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Old 01-19-2016, 12:37 AM   #211
SoundEfx
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That sucks, but there are two ways you can handle this:
1. Fight them to get out of this purchase.
or
2. Have them change every part in the car that can possibly be causing these issue. At the end of it, you basically have a brand new car.
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Old 01-19-2016, 08:26 PM   #212
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i got the bimmer back today. the low side fuel pump was dead, which they replaced. they looked into my speaker issue and i feel like an idiot for this but there was actually a loose piece of paper under the seat that was causing the rattle lmao. they also replaced the window weather strip and washed the car for me.

im going to call bmw and open up a record of all of the issues that i have been having -- this is 2 pretty major events. if i hit 3 then im going to start looking into some kind of compensation like extending the warranty or something or returning the vehicle
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Old 12-17-2016, 07:45 PM   #213
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Hey guys, long time no see.

Was just going through my build thread here and missing my car. I think about her all the time.

Anyways, here's whats been going on with the bimmer



Around March, I ordered my black vintage plates. They didnt come in until July:


Not too long after that, I ordered some mSport gloss black kidney grilles




then I dipped my wheels






I picked up some carbon fiber eyelids. They initially sent me the wrong ones (bottom) and finally got the right ones (top) in. I've decided to probably not use them.


I picked up an M3 style front bumper (with fog lights; didnt want to get rid of my fogs). Also got some projector lens housings that have LED angel eyes since I got the standard halogen reflectors with the car. Looking to install these maybe the Monday after Christmas since I'll have the day off.




Really missing my 240 and my friends. Just bullshitting in the garage and working on it. Miss having my tools around too. :'(. I haven't met any car people out here, or really anyone for the matter unfortunately. Happy holidays
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Old 12-28-2016, 09:33 PM   #214
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just kind of hanging on



couldnt get the sides to bolt up because this metal support bar on the bottom was hitting the fog light bracket:




this thing; ended up removing it:




bolted up:






















I need to go back out and adjust the alignment of the bumper just a bit, shouldnt take more than a few minutes. The headlights also need some minor adjustments. HIDs may be in the near future. Also need some adhesive to put my front badge on the new bumper. Ill get some more pictures in the daylight
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Old 03-24-2017, 08:39 PM   #215
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I know there haven't really been any comments since I started posting BMW stuff. I'm on the BMW forums but don't have a thread going there. And I miss this community / seeing my 240 .

I haven't been able to snap a good night-time picture of the new headlights with my iphone. I don't own a good camera.






I picked up the cheapo harbor freight heat gun (I think this is the 3rd one I've purchased now..) and grabbed a credit card and went to town on my 328i badge.



I tried using fishing line and dental floss first but the credit card (it was actually a card from some restaurant) worked the best and didnt really scratch the paint. It left a lot of the adhesive behind though. I tried my fingernail and goo gone and anything I could think of but it just didnt want to come off. Finally, I hit it with some heat and the goo gone + microfiber rag and it came right off.



There's still just a very very fine outline of where the letters were in this picture. (It has since disappeared since having the car washed).



I got a warning from the monitoring system that my oil level was getting a little low. Probably a week before that, I received a letter in the mail saying that there was a recall part for an oil line on the turbo. I stopped by the dealership to pick up a quart of their oil for a top off and they were able to take my car in that evening to replace the recall part and add oil as part of the maintenance. They always wash and detail the vehicle before sending it out, so I got a nice free wash:





I finally got my all black badges in. I ordered 3 sets before receiving the right size:





I picked up the JB4 for this particular engine and electronic waste gate (vs. pneumatic). It's a plug and play off the shelf tune. There are a few different versions of basic maps (BMS stage 1, stage 2, JB4). The JB4 has several maps, I believe 7, that you can switch between depending on the mods your vehicle has. My car is stock other than the JB4, so I am running a map that just ups the boost from 18 psi to 22 psi. This brings the car from 233hp/241tq to the wheels to 268hp/302tq to the wheels (on CA's 91 octane). A great little bump. With this device, I could also add in a catless downpipe and switch maps for another 20ish hp/tq, and even attach flex fuel wires and start running a 50/50 mix of e85.





