Getting down to business

Here she is, in her new home and getting all the big items done. E32 brake upgrade, with new pads, rotors, and calipers. New rear rotors and pads. Stainless brake lines. New Bilstein HD shocks, and new upper strut bearings and rear shock mounts. One of the front calipers was sticking, so it was a good excuse to go ahead and fix all the brake issues. I was going to just do the calipers and turn the discs in front, but Steve Haygood's e32 brake upgrade deal was close to the cost of those parts, so I figured why not. If all goes well she should be back on the road in a week or two.

Big Coupe?

I was up at the dealership and parked next to a new 330i. I was amazed that this "little" 3 series made the old "Big Coupe" look small. My 323ci looks just a hair smaller than the 635 in some ways, and a little bigger in others, but the new 3-series looks like it needs to go on a diet compared to the old coupe.

Elsa gets dancing shoes

Before I decided to invest in better wheels or tires, I decided to try and experiment and just respray the current wheels with silver brake-caliper paint. Man, they really turned out well. For $7 investment it really transformed the car. There are some eBay 528i wheels that I might get, but given that these turned out really well I'm not sure that I'll need to. There still is one bent wheel, but not badly so. Not sure if I'll keep these or get some other rims, we'll see.

By the way, the oil spot behind the front tire isn't a leak, I just overfilled the coolant and that's where the overflow dumps it. Surprisingly there are almost no oil leaks that I can find. None that drip on the ground at the very least.

Catchup

There are some small items I've fixed. Did the pitman arms a while ago. Have some subframe bushings sitting here, once I get a removal/install tool I'll do those. I'll also be replacing the front brake calipers, and pads and disc's all around soon. I had an old Momo Race steering wheel lying around, and got a mount from a board member for $25.

Some misses

She left me stranded, but it was my own dumb fault. I replaced the motor mounts. The mounts on the m30 motor have really long bolts on them, so you really have to jack the motor up. Well, I got done and didn't bother to re-check the hoses. Sure enough, it has strained the connections on the upper and lower radiator hoses and loosened their connections. One stomp on the accelerator up Far West Blvd and the upper hose pops right off and dumps all the coolant. Fortunately I was paying attention an pulled over before she overheated (much). This was also my excuse to go ahead and flush the cooling system. It has the green coolant in it, which contains phosphate and can damage the head gasket on the car. So it's flushed and filled with RO water and sythetic, phosphate-free, coolant now.

I was also going to replace the transmission mounts, but one of the bolt heads got rounded off, and is really hard to get to, so I'll probably have the shop do those. I'm kinda paranoid of working under a car like that, I met a guy once who had an engine fall on his head, it was not pretty. So, I'll probably have the shop do the center driveshaft bearing and the transmission mounts.

I have some shift linkage rebuilding parts coming, including a Z3 shift lever. That will probably be the last thing I am willing to do so far under the car, I really don't like being under there. Wish I had a lift....

Woa nelly

Man, I'm glad I decided to keep the car. I've been running some Lubro-molly injector and valve cleaner through the car. Drove her around a little, the motor is really starting to open up. She has some real power now (well, relatively speaker, she isn't a 540i after all) and is a ball to drive.

She's running really well now, and even with the blown shocks she was fun to drive down old Spicewood Road. I think she might be a keeper.

Waffling

I have really close to deciding to sell the car. I wasn't sure if it was worth the time and $$$ to fix it up. I could spend all that time and end up with a car that I still didn't enjoy. I decided to look at the potential loss if I sold the car now, vs if I fixed it up and sold it. Turns out, the net between the two is pretty close, based on an estimated value of $2500 now vs $4000 if fixed up. So I decided I'll fix it up, but not with top of the line stuff, for example I'll get Bilstien HD shocks and use the stock springs. This will allow me to tinker with the car without losing too much $$$ in the process.