Minerva: The S54 powered, better than new, E28

[tig]

Odd. I should have 8 parts here. Two four door cars. Seems two mechanisms from the 85 doors are AWOL. May still be at the shop.


All of the striker thingies that will be visible cleaned up well, except the one on the left (88 Left rear) which has some corrosion on the round part. This will not do, as it will be visible. Hope I can find those other mechanisms or I may be on the hunt...


It's just not possible to tell how worn these are.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2749THf]

But, interestingly, two of the brackets are bent. These are both from the '88 car.


If I do choose to not buy new, I wont' be using those. Note I'm also missing one... Odd.

Pic to document assembly orientation. I take lots of these.

[vinceg101]

This is just incredible. I get frustrated trying to clean brake dust off my wheels. The skill level and attention to detail by Charles and others like him on this board just astound me.

Thanks, but to be clear, this is not about skill. Skill implies mastery that comes from thousands of repetitions. I have no idea what I'm doing.

Oh how true this is.

I've been going through doors. All my life. I also started going through all the door hardware. There's a lot of it. I think, actually, the doors are the most complex part of these cars other than the drive train.

Word. Not a truer statement has been said thus far. Just wait until you try to put the rear windows back together; as I said when I was putting mine back into the M535 I am convinced that BMW either hired a work force of small, petite women with equally small and long nimble fingers or a bunch of 6 & 8 year old children to work the window assembly line back in the day.

Note the window regulator design is the same between '85 and '88 but a different finish was used in the older cars (dark, not galvenized). Also note the buffers that stop the regulator when the window is all the way up are mushed/missing. These are NLA, so I will do some transplanting. I will test all motors and assemblies and use the best of everything. It's nice having two or three sets of everything. I'm realizing that the '88 car had a lot of miles (365k) and the '85 had more age. So bits from both are 'challenged' and it's not always obvious which will work best in this build.


Does anyone know what kind of grease should be used here? I'm thinking a modern silicon grease like Molylube?

I used a standard blue Lithium grease when I cleaned my motors & operators. Whatever you use be sure it doesn't turn to glue like what BMW used on those things.

This is looking good and very inspiring.
Did you end up tackling the ABS unit rebuild?

[tig]

ABS pump is on bench, next on list...

[wkohler]

I don't know of a 528i that came with ABS standard. My '85 doesn't have it either. It was standard on the 3.5 cars. Yours clearly didn't have any of the bracketry to suggest it was originally ordered that way. Good call on the doors. I'd rather use US doors than hacked up Euro ones, too. When those striker plates were available, they came in yellow zinc and don't have the manufacturing stamps, which is incorrect anyway.

[tig]

With the distraction of Vintage out of the way...

Drove out to Sultan yesterday because the car came back from the stripper. Doors & hood are not done yet.

They used a combination of fine sand and chemical stripper. They did not blast the doors, hood, or trunk.












We considered removing the fenders. But the car is in such good shape, that we decided the original seam seal is ideal and we should leave alone.






Pretty cool seeing the original bronze welds. Note there is no evidence of cracks in the B pillars. We will re-enforce regardless.












Rear panel was removed before stripping.


There's only a few other places where metal work is required:

- The filling of the federalized markers was shoddy
- Frame rails must be un-bungled
- There's one rust hole in the trunk gasket trough
- Filling the holes in the rear seat back/bulkhead










All panels, sans the roof, are super straight with no evidence of repair. As promised (whew!) this chassis is right. The roof had some dents repaired, and we'll need do them right.




More later...

[tig]

This morning I picked up powder coating...









Then I got all the suspension bits out for an inventory. I've got some work to do and I'm missing some parts. E.g. need to refurb the rear axles and I somehow lost the Right Rear brake shield. I also can't find the axle flanges I thought I had ready (those in the pic are from an 750i). But I have two sets of TAs to pull from.


Need to order all the steering bits. Forgot about that. Also, I still haven't made mind up on struts/springs and brakes but that will come...


Need new e-brakes... I think everything else is there (sans brakes and struts/springs as above).


That sub-frame was adapted with the IE camber/toe kit last year and powder coated. Inspecting it today, I'm not super happy with the powder coat. I bought a diff mount reinforcement kit from garagetastic and want to weld it on.

I have another 'raw' sub-frame and am considering two options:

1) Wire wheel off the powder coat, weld on the kit, repaint over the powder coat (or get re-coated).

2) Sell it, and build a new one using the other raw sub-frame I have here. I'd order a new IE kit, weld it in, and then get it powder coated.

I'll sleep on it.

See anything else I'm missing?

[Tiit]

Pretty amazing condition that body is. It be hard to find a better donor than this. I'd love to do all this one day.

[tig]

Pretty amazing condition that body is. It be hard to find a better donor than this. I'd love to do all this one day.

I agree. I took a pretty big risk getting to this point. All could be fixed, but it's great to know, FOR SURE, this car has never been hit.

[tig]

Yesterday I tore apart a set of TAs to get good hubs and flanges. Always a thrill breaking off those bearing races (cut with dremel,whack with chisel).

I also tore apart two Behr AC units, cleaned everything, and picked best bits, . Not sure what to do about fan motors. Last thing I want to do is have a loud fan in there, so I'm tempted to just buy new.

Also not sure if any of the AC components should be cleaned/replaced or whatever. Who's the AC expert on the forum? I need to plan the AC build for this car carefully...





Then I got started on the heater. I have a Behr and Sofica unit. The Behr unit looks to be in better shape and I like the details of how it's built better. I will tear apart the Sofica today to see if this instinct bears out. Anyway, I've ordered a selection of foam tape on Amazon to see what will work best replacing the open cell foam that was all in here before and completely deteriorated. I have a new resistor pack already...








