Wisco Touring International

[Earl]

Thanks a ton=) I am blown away that I actually inspired someone to fiddle with one of these.

Everyone here hates them too but I just love them. I actually secretly prefer the body lines versus coupes and sedans=D

[Earl]

I fiddled with the bumper a bit last night.

I will hopefully get the feel for it after a little more time. Right now I am in the phase where I feel like I am going to mess it all up and have the body lines all wrong.

Bought this guy


I then started flattening the bottom of the bumper and taking down the epoxy on the tow hook cover




The features that I am afraid to mess up are the edge above the tow hook cover, the recessed line, and the curve of the lower skirt. I am trying to figure out what motion to use the block to keep the upper edge from losing its tight curve. I feel like I am easing the curve but when looking at it from the side it seems I haven't messed it up. There is a lot to do yet but I will stick with it=)

[teetime4one]

Continue being careful around those edges and you should be fine.

[Earl]

Saturday sucked.

I was supposed to get the e34 detailed at 9 and done within an hour or two. My friend didn't show up until 9:45 and it took him all the way until 2pm to finish=/ It turned out decent for the $40 he charged.







When he washed the bay he did end up causing some issues though. The car idled rough when I left but it went away. After leaving the hsop it misfired bad and only ran on 5 cylinders the whole way home. I found out yesterday that cylinders 1-3 had over an inch of water sitting in them and the coil for cylinder one had the connector cracking off. My friend and I sorted it and it runs good now. I will be changing the plugs too now.

Back to the rest of Saturday. I planned to do a bunch of welding but my patience got the best of me. I was so frustrated with how the day had been going that as soon as I started welding, I just couldn't get anything to work right.

The tin snips that I had grabbed to cut the patches was super dull and left burrs on the patches I tried cutting. I had no tools to take them off so I couldn't patch any holes in my fender, hood, or any other places I planned.

I then moved to my radiator support to fill holes that no longer need to be there. I filled one with minimal trouble. I moved on to a second one and kept blowing through. I was so frustrated that I just packed up and left. I could have just turned the heat down but figured that in that state of mind, I would have done more harm than good being there.

The only plus about Saturday is that I picked these up cheap from a friend and will be trying to make them fit for when I want to run skirts instead of being skirtless.

[Earl]

So Saturday wasn't too bad of a day.

I started by mocking up my e46 skirts



It is really hard to tell how they will look with no front fender on, and the car in the air. I would also really like to shave the raised center to give it a nice smooth look similar to the AC Schnitzer skirts.

After that I lubricated my cams, timing chain, and chain guides with engine assembly lube before buttoning the covers up. I then installed my upper timing cover


And then installed my water pump and thermostat housing


The thermostat housing is only on hand tight at the moment because I got the wrong gasket and my thermostat didn't come with an o-ring.

The valve cover is only one because I had to tighten it down to seat the timing cover on the profile gasket properly. I was told that the pressure down on it should seat the end of the profile gasket that wasn't sitting well. I sure hope it works out. I put a large dab of silicone on the inside edges like the Bentley specifies. I also put a small dab on the outside edge. If it leaks it still shouldn't be a hard fix=)

My buddy Greaser Kyle made it out and shaved all of the unneeded holes in my radiator support that you will be able to see



I found a great condition black carpet that should be shipped out today. I have also been contemplating buying aftermarket rear strut mounts since my e46 m3 vert mounts don't look like they held up too well. I was looking at either choosing Rogue Engineering mounts of the Ground Control mounts. I ended up opting for the Ground Control mounts because they are poly and seemed to be made a little beefier. Those should be shipping out today as well=)

Here is my canvas of a back window


Hopefully all of the microscratches will buff out lol

[eurohb]

meh!!! I've seen more progress on a honda-tech build thread.................




LOLZ! jk

[Earl]

Achieved zero progress over the weekend. The girlfriends rear drums brakes proved to be a weekend long endeavor.

These came in however:



I will be installing those Saturday, as well as installing my new sway bar endlinks, bushings, brackets, and hardware.

I will also be getting the inside of the valve cover cleaned out and then installing it for good on the engine.

I gave my friend Greaser Kyle the pass code for the garage door so that he can work on the bay/shaving while I am not there so we can get this done=)

[Earl]

I made the purchase of a more period correct steering wheel yesterday=)

This means that my Grip Royal Grain with the horn button will be for sale shortly.


Obviously it is in brand new shape since the car has never been driven with it and I bought it brand new.

The new wheel is an Italvolanti that I found for an excellent price and it was one of the only wheels that I could find that I thought would flow well with the OEM+ vibe and is 350mm.

I will post a pic once it arrives and is installed so that I can make sure it looks as fitting as I am hoping.


Other than that I painted the proper side of my waterpump pulley last night since I painted the wrong side before=P


Saturday should involve me installing my Ground Control RSMs, swaybar endlinks/bushings/brackets/hardware, and possibly starting to replace the wheel bearings.

[Earl]

I got my Ground Control rear shock mounts installed Saturday.

Here is the set of e46 m3 vert mounts that I replaced (less than a years worth of driving on them)



New versus old





Installed top plates




Then installed the shocks with the mounts






Also installed the new lower shock mounting bolts



After that I removed the rear sway bar to sandblast, repaint (not happy with how it looks from before), and then to prepare for the new bushings, brackets, end links, and hardware.

I noticed that the under side of my diff surface rusted through the rust reformer/paint and that my trailing arms are starting to do the same around the edges. I have been thinking of dropping the sub frame again to replace all of the bolts with new and this has me wanting to repaint it all again. I am not sure why said rust reformer would not have neutralized the rust like it looked like it had=/

[Monkfish]

Those ground control rsm look sweet. I also see that they provided you with a new washer for the top of the mount. I recently bought and installed a kit that did not come with the washer, is it safe to re-use the old one?

[Earl]

I don't see why not. I don't think I have seen oem style mounts that come with washers. These RSM's really are high quality though. I can't wait until I see how they feel=)

[BMW_Hatchback]

Loving the progress bro!

[Earl]

Thanks bud

[Earl]

My m44 crank pulley showed up yesterday=)

I gave it a quick wash


Then I gave it a coat of paint

[BlackBMWs]

Nice! Will you still install the a/c pulley over this?