Touring International

[Earl]

I spent all Saturday at the shop.

My friend John came out and did some welding and grinding in the bay=) He did a really good job

I finished part of a project I have been thinking of. BMW used self tapping screws for multiple areas in the front of the car. The ones that I wanted to change over to m6x1 are the headlight mounts and the fender mounting holes. I got the easier of the two done.

I started off with the ugly hardware


I then drilled out the threads


Then ran an m6x1 tap through them


The finished product



I will be sorting out the fender mounting hardware next. There isn't enough material to drill and tap for those so I will have to get creative with the use of rivnuts/nut-serts/blund nuts.

The next thing I did was remove the seat belt mounting bars to get them powdercoated.


Most of the rest of the day was spent cleaning the front floors of the car. I want to look for any surface rust from salt and water soaking in the carpet during winters. The passenger side is rust free and I am now looking at the drivers side.


Other than that I ordered my brake pads through CaTuned and will be placing some other parts orders this week=)

[Earl]

Thursday I went to pick up my latest Fastenal order.


It included hardware for my fenders, headlights, and hood, as well as these


Rivet nuts=) This is the only viable option I could think of for converting the fender mounting hardware to m6, versus the current self tapping screw style.

Friday my WBR pads came from CaTuned


Igor is a really awesome guy and is there for help and advice any time I need it=)

Saturday was a little disappointing, but wasn't completely unsuccessful. I didn't get near as much as I wanted done, but enough was accomplished to be happy with.

I started by installing some of the rivet nuts after picking up more Downstar hardware







I messed the first one up by placing a star washer in between the handle and the rivet nut. This drove the star washer into the rivet nut and gouged up the top. I will be replacing that one and ordering some extras.

The second one I snapped the bolt off since I didn't pay attention to it only being a grade 8.8=/ I ended up drilling it out and got another one installed. The other four that I installed didn't go too bad. It seems that there is a fine line between crushing them the right amount and over crushing them, since the metal folding inside can cause interference with inserting a bolt.

I have eight more to install. Four of them are puzzling me because the hardware is actually threaded into a clip instead of into the body like I though. I will figure it out some way or another.

After that I my rear calipers and carriers, touched up the paint, put on the new pads, and then installed them. It got dark by the time I got them installed so pictures will come Friday.

During the time the touch-ups on the calipers were drying, I thought I would see how my headlights will look with the modified mounts and Downstar hardware (excuse the super dusty headlight)


I am really happy with how all of this hardware is coming out.

I also vacuumed up all of the large debris in my drive side foot well and will start the hunt for rust. I don't really want to have to take up the sound deadening since this has all already taken way longer than I would like. I am thinking I can spray any surface rust with reformer and come back at a later time to redo deadening=)

Throughout the day my buddy John did more welding and grinding in the bay during my other friends absence. He got a good chunk done and it is coming along.

I have an exam and car show this weekend so all of my progress will be getting done Friday afternoon.

[Earl]

Friday I had a half day at work so I headed straight to the shop.

I took pics of the calipers installed



Grabbed my ECS Tuning outer stainless lines


Then installed them



After that I got to installing the rivet nuts for mounting the lower fender. The areas has a good bit of surface rust so I grabbed some wire wheels for my dremel and went about cleaning them up and drilling out the old threads




I then threw some self etching primer on each side to stop any future rust.



Then the rivet nuts were installed



I also got some news on Friday. My friend who was doing my welding and shaving has decided to pursue other projects. Luckily I have a good chunk of people who are willing to finish it for me. I just need to decide which one to go with. Right now I am steering towards the ones who are going to be doing the paint work but we will see dependent on the quote I am given within the next week or two.

This is where it is currently at



I also got a better shot of how the Downstar hardware retrofit looks with the headlights


Other than that, I sold my m42 radiator to a friend of mine with an e30 since it will not work with the euro m3 radiator cover. Now I just need to find a radiator and find an overflow that is pretty discreet.

[244Brick]

I'll let you borrow my overflow if you give me some XOXOXOXOXOXs boo lol

[Earl]

I did not get as much done as I wanted to Saturday but progress is progress.

I bought some plastic tarping so that I could take out my seats and cover them to keep them from getting dusty/dirty. This will make it easier for me to work inside the car each time without having to pull them out over and over. It will also let me recover them while the car is off for paint/bodywork.

Speaking of the seats, I found a really nice set of interior in the motherland and am in the process of having it picked up and sent over here=) It is a much better idea to get these than to recover mine. The main reason is that the seats are almost immaculate and they are a very rare pattern/colorway that I never knew existed. The price is also a huge plus. I will stop teasing soon once I send the payment for said interior.

I also removed the door cards in anticipation of the new interior (also to remove the exterior door handles soon)


Throughout the day I worked on prepping and priming my front....not even sure what to refer to them as. haha

I didn't take many pictures but got this one before spraying the primer


I then took two terrible pictures after the primer was all applied and dried



I will be prepping, priming, and possibly undercoating some other things this coming Saturday=)

I also touched up any chips on my front calipers and carriers and got them all assembled.


