My-$300-e28.com now with working b35.

[VW+bimmer=bliss]

Hey you sold me the alternator and control arms off the E32! I thank you for those, the headlights and tail lights are mucho bright now.
Nice work as well.

[jhall]

Yessir, and thank you.

I suppose I should post this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XVpfkBb4zk

Yes, that's right... it lives. Sorry for the garbage video but i didn't have a volunteer to hold a camera/ cell phone. I cropped the video down as I wasn't exactly dressed for my close up but she smoothed out and idled great, albeit a little on the high side, like 1100 rpm. Also my temp gauge pegged and is still stuck there, I checked resistance on my sender and the ohms are in line with what the Bentley suggests should be correct. So I'll be researching that some more. Also I'm going back and forth on the b34 or b35 airbox.

That aside, hearing it fire for the first time checks so many boxes. Grounds, timing, wiring must all be correct since it started. Huge relief.

Also last night, it moved under it's own power. Huge win. Now I just have to figure out exhaust, I can't keep running it open header or my asshole neighbor will make snide comments about how I mow my grass.

011 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

[jhall]

Past couple of weeks have been dedicated to getting the exhaust done. I decided to go ahead with the headers because why the fuck not? Headers obviously don't just bolt right up to the stock exhaust so I searched around to figure out what was a generally acceptable exhaust setup. I decided that since the manifold pipes were 2" it would be best to follow Shawn D's old advice and go dual 2" into a single 2.5". Then for the layout I found inspiration in BK bimmer's 85 535i thread. So I fired up the ol' google box and went over to summit racing and ordered up some mandrel bends plus one of their "Flowmaster equivalent" chambered mufflers. A couple days later I had a heavy ass box at my front door.

***Disclaimer, I'm not a pro welder and I don't pretend to be, I know my welds wont win any awards. That said any tips are always appreciated because I know I have a lot of room to improve.

The extremely long box is a 7' section of 2" aluminized tubing. Amazon prime shipped that to my door for $10 all in. I didn't wind up using any of it. Guess I'm stocked up for the next decade.

002 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

004 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

After working off and on this past weekend around family related activities this is what I came up with. I bought a resonator too but I just didn't have the room for the thing. The whole exhaust comes apart in 3 sections with a couple of band clamps so there's also a bit of adjust-ability to the rear plus I figured I might want to change it if it wound up being too loud.

023 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

But that's all just words and pictures, we want sounds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAuCcxU ... e=youtu.be

So thats it for now, I made her all legal in the eyes of the state this week and I've put a couple of country runs on her and wow, the b35 just wants to pull so much more than the b34. I've got more than a couple of nagging things to do, temp gauge is still wonky, turn signals are acting up, mount the ecu, suspension, it goes on. For now though I'm all smiles, she runs great.

Oh and I should say I'm extremely appreciative to all you mye28 lifers, you don't know this but your input over the years helped so much on a million little things I encountered. The search function here in invaluable.Thank you all. Guess I can stop calling it a $300 car now?

[Tiit]

Very impressive.

[tig]

Very impressive.

This.

[thugginrobby]

Goals, love this thread

[travisj]

Goals, love this threat

[thugginrobby]

Goals, love this threat

Man i hate the prediction tab on my keyboard

[jhall]

I realized I'm a bit overdue for an update here if for nothing else than my own record keeping. Last update was October of 2017 just after I finished up the exhaust and started to get some miles on the car. Since that time I've driven the car off and on throughout the late fall and winter, with my Toyota pickup (turd) handling the snow duty in that time. I know I've said this before but I'm just taken back every time I put my foot down in this car. I just wants to go so bad. I never remember he b35 in the 7 series never feeling this alive, I mean it moved the car around just fine, but never with the decisiveness it does in the e28. I'm sure the manual has something to do with this, the weight difference also, but I did not expect the car to feel this different. Unfortunately I have zero data to quantify what my butt dyno is telling me. Just understand that, to me, it feels a lot different.

The only gripe I have so far is my fuel mileage right now is garbage. My heavy foot aside, it seems abnormally low. Something I'm monitoring as I go along.

One thing I needed to address was the lack of a healthy battery. The battery I found was ok for starting the car periodically in warm weather and moving around my driveway. But to seriously consider driving the car I would need to figure something out. So Logic should tell me to just go down to the ole Farm and Fleet (midwest thing) and buy a new battery for $100. This would be wise to do as I know Farm and Fleet batteries are Johnson Controls and carry a very competitive warranty. Of course at this point logic is completely out the window. I had a new Group 93 battery from the 735i as well as an extra Group 93 from somewhere I've forgotten just sitting in my garage taking up space. Clearly that large of a battery won't fit in the factory location under the hood. I hatched a plan to utilize the money I would have spent on a new e28 battery and remote one of the batteries I had to the trunk. Searched around online a bit and finally settled on a simple kit from Jegs.

