Jdesign

Completed the heated steering wheel retrofit. All 100% stock parts. It really cranks out the heat when first turning it on. Then settles after that to a very comfortable temp. I'm very impressed. 
I also installed a wireless phone charger in place of the ashtray in front of shifter. 3D printed an adapter that mounts to stock screw locations and uses a universal wireless charging pad from ecstuning. Works great!

91 E34.  From what I've read one side will work, the other side won't.   Can either get a mount produced for an E9 for this swap, or make a bracket that just makes the factory mount work with this engine.   Probably do that.

Alright boys, official build thread for a terrible idea, a Malaga 72 Bavaria 4spd.  I don't know much about these cars at all, and I have no idea what I'm doing with it yet.  It's old, it's cool, and I love malaga, so.... yeah.   Impulse buy.  Honestly I have too many cars but friggin Jason sent me this and years ago I sent him an e30 convertible that he's spent a ton of money on without it being roadworthy yet, so maybe he's trying to get me back.  idfk.  Anyway, knew the seller already (Ralph is legit) and he got this as a package deal with another car, out in Kansas.   Wanted to move it before winter, and since the windshield is all smashed out, it was taking up space in his garage, had to go, left with me:


TLDW, Kansas car, last registered in 81, car is solid and complete, interior is nice(ish), exterior is shot, trim is all there, no major corrosion other than 2 small holes in front footwells, lower door skins, and spare tire trunk area.   Oh yeah, front valance is smashed, hood and grill are smushed, and both front and rear bumpers are tweaked, so that's fun.
Dragged it home, girlfriend is pretty stoked about it:

Had to get it inside ASAP because of rain

Mechanically, car is all there, hasn't been touched with the exception of an electric fuel pump on the firewall, but nothing works.  Brakes don't do anything, tried bleeding them, can't get any fluid to come out of the calipers, guessing all the lines are clogged.   Clutch pedal doesn't feel connected to anything/dry/full of air, so no idea on that, e-brake worked once but then froze up and still drags.

Key is hilarious:


Pulled the plugs and was going to soak the rings to see if it would turn over:

, hoping I could revive the engine, I was bummed to find corrosion on spark plug #3. 

Confirmed my worst fears with an endoscope, cyl #3 is full of coolant, and has probably been that way for 40+ years.  Super bummed.... however....
I happened to find an M30B35 w ECU + Harness for sale about an hour from my house.  Went to check it out, checked oil, scoped cylinders and things looked okay, and the guy who sold it to me had done a headgasket/valves on this thing about 4k before the car was smashed...so:

Degreased, pressured washed:

Pulled plugs, sprayed fogging oil and a bit of marvel mystery oil down each cylinder, reinstalled plugs and spun it over a few times, and shoved in the garage for now.
 
I typically document my builds on youtube, so here's the first video of the series:
 
I have no idea where this is going yet, but I think it's rad.

@HipMF    
  
 
 

Back when I was perusing the e21 section of bimmerforums, there was this guy TheNeek and Mr. Belvedere...

He also did a Bavaria...

You asked...

Yes, one signature please.

Welcome! Somehow over all the years of knowing @Jdesign I’ve yet to meet you, seen plenty of your cool projects around the shop though.
Looking forward to following the E3 build. @rampelsauce had a Bavaria project at one point a few years ago.

Hi, my name is Rob, and I'm an autoholic.  I used to live with/work with/have a shop with/have a car with ❤️Jason❤️ so I've probably met some of you before, idfk.
Anyway, last week I impulsively purchased a Malaga 72 Bavaria that was last registered in 1980, and it's been in a garage in Kansas until it was dragged to Wisconsin and listed for sale.  I run a small, non-sponsored youtube channel where I document all my builds, here's the first episode from the Budget Bavaria Build:
 


I'll go into more detail in another thread about this thing.   Right off the bat, anybody know of any E3 parts cars anywhere in this state?  I need some things...

Cheers!

Thanks for the recommendation. I had two people that I started talking to about this project, very reputable places that I know do fantastic work, and then they ghosted me. 
I went to my typical state of mind of "If no one will do it for me then I'll do it my fucking self". Soooo I'm going to learn upholstery. 

In!

Count me in!
 

