BMW E30 325i Convertible - My Wife's New Car

Finally picked up the car today;

Set off at 7.30 this morning.
Picked up my pals V70, as I needed the towbar.
Hacked back to the workshop and collected the trailer.
Finally got away at 0915....
Arrived at the bodyshop at 1115.
Loaded up, coffee, chat and away by 1300.
Arrived back at the w'shop at 1515.
Unlaoded, tea, talked bollocks.
On the ramp at 1600.
Cracked on with a few bits....
Home 2030, tired...

Loaded up at the bodyshop and ready to go;

Back at the 'shop and on the ramp;

They've done a great job, I'm really pleased!

The engine is looking good and is ready to go back in;

Where to start..... at the front, I think!

The wiring was a mess and the fabric tape was hanging off.... decided to rewrap it as I had some tape left over from the build of the black BMW;

I cleaned up the inner wing area and put the freshly refurbished headlamps in with new bolts;

I pulled the rear lights out next, cleaned them up and gave the gaskets a smeer of vasaline on both sides to rejuvinate them;

Rear lights installed;

Mirrors have been colour coded;

Thats as far as I got today, loads to do, so I've taken tomorrow and Friday off work to get cracking with it.

Cheers,

Mart.

Another long, but productive day.....

Refubished PAS pump attached to motor;

The brake servo was a bit rusty, so was rubbed down and painted;

Starter motor ready for paint;

Side trims refurbished and fitted with new clips;

Rear bumper fitted - the w'shop dog 'Diesel' wanted in on the pic;

The bumper was treated to the same rust inhibiting wax on the inside and the bumper brackets were repainted - no pics, sorry - used Autosol to polish the chrome, celulose thinners to clean the rubbers and Mer vinyl cleaner to give it some shine;

Reinforcements arrived and the engine was back on the crane, ready for installation;

Engine bay was made ready;

In it goes....

New radiator from ECP - I've done the head and renewed the water pump, so for £50 and new rad was a no brainer, especially as the old one looked way past its best - fittings swapped;

Viscous fan cleaned and ready for installation;

Window trims ready for the big door build tomorrow.....

Gearbox and prop tomorrow, along with exhaust - it'll be running by lunchtime.... Doors built up with glass and trims by close of play...

Cheers,

Mart.

My pictures work again, so he'res the update from Saturday/Sunday last week;

We've been cleaning and polishing the inner wings, as these were not painted, and were in reasonable condition. The factory stickers are poor, but I have found a chap on E30zone who produces replacements, so I have oredered a set of replacements - pictures taken for future reference;

Finished cleaning and painting some of the engine appendages - this seems to have taken for ever, I've clean and or painted everything off the car and frankly I'm fed up with cleaning now....

Starter Motor painted;

AFM painted;

The expansion tank went through a wash cycle in the dishwasher at home - Mrs R was not happy - it came up really well though;

Alternator cleaned up ok;

Dizzy cover and fan cowls cleaned and installed;

AFM and airbox, etc, installed;

Gearbox on, shields on, prop on, exhaust on - sorry, no pics...

Oil, antifreze, etc, battery charged, and.....

Engine running!!!!

No, honestly, it is running!

We needed the ramp for a quick welding job on an exhaust, pre-MoT, for a mate, so the car was kicked out the shop - under it's own steam!

Everything seems to work, no leaks, and all the smoke remained within the wiring, which is a bonus!

Number plate attached;

I then dragged all of the 3 leather interior I have collected back to my home, so that I can do the refurb in the clean, warm environment of my garage. I plan to make 1 good interior out of the 3, by swapping damaged and undamaged items - the great thing is that a passenger backrest can become a drivers backrest as they have latches on both sides of the seat, and lower seat cushions can be removed from based and swapped too. The driver seats always get the most abuse, and passenger seats are generally in good condition, so with 3 interiors, I am confident on getting a good base to start the refurb;

I've bought leather restoration and recolouring products from Furniture Clinc, so will get started today and complete over the weekend, with luck!

Cheers,

Mart

On to the interior!

The seats were in a bad state and I've ended up buying 2 further beige leather interiors, so that I can make 1 good set from the 3.

The E30zone is a good source of info and there is a 'how to' for most things, including how to take the seats apart;

With the seat backs off the front bases, it is much easier to work on them. I'm using a Furiture Clinc car interior restoration kit, which comes with all the necessary chemicals, abrasives, foam pads, cloths, dye, sealant, air bush, etc. The instructions are comprehensive and easy to follow - what could possibly go wrong....

The first thing is to strip the old sealant off the seats using a 'special' chemical on a scotchbrite pad - yes, you literally scrub the surface with the pad and the finished surface of the leather comes off! Now, maybe they didn't supply enough of the 'special' chemical, or maybe I used too much, but I was running out of the stuff quickly.... Luckily my wife popped into the garage with a cup of tea (I'm doing this job at home) and she declared that it 'stunk of acetone' - now, she should know, as she does nails, etc for a living, so off she goes to her treatment room and brings me 5 litres of acetone - brilliant;

You can see how it strips the surface;

Some areas discolour more than others, but the object of the exercise is to remove the laquer/sealent from the leather so the new dye will take.

Next up is to start to repair and tears and cracks in the surface of the leather. As I had a choice of seats, I decided upon the best ones to start with, but all had some damage, especially the fronts. The small tears on the front bolster were repaired by inserting a small piece of cloth behind the tear/rip and then glue into place;

Next up, all the cracks are filled using a flexible filler that is supplied with the kit. This is simply smoothed on using a small plastic spatula in very thin layers, leaving the minimum of excess - which is hard to remove;

I put too much on intitially and left it to dry, to my cost, as it is a bugger to sand down - lesson learned;

You keep laoding the flexible filler in to the cracks in very thin coats, leaving each one to dry before the next - very time comsuming, but you get a good result in the end;

This is the worst bolster I repaired the rips/tears on _ we'll see how this turns out, fingers crossed;

The passenger seat is in much better condition and required fewer repairs, etc;

Repairs complete;

I know what you are thinking, I thought the same - this is never going to look any good, right? Well, I had to crack on and see if the system would work, as promised, but I had my doubts.....

The next step was to sponge the dye onto the seats - it looks rough and streaky, but thats ok, according to the instructions;

Even after a couple of streaky sponge coats the drivers bolster starts to look better'

I sponge coated all the seat parts and then left it to dry overnight. Next day it was onto applying the dye with the air bush that was supplied in the kit. Once set up correctly, the air brush worked well. The downside is that it uses pressurised cans of propellent and when you use them lots they get very cold and the pressure drops - so you have to keep them warm or keep swapping them out. Also, the reservoir for the dye is quite small, so constant refils are required.

But, the results are good;

Driver side seat looks good;

So, thats where we are upto so far. I need to add a 'superseal' coating and then a semi matt laquer - that'll be the seats finished!

Then its on to the door cards, seat backs and rear deck lid - these need to follow a slightly different process as they are vinyl not leather and therefore, after the initial strip, they need a bonding agent sprayed onto them which the colour dye can adhere to.

You know what, I think this interior might turn out ok!

Cheers,

Martin.