Project Lessmeister: 91 318iS Restomod w/ MTech2 and modern drivetrain

[Stück]

Those euro/blocked clips that BMW wouldn't ship to the US just arrived :-)

[Stück]

Went by BMW of Houston North this morning and picked up the second parts order. The invoices are getting scary now lol!

Assorted hardware, and new MTechnic sill strips


New black carpet set, rear console, glovebox and knee panel.


Firewall sound insulation and HVAC box gasket.


1 pair of new door seals, these were painful for what they are....


New A/B pillar trim, and tool kit foam.


New dashboard

[billyfiction]

so nice. it's going to smell like a brand new car.

What exhaust/muffler are you going to run?

[Stück]

Headers will be the typical eBay longtubes, muffler is a Remus unit. The in between will likely be a custom fitted combination of OE parts from later model BMW's to suit.

[Aryana]

Amazing all that stuff is still available new from BMW.

[hotdish]

Woah, what was the new dash? $800? I thought they sold the last of them already.

[87Cabrio89is]

Went by BMW of Houston North this morning and picked up the second parts order. The invoices are getting scary now lol! Assorted hardware, and new MTechnic sill strips New black carpet set, rear console, glovebox and knee panel. Firewall sound insulation and HVAC box gasket. 1 pair of new door seals, these were painful for what they are.... New A/B pillar trim, and tool kit foam. New dashboard

I feel your pain on the door gaskets, I just paid $208 each to refresh my cabriolet...sure glad that I don't have a four door!

[auaq]

Holy crap Stuck! Loving all the stuff I'm seeing here.

[Zodiacbw]

Wow, I thought most of that was nla.

[LeMansGTS]

Hey Jordan....sweet build. Can you help me look for an E36 M3, then fix it up (primarily mechanically, i.e. cooling system) to make it reliable, so I can take it to CES and put a turbo on it? Dead srs. Or maybe sell me the 5? I miss boost and want a manual M3 dd.

[Stück]

I'm sure I could help you, I'm also sure you still have my number or know how to reach me on Facebook ;-)


Not much has gone on this week in my camp. I've been sick and hacking up a lung over here, hard to find motivation to head into the garage after a 10 hour work day.

Paul over at Ehrlich Wheel Works sent me this today, my RS's are coming along. They back sides have been milled to clear the factory brakes without the addition of spacers, they have been stripped of previous finishes, and the bolt pattern has been plugged pending redrilling to 4x100.



I'm going to try to get by Imperial Collision tomorrow and check up on the progress of the chassis, but that is highly dependent on my side work load. We'll see.

- - - Updated - - -

One of my projects for the weekend is rebuilding the IHKS case as a unit. The outside of it was very dusty, and the more I looked at it, into it the more I saw filth. I'm used to taking these apart and changing evaporators on E39/E46/E83 cars and the E30 unit while more electrically simple... looks about the same.



One thing BMW/BEHR have not changed over the years is the lousy foam gaskets they use to seal the blend doors and flaps to the housing. Many have no doubt noticed that E30's tend to have some air flow even when the vent is closed.... this is why. They use some biodegradable open cell foam. You can literally roll it off and ball it up, what doesn't turn to dust in the wind anyway.

All of the internal gaskets will be replaced with closed cell neoprene rubber, which should last forever. The OE gaskets are not available anyway.

Add to that the fact that the inside of the case is beyond disgusting with 25 years of debris inside.... time to tear it apart and clean out the funk.




The yuck factor is much more potent than the photos let on. Sticky furry dust and grime all over, and the air you breathe inside the car tumbles past it all.


Then there are the doors that open and close when you turn the recycle function off and on. They seem to take the brunt of the funk deposits, and their gaskets are no exception to the decomposition of the others. Along with that the smaller inner door that closes the IHKS unit to outside air when recycle is on are often broken as mine is.





The entire boss breaking off the door is a common failure mode, although I have also seen the ball stud pull out of the plastic boss as well.

When these are broken the servo motor for the recycle function will still move through its range of motion, but you will still be blessed with outside air & odors you may not have wanted.

I pulled 4 IHKS units from parts cars at work and all 4 had at least 1 broken flap. The doors are mirrored left vs right, but between the 4 I was able to make a pair of doors that had small hairline cracks but no complete failures. These will be reinforced prior to being reinstalled to prevent future failure.