It has been fun so far but I try to take it easy. The JB4 tune doesnt kick in until the oil reaches operating temperature which is good. I let everything get warmed up before really punching it for the time being because of a stupid design on BMW's part. The hot pipe on this vehicle is made of ABS lol. There are accounts of peoples' hot pipes breaking under stock boost. There's an aftermarket aluminum pipe that runs about $300 that I'll pick up eventually (or sooner if mine explodes).

So that's where I am at right now. There are a ton of things that I would like to do to this car but I dont know that its worth it in the end. I am putting so many miles on it that its going to be worthless pretty quickly. I did 23k miles in 2016. I think I may stay around where I am at and look towards the next vehicle. Im really eyeing the 2 series -- I had one as a loaner last year (228i mSport) and it was a blast. They recently had their LCI (life-cycle impulse, the mid cycle refresh of their models) and the 228i is now a 230i and the 235i is now a 240i. I thought it would be funny if I picked up a 240i and still had my 240sx.

Here's a few pictures of the 228i mSport I had for a couple days:







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Old 03-24-2017, 09:18 PM   #216
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Very nice, the headlights and bumper really make the front end look cool! I like the BMW stuff
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Old 03-25-2017, 06:58 PM   #217
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Nice car, but have you considered any of the Lexus RC Series? Similar price range, and a lot more reliable....
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Old 04-01-2017, 06:58 PM   #218
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Very nice, the headlights and bumper really make the front end look cool! I like the BMW stuff
Thanks dude, I appreciate it!

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Nice car, but have you considered any of the Lexus RC Series? Similar price range, and a lot more reliable....
Oh yeah, totally. I love that RC350. I see one around Irvine with a burnt titanium quad exhaust that looks dirty mcgirty. Its out of my price range, though. Lol
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Old 04-02-2017, 03:38 AM   #219
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Or, if you need a 4 door, a GS450H. 25+ mpg and 340+ hp.
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Old 04-21-2017, 03:39 PM   #220
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I forgot to post a frontal view after finally getting my front badge on:





2 weeks ago, I picked up an Injen cold air intake. They are stupidly expensive for this car, and add absolutely no horsepower or torque -- it just makes the intake and blow off noise louder. I picked one up on the forums, used for only 3k miles, for a little under half price. The installation was really easy and only took about 45 minutes. Please excuse my dirty hand prints all over the finished project:

Stock airbox:


Airbox cover removed:




Stock filter:


This is the stock upper intake pipe. It has a passage way inside that does something to mute the intake noise:


Here is the injen lower intake pipe installed:


I skipped taking a picture here.

Here is the metal intake box and upper intake pipe/filter installed:


And the finished product, the cover installed:


It sounds really good (to me).


I started a new job on 04/17/2017. I worked it out to where my last day at my previous job was 04/08/2017 and I had the whole week off. UNFORTUNATELY, on 04/12/2017 (my birthday) someone hit the front of my car IN MY APARTMENT COMPLEX, which is only about 15 people, and did not leave a note. I went looking around at everyone's cars and couldn't find any matching damage. There was no paint transfer so it was really hard to find anything. I also put up 2 signs to please call me if you hit my car, but it has been a week and no one has come forward. I'm talking to my paint guy to see about getting it repaired:






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Old 04-21-2017, 03:42 PM   #221
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What up with the S14?


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Old 04-21-2017, 03:51 PM   #222
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What up with the S14?


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Its hanging out in a garage in Florida :'(

I've been thinking about getting it out here to CA but the two places I've lived at now have both had limited [assigned] parking, which would mean either parking my BMW or my S14 out on the street....neither situation would be preferable.
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Old 04-21-2017, 03:54 PM   #223
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Yea for sure, bimmer is looking awesome though!


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Old 04-22-2017, 06:18 PM   #224
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Good news from the paint shop. They are going to be able to buff the scratches on the side out, and do two blend areas to fix the cracked paint. He says because it's black, it will not be noticeable at all. The best part is that he is only going to charge me $150 to fix everything. He's even going to spray my rear bumper reflectors free of charge . I'll be taking the bumper off next weekend and dropping it off with him, hopefully back on the car by 05/02/2017
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Old 11-12-2020, 10:37 AM   #225
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Wow, I can't believe its been over 3 years since I've posted something on here. I've had a lot of changes and a recent trip to Florida has brought me back to Zilvia....hang tight until the bottom of the post!!

