Imola in Seattle. Ridge's build/maintenance thread.

[ELCID86]

Nice work on the lenses. I get blinker condensation too. I think I saw someone who drilled a vent hole.


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"ZHP is a garbage option anyway- just some cosmetic upgrades with a different cam and diff to claw back some of the performance lost fitting those hideous and heavy wheels. Any 330 with a 3.46 diff will smoke a ZHP every time. The whole Mafia thing reeks of childish behavior." - anonymous E46 fanatic

[NoVAphotog]

Watsup boys. I finished a couple projects today and figured I'd make a post.

First and foremost, my car came with a missing air intake duct and elbow piece. I couldn't find one locally and I was a little impatient thinking of my engine breathing in hot air, so I bought this used piece on eBay. Came shipped very well and it's in excellent condition.

I popped it in today with a new rubber grommet for one of the holes, and 3 new push rivets. I bought a pack of ten push rivets because why not. They're cheap and nice to have. Ahhhhh nice and comfortable now knowing my engine is breathing the air it was designed to, especially with my new air filter. Feels good man.

This is how the piece came to me. A little dirty and the sticker was completely shot, so i removed it. I figured why not clean it up before I throw it in the car? So that's what I did. I ran some water through it, and got into the nooks and crannies with a magic eraser.



Look how dirty this thing got. Satisfying to say the least.



A little plastic polish to bring some life into it before I put on some Mother's VLR (Vinyl, Leather, Rubber) to bring some shine out of it.


And, the final product. Looks nice.



Installed





Then, I decided to tackle the headlight lenses and sad condition of the ambers. I bought Magnetti Marelli lenses through FCP Euro so if I ever need new ones, they're just a return away.

My headlights were bad. Like bad bad. I had to use my fog-lights to drive home at night in the city bad. Unfortunately I think my ZKW bowls are burnt of course. So I will need to tackle that in the future. But for now, I'm doing better.

Here's a before:

Passenger side:



Driver's side: I'm hoping this condensation was from a loose cover on the back of the headlight and nothing more. My seals were in great condition, but I used VLR on them anyway to clean them up.



And after, but before I did the ambers:





Huge difference to say the least. I love how it looks.

And here's a better picture of the sad state of my amber lights. They have condensation in them, and the mounting brackets aren't in the best shape after I broke one today

Anyway, I figured I would try and revive them a little bit while I decide on if I want new ambers or new clear corners.

The previous owner had used some sort of spray on tint on them (Thankfully off the car) and I hate spray on tint. So I used my girlfriends nail polish remover and stripped it off. (So nice having a female in the house because they always have this kind of useful stuff, cotton swabs etc)

After taking the tint off, I proceeded to use some sanding pads from an old headlight restoration kit I have. First I went 500 grit, then 800, then 3000, and finished off with a Meguiars polish on a microfiber. All by hand.

The lights aren't perfect, and they're still holding moisture, but they look semi presentable for the time being.

Here's a picture of old on the left, "restored" on the right



Then I installed them. They look better than they did. brighter and the light looks better when it's on. Pleased for now.



Then, as I was installing the amber corners back on, I figured why not seal them with something as they have been sanded now.

I used the Mother's synthetic sealant. I like it. It goes on incredibly smoothly and is supposed to last upwards of 3 months or so.



I also put some on the headlights, because why not?




Anyway, after that was all said and done, I had the desire to do more to the car. So I popped on my new power steering reservoir O-ring. Hopefully keeps some of that gunk off my engine!

And then I detailed the engine bay for only about a half hour or so. I think it looks a lot better. Unfortunately I don't have any true before pictures because sometimes I'm just on get shit done mode and forget about cameras.






Some more stuff I want in the future (Does it ever end?)

- Windshield cowl. Didn't even bother detailing it. It's rotted and cracked.
- Cabin Air Filter cover. Old plastic becoming white is uggggggly.
- New corner lights.
- New bowls for ZKW or a cheap set of AL's if I can find them.

Thanks for reading guys!

No it doesn't...well...sort of. I can't think of anything left to do on mine. But then again, my PO was a nice lady who got it dealer serviced for all of her 58k...THAT SAID...I do feel your pain with my Toyota. The PO for that thing took the path of least resistance for almost everything. Half the work I've done on that truck is reverting things he did out of laziness when he could have gone ONE step further to do it right. VERY annoying.

For the cabin air filter cover and rear speaker deck (how's yours looking, a little blurple or still black?), Shawn and I used this stuff, perfect match:

https://www.amazon.com/Dupli-Color-H.../dp/B00098PO3G

[johnrando]

Great werk. Lenses look amazing. What is VLR?

