My optimistic intentions of buying a mid-western E30 with >154K miles and putting it straight to use as a daily driver were...well...sometimes ya gotta live life on life's terms.
After running three tanks of gas without any problems I suddenly noticed fumes entering the passenger compartment that were bad enough to necessitate grounding the car and troubleshooting the source of said smells.
That was sometime around Thanksgiving (end of November) and I think (once again perhaps somewhat optimistically) that the car may be on the road soon. :confused:
It's not so much that there's a lot wrong with the car, but more like "while I'm in here" (WIIH) and it's not like there's a lot of little things wrong with the car, but more like, "I'm fixing every little thing that I find". That wasn't in line with my initial intentions and I said I wouldn't do a restoration, but rather, a "rustoration". You know, concentrate on functionality and not on cosmetics.
Right.
So I invite you to grab a cup of coffee, sit back and join me as I highlight (somewhat haphazardly) what I've done so far. Let's start out with the brake system -
After pulling the gas tank and inspecting all the piping and lines in the area between the top and front leading edge of the tank I found this::eek: Twenty-some years of transit through Chicago's winter streets have rusted the brake lines to the point of almost crumbling between my fingers. The cause of the gas fumes is related to what I found in this area, but that's another subject.
Thanks to Craigslist and two parts cars I manage to assemble a decent set of pipes for fuel and brakes.
Although nowhere near the same state of decomposition as the piping, this pretty much represents the state of my brake components.
This was my first iteration of electrolysis rust removal.
Our local missing, lost, stolen freight warehouse store had several of these on the shelf for $5 a jar. You can find it at pool supply stores.
The results of a good electrolysis bath and light wire wheel brushing.
After electrolysis treatment I sandblasted, cleaned and applied hi-temp caliper paint to all metal parts and baked in a toaster oven @~200-250*F for 15-20 minutes. Before electrolysis all the rubber parts were removed, inspected and were good to reuse, so they were scrubbed with dishwashing detergent and Go-Jo (with pumice) and came out looking pretty close to new.
There was plenty of material on the brake pads to re-use, the rotors were turned just enough to clean them up and I painted the parking brake hub with hi-temp satin black. I sold the JOM suspension that was installed by the PO and put in a set of Racing Dynamics progressive rate springs. Dampening is performed by a set of Boge-Sachs sports and all the rear suspension bushings were replaced with OEM parts.
This was a little over-the-top OCD for parts that won't ever be seen...
A shot of the front calipers treated, painted and blinged a little bit. It takes a steadier hand and better eyesight than I possess to do a good job on the lettering. But that’s okay…we’ll leave it as is. Come on…leave it…