EDIT: I'm actually not able to embed the scrolling imgur link so here's just a link to all of the pictures....

https://imgur.com/a/rxrKbgA

-I ended up picking up a full carbon fiber interior kit for the F30 328i

-Picked up some new Hankook Ventus Evo2's in 245/40/19 and 265/35/19

-Got some 437m wheels in 19x8.5 +35 and 19x9.5 +40 (pretty wack offsets after coming from the 240 scene lol)

-I got a full M Sport conversion kit (front bumper, side skirts, rear bumper) using one of those ebay coupons that used to come around so often. I sold the front bumper and ended up making most of the money back for the entire kit. I installed the sideskirts and rear bumper.

-Picked up a carbon fiber diffuser and burnt titanium exhaust tipS

-Got a muffler delete out to 2 single tips 335i style

-Got some cool slip on aluminum pedals

-A few pictures with the wheels on, new skirts and bumper, and lowered on H&R sport springs

-Tried out some LCI "blackline" tail lights. The wiring was absolute garbage and they would flicker every time I went over any bumps in the road.

-Got the regular LCI tail lights and a few pictures comparing the original, the blackline and the regular LCI

-Got a few pictures from someone in FL who just finished doing my S15 front end conversion...!!

-Installed a red ignition button for +15 hp

-Out of order but went with a catless downpipe

-.....I had the F30 328i for 5 years and it served me really well. After a few hiccups in the beginning, it was pretty reliable the rest of the time that I owned it. Plenty of passing power for the highways and an overall cool daily. I was ready for an upgrade though and went and checked out a 2018 M2. I ended up buying it the next week. Its mineral grey, manual, 11k miles wooo.

-Got my plate transferred to it.

-Installed a Dinan carbon fiber air intake

-Installed an M Performance carbon fiber rear diffuser

-Got some overlay tint strips for the reverse section of the tail lights

-And then what brought me back to the forum. I was in Lakeland FL for a wedding and picked up my 240!! I arranged for a transport truck to drive it out to CA by the end of the week. I am super excited though I have been out of the 240 world for so long that there is a lot that I will have to relearn. I have about 100 little things that I need to fix on it haha...

Planning to work on both cars as the funds become available.

M2: Looking to do full bolt ons, a Dinan exhaust and bootmod3 flash tune. Should be good for about 380-390whp. I have the N55 motor which is actually pretty limited by the high pressure fuel pump and smaller turbo from the factory. I'd like to eventually get a stage 2 HPFP and pure stage 2 turbo for around 480ish whp. There are a few more cosmetic mods to add as well....

240: The guy who had my car for the s15 front work helped a lot but also broke a few things in the process, including the few things that I already had to fix makes for a looooong list. Keep in mind I basically did not get to drive this after swapping the motor.

My fuel gauge no longer works...the guy said my fuel pump died and he replaced it for me, so I don't know if he knocked the floater loose or there's a loose connection somewhere or what.

My speedometer never worked with the stock KA and after swapping over the sensor when I did the SR swap.

Something may be up with the wiring specialties harness because right when I plugged it in initially (5+ years ago), the windshield wipers would start going and they wouldn't stop. I just unplugged it temporarily to look into in the future.

My tail lights don't seem to be working. They were working when I left my car. The guy who had it ended up dropping my rear subframe to look at the fuel tank and he replaced my rear bushings. Im wondering if he unplugged the lights at some point and didnt get them hooked back up correctly...

My headlight stalk works for switching on/off the highbeams....but there is no "click" to it any more. This was in working order when I left my car...BUT this guy did wire up my s15 headlights. I was planning to buy a little conversion harness from someone on here...

My hood release by the steering wheel broke. I've got to use a pair of vice clamps to grab it and pop the hood.

The driver's side window is falling off the "track"

The passenger's side window doesn't go down at all. Might need a new motor amp?