IMG_1589 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

I know, I know, as far as aesthetics there's a lot to be desired. It's functional.

IMG_1599 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

The nice thing about doing this is there's a very clear path for the battery cable to run through the trunk and down the foot wells of the car.

IMG_1598 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

Final landing spot for the cable is again on the firewall. For now I just ordered a universal post from amazon. Seems to work ok, meaning its metal and allows power to pass through it, kind of like how breakfast food is hard to screw up.
Note: I left the cable a bit long just in case I wanted to re route it or redo it in the near future.
IMG_1656 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

[tig]

No windshield washer fluid?

Deets on the kit you bought from Jegs?

[jhall]

I was very happy with my xmas gifts this year.

The wheel is a Momo Ghibli? from overseas somewhere. Took forever to come in the mail, and it's not perfect but it sort of fits the feel of the car.

IMG_0012 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

IMG_0036 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

Mats are from Guten Parts, took advantage of a Christmas time sale and some xmas cash. I also fixed the OBC back light with a bar from Garagistic.

Next up I was sort of forced into beginning the suspension. One day on my way home from work I was going down a fun little back road and I noticed the weight of the car shifted oddly through an S turn. a visual inspection revealed nothing but I knew the shocks were shot. At the time I didn't want to jump right into lowering the car but I figured I'd take it all apart and just see what I was dealing with and install the bilsteins I had. I started with the drivers rear.

IMG_0085 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

Can't exactly just bolt that back up now can I ? Luckily I had a set of Spax I purchased from a member waiting to go on something someday.

IMG_0066 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

Overall I'm happy with the "stance".

IMG_2314 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

IMG_2137 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

[jhall]

No windshield washer fluid?

Deets on the kit you bought from Jegs?

http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS-Performance- ... -wQAvD_BwE

The hardest part was finding a box big enough for that size battery. If I were to do it again, and I might redo it, I'd opt for something a little more pleasing to look at. The wires that came with it are decent quality so Kudos to that.

At the time of that picture I had not yet reinstalled the washer tank. It's back in now.

[tig]

Your stance looks absolutely perfect to me. Nice work.

BTW, I have the same feeling you do with the B35 in Vlad. It just pulls so smoothly and hard.

[oldskool]

Well done !

[Tiit]

Inspiring shit. Thanks for sharing.
Silver rocker cover looks much better than the red one. Are you doing powder coating yourself? Do you recommend DIY powder coating or is too much hassle?

[jhall]

Inspiring shit. Thanks for sharing.
Silver rocker cover looks much better than the red one. Are you doing powder coating yourself? Do you recommend DIY powder coating or is too much hassle?

A couple years back I purchased this kit from Eastwood.

https://www.eastwood.com/dual-voltage-h ... r-gun.html

I bet that gun has paid for itself a dozen times over. For what I'm accomplishing here its more than adequate. Mostly I've done what you see here, wheels and several batches of small pieces for my bosses Isetta project. Pro guns are probably better at getting into nooks and crannies than I can with this gun though. I'm probably mostly limited by my oven as far as size of the part is concerned. The oven I use was sort of a story in itself. My coworkers boyfriend was cleaning junk out of his garage and just wanted it out of his way. It's a 115v counter top industrial oven that's probably older than most everyone on this board.

I recommend Prismatic Powders for color, they'll sell by the pound and have a very extensive catalog. Plus shipping is reasonable. https://www.prismaticpowders.com/shop/p ... ing-colors

Particularly for small things like I'm doing I prefer powder over paint now. I can set up very quickly and because you bake the pieces you're bolting them on in a matter of a few hours instead of waiting for them to dry overnight. Most every bracket I take off and put back on gets a trip in the sandblaster and a quick PC. It's a bit annoying to setup for one or two pieces but my desire to not have rusty brackets out weighs my annoyance.

I will add one more thing, overspary powder gets EVERYWHERE.

[Tiit]

Thanks.

[ElGuappo]

Next up I was sort of forced into beginning the suspension. One day on my way home from work I was going down a fun little back road and I noticed the weight of the car shifted oddly through an S turn. a visual inspection revealed nothing but I knew the shocks were shot. At the time I didn't want to jump right into lowering the car but I figured I'd take it all apart and just see what I was dealing with and install the bilsteins I had. I started with the drivers rear.

IMG_0085 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

Holy rusted metal Batman...
Sights like that make me glad to be in this stupid state...

[xmikekay]

You are doing Gods work, bless your soul for you are the savior of our people.

[oldskool]

You are doing Gods work, bless your soul for you are the savior of our people.

