KaiserRolls

Connor rebuilt the driver's side rear jacking point and Jon at Optimum Coatings in West Allis helped with the rust repair. 

^Respect

Haven't spent a ton of time on this, plenty of other things going on. Spent some time with it the past couple of days (after driving the other E30, my god that thing is frightening amounts of fun). 

I got most of the engine bay stuff out and did a light cleaning in there as it was quite gross. I'm thinking it'll still need a pressure wash to get all the small corners and such.
I'm half tempted to not spray the bay, but I don't know why. It's not all that much work after having done it once. This one will be harder as I plan to leave all the brackets and such due to retaining cruise control and all of those fun things. 

I'm debating on taking ABS out, but I don't see much reason to do as such. Anyone have thoughts on this? I've driven E30's without ABS and it was never much of an issue, just the occasional tire smoke from auto-x as one corner would go light. 


Interior had been pulled a bit ago, but it looks like I never made mention of that. The inside will be getting a full refresh as well. 

As @wasnt m3 will tell you - if it will make it around the block it will make it around the world. 
 
last time I went down there in the e30 we put on like 3400 miles. Err, 7.3 if you counted from my odometer 

I read through the itinerary for the last year, seems like they do a road rally one day, an trip to the BMW museum in SC another, and have the “show” or gathering or whatever the third day. I’ve spent limited time down in that region and never with a fun car, so I’m most excited to experience some really good roads with what will hopefully be a really well suited car for the twisties. 

Basically sounds like a huge vintage BMW gathering… 2019 had 685 BMWs on the field. 😳
Not sure what to expect, but we’re registered and going!
 

Just paid my registration, vintage or bust!

Bump

As @wasnt m3 will tell you - if it will make it around the block it will make it around the world. 
 
last time I went down there in the e30 we put on like 3400 miles. Err, 7.3 if you counted from my odometer 

As @wasnt m3 will tell you - if it will make it around the block it will make it around the world. 
 
last time I went down there in the e30 we put on like 3400 miles. Err, 7.3 if you counted from my odometer 

As @wasnt m3 will tell you - if it will make it around the block it will make it around the world. 
 
last time I went down there in the e30 we put on like 3400 miles. Err, 7.3 if you counted from my odometer 

This looks neat. Really close to some of the best driving roads in the country too 

Got everything buttoned back up in the engine bay and the hood shut for spring. Only have the rear suspension to do now, since it was delayed because of some back ordered RSM bushings. Then just counting down the days until I can drive it again. Hopefully will have my own house and garage soon after as well

Hopefully you never have to use it
Or it’s one of those situations where it’s the only thing you save from a car fire because of how rare it is 

Glad it made it! USPS folks working the counter were a bit confused about the mailing address. In the time it took to explain that yes it was an actual street address, I felt I could have almost driven out and left it on your porch.  

Wrap the exposed harness in some Tesa tape 

LOL! It really do bee like that 

Hope everyone is having a good Christmas with the fam! Unfortunately due to covid I don't have any extended family left to spend time with.. Take that how you will..
I decided to drive down the street and work on the M3 for a bit today. Starting from the beginning.
When I put the car into storage, I pulled the steering wheel, shiftknob/boot and rear view mirror
I stripped and resprayed the steering wheel trim, Looking back I should have just left it as it was a bunch of work. But I am happy with the results. 
Steering wheel arrived on the 23rd from Tanik Wheel in Germany, I ended up going with a nappa leather re-wrap, tri color M stitch, no center stripe and I made sure he removed the old leather. (This is the only reason I didn't go with Coby wheel, He overlays alacantara/leather overtop of your existing leather) I also heard of quality of material concerns from Coby aswell. Tanik was nearly double the price with no core. But based on forum reviews it is as good as I am going to get before its just worth buying a new OEM Dakota M3 steering wheel.