I never had the time to wire up my electric fans correctly to my AEM EMS2. They are hard wired to be ON all the time and I basically have a wire in the passenger footwell (ECU area) that when touched to a metal contact point, gets them going.

I never tucked my AEM anywhere, its just sitting there in the passenger floor.

I never had the time to properly wire up my AEM Tru Boost or UEGO AFR gauges. I don't remember what they are tapped to for power. They come on when the car is turned on, but when the headlights are turned on, they go off.

There seems to be a hesitation/delay when revving the engine. I tried directly at the throttle body and its there. I don't know if something has happened in all of this time that its been sitting or if it was originally there with the tune.

My power steering is totally gone. The rack used to leak way way back (2011?) when I was driving it with the KA. I may just need to get a remanufactured rack and pinion or something.

I forgot that when the car was being tuned, apparently I missed a bolt on one of the AC lines thats bolted to the firewall. I had gone to get more oil and when I came back, my friends told me that it drooped down, touched the turbo elbow, and popped. I don't have AC because of that. I'm hoping I can find an AC shop that may be able to patch the line and recharge it, because everything is there for working AC.

Literally the week before I came into town to get my car, someone walking by my car actually fell and hit the passenger side mirror. Its taped on but I'll need a new mirror.

Now that I'll be in CA with shitty gas that's barely even 91, I'll have to get the car re-tuned. Kind of sucks that I paid to get it tuned in FL and never even got to drive it. I think I made a mistake going with the S15 injectors so I'm thinking I'll grab a set of nismo 740cc's before finding someone to tune it again. I want to have everything working correctly before going to the tuner. Last time, I had a massive boost leak and didn't get a fully accurate dyno graph.

Well thats about it. Probably more on that list to do than I can remember right now. I am super excited, this is the first time I've seen my car in 5 years. I'll post up more pictures when the car is delivered this week and get some side by side with my M2.

Wooooooooooooooooooooo
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Old 11-19-2020, 10:39 AM   #226
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I'm having a real problem linking photos here. Doesn't seem to be an issue on other forums, has something changed? I'm using the image tag "[img]" and "[/img]" and pasting my imgur link in between but they arent displaying
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Old 11-20-2020, 01:34 PM   #227
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I'm having a real problem linking photos here. Doesn't seem to be an issue on other forums, has something changed? I'm using the image tag "[img]" and "[/img]" and pasting my imgur link in between but they arent displaying
Sometimes the imgur link can be funky (added text, or doesn't end with ".jpeg") when you right click "Copy image location"... Sometimes it's easier to just right click "View Image" and then copy the link, or "Copy image location".

You definitely need to resize those bad boys, though:


Then do the normal "copy image location", or "view image" then "copy link". Then do the "insert image", or "[IMG]paste[/IMG]":
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Old 11-24-2020, 10:41 AM   #228
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Thanks man, much appreciated!!

I got the 240 and M2 side by side. Its crazy how the 240 makes the M2 look like a huge car.





I had to replace my passenger side mirror because it was barely hanging on before the trip from FL to CA....it ended up breaking off completely on the shipping truck. I now officially have 6..or 7 colors on my car. Flat unpainted black rear bumper, oem black on the trunk and spoiler, oem blue emerald pearl on the car, some green color on the passenger mirror (I actually really like it, I bet it looked nice when it was fresh. It looks close to millenium jade or something), primered welded fenders and oem silver on the s15 front.

I spent a little bit of time cleaning out the engine bay and interior because it seems like the guy who had my car had the hood off and possibly the windows down, outside, with possible rain, for a very long time. There are brand new parts that are pitted and rusting (like my radiator cap, coolant overflow tank, etc.) the studs for the coilovers and the top hats of my PBM coilovers are all rusted. One of the bolt locations to my driver's side seat bracket is rusted. The more I saw, the more bummed I was getting about it. Not much I can do at this point but move forward.

