The Barbara Chronicles

[Vass 703]

Got onto the 330i brake refurb. All disassembled, I had them vapour blasted by a fellow bimmerhead I'd met, saved a good number of hours on the wire wheel.

Gave them an additional scrub and 3 coats of satin black caliper paint.

Then threw on new seals, guide pins, rattle clips, OE rubber hoses and a set of speed bleeder valves, as well as Akebono pads (sorry @Olaf, I'll be careful).

All tidied up and set aside.

Also scrubbed down and major rust off the subframe and control arms, gave it a few coats of rust converter primer and the same satin black paint. Will get onto pressing in the new bushes and bearings next. Front hubs are also now disassembled and awaiting a tidy up.

Edited September 13, 2023 by Vass

[Eagle 1524]

Interested to see how the speed bleeders hold up. Surprised you dont have a pressure bleeder?

[Vass 703]

35 minutes ago, Eagle said:

Interested to see how the speed bleeders hold up. Surprised you dont have a pressure bleeder?

Haven't got around to getting one yet. I did get one of those vacuum bleeders but that turned out to be dogshit. Bled the clutch and brakes the old fashion two person way last time around.

A set of these is what I got. Look pretty promising, will hopefully live up to it too.

[Harper 465]

Did you pony up the 60usd each for OEM rear caliper seals or source them somewhere else? Schmiedmann has the OE ATE front seals and dust boots for 10usd each but not the rears, and I refuse to pay 120 for some seals and dust boots for the rear.

I was gonna do a similar rebuild to my calipers before I put them on the compact and atm it's looking like I'm just leaving the rear seals alone.

[Olaf 3242]

60USD?  Jesus wept, where's that from?  We did 325i caliper rebuild recently, I'm certain the seals and hardware were nowhere near that price.  

 

EDIT:  yeah, ATE Caliper rebuild kit for the 325i (yes they're smaller than the 330 & M3, I know) 34211158578 was USD7.19each.  They're now USD9.29 from FCP Euro.  I wouldn't expect your 330 seals to cost much more - hope that helps.

Edited September 14, 2023 by Olaf
added price check on caliper rebuild kit

[Harper 465]

5 minutes ago, Olaf said:

60USD?  Jesus wept, where's that from?  We did 325i caliper rebuild recently, I'm certain the seals and hardware were nowhere near that price.  

FCP, slightly cheaper from schmiedmann but in the same realm.

https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw-caliper-repair-kit-rear-34216750163

The 325i with the smaller piston has the option of OE ATE seals for 10usd but the only option for 330i seems to be genuine:

https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw-caliper-repair-kit-rear-34211158578

Edited September 14, 2023 by Harper

[Olaf 3242]

Ya got me there - wow!!  ++spendy.    Spareto or Rockauto perhaps?

[Vass 703]

5 minutes ago, Harper said:

Did you pony up the 60usd each for OEM rear caliper seals or source them somewhere else? Schmiedmann has the OE ATE front seals and dust boots for 10usd each but not the rears, and I refuse to pay 120 for some seals and dust boots for the rear.

I was gonna do a similar rebuild to my calipers before I put them on the compact and atm it's looking like I'm just leaving the rear seals alone.

Nah couldn't justify coughing up that much for a pile of rubber either. At the time I couldn't find ATE ones anywhere at all so that's one thing I cheaper out on. Got 2 sets each of Topran and A.B.S. brand for around $5 USD each from either RockAuto or Spareto. That would have been well over a year ago now, haven't checked what the prices and availability are at the moment.

Topran ones looked dogshit with the outer seal not even having a solid metal backing at the base of it. The A.B.S. ones felt alright so threw those on. Will see how they hold up. Not ideal not being OE but will monitor them and reseal with some better quality parts if they end up causing trouble.

[Harper 465]

31 minutes ago, Vass said:

Nah couldn't justify coughing up that much for a pile of rubber either. At the time I couldn't find ATE ones anywhere at all so that's one thing I cheaper out on. Got 2 sets each of Topran and A.B.S. brand for around $5 USD each from either RockAuto or Spareto. That would have been well over a year ago now, haven't checked what the prices and availability are at the moment.