Back in October I scored an F80 M3 shift knob off eBay for $60 shipped with 3k miles. It was very poorly labeled and was very excited to remove the ZHP knob for an illuminated version because I am butthurt. Well turns out the seller was an idiot.. He sent the knob in a bubble mailer with no bubble wrap in "Media Mail" For those of you who aren't familiar media mail is strictly for sending media like newspapers CDs etc. I pulled the knob out of the package and it caught a metal edge somewhere and there was a huge chunk of leather missing from the knob.. Disappointing as I wont be able to get another one for that price again.
My buddy Nick from Vermont @f80ghost on Instagram, heard what happened and bartered with me a knob for a fire extinguisher. Not as good of a deal as the original but I will take it.
I switched out the old Vinyl m color shift boot that was in the car since Jordan picked the car up in 2018 for a Race German OE style black boot. I am very impressed with the quality on this. Feels much better and looks much better then the old one.


The F80 shift knob retrofit is a bit more involved then the F10 M5 knob because you cant just switch boot frames and reuse the shift boot. As the F80 boot is smaller and not symmetrical like the F10 boot.
I needed to remove the F80 boot from the knob and chip off the 2 additional clips that were not needed. Instead of de-pinning the connector to slide though a hole I made in the shift boot, I decided to cut the wires and just re-solder the 2 wires.

I was able to do all this without cutting the wires, Not so successful for myself unfortunately. The last cut I made into the boot I got myself good with a fresh X-Acto knife. Would not stop bleeding. But you can see with picture proof. Start without a band-aid end with one. All n all very happy with how this turned out. Just need to add a zip tie to keep the boot from falling down. Ill do that probably tomorrow as I have one more project to finish up.

Last project I need to finish up is the rear view mirror. Talking to @pynaclhe convinced me to switch to an Oval mirror over keeping the SOS mirror. I was fortunate enough to have purchased an oval mirror a few years ago to retrofit into an E36 m3. It was cheaper to buy replacement glass for the oval mirror ($60) then buy a replacement SOS mirror or send it in to get refurbished $150 for both. So the other night I took on the project.
The main thing forum members complained about was blowing up their oval mirror when plugging it into an SOS wired car. The car has more power running to the mirror for the Roadside assistance and 911 buttons. To fix that problem all I had to do is de-pin pins 4 though 7.  While I could have just snipped them off I wanted to do it the "Right" way. I de-pinned them from the connector and slipped some heat shrink over them and electrical tapped them to the rest of the harness. The mirror isnt installed yet as I forgot my keys and couldn't test the auto-dim. 
To replace the mirror I had to de-solder / snap out the main board connected to the old mirror. After removing the board I removed the black plastic holder and removed the old double sided tape. After putting on some 3m double sided tape I centered it on the new mirror and soldered the 2 wires back on! Honestly so simple a monkey could do it. Based on what online advertisements say, This mirror should last longer then OEM. I bet not.. See you in 15 years. 

I will finish installation tomorrow and post up some before and after mirror photos.
Some cool things I am looking forward to in 2022. I am doing a full leatherique leather treatment on the seats, I have a full 2 year ceramic coating going on in the spring that I won from Imola Motorsports in Minneapolis. And last but not least, the Eisenmann race exhaust should go on eventually I just need time to get both cars on a lift and swap them over due to technical difficulties expressed in a previous post. For now I think I have everything done I wanted to do this winter. We will see if I come up with anything else.

 

Hopefully you never have to use it
Or it’s one of those situations where it’s the only thing you save from a car fire because of how rare it is 

Winter maintenance time!!!
With supply chain issues, product delays, and other blah blah blah, I thought it is best to send the coilovers out for a refresh early to be sure they are ready by spring.
Huge shout-out to Fortune Auto for a quick and thorough refresh!  I sent the coilovers out on November 17 for new seals, oil, and an overall evaluation.
I already got them back and not only did the clean them up and overhaul them, the upgraded the springs to Swift springs, added the newer style  locking adjustment collars, new radial bearings, and replaced all the hardware! 😳😳
At first I wondered if they sent the wrong ones back, but the paint transfer from my red calipers was there, lol

Anyone looking at suspension, I don’t think I can say enough about Fortune auto… I even got a phone call today to make sure they were delivered in good condition and talk about any concerns they found during the overhaul.
Have a great Christmas all!
 
-Tim

I definitely missed that on the first read through haha