Getting down to business

Here she is, in her new home and getting all the big items done. E32 brake upgrade, with new pads, rotors, and calipers. New rear rotors and pads. Stainless brake lines. New Bilstein HD shocks, and new upper strut bearings and rear shock mounts. One of the front calipers was sticking, so it was a good excuse to go ahead and fix all the brake issues. I was going to just do the calipers and turn the discs in front, but Steve Haygood's e32 brake upgrade deal was close to the cost of those parts, so I figured why not. If all goes well she should be back on the road in a week or two.

Big Coupe?

I was up at the dealership and parked next to a new 330i. I was amazed that this "little" 3 series made the old "Big Coupe" look small. My 323ci looks just a hair smaller than the 635 in some ways, and a little bigger in others, but the new 3-series looks like it needs to go on a diet compared to the old coupe.

Elsa gets dancing shoes

Before I decided to invest in better wheels or tires, I decided to try and experiment and just respray the current wheels with silver brake-caliper paint. Man, they really turned out well. For $7 investment it really transformed the car. There are some eBay 528i wheels that I might get, but given that these turned out really well I'm not sure that I'll need to. There still is one bent wheel, but not badly so. Not sure if I'll keep these or get some other rims, we'll see.

By the way, the oil spot behind the front tire isn't a leak, I just overfilled the coolant and that's where the overflow dumps it. Surprisingly there are almost no oil leaks that I can find. None that drip on the ground at the very least.

Catchup

There are some small items I've fixed. Did the pitman arms a while ago. Have some subframe bushings sitting here, once I get a removal/install tool I'll do those. I'll also be replacing the front brake calipers, and pads and disc's all around soon. I had an old Momo Race steering wheel lying around, and got a mount from a board member for $25.

Some misses

She left me stranded, but it was my own dumb fault. I replaced the motor mounts. The mounts on the m30 motor have really long bolts on them, so you really have to jack the motor up. Well, I got done and didn't bother to re-check the hoses. Sure enough, it has strained the connections on the upper and lower radiator hoses and loosened their connections. One stomp on the accelerator up Far West Blvd and the upper hose pops right off and dumps all the coolant. Fortunately I was paying attention an pulled over before she overheated (much). This was also my excuse to go ahead and flush the cooling system. It has the green coolant in it, which contains phosphate and can damage the head gasket on the car. So it's flushed and filled with RO water and sythetic, phosphate-free, coolant now.

I was also going to replace the transmission mounts, but one of the bolt heads got rounded off, and is really hard to get to, so I'll probably have the shop do those. I'm kinda paranoid of working under a car like that, I met a guy once who had an engine fall on his head, it was not pretty. So, I'll probably have the shop do the center driveshaft bearing and the transmission mounts.

I have some shift linkage rebuilding parts coming, including a Z3 shift lever. That will probably be the last thing I am willing to do so far under the car, I really don't like being under there. Wish I had a lift....

Woa nelly

Man, I'm glad I decided to keep the car. I've been running some Lubro-molly injector and valve cleaner through the car. Drove her around a little, the motor is really starting to open up. She has some real power now (well, relatively speaker, she isn't a 540i after all) and is a ball to drive.

She's running really well now, and even with the blown shocks she was fun to drive down old Spicewood Road. I think she might be a keeper.

Waffling

I have really close to deciding to sell the car. I wasn't sure if it was worth the time and $$$ to fix it up. I could spend all that time and end up with a car that I still didn't enjoy. I decided to look at the potential loss if I sold the car now, vs if I fixed it up and sold it. Turns out, the net between the two is pretty close, based on an estimated value of $2500 now vs $4000 if fixed up. So I decided I'll fix it up, but not with top of the line stuff, for example I'll get Bilstien HD shocks and use the stock springs. This will allow me to tinker with the car without losing too much $$$ in the process.

