Anudda 130i - Saving the Silver Lemon.

[M3AN 4198]

Wut? I can get WINZ to pay for my vehicle maintenance? Having (fortunately) never been a beneficiary I really don't know how my tax dollar is being spent in that direction.

You're obviously doing God's work here Chris.

[Eagle 1787]

Id be reporting them if it was they same place. I feel like Auckland would have its fair share of cowboy workshops getting away with stuff like that. 

6 minutes ago, M3AN said:

Wut? I can get WINZ to pay for my vehicle maintenance?

Yep and you can pay it off $10 a week if your sob story is approved.

[deedub 144]

10 hours ago, Eagle said:

Yep and you can pay it off $10 a week if your sob story is approved

Sob story is a bit harsh in general (yea some may be taking the p*ss but not all).

[Eagle 1787]

Personally i dont think so. At my old work we used to do plenty of WINZ quotes, the majority came down to general lack of financial sense with cars people in their position shouldnt even own ie BMW 118i's, 320i's, Falcondore V8's, various Audi etc etc. Naturally always in poor condition. Typically the more authentic quotes were those who owned smaller Japanese stuff which was their one and only car. The repairs costs on those were usually much less, no real surprise there.

[deedub 144]

1 hour ago, Eagle said:

Typically the more authentic quotes were those who owned smaller Japanese stuff which was their one and only car.

Thought you were referring to anyone on the benefit with a car. Your comment is harsh in that context. But I see now you're referring to a specific type.

[Jacko 2398]

Way off topic but agreed, social safety nets 100% needed (drive around the average US city to see why!), but that shouldn't be funding european performance cars.. winz rep should be like nope, sell it, buy a vitz then we can talk. 

On topic - After finding new exhaust parts - I've only just realised that the exhaust on 130s is different diameters before the stock center resonator, 50 and 55mm, monday morning mind blown.

[Eagle 1787]

I found that out to recently also but its not exclusive to 130i's. At least the M52\M54's in E36\46\39\60's all had 45mm and 50mm (which went all the way to rear in E36 and E46 true twin pipe).

Not exactly sure what the logic behind it is. 

[Jacko 2398]

I made a clean spot, then the rest of it looked terrible, so made another one... then had to stop myself... that'll do Donkey 

Despite the stupidity, call it period correctness, of the 4 tips its a actually really well made exhaust.

[Jacko 2398]

Decided to follow the manufacturers suggested bump stop install, may work slightly better...

Sump on, for some reason this one was a bitch to get on. Fourth n52 sump I've done but first auto 130, dunno if was the transmission cooler line location or my torn shoulder tendons (still recovering from bike crash) but there was a few more four letter words than "sump" and "auto" used in installation.

Front subframe can now go on and will get some real progress.

[Jacko 2398]

Subframe now part of car again, engine sitting on new mounts, everything torqued and happy.

Steering rack all hooked back up with new crush washers and the power steering lines supported by a new technology I'm going to call nuts and bolts, rather than the OEM cable ties and butchery.

[M3AN 4198]

Looking good Chris, the weather gods have been good this week for working outside too!

[Jacko 2398]

Its not far off being allowed inside now that its stopped dribbling sh*t everywhere! 

[Jacko 2398]

Exhaust back on, now with symmetrical thrust again, then I started playing with the steering wheel...

This was an absolute ball ache and I'm never doing it again  Started with an easy fix for skanky lemons steering wheel, stitch on a new cover. Turns out the cover i got was a 1:1 copy of the original leather....

So I thought, cool let's just remove the original leather. Things escalated. Found some 2mm EVA foam (quite cool sh*t, its hold it shape once heated, cos play people use it) and then 3m77 and refoamed the wheel, then install new cover.

IPA cleans off the destroyed soft touch rubber coating on the centre easily.

Total cost, about $34NZD... and waaaaayy too many hours. It's not perfect, but looks pretty good from a foot away and most importantly it feels right.

[M3AN 4198]

Holy crap, you've done a good job on both of those! F**k me, nice work.

Edited August 17 by M3AN

[Jacko 2398]

More Lemonade.

Struts in, new bump stops, top hats, etc etc. Unfortunately noticed brake lines are perishing.. New ones ordered. Hope whomever buys this thing looks after it

Engine going back together, cleaning each plug as I go. Nearly looks like a looked after 130 again!

[M3AN 4198]

How's the engine start/stop button? If it's a scummy as that old steering wheel and needs replacing I've just found a brand new (Ali) one I can send your way for zilch.

Edit: it's black.

Edited Friday at 07:01 AM by M3AN

[Jacko 2398]

The Lemon Schnitzel lives! kinda, anyway. 

Radiator in and bled, all the engine electrics checked and working. Gave it the turbo flush running the pump through protools with drain plug removed.

Once it has eyes again, bolt bumper back on. Throw some oil in it and see if it runs... then service gearbox and diff... then its change out all the brake lines and give the fluid a flush.

Not far off being drivable, then its time to make it purty with the DA.

[Jacko 2398]

All back together and running well, however found the power steering leak (now that its clean, leaks become easy to find!  )

Some animal has RTV'd it in the past, cleaned it all out, fitting looks fine but still leaks. Worst case, change the line out (it becomes hardline that goes to the rack, from the heat exchanger)