And a very svelt and poised individual !

[jhall]

You are doing Gods work, bless your soul for you are the savior of our people.

Bless you my son, now go forth and spread the word.

I was just looking at one of my earlier posts on here and I mention something about the point of no return. I think I'm well past that now.

After I was forced into installing my springs and shocks the car drove ok for a few weeks, and it certainly looked the part. The front end however was clunky at times and felt loose. Then one day I was driving it and I started to get the death wobble. Bad enough I pulled to the side of the road to investigate before my car shook itself completely apart. My roadside diagnosis found my DR front caliper sticking as it was smoking hot. It eventually cooled off and it must've unstuck itself as I was able to make it home without incident and no more wobbles.

As has been the theme here, I had a good caliper on hand I was able to throw on the car and I got lucky as the rotor still seemed to track true. The car brakes safely as it is now and since I'm more in the mode of get it back on the road and enjoy it, I'm going to back burner a full brake job for now. A death wobble however is more than a sticky caliper, so I climbed underneath and had a helper shake my front wheels at 3 and 9 o clock. My culprits appeared to be one ball joint on my drag link and a ball joint on my thrust arm. So I made the decision to just replace everything.

IMG_0141 by Josh Hall, on Flickr


https://www.instagram.com/p/BgezyOLFHvl/

After some PC work and some fresh parts.

IMG_0170 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

I just had it aligned yesterday and I have to say that a fresh front end rebuild and an alignment is e28 nirvana. It tracks straight and true now with no clunks or wobbles. I'm in love with my trash pile BMW.

So I'm back to soaking up miles on her, slowly getting everything dialed in. I've also taken some time recently to tidy up a couple of things on the motor swap. First was to address my P/S reservoir which I had zip tied in place. I sourced a bracket from out very own Andy South, I must say I am a satisfied repeat customer.

IMG_0113 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

Another thing that was nagging me was the ecu not being properly secured so I fixed that, and also pulled my excess battery cable back into the cabin a bit, I think it helped clean up the engine bay. I need to figure out a bracket for the pair of relays just hanging out by my coil and I want to source a bracket for the diagnostic connector just laying around over by my expansion tank.

IMG_0067 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

And Cek, my washer fluid tank is back in.

IMG_0125 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

[BDKawey]

IMG_0125 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

via Imgflip Meme Generator

[jhall]

And since I mentioned Mr. South I should also bring up that I was able to meet him way back in January. Since day one this car has had a pretty badly cracked rear bumper.

015 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

I had a DQ convention to attend in Columbus OH and Andy happened to have a nice condition bumper for sale at the time. I'm to the point in my career where I hate flying, and my drive time limit is about 12 hours, anything under 12 and I will just drive. Columbus from my doorstep is only about 8 hours of driving, a quick detour on my trip and I was the proud owner of a crack free rear bumper.

Of course I didn't stop there, I was looking online one night and found a black e28 in a scrap yard in Hammond IN. So I plotted a course on my trip home that skirted the bottom part of Chicago and made the stop. I was hoping to get anything and everything as I need two front fenders and a hood. It turned out the donor car had been in a front end accident and none of those parts were usable. It did have a nice drivers rear door so I snagged that since this car has a decent dent in that door.

042 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

In case you were wondering a rear door and bumper from an e28 fit comfortably in the back of a 2017 Hyundai Sonata.

IMG_2189 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

IMG_2186 by Josh Hall, on Flickr


These of course are future projects I'll probably do once we're out of this never ending winter.

[tschultz]

I vote you name him Gerald.

[tig]

Love the ECU bracket!

[Nebraska_e28]

Just found this thread. One helluva Resurrection, love it! Nice exhaust tone too. Makes me want to build something.

[Bonsaibacker]

Was routed over here from the header thread. KILLER job! Update please and thank you for documenting!

[oldskool]

You are the MAN among men . . .

[Adam W in MN]

This thread is so satisfying to read through, the $300 story, the car's history and modification timeline, the miles of smiles for cheap! Keep it up.

[jhall]

Wow, thanks guys. I've really grown to love this car. I had to look back through my photos to see what I've done since the last update and not a lot has changed. I've put about 5,000 miles on it this summer using it as my primary driver for the most part. I'm genuinely not babying the car either, I drive it hard, it's sat in long term parking more than a few times, and to be honest I've barely washed it really. Like I've said before, I never set out to build a concourse car, it's been reliable and a blast to hoon down country road and that is all I set out to do. It keeps up with much more modern vehicles in traffic and people seem to appreciate the car for what it is.

That said a few more issues of note in the time I've been driving it:

The drivers seat has had a few holes open up, which can be expected, My plan is to just see what pops up from part outs or junk yards in the future, I'm sure I can find something that fits the car. Which, speaking of seats, they are the one thing right now that detracts from the driving experience. I really think the car would benefit from an upgrade there.

