What did you do for your ZHP/ BMW / MINI today? #2

[Imola.ZHP]

congrats on the trip, that must have been NICE!

fairing looks good, i think i need to do this as well - the one trip i used our roof rack and thule carrier on last year, my MPGs were horrendous - do these help much?

and yeah, my paint looks BAD up front. dane's car looks pristine compared to mine, even with the damage!

peter

I don't pay much attention to MPG's, this car no longer travels out of town and anytime its on the interstate (usually only short bursts) the right pedal is on the floor. I rarely see anything over 19, but I also have heavy 19" VMR V710's with grippy Pilot Super Sports. I don't mind the low MPG because I live 2 miles from work and the past two years have only averaged 5k miles per year. My better half has a Honda CR-V that we take for out of town trips, the ZHP rides too rough with poly RTABS, FCABS 19" wheels and sport cup kit suspension.

EDIT: The last time I did take her out of town I took +/- 10 minutes and popped off the roof rack and stowed it in the trunk. I keep the roof-rack "key" in the tool kit in the trunk.

[TheFinanceGuy]

Got it tinted today. More/better pictures tomorrow.




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[Imola.ZHP]

e46 > (non m3) e90

[Hermes]

FML... this was the last OE E21 windshield in country, only lasted a little over a year

[das boots]

No choice but to go aftermarkets.

[danewilson77]

Ugh

"No flamesuit required"

[Hermes]

I'll just have it filled and deal with it later, I need to pay for the new engine first

[das boots]

There is a limit on the extent for a fill-in on the hit spread of the spider legs. The last time I recall was that the legs do not extend more than a dime.

[Hermes]

I just remembered there are two E21s at the junkyard, maybe I'll just go get those windshields

[LivesNearCostco]

Having just replaced the rear brake lines last night (again with Stoptech stainless steel lines from Smilez) my opinion is the two-line system with a short piece of hard line on the inner elbow of the RTA allows for more precise brake line routing but it's also more complex and more expensive and that's probably why they went to one single line on the E46.

One of my small flare fitting nuts in the rear (there are 3 on each side in the back, so 6 total for the rear, 8 for the car) rounded off last night. It's 11mm and I don't have an 11mm flare nut wrench, only 10mm, 12mm, 3/8" and 7/16". 11mm open-ended wrench was rounding off the corners and PB blaster didn't work. Went to large vise grip pliers, but the tip of the pliers' jaws kept slipping off the nut. Finally switched to medium-small vise grips that could grab the whole nut in the center of the jaw and that worked but the nut is pretty mangled now. Will have to replace it someday, but I think that means getting someone to cut off and re-flare the end of the hard brake line.

I think the better way would have been to 1) apply PB Blaster sooner and let it soak; 2) Have a proper 11mm flare nut wrench; 3) Switch to the medium vise grip wrench sooner once it was clear a regular wrench was failing.

Anyway, the E36 now has stainless steel brake lines and BimmerWorld brass caliper bushings on all 4 corners, plus a few nights ago I installed the BimmerWorld solid rubber motor mounts with the 3 new power steering hoses.

Not sure why but I can explain the difference between E36 and E46. In both models the hard brake tube ends on the body near the middle of the rear trailing arm. On the E46 one long line goes to the rear brake caliper and passes through a support grommet bolted to the inside elbow/bend of the RTA. On some E36es, there is a short hard line at that RTA elbow, so one soft line runs from body to RTA and other soft line runs from RTA to caliper.