Topran ones looked dogshit with the outer seal not even having a solid metal backing at the base of it. The A.B.S. ones felt alright so threw those on. Will see how they hold up. Not ideal not being OE but will monitor them and reseal with some better quality parts if they end up causing trouble.

Bummer, was hoping you had found something I hadn't. At least it's only the rears and the fronts will have fresh ATE seals. 

What caliper paint did you use? Looks exactly how I wanted mine to come out

[Eagle 1524]

Certainly logic in the 'if it aint broke dont fix it' mentality. The way i figure is the original OE parts with the car are likely have the highest quality\quality control. Im on 300,000+ brake seals and wheel bearings with no sign of them failing anything soon. Driveshaft hanger bearings are another item im not so keen on doing these days, aftermarket stuff is average at best and even OE doesnt appear to be what it used it. 

[Harper 465]

44 minutes ago, Eagle said:

Certainly logic in the 'if it aint broke dont fix it' mentality. The way i figure is the original OE parts with the car are likely have the highest quality\quality control. Im on 300,000+ brake seals and wheel bearings with no sign of them failing anything soon. Driveshaft hanger bearings are another item im not so keen on doing these days, aftermarket stuff is average at best and even OE doesnt appear to be what it used it. 

There is that, I've received genuine BMW parts that were utter sh*t. Had an E46 windshield cowl that didn't survive a single install before all the clips snapped off, every single one. My original 20 year old one came off with all clips intact...

[Vass 703]

10 hours ago, Harper said:

Bummer, was hoping you had found something I hadn't. At least it's only the rears and the fronts will have fresh ATE seals. 

What caliper paint did you use? Looks exactly how I wanted mine to come out

Weird one that, looked up the kit for the fronts you mentioned on Schmiedmann, says it's ATE in the description but has NK listed as the brand. Not sure what that's about. Almost as if it's saying it's meant for ATE calipers, not that the kit itself is ATE?

I used Dupli-Color Sating Black Caliper Paint, on sale from Supercheap. Don't rush into it though, I did have a bit of a mishap with it. About 2 days after paint when putting the seals in, I sprayed the inside of one caliper with brake cleaner that ran out of the bleed nipple opening and dissolved some of the paint on the backside of the caliper... Only a tiny spot so didn't bother me enough to repaint but found it a bit concerning that brake caliper paint wouldn't stand up to brake cleaner. Might be due to the paint not being fully cured yet, the temperatures were in the low 10's overnight around that time so could just be that. I was careful with the rest of them, only spraying cleaner on a rag and cleaning out the insides that way so only the one that got a blemish, but I'll hopefully be able to say more on the paint's longevity in a month's time or so. I'll be sure to report back after the first wash.

[Harper 465]

@Vass you're 100% right I didn't look that closely just saw ATE and assumed they were. Just emailed to confirm and schmiedmann said they are made by NK for the ATE calipers. I'll probably still get them and see what they're like.

[Cement 784]

16 hours ago, Harper said:

Had an E46 windshield cowl that didn't survive a single install before all the clips snapped off, every single one

Same for me recently, brand new cowl that had to come off for the glass to come out ... blasted all but maybe 3 of the clips. Luckily it was the super average hot staking that failed so I got the soldering iron and melted those wacky square pads back onto the cowl itself. The pokey parts were luckily still all attached to the little raft wotsits ... not using great words here but you'll know what I mean if you've seen one 😆

[Harper 465]

8 minutes ago, Cement said:

Same for me recently, brand new cowl that had to come off for the glass to come out ... blasted all but maybe 3 of the clips. Luckily it was the super average hot staking that failed so I got the soldering iron and melted those wacky square pads back onto the cowl itself. The pokey parts were luckily still all attached to the little raft wotsits ... not using great words here but you'll know what I mean if you've seen one 😆

That's exactly what I did too. A few of them the plastic itself snapped so I 'unsoldered' the ones off my original and plastic welded them onto the new one. 

