XCRN : 1995 BMW 525i

[XCRN]

Thank you. The rest of the pads were what you would expect with some neglect. I do not think it shows in the picture but the inner seal that actually keeps the fluid inside is now on the outside so it has been neglected quite badly. I am hoping that seized caliper might have something to do why there is a lack of power at starting to move.

[XCRN]

Getting close to finishing this task. Today I got to painting the front brackets, front calipers, and the one rear caliper. I also picked up a replacement caliper from a local bimmerforums member for the one that is no longer repairable. $15, good deal for me.

I went and picked up a wire brush for the dremel tool and was able to get the small areas but that flash rust comes in a flash! So this is the best I can get it.



Disassembled the calipers.



Rinsed the calipers and pistons off in the sink.



And painted some of the parts.



After dinner tonight I will be reassembling the calipers with new parts with the calipers I have now. The rear brackets need more time in the stew and tomorrow the last caliper will be thrown in while I am at school.

I would expect another update within the next few hours if I am not too tired to type it up.

[XCRN]

So more troubles, apparently the grease that was recommended to me by the part store cahier to use to coat the caliper pistons was not made for caliper pistons and ruined my new inner seals when trying to push in the piston. So now I have to order new ones and clean up the bore a bit with steel wool, great

But I went to the junkyard and wanted to get those black headrests to sell but they were an older non compatible style and in rougher condition than I remembered so useless to me. But I got some more of the toggleable lights and rear cig lighter so maybe $40 profit if I am patient. Going back Friday for my friend's Suburban and I might get more stuff that I saw might benefit the members of this board. FYI full 5 lug conversion from and Odyssey at the LKQ in Dayton.

I also have the useable caliper bathing and the rear brackets are ready for the wire brush then off to painting.

[XCRN]

Rear caliper brackets came out, dusted off, and sprayed. Now I have them roasting by the electric fire.



Also cleaned off the guide pins as best as I could. They are at least no longer greasy.

Before.


After.


Keeping the rear caliper marinating one more night then tomorrow will pull out to air dry and might be able to dust off the same day. I also picked up the right lube for the bores so I can finish up the rear.

[XCRN]

And I have one caliper assembled! Took long enough, and unfortunately I have to wait for the rest. Other rear caliper is being de-rusted and the fronts are waiting for new seals to arrive.

[XCRN]

And then there were two.



Got another step closer to getting things on the car. Painted the rotor hats, at least the front.

Wrapped.



Painted and roasted.



And finished

[XCRN]

Painted the rears today. It is really nice that there is a visible line where the pads contact the rotor, makes masking up the rotor so much easier. The brakes are going to look sweet with Style 37 M-Parallel wheels! Too bad they will be mostly hidden from sight with my current Style 5s.



And I also found this in my coat pocket today, this was when I went for the rear head rests 2 weeks ago. This was the only good BMW roundel that was there if I recall correctly.

[XCRN]

I can honestly say I am looking forward to cleaning my room



Tomorrow new seals show up, I hope. And this upcoming weekend my cousin is going to help me with the rounded and seized brake lines if it is not snowing, and Sunday...

!! GO HAWKS !!

[XCRN]

1 is company, 2 is a crowd, and 3 is a party, but 4 is needed to stop.



Where is number 4, well the piston has some slight pitting and I need put back another caliper rebuild for parts. One caliper every 3 days, I would not do well at a shop.



Oh well I like to look at these pictures for some reason, I might make a statue like this out of the spare caliper I have that is no longer useable and some cheap eBay rotors.

[XCRN]

Since I had the time, between brake lines not wanting to cooperate or the piston needing replacement, I decided to give everything another coat. I am glad I did, things are much shinier and looks so much better. It also covered up the scars I gave it handling it to get things put together. Tomorrow I hope the piston comes in and Saturday I hope to be working on the brake lines. This brake system project I am undergoing is for sure new territory for me, but I am so glad I have the knowledge from working on the CB7 to adequately deal with issues throughout the process.

[XCRN]

Yay! Got all 4 calipers rebuilt and ready. Had to postpone the brake lines to this up coming weekend.

[XCRN]

Got my cousin to help today and we got 3/4 brakes finished and will get the last one and bleed next weekend. He specializes in brakes and has dealt with rusted brake lines a lot so relatively few incidents. For the passenger front that was rounded off badly he spliced in a new line, and the one rear we did, just replaced the whole outer hardline.

They sure do look nice, too bad they will be hidden behind the current wheels.

[XCRN]

Went with my friend today to Dayton to a junkyard to get some seats for his Suburban. Damn is that thing spacious, more leg room than a Rolls Royce, and no body would key your car because they wouldn't envy and hate you. More space at 1/100th of the price, seems like a great deal to me.

On to the BMW. I took the cloth off of the pillars of a 530i at the junkyard to experiment with dyeing them black. If this goes well I will remove the cloth off of my headliner and dye that black as well.

[XCRN]

Got to working on the junkyard trim cloth. This is what it was like after a trip through the laundry cycle.



Threw it in here. So glad there is a utility closet with a big sink so I can do this indoors. I would think if I were to do this outside it would freeze and I would be wrapping my pillars with a popsicle. I reused the dye bottles and filled them with water to weigh down the items.



And this is one of the pieces pulled after 24 hours and I rinsed off to see what it actually is. Flash was on so it is slightly darker than this, but if flash was off it would be pitch black which it is not so this is the best I could get. It is close to what I want, but not black enough. So tomorrow morning I will pull it out rinse it off and check again. If it is not black enough I will buy another bottle and let it sit over night again.

[XCRN]

It did not work, this was the best I got and the B pillar turned out more blue for whatever reason. I was doing some research and the RIT dye only really works in 150 degree water which I could not do for this large of items and it could deform. If all you have is access to cold water then the scrubbing method which I successfully did for the carpet is the only way to use RIT dye. So screw it tomorrow if I get over this cold I will go by the local auto store and get some fabric paint. I guess what I accomplished is a darker base to put the paint over