Looking at the S15 front, the guy did a pretty good job at the conversion. I didn't have the time to do any adjusting but it looks like the driver's side headlight needs to be raised maybe 1/16" or 1/8" and it should be spot on. You can see in this picture how there is a "lip" of the bumper that is supposed to sit under the headlight but its stuck on the headlight. You can see the hood line at the fender is low about 1/16" also which would make everything mate up perfectly if the headlight was just that much higher. I have no idea how the headlight is attached to the core support right now so it won't be until I have a free weekend that I can get out there and mess around with it.



I won't be able to do too much for right now but I am making a list of everything I need to pick up to get the 240 running right and looking better inside. I'm planning to drop some funds here in the next week to go full bolt on for the M2 so the 240 will have to wait probably until the new year. Heck, I might even have to wait until I'm a tax season baller to get her going.
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Old 12-13-2020, 10:17 PM   #229
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Not too much to add lately.

When my rear subframe was dropped to work on the fuel tank, my exhaust tip somehow got crushed. I ordered a longer one a few weeks back (because the original came up a little short on the kouki rear bumper) and finally had some time to put it on.









I had spent like 2 hours cleaning off the 5 years of grime on my car and we just recently had a fire in the orange county area that has completed covered my car in ashes again. I need to wash it again .

In other news, I ordered everything to make my m2 "full bolt on"

I've received the following:

VRSF 6.5" dual core competition intercooler





Turbo inlet pipe (this connects to the Dinan cold air intake)



And a turbosmart dual port BOV (this partially vents to the atmosphere unlike the stock diverter valve)



I'm still waiting on the 4" catless downpipe (I currently have a 300 cell "catted" dp) and the aluminum charge pipes (the intercooler pipes; the stock ones are plastic and known to crack/blow on even stock boost) in order to install everything.

That's it for now
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Old 01-13-2021, 10:33 AM   #230
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No real updates for the 240. I got a new walbro 255 pump in that I need to install which hopefully either fixes the fuel gauge, or in the process of installing, I can find out what's wrong (floater maybe?).

Im holding off on installing it because I have to pull my passenger seat out to do so. My seat fabric looks pretty sun faded already so I am thinking I can pull both seats out and give them a cleaning when I do the fuel pump. I am also looking into a new carpet.

Still putting some cash aside to get my power steering back. I am thinking of getting the following:

Chase Bays - Power steering kit, power steering hard line replacements, coolant overflow tank and a cap for my radiator.
PBM - Solid steering rack bushings
Rackdoctor - Remanufactured steering rack and pinion

On the other front, I received my outstanding items for my M2. I was a little pissed because I ordered my downpipe to be cerakoted and it came in without it. Then they also put the intercooler that I had just bought on sale, which I couldn't have even installed yet because the charge pipes hadn't come in. So I had to do some back and forth with the company to get some refunds.

Downpipe and charge pipes:



I got me a real nice low profile, long reach jack for Christmas. I thought it would be enough but even a stock M2 is pretty low. It has a built in center jack point in the underbelly tray but its real far towards the center of the car so even the nice new jack wouldn't reach. I had to pull a 240 move and go buy some wood to drive up on first. (I also had to buy $200 worth of flat top jack stands for this job)

Jacked up:



Obligatory stock intercooler vs. new intercooler:







The intercooler and charge pipes weren't too bad of an install. The inlet pipe that is technically the bottom half of the air intake on the turbo was ridiculous. And the BOV, which bolts to the face of the turbo, was equally ridiculous. It took me like 3 days of about 8 hours each day to get everything installed. In hindsight, I would pay a shop to do the BOV/inlet pipe.

I just did the catless downpipe this weekend and shot a SHORT exhaust video. My old lady was doing the revving while I recorded and she was too afraid to really hit the gas here, lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhbG0zTBNkY

Last edited by JBB; 11-13-2023 at 02:17 PM..
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Old 05-13-2021, 02:38 PM   #231
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Alright guys it's been a little while since posting but I've been doing as I mentioned before and just collecting some parts and doing little things here and there.

On the M2 front, I finally received my Dinan axle back exhaust that I ordered on black friday.



This thing is rad and coupled with the VRSF catless downpipe it is insanely loud. I shot a little video at SSR Performance where I had the exhaust installed. I have it in sport+ with the valves open so its basically a straight pipe to the far right pipe which you can see shooting out flames:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwR0U-YTtIo

But for the main event, the 240....!