[Eagle 1524]

On 9/15/2023 at 11:19 AM, Vass said:

Topran ones looked dogshit with the outer seal not even having a solid metal backing at the base of it. The A.B.S. ones felt alright so threw those on. Will see how they hold up. Not ideal not being OE but will monitor them and reseal with some better quality parts if they end up causing trouble.

Just discovered ive got E.R.T ones from Spareto in my parts pile. All the ones listed on Spareto look like they would be made in the same place. 

Edited September 16, 2023 by Eagle

[Vass 703]

Rear subframe and trailing arms mostly sorted, bushes & bearings all pressed in.

• Solid aluminium subframe mounts from CMP Auto Engineering.
• Lemförder front diff bushes & Meyle HD rear diff bush.
• CMP trailing arm spherical ball joints.
• Lemförder ball joint top & bottoms.
• F.A.G. wheel bearings.

[Harper 465]

Curious to hear your opinion on the CMP bushes and bearings, have the same set ready to go in my M3 when I eventually get around to dropping the subframe.

[Eagle 1524]

Subframe floor next?

[Vass 703]

Yeah hoping to make a start on that possibly next week already. Should be able to occupy a mate's hoist for a few weeks, drop the subframe, weld it all up and throw all new stuff on. Will be racing to get it all done during October - parents are coming over for a visit from Europe in November so would be great to have the car ready in time to take them on a few road trips.

Need to still do some product research and find the best place to source a bunch of supplies - weld through primer, seam sealer, paint, underseal spray etc...

[Cement 784]

On 9/22/2023 at 9:06 PM, Vass said:

seam sealer, paint, underseal spray etc...

I'd hit up a good commercial automotive paint supplier ... in Auckland I fully recommend Car Colours but that's not much use to you. Couple of things I learnt doing my rear end and under body:

• Use the most hard core commercial products you can get your hands on as a general rule (and the protective gear to go with it)
• Check expiry dates on things that have them (seal sealer for example) as some operators might try and move old stock via retail and save the good stuff for their commercial clients
• Careful if using 1k underseal and a 2k over the top. My 2k paint tried to eat the underseal and it did end up bleeding through a little
• I got a bunch of maybe 1" x 3" disposable rollers (and general thinners for cleanup) for painting the under body and wheel wells etc with 2k epoxy primer (bare metal areas) or 2k polyurethane paint. Worked a treat !! Can be fairly accurate if needed but covers an area great and no upside down brush running paint all over you etc.
• The underseal I used was average at best, would probably not even bother using again if all you're trying to do is get some texture. Around the RACP plates I'd probably just go large on the seam sealer and then maybe try and roll it a bit to texture it ?
• Some posts around this one from my build thread if of use:

[Vass 703]

Kicked off the subframe reinforcement mission. Jumped at an opening in the rally season to occupy my mate's hoist for a wee while, which makes the task that much easier, although still a bit of a hellish undertaking. Props to all you brave souls that tackle this on jackstands, absolute troopers. 

A lot more stuff had to come off than I'd anticipated, the whole fuel system seemed like a spider web with endless hoses going everywhere, each one more annoying to get off than the last. Nevertheless, got the underside prepped for welding - plate locations stripped down to bare metal and treated with weld-through primer. Wheel arch joins and RTAB pocket stitch weld areas also cleared from underseal. All looked to have been in good nick, no cracks that I could find in all the usual suspect areas, a few spot welds that looked a bit suspect but none that had obviously popped. Well worth addressing preventatively regardless. A solid weekend's worth of work.

One thing I'm undecided on still is how far to go with the topside reinforcing. I did get the weld-in beam to put in but might stop at the chassis rail plates by themselves. The touring boot floor has an extra bracket that makes removing the necessary sheet metal that much less straight forward. Torn between taking the whole bracket out as well or pulling back in scope a bit.