It has developed a bit of memory steer, I know one of the last things I did was a front end suspension and something binding up is likely my issue. I've already gone through it a couple of times but cannot find anything that is obviously wrong. It's probably wise to not rule out the idea of a bad PS pump either, perhaps it's related to my customized high pressure line, but I doubt it.

Back In August the starter began acting up. About every 4-5 stops it wouldn't crank back over. Rocking the car a bit seemed to help but it was not a tenable situation. Low and behold guess what! I had a b35 starter, so a couple of weekends back I did a session of under hood yoga and got it swapped out, total PITA but it's done and she cranks over every time now, Job done.

My last problem actually fixed itself, around midsummer I went to turn on the blower for the heat and it didn't work, I had heat but no force behind it. A few weeks ago when the weather began to turn I kicked it on and decided to try again just as a preliminary before I HAD to fix it, and wouldn't you know it came right on, all 3 speeds, boom, heat. Job done.


***If all you wanted was a car update stop here and skip to the pictures, there's a few small projects I'm going to post that aren't described above. If you keep reading beyond this point I'm going to have a long winded summer/ life update that might get a little sappy, I apologize in advance.



There's a quite a gap in this thread since my last post, as I'm sure all of you will understand that doesn't mean that my life had stopped, it merely means that my life may have taken a detour away from e28's for a while. It's not a lack of motivation on the car itself and it's certainly not an indicator I feel a project is over. I was just to a point with the car that I felt comfortable with it. It drives straight, runs well, brakes like it should and is more fun than a new Camry, regardless of what the Toyota Marketing dept is trying to tell me. There's a million little things yet to tinker with, but I have created a functional machine that I use daily and (beating my chest a little here) PUT TOGETHER MY DAMN SELF. The sense of pride that comes with that is not something than can be purchased. My heart swells when my two year old asks if we can take daddy's car, or when I pick my boys up from daycare in it and I hear from the back seat "go faster". To think I'm getting these experiences in a 30 year old car that was purchased for nearly nothing on it's way to the scrap heap is just incredible.

Throughout the summer my wife and I alternated where one of us would take a day off during the week and stay home with the boys. In late June during one of my weeks I met up with my parents for fishing and a picnic at a state park near my town. It's only fitting that we took Gerald all loaded up with the required gear for a run down the back roads before meeting up with my parents. The day went well, which might be a weird thing to say about spending time with your parents. The issue is that the relationship between myself and my father had been tenuous since my teenage years. Over the last few years however we've made an attempt to meet up periodically so they can see the boys. So for us it was a nice day. Unfortunately exactly a week later my mom called me to inform me that my dad had a heart attack or a seizure while driving and had an accident, he was gone.

None of this was a shock, my dad had been sick most of my life. When I was in 2nd grade he had a pacemaker put in, in jr high he had testicular cancer that spread into his stomach and nearly killed him, and in high school he had a stroke that took his ability to have a conversation. The mixture of a frustrated father who cannot catch a break and a teenage son going through his own bullshit is a powder keg that is going to go off. Though there's a lot that was never said left between us we had mostly gotten over it enough to have a relationship again. Looking back now that last time we ever saw each other, a big part of that day, was Gerald. My dad had in his own language asked about the car which enabled me to tell him about the car and my working on it. Just like that, in the course of a week a $300 left for dead car is now forever a part of my life story. You don't get to pick that type of stuff, it's impossible to imagine when I bought the car that it would be one of the last things my father and I would ever discuss.



My other summer update is well... I bought a Land Cruiser. In the same spirit as Gerald, it's someone else's stalled project. A 1993 FZJ80, It was more than $300, but it was well under what I see them normally trade for in worse shape. It sat in a guys shop for 8 years because he believed the head gasket blew and he started the work but then just, quit. I've already done a ton of work to it, I won't document it all here, but it's a very similar circumstance as Gerald, except my wife likes the land cruiser from the start.


Setup an antenna to work off a window switch. It's not the auto kind where it knows when to stop, I rarely put it up anyway, just nice to have a functioning antenna again.

IMG_0519 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

IMG_0517 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

The boys on our 2 hour drive to go take a look at the Land Cruiser.
IMG_0739 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

Still Shiny.
IMG_1293 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

The day of our picnic.
IMG_1906 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

IMG_1913 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

IMG_1956 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

Random summer stop at Sonic, about a mile from the yard where I first looked at the car.
IMG_2709 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

LAND SMASHER

IMG_0861(1) by Josh Hall, on Flickr

IMG_0839 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

IMG_2284 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

IMG_2239 by Josh Hall, on Flickr