I completed the service interval and noticed a few extra things that I wanted to address. I somehow managed to overlook the transferase fluid flush, so I ordered fluid for that from FCP. I also noticed oil weeping from the back of the VC, so I snugged the bolts and cleaned everything really well to decipher where the leak is coming from. So far I think its from the O-ring on the oil filler neck, so I ordered a replacement. The car never had TPMs sensors in it when I got it, and it warns me every time I drive it. I ordered TPMs sensors and installed them, I just need to get them programmed to the car now. 
I also ordered new pads and rotors for the rear. When I took the car on the tail of the dragon, I noticed that when the brakes got really hot, one of the rear calipers would drag. I summed this up to sticky slides, and pulled the slides out, cleaned and greased them when I got home, and all seemed well. I never really checked the pads and rotors closely as the PO said he did the rear brakes. So when the car was in the air this last time, I noticed the rear pads were "Brake Best" brand and one of the rotors was starting to crack. Thus I ordered the parts. NOW what I didn't notice the first time I greased the slides was that one of the guide pins was ever so slightly bent. THIS is what is causing the rear brake caliper to drag when it gets hot. I never would have noticed this, but when I went to clean the slides this time, I chucked the pins in a drill and used a brillo pad to get them polished clean. I noticed the very subtle bend in the pin check all the others, and decided to order a new one.
FUN FACT; Chrysler Pacifica, Fiat 500L, and 2020 Honda Accords use the same caliper slides as most BMW's from 2010-2015 
Here's a list of the additional parts:
Transfer case fluid Rear discs Rear pads Valve cover O-ring Rear brake guide pin  TPMS sensors  Front brakes all done

Test fitting the OZ Hamann's to see what specs I will need to make them work.

Failed Breather hose. 

 
My repair, as the part is damn near impossible to find. I found one in Europe for $240. I figure this wont crack like the brittle plastic did and I could fix it right away. Judge me all you want for using worm clamps.
Took a look at the crank pulley when I flushed the coolant. Seems like these have the same issues as the M57's with the rubber failing. I will have to add this to my list. 

The car drives much better now, too bad the season is almost over. I haven't decided if I want to drive it in winter or not.
 

I completed the service interval and noticed a few extra things that I wanted to address. I somehow managed to overlook the transferase fluid flush, so I ordered fluid for that from FCP. I also noticed oil weeping from the back of the VC, so I snugged the bolts and cleaned everything really well to decipher where the leak is coming from. So far I think its from the O-ring on the oil filler neck, so I ordered a replacement. The car never had TPMs sensors in it when I got it, and it warns me every time I drive it. I ordered TPMs sensors and installed them, I just need to get them programmed to the car now. 
I also ordered new pads and rotors for the rear. When I took the car on the tail of the dragon, I noticed that when the brakes got really hot, one of the rear calipers would drag. I summed this up to sticky slides, and pulled the slides out, cleaned and greased them when I got home, and all seemed well. I never really checked the pads and rotors closely as the PO said he did the rear brakes. So when the car was in the air this last time, I noticed the rear pads were "Brake Best" brand and one of the rotors was starting to crack. Thus I ordered the parts. NOW what I didn't notice the first time I greased the slides was that one of the guide pins was ever so slightly bent. THIS is what is causing the rear brake caliper to drag when it gets hot. I never would have noticed this, but when I went to clean the slides this time, I chucked the pins in a drill and used a brillo pad to get them polished clean. I noticed the very subtle bend in the pin check all the others, and decided to order a new one.
FUN FACT; Chrysler Pacifica, Fiat 500L, and 2020 Honda Accords use the same caliper slides as most BMW's from 2010-2015 
Here's a list of the additional parts:
Transfer case fluid Rear discs Rear pads Valve cover O-ring Rear brake guide pin  TPMS sensors  Front brakes all done

Test fitting the OZ Hamann's to see what specs I will need to make them work.

Failed Breather hose. 

 
My repair, as the part is damn near impossible to find. I found one in Europe for $240. I figure this wont crack like the brittle plastic did and I could fix it right away. Judge me all you want for using worm clamps.
Took a look at the crank pulley when I flushed the coolant. Seems like these have the same issues as the M57's with the rubber failing. I will have to add this to my list. 

The car drives much better now, too bad the season is almost over. I haven't decided if I want to drive it in winter or not.
 