New seats

The stock sport seats were great in their day, but have become too loose and soft to really be considered sporting. Too much play in them and too much sag. Plus, I'm not a fan of black interiors. So, I found a pair of off-white comfort seats for $50, cost about $50 for a pair of seatbelt harnesses from the junk yard. I fixed the driver's headrest motor (cable had shrunk, easy fix) and wired them up. All the power controls work great.

I should note for those interested in doing this, the comfort seats are not memory seats, the sport ones are, this means that the electrical connectors are very different. Had to get a factory connector from the junk yard and splice them in.

An old trick I've used in the past is to remove the center seat back padding. This gives more legroom and better side support. It really turns the seats into buckets. Overall these are really nice fitting. The seat bottom cushions could stand to be replaced (the old horsehair isn't quite what it used to be) but other than that they feel great.

I also conned the owner of those seats out of his rear seats in a swap for the black ones I had. This gives the car a really updated look, and brightens the interior a lot.

I did some research and recovering the driver's seats will cost about $600.

Off to the shop

Took her down the Paul's Motor Werks for her first checkup. Wasn't cheap, came to $700, but they did the following:

• Valve adjustment
• Fuel injector flush
• Replaced clutch slave cylinder hose
• Diagnosed and recharged the A/C with R12
• New valve cover gasket
• Replaced tranny and differential fluid with synthetic

This got her running right, but the motor is still making some squealing sounds that I will have to diagnose.

Instrument cluster rebuild

I knew I needed to replace the odometer gears and SI board in order to get the gauges working right. The first step was to get it out and taken apart. For some reason the e24's seem to develop some strange spots all over on the inside of the cluster, so while it's apart I decided to fix that. I scrubbed it with a greenie weenie to sand down the bumps, then primed, painted, and sealed.

Elsa gets combat boots

Starting to get the kinks worked out. Removed the tint, cleaned and polished her, and got rid of the TRX wheels. Wouldn't have slapped these wheels on but at $140 for the wheels and tires I couldn't pass them up. They are 16" BMW 850i wheels, in rough shape, one is mildly bent, and they have a poor black finish on them. Not normally my style, but when reconditioned these are a nice factory wheel for the car. As the current suspension bushings are pretty shot, having throw-away tires is a good idea until I can get it tight enough to justify good tires.

Running Ttoal

Purchase Price $2500

Arrival

Here is Elsa on arrival. A 1985 BMW 635csi. The body is very clean, no accidents and very solid. As with any car her age, just about every rubber suspension piece will need to be replaced. She's running a little rough, but solid. Nothing a little tinkering shouldn't fix.

Here's a list of known issues with the car:

• A/C is out
• HVAC blower motor is noisy
• Motor mounts, tranny mounts, diff mounts, all need to be replaced
• Suspension is surprisingly tight, but most of the rubber parts there will need replacing, they appear to be original parts
• Small oil leak from the valve cover gasket
• Just about all of the guages are out
• Clear coat is pealing and oxidizing on the right rear corner
• Front air damn damaged
• Passenger side door trim needs to be replaced
• Shift linkage worn out
• Interior light door switches not working
• Some shaking from the rear drivetrain under acceleration, likely just mounts or driveshaft support bearing
• Sounds like she has a very small exhaust leak
• Due for a valve adjustment
• Hood is very slightly out of alignment
• Driver's seat leather cracking, and the seat back is off alignment
• ABS light on, and brake sensor light on
• Check engine light comes on right after the car is started, then goes out

Overall, for a 1985 car, that's a pretty short list, and all easy to manage. Zero rust, very solid, good power, runs well. She just needs some TLC to get her running right.

At the time these pictures were taken, the only thing I'd done was slap the factory shift knob from my 323ci in her, as the stock knob was in poor shape. First plan is to do a little cleanup, do some engine tuning, rebuild the shift linkage, and replace the rubber drivetrain mounts (probably all of them). After that, I'll go over it and see where it stands.