Project e28

[Bobcat Sig]

I shall do that for you !!!! lol 17s are big but i got 18s for my wagon lol so i guess you can say i go the distance lol

Sweet. Thanks. I might be able to get a deal through one of our customers, but not sure. I'll keep looking for tires. Let me know if you find anything in a 17 inch.

I did make a bit more headway on the e28 today:
Completed the rear bumper lipo. Basically, I unbolted the bumper, which is held on by three bumper shocks that were necessary to meet US DOT regulations at the time. Drilled out three holes each, used the trailer hitch of my Land Cruiser and a floor jack and managed to compress them about an inch and change. Bolted the bumper back up and it's a great improvement! When I finally get some tires, I'll use the ol' brick wall trick and see if I can't get it to compress a bit more.

As most of can attest, when you dive in a project, there's always more you find to do. I found some ...
When the 5er was on the road, it bounced around a bit and didn't handle all that well. I figured it was the tires. Turns out one of the rear shocks is totally blown. I found shock oil all over the trailing arm and suspension assemblies. Most of the springs are showing some corrosion. Sooo... I'll need shock and springs. My thoughts are the package available from Bavarian Auto - Bilstein Sports and the Bav Auto springs. It should give a great ride and lower the car about an inch.

The new battery has since been drained. So either with the doors open, changing the handles drained it. Or there's a short somewhere. So there's that.

I also ordered up some stainless steel brake lines in a moment of weakness. Those should get here this week. I"ll put some new brake fluid in, as well. Probably DOT 4 Motul. The rotors show a bit of surface corrosion around the wheel carriers, so I'll paint them with some matte black hi-temp paint. Same goes for the calipers, only I'll paint them in a gloss black. The Sport Edition wheels are pretty open, so it will be nice to have all that cleaned up.

Also, I cleaned the replacement grills. If this warm weather keeps up, I'll shoot 'em with some black rattle can. One side is pretty faded, so they need just a bit of freshening up.

[Bobcat Sig]

I think I'm going to keep this as my little project record, if you don't mind.

A bit more work today:

Began pulling the brake lines and I even got one SS line in!

The remaining interior door handle trim was installed.

It was warm enough, so I put a quick coat of flt black rattle can on the front grills. I finally got around to cleaning them. Turned out pretty decent. We'll see if holds up to bugs, rocks and the like ... I'll get pictures.

I also found today the bushings in the rear pitman arms (aka dog bones) are shot. Sweet.
That probably would account for that rattle I heard before I put her up on stands. Oh well ...
Might as well and get new sway bars now, right?

When the new rear rotors get here, I'll get to putting those on and swap out the fluid.

Oh, and I found yet another tool I need; a 7mm hex head socket. It never ends, does it?

[padroB5]

i have a friend here that i should intro duce you too.. he finaly got one of his dream cars. BMW 750iL V12

[Bobcat Sig]

i have a friend here that i should intro duce you too.. he finaly got one of his dream cars. BMW 750iL V12

Definitely. There's one for sale out in Belgrade right now, but I think it has a junk motor. Might be good for a parts car ...

[padroB5]

ill have to let him know. his in CLEANNNN condition! an nice to sit in lol

[Bobcat Sig]

I do love me some 740 action ...

Well ... a bit more work today. And you won't believe this, but I actually took some pictures.

The freshly painted grills. They aren't installed, just sitting there.



Gratuitous engine bay shot. The intake elbow and intake bellow were both replaced. I had to re-fit that cone filter. I also added some vacuum lines off of the bellows. The breather valve seem to take that mini filter nicely. We'll see how it runs once the battery is back in.



Exterior door handles!! Those were a PITA to install.



Interior door handle trim. Woo.



Rear bumper lipo. Took it in just over an inch. I'll try for more when the car is rolling.



Oooh! So shiny!! Oh wait ... that's all the shock oil all over the place. I'm not sure what's worse; finding you need all new suspension or that the blown shock might be a Bilstein Sport.



SS brake line. There's just one left to do up front this weekend. You can also see the rotted out bushing in the swaybar link. They're like that on both sides.



Slotted ATE brake rotor awesomeness.



Dirty brake calipers getting cleaned. I managed to polish off a whole can of brake cleaner today. Those things are filthy. I'll need to take to them with some steel wool or something to really get 'em cleaned before I paint them this weekend. They are currently sitting with a healthy coating of Simple Green. As an aside, I found that the pads up front are ceramic and that they will accept brake lining sensors. Ordered those up today from Bavarian Auto along with a new master cylinder cap.



Much beyond that, I cleaned what seemed like pounds of caked dirt, mud and probably some coolant from the driver's side front fender well. There was so much of it caked on, I couldn't believe it. Talk about weight savings.

This weekend, I hope to get the new rear rotors on, finish installing the SS brake lines and bleed the brakes with some DOT 5 fluid. I also hope to paint the calipers with the appropriate high gloss black paint. Same goes for the hubs on the rotors. The ones up front looked pretty corroded.

[Bobcat Sig]

And ... more work today.

Finished cleaning up the calipers. Short of a complete disassemble and rebuild, I don't know if there's a way to properly get them all cleaned. I douched them with so much brake cleaner, I think I dropped an IQ point or two.

After some running around and selling an extra set of tires I had for my Land Cruiser, after masking off the guide pins, bleeder nipples and piston; I painted the calipers, carriers and rotors today.





Not great shots, but you get the idea. I ended up going with some engine block enamel spray paint from Duplicolor. They had a glossy black. It should suffice to clean the rotors up without being too ostentatious.

If there's not a lot of snow up in the hills tomorrow, I think I'll either tackle swapping in the new and uncracked dash or removing and installing the new trunk gasket. The rear rotors didn't get here today.

[Bobcat Sig]

Yup ... more work today.
This whole Mud Season sure make it easy to work on the car. I'm not distracted by skiing and it's warm enough to have the garage door open.

Since the calipers, carriers and rotors had plenty of time to dry while I watched MotoGP opener, then went back on. I also installed the remaining front brake line. Man ... those brake line couplers are a b!tcht to get on and off.

Front:


Since my rear rotors didn't show up and I didn't feel like tackling the rubber brake lines that span the rear trailing arm suspension, I decided that since it was warm enough, I'd rip out the rotted out trunk gasket and install the new one.

The carnage:


The lining getting prepped for the new gasket:


The gasket went in easy enough - well, at least as soon as I had the right side up.
I'll see how it cured tomorrow. I think I'll also run a very small bead of silicone sealant between the gasket and the body - just to be safe.

It seems in order to complete the brake line conversion, I need a 7mm flare nut wrench so I don't totally booger the hard line nuts. Does anyone have one of these I can borrow for an evening? I'm happy to compensate with your choice of Fancy Beer.

[Mikewire]

Man, lots of work and it looks great.

[Bobcat Sig]

Not much progress last night. I jacked the vehicle up further and went to town with some citrus engine degreaser to really clean up the undercarriage. When I get tires and it gets warm enough, I need to jack it up again, and pressure wash under there in a bad way. Hopefully the degreaser breaks a lot of that stuff loose.

Also, I fitted up a 225 tire to my wheel. And sure enough, it fits in the front - but barely. We are talking millimeters of clearance between the tire sidewall and the strut.

I hope to get at the remaining brake lines tonight and that my rotors finally arrive.