So, I recently sold my M54B30 5spd swapped E46 touring xi and was on the hunt for a new daily. I was adamant about getting another touring, but it's definitely slim pickings out there unless you wanna pay some crazy prices. I found a 2008 328xi E90 for sale with relatively low miles (103k) for a decent price at a dealer. Did my bargaining thing and got them to come down to my price. This basically made it a straight over trade for what I sold the touring for. Plus it's 6 years newer and 100k miles less. 
2008 E90 328xi - Deep Green Metallic over Beige


Came with aftermarket wheels and snow tires, so naturally had to swap them out for some BMW Individual wheels for the meantime.



The color caught my eye the most as you don't see many green BMWs anymore. It's also very hard to capture in photos. I need to take some better ones of the exterior and interior. 
So far I am very happy with it. The tight steering and smoothness of the engine when accelerating is really nice. First things I would like to do are getting the xDelete app to make it rwd when the AWD isn't really necessary. Getting some tint on the windows as I hate being in a fish bowl. And installing a Bluetooth audio setup that integrates the steering wheel controls as I don't have the iDrive or navigation. Something that feels factory. 

Well, it's been fun but it's time to park the M3 for winter. 
I did get rid of the shitty aftermarket radio and installed an old C33 I had laying around. I have some good tapes for the car, so Ill be hunting down a casette tape holder for the center console. So far thats really all I've done in terms work on the car. It runs and drives amazing.

Snapped a quick pic awhile back of the current lineup. 

 
After the M3 is parked and I have a minute, I'll be dropping the entire rear subframe to get ahead of e36 problems. First, front diff bolt will be swapped out for a 14mm and I'll be going with stiffer diff bushings (probably condor). Next a little weld reinforcement because why not. Also I'll be doing some upgrades to make things a little less compliant while trying to keep the car street friendly. I'm doing my best to stay away from poly bushings and looking more into the solid rubber pieces for most stuff, condor plastic bushings for some stuff, and maaaaaybe poly inserts for the rubber bushings where applicable. I have a bunch of other plans but the rear subframe will be first because I have most of that figured out. I have a lot of shopping carts loaded on a lot of websites.  Just waiting to pull the trigger when all the end of year sales start kicking off.

The euroweaves replacements got here. 🤤

I took out the rear subframe. I don’t know if you guys remember how much trouble I had fitting the RevShit RTA bushings, but I swapped those out for Condor and I’m really annoyed I didn’t use Condor originally. Fitment was 10/10. 
Also did the rear sway bar link reinforcements and rear sway bar mount reinforcements. Another great excuse to get the welder out. Not pretty but I’m happy with my twice a year welds.

 

And the X5 looking dapper as always.

I finally realized why I like this car so much and I can summarize like this: I don’t miss driving the e30 when I’m driving this.

Houndstooth Recaros are gone. Euroweaves are gone. 
 
Replacement No. 1 here is here. 

We took that for a bit! But most of the time was spent on backroads. It was about a 5 hour drive from Minneapolis to the pizza place north of Winona. 

😆

That's awesome about the excursion. We had a diesel excursion 7.3L when I was in high school and I loved driving that thing. I piled 10+ friends in that thing and went on road trips during the summers. Was great! My dad sold it when diesel was incredibly expensive years ago and now wishes he still had it. 

Thankfully, I’m out of room for the most part at my storage unit so minimal opportunities for more useless shit acquisition at the moment. Although it did come with a plow that I’m not sure what I want to do with yet, if that counts haha. 
 
Having the lumber capacity is going to kick ass though, I’d also like to do some camping trips with it if it proves to be reliable enough. I’m envisioning an air mattress in the back, screens for the rear windows, kitchen setup on the rear barn doors, and a nice big roof rack from a plumbing van (thanks @Jdesign for the e36 inspiration on that one) for hauling a canoe, bikes or random other gear. I’ve seen some awesome setups more geared towards overlanding and while this will be very budget minded and not involve off road travel I see a lot of potential for a great travelling rig here. 

That's what she said

Today a new owner got the opportunity to grab this touring and hopefully enjoy it as much as I have. This car was very enjoyable after the B30 and manual swap. It definitely didn't hurt the value either. Time for something new as a daily tho. 
Currently in the market for something different. Thinking either an e91 Touring or even a Mini Countryman S to have some boost back in my life while still being able to haul things. Any other suggestions are welcomed.

Full build this winter I see.
 
 
I cant wait.

Full build this winter I see.
 
 
I cant wait.