That guibo. 
That guibo.
What's up with this car?
Alright fellas I got the guibo and center bearing installed yesterday. I had my mate come over and help me bleed the brakes, so no more spongy pedal after the ABS pump swap. I also swapped out the power steering pump, but I don't think the old one was bad after all. I could see fluid moving in the reservoir when the engine was running. But I had already bought the part and it was a known good part so I put it on. During this process I managed to break another part, BMW in their infinite wisdom decided to put a plastic pulley on the power steering pump and when I went to remove it, age and elements came together to make the part supper brittle and it shattered in half. So it's back to ordering a new part which has been done, I actually found they make an aluminum part that was cheaper than the OEM plstic one, so one of those is on the way.
So lets update this total and see where we are at.
Last round of parts brought us up to $1471.63
This time we had:
Which brings the total up to $1674.23
I still have that front center rub strip to get for the body, buy some single stage urethane paint, and deal with that tatty interior. We'll be close to the $2000 budget so we'll see if this car gets that new drivers seat I've been eyeing on craigslist or not.
I've had fun following this thread and may now get to participate-- it looks like the engine is seized in my 530i. It's an otherwise complete car, black with tan leather. Let me know if you need any hard to find parts.
nderwater wrote: I've had fun following this thread and may now get to participate-- it looks like the engine is seized in my 530i. It's an otherwise complete car, black with tan leather. Let me know if you need any hard to find parts.
Oh Snap! What made it do that?
Sounds good. Yeah, the pulleys, that and the plastic manifold make me nervous sometimes.
MOAR!
t25torx wrote: Oh Snap! What made it do that?
I continued to drive the car after the engine had been overheated once. I'd hoped that no significant damage had been done as the engine continued to run fine with no obvious symptoms of damage... but I got less than 100 additional miles out of it before it seized.
The cost of obtaining and installing a used engine in the car exceeds what the car would be worth with a running engine. That's irony for you.
And we're back!
So I got the aluminum PS pulley installed today and lowered it down to take it for a spin. Good news is that I have power steering now, no more clunks form the middle of the car and I have the speedometer and mpg gauge all working now. Still have some clunking from the front end when going over bumps, bay be sway bar end links or the blown shocks making the noise, not sure at this point. It does look like I will need to code the ABS module to the car as the BRAKE and DSC lights still stayed on. I'll call around local indie shops and see how much they charge if it's over $40 I'll just buy the cable and download the software to do it myself.
Here's the old PS pump pulley.
I also got the valve cover gasket today. It went a little something like this:
I started by removing the bolts for the coils, unplugging and removing them.
Then un-clip the harness for the coils from the valve cover clips as shown.
Then move it out of the way. Remember to unbolt the ground wire before trying to move it.
Unplug this vacuum hose from the valve cover.
Unclip the o2 sensor connectors from the clips.
Then pull the wires from under this metal cover and move out of the way. I used a screw driver to keep them out of the way while I worked.
Then remove the 10mm bolts holding the valve cover on, and gently pry the cover off to remove the old perished seal.
You can see where the oil has been leaking out.
Remove any gasket material that may be left in on the head.
I applied a thin layer of RTV all the way around to keep things from leaking this time.
Then it's just a reverse of the removal. Bolt everything back together, don't forget the ground straps and vacuum line.
At this point I have pretty much finished all the under hood stuff, so i can put the covers back on and make it look pretty again.
These fresh air filter holders were a little dirty and the drains where clogged. I washed them out and put them back into place, installed the new filters and stood back to admire the work so far. That's when I realized they had to come back out again, the windshield wiper cover has to go in first or else it won't go back in. So out they had to come and I was still trying to figure out how to fix the cowl panels rubber seal, I don't want to spend $60 for a new cowl panel so I'm going to make my own. I'll let you know how it works out when I get it in.
I also started to tackle the interior issues today. I replaced all the tatty body seals with some very nice used units, and put the drivers kick panel/dead pedal back in along with the new hood latch handle. You'll have to hold off till the next installment to see those pics though.
Till next time!
Did you just use RTV instead of the gasket or did you use RTV and the gasket?
Harvey wrote: Did you just use RTV instead of the gasket or did you use RTV and the gasket?
RTV and Gasket. I forgot to get pics of the gasket as it was already shoved back into the valve cover.
They usually have only a few places you RTV usually, not the whole thing.
In reply to Harvey:
Yeah I think, they just say to put it on the cam ends. But after the leaking it did last time I figured a thin film of it wouldn't hurt anything.
Brief update gents. Paint has been ordered, interiors are being cleaned, peices are getting repaired and painted, and pictures are being taken. I think I'm in the home stretch with this thing now. So stay tuned for a final update middle of next week probably.
Did you get all the CEL codes remediated?
nderwater wrote: Did you get all the CEL codes remediated?
All the CEL codes are cleared and have not come back at this point. I still need to get the ABS module coded to the car and have the DSC sensors reset, then the codes for that should disappear.
