Optiskate

I went to fit the tires today with my jig to figure out what I needed for wheel spacers. The rear lug bolts are seized in there and I couldn't get them off, even with the assistance of some PB Blaster. I actually broke the key, the lug bolts are of the locking variety, with my weight and a medium sized breaker bar. I ended up having to get a master key set. I wasn't able to get them off. The key was pretty thin walled. If I had a thicker one, more time for the pb blaster to do its thing, and an impact, then perhaps it would have came loose. That said, I did get a front tire off. I knew it would come off as the car had a broken wheel bolt when I got it and I had to fix it. I mocked up a 19x9.5 rim and a 255/30r19 on my offset jig. Man is it a tight fit, but the tire just tucks into the wheel well since the fenders are rolled. Its definitely going to have to sit a little taller, but thats not a bad thing. The roads here are horrible and a static stanced car is a nightmare here.

All this said, I've took some time to dig into the car a bit. The factory splash guard is gone. I did find an aluminum skid plate that takes its place and if I would have had something like that, then it would have probably saved my AC from when the girl friend pulled it out of the drive way the first time. lol So I'll probably pick one up. The thing that was immensely concerning was the amount of oil all over everything. I have a pan gasket, new bolts, valve cover gasket, oil thermostat housing gasket and bolts, and a bunch of other parts that should have been done as maintenance items, but who knows if they were done. Might as well redo everything. Luckily the thermostat housing isn't leaking, but I might also want to swing for one of those fancy crank guards just in case. I also noticed that the swaybar has what appears to be some sort of line and then some wiring running to it. I'm assuming this is some sort of active swaybar?

Any way, My carbon fiber trunk and hood have come in, the front bumper is sitting in my living room, a rear bumper is sitting at my parents house, and I'm just waiting on side skirts. After than I can install all the stuff and its ready for paint. I have a decent budget for paint. I also ordered some new front control arms with Turner Motorsports monoballs, and I have rear camber and toe arms along with Powerflex black poly bushings for the rest of the rear suspension. I also managed to find some Delrin trans mount bushings and once I snag new motor mounts, Powerflex motor mount inserts, and Powerflex rear subframe and diff bushings, then I'll install all those. Progress is slow going, but at least things are kinda moving.

One other thing, On the dash it shows a battery and a key. Im assuming this is because the battery in the key is dead? Is this something I'd need to take to BMW to get tackled or is it something I can solder? I used to solder up drone stuff, so I'm not bad at soldering small things, but its been awhile.

Optiskate

I also forgot to mention. I ended up ordering hub stands and a string alignment kit. The string kit is basically all the brackets and what not, so I still have to supply my own tubing, but thats not a big deal. I need to find some corner scales. Don't worry, I'm not aligning the car in my drive way. I've got access to two different lifts, so I'll probably do it in either one of those shops.

Optiskate

Its been awhile since I've been around. Mostly because work has been insane and I haven't had the time to really do much. I took the car over to my friends place and the last few weekends we've been plugging away. We started with the suspension. Boy were we in for a treat. We found many loose control arm bolts. Not to mention all the bushings and ball joints were toast. Everything got replaced with arms that either had Turner Motorsports monoball joints, after market arms, or poly bushings if there wasn't an option for the first two. The poly bushings were a pain to install. Heck, the old bushings were a pain to get out even with a bushing pusher. Ended up using a press at my dad's shop to finish the job and that made it easy.

We started maintenance last night. In the previous pics you can see leaking oil from various places. I decided to start with the oil pan gasket and my buddy and I learned really quick that its not an easy job. I didn't have a motor support bar, so I had to order one. One thing that I did notice was that there seemed to be a lot more oil leaking from the back of the pan than from any where else around the pan. It kind of makes me wonder if its not also a rear main seal. I wish I would have taken pics to show you guys what I saw under there as maybe you guys could have shed more light on things, but I feel like the only sure fire way to tell is to just drop the trans and actually look. I'm kind of thinking that if I have to do that, then it will buy me some time to save money for a billet valve cover and pcv revamp. Not sure I need the PCV revamp though as the previous owner put in an RB pcv valve, catch cans, and new tubing. I planned on doing the oil pan gasket, valve cover gasket, new improved racing oil thermostat, oil filter house and thermostat gaskets, all new coolant hoses, new coolant reservoir, water pump, thermostat, ect. I also wanted to do a crank seal guard, and do a few other mods. The AC also needs fixing. Its leaking from somewhere badly up front. If I pump nitrogen into it, it violently blows out, but I didn't have the front of the car apart at the time to track it down. Its all slowly, but surely coming together.

On the looks front, she needs all the window seals replaced. The rubber is dry and cracking. I think I'm going to unwrap the car and return it to space grey. I'll need to paint a front bumper. I have another 1M style front bumper. The clips to fix the side skirts are in. I'm not sure what the deal with the rear bumper is yet. I'm either going to have to replace it and get a new rear diffuser or just find a way to make it work. I think the holes from the rear skirt extensions will be visible if I take them off. Finding carbon fiber to replace the trashed side skirt extensions, front diffuser, and rear extensions is actually pretty difficult. Especially for the front bumper.

Any way, thats where I sit, waiting on a tool and trying to mentally prepare for the dumpster fire ahead. lol


The old bumper. Its cracked under the sticker and the diffuser is toast.