Finishing School for a Fjord 3.0 CS / 100 projects to improve a Coupe / Countdown

paul cain

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Project 60: Replace the black plastic hood and fender grille with chrome. With a custom touch.
These are W&N replacement chrome grilles. I am not a fan of the later black plastic grilles as this was a mid-model face lift and scream 'cost reduction'. I like the look of the original chrome grilles with one finishing touch -having only the edges show in chrome. i.e. painting the sides and edges in satin black. This is a more finished look in my mind. To do this is quite involved. You have to sand all these edges. I used 360 grit cloth that is spray mounted to a stir stick. Sanding all edges while not getting sanding scratch marks on the exposed edge is the key. It take about 45 min to sand one hood grille. Then on to etching primer. Then satin black. Let the barely cure. Then carefully wipe back the exposed edges. Then polish.

For the installation I find the original press clips to aggressive sometimes resulting in broken posts. Plus they are very difficult to remove. I use a die and thread each of the studs and then install plastic nuts on the back side. Totally rust proof. About 4 hours for the whole project. What I did not photograph is the gutter on the hood opening. I painted this satin black to hide the exposed blue Fjord paint as seen when looking through each grille. You can see this on the left edge of the hood grille in image 9637. (I need to touch this up). Ditto this paint treatment on the fenders.
 

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paul cain

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@eriknetherlands Thanks for commenting. That is a very interesting part. I would say Uber rare. That would be an extremely expensive part to manufacture with the masking required for the matte finish. No wonder it was short lived. It would be 'easy' to replicate this finish using a new W&N chrome part. You would mask off the chrome on the top edges and then blast it with a very very fine glass bead, it should result in a similar finish. Thanks for sharing this cool part!
 

adawil2002

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If I understand this correctly, the W-N "Chrome" grills are most likely chromed black plastic & not chromed pot metal or anodized aluminum. Similar the front seat head rest insert bezels Chromed Plastic on E9s & up to 1973 2002s?

@Stan, maybe your source who makes the Pop-Up-Sunroof-Deflector could make Billet Aluminum or Stainless Headrest inserts that will be infinitely more durable?
 

paul cain

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If I understand this correctly, the W-N "Chrome" grills are most likely chromed black plastic & not chromed pot metal or anodized aluminum. Similar the front seat head rest insert bezels Chromed Plastic on E9s & up to 1973 2002s?

@Stan, maybe your source who makes the Pop-Up-Sunroof-Deflector could make Billet Aluminum or Stainless Headrest inserts that will be infinitely more durable?
W&N 'chrome' grilles are molded plastic, the coated with a conductive spray mat'l, then copper plated. Then chrome plated.
 

Arde

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For the fenders there is a black sticker that LJI sold.
How about the hood grill installation, the screws there tend to rust, perhaps mine were not original...
 

paul cain

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For the fenders there is a black sticker that LJI sold.
How about the hood grill installation, the screws there tend to rust, perhaps mine were not original...
The screws in the W&N kit I believe are stainless with the white stepped washer.
 

paul cain

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Project 61: Install the white body plugs in the doors.
Background: according the meister of what has gone NLA (@HB Chris), these white door hole plugs have not been available for a long time. I think we may now have a solution. I want to thank @Ulrich 3.0 CSA for the idea. It was in a separate conversation about body plugs that gave me the idea to modify a std. plug to fit the odd 23.8 mm hole in the door. Here is the final outcome. If there is interest, maybe we could run a batch for others?
 

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paul cain

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Project 51 Conclusion: Replace entire windscreen washer assembly. The new pump arrived today. I abandoned the bracket they provided and moved the new motor and pump assembly over to the original BMW mounting bracket. Then lots of time cleaning and adjusting the nozzles on the hood. Project 51 completed.

 

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rsporsche

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Project 61: Install the white body plugs in the doors.
Background: according the meister of what has gone NLA (@HB Chris), these white door hole plugs have not been available for a long time. I think we may now have a solution. I want to thank @Ulrich 3.0 CSA for the idea. It was in a separate conversation about body plugs that gave me the idea to modify a std. plug to fit the odd 23.8 mm hole in the door. Here is the final outcome. If there is interest, maybe we could run a batch for others?
Paul, i would be in for a set of these plugs
 

paul cain

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Project 62: Fix the Weber carb lean surge at tip in and address the weak top end performance. I have just turned my attention to the Carbs on this project. This was a Weber conversion done by the PO. It's now time to fix these lean issues and install the power coated airbox. Before we get start here is a quiz:
What is wrong with this 'full throttle' picture?
 

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tdgray

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I have the same linkage.. it’s not great.

Much better now after I adjusted it .. actually it’s not terrible now.

But still changing back to the 35/40’s eventually.
 

paul cain

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Boonies nailed it. The horribly aligned linkage is limiting travel. Watching the video you will see the secondaries do not open at all at wide open throttle on the pedal.
 
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