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.