'88 Cabrio with cracked head

[superj]

It is sitting pretty tall in the front

[clarkitect]

It is sitting pretty tall in the front

Way tall. I believe it has to do with the front control arm bushings. I should have installed and set it right down. I think now they are giving some lift. I’ll have to redo them.

[Staszek]

Ahh now I get to follow this one I remember all the bushing and bearing changes uh, such a pain. But easier than the E38. I made the same tool you did with PVC. The car still looks great! I love that you paint all the parts after you took them off. I did the same, its annoying to do all that work just to put old looking parts back on. Oh and vert life! I am still considering getting an E30 vert, but we really only need one convertible living in Chicagoland.

[clarkitect]

Ahh now I get to follow this one I remember all the bushing and bearing changes uh, such a pain. But easier than the E38. I made the same tool you did with PVC. The car still looks great! I love that you paint all the parts after you took them off. I did the same, its annoying to do all that work just to put old looking parts back on. Oh and vert life! I am still considering getting an E30 vert, but we really only need one convertible living in Chicagoland.

So much simpler than the E38! I think I spoiled myself this winter working on the E30. I gotta get it wrapped and dig into the E38 before April 10 when I get it out of storage.

Yeah, no way did I want to put the nasty parts back as is. I had a hard enough time installing the parts back on the car that has tons of cosmoline still on the underbody, all of it just full of blackish road grime from the past three decades. I have held off putting most of the fender liners on so I can pull it out and give it a good pressure washing. Sure wish I had paid more attention to that last fall before I got started.

[clarkitect]

Finished up the last of the underneath stuff, installing the front under plastics, checking everything. Car runs and drives great, almost like a new car. I had bled all the brakes, but not the clutch, so bled that. When I put my pressure bleeder on at 15psi, nothing would come out, even after removing the bleeder altogether. I stuck a thin wire into the bleeder hole to see if I could unclog, and FYI, 15psi makes the fluid come out like a firehose. All black and nasty, so keep it running for a while to flush it all out. All fluid is as good as new.

Car looking good, ready for summer. I haven't done anything with the jacked front end. May just drive it a while and see what happens.






White trash interior.













Only nice part of the whole thing:



Pitter patter.

[clarkitect]

Scrubbed up the carpets yesterday. Cleaned up amazingly well for how grimy they were.




You can really see how faded they have become sitting out with the sun beating on them.

[superj]

Nice

[clarkitect]

Nice

Thanks J. Keeping at it, hope to have it wrapped up in the next coupla weeks.

Tried dyeing the carpet with some Rit Tan color fabric dye. Actually worked out pretty good, improved the carpet for sure. Probably could have kept going to make it even better, but this'll do.




All the interior panels looked pretty sorry, kinda faded to a pinkish tannish color. Found a thread on here from a guy who used Duplicolor Medium Beige vinyl paint. This schizz is magical.



Before:



After. This pic is bogus, light was not ideal:



Also painted all the black stuff and changed color of the kick panels. Shift knob and boot were new, installed new leather boot for parking brake lever.







Disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled all the window switches.





Bought a set of seat covers from some place in Mass about ten years ago, figured might as well get those done. First attempt at this kind of thing, so quality is a bit lacking, but what an improvement.



The covers are nowhere near as nice as the original BMW ones, but being not shredded helps out quite a bit.

[superj]

it looks like a new car now, though

[clarkitect]

it looks like a new car now, though

I don't want it to look TOO good. Still have the drive this thing and get it all dirty at some point! It'll still have some patina, but it'll look less like a junker.

[clarkitect]

Disassembling front seats. First one takes about an hour. Second one takes about five minutes.




Then taking all the upholstery off takes time. And you discover this nonsense.







Good thing I found someone who knows how to weld lol.

In the meantime, some seat shocks I bought from jeffnhiscars a few years ago finally getting installed.



Spent the day cleaning the tracks, painting the seatbacks, prepping plastics for painting.

