touring. Although the touring boot panels will cover it up nicely anyway



Here is the batery tray fitted into position:



More coming:

[maxfield]

Wohooo Back to this thread

Oh and that was 400th post

[old_skool]

Wohooo Back to this thread

Oh and that was 400th post

Woohoo - I am no longer a newbie

[old_skool]

Next was to do so some work on the M3 front struts. The strut bodies were blasted and powdercoated a while ago. I took the tie rod lower ends off the struts prior to this and blasted them too. Then I zinc plated them and painted them blue. I did the same to the hubs.

I also pulled the ABS rings off and zinc plated them too. (yes I am obsessive compulsive). You can't see them in these pictures but I also fitted all new protective cups on the spindles. Note: 45mm socket required for the new hub nuts too

The only thing that was difficult was getting the shocks into the struts. Years of dirt and crap had made it's way into the bottom of the struts. Coupled with the internal thread being packed full of powder coat too

So it was time for drastic action:

A wire brush wheel, a length of threaded bar, followed by a little welding:









Jobs a goodun







Here's the finished article all put back together with new brake disc back plates etc. All I need now is the springs which should be here next week:

[maxfield]

What spring and shock set up have you gone with?

[old_skool]

There's more

FInally got my arse into gear and made some new brake pipes up for the master cylinder. Clutch pipe was remade too.

Firstly I made them in standard copper. Then in Kunifer when I was happy with the shape and fit:



New sound insulation panels and pedal box refitted *ahem* properly this time





I'll fill the rest in later when my fingers stop aching from all this typing

[old_skool]

What spring and shock set up have you gone with?

I've got some -35 H&R's and Bilsteins. Same is ian332isport.

Hopefully that should do the trick. If not it's off to Leda for a complete custom setup when she's finished Max. Bear in mind that this is not going to be a track slaaag though

[maxfield]

Hopefully that should do the trick. If not it's off to Leda for a complete custom setup when she's finished Max. Bear in mind that this is not going to be a track slaaag though

Leda have shut down for the time being

It should see track action would be a shame not to use it properly

[buster]

Bloody nice work mate.Wish i had a garage so i could have done the same
I was going to buy new backing plates for my front struts as i have none but at £50 each from bmw theres no chance im paying that.

[old_skool]

Bloody nice work mate.Wish i had a garage so i could have done the same
I was going to buy new backing plates for my front struts as i have none but at £50 each from bmw theres no chance im paying that.

CHeers mate.

My old ones are still ok, you can have them

[buster]

AWESOME !

Drop me a pm with price and i'll send my addy,
cheers,
andy

[WillG]

quality

[tbmw]

an excellent project

looks better everytime there's an update, a credit to you

[B7]

More on this please ASAP Old Skool. It's looking better with every photo. Surely it can't get any better................................ can it???????

[jaistanley]

Old skool, LOVING the attention to detail.

I once two pack'd some running gear for my iS and all my mates took the piss so long I stopped doing that kind of thing. Nice to see it done properly, you'll be driving around in a seriously quick, 'new' car in no time!

Re: the struts, have you seen the roll centre lowering kits available? The are for M3's that have been lowered, thus changing the angle at which the controll arm and track rod sit at. This changes the position of the instant roll centre to higher up, increasing the roll acceleration as there is a greater moment due to the centre of mass of the car being farther from this point. These spacers sit under the strut and above the knuckle (holding the balljoints, attached by four bolts) restoring the geometry of the system. Result: less roll acceleration and less bump steer.

I think Muzzimotorsport do various sizes to allow you to tweak the geometry for different lowering/roll characteristics:

http://www.muzzimotorsport.com/index.ph ... &Itemid=29

Also I beleive Ireland engineering do them. Gustave discusses roll centre compensation on M3 Performace. That guy is a dedicated E30M3 driver and knows his stuff.

http://e30m3performance.com/tech_articl ... /index.htm

Just throwing ideas (and more cost options) into the mix

Jai

[jaistanley]

Oooh look... The zone has started censoring me... Probably for the best!

[gareth]

translated version of the first link:
http://translate.google.com/translate?s ... temid%3d29

looks like some nice kit!

[old_skool]

I once two pack'd some running gear for my iS and all my mates took the **** so long I stopped doing that kind of thing. Nice to see it done properly, you'll be driving around in a seriously quick, 'new' car in no time!

My mates don't say a word. I'm bigger than them!

Re: the struts, have you seen the roll centre lowering kits available? The are for M3's that have been lowered, thus changing the angle at which the controll arm and track rod sit at. This changes the position of the instant roll centre to higher up, increasing the roll acceleration as there is a greater moment due to the centre of mass of the car being farther from this point. These spacers sit under the strut and above the knuckle (holding the balljoints, attached by four bolts) restoring the geometry of the system. Result: less roll acceleration and less bump steer.

I think Muzzimotorsport do various sizes to allow you to tweak the geometry for different lowering/roll characteristics:

Yikes Jai! I hadn't seen all that stuff before. I know about the adjustable strut top packers (or whatever they're called) but not the rest of it. More money

I've got to go and pick my new springs up tomorrow so I will hopefully post some more drivel and photos later. Ooh and I can make the steering couple now as well.

Thanks for all your input. It keeps me sane.

[gareth]

Thanks for all your input. It keeps me sane.

you're 100% confident about that statement are you?

[old_skool]

Thanks for all your input. It keeps me sane.

you're 100% confident about that statement are you?

I have been/still am drinking heavily