'88 325i Touring #001 resto - 03/2012 rimz porn

[town325i]

some good work has been done today back end should be done tomorrow with a few other bits

[capri_rob]

Cheers for all your hard work today mate - Couldn't have done it without you

[capri_rob]

A bit of progress today - its back on its wheels and in the garage now at least

Started the morning by spending 2 hours trying to find somewhere that had the correct Nyloc nut for one of the rear bilstein struts - standard M10 nuts which you would think would be riight ( and what as on the OEM BMW shocks ) are a slightly different thread. After visiting 7 different places I eventually got one from the garage who usually does my MOT's - which is just down the road from my house after we'd been driving round all sodding morning

Swapped the rear discs over as they turned out to be nearly new Brembos on the beam we took off which I reckon are better than the Pagid discs I had on the bronze turd.

All was going well until the bolt that holds the rear shock to the training arm decided to start eating the thread so then had to get the thread tapped & cleaned out and another bolt found.

Bled the brakes all Ok and put the wheels back on - so the beam & suspension is now DONE

I now have at the back end :
Beam with Lemforder Subframe bushes and Genuine trailing arm bushes from the bronze turd which were fitted last Year and had done less than 1200 miles
Bilstein B4's
E46 M3 Cab Top Mounts
Eibach Pro Kit Springs
New Lower Spring pads
New Handbrake Cables with new brackets & clips to mount to the droplinks
New Handbrake shoes
Brembo Discs & Unknown new looking pads
Goodridge Stainless Braided hoses
All metal brake pipes smothered in Waxoyl.

All that remains to do is adjust the handbrake properly.

We then pulled the prop off and replaced the centre bearing which had collapsed in spectacular fashion.

Found that the front guibo is fooked - which I was expecting - will order one this week.

Pulled the front exhaust section off - now on the growing scrap pile I need to hide from the pikeys who seem to be coming round on a daily basis

Put the prop back on temporarily so I could drive it back up into the garage - an Un-silenced M20B25 makes quite a spectacular noise

Massive thanks to Mark ( town325i ) for today - gear linkage rebuild, reversing light switch/fix, exhaust fitting and front suspension to be tackled next weekend

Tired now - Beer o clock

[capri_rob]

Sorting out the scrap pile today - this is what a 23 year old 144k top mount looks like :



Centre bearing - detatched

[Duke137]

'kin hell Rob, I reckon alot would have sent that to the bridge!

You've certainly had your wallet out!

I wonder if Mark fancies doing the rear beam on mine with me.....

[town325i]

'kin hell Rob, I reckon alot would have sent that to the bridge!

You've certainly had your wallet out!

I wonder if Mark fancies doing the rear beam on mine with me.....

Really its only bolt on bits that fooked couldnt send it to the bridge for that really

[Duke137]

'kin hell Rob, I reckon alot would have sent that to the bridge!

You've certainly had your wallet out!

I wonder if Mark fancies doing the rear beam on mine with me.....

Really its only bolt on bits that fooked couldnt send it to the bridge for that really

I know, I just mean he has spent alot of pennies where others probably wouldn't have bothered.

It's good to see

[capri_rob]

Just over £100 of bits ordered this morning - Propshaft coupling, Gearbox mounts and front exhaust bracket.

Hopefully this will be pretty much it for a while now - think I've got everything to be able to do the rest of the jobs underneath the car now. Only additional spend will be 4 wheel alignment and Marks beer

The plan will then be to drive it and enjoy it over the summer, do some of the easier stuff like sorting the headlining, swapping the sunroof panel and generally tidying it up and also sorting the jacking points underneath, swapping the fuel filler pipe and giving the underside & arches a thorough coating of waxoyl.

I will then MOT it in September before its due and then SORN it, pull the head off and get it refaced & pressure tested and new studs both sides, new head gasket, refurbed injectors, powder coated inlet manifold & rocker cover and that will be it for 2011.

Then just got to save up to have the paintwork sorted hopefully next Year.

Its gonna be a long project but worth it

[town325i]

Its a good solid touring to start with so its worth spending on and its got a bit of heratige to being the first one made got to be worth saving

[Kedge]

Lots of good progress made their Rob, you set a date to have it on the road yet?

@ Mark, i might be intouch when i'm ready to swap the rear beam on my chromie

[town325i]

Fooking hell im going to be sick of the sight of rear beams by the end of the summer

[capri_rob]

Lots of good progress made their Rob, you set a date to have it on the road yet?

