 |
*** BMW Car Club GB website - see https://bmwcarclubgb.uk/ ***
*** Looking to buy or sell? ~ Checkout our BMW Car Club GB classifieds ***
|
B3 3.2 Touring No.20 - Project Thread |
Post Reply 
|
| Author | |
AShah 
Forum Member 
Joined: 27 Jul 2011 Location: Bridgend, Wales Status: Offline Points: 423 |
 Post Options
 Thanks(0)
 Quote Reply
 Topic: B3 3.2 Touring No.20 - Project ThreadPosted: 01 Oct 2012 at 6:17pm |
|
Right, as part of my new acquisition i have decided to document the minor restoration of it for you all to see! I will be including some detailing features as i am into detailing and also will be posting this thread on detailingworld, so need to keep all happy! Purchase pics and pics from the register and alpina archive:              I went to the first BMWCC Meet in it yestaerday, it was nearly dark, but i took a couple of shots of it:      This thread will come in waves as its very weather dependant! So far i have removed some of the loose ICE wiring that the previous owner had left for me to do, so glovebox out and all wiring removed to ground level. I will get rid of it as soon as i have the seats out! Original BMW Business CD player installed for now. Stay Tuned!
|
|
|
E36 home of South Wales!
'96 Alpina B3 3.2 Touring '91 325iSEA 4 Door Old: '93 325 Coupe '96 318is Coupe '92 320 Coupe '96 318is Coupe '97 328 Cabriolet '95 M3 4 Door '99 323 Sport Tourer |
|
 |
|
| Sponsored Links | 
|
|
|
|
AShah
Forum Member
Joined: 27 Jul 2011 Location: Bridgend, Wales Status: Offline Points: 423 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 01 Oct 2012 at 6:18pm |
|
I did a minor bit on the car last night, mainly was working on my white tourer as its off to a friend as the B3 has relpaced it! As far as i'm aware, its the only AlpineWhite3 323 Sport Tourer in the country, and it has been fantastic, well after i did a minor rebuild on it! It has featured in Straight Six magazine in the Long Term Running Reports, which incidently i look after for the club, and we need some Alpina's in there so if your a club member and want to do some reports, drop me a PM! My drive at at the moment:  From left to right, 1995 3.0 Saloon M3, one of 18 cars in Daytona Violet and one of 415 UK spec Saloons, my B3, 1991 325iSE, one of the first brought to the UK, was the pre launch showroom car for a dealer in South London (i forget the original name), and my 1999 323 Tourer, one of the last 30 made for UK market. Anyone would think that i like E36's!! So here are a few pics of the issues with the car:  The Alpina mat needs a good clean, so replaced with overmats for now.  Orignal BMW Business CD Player refitted, came with the car.  The start of the ICE wiring being removed.  Bit ominous! Santa Pod ticket left in the glovebox. Glad its just an entry ticket!  BMW Torch missing, i have a spare  Usual E36 problem, although i generally have been lucky with the cars i have had in the past, door handle coming away, this still looks repairable.  General pic of interior, steering wheel is quite worn, could do with re-trimming, but most comanies want to do an exchange and don't have a switchtronic wheel available! May see if i can get one done while-you-wait.  Rear Seat, centre section is discoloured, not sure how, but will deal with this later.  Load Cover in good condition, just needs a good clean.  Boot floor, very dirty, previous owner has left a quote for parts that he wanted to replace in the service history, i checked these out and they were for all the interior boot trim. May see if i can give these a clean as the quote was over £200.  Boot under side, this is marked, may get away with a slight sand and recolour. If not may trim it in leather!  General Condition of interior mats  Still has the tax disc holder on the car, but i am hoping to get the original plates from the previous owner as he is in the process of taking the private plate off.  General condition of the wheels, they were refurbed sometime back and are in excellent condition. Just need the detailing touch!  For some reason, Foglamps missing. Will have to source some genuine BMW items for these holes!  Body is pin straight!  Drivers door strip coming away, will need a couple of clips from BMW.  Usual BMW Badges peeling, i have some new BMW ones in the garage, what are the opinions on the Alpina Ones??  Engine bay, clean and original.  The inlet manifold needs cleaning up, but not sure what i can use to touch up the black paint thats come away. Any ideas??
|
|
|
E36 home of South Wales!
