Long term project BMW 325 iX How would you go about this?

tuscarora dave

tuscarora dave

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Hi AG fellow members,

A real good friend of mine just bought this car. I was called out to the previous owner's house some time back to give him a quote on detailing it but I decided to pass on the job. Not really knowing the guy too well, I saw a lot of possible trouble in taking the job being that someone had burned through the paint on a lot of the trim pieces.

I suggested that he pull all of the trim pieces and send them off to be re finished and re painted and while they were off of the car I would come out and work my magic on the painted panels. Meanwhile, my friend who introduced me to this guy bought the car from him.

I agreed to work on this car piecemeal, doing a little at a time over time. We do intend to remove the trim pieces and try our hand at re finishing and re painting them ourselves. Some of the trim pieces have chunks of plastic missing in where I was thinking of using a rubber bumper repair kit to repair the bad spots rather than a Bondo type of plastic filler. I have used some color code matched paints from expresspaint.com and have found that their colors match pretty well so we may give them a shot for this project.

I have done no testing on this car at all yet so I am just assuming that it is a single stage painted vehicle but you all know what they say about assuming things...right?

This car is a 1988 325 iX with a seriously deteriorated black rubber coating over the bumpers.

Any recon guys out there that know of a good way to re finish these rubber bumper covers?

Any Bimmer experts out there know if these 1988 cars had gotten single stage paint from the factory? Obviously there has been some re painting done on parts of the car already.

How about these crusty dried up looking un coated wheels? How would you guys go about cleaning them up and protecting them?

How would you guys go about this project? This question goes out to people with restoration experience but I am open for any related discussion about these cars as well as any suggestions or experience shared from past projects that any of you may have been involved in.

As we make our progress on this project I will post more pictures with more detail on our process into this thread but for now here are a few pictures of the car as is now.

Thanks in advance to anyone who contributes anything to this thread. This could get interesting. TD

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ask your friend if its really worth the time/money to sink into getting it back to looking good. you may want to look for replacement trim peices rather than try and fix everything...
 
I will be suggesting that he look around to see if that is a cost effective or even a possible option. He purchased this car as a hobby type project and I'll surely remind him that it is "his" hobby not mine. Part of the reason I passed on this with the previous owner was that I had seen getting too much time wrapped up in it. My time has a price tag where his time would be well spent getting out of the everyday hum drum of things.

Any suggestions as to what should be used on these un coated wheels to get them looking new again?
 
With an E30 like that it is well worth it to repaint those pieces... Than paint is probably Hellrot red and will look very good once finished... E30's tend to be great little investment cars and I would be willing to bet that when it is cleaned up he will get some nice offers even if he isn't selling... lol...
 
CrownKote said:
With an E30 like that it is well worth it to repaint those pieces... Than paint is probably Hellrot red and will look very good once finished... E30's tend to be great little investment cars and I would be willing to bet that when it is cleaned up he will get some nice offers even if he isn't selling... lol...
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Nice encouraging post!! Thanks for the positive input.

I'll surely enjoy getting involved in this with my friend and will surely give freely of "some" of my time for the friendly bonding stuff.
 
tuscarora dave said:
Nice encouraging post!! Thanks for the positive input.

I'll surely enjoy getting involved in this with my friend and will surely give freely of "some" of my time for the friendly bonding stuff.
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No problem... The color may not be Hellrot cause IDK if Hellrot came out untill the E36 but you should be able to find the color code plaque under the hood on one of the front strut towers...

If you have any questions about BMW parts and sources please PM me I will be more than willing to help...
 
tuscarora dave said:
I have done no testing on this car at all yet so I am just assuming that it is a single stage painted vehicle but you all know what they say about assuming things...right?

Any recon guys out there that know of a good way to re finish these rubber bumper covers?

Any Bimmer experts out there know if these 1988 cars had gotten single stage paint from the factory? Obviously there has been some re painting done on parts of the car already.

How about these crusty dried up looking un coated wheels? How would you guys go about cleaning them up and protecting them?
Click to expand...

The paint on most E30's is in fact SS some of them (not many) had BC/CC...

The bumper covers tend to be a pain I wil look and see here in the next few days if I can find what the best method of restoring them is...

The wheels... I have been using Purple Power on the BMW wheels to clean them up then I clay them... If they are in poor shape I would recommend taking them off sending them to a media blaster then having them either powder coated (depending on budget) or painting them with some Duplicolor Wheel paint in silver or gold (gold would look amazing if you just polished up the lip and painted the center section (basket weave)...
 
Hi Dave - looks like a fun project! Every so often I see a 325ix on the road and they don't look as good as this one. I remember a least a decade ago going to upstate PA to see the SCCA Rally held around Wellsboro, there were always a few of these all wheel drive Bimmers in competition that were fan favorites along with a number of other unique entries like the Audi 4000 and Dodge Omni GLH.

The good news with BMWs is very supportive of their older vehicles as far as parts go, I'm not sure it is to the extent of Mercedes where they will make any part for any vehicle they have ever produced, but a 23 year old 3 series shouldn't be too hard to source parts for if something can't be restored to the owner's satisfaction. Jumping over to Bavarian Autosport's website I can already see most mouldings and trim pieces are available if needed. Being a Volvo enthusiast I can tell you this is something I have always envied as Volvo's support of their history isn't nearly as extensive.

Let me know if I can be of any assistance.

Best,
Shawn
 
Crown is right, it's most likely single stage paint. And definitely right about E30's being worth restoring. They're very popular in the eyes of most BMW fanatics. :)
 
zilla said:
Crown is right, it's most likely single stage paint. And definitely right about E30's being worth restoring. They're very popular in the eyes of most BMW fanatics. :)
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Indeed. Those cars do seem to be very popular as affordable and reliable drivers for folks.
 
