new member 1600 build thread

[earmenau]

Wow, it's been a stressful couple weeks getting through finals and trying to get the car rolling for bimmerfest this weekend.

This is how she sits as of tonight. Still need to get a bunch done if I'm going to see you (west coast guys) saturday morning!

[earmenau]

It's been a while, not much has gone on since school started.

 

Just enough time to enjoy driving, and fix a couple things as they brake. The electrical issue ended up being a bad ground on the alternator; we put a new ground in, installed a nice new bosch unit and haven't had an issue with losing power since.. Still a long way to go, but she's running and driving so that's a win. also chopped the springs a bit, 1.5 coils up front, one coil in the rear... need to work on building some coilovers, and some negative camber up front.

[earmenau]

Well, I blew the head gasket on the m42.. possibly cracked the head... I dunno. Anyone want the engine, harness, ecu, and classic daily mount kit/ exhaust manifold? & possibly the trans and custom driveshaft from aardvark?

 

Has anyone gone from m42 to m20? wondering what parts I can reuse, if any... i heard you can use the same trans but it will sit cock eyed 10 degrees? I imagine I could use the same driveshaft if I went that route? It would be nice to not have to do custom sheet metal on the trans tunnel. Also thinking about having the bay cleaned up and painted.. any words of wisdom from my fellow faqers?

[02Anders]

any words of wisdom from my fellow faqers?

 

 

ehrrrmmmm....  - return her to original....???  

[earmenau]

ehrrrmmmm....  - return her to original....???  

 

lol... every time I look at the first image I posted on this build thread, I think to myself: "damn, I've ruined this thing." It's a shame, because I'm really starting to appreciate all the legit restorations that I see, and I think that this was a unique example of a 1600, in the states at least.

 

I'd like to take the build in a more period correct direction, at least visually. I'm thinking about going for an alpina race car look, although it wouldn't look right with 15" wheels and we all know the bbk is staying.

Edited January 24, 2016 by earmenau

[jmr_1602]

You should join this FB group. Plenty of pig cheeks with 15's. In fact I plan on going with 15" wheels this summer on my 1600.

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Edited January 24, 2016 by jmr_1602

[earmenau]

You should join this FB group. Plenty of pig cheeks with 15's. In fact I plan on going with 15" wheels this summer on my 1600.

 

 

Hey, dude!

 

Love the progress on your car, are you talking about those epsilon mesh wheels from your build thread?

[jmr_1602]

Yup. Those are the wheels!

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[earmenau]

Yup. Those are the wheels!

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My favorite wheels, they are going to look awesome.

 

 

 

 

So after being bummed out about cracking my head, doing some day-dreaming, and ignoring the car, I've decided to stick with the m42. I'd like to drive the car again by the end of the year, and I know that won't happen if I do another engine swap.. Who's going to bimmerfest this year!? 

 

I've acquired a new (to me) head, just need to get it dropped off at the machine shop to get it cleaned up and decked. I also just placed an order at IE and blunt for a couple new things. Big thanks to these guys for supporting our community +1

 

I also wanted to address the lack of negative camber up front, but i'm not ready to fork up the money for a coilover kit. The solution: fixed camber plates and offset roll center spacers. I also ordered up one of their grill badges: you'd think they would give me one of them for free, given I've spent so much money there! I could honestly buy an 02 that's a lot nicer than mine for the amount of money I've given them, but that sounds like a personal problem. On another note, I keep eyeing their bubble flares, maybe they will want to sponsor me 

 

cause we all know posts are worthless without photos: courtesy of IE

 

I also discovered a a major source of rattling inside the cabin. The rear window seal was so beat up that the whole rear window was just flopping around. I discovered it when I decided to wipe down the window (something I've never done before) and to my suprise, the window would push out half an inch when I put pressure on it. Not cool. So I ordered a new seal from blunt tech. I would have ordered both the front and rear, but they are pretty pricey so I guess I'll wait to do the rest of the seals. Thinking about doing the window myself, but am also considering paying to have it done professionally. Anyone know if safelite is a good bet for something like this, or should I take it to a specialty shop?

 

Anyway, very busy with school right now but I hope to get a bunch done over spring break next week. I can't believe next month will our four year anniversary… I think she's only been running for maybe 6 months out of that whole time, lol. Fun times.

Edited March 19, 2016 by earmenau

[earmenau]

hey guys, it's been a while so I thought I'd give the build thread a little update. 

 

After deciding to keep the m42 we started out by finding a replacement head. Sent it out for a little refresh and slapped it back on the car.

 

while we were at it, we painted the valve cover and deleted the heater. Cleaned up the look a lot. Still needs a lot of work… well even more so now, but we will get to that in a minute.

 

found a new grill to replace the banged up passenger side. It was already painted so i just plasti-dipped all the grilles. Also installed the IE badge, looked pretty sweet!

 

interior is definitely one of the worst parts of the car, added the coco floor matts to make a little more homely, did it work?

 

Also scored this sweet set of 16x8.5 squared Ronal ACTs.. 50 smackers on Ebay! one is a bit banged up but I love these wheels.

Although we did make it out to bimmerfest last month, albeit very late on saturday afternoon. The car wasn't driving quite right, the starter was dead and the fan was shot. We installed a brand new bosch unit, made a couple tweaks on the wiring, and installed a brand new IE fan. 

 

I took this shot yesterday before taking her out for her first real drive after the new rebuild.

 

and this is a couple hours later… Some guy backed his work truck square into the nose of my poor car while I was paying for gas.

F250 vs 1600

 

the carnage from another angle.

 

Fix Auto couldn't do an estimate today, so they are sending out an independent adjuster… it will be interesting to see how they are going to value the car, I'm not too optimistic about it all but I guess we'll see what happens.. stay tuned!

 

Edited June 29, 2016 by earmenau

[danco_]

Good god, man. I can't imagine some bro in a raised f250, backing into my freshly restored 1600. I would be admitted to prison for one count of cold-blooded murder. 

 

 

[ray_]

FFS!

[earmenau]

I literally would have cried if I wasn't so livid.

 

I gave Liberty Mutual a shot, but I was thoroughly unimpressed.. Which was expected. They sent out a third party appraiser that wrote a trash estimate for the repair. They assessed the damages totaling ~ $3,000 including parts and labor since the guy spec'd square tail grilles. On top of that, the d-bag that hit me is ignoring the insurance company's request for a statement. Typical... same shit happened to my Honda a few months back, took several months to receive a check.

 

I'm just going to use AAA, dropping the car at DTM autobody in El Monte Thursday. We will see how that goes, hopefully the car will look better than before.

 

I was also hoping the new deep grilles were still available from blunt but I guess they are NLA… Anyone have a nice set of deep bucket grilles for sale?

 

 

[earmenau]

Well, the car is total loss.

 

AAA set the value for loss @ $3,500. They want $500 dollars for the car, the estimate for damages was $6k+

Currently trying to get a better deal, but it's not looking good.

 

The cars fate? Once the car gets back home I'm going to put my new hammer and dolly kit to good use and enjoy the car. Will it look good? no, but I can't justify spending money on a salvage title chassis. Who knows, maybe the car will be more enjoyable now that I won't feel bad about running it into the ground. Hopefully post some pictures of my 'repair' next weekend.

[ray_]

With the recent sales of $50k and $70k cars, I think you are in a good position to fight for more money.

 

 

Wish you good luck with that.