[Redshift]

Originally Posted by JupiterBMW

Beautiful work so far. I've been watching your thread, love the work. Can you explain how you got the door panel inserts out? I thought the plastic studs were all plastic-welded (melted) into place?

Will be watching the build closely! Keep us updated with photos!

This is correct. I grind/drill them out and then re-attach with screws and washers later.

[JupiterBMW]

Originally Posted by Redshift

This is correct. I grind/drill them out and then re-attach with screws and washers later.

Awesome info. I'm assuming reattachment is not that hard? You just use large pan head washers and screw into what's left of the plastic post??

[halcyon22]

Originally Posted by JupiterBMW

Beautiful work so far. I've been watching your thread, love the work. Can you explain how you got the door panel inserts out? I thought the plastic studs were all plastic-welded (melted) into place?

Will be watching the build closely! Keep us updated with photos!

As Redshift said, grind out the melted parts to remove the leather from the panel. This is how i retained my harder to find leather color inserts and moved them onto door panels with sunshades to do a proper retrofit. 3m makes a very tacky spray adhesive that also aids in holding the leather inserts onto the new door panels.

[Chief Orman]

You have serious skills and you are insane

[MPOWER5266]

Great build, defiantly following this. We spoke yesterday on obsessed garage.

[Nyc Dito]

Sick build! I am familiar with your other two as well. great work...

[Redshift]

Last Friday the car was finally close enough to "done" to pick up. Fresh paint all around. No panel left undone. Looks amazing.

The front bumper won't bolt up because apparently, there are no M-sport cars in the USA that have front PDC, so I'll have to either drill into this support or (better option) get a euro front bumper mount.

Some pics before teardown:







Saturday morning, my buddies Paul, Steve, and Jeff from Charlotte and I started tearing down the 328. No longer would this chassis be subject to sub-par performance and acceleration. Some pics as we progressed:

1:30pm Saturday had the engine out




4pm had the entire underside empty:



A nice paint shot:



Custom seat color in same picture as body color -- love it!



Sunday we started re-building:









It's always wise to strap the chassis to the lift when you remove so much weight:



Rebuilding rear suspension with Bimmerworld goodies:





And in our easiest engine installation ever (thank you, Harbor Freight lift table!) which took literally 5 minutes, the engine is in just before 3pm on Sunday:





Some M3 front control arms and fat Hotchkis swaybars:



MCS 2-way remote-reservoir dampers (couldn't install the rears because the lower clevis brackets were missing, but I just got them yesterday):



Got most of the engine hardware in place and connected except found out that I need 2 more euro-only cooling hoses for the radiator because there's no automatic transmission cooler on a manual diesel:



That's it for now! More soon. Hope to have it running quickly.

[rothwem]

Why'd you go with unsealed monoballs in the rear? It'll be clunking in 5k miles of street driving. I'dve gone with M3 arms all around, including the camber arms.

[Redshift]

Originally Posted by rothwem

Why'd you go with unsealed monoballs in the rear? It'll be clunking in 5k miles of street driving. I'dve gone with M3 arms all around, including the camber arms.

They're sealed. I've used this type before and haven't had issues. Bimmerworld suggested them for street use for my application and what I'm trying to achieve (max torque to tires and not lost to vibrations/wheel hop). If they do start making noise I'll figure something out.

[Nyc Dito]

again, solid car and update

[8081M]

This is DIY automotive porn.

[E91WAG3N]

Fantastic update. The M Sport rear looks great with paint! Looking forward to more progress!!

[FormerRotor]

I love everything about this build. Keep up the amazing work!

[Redshift]

Leap Saturday Update

First we were excited to test fit and weigh some brake components so here is that data and photos. Not much savings on the caliper and bracket, although we go from a single piston with a normal sized pad to a massive 6-piston caliper and huge pad. The rotor, on the other hand, is over 5lb lighter for the ST while being 7mm larger in diameter:











A side-by-side caliper comparison:




This is all great, but how does it look on the car?










At first fit, it appears the 18x9.5 may be too aggressive up front. Once we adjust and tighten up the suspension we will re-test.