Cool, looking forward to the final pictorial to see how it ends up looking. How many hours do you figure you are into this for? Do you track that as well as part costs?
I really have no clue how many hours have gone into it. I don't count them anyways, since I would be working on a car regardless of if it was one to sell or one to keep. I'm cheap labor 
.
Finish it!
Harvey wrote: Finish it!
I'm trying! 
But I close on the new house this Thursday so packing and house stuff has taken over my life at this point.
I did change the oil in it this weekend. 6 quarts of Castrol Synthetic dumped in. I also got the cable for the BMW program stuffs. Now I just have to setup the software to code the ABS module, which looks like a big ball of pain in the ass. I got the paint in and started prepping the hood, roof, and rear bumper for paint, went to fix the dent in the roof and hood and found out the the body filler I had on hand had gone off in the can and was no longer usable. So I had to order another can and it should be here tomorrow. Then I can really get this bish painted and well on it's way to being done.
But then next week I'm on vacation visiting the family for Thanksgiving, so no work will get done then, and after I get back it'll be moving into the new place so I need to hurry this thing up.
And I'm back! Finally got through vacations and moving into the new house, cleaning up the old house to put on the market and all the other fun stuff of life keeping me away from this project.
After the last update I got the cable I ordered for the BMW INPA software, downloaded the INPA software and got it setup on a virtual machine to run off my laptop. Hooked it up and was able to code the ABS module to the car, also calibrated the steering angle sensors, then cleared the codes. That got rid of the ABS module codes, but I'm still getting a wheel speed sensor error for the front left wheel. So I might end up having to get one of those.
Here's the car getting prepped for paint. I fitted the trim just to make sure it all went together correctly.
I sanded the hood with my DA and some 320 grit.
Here you can see the issues with the back bumpercover.
Prep work for the paint went pretty good. I forgot my camera at the new house when I went to prime the car so all you get are crappy cell phone pictures.
Here she is all wrapped up and primer applied. I used about a quart of Transtar 2K urethane primer on these parts.
and don't forget the trim!
I had some issue with the gun and the pressure, there was some miscommunication from the box and the instructions on what preasure I should be running, I only read the outside of the box and it said HVLP so that means like 8-10psi at the cap. Well that was just spitting the paint out so I cranked it up to 40psi to get a decent pattern, still not as good as I wanted but I didn't want to damage the gun.
I wet sanded the primer with 1200 grit and then wiped it down with some more wax and grease remover to prep for paint.
I used single stage urethane from TCP Global's restoration shop line.
So I started laying down the paint and started having issues. I thought it was solvent pop at first but it was happening on the paper under my trim, turns out it was condensation in my air hose form laying on the cold concrete. I should have had a filter at the gun but thought my filter at the hose reel would be sufficient. I was also battling pressure issues again, so I reread the directions ifor the gun and turns out, it's not an HVLP gun, it just says it on the package, so I cranked the pressure up to 60psi and now it was spraying like I wanted. I had to be a little tricky and cover up the spots made by the water vapor from the first pass, but I think I got it pretty evened out. The hood is really the most noticeable area so some wet sanding would be in order.
Here it is fresh form painting, you can see the water pits on the passenger side of the hood, and it also had a fair amount of dust trash in it, so it was going to need a sanding anyways.
Had a couple of runs to get rid of also.
This is why I like singe stage paint. You can sand and sand and don't have to worry about cutting through the clear.
more sanding..
Then it was time to do my most favorite thing in the world.. buffing a car.
I used the Meguiares 105 cutting compound with a foam pad at first, but it really wasn't cutting it as good as I had hoped, so I moved to a wool pad and that did the trick. The paint was starting to look good now. All the trash sanded out and most of the orange peel too.
after the first pass with the foam pad, not good enough.
Then after the wool pad.
Still has so castoff and wool fuzz on it in that pic, but no more dull spots and scratches.
and here it is all washed up. Still needs to be waxed and have the window trim and other little trim items put back on. But it's closing in now on the final steps to get this one knocked out.
So what did this paint job cost me. Well I already had the paper, plastic and tape from the Camaro project, the primer was an old sample quart my dad got for free and gave to me. The paint itself was $50 with the hardener. I had all the other stuff for painting already.
Time to count the coin and see where we are at with this project.
Now I was able to recoup some cash form the old headlight and the extra tail light I ended up not needing.
Which brings our total to - $1680.78
I'll be putting the trim on tomorrow so expect some more updates!
AWESOME.
That total spend is such a small number! I think you've got a helluva lot of room for a tidy profit!
What's on the to-do list before you list it for sale?
nderwater wrote: What's on the to-do list before you list it for sale?
Well after I put the grills back in, new side repeaters, new license plate lights, and window garnish trim.
There might be a couple more issues I'm not aware of but will find out once I start driving the car.
I swear that the plastic trim piece that holds the driver's seat controls was designed to fail just so that BMW could collect $80 + install fees each time it does.
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