This came. Was packed by a hero. Dell rack-mount server boxes are perfect for moonroofs. It has one part of the seal that's pulling up. I will need to figure out how to R&R that.


This morning I started R&R on the subframe that came off this chassis. The one I put the IE kit on last year and had powder coated does not meet Minvera's standards after closer inspection. Plus, I wanted to reinforce it because S54.





A new IE toe/camber kit will be here tomorrow, but in the meantime I've grinded off all the rough spots and weld splatter from factory (one of the reasons the other one is not good enough). I then welded on the Garagistic re-enforcement kit, adding a bead around the side to provide strength where we know (@athayer) they crack.

[muleskinner]

I'm endlessly amazed at the attention to detail, not to mention the time, money, and effort put into this.

[tschultz]

^^ I couldn't have said it better. Great work Charlie!

[Justin_FL]

Soon to be body in white! Charlie, you are utterly nuts. I like E28s but not this much, haha.

[tig]

Soon to be body in white! Charlie, you are utterly nuts. I like E28s but not this much, haha.

I know. I know.

[Spen]

Big respect for doing so much hands on. Got a load of skills there!

[tig]

Big respect for doing so much hands on. Got a load of skills there!

Thanks Spencer. I don't feel all that skilled. Mostly two steps forward, one step back.

Yesterday and today I got the subframe finished.

Ireland Engineering does not provide great documentation for installing the toe and camber kits. Now that I've done this three times previously (two installed on cars), I know some tricks. In order for the kits to allow full adjustment, where an E28 needs it when set on lower springs like H&Rs or Spax with Billie Sports, you can't just do this naively. One must cut the brackets back to allow the TA's to not bind when at full adjustment. And because the brackets need to be cut back, you have to do some re-enforcing.

On both Vlad and Maytag, when aligned correctly, the toe adjustment is almost as far forward as the brackets will allow and camber is as almost as high as possible. If you just weld the brackets on you'll not be able to get the car properly aligned. I've wondered why more people don't complain/post about this.

Before:


This pic shows the brackets installed, without the original bracket cut back yet. You can see that upward mobility of the TA is prohibited by that horizontal piece. The red lines indicate where I cut.


After. I had a failed weld (bubbles from not cleaning well enough/my shielding gas not being set right) and had to re-do things, thus this is not super pretty.


Similar setup on the toe adjustment. There's a hunk of 3/16" steel under there reinforcing things.


Another technique I found works well is to use two bolts when positioning the brackets. This helps makes sure they are positioned and aligned correctly before tack welding.



Vlad is on lift in background so could double-check where the alignment is set.




Done.


In other news, I gave up on R&R'ing the original wiper motors. Instead I bought this new unit. See this thread for details: http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=148022




You have to slightly modify the the bracket (note new notch). I will powder coat this previously galvanized part now that it's been cut.

[Karl Grau]

I'm starting to feel inadequate in the 12v regulated power supply department...

[tig]

Actually made progress today, in between working on Maytag.

Made a trip to the powder coater to drop off all the trim pieces and new subframe. Of course, I found some more trim later, so I have to go back out there tomorrow.

Arrow Plating's hadi-work arrived via UPS.




All organized...


A bunch of parts from Blunt showed up. I have not opened the boxes yet. Maybe tomorrow.

No word from body guy since mid-last week...

[tig]

Just got these pics from Danny...

[EuroShark]

Incredible project. Your attention to detail is more than impressive. Watching with interest!

[ElGuappo]

[the_illermiller]

I'm a few pages behind here, but ElGuappo's meme summed up my pre-caffeinated thoughts. This is amazing in all the best ways.

[vandiesel]

I can't wait to see that sexy engine settled in there. This is a dream car!

[gunner2]

I absolutely love what you do with your e28s. Every time I start something on my car I have to give myself a stopping point, otherwise I would end up stripping mine down to the shell also. These threads are fascinating and stress full to watch. Haha! You are doing it right sir.

[Adam W in MN]

When I saw the picture of the cadnium plated parts all tucked nicely into their drawers, I knew just what quote to add to this thread.

I just read this whole thread again. Conclusion: The OP is insane.

[tig]

From Danny. I am out of town so have not been able to visit, but should be able to get there friday...

[bkbimmer]

Nice project

[tig]

Nice project

I agree.

Here are a bunch of photos the body guy has taken over the past month or so. I gave him my old garage DSLR with instructions to take pictures of everything. He's mostly done that. Today was the first day I remembered to take my laptop to slurp up the images.

I think they look swell. Hopefully y'all enjoy them too. If you see anything odd/amiss (especially you Brent) please don't be shy. I want this done right... I think they are doing all the right things, but they are more Porsche guys than BMW guys...














RonP work? All these were re-done (no pics though).





Good boi.


There *should* be some dimples in these, but I've made the call that it won't really matter.







Uh, they filled ALL the speaker holes. Oops. I'm wondering if I should select speakers now and have him cut the holes before paint. Or just do it later. Hmmm?!?!



A few of the minor rust repairs:





This is cool. Wish I could have watched them to this. I don't fully understand the technique.







Danny likes seam sealer. So do I. This car will last forever.






While inspecting things today, I realized the rear fenders on this car have not been rolled (much). It's too bad I didn't notice this when the car still had hubs on it as it would make rolling them much easier. But Danny assures me he can do it without fudging up the fenders. Definitely makes sense to roll them before paint! He can also seam seal it right.








Ugh.











:-)

[Adam W in MN]

Very impressive progress

[BenGerman]

Why did they Bondo all the doors?

The level of detail is amazing. Wish there was more places like that around.

[tig]

Why did they Bondo all the doors?

The level of detail is amazing. Wish there was more places like that around.

Not Bondo. Polyurethane.