Next up was sorting out the rear end. We finished torquing down all the suspension arms, subframe bolts, etc then installed the Wavetrac 2.35 LSD and Octa Motorsports brace for good measure:





Next up we planned to install the transmission but I forgot to order pressure plate bolts, so we got as far as mounting up the Clutchmasters SMF and that was that.



Next we sorted out and torqued down all the suspension and subframe bits on the front end.

She is now a rolling chassis once again so we can get her off the lift and start working on other things. I'm keeping the stock skinny wheels on for now for two reasons: 1) the TA5R don't have tires yet and 2) These are easier to roll with for the moment since the car isn't operable yet.

[rothwem]

Wow, I really like those wheels, and the price on them is very right. Looks like a good alternative to the APEX wheels that have become a bit of a default.

[BB_cuda]

Brian, Can you give us another pic at front of diff after the driveshaft was installed? The front of your 2.35 diff is different than 2.81 that comes on a 335d. I'm wondering if you used driveshaft that was made to connect to rear of manual and front of that different youke on your diff. Thank you.

[Redshift]

Some more updates from a few partial days of work on the project from this week and today.

The diesel has two major things (so far, there may be more we haven't found yet) not in a gasoline car: fuel filter heater, and auxiliary electric heater core (I guess the diesel coolant doesn't get hot enough to warm the passenger compartment). So we stripped these two properly out of the donor car:



Power wire that runs from aux heater in dash to trunk:



Fuel filter heater that connects to footwell module, body harness, power, and ground:



Next up we started investigating re-pinning the DME to DDE wires and found the pins were slightly off, so we ordered more from Leith BMW (they have been a fantastic help/source for lots of parts for this build so far):



Next, the clutch and pressure plate went on with new bolts:





Then, for fun, we started playing with test fitting the wheels and tires. Long story short, looks like anything between a 5-12mm spacer will be required up front to run the 18x9.5 wheels and that the 18x10 have tons of room in the back:

Front wheel, no spacer:



Front wheel, 12mm spacer:



Rear wheel (needs camber and complete adjustment of course):



Rear wheel space between shock and wheel:



Rear wheel view (needs spring adjustment of course):



Here's the two heater core units after removal from both cars:



Here's the touring after gutting most of the interior out:



Also, not pictured, we decided to re-visit the rear bushing choices for subframe and diff and ended up swapping everything out from the street setup to the track setup for avoiding flex, using PowerFlex 95A bushings from Bimmerworld.

Probably during the weekend we'll continue wiring, work on pedals and clutch line installation, steam clean the carpeting, get the shifter assembly and transmission installed, finish routing and properly pinning the aux heater and fuel filter heater wiring, and wait for parts.

Monday my front bumper mount along with the 2 coolant lines I needed from Europe will be here along with a new condenser and heater core (the AC system on these cars doesn't use a separate dryer; it's integrated into the condenser) and the replacement for the core is just as a precaution.

New windshield is ready to go in, just waiting on the glass company. Some other cool details coming too but will show you those with photos rather than words.

Once we get the core, we can reassemble the dash and start finishing the rest of the items. Hopefully before too long we'll be able to fire it up.

[Persian Whisperjet]

Amazing build!

[dude8383]

Why are you guys going with a stiffer poly compound? Feel like the car won't be as civil...

[NYBulldog]

Beautiful wagon and great build!

[Redshift]

A few more updates -- waiting on some important parts arriving tomorrow but we got the pedal cluster and clutch lines (both hard and soft) installed, test fit the transmission, driveshaft, and mount (welding will be needed, still figuring that part out) and steam cleaned the interior carpets while everything was apart.

Here you can see the issue with converting an AWD chassis to RWD -- the transmission support won't fit. The AWD brace is shown being held up by hand.



Transmission and other stuff bolted up lightly just to test fit:







New 95A bushings in back:



Pedals:



Both fun wagons parked for the night.

[Redshift]

Originally Posted by dude8383

Why are you guys going with a stiffer poly compound? Feel like the car won't be as civil...

With so much torque, I want as much of it as possible to hit the road and not be wasted on twisting up the chassis.