Hey guys. Your replies have been most helpful. I thank you. I'll shoot a link to this thread to the owner of this car and maybe he'll follow the thread too.
 
Good morning AG, I have a few mechanical questions about this car accompanied by a few photos to help describe the situation. These questions are for KrownKote or anyone else knowledgeable about these cars.

My Friend called me and said when his wife went out to go to work in the car the other morning and depressed the clutch pedal, the pedal went right to the floor with no resistance.

As soon as he said that I thought "broken pressure plate" and tried describing to him how the pressure plate works and why if the springs or fingers in the pressure plate broke the pedal would feel this way.

He said there was something leaking under the car so now I think "broken hydraulic line or slave cylinder" but keeping with first things first, I want to check the fluid in the clutch master cylinder but can't find the reservoir to check the fluid level or add fluid so I can have him press the pedal while I am under the car looking to pinpoint the exact location of the problem.

Here is a pic of the clutch master cylinder.

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You can see the blue low pressure hose going into the firewall but it doesn't seem to come out the other side of the firewall. In this next photo you can see the end of the master or high pressure side of the master protruding through the firewall behind the break booster which of course has a high pressure steel line leading down toward the transmission bell housing.

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The only thing that I can figure is that maybe the clutch hydraulic fluid reservoir is under the windshield wiper cowl grille pictured below.

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It was late and dark and with a dimly lit flashlight I couldn't see under the grille or how to remove the grille and figured before tearing stuff apart unnecessarily I'd ask someone who might just know for sure.

I've sent KrownKote a copy & paste PM as he seems knoledgeable about these cars but I want to make the best use of all my possible resources as I'd like to take the gained knowledge over there this weekend to try and help him get this problem fixed as soon as possible.

Thanks in advance for any sound advice that you all may have on this matter. TD
 
tuscarora dave said:
Good morning AG, I have a few mechanical questions about this car accompanied by a few photos to help describe the situation. These questions are for KrownKote or anyone else knowledgeable about these cars.

My Friend called me and said when his wife went out to go to work in the car the other morning and depressed the clutch pedal, the pedal went right to the floor with no resistance.

As soon as he said that I thought "broken pressure plate" and tried describing to him how the pressure plate works and why if the springs or fingers in the pressure plate broke the pedal would feel this way.

He said there was something leaking under the car so now I think "broken hydraulic line or slave cylinder" but keeping with first things first, I want to check the fluid in the clutch master cylinder but can't find the reservoir to check the fluid level or add fluid so I can have him press the pedal while I am under the car looking to pinpoint the exact location of the problem.

Here is a pic of the clutch master cylinder.

003-28.jpg


You can see the blue low pressure hose going into the firewall but it doesn't seem to come out the other side of the firewall. In this next photo you can see the end of the master or high pressure side of the master protruding through the firewall behind the break booster which of course has a high pressure steel line leading down toward the transmission bell housing.

024-12.jpg


The only thing that I can figure is that maybe the clutch hydraulic fluid reservoir is under the windshield wiper cowl grille pictured below.

015-19.jpg


It was late and dark and with a dimly lit flashlight I couldn't see under the grille or how to remove the grille and figured before tearing stuff apart unnecessarily I'd ask someone who might just know for sure.

I've sent KrownKote a copy & paste PM as he seems knoledgeable about these cars but I want to make the best use of all my possible resources as I'd like to take the gained knowledge over there this weekend to try and help him get this problem fixed as soon as possible.

Thanks in advance for any sound advice that you all may have on this matter. TD
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Uh Oh!!! From the description you have given it is either the clutch slave cylinder or the clutch slave supply line although there is a minor possibility that it is the clutch master cylinder...

The clutch resevior is non existant per-say... The clutch uses the brake resevior for it's supply on BMW's...

First thing I would check would be the line that is going from the brake resevior (blue low pressure) to the trans... then if you see no leaks there you would need to check the slave cylinder for leaks...

On BMW's they don't tend to let go of pressure plates very often and if they do you WILL know it... It is almost like a mini explosion...

Start there and see what you see...

Here are the P/N for the parts:

21 52 1 156 673 Clutch line slave to clutch master cylinder $65.00

I personally would go with this line though if it is the problem:

SSCL-E30 UUC competition braided line slave to master $30.00 (better price and won't expand like the above OEM one will)

21 52 1 116 300 Clutch slave cylinder $30.00

21 52 1 156 000 Clutch master cylinder $70.00

All of these can be found @ BMW Parts and BMW Accessories | Bavarian Autosport
 
Well for those interested, the owner of this car did find his replacement part for his clutch problem locally. It was just a slave cylinder. I have been chipping away at the paint over the last few weekends. I was just tooling around with a new to me "one does all type of compound that isn't sold here at AG so I won't go into the product testing stuff here but I did want to post a few photos of the progress of this job. Here are a few pics I posted on another forum.

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The owner has been out there with me removing all of the ground effects so that they can be refinished and repainted. So far this project has been fun and is intended to be just for love of detailing for me, so I told the owner to keep his money in the bank though he has mentioned something about a bonus at the end of the job.
 
The haze that you see in this last photo is actually the evening dew settling on the car with uncured sealant on it. The paint looks near perfect in person.
 
Thanks Gary, The half that I did first, I complicated things by doing 3 rotary compounding/polishing steps and a Flex 3401 step to final finish. Today when I did the other half and the front fenders I used my Makita rotary with an Edge 2000 medium cutting wool pad and then went right to an Edge 2000 final finishing foam pad on the rotary to finish with.
 
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