[superj]

oh man, i had the same issue on seats i did. cracked frames, broken spots, all kinds of things. i had to weld a number of spots back up

[clarkitect]

oh man, i had the same issue on seats i did. cracked frames, broken spots, all kinds of things. i had to weld a number of spots back up

Welding is one skill I’d really love to learn. Yeah those seat frames are fairly fragile for sure.

[clarkitect]

Making progress. My first shot at reupholstering. Kind of nerve wracking cutting holes in the new seat covers. Coming out acceptable. At least it won’t be embarassing to drive it anymore.

[superj]

That looks good

[aaverhulst]

Look great! You'll think it's a new car when completed.

[clarkitect]

That looks good

Look great! You'll think it's a new car when completed.

Thanks guys!

Well, here is the final product.







At some point I should take some better pix than what I can do inside the garage.

All said and done a few things stand out. The seat covers had a lot of extra padding I needed to cut out. I should have cut out a little more, now the recline works slowly because the padding is so thick it resists the seatback movement. All seat shocks are new.

The other thing is I should have reassembled the seat after I had the base welded and before I reinstalled the interior. The driver's seatback has a slight twist to it, likely from the cracked base not being perfectly aligned plus the seatback being somewhat deformed from heavyset PO. I messed around with it a bit trying to bend it back, but don't want to make it worse by breaking the damn thing at this point.

All that said, it's mainly noticeable by someone who will point out every flaw (me) rather than pretty much everyone else. Overall the whole interior is much improved. Let's see a before shot again:



On to the next project. Thanks for looking!

[clarkitect]

Update: rear suspension still rattles over bumps exactly as it did before all this work. Shifter is rubbery. Clutch grabs high. Not sure why I wasted all this time. A real letdown. This car is crap.

[superj]

Dang, that sucks

[Tzantushka]

Nice work on the interior.
I'm a big fan of the duplicolor medium beige as well.



Seatbacks will be done soon.

With your suspension rattle - have tried removing the jack to rule that out?

[clarkitect]

Nice work on the interior.
I'm a big fan of the duplicolor medium beige as well.

Seatbacks will be done soon.

With your suspension rattle - have tried removing the jack to rule that out?

Yeah I have removed the jack and the spare tire. Took the opportunity to clean up inside the trunk while I was at it. It sure sounds like a suspension rattle but it impossible to duplicate it in the garage, or ride underneath the car to see what is up. I am going to have to really search underneath. Literally every wear part is new, but something is obviously amiss. Maddening.

[superj]

maybe a shock mount broke through and the washer is rattling

[clarkitect]

maybe a shock mount broke through and the washer is rattling

That was the first thing I checked, and they looked alright. Then I checked the jack, which was definitely rattling around. Thought I nailed it with that but nope. I wonder if it could be one of the shock absorbers. They were replaced a few years ago, and look brand new so I didn't re-replace them this time.

I really need to have my helper assist me in troubleshooting. The rattle is the same as before I did all the suspension work - work that definitely needed to be done as you can tell from the pictures, but it had no effect on this rattle.

Car does run and drive wonderfully, other than the clutch and shifter takes getting used to compared to our other cars, esp the GTI.

For all my whining, the wife does not care at all about any of these things, she is very happy with it, so there is that.

[aaverhulst]

Be sure to check the upper rear shock mounts as those rubber/mounts can easily loosen up.

[clarkitect]

Nice work on the interior.
I'm a big fan of the duplicolor medium beige as well.



Seatbacks will be done soon.

With your suspension rattle - have tried removing the jack to rule that out?

Tzantushka I feel like I should have commented on your note about the interior - thanks for the compliment, it was a lot of work but totally worth it. That duplicolor medium beige worked wonders. When I ordered the seat covers I ordered Sand instead of Natur, and it is practically a perfect match. Def get a lot of compliments on it.

Yours will look great with the seat backs painted. Your interior looks to be in good shape.