I would have gladly bought them new, but best I can tell BMW offers NO NEW PARTS where as it concerns the IHKS subassemblies. At over $1300 for the complete IHKS unit new... I'm going to pass on that.

[auaq]

^ ewww

[Stück]

Today I spent the entire day working on the IHKS unit, and finished out the day with a little work on the dashboard.

The first task was to finish disassembling the upper half of the IHKS unit. BMW did not intend for people to take these apart. You will need to drill out 8 rivets, and carefully excise one section where the two halves of the upper unit meet that BMW decided to melt together for a weather seal.

Here is the upper half assembly torn down:


A close up of the funky filth on the innards:




I soaked everything in a tub of water with cleaner in it for awhile then hand brushed each piece getting it all nice and clean. I set each piece in the sun to dry as I finished the next.



Here is the tub after all the parts were washed:


With everything clean and dry the next matter of business would be to clean what was left of the adhesive residue from the old foam that did not wash off, and rederess each flap with new neoprene foam.

I don't know what kind of cheap ass foam BMW/BEHR used back in the 80's but it aged really poorly. Neoprene foam would outlast the car.



and start reassembly of the upper half of the housing:


New rivets for the stiffener/joiner plate (6mm x 4mm in case anyone needs to know)


Blower motor and shroud in, recycle flaps installed:


Underside of the top assembly:


That is it for the IHKS for today, I'm waiting for another sheet of foam for the lower heater blend door.

The brand new dash I ordered from BMW of Houston North is really nice but it comes devoid of any accessories. All of the vents, ductwork, mounting plates etc must be transfered from the old dash. I didn't have an old dash as the previous owner tossed it out, so I pulled all these parts from a parts car at work.

Moving on to the dashboard.... I dissembled and cleaned all 3 vents:


I riveted the a-pillar catches to the side of the dash:


Outer vents installed:


Ductwork and air manifolds installed:

[323i E30]

Why it's so cold in my car..? I'm never opening my vents again, that's why.

[roguetoaster]

Truly, you are an inspiration for all E30 owners, even if most of us will never fix 90% of what you are fixing. Very neat to see the inside of the HVAC stack that hasn't been disassembled with a sledgehammer too.

[Clark Grizwald]

Yea this is really amazing. I have zero mechanical skill and I am checking this out from my desk job and I want to quit and come work for you.

[Stück]

Thanks guys, I hope through this build others may be inspired to make theirs better as well. I have no doubt every E30 on the road these days probably has a really really nasty IHKS unit.

Update from Imperial Collision. They are hoping to have the car in paint at the end of the week. Small parts are in primer, and guide coated. Block sanding underway now.

[Stück]

Work happened to bring me by Imperial Collision this morning so I got a chance to check out progress with my own eyes. The car is nearly ready for primer and its looking great. I'm looking at getting it back maybe the first week of November.

This afternoon I also picked up some parts from BMW of Houston North I'd been waiting on. New OE foam for the IHKS, and the OE BMW fabric loom wrap. The foam that seals the IHKS to the bulkhead is absolutely critical. If it fails to seal you will get rain water into the cabin. The foam seal to the IHKS output to the dash is less critical but a leak here generally just means reduced air flow and a potential for noise.

This pair of foam seals will set you back about $80. The wire loom tape comes in rolls of 75ft and runs about $28.





I LOVE this OE loom tape, its a wonderful icing on the cake touch for the rebuild of this unit.

[Aryana]

That OE loom tape is great. I've used it on all my vehicles.

[Stück]

Indeed, its good stuff. Someone on R3V tipped me off that I can find it considerably cheaper on eBay under the manufactures P/N "TESA 51026"

Shes in the booth at Imperial Collision getting primer as we speak. *such excite*

[Stück]

Primer dried overnight, car is out of the booth now to start blocking.

[Aryana]

Is there a color picked out yet?

[Redshift]

This will be the nicest E30 around. Damn

[Stück]

Is there a color picked out yet?

405/3, Imolarot II

This will be the nicest E30 around. Damn

I don't know about nicest, but it'll be pretty damn nice.

[richardodn]

That OE loom tape is great. I've used it on all my vehicles.

I've always used the cloth friction tape from the local Ace Hardware.