Uwbuurman: 1978 323i polaris: almost done

[uwbuurman]

And of course I polished the chrome rings, and had the loose parts re-zinced.



And assembled.

[uwbuurman]

[uwbuurman]

[uwbuurman]

Once the lights are back in the frame, it is time to push thru. As you know, I have the SWRA or Scheinwerferreinigungsahnlage on my e30 325iA cabrio and also on the 323i. But on the 323i they didn’t work, so I took the motors apart to determin the cause.



The axles are jammed inside two brass bushings with dirt.



Polished it and put in some new grease. Now the motors work fine.

[uwbuurman]

[uwbuurman]

Since I was working at the front of the car, I took the time to sort out the right bodynuts for the frontvalance.



After that it was time to tidy up the workshop. Now I have lots of space around the car. Sold the orange Sailhorse, so even more space now!

[uwbuurman]

[uwbuurman]

Next project is overhauling the brakes. The brackets I sandblasted and rezinced. After that they needed a good coat of paint. I choose the hammerbeat gray. This is near to the original finish, but much more important, it doesn’t show brake dust. Brite colours are fun, but after two days it is very dirty. Especially with Ferodo DS2500 pads that I’m running.

[uwbuurman]

[uwbuurman]

After the paint I wanted to fit the new Ferodo pads. Rears were ok, but the front pads were to wide.



My brackets are ok, it turned out that other users of the DS2500 pads encountered the same crap. Anyway, grinded the backplate down. Now they fit!

And since I was busy painting, I degreased the powersteering pump and cleaned it. Needed some paint aswell.

[uwbuurman]

Next job was refitting new fuel and brake lines on the car. I make them out of copper pipe. Original steel ones are heavily corroded and new ones will do the same, so I use copper.

Old lines are a great model.







Fuel direction marqued



Pressed the collar on



And we have a set of fuel lines 8mm.

[uwbuurman]

[uwbuurman]

The copperlines I cut with this small handcutter. Works great! Always a straight cut.



This specific line is drain of the tank ventilation, just in case a few drops of fuel are spilled. This line has a different diameter, it didn’t look to bad, so I just removed the surface rust and painted it.

[uwbuurman]

After that it was time to get the brakelines done. In the crate with the old lines I found these two rubber hoses. Old and dirty and sure to be replaced, but I was shocked to see that it were the original ones from the factory in 1978!!!

[uwbuurman]