HipMF

went fishing yesterday. worked on the car today. life is good.
time to tackle my window trim. problems: 1. two pieces of trim are trying to jettison from the car. 2. chrome window trim is so 70s. 
the upper trim where it comes down to the front fenders likes to fly off of e30s at highway speeds. luckily, last year it decided to come loose when I had the roof rack on, so it couldnt fly away. i had it temporarily taped in place:

with the tape removed, you can see how the trim was failing. those little rust spots are where the clips are supposed to be holding the trim to body seam.

here is a set of new clips. you need (4) for one side of the car. I ordered (5) for good measure. 

old clip (rusty and the little sharp tangs are worn down) vs new. 

to fix, simply slide or pull out the old clips and push the new ones in with a screwdriver. if you cant get the old ones out, just leave them and install the new clips next to them. its not worth bending your trim to try and get them out. 

and done. 

the next trim piece that was falling off was the driver's side rear 'wing'.  you can see it here sticking out from the body. 

to remove, just carefully pry it straight away from the car. be sure to slide the little clip out of the way at the top where it meets the upper trim. 

under, you'll find four holes/grommets. if you remove the trim, you'll likely have to replace all four, so have them on hand. there are (3) 51131870459 and (1) 51141902279 which is actually the same grommet used for the hood emblems. new grommets pushed in place:

trim reinstalled


all lined up again.

at the same time, I 'shadowlined' the chrome window trim. most e30s came with some amount of chrome trim. early cars, all the trim was chrome. later cars had a mix. m3s, 318is, and other special cars (Mtech) had full black trim. it may have also been an option? not sure. my car is a late car with a mix (chrome upper/lower trim, black window trim, black front and rear windshield lockstrips) 

the car has the rear pop-up windows, so you have to remove them to properly paint the trim that is under the seals. removal is easy - one phillips screw at the pop-out latch, and two 8mm nuts behind the clothes hanger hook and seat belt on the B-pillar. no interior trim has to be removed. 

i saved all my packing paper from FCPeuro orders (they overdo the paper) to use as masking paper

starting the masking job

masking all complete. note: unplug your battery because you'll need to leave your doors open for extended periods of time.


sand all the trim with light grit (220) to prep the shiny chrome surface to receive the primer. 

i usually use SEM trim paint for this job, but i'm sick of tracking it down so I went with store-bought rustoleum trim paint. in the end, I was happy with the finish. it is slightly more glossy than SEM, but matches the factory trim finish well. my only gripe is the nozzle is a wide spray pattern, which is super wasteful on thin trim. i sprayed most of the trim with the can twisted to get more coverage. 

did two coats of self etching primer

patiently wait at least 12 hours to pull your masking tape (hardest part of the job) 
and boom, done. 

i am just about wrapped up for the 'winter' projects. I took the car out, washed it, and drove it.  much smiles.

 
more to do: 
replace pulley idlers (squeek squeek squeek)
replace coolant level sensor
adjust rear coil heights (after pulling the car out and looking from a distance I can see its not even from side to side) 
alignment

Switched from pandora to spotify. Much better, but I'm sure the rest of the world already knows that. I don't usually have music on unless I'm actively listening to it, but lately I've been letting spotify play in the background and it's been okay. Mostly sticking to jazz or things that are vaguely jazz-like.
 
 

Too cool not to share got this OEM BMW fire extinguisher imported from the UK
Came with an e36 seat bracket as well. Going it get it refilled soon.
 

you misspelled valencia orange

Living the dream, baby!

Popemobile

Popemobile

you misspelled valencia orange

Might be easier to start with something non-structural...less liability issues?
That's all I got.

window regulators that continue to function for more than 6 months.

window regulators that continue to function for more than 6 months.

it's a jeep thing, you wouldn't understand
 

bruh

bruh

I built a screened in porch a couple weekends ago and have slowly put some finishing touches on it.  Next weekend I'm swapping out the motion light for a normal outdoor light fixture with two GFCI outlets so my wife can continue to decorate as she sees fit. The roof was already existing so all I did was frame it, screen it, build the door and added some finishing trim.  This is by far the largest wood project I've done and I'm pretty happy with it.  It's not perfect by any means but it's functional.  Operation fuck off mosquitos.

Sounds like a personal problem.

Sounds like a personal problem.

One of our assemblers at work pulled in with this. Just bought it yesterday. Definitely not something I was expecting to see today.

I agree. I think there were other approaches they could have taken - limit number of people inside stores to small numbers, cut restaurant occupancy numbers in half, require masks (hard to do in a restaurant though), allow restaurants with outdoor patios the option to open with tables spaced 6' apart. I bet most people in Wisconsin would bundle up and sit outside at a restaurant right now just to get out of the house and do something. I understand golf courses are outdoor, open spaces where the number of people can be controlled, but I think it's dumb that there is a small group of people will get to go do a social activity with their friends. 
I hope people schedule tee times to not play golf and just walk the course with their friends to get drunk and take dumps in the holes. 

Or, on a more serious note:

This is the kind of stupidity I can really get behind. Well done.Can't wait to see what's next. Flares?

Or, on a more serious note:

One of our assemblers at work pulled in with this. Just bought it yesterday. Definitely not something I was expecting to see today.