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[Ridgey]

No it doesn't...well...sort of. I can't think of anything left to do on mine. But then again, my PO was a nice lady who got it dealer serviced for all of her 58k...THAT SAID...I do feel your pain with my Toyota. The PO for that thing took the path of least resistance for almost everything. Half the work I've done on that truck is reverting things he did out of laziness when he could have gone ONE step further to do it right. VERY annoying.

For the cabin air filter cover and rear speaker deck (how's yours looking, a little blurple or still black?), Shawn and I used this stuff, perfect match:

https://www.amazon.com/Dupli-Color-H.../dp/B00098PO3G

I've used that stuff for my E39 rear parcel shelf. I love it. Very durable and doesn't leave any weird smells. Do you think it will work for engine bay plastics?

[Ridgey]

Great werk. Lenses look amazing. What is VLR?

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

VLR is Mothers Vinyl, Leather, and Rubber. It leaves a nice matte finish on everything I've used it on. I like it.

[NoVAphotog]

I've used that stuff for my E39 rear parcel shelf. I love it. Very durable and doesn't leave any weird smells. Do you think it will work for engine bay plastics?

Oh yeah. Works great. That's what we used it on as well. The cabin air filter cover.

[Ridgey]

Oh yeah. Works great. That's what we used it on as well. The cabin air filter cover.

Fantastic news. Thanks for the heads up.

[Ridgey]

Alright so got a little update.

Fixed my radio wiring. The previous owner hacked off the connector so I had to put a new one in. Working well now. Nice to have it back so I can turn it off from the annoyance. But I just like stuff to work.

I installed my new control arms, bushings, tie rods, and swaybar end-links on the front. Car feels more solid and I took it in for an alignment.

Next part of my suspension refresh will be shocks,struts, and bushings in the rear. For the time being though, my wallet is recovering especially since paying for school tuition. Sucks man. But my tax return will be nice lol. But here are some pictures I took of my old control arms. One was OEM and the other one was some crappy aftermarket with no labeling.

OEM Lemforder went in.





Old bushings




New control arm. I love it.



New bushings



Dat Ass



And also, my ZKW headlights are garbage. Even the xenon brights don't light anything up. And when another car is coming towards me at night, I'm pretty much blind. It's sketchy.

So I bought some used AL's on eBay. I searched for awhile and picked up the best deals I could find. A lot of headlights were more expensive and were missing parts. I paid roughly $400 for AL's with all the covers, ballasts, and corner lights to boot. So that's nice. I didn't want to mess with retrofitting. It's just not my bag baby.



I can just transfer my new lenses over to the used AL's since they are Magnetti Marelli lenses anyway. It will be nice to see again.

And lastly, it's snowing in Seattle. Very pretty and we don't get much up here in the PNW so it's kinda fun for the time being. Snapped a picture of my car this morning.




Thanks for reading guys!

[Ridgey]

Christmas day update.

Picked up a Schwaben scan-tool a little while ago and I'm liking it so far. I got it, and a service engine code popped up shortly after. Already saving me time and money. Got a P2240 Code. Looks like I might need a couple new O2 sensors. No biggie.

Here's a picture of the scanner. It's well built, and can look up specific BMW codes. It can also do crazy things such as control the speakers separately so you can pinpoint a rattle, or stuff of that nature.




Also, my mom asked what I wanted for Christmas and I said a new ZHP shift knob. So she came through. Super awesome. It feels heavier than the old one that was in my car. Did they change them at all? Took some pictures of the differences. The old knob is worn down, I painted it black underneath so it doesn't look right, and the knob itself is loose on the shifter because a couple clips are broken. The new one is awesome.

Onto the pics:









Thanks for reading guys. I have lots planned for 2017 as well.

Resolution Car List?

- New steering coupler (Bought, just need to install)
- New shocks - Koni Yellows
- Rear Trailing Arm Bushings
- O2 Sensors
- Spark Plugs
- Install my fuel filter (Bought) It's just so cold on the garage floor I don't want to do it haha.
- Dr. Colorchip
- Buy a polisher so I can bring this paint back to life
- New shift boot and parking brake boot
- Maybe clear corners, side-markers, and clear taillights. (On the fence if I like ambers or not)
- Respray front-end and clear bra? (Maybe, this might have to wait till 2018)
- Paintless Dent Repair (Again, maybe)

[Vas]

Old control arms were bad or still had life left in them ?