I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, the thing about owning old BMWs is they always need some kind of work, but the great thing about old BMWs is a normal person with a little bit of mechanical know how can work on them. My latest “work” was to upgrade braking ability. Speed is fun but stopping is equally important. I found some cross drilled rotors with close out prices and brake pads also at a great price, so the logical thing to do was to paint the calipers as well for a complete awesome upgrade for Elka (my white ’87 e28). I have had these parts for several months and when she needed repair for a battery drain somewhere in the electrical system, it was time to put her up on jack stands and spend some quality time!
First step was to paint rotors with POR-15 rust treatment. Here are the before and after shots.
Cleaned all the calipers with degreaser supplied in the paint kit and a little wire brush help. The epoxy paint was easy to work with and just enough to cover the calipers.
Next day installed new pads, assembled brakes to get a cool new look and much better performance!
Final look:
The battery drain was probably a ground issue, but we (JB and I) I did so many things to the system with relays, fuses, cleaning grounds, new battery and new alternator, that I could not tell for sure the particular problem. Could also have been a combination of things. In the end, no more battery drain! I also added a front strut brace which took some extra fabrication to make it fit, but that is what you get buying a strut brace on ebay from Hong Kong!
Next thought: ECU performance chip, maybe for Christmas! 🙂
revse28 