Back to BMW - My 99 323is refurbish/project

[xxxxxxx]

Good god man. Just buy some new springs! I appreciate the effort and restoration though. Thumbs up.

[MrFixItBuilds]

Good god man. Just buy some new springs! I appreciate the effort and restoration though. Thumbs up.

Ha ha I know. I know.. was really thinking hard about it, but now that I have to replace/rebuild my brake calipers, I don’t know that I want to pay for them right now.. lots of money in the car and wanted to see how far I could go. I haven’t even started on the back half. It was a trade off on new springs or potentially a LSD, and I think I’m leaning LSD now.


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[MrFixItBuilds]

Ugh. So the konis I ordered, one of the front struts is missing the hardware (lock washer, tapered washer and nut). Also, I am having literally one of the worst times getting the springs to compress enough to get them on the strut! I’ve never had this issue before. I tried multiple things but at the end of all of it I got frustrated and tried to undo the compressors (too quickly on one side and pinned the threads of the compressor into the side of the spring seat on the strut... now my pretty orange paint is Screwed up.

Any ideas on how I can get these on easier? I was just going to buy HR springs since I probably won’t need to compress them, but now that I’m buying calipers and hopefully an LSD/midpipe, not sure I want to go with springs right now.

Waiting to hear from URO on if they are going to send me a hardware set or what, but as of right now kind of at a standstill.

I bought a couple of brake rebuild kits, to have a bleeder brake in one of the calipers, and my extraction attempt was piss poor due to the amount of rust.

I was just gonna buy reman calipers from fcpeuro but they are suddenly back ordered and wanted to avoid buying new ones if I was thinking about upgrading to E46s brakes in the future. Oh well. Looks like I’m getting a set locally.





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[MrFixItBuilds]

Ugh. Still waiting to hear when koni is going to send me a set of hardware for my strut. Put my knuckles together with the new hubs, but haven’t torqued them to spec yet since I can’t put them on the car yet. Can’t put the lollipops on yet since I can’t put the car down without struts.

It’s amazing how one little hardware kit can derail a whole project. Another example is waiting on the crush washers that I needed for my pressure line. Everything else for the power steering is back in now though except torquing those lines to spec (Rack/tie rods/hoses and lines/res)







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[XnWarden]

Lookin good. Make sure you got the right size crush washer for the PS lines. I ordered mine using the realoem part # and they were waaaaay too big.

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[gdavid]

That is one clean undercarriage, nice work.

[MrFixItBuilds]

Soooo. My wife is a little cranky, because I might have to drive 30 hours round trip for this. 99 328 vert. Copart auction that comes up tomorrow morning and I’ve been the high bidder for 5 days.

This would give me the midpipe I was looking for, another set of rims, and a 328 engine if I wanted. Also a good platform for a track car/drift or ls swap.



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[gdavid]

Is the vert a manual? If so the ZF transmission and everything needed for a manual swap present a significant value is you part it out. Around me the convertibles sell quite cheap but many have rust hiding under the carpets particularly if they had a leaking top at some point (ask me how I know). In case you are unaware, the m3 and 328 manual transmissions were all ZF where all 318, 323 & 325 had Getrag manuals, the ZF hold up better under higher power but are likely to require the detent pins to be repaired.

[MrFixItBuilds]

Is the vert a manual? If so the ZF transmission and everything needed for a manual swap present a significant value is you part it out. Around me the convertibles sell quite cheap but many have rust hiding under the carpets particularly if they had a leaking top at some point (ask me how I know). In case you are unaware, the m3 and 328 manual transmissions were all ZF where all 318, 323 & 325 had Getrag manuals, the ZF hold up better under higher power but are likely to require the detent pins to be repaired.

It’s an auto , but good to know. I figured if I was going to pay 300-500 for a midpipe, I might as well put that money into a whole car lol.

This one looks pretty clean, but we shall see if I win it or not,


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[gdavid]

It’s an auto , but good to know. I figured if I was going to pay 300-500 for a midpipe, I might as well put that money into a whole car lol.

This one looks pretty clean, but we shall see if I win it or not,


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I have a spare midpipe with a decent muffler laying in my shop I'd give you if you lived closer. I've accumulated far too many e36 parts. Unfortunately, most of them have little to no value as upgrades.

My wife had drop me off to pick up my first 328 3 years ago, should have been 4 hours round trip and turned into 6-7 with traffic. She has resented the car ever since, of course I'm up to three now but hopefully will be down to one by the summer. I bought my vert for $600 with a bad motor, bad interior and hole in the floor. I should have just scrapped it for the manual parts but it became a project, I have learned a lot along the way.