During the engine rebuild, I'd been taking every rusty and grimy bolt I got my hands on to the wire wheel on the bench grinder and making them all clean & shiny. Unbeknownst to me, along with the grime and rust I'd also been taking off whatever protective coating they had left so after all of a few months back on the road all of the bolts were now rustier than they had been. I still had a few cans of caliper paint left so have been running a small OCD mission alongside the bigger stuff and tidying up the bolt heads & nuts as well. Can't have any rusty bolts being an eyesore.

[Vass 703]

On 9/24/2023 at 9:10 PM, Cement said:

I'd hit up a good commercial automotive paint supplier ... in Auckland I fully recommend Car Colours but that's not much use to you. Couple of things I learnt doing my rear end and under body:

• Use the most hard core commercial products you can get your hands on as a general rule (and the protective gear to go with it)
• Check expiry dates on things that have them (seal sealer for example) as some operators might try and move old stock via retail and save the good stuff for their commercial clients
• Careful if using 1k underseal and a 2k over the top. My 2k paint tried to eat the underseal and it did end up bleeding through a little
• I got a bunch of maybe 1" x 3" disposable rollers (and general thinners for cleanup) for painting the under body and wheel wells etc with 2k epoxy primer (bare metal areas) or 2k polyurethane paint. Worked a treat !! Can be fairly accurate if needed but covers an area great and no upside down brush running paint all over you etc.
• The underseal I used was average at best, would probably not even bother using again if all you're trying to do is get some texture. Around the RACP plates I'd probably just go large on the seam sealer and then maybe try and roll it a bit to texture it ?
• Some posts around this one from my build thread if of use:

Awesome advice. I have revisited your thread several times to get a grasp of what I'm in for. Ended up going down a somewhat different route though. Asked a few collision repair centers for advice on suppliers, ended up at Spraystore. Laid out what I'm doing, showed photos and told the fella what I'm after. Since it was clear that I'm an absolute novice when it comes to paint and wasn't going to be using a spray gun, he recommended a different solution, so this is what I ended up with.

So after welding, 2 coats of this 1K primer, 3M polyurethane seam sealer where it needs it and 2-3 coats of satin enamel brushed on over top. Decided against underseal and will just try add some texture with the seam sealer as you had suggested. Got the enamel top coat mixed to the following code, which seemed a close enough match to the greenish-grey that BMW used from factory so should blend in well enough.

Could have definitely gone more hardcore with 2K stuff as you & Eagle had but should do the job still. Would have loved to also go over and redo the whole underside and wheel arches but am getting pressured to vacate the hoist so won't have the time to go all out this time around, will just stick to the affected areas.

[Eagle 1524]

Compared to places like UK etc i dont you really need to go that deep. The underside isnt that exposed really either and if kept clean and not used in harsh condition should last ages even with cheap paint.

I used 2k primer, 1k base e-coat colour and the same 3M sealer. Reddish recommend applying cavity wax after painting because when you weld its burns up the factory stuff in the internal cavities. I used 3M and some applicator wands, expensive but good as most 3M products are

[Vass 703]

13 hours ago, Eagle said:

Compared to places like UK etc i dont you really need to go that deep. The underside isnt that exposed really either and if kept clean and not used in harsh condition should last ages even with cheap paint.

I used 2k primer, 1k base e-coat colour and the same 3M sealer. Reddish recommend applying cavity wax after painting because when you weld its burns up the factory stuff in the internal cavities. I used 3M and some applicator wands, expensive but good as most 3M products are

Cavity wax is a great shout. Just called Spraystore, they've got the 3M stuff in stock, will pop by and pick some up today.

Kept tinkering away at it last night, peeled back the sound deadening & seam sealer in the boot floor, luckily looks like that panel ends in front of that bracket and doesn't sneak under it. One annoying thing is that there's a spot weld right under the bracket overhang but I might be able to drill it out through one of the openings in the top of it. Back into it tonight, weld-in-beam mission is all go.