'96 Alpina B3 3.2 Touring '91 325iSEA 4 Door Old: '93 325 Coupe '96 318is Coupe '92 320 Coupe '96 318is Coupe '97 328 Cabriolet '95 M3 4 Door '99 323 Sport Tourer |
|
|
|
|
AShah
Forum Member
Joined: 27 Jul 2011 Location: Bridgend, Wales Status: Offline Points: 423 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 01 Oct 2012 at 6:19pm |
|
Been a busy weekend, all car issues, but little progress on the B3. My Old White tourer is going to a work colleague, as long as it passed its next MOT and guess what... Failed on the outer ball joint, and advisories on stupid things like colour of the indicator bulbs etc. So Friday afternoon went in changing the ball joint over, changing bulbs etc. Saturday morning, passed with an advisory on the inner edges on the rear tyres, so off it went. Not bad for a car with 165k miles on the clock!  I'll still get to see it everyday in the work car park, but i will miss it! 5000 miles since last December and almost all memorable! But moving on, time to get stuck into the B3! It appears that the seagulls don't like, or like whichever way you like to think of it, the B3. So a wash was in order, but as i intend on machine polishing the car, i just got rid of the major dirt.    APC on the fuel filler area and badges, as there was some crud that i wanted gone.  Fuel filler after  Exhaust after a quick APC, but still plenty of deposits here  A good snowfoam to remove the deposits and then the 2 bucket method to get rid of the loosened crud.   Rinsed...  ...and dried  Exhaust again  50:50 wire wool and autosol  Done On to the interior problems now. There were two issues that bothered me: 1. The door handle coming off, if i didn't do anything about it, it would end up as a new door card! 2. the seat was on the cusp of being torn, so 'save the leather!'  Door handle problem  After removing the door card, found that the back of the handle had unscrewed itself and fallen off, so easy fix.  Reinsert the screw with some loctite, and problem solved.  The seat was next, unbolted the seat, and this is what i found!  Unscrew the cushion bolster and firtree  This is what you find Want to see the culprit?? Its a lap joint of two bars that form the structure for the cushion bolster. Sharp edge cuts through over the years and eventually puts a hole into the leather.  My solution is to chamfer the edge and then stuff loads of High density foam from a scrap seat in to the gap, trying to retain the profile. The cover with a layer of flexible anti-creak tape, duct tape would do, and then refit. Good as its ever going to get!  Whilst i was here, got rid of the mountain of dirt and debris under the seat, found receipts, money, biscuits with mould on them, business cards and so on down there. This is how i left it. By no means clean, but better.  Even found a pebble...  Condition under the ashtray  Had to finish removing the Amp and Sub feed wires from the car, so had to lift the rear bench seat...hoover... and luckily found this. Its the original seat, so good news!  Car Club Livery! Do we have any Alpina Register ones anywhere to purchase??  Right, this morning i was going to help a work colleague with his Z4 ABS Problem, this should take no more than an hour... or so i thought, i had to remove the plastic section of the sill to get to the ABS sensor connection on the rear, took nearly 3 hours in total to check them all! Then i wouldn't start so he left it here! Anyway, it was 3pm before i could continue, and by then i had had enough, so i did a bit and then came in.  Thought i'd give the interior mats a go. Been doing thi smethod for years and its never failed me, but these were DIRTY!! This was the before.  Soaked in water and then applied a 20:1 mix of APC and scrubbed with an old dish brush that seems to be the right stiffness without tearing the fibres to shreds!  Rinsed and Vax'd to removed excess water  50:50 shot of the drivers before to the passenger after  Drivers during  Rear before  Rear after  50:50 of the rears  Colour of the water that came out AFTER washing! Will need to do this once more before the show season next year!  Left to dry for a week or so!
|
|
|
E36 home of South Wales!
'96 Alpina B3 3.2 Touring '91 325iSEA 4 Door Old: '93 325 Coupe '96 318is Coupe '92 320 Coupe '96 318is Coupe '97 328 Cabriolet '95 M3 4 Door '99 323 Sport Tourer |
|
|
|
|
FwordM3
Club Member 
Joined: 18 Jan 2009 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 309 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 01 Oct 2012 at 6:56pm |
|
Nice work fella, a good read. Keep up the hard work!
|
|
|
|
|
I_MNL
Club Member
Joined: 02 Feb 2012 Location: Driving in car Status: Offline Points: 200 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 04 Oct 2012 at 9:58pm |
Aha! So you are the new owner of this talked about B3  at the Alpina register forum!Congratulations
 Well done! |
|
|
And the name is Marie-Noëlle or nick name MNL! NOT Marie or Noëlle alone
Citizen of Earth...Explorer of Life! |
|
|
|
|
DJ Syxx
Club Member
Joined: 07 Sep 2012 Location: London Status: Offline Points: 208 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 05 Oct 2012 at 1:49am |
|
nice work getting it clean again, quite a rare car. Love alpinas.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
AShah
Forum Member
Joined: 27 Jul 2011 Location: Bridgend, Wales Status: Offline Points: 423 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 05 Oct 2012 at 12:33pm |
|
1 of only 2 left!
|
|
|
E36 home of South Wales!
'96 Alpina B3 3.2 Touring '91 325iSEA 4 Door Old: '93 325 Coupe '96 318is Coupe '92 320 Coupe '96 318is Coupe '97 328 Cabriolet '95 M3 4 Door '99 323 Sport Tourer |
|
|
|
|
Smiller
Club Member
Joined: 19 Apr 2011 Status: Offline Points: 100 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 05 Oct 2012 at 9:14pm |
|
We have Alpina screen stickers in the Club Office
|
|
|
|
|
AShah
Forum Member
Joined: 27 Jul 2011 Location: Bridgend, Wales Status: Offline Points: 423 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 09 Oct 2012 at 12:49pm |
|
Thanks Steve, will have to get some off you when i see you in Nov!
|
|
|
E36 home of South Wales!