[MrFixItBuilds]

I have a spare midpipe with a decent muffler laying in my shop I'd give you if you lived closer. I've accumulated far too many e36 parts. Unfortunately, most of them have little to no value as upgrades.

My wife had drop me off to pick up my first 328 3 years ago, should have been 4 hours round trip and turned into 6-7 with traffic. She has resented the car ever since, of course I'm up to three now but hopefully will be down to one by the summer. I bought my vert for $600 with a bad motor, bad interior and hole in the floor. I should have just scrapped it for the manual parts but it became a project, I have learned a lot along the way.

Yeah. Similar situation here lol.

Curious where you are in Maryland? I bought the vert in chambersburg PA. Wondering how close you are to it.

I didn’t expect my bid to win the car, so my wife isn’t 100% pleased, especially since they require pickup in 3 days and with the covid “quarantine”. Lol.

I was thinking about just shipping it, which costs 500-800 depending on the logistics company. Not sure I know what to do right now lol


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[gdavid]

Yeah. Similar situation here lol.

Curious where you are in Maryland? I bought the vert in chambersburg PA. Wondering how close you are to it.

I didn’t expect my bid to win the car, so my wife isn’t 100% pleased, especially since they require pickup in 3 days and with the covid “quarantine”. Lol.

I was thinking about just shipping it, which costs 500-800 depending on the logistics company. Not sure I know what to do right now lol


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I'm in southern MD

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[MrFixItBuilds]

I am getting really frustrated with URO tuning and KONI..

Reached out to URO last Tuesday due to my missing strut hardware and the paint issues on one of the struts from shipping. Every other day I ask URO, they tell me they “have reached out to the manufacturer and are waiting to hear back”... last week they said they got a response, but was never told whether koni was going to send me new hardware or not. 8 days later, guessing not.

I’m getting to the point where I’m just considering returning them to URO and getting bilsteins elsewhere since it’s taking so long. Unfortunately, I just gave the one strut and associated hardware to a local shop to see if they could get the spring on, because I could not, no matter what I did. He was having trouble too he said this afternoon.

If he gets it on tonight then I’m gonna have to probably stick with konis, but getting kind of annoyed that a stupid tapered washer and lock nut are holding up my entire project. Ugh. I’d probably just find a lock washer/nut locally if it wasn’t for the tapered washer that goes on the strut.

In other news. The 328 is “supposed” to be picked up tomorrow to avoid yard fees. We shall see if it actually does or if I’m gonna have to have my lawyer buddy write a letter that essentially goes after the carrier for the yard fees since they had confirmed “no problem” to pick up by Wednesday as long as I paid a $75 deposit.

I don’t care if it takes a while to get here, it just needs to be picked up by tomorrow...

FYI. Finding a notary during covid 19 is a pain in the ass.


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[MrFixItBuilds]

Ok. So still no word from KONI on the hardware for the strut, so I bought another off tire rack delivered next day for free (sweet) since KONIs 20% off sale started.

I was having so much trouble with the springs and getting it all together with rental spring compressors. I’ve never struggled this much on struts. I found a small local shop in my small town that had one of his mechanics do both for me for $40 cash. Worth it. Now I can get back to my 323!!




Ugh. My KONI frustration continues.. I couldn’t get my passenger side knuckle into the strut and so I looked into konis mount, and there was either a casting issue, or weld splatter or something, but it was essentially blocking the knuckle from getting in.

A punch and a file fixed it, but cmon man. I wanted to finish up the front minus the brakes tonight. I also am enjoying my decision to use rubber lcabs (not), since I can’t get them onto the control arm lol. And I am absolutely not buying the 150 press on tool lol. I’m going to go to a hardware store possibly and make my own!



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[MrFixItBuilds]

So I built my own lcab press out of an old garage door opener arm and some threaded rod. It worked decently for the $7 and 45 min or so I spent making it. Got the job done. Didn’t tweak my back and was able to get the lollipops on in no time, put wheels on and lower the car to let the soap dry and lock the bushings for proper preload. I really hope the ride height settles down a bit, as this is really high right now. I’m beginning to second guess not buying lowering springs.

While waiting for that, I was going to get the car back to a state where I could start it to bleed power steering and see if I had any oil leaks. One of the power steering hoses has a slightly different design i believe, and It was actually hitting the power steering pump pulley, so I had to undo it and move it slightly to torque it down again. No leak from it; so I think we are ok.

Bled the steering system, but pretty sure I’m going to have to do some more work on the steering shaft, as there is now some noise and still a little tough to turn in my opinion (wheels mostly off ground) which I’m positive is the u-joint on the shaft, even though I lubed that up well and got it moving more freely, it may just not be enough.

I need to get to painting my calipers and get them installed so I can attach the rest of the lines. Also, now that the knuckle is in and the control arms are fixed, I can torque my axle nuts down and detent them. Getting so close I can feel it!

The individual I was waiting on for the LSD still doesn’t have it out (so he’s not sure if it’s a 3.15 or 3.23) so I’m not sure if I’m going to just do the rear suspension and then the lsd later this year; or just wait on the lsd?

Also need to either go buy myself some paint to paint the nose piece and trunk, or get an idea of what a shop here locally would charge to spray them. If I’m going shop, I might as well buy an m bumper and have them spray it at the same time.













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[MrFixItBuilds]

Hey everyone. So I got the new calipers painted, slides greased and installed. I bled the brakes and prepped the car to flip it around so I could work on the rear end a little easier.

I know I made the mistake of connecting the battery with one of the abs sensors disconnected a while ago. Abs and ACS light are on because of that I believe.

Annoyed because I think I’m going to have to pull my front end apart again to get my knuckles or spindles out to be able to drill out the old abs sensors (one of them is missing the bolt to keep it in, and I noticed it was snapped off in the knuckle. The two sensors are basically rusted into the spindles, so they likely will have to be drilled or beat out.

Also.. annoyed because my brand new power steering res is leaking on the backside of the res. I can’t tell if the cap is leaking or if it’s leaking in the middle where it’s put together during mfg. I’ll have to pull the intake out again to know for sure. Looks like the backside of the cap... ugh.

Also. I think one of the pulleys or idlers are being noisy.. I don’t like it.

[ZEKTI]

Nice progress! The suspension refresh will feel amazing. I have the orange koni kit and love it for the price, but I only do street driving. Grinding away rust and painting feels so satisfying. For brakes I would go standard caliper and rotors, if you want a little more bite, get a more aggressive pad. Larger calipers and rotors don't always help, but they do visually.

For radiator I went Turner aluminum and stock OE expansion tank. I had a Mishi tank but got rid since not being transparent was always kind of annoying to me. yes there is a dipstick but it was also black and harder to read. Besides a new plastic one will last 20 years again. I went stock OE with the rest of the cooling system lines and WP.

Did you get any rear bushings or control arms?

PS - Love the big ol 8.1 Vortec, used a early 90s K3500 Dually 454 for a while. Got 8mpg no matter tail wind or full trailer. Glad to see GM stuck with the same. Stay Safe!

[gdavid]

Hey everyone. So I got the new calipers painted, slides greased and installed. I bled the brakes and prepped the car to flip it around so I could work on the rear end a little easier.

I know I made the mistake of connecting the battery with one of the abs sensors disconnected a while ago. Abs and ACS light are on because of that I believe.

Annoyed because I think I’m going to have to pull my front end apart again to get my knuckles or spindles out to be able to drill out the old abs sensors (one of them is missing the bolt to keep it in, and I noticed it was snapped off in the knuckle. The two sensors are basically rusted into the spindles, so they likely will have to be drilled or beat out.

Also.. annoyed because my brand new power steering res is leaking on the backside of the res. I can’t tell if the cap is leaking or if it’s leaking in the middle where it’s put together during mfg. I’ll have to pull the intake out again to know for sure. Looks like the backside of the cap... ugh.

Also. I think one of the pulleys or idlers are being noisy.. I don’t like it.

There is a vent in the cap that can leak easily and make a mess, it is especially easy to overflow when you are working air out of the system. Wipe it clean and make sure it isn't overfilled.

[MrFixItBuilds]

There is a vent in the cap that can leak easily and make a mess, it is especially easy to overflow when you are working air out of the system. Wipe it clean and make sure it isn't overfilled.

It’s possible it was slightly overfilled. I’ll have to check it once I’ve got it back down and level again, but that won’t be for a while since I’ve started on the rear for now.

Gotta order some new abs sensors for the front and find the motivation to pull it apart again to drill out the one bolt from my spindle and either drill out the old abs sensors or try and pound them out from the front, which would probably require me to pull my hub off again.


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[MrFixItBuilds]

Last night I flipped the car around in the garage to have the rear closer to my tools and where I have more space.. started working to remove my rear end, but ran into some challenges so far.

1. Hard brake line fittings on both sides do not want to move at all. Put some penetrating oil on them for now. One is a little rounded already it looks like. Probably not going to want to move without some heat or breaking.

2. Parking brake lines are stuck and aren’t coming out. I don’t really want to disassemble my console to disconnect them from inside and have to pull them all the way back later, but might be the only way to get them out for now.


