Project: R3D3MPTION?

[davej]

So whose "project" is this now? DJ? What's the plan here? Drivetrain swap? When can I come play?

This is 'The Car MM Built' it seems like everyone has had (or will have) a part in it at some point. How many times can a car be entered into an autox with different drivers?

Yes, plan is a drive-train swap with DJ giving everything a good once-over/refresh/upgrade where it makes sense prior to bringing it back to life. (see s52 headers suggestion) I'm sure the rabbit hole of new suspension and brake bits will be ventured down at some point, but hoping to keep it as light on the wallet as practical for right now.

Joey might try and hit up some body guys about patching a couple of spots, and then hit it with a paint correction to see where that goes. I don't mind having an ugly sleeper when it's all said and done, but if it's already up there, hey, why not see if it can look 1/2 way decent.

[SlimKlim]

Joey might try and hit up some body guys about patching a couple of spots, and then hit it with a paint correction to see where that goes. I don't mind having an ugly sleeper when it's all said and done, but if it's already up there, hey, why not see if it can look 1/2 way decent.

By the way I'm planning to head over to DJs Sunday so I can really look it over and get good photos of all the issues then take them to my body shop guys to get an idea of the cost. I was planning on putting together some options for you ranging from "big baller" status to "spit shine it and don't look at the rust holes." :thumbup:

[D_Eclipse9916]

So whose "project" is this now? DJ? What's the plan here? Drivetrain swap? When can I come play?

Come on over Sunday for fun in the cold, unheated, uninsulated garage with us all :lol:

[davej]

"big baller" status to "spit shine it and don't look at the rust holes."

did I mention I work in education, for the state? It's like a double punch right in the W2. :lol:

[Jake]

So whose "project" is this now? DJ? What's the plan here? Drivetrain swap? When can I come play?

Come on over Sunday for fun in the cold, unheated, uninsulated garage with us all :lol:

Ooh, if I get my wheel bearing done early enough, maybe I'll test-drive my way to Reston.

[*insertusernamehere*]

I didn't get any photos of unloading, but DJ's winch set up is equal parts genius and terrifying.

What's that about no pictures? I'm doing this from my phone and they're very random lol

https://vimeo.com/196060110



Jake was making some very weird and comical faces as DJ's winch was doing some very weird and comical things. Turned the camera on too late, so here is this.
https://vimeo.com/196060214



I totally want to fiddle with that car too sometime!

[BLINGMW]

Gooooo team! :thumbup:

[D_Eclipse9916]

Like Jake, I saw the opportunity for some wrench time with it being so nice outside for Sunday. So I cleared the calendar and planned to work most the day on "car projects" AKA garage cleanig and get some work done on the E30. Had my buddy Jason come over to do his S54 rod bearings as well and get use of my engine stand butt....we all know how that goes

Spent the first couple hours doing more organizing and cleaning in the garage (boring I know!) and then I decided to look at what needed to be done to pull the motor. This thing is grungy, and everything underneath the car is russsssssssttyyy.

Since I knew we weren't going to be reusing the exhaust, I didn't even bother trying to take it off. Sawzall with a dull blade and an angle grinder did the job of cutting the exhaust off. Gotta drop by Home Depot and grab a couple more blades.

After the exhaust was off I went to take off the trans mount. I usually do this fairly early in the process as it drops the trans down just enough to make getting the "bitch clip" off the top of the trans easier. Well...RUST. The stud inside the frame broke off. I will have to cut out that portion and weld in a new stud but for now I just undid the motor mounts themselves. The bitch clip was a bit more annoying as it was covered in "everything" and ended up just disintegrating. Took off a couple more things and hooked up the engine hoist and dragged her out.



Dave already found a buyer for the dropout engine and trans and was able to reach him to schedule pickup hopefully this week!

We still had Jason's S54 on my engine stand so I decided to tackle more cleaning and the diff cover swap. Guess which one came out of Dave's car?




Dave picked up a different differential ratio that was LSD out of an E28. I discovered much to my chagrin that the fluid was not drained before delivery and had to clean up the small spill the resulted. Cleaned off the old gasket, cleaned up the mating surfaces and got the diff ready. BMW now uses liquid gaskets which actually makes it a little easier to install. Completed and ready to put back in.




I stopped at this point and since the car is in the air, I am hoping to get Dave over before moving forward. There is a large amount of rust on brake lines/fuel lines/shocks/springs etc. Before I start installing parts would be a good chance to make any moves if he is up for it.

After getting all this done earlier than I suspected, I helped Jason finish off his rod bearing job.


After helping him put it together, we realized he did not order a safety-nut prepped oil pump nut so we called it a night?/early afternoon.

I have to finish up painting the nursery and nursey bathroom and finish wiring my sound system for the movie room before jumping back into the E30 but hoping to have this done before the end of February (hopefully January). Gotta see how much rust/suspension prep puts us back.

[Jake]

Ugh, rust sucks. At least you're in a position to "do it right" and in theory, do it easier given the drivetrain is yanked right now. Sounds like a lot of good progress though!

[SlimKlim]

And just to keep this thread updated, I went over and really combed through the car's cosmetic issues yesterday. In some ways it is a surprisingly clean and straight car, in other ways it... is not. I still haven't had a chance to talk to some body work guys and research part prices, but I can lay out my different tiers for how i'd approach it depending on how far you want to go.

First let's do the run down.

The Bad

Both front fenders and rear bumper are severely rusted. The front nose clip is pretty significantly damaged from a fender bender, and both of the bumpers that came with it are in pretty sorry condition. There is paint flaking from both side mirrors, and minor rust starting at the bottom of the driver's door. Then there's that major issue that DJ mentioned near the trans cross member.

