Wisco Touring International

[BMW_Hatchback]

Good price, minus the shipping lol

thanks though

[Earl]

Yeah that shipping price sucks. It doesn't make sense because I sent a box to Kitty that was roughly the same size for $85 and it weighed much more

[angelicmisskitty]

Shipping is REALLY weird sometimes...
Did you know BMW made a small spoiler lip for non-M bumpers as well? It's mostly the same like the lip for the M-bumper... just discovered that one yesterday (and added it to our collection )

[creeps228]

Hey Earl, I don't own a 318, but I've been following your build for a couple of weeks now. I started a search for Camo dipped cars and came across your thread. I've enjoyed reading your updates and how well your project is going. I joined just to give you the recognition you deserve and I would like to see the complete project. Anyways thanks for a very detail project build.

Kelvin

[Earl]

Thanks a ton. That means a lot=)

Hopefully after today and tomorrow, the update on Monday will be great

[Earl]

I have gotten a little done since the last update=)

The second most exciting update is that my paint/finishing shave/bodywork quote is scheduled for this afternoon. If it is in my budget I will have to scramble to get the car back to a somewhat rolling state so that it can get to their facility. I will put my most exciting update at the end of this update=)

Friday I started refinishing my rear axles for a second time. I did a half ass job the first time because I just wanted to get the car back together. I am very happy that my mindset has changed.






I then tapped up the boots and splines and did some media blasting to get as much off as I could without damaging the boot ends.




Once I got to the shop I sprayed them with self etching primer



I let that cure over night and then I sprayed them with gloss black on Saturday.



Now I just want to refresh the boot clamps and then they are done.

On Friday I also started taking out my door handles. I got the outer trim off and decided to leave the handles in for now until it gets to the bodyshop so that the doors can latch shut while it is transported there.



The seals around them were super cracked. I bought a new set a little over a year ago and will be swapping them in upon reinstallation.




I also started cleaning up the ends of the frame rails Friday.




There was a little surface rust that I brushed off. After that I was out of self etching primer but sprayed them Saturday as well.

[Earl]

Saturday I pressure washed my carpet since it was pretty dirty and I wanted to get it really clean before dying it.




It came out pretty clean but wasn't anywhere near dry when I left.




I also pressure washed my transmission. I should source another one since first will pop out if you do not put it in first before coming to a stop. Third gear would also grind on very rare occasions.




I spent a majority of the day under the front of the car removing surface rust and seam sealer so I can get some primer, paint, and undercoat down before I put the refreshed front subframe on.




I just need to pick up a paint/rust removal disc for my grinder and will try and get it primed this weekend.

The last thing I did was remove my rear seat cards in preparation for my new interior=)



That brings me to my favorite update. My friend Kitty and I sourced a full interior for me to import. They just got it delivered to them on Saturday.






I won't go into crazy detail but we have found a good chunk of information out about them. They are called "Looping II Anthracite" and were a Dakar Yellow 323ti only option. They weren't really advertised so they were more of an "Individual" option. They were only made from March to December in 1997. Kitty doesn't think any more than 100 sets were made. Mine are labelled as set 52 and were built on June 14th of 1997. Kitty has only ever seen two sets in pictures, including this set. This is the only set she has ever seen for sale so I just had to get them. I was planning on recovering my interior anyways but these seats are immaculate. The rear seats and door cards look brand new. The passenger seat looks to be in excellent shape with no wear. The only wear on anything is a thumbnail hole in the Alcantara thigh bolster of the drivers seat. I will be getting that repaired once they get here. The huge plus is that I got these for incredibly less than it would be to redo my interior. I can't wait for them to arrive=)

Since my interior is out of the bag I might as well show my new steering wheel that I have been keeping a secret too. Kitty helped me source this as well and it will be on its way over with the seats.



Hopefully after today things will start falling into place again=)

[Monkfish]

Very nice picks for the interior. I'm quite impressed your build. By the way, you should boost it. A DASC will clean up the bay.

[Earl]

It sure would. The problems are finding a kit and then paying for it. haha Also, thanks for the kind words

[Earl]

I got a bit done Saturday.

I started off the day by working on dying my "new" carpet. It had light fading in spots and I wanted to make it look as new as possible.

I went with Duplicolor Vinyl and Carpet dye. I brushed it in after each coat and then brushed it in the end. The feel of the carpet is no different than the feel of my old carpet.

Before:



After: (it is darker in person, white balance sucks on my phone)




I drug my old carpet out too to get a comparison:



After that my buddy Dustin stopped by and dropped off a set of center caps that he has been working on for me. The agreement was that I wouldn't get them until the car was done, but he was sick of them sitting in a box in his kitchen=P




They are concave but it is hard to see in the pictures. They also have an o-ring groove to make them easy to pop in and out. I am not sure if I should leave them as is, polish them, or have them powdered to match the faces. Right now I am leaning towards leaving them as is.

[Earl]

After that Dustin and John had an idea to get the valve cover clean inside. We cycled the fuel pump with a battery and used the old gas to slosh around in the cover to remove the aluminum chips. It took a few times but it worked great.

I then installed the valve cover gaskets:


John and I then installed the cover and the mounting plate for my COP kit:


Since I don't have plugs yet, we just set the coils in and hand tightened the bolts to keep debris from getting in the cylinders:


Since we were putting the engine together, I installed the lower intake manifold gasket and also got my knock sensors cleaned up and re-installed:



John wanted me to keep installing as much as I could on the engine so the next step was the fuel rail. It had some scuffs and minor surface rust so we ran to grab a can of my favorite paint....Wrinkle Black. I didn't get any after pictures since we weren't there long enough after I sprayed it to see it wrinkle, but I will get them sometime this week.


After that we finished up my axle refresh. The boots were in great shape so we just redid the clamps. We used stainless steel ties which seem to work well for people.



Other than that my interior should be coming soon so I brought my rear seat bottom home to uncover so that I can wrap it with the new seats fabric when it arrives=)

[Earl]

Seats and other goodies should be on their way shortly=) I am so excited.

Grabbed a pic when I stopped to pay my rent at the shop yesterday


(The intake manifold looks shinny and uneven but it is just the way the light hit it. Also, that is a shadow falling across the valve cover)

[angelicmisskitty]

The silver bolts looks incredibly good on that all black engine!

[Earl]

Thanks Kitty=) I really like the contrast

[BlackBMWs]

Wow! That Harmonic balancer fits right in!

Looking good Earl!