Bad shoulder brings me back to nose

On Friday I had an acupuncture session on my shoulder to treat an old issue that was aggravated by the century ride. That meant I was resting, so no hard efforts or heavy lifting. I decided to put off working on the left door and instead returned to the nose.

After my Friday appointment I stopped by BMW of Honolulu to walk the lot and get a price quote on rubber bits for the doors. Saw a super clean used 3 series wagon, too new, too expensive, and a great looking new Mini Cooper Coupe. Not what I need. The quote came to $2,000. The expensive pieces are the door seals at $400 and change each side. Seems excessive, but what can you do? Still no word from the guys in England.

My goal for Saturday was to get a coat of etching primer and a coat of enamel on at least the LH side, including the bumper mount and the top side of the air dam. I would have made it were it not for the car in the bay next to mine -- late model, pure white -- and wind -- not blowing away from that bay. I plan on going back Wednesday long enough to shoot it. I did do the POR-15 wash anf prep drill.



Since I had a little time I decided to get started on the LH door by removing the outer window trim piece. It just lifts of, no screws. Between the rusty clips and the rusty sheetmetal underneath, it was a bit of a fight. Previously I left the RH piece alone, but my curiosity got the netter of me so I tried to remove the part with the fabric and fuzzy stuff that rubs against the glass. Turns out it bends really easily. That, and the lack of rust, suggests it is made of aluminum. I wonder where I can source that felt fabric?

I spent Sunday afternoon shopping for a car to replace my van. Stopped by Servo to look at a 328IS (I am really looking for a wagon) and the salesman turned out to be my old friend Eddie Higa. What a small town. Also checked out a private party 5 series wagon, turned out the mechanic is a cycling buddy. Might be the perfect car. I'll call him Monday.

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Door deconstruction

Learned a lot about E9 doors today. Some things seem really well thought out, others seem haphazard. Obviously a side effect of being hand made. I also learned that one of this car's POs was a careless mechanic, because the guy I bought it from told me he swapped out the doors from some he bought on the mainland, and I found lots of missing hardware. Why use two bolts when one will do?



I decided to start with the vent window gearbox, but that was a mistake. Need to remove the entire window frame first, as it slides down into the gearbox drive shaft.



Removing the window only required two bolts, both in the rear. Appears a third bolt in the rear lift bracket was missing. The glass is passable, but not all that good. Has a long scratch along one edge (as if a rock got jammed in the window opening), and there is a chip near the upper edge. I am not going to replace it until everything else is nice. Which may be never.



The forward window rail carries all of the weight. Along with one or two normal looking bolts that go into tapped holes, there are two unusual mounts made up from slotted studs and nuts. Remove the nuts and washers, then "tighten" the studs if necessary until they slide up through the slots.



I took a series of five pictures of to detail the rust damage along the top edge. The inner panel will need some repairs before new skins can be attached. I plan to do that before removing the old skin.



The vent window connects to the gearbox via a flat tang and slotted shaft. Looks like a bolt belongs here, but nothing present.



Two quick shots of bottom edge rust damage. May need to repair inner panel but does not appear as severe as the top edge.



Removed the outer door handle and the lock.



The rear lift rail was only attached by two thin nuts at top of door. Note thin adjustment plate between nuts and door. Bottom end appears to be missing a bolt.



Removed all of the trim retaining nuts, but unable to remove trim strip because one stud was rusted to its washers. Shot with PB Blaster.

All in all a very satisfying day. Do need to get back to the nose, it needs a little more work and a coat of paint to stave off more rust.

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Moved my storage stuff

Just a note to say that I didn't work on the E9 today because I moved all the bits and pieces to a different storage shed. The old shed is next to a structure that is being torn down before the wind carries it off to Kauai.

I had a few minutes after the move, but the Honolulu Century Ride is tomorrow so I decided to take it easy. Had more time to eat lunch before gamelan.

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Door window lift motor

Started the day fiddling with the nose. Sanded some filler along the bottom edge, still had some pits so added more red glazing putty.



Sanded a spot on the RH side, still had a low spot about the size of a quarter (grey in the photo), sanded off the primer and applied Technifill.



While waiting for filler to set I got started dismantling the door removed last week. The book describes a Bravaria, which is just different enough to be useless. The trick is to raise the window (used a booster battery), remove four motor mount bolts, pull out wire harness, remove lift arm from window, then, and here's the trick, run the motor as if lowering the window to fold it into a small enough package to extract through the opening in the door.



Some details. There is a rubber grommet where the harness passes through the door frame. Inside the door the harness is secured with a bend-over clamp. A ground wire from the motor attaches at the motor bount bolt.

All that took so long I never got back to the nose. No problem, it'll be there next week. By the way, Honolulu Century Ride is Sunday the 25th. I'll be doing the full hundred miles.

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RH Door Off

Last week I was trying to create some visual progress and got stuck removing an odd looking bolt. Today I succeeded. Anyone who has been watching will see the change, a gaping hole where the passenger door used to be.

XXbolt

I tried a number of tools on the bolt but nothing held. It seemed to be unusually tight. Finally resorted to a special extration tool with sharp inward-facing teeth that bite into and grip the head. Destroyed the bolt, but got it out.



I got right to work disassembling the innards, to get the door ready for its new skin (which I have yet to order). The example in the book is from a Bavaria, so it took some head scratching to figure out how to remove the innear trim piece and window molding. The vent window knob retaining screw become accessible after popping off the plastic insert; stick something through the hole in the back. This was not mentioned at all in the book.





I took a series of pictures of the window molding where it attaches to the door because I think I'll need to remove all those clips to replace the felt.

Right away I can see I will need to do some welding to repair the top inner edge.

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