Its Taxed, insured & MOT'd already Dave - I'm hoping to have it in a usable state after this coming weekend

[capri_rob]

Fooking hell im going to be sick of the sight of rear beams by the end of the summer

You're an expert mate - you'll be swapping 'em in seconds F1 style soon

[town325i]

Fooking hell im going to be sick of the sight of rear beams by the end of the summer

You're an expert mate - you'll be swapping 'em in seconds F1 style soon

Fook that ive perfected the technique for getting the alloy out of the body now though when i snapped off

[Duke137]

Fooking hell im going to be sick of the sight of rear beams by the end of the summer

You're an expert mate - you'll be swapping 'em in seconds F1 style soon

Fook that ive perfected the technique for getting the alloy out of the body now though when i snapped off

You can take the boy out of cannock but you can't take cannock out the boy

[capri_rob]

Fooking hell im going to be sick of the sight of rear beams by the end of the summer

You're an expert mate - you'll be swapping 'em in seconds F1 style soon

Fook that ive perfected the technique for getting the alloy out of the body now though when i snapped off

Just keep that drill charged and a pair of goggles handy

[DanThe]

I hope you haven't worn my drill out

[town325i]

I hope you haven't worn my drill out

Not yet but it will be fooked by the end of the summer by the looks of it

[Alex]

Awsome work

[daimlerman]

Those rear damper M10 nuts are a 1.25 thread,standard M10 is 1.50....

I have heard that Ford's use this odd thread size,but when I needed one recently I tracked one down at an agricultural merchants(!)for the cost of £1...

[town325i]

Those rear damper M10 nuts are a 1.25 thread,standard M10 is 1.50....

I have heard that Ford's use this odd thread size,but when I needed one recently I tracked one down at an agricultural merchants(!)for the cost of £1...

Dont talk to me about finding some of those bloody nuts on a bank holiday weekend

[capri_rob]

Those rear damper M10 nuts are a 1.25 thread,standard M10 is 1.50....

I have heard that Ford's use this odd thread size,but when I needed one recently I tracked one down at an agricultural merchants(!)for the cost of £1...

After exhausting the usual suspects ( Halfords, Screwfix, B&Q, couple of local motor factors, Kwikfit, National Tyres ) we even tried a Land Rover specialist thinking that they must carry all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff. Nope

My MOT guy luckly found one lurking in his box of random scrap - the nut was free but probably used a fivers worth of diesel driving around

[scadden]

Awesome work fella...tell me, how hard is it to refurbish the gear linkage and Wat parts would I need?

[capri_rob]

Havent done it yet - I understand its a bit of a pig to get at as you need to have the exhaust and prop out of the way to get at it and there are various circlips which are fiddly to get off.

I used Andyboys book which details 2 of the main bushes that always need replacement, a new bush for the "ball" of the gear lever to sit in plus all the washers, clips & other small component parts I could see.

Think it was about £40 worth of bits all in.

Budget for a new propshaft guibo if its never been changed as well - these are about £60 from the dealer but you can get them from GSF for about £30 I believe.

[scadden]

Thanks for the info.

Andyboys book? where can i get that? lol.

[capri_rob]

Thanks for the info.

Andyboys book? where can i get that? lol.

Money well spent

[Duke137]

Rob, roughly how much did it cost for the rear end refurb parts? I just costed mine up with discount and had to collect myself from off the floor....

I got quoted for:
Hand brake shoes
Hand brake cables x 2
fitting kit
That isn't mentioning the fact I would like new discs and pads and poly bushed....

How gay. E30 turrets strikes again.

[capri_rob]

Handbrake shoes were about £18 from GSF
Handbrake cables I got from ECP but I think they are about the same price from the dealers - about £15 a side

Didn't bother with the fitting kit - just re-used the stuff that was there as it was still serviceable. Would have been nice to have fitted new pins, springs and all that malarkey but I think the kit was silly money.

You can get direct replacement Brembo discs off ebay for about the same as ECP charge for Pagid stuff.

The beam was done last Year - Lemforder subframe bushes from ECP and trailing arm bushes from the dealer.

[capri_rob]

Quick update - managed to get my arse in gear Yesterday and crack on with getting my hands dirty

Started the day by jacking it up and tackling the Gear Linkage.

Dropped the prop back off and had a proper look at the linkage mech before starting to undo stuff.

Seen a few threads asking about this recently, and Andyboys book was a great help.

To get at it properly first you need to do a bit of prep "up top" - open the bonnet, and remove the clips holding the viscous fan shrouding in place - that way when you drop the back of the gearbox down and the front of the engine lifts up it wont foul the fan.

Then underneath put the trolley jack under the back of the gearbox and remove the gearbox mountings ( I've got new ones to fit - the ones on the car appear to be made of Cadbury's flake )

The only bit that had me puzzled was how the bar which is fixed to the top of the gearbox casing was attached - when covered in muck it just looks like there is a thick pin which holds the bar in place - where you would expect to be a bolt.

A quick phone call to the E30 Tech Support hotline ( DanThe ) told me what I needed to know - its a clip that needs to be flipped upwards through 90 degrees to remove it, and then the "pin" comes out - I can confirm Dan that yes it was "a right bastard" :


Not the best pic but this is what you're faced with


And this is the bar and the pin/clip with the new bush next to it - cut the end off the old bush with a stanley knife and it pushes out - new bush pressed in using nut/bolt/washers as a "puller" and plenty of washing up liquid as lube

Before i stripped it all out it was blindingly obvious that it was fooked.
Masses of play in all the bushes - which in some cases were pretty much nonexistent.


All the bits on the "bench" - or kitchen worktop - good job the Mrs was at work


This is one of the main bits that is the cause of the sloppiness in the linkage - the old bit still on the selector rod, the new bit next to it.
It goes back together with a rubber "O" ring on each side, then a plastic washer, then the circlip.


Other end of the selector rod that goes into the bottom of the gear lever - I bought new yellow plastic washers and clip, but the old ones could have been re-used.


This fits at the back end of the bar and bolts to the body - hadn't ordered one of these but yep its fooked so got one on order now - the bush is split.


You can see the difference in the size of the bush between the new and old t-piece - no play at all now its all rebuilt & greased up with new washers
The design of this piece has changed slightly - you can see on the new piece it has a thin metal ring round it to keep the locking pin in place - the old one had a wide metal clip round it - I had ordered a clip and new locking pin both of which could again have been re-used

Other bit I've had to order - gear lever Again reading up on this no mention of these usually suffering much wear but you can see from the next pic that half the bush is actually gone


Suprisingly a standard E30 gear lever is only £15 - and available next day. I know everyone goes on about the Z3 ones but IIRC they're on back order and I can't be arsed to wait - plus I like the standard E30 gearchange anyway.

Can't do any more on the linkage until the gear lever and rear mount arrive.

Confirmed its definately my reverse light switch thats bust by connecting a replacement up - another thing fixed

Then feeling brave I decided to make a start on the front suspension.

As the drivers side was up in the air anyway - first up replaced the ARB bush and shackle - relatively easy

Then the bit I'd been dreading tackling on my own - getting the strut/wishbone off and stripped

All came apart quite easy - the droplinks are shocking - an advisory on the last MOT there is no way in a million years these should have passed

Popped the balljoints using a "persuading tool" - The arms are scrap anyway so the only one I had to be careful with was the track rod end but its all good.

Then the bit I was dreading - getting the strut insert collars undone - piece of p1$$ !!!

I celebrated with a nice cold Stella at this point


One very fooked and leaky insert - this side's collar may have come apart easy because it was soaked in fluid from the strut !

Its absolutely knackered - you can move it with your finger and thumb - no damping action at all
Top mount also rattly as fook.

Finished up in the garage bracing myself for rot when I removed the front arch liner :

About a kilo of Dirt


Cleaned out and rock solid
The "jacking point" has some issues and will be removed and welded up properly but no other nasties lurking thank God.
Gonna get a paintbrush or something in there to brush all the dirt out properly and it will be waxolyed once all the mechanical stuff is sorted

Had to admit defeat then trying to push the lollipops onto the new arms - gonna go to B&Q this morning to get some threaded bar to make a puller I think - either that or drop em in to my local garage and see if they'll do it for a drink

[Simon13]

good stuff, that front strut is OE and from factory they have this cooling type oil for the damper poured in before the insert is fitted. Its probably that in there!

The OE dampers are gas filled, so when it all leaks out when the seals go etc. Its not an MOT fail as there is no fluid visible hence a million e30s still on their OE dampers still!

[capri_rob]

Should I put a splash of coolant or something in the strut before fitting the new insert then ?

Any tips on getting the lollipops onto the wishbones - I've got one on part-way but ran out of enthusiasm

[Simon13]

well my tip is a bowl of boiling water, sink them in there for a few mins. a dash of fairy liquid and some elbow grease.

hold the arm on the floor, use your foot to hold the inner ball joint to steady the arm and twist the lolipop on with as much down force as you can. Its hard but it works!

You can put a dash of coolant in the struts if you wish certainly won't hurt.

[capri_rob]

Admitted defeat with the lollipops - tried the threaded bar trick and got one on a bit further than yesterday but then got stuck with about 4mm still to go.

Went down my local garage and they finished off the one id started and did the other one on the hydraulic press in less than 2 minutes......

Gonna get back underneath this afternoon and put the gear linkage back together, new gearbox mounts on, new propshaft guibo, heatshield and exhaust back on and then put the drivers side suspension back together.

Will be amazed if I get all that done today but we'll see how we go

[capri_rob]

Bit more progress this afternoon.

Started by building up the strut I took off yesterday - Bilstein insert in, Spring on with new top mount....fitted it all up and was just going round all the bolts checking they were all torqued up right and realised I'd forgotten to fit the new bumpstops & concertinas

A tirade of E30 tourettes followed then took the whole lot off again

Built back up and all together nicely. Not sitting any lower at present but then its got to settle.



Brake disk is Pagid from the bronze turd and nearly new - just surface rust.


Spot the difference


New genuine gearbox mounts - these were NOT cheap


New rear mount


All back together - getting the pin back in the front T piece was a BASTARD

Greased all the bearing surfaces before it all went back together - the shift quality is now nothing short of spectacular - I can't wait to drive it



Some of the scrap - these passed an MOT a few hundred miles ago they are genuine BMW and I reckon have seen all of the turds 148k

Promised the Mrs I'll do some work in the garden tomorrow so thats it for a bit.

[Dezzy]

Coming on nicely.