'96 Alpina B3 3.2 Touring '91 325iSEA 4 Door Old: '93 325 Coupe '96 318is Coupe '92 320 Coupe '96 318is Coupe '97 328 Cabriolet '95 M3 4 Door '99 323 Sport Tourer |
|
|
|
|
AShah
Forum Member
Joined: 27 Jul 2011 Location: Bridgend, Wales Status: Offline Points: 423 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 09 Oct 2012 at 12:50pm |
|
Slightly strange weekend this weekend, planned on doing quite a bit, but a few things got in the way! Had a few visitors, phonecalls etc, along with the unplanned work that slowed progress a bit!
Ended up washing mats for the house and washing the patio as well as the pressure washer was out, so lost some working time! Also was so annoyed at the rust issue, so lost the enthusiasm! Will resume over the next weekend! |
|
|
E36 home of South Wales!
'96 Alpina B3 3.2 Touring '91 325iSEA 4 Door Old: '93 325 Coupe '96 318is Coupe '92 320 Coupe '96 318is Coupe '97 328 Cabriolet '95 M3 4 Door '99 323 Sport Tourer |
|
|
|
|
AShah
Forum Member
Joined: 27 Jul 2011 Location: Bridgend, Wales Status: Offline Points: 423 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 16 Oct 2012 at 11:10am |
|
A bit more progress this weekend. May not do much more at the moment as the M3 has an oil leak and needs its steering rack and discs replacing. Also with the clock change imminent and winter setting in, the Alpina seems happy enough at the moment!
Time to start the interior, the boot area was minging, had to start here to work out if i needed a new interior!
On a side note: I was so pleased with the results i moved on the main carpet.
Thats it so far, next job is to get Mr. Dent to fix 3 dents and detail the engine bay, but this may be done in small chunks as i have the M3 to do and also need to rebuild my 325 quite soon, so stay tuned! |
|
|
E36 home of South Wales!
'96 Alpina B3 3.2 Touring '91 325iSEA 4 Door Old: '93 325 Coupe '96 318is Coupe '92 320 Coupe '96 318is Coupe '97 328 Cabriolet '95 M3 4 Door '99 323 Sport Tourer |
|
|
|
|
FwordM3
Club Member
Joined: 18 Jan 2009 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 309 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 16 Oct 2012 at 7:47pm |
|
Awesome work, thanks for posting!
|
|
|
|
|
AShah
Forum Member
Joined: 27 Jul 2011 Location: Bridgend, Wales Status: Offline Points: 423 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 29 Oct 2012 at 12:36pm |
|
Not much of an update at the moment, but so far, i have purchased a replacement external temp sensor
Also when i started the car up, the EGR was making a loud noise which i traced to a broken vacuum feed, so this was removed and refitted temporarily until i can get some black tube to replace it.
|
|
|
E36 home of South Wales!
'96 Alpina B3 3.2 Touring '91 325iSEA 4 Door Old: '93 325 Coupe '96 318is Coupe '92 320 Coupe '96 318is Coupe '97 328 Cabriolet '95 M3 4 Door '99 323 Sport Tourer |
|
|
|
|
Ian Conuel
Club Member
Joined: 04 Apr 2010 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 223 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 29 Oct 2012 at 7:33pm |
|
Great work
Subscribed... |
|
|
1998 z3m coupe
|
|
|
|
|
I_MNL
Club Member
Joined: 02 Feb 2012 Location: Driving in car Status: Offline Points: 200 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 21 Nov 2012 at 3:03pm |
Impressive now that I see this! You have to empty the garage and fill it with one of the cars!!!  Also why different alloys on the white touring? |
|
|
And the name is Marie-Noëlle or nick name MNL! NOT Marie or Noëlle alone
Citizen of Earth...Explorer of Life! |
|
|
|
|
AShah
Forum Member
Joined: 27 Jul 2011 Location: Bridgend, Wales Status: Offline Points: 423 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 21 Nov 2012 at 3:39pm |
|
Not much point in emptying the garage, the car barely fits in there! better to keep it as a dry working space! As you can see though its a bit full of car stuff!
White car went for an MOT and i wanted no advisories, so i put some tyres on without slight fethering on the edges, just to try and get a clean pass, still had an advisory for indicators not quite orange enough!
|
|
|
E36 home of South Wales!
'96 Alpina B3 3.2 Touring '91 325iSEA 4 Door Old: '93 325 Coupe '96 318is Coupe '92 320 Coupe '96 318is Coupe '97 328 Cabriolet '95 M3 4 Door '99 323 Sport Tourer |
|
|
|
|
Post Reply
|
|
| Forum Jump | Forum Permissions You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot create polls in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum |
Topic Options
AShah wrote:
