The first thing noted was that the bearings were not loaded correctly when serviced at some point.  This caused horrible wear.  In this pic you can see how badly cocked the bearing lies in the race:

There was enough wear to take the stampings off of the back bearing.

So old races pressed out of both inner and outer, new ones installed, inner bearing and new dust seal:

New outer bearing with correct load this time:

Do the other side and we are ready to roll on to shocks and bushings.

Full leather interior….bye bye.

Seats out so I can get some of the sound deadening out under the carpet. This big heavy rubber mats are just that….big and heavy.

Rear seat out along with some sound deadening.

Going to town on the rear trunk area. Next we will remove the entire AC system and replace it with an Rennsport AC delete bracket, as well as repair a cam tower leak. Odd since the engine was rebuilt not long ago, but shouldn’t be too hard to solve.

I also took the time today to pull out our rear firewall from the Audi track car so I could get it primed and painted. Came out nice.

Step 1: Drain the oil. Step 2: Make big oil mess.

Step 3: Drain the coolant and get fresh coolant in. Lifetime coolant? LOL

But, we do replace with the proper BMW blue coolant.

Then it was time for filters. The air filter here.

And two pollen/cabin filters here. Notice the new and the old.

After removing all the top panels, you can get to the brake fluid reservoir to flush the brake fluid. Over time, water/condensation builds up in the fluid and effectively lowers the boiling point of the fluid leading to it’s ineffectiveness. Brake fluid is hygroscopic, meaning it will absorb water easily. Flushing the old fluid out will also clear the contaminants that can cause damage to the ABS pumps and seals in the system. These systems are very expensive to replace, so a little maintenance goes a long way!

Yuck. That should be nice and clear.

Sucking out the old fluid with the power bleeder.

If you have been following this build we showed the sorry state this head was in before.   Now decked with new seals and all of the valves seated the head is ready to go back together.

Cam seals in the front, new O-ring for the cam angle sensor on the back of the left bank (right as seen from front.)

Seals in, cams now torqued, water neck sealed, ready to go!

One tip: While the cam sensor can be re-installed while in the car, do it now.  It is tons easier here.

This little FX45 came in for some needed maintenance to get it through the year. The brakes were pulsating, it was low on oil, and it needed a seat heater switch repair. All easy stuff….or so I thought

On the lift ready to go.

First up was topping off the fluids.

Then I moved on to the rear brakes. I noticed the rear inner pad on the left was worn much more than the others, so I went on installing new rear brake pads.

Unfortunately, The lower slider bolt was seized in the caliper and would not come out. This would explain the worn inner pad as the caliper was not floating properly and giving equal force to both pads. I did everything I could to save this little guy, but alas I gave in and put in a new caliper.

Front rotors were warped, but had plenty of meat on them, so I turned them and put them back on.

Then on to the seat heater switch. Darn kids, you’d think they would design a center console you can stand on and not break things.

As you can see, the button was pushed through the console. I pulled apart the center console and was able to snap it back in place. Thankfully the catches were not broken where the button clips in.

Much better.

And this puppy is out of here!

We had decided on relative placement of the tank awhile back, so I started lining everything up. First hole is the hardest one to make. When you make that one wrong, you just cut a 2nd hole. After that it gets a whole lot easier! I made the rear of the tank adjustable in regards to height, so we could make sure we had the proper angle of flow towards the inlet/outlet of the fuel cell.

Next up will be running the lines from the fuel cell to the fuel pump and return line. We will pick up supplies for that this week and start running those asap! Then we need to tackle this dash/gauge layout.

New throttle body ready to go on.

TB installed with new rubber intake boots.

Since the car came in on a flat bed, I didn’t really know the condition of the car. Once it was running, it was discovered it had a large oil leak and a significant coolant leak. I guess all the oil bottles and coolant bottles laying in the car make sense now. The oil is mostly coming from the oil filter housing gasket. A $5.00 gasket and a bunch of labor which I guess isn’t getting fixed at this time. The coolant leak is a leaking radiator and expansion tank which is a weak link in these cars. Along with a noisy waterpump, brakes, etc….this poor thing needs some attention.

Right side cable in shambles.

Not sure why he didn’t trust using our 1920′s wooden ladder…..

All fixed up and serviced! Ready for a couple more years of use.

So….we are putting on a cup bypass pipe, so I dropped the secondary muffler off in preparation for that which should be here in the next day or two.

A big old honking piece of dead weight.

And out of the car. Stay tuned for this project……

Then it was on to the front bumper issue. The previous owner had driven up over a curb a little too far and knocked the grill out of the bumper and bent up the mounting point under the trunk, so we needed to repair that.

Ugly…..

As I was taking off the front bumper, this wheel lock key fell out and about smoked me in the head. LOL. It is not a porsche wheel lock, looks like it was road debris at some point. Many time wheels shops pull their socket off the lug nut and the wheel lock key sticks to the wheel lock and they don’t notice it. Customer drives away and at some point the key falls out and is gone forever. Luckily this went through the bumper grill and not through someone’s windshield!! It is a heavy little bugger, so it really could have done some damage.

Naked……

Luckily the grill piece was for the most part in one piece still, so everything clipped back in place like it should.

Oh yea….

And back on the car. Before I slid the bumper in place, I returned the lower support to it’s original shape and angle so the bottom wasn’t pushed up so far.