I used a rust-oleum headlight restore kit on the headlights because they were stupid hazy. I previously used this kit ($10) on my friend's car and it works really well and lasts about 2-3 years before needing to be done again. I AM on the lookout for HID headlights but this at least makes my halogens look good for the time being. A little before and after action:





I believe I mentioned before that the guy housing my car said the fuel pump went out and he replaced it with whatever. So I picked up another walbro 255 and installed that. It DID NOT fix my now broken fuel gauge level and I didn't really know what to look for while in there. I know I've heard about a "floater" but I didn't really have time to mess around with it any further. Also the threads that that big plastic ring screw down onto seem to almost be stripped on one side and its really hard to get it screwed back on evenly. It will start threading on one side but not the other and ends up really crooked to the point that I have to use a chisel and hammer to keep it spinning to get it locked down tight. bummer.







I've been wanting to switch out all of my plastics for black and I remember back in the day people would literally give them away for free or sell a whole set for like $50. In looking around these days (and in a new market: CA vs. FL) the prices have become absurd. $100+ for EACH plastic trim piece. So I set out to pull all of my blue plastics and my rear seats for painting and dyeing black.

Unfortunately I found some surface rust in the back seat area....I don't think its too substantial and I am pretty sure that a day with a wire wheel and some sanding that I can remove it all and hit it with some rust reformer and primer.

I have decided to lay down sound deadening material throughout the entire car and buy new carpet anyways so worst case scenario, the rust only adds a half day of labor to that project. I've found a great website for the carpet but I am still researching which sound deadening material I want to use. I am between dynamat and second skin damplifier pro.





so I set out to paint all of the back half plastics last weekend.



It was a nice sunny weekend so I was able to clean and dry everything very quickly. I used degreaser and soapy wooter to cleaning all of the plastics. I bought a bissel steamer and hoover extractor and used them on the rear seats and let them also dry in the sun before painting.



I had a couple of black plastic pieces a friend had given me a while back. I tested a small piece of blue plastic with both duplicolor vinyl and fabric dye gloss black on one half and flat black on the other half. The flat black is almost a 100% match to the oem black. So I used gloss black on the rear seats and flat black on all of the plastic pieces (even the black ones for a complete match). About 3 coats on each piece.









I think drying in the sun was good to help get rid of any smell also.













I had pulled the passenger seat to be able to get in the back for the fuel pump swap and pulling of the seats and plastics. While cleaning it, I found a pretty gnarly spider under the cushion. So I ran a bug fogger in the car while doing all of this painting....since the plan is to pull all of the interior for the sound deadening install and new carpet eventually. I didn't want any more surprises.

That's about it for what I've done recently. I am STILL collecting parts for some projects and estimate I've got maybe 3 or 4 weekends of things to do. Here's what I have collected so far:

Black dash coverlay and a metal windshield defroster vent. I do plan on pulling the dash and attempting to repair my cracks first (and obviously the rest will need to be black to match all of the pieces I'm painting now). The coverlay is my back up plan in case the repair doesn't look too great:




ISR Short Shifter and a GKtech solid shifter bushing. I never really had a problem with the shifter in my 240 before but now that I daily drive the M2 the difference is crazy. The 240 shifter is super loose and sloppy so I'm hoping these will tighten things up. I'll get around to installing it when I have all of the front trim out for painting and sound deadener install:



Next up, PBM solid steering rack bushings. My rack is totally shot and I'm looking into buying a remanufactured/rebuilt unit and wanted to go with solid bushings when I do the install:



MOOG outer tie rod ends for when I do the steering rack install. My car isnt a drift car or a race car and I don't plan on running any crazy tie rods or spacers, etc.:



Chase Bays - Power steering reservoir and lines; power steering hard line replacements (nice braided lines); and coolant overflow tank. I think you get the picture of what's going on with the power steering system now:



Since I ordered from Chase Bays, I figured I'd get their radiator cap and FPR gauge also:



On the interior side...I got an old school broadway mirror:



I'm planning on replacing the lights on my cluster, roof light and A/C control with LEDs. I'm still waiting on 3 that are backordered:



I've been looking for good condition black door panels for like 6 months now and they seem impossible to find. The only ones available anywhere are on ebay from Turkey and the sellers want like $500 a panel. Knowing that they'll probably just break like my shitter blue ones eventually, I've decided to order the Street Faction v2 door cards. I ordered them on 05-08-21 and it said something like 10 weeks I believe. So while I wait for those, I am getting my door parts in order. I've gotten the LH air vent in black and RH door handle in black. I DO have the RH air vent and LH door handle, they should be here in the next week:



I got newer headlight and washer stalks but forgot to take a picture of them.

I've ordered from courtesy nissan a new center air vent trim and air vents, shift trim with shift boot, and LH window regulator. The RH regulator is discontinued so I will be buying a used one on ebay shortly.

I've also ordered from a company JSAI in Australia a rep S15 Spec R Aero front bumper and S14 kouki rear valances. It was also a 10 week lead time.

I've received my p2m black/grey checkered floor mats and trunk mat. I went to home depot and bought a 1/2" thick piece of MDF and plan to spend a weekend re-doing my trunk. I'm going to wire wheel and sand it, rust reform it, spray bedliner, and then sound deadening. I'll cut the MDF to the shape of the trunk mat and then use double sided velcro to hold the mat on. and I'll redo my battery box back there. That should give me a usable trunk again.

So really my last few things to actually buy will be carpet, rack & pinion, RH window regulator, and sound deadening material. I will also be getting a short hub, quick release, and nardi 330m perforated leather wheel.

This will get the car into a pretty good "restored" condition where I will feel comfortable bringing it to be painted.

Mechanically, I still need to be re-tuned for 91 octane out here. I also think I've got a vacuum leak somewhere because (i) the car takes forever to start up (maybe old gas too?) and (ii) when I've driven it around my neighborhood a little bit, it has almost no power and never hits boost. I don't have an air compressor so I'm not sure the best way to go about looking for a vacuum leak.

Ohhh yeah and also since I'll be doing the power steering rack install, I've picked up new oil, oil filter, water wetter and distilled water, and some motul dexron iii atf for the power steering. Some fresh fluids will do her good.

Last edited by JBB; 11-13-2023 at 02:18 PM..
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Old 05-27-2021, 08:09 PM   #232
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I got my "new" (remanufactured) rack & pinion this week. I wanted to order from rack doctor but they actually don't have any available for an s14 right now. I found a company called Advantage Steering located not too far away in Indio, CA. Their site says they've been rebuilding since '99 so hopefully it works out alright!



Plan is to install it this weekend, along with all of the chase bays goodies, and do an oil change and coolant change.

I'm hoping also to listen to all of my couplers afterwards and find what I think is a vacuum leak somewhere so the car stops running like shit.

I've also now received from a local, and ebay, both black door air vent pieces.

From amazon I found black door handles (saw it in a youtube video). They're in the wrong positions in the picture

From ebay, my before referenced wiper and headlight stalks in black. Much better condition than mine.

And from courtesy nissan, my before referenced new center air vent trim, shifter trim and boot, and driver's side window regulator.




I have been doing A LOT of thinking about the interior and how best to do everything in a logical and linear order.

I think I have decided for sure on using dynamat xtreme throughout the entire car and using second skin luxury liner pro ontop of it (i) on the floor area for the driver/passenger, (ii) backseat floor area, (iii) trunk floor, and (iv) door cards.

My reasoning being that damplifier pro is the superior product. BUT, it costs $230 per 36 sq. ft.

dynamat xtreme on the other hand is $160 for 36 sq. ft.

I will be using at least (2) 36 sq. ft. packs, but very likely (3).

Damplifier pro: 80 sq. ft. = $470. 120 sq. ft. = $667
Dynamat xtreme: 72 sq. ft. = $320. 108 sq. ft. = $480

This is in addition to the 6 sheets of luxury liner pro that I've calculated I would need...which is $378.