Obviously the remaining paint is severely faded, but hopefully will come back with a good polish. The carpets need an aggressive steaming, the seats should be conditioned, and if you really want to get fancy the dashboard ought to be swapped out for one that isn't cracking. A decent shift knob would also dress it up a lot, unless you've already got one in a box somewhere.

The Good

While faded, the paint on the rest of the panels seems remarkably unmolested, no cracking or peeling or any super scary issues. The body is remarkably straight, much better looking than my E36 which has picked up a lot of "age lines" when you look down the side of the car. The window seals also seem to be in good shape, nothing is too rotted or torn up on the inside. A ton of stuff on the car is super rusty but that area DJ mentioned seems to be the worst of it, and the rest of the bad stuff is on replaceable panels, which should mean a much cheaper repair bill than paying someone to cut rust out and weld in new metal.

Option 1: Strive for perfection

1.) Acquire straight and rust-free front fenders, front bumper, front nose clip (so basically a front end), and rear bumper

2.) Have me install the new panels and cut and polish all of the panels we intend to keep so the body guys have something to color match from

3.) Send it in to have the front bumper, front fenders, side mirrors, and rear bumpers color matched to the rest of the car. Also have them clean up and slap some POR15 on the surface rust starting on the pinch welds of the chassis and whatnot.

4.) Have me plasti-dip the rear spoiler and rocker panels so they are all black like they should be.

5.) Have me steam the carpets, leatherique the seats, and give it a thorough detailing all over. If you really want to get fancy with it, we can also try to source a good dash.

I hesitate to throw out prices without talking to some body guys and trying to price out the required panels, but It's gonna have a comma. Off the top of my head i'd ballpark $1500-2k but don't hold me to that.

Option 2: Spitshine

Basically scrap steps 1-4 above. Have me polish the car, slap on that cut-up front bumper (which may or may not match the car when it's polished), and give it a good interior detailing. Drive it as is and don't look at it below the belt where the rust is. Cost would just be a day or two of my time.

If you do want to go nuts with this thing, i can also see how much more it would cost to just give the whole damn car a blow-over if I brought it to them with all of the trim and stuff removed, it's worth considering if we're talking about having to color match 30% of the thing already.

So my next step is to talk to some body guys and look at parts prices so I can get you some firm price estimates, then we'll go from there.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Joey, bring over the power washer and spray this thing down. Slap in the motor and diff and just do donuts #bczdriftcar

[D_Eclipse9916]

Honestly this car will be a hoot with 220-230rwhp, some 225s and a good cleaning/polish/wax. The only thing that concerns me with the rust is the fuel and brake lines but I am used to freshy stuff.

[SlimKlim]

Joey, bring over the power washer and spray this thing down. Slap in the motor and diff and just do donuts #bczdriftcar

I'm off all next week so I can bring it over one day then to blast all the crap out of the engine bay. I'm also free Xmas eve but I assume you'll be doing family stuff.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Joey, bring over the power washer and spray this thing down. Slap in the motor and diff and just do donuts #bczdriftcar

I'm off all next week so I can bring it over one day then to blast all the crap out of the engine bay. I'm also free Xmas eve but I assume you'll be doing family stuff.

Sounds good, I have off/wfh lightly all next week so that works.

[*insertusernamehere*]

Spitshine this bitch.

[davej]

First off, I'm amazed at how much you've gotten done already, DJ!!. Makes me feel like even more of a slacker. :lol:

car is a crusty POS

Yeah, sorry about that..I guess sitting around for two and a half years didn't do it any favors. :oops:

Dave picked up a different differential ratio that was LSD out of an E28. I discovered much to my chagrin that the fluid was not drained before delivery and had to clean up the small spill the resulted.

Damn, sorry x2.

so I decided to tackle more cleaning and the diff cover swap. Guess which one came out of Dave's car?

Hey, in my defense, that one didn't come out of my car, I pulled it out of a field car at John Estep's
Mine was much worse. :lol:

I stopped at this point and since the car is in the air, I am hoping to get Dave over before moving forward. There is a large amount of rust on brake lines/fuel lines/shocks/springs etc. Before I start installing parts would be a good chance to make any moves if he is up for it.

Yeah, lets talk about that and see what kind of plan we can throw together. Not catching fire, and the ability to stop are two items high up on the list of 'probably should have'

[davej]

shoot, I could have brought up my power washer (although it's a subaru, so idk how you'd feel about using it on zee german auto) Hell, I should have brought the soda blaster also because it's fun.

Joey, thanks for making time to look it over closer and for your options. As much as I'd love to do this proper, I'll probably need to be realistic and just have you give it the ol' college try at cleaning up the current paint, use the crappy cutout valance and have a beater looking hooptie that can put a smile on a face when the right foot is applied. Sounds like we'll need some additional lines/suspension parts, so might be better to invest there?

I did have a crack-free dash a while ago but traded it for work on the 02, and with it went my ambition to make the car pretty.

[SlimKlim]

Sounds like we have an official game plan!

[Maengelito]

First off, I'm amazed at how much you've gotten done already, DJ!!. Makes me feel like even more of a slacker. :lol:

I learned a long time ago to not compare my car working motivation to DJ's. I'd say its because he doesn't have kids but once that little one comes around, he's still going to somehow find time to swap like 4 friend's different BMW engines before the first birthday.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Motor and trans were picked up and are gone. Dave and I sent a couple emails together so we will see when parts arrive. Adding a couple projects to the list, we all know how that goes!