3. Exhaust flanges to the mid-pipe were broken, and the nuts rusted beyond recognition.(supposedly a 13mm was actually between a 9 and 10mm).
I just opted to cut the bolts on the flange and decided I’ll buy a new one for reinstall.
One muffler bracket was toast, the other was barely hanging on.. all my heat shielding is basically just drifting or being held by one or two nuts/washers. I’ll replace with stainless fender washers when I reinstall.

4. Was going to remove in pieces, but need a 30mm 12 pt. I only have a 6pt 30mm, so I can’t remove the axle from the wheel bearing. Then I also couldn’t get the axle flange bolts at the diff off either... (covered and nasty bolts). Guess I’m going to have to drop all of it at the same time, which sucks since I don’t have a transmission jack.

Had to come in for Easter dinner, but will likely have more to share once I give the pb blaster a little more time to work.









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[gdavid]

Here are shots of the rusty flanges on my mid-pipe to muffler joint.

[MrFixItBuilds]

Last night I worked on getting the rear subframe removed, which kinda sucked since it just did not want to pull off one of the studs.

Things were cruising until I got to the 5th bolt to my midpipe from the manifolds. It sheared off right away, as did the 6th.

My brake cables were frozen in the trailing arms and the grommets into the cabin, but they finally came out with a lot of yelling and tapping with a brass rod/hammer.

I noticed my guibo is starting to show cracks. Which means I might as well do it while I’m here. This car is going to be basically brand new except for engine internals and transmission when I’m done lol.

After I got it all out. I ended my evening for dinner with my family.

Today I pulled apart the subframe/diff and started to separate all of the pieces to be able to get them prepped for blasting/painting. I got my brake cables out, hubs off, and two of 4 bushings out of the subframe. Looks like I’m going to have to press the other two out.


Crawled under the car to check the chassis for stress cracks and happy to report no cracking!

Now if I could get my father in law to bring his mig over, maybe I’ll buy the reinforcements and attempt to weld them in. “Might as well”... I don’t really want to pull this all down again for a while. Fuel tank straps probably need to be replaced... I’ve read cautionary tales about them.

Fuel lines are in rough shape right at the tank. Since my brake lines are basically seized to my brake hoses, dropping the tank and replacing the straps and the lines seems reasonable considering it’s all out anyways. Then I don’t have to worry about it.

One of the main reasons I bought the vert hoping it was in rough rough shape, was the xbrace and midpipe. Seeing as the vert is in reasonable condition, I’ll probably try and buy an xbrace online from eBay or something since my brace has a major hole in it and it’s working itself through to the other side.

One of my lower control arms is bent. Good excuse to buy adjustable.
















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[MrFixItBuilds]

Well, today I decided to get my bushings out and start blasting the subframe. The front two came out easily as did my RTABs but the back two subframe bushings were horrible and weren’t going anywhere, but I finally got them out!

Started sandblasting and just as I was getting the hang of dialing it in, it got kinda cold outside, so I cleaned up all my media and went in for the night, with a little bit left to go on the subframe.

Guess I’ll be able to return a couple of ball joints, since I will need to buy new lower control arms (camber arms) that might as well go adjustable ans put good money to use, even tho I haven’t lowered the car yet or anything.

Tomorrow I’m going to run to Lowe’s and try and get a 7/16 threaded rod for the ball joints, since my 1/2 inch doesn’t fit.. stupid. Then I’ll try and blast again when I get some time in between managing work and my 3 year old.

Then I can paint, order my reinforcements for the RTAB pockets, my lower control arms abs see what other goodies my “stimulus” money can buy me I also need a bigger c-clip set, since my pliers are too small to remove(or install) the rear bearing retainer.

Anyone paint their midpipe or exhaust with VHT flame proof paint? Worth it?


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[MrFixItBuilds]

Not much progress today. It’s been ridiculously windy today, with like 30-40 mph winds sustained, so no way to sandblast rear end parts, so I spent some time cleaning up the garage and my workbench/tools today to start with a clean slate. That being said, the garage didn’t get super clean, but my tools are in much better shape.

Today I removed the transmission support, driveshaft and trans mounts to get to the giubo
and driveshaft bolts, then once the DS was removed, put the trans mount back up temporarily to allow me to try and use my jack to lower my fuel tank in preparation of welding RTAB reinforcements/running new brake lines/fuel lines/surface rust cleanup..

That’s the end of my evening so far. Not sure if I’ll be back out in the garage or not tonight. Need to come and spray down the trans or remove the transmission insulation since it is just saturated with salt, sand and oil. Need to determine if the fluid is from the old leaky valve cover or something else. Thoughts?










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[XnWarden]

The selector shaft seal is a pretty common leak point.

I just finished up the rtab reinforcements and it is a huge pita I can assure you.

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