A Work Light That Works!

I will admit to being a serial buyer of LED lighting - I think that the technology is amazing, and constantly getting better. Recently I picked up a new one. It's a pocket work light by Nebo called the "Larry" - I have no idea who Larry is! The good lighting of the interior photos of my door in my last post was courtesy of my Larry light. Here's a pic:

Diving into the Door, Part 2

In Part 1 of this saga, I detailed removing the door card and finding a crucial reset procedure so the window lift mechanism would work again.  Now, it was time to remove the window, replace the sliders and grease everything up.  There was one more web link that was really useful for that procedure:

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?709563-Replacing-sliders-and-greasing-front-door-tracks

Diving Into the Door, Part 1

The passenger side window on my Z3 Coupe was slow... REALLY slow.  Especially descending.  It was so tortuous that I would usually reach across the car and help it down.  So, off to the Internet I went, and found some disquieting info.  This is an incredibly common problem on BMW's of the E36 vintage, and there is a real danger of severe damage.  There's a post welded in the door, which functions as a pivot for the window mechanism.  Let things bind for too long, and that can snap off, and then you're in a world of hurt.  BMW says replace the door.  Internet pundits say you can weld it back, after total disassembly, but who wants to get into that mess?

A Visit to Jack's

In my last post, I mentioned that there were two (of six) brake lines that I was unable to remove.  I was fearful that if I put on too much pressure, the hard line would shear, and then I'd be stuck!  I decided to pay another visit to Jack Miller's shop in Bainbridge.  An independent BMW service facility, Jack's Auto and Aero has been involved from the beginning of this project.  In fact, there's a brief video of the shop in my very first post.

Turns out that this was a very wise decision!  Jack was astonished at how tight those two brake line connections were.

Shocking! Part II...

In Part I, I showed the start of this project to install new Bilstein shocks and Bavarian Autosport springs in the Z3 Coupe.  That ended with the rear done - now it's time for the front.  This is well-documented on the web, so I won't do the step-by-step procedure.

I will, however, post a picture of a technique that I read somewhere.  Everyone who saw it laughed at me, but it worked great.  See, after you remove the strut, you have to support the suspension and brake assembly so that it won't swing out and damage the brake lines or other components.  The idea is to insert one lug bolt, and tie a rope from there to the engine lift point at the front center of the block.  Worked great!