I wanted to clean my new carpet and get a start on dying any spots that need it but I didn't have a chance. Hopefully this next weekend I will be able to get that out of the way=)

[Earl]

I have gotten a little done since the last update=)

The second most exciting update is that my paint/finishing shave/bodywork quote is scheduled for this afternoon. If it is in my budget I will have to scramble to get the car back to a somewhat rolling state so that it can get to their facility. I will put my most exciting update at the end of this update=)

Friday I started refinishing my rear axles for a second time. I did a half ass job the first time because I just wanted to get the car back together. I am very happy that my mindset has changed.






I then tapped up the boots and splines and did some media blasting to get as much off as I could without damaging the boot ends.




Once I got to the shop I sprayed them with self etching primer



I let that cure over night and then I sprayed them with gloss black on Saturday.



Now I just want to refresh the boot clamps and then they are done.

On Friday I also started taking out my door handles. I got the outer trim off and decided to leave the handles in for now until it gets to the bodyshop so that the doors can latch shut while it is transported there.



The seals around them were super cracked. I bought a new set a little over a year ago and will be swapping them in upon reinstallation.




I also started cleaning up the ends of the frame rails Friday.




There was a little surface rust that I brushed off. After that I was out of self etching primer but sprayed them Saturday as well.

[Earl]

Saturday I pressure washed my carpet since it was pretty dirty and I wanted to get it really clean before dying it.




It came out pretty clean but wasn't anywhere near dry when I left.




I also pressure washed my transmission. I should source another one since first will pop out if you do not put it in first before coming to a stop. Third gear would also grind on very rare occasions.




I spent a majority of the day under the front of the car removing surface rust and seam sealer so I can get some primer, paint, and undercoat down before I put the refreshed front subframe on.




I just need to pick up a paint/rust removal disc for my grinder and will try and get it primed this weekend.

The last thing I did was remove my rear seat cards in preparation for my new interior=)



That brings me to my favorite update. My friend Kitty and I sourced a full interior for me to import. They just got it delivered to them on Saturday.






I won't go into crazy detail but we have found a good chunk of information out about them. They are called "Looping II Anthracite" and were a Dakar Yellow 323ti only option. They weren't really advertised so they were more of an "Individual" option. They were only made from March to December in 1997. Kitty doesn't think any more than 100 sets were made. Mine are labelled as set 52 and were built on June 14th of 1997. Kitty has only ever seen two sets in pictures, including this set. This is the only set she has ever seen for sale so I just had to get them. I was planning on recovering my interior anyways but these seats are immaculate. The rear seats and door cards look brand new. The passenger seat looks to be in excellent shape with no wear. The only wear on anything is a thumbnail hole in the Alcantara thigh bolster of the drivers seat. I will be getting that repaired once they get here. The huge plus is that I got these for incredibly less than it would be to redo my interior. I can't wait for them to arrive=)

Since my interior is out of the bag I might as well show my new steering wheel that I have been keeping a secret too. Kitty helped me source this as well and it will be on its way over with the seats.



Hopefully after today things will start falling into place again=)

[Smeeeb]

I love this thing some much, you go man!

[Earl]

Thank you=) I dig your MK3.

[Minuki]

Interior looks good man, nice find! German eBay is the devil

[Earl]

Thank you. German ebay has gotten me to buy so much=D

[frink84]

that interior is badass, congrats

[Earl]

Thank you=)

[Earl]

I got a bit done Saturday.

I started off the day by working on dying my "new" carpet. It had light fading in spots and I wanted to make it look as new as possible.

I went with Duplicolor Vinyl and Carpet dye. I brushed it in after each coat and then brushed it in the end. The feel of the carpet is no different than the feel of my old carpet.

Before:



After: (it is darker in person, white balance sucks on my phone)




I drug my old carpet out too to get a comparison:



After that my buddy Dustin stopped by and dropped off a set of center caps that he has been working on for me. The agreement was that I wouldn't get them until the car was done, but he was sick of them sitting in a box in his kitchen=P




They are concave but it is hard to see in the pictures. They also have an o-ring groove to make them easy to pop in and out. I am not sure if I should leave them as is, polish them, or have them powdered to match the faces. Right now I am leaning towards leaving them as is.

[Earl]

After that Dustin and John had an idea to get the valve cover clean inside. We cycled the fuel pump with a battery and used the old gas to slosh around in the cover to remove the aluminum chips. It took a few times but it worked great.

I then installed the valve cover gaskets:


John and I then installed the cover and the mounting plate for my COP kit:


Since I don't have plugs yet, we just set the coils in and hand tightened the bolts to keep debris from getting in the cylinders:


Since we were putting the engine together, I installed the lower intake manifold gasket and also got my knock sensors cleaned up and re-installed:



John wanted me to keep installing as much as I could on the engine so the next step was the fuel rail. It had some scuffs and minor surface rust so we ran to grab a can of my favorite paint....Wrinkle Black. I didn't get any after pictures since we weren't there long enough after I sprayed it to see it wrinkle, but I will get them sometime this week.


After that we finished up my axle refresh. The boots were in great shape so we just redid the clamps. We used stainless steel ties which seem to work well for people.



Other than that my interior should be coming soon so I brought my rear seat bottom home to uncover so that I can wrap it with the new seats fabric when it arrives=)