So in the end it adds up to quite a big difference and from the research that I have done, most people would not be able to tell the difference between dynamat xtreme and damplifier pro. I think with me using the luxury liner pro in those key areas, it will be even more difficult for anyone to be able to tell the difference.


On another side of the interior project...I have been doing A LOT of thinking and research on a sound system. I am a pretty big car audio beginner and have had to do a lot of reading. I'm still coming up short and trying to find out some answers. I am considering going to whatever local audio installer I can find and seeing if I can ask them questions or pay for a half hour or hour of their time.

I won't be installing any audio equipment for probably a full year from now, but I want to go ahead and run all of my cables while I have the interior out so that I don't have to pull my seats and carpet out later down the road.

I've basically narrowed down the equipment to the following:

4x Alpine SPE-6000 Speakers
1x Alpine R-W12D2 12" Subwoofer
1x Alpine X-A90M Mono Amp
1x Alpine S-A32F 4-Channel Amp
1x Alpine iLX-W650 Head Unit

I'm just not sure (i) if its too much "system" for this size car, (ii) if my component selection is matched well or if I should get a lesser powered subwoofer or more powerful speakers, (iii) if I should pull out my 4ga power cable running from the engine bay to my trunk battery and replace it with a 1/0 gauge at the cost of $160-$200, and (iv) about various other little things.

Anyways, that's where I'm at now. Hopefully I get it more drivable after this weekend. Likely order the carpet and sound deadening sometime in June or July, along with my audio supplies for the future audio install.
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Old 05-29-2021, 11:04 AM   #233
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Started my weekend fun yesterday late afternoon but ran into a few problems that took me longer than expected....but luckily I have plenty of free time the rest of this weekend.

Remember when I said my car was running like shit and had no boost at all? Did I write that? Well, after jacking my car up to work on the p/s rack replacement....I find my hotpipe literally hanging off of the intercooler. I am surprised the car was even able to run. I don't know if this was missed by the guy who did my front conversion or if it got ripped off going on/off the transport tow truck from FL to CA.... I haven't turned it on yet since tightening this down but hopefully that was the culprit. I also put in 2 gallons of fresh fuel (only 91 ) and it actually started up a lot faster than it has been. I'd guess the old gas that was in there is probably like 5 years old.



I wish I had started doing the lines on my rack last weekend when I did absolutely nothing. It ended up taking a bit longer than expected because, while it has been painted to look nice and new, it covered up the fact that the hard line fittings were rounding pretty badly. It was tough and I was afraid I was going to totally round them and get stuck with them half loose....but I did manage to get them off for the chase bays braided lines.

"New" rack:



Hard lines off finally:



Braided lines on and torqued down:



Chase Bays pinion to reservoir and pinion to pump lines torqued down:




I started mounting the reservoir and removing the lines from the pump when I found a clamp on the air intake was 100% loose and sliding around. That could be another leak that I had....no picture.

Anyways, the tie rod puller tool I had was too big so I had to make a run to the store and get a different one. I got the tie rods pressed out, broke the torque on the 4 rack bolts, and started to loosen the steering shaft "U"? joint when I look up and see this massive bulbous black widow looking spider in the wheel well. Like literally a foot from where I had been working on the tie rod end on that side. Thoughts start running through my mind of this fucker dropping down next to my face while I'm trying to work and me freaking out, trying to sit up, and cracking my head on the bottom of the engine. It's up in the fender, almost near where the coilover meets the top of the strut tower, so an awkward angle. I tried hitting it with some spider spray but the angle was too difficult. I threw a bug fogger under the car and called it the night since it was already 10pm.

I am now just looking up some torque specs from the FSM for the castle nuts, rack bolts, ps pump banjo bolt, etc. I think I have everything so heading to grab a red bull and get back to work. Hopefully finish the rack install, do my oil change, install the chase bays coolant overflow reservoir and possibly flush my old coolant.

One more fun find...before hitting my battery kill switch I noticed that when my headlight stalk is on "off", the s15 "parking lights" or daytime running lights are on. Its a good thing I keep the battery switched off...I don't know what that guy did to wire them up but I am finding more and more things that are not making me happy.
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Old 11-13-2023, 02:24 PM   #234
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