The Continuous Car Thread of S_S - Dream Car #1 Achieved '23

A month hence, not a good length between updates!

So the 330ci and 535i went up for sale and since I've been driving around in this:


Which does the job but apart from being quiet and fast has no character.

I've been resolving that in the meantime though.

First off, spend several weeks wages on tyres:


Then, then... then I can finally fit them. This is the realisation of a look I've had in my mind for many a moon. The right car, right colour, the right wheels, right sizes, all picked out way before I bought any of it. A proper Colonel H. Smith moment:

So with the return of the sunshine it was time to pull the S110R out of the workshop.
Took it for a drive only to find out that when it gets hot, it starts to run like a pig and cuts out. Had to trailer it home.
Diagnosis day spent investigating fuel supply.

Ran for almost five minutes with the fuel pipe disconnected...
The guy that rebuilt and repainted this car in 2006 (or 2008) has been helping me diagnose and when he saw this picture was annoyed that the brand new correctly jetted carb he had fitted had been swapped out for a Weber, which almost certainly will explain its tendency to drink fuel at an alarming rate. Probably not jetted right and possibly causing some of the bogging issues if its too rich, which Webers usually are. I had an orange Estelle 1.2 years ago (same engine as what's been fitted to this one) with the same carb and it went from 40mpg standard to 19mpg on the Weber.
Anyway couple more things to check as to why its got this issue, but a friend took it down to the MOT station on the trailer so it was cold and it went through, sticky front caliper aside.
Will get another look at it shortly, meanwhile here's a sunny picture in the Armagh countryside.

Long time no update - again.

Continuing with the theme of getting MOTs on stuff, the 840ci and the Cooper S are both approved for road use now. Got to get some sale pics of the 8 series this week.



My 156 had a bit of a braking issue which was quickly traced to below-par rear discs - which had eaten the greenstuff pads it got not that long ago, but lack of use had made the discs rusty and then they went downhill from there. One side was fine, and then I sadi "it's going much better than expected" - cue the offside taking half a day and the caliper piston being seized up, then ripped the dust cover trying to clean it... Ended up putting on an old BMW sleeve with a wire clip to hold it in place. After hacksawing the rusty bits off the groove.

Might replace it some day.

Bought a crappy Transit while my Ducato was having a new gearbox. Bought another Ducato to take box out of in the end rather than stomach the £750 for a used box from a breakers. Ducato is now fixed so the Transit's for sale.


My mums old 206 which the Arosa (mentioned previously) replaced - my dads camera gear could make an Amica look nice... This I've tried to use but it's just too slow and diesel-y for me so will have to be sold.


Speaking of things that look nice:


Bought another E34. This one takes my total of Avus Blue 525i Sports up to 5. I'm not sure if there are any more Avus ones left in NI.


And after all that, I'm still driving around in my mums old Touring, but she wants that back now, which is fair as I've been "borrowing" it for about two months now. So Tuesday the M535i is up for MOT so hopefully that passes and I can go back to using that every day until the gritter lorries return.

Transit is sold, hurrah!

This week I was at a wedding so the Alfa was chosen over the M535i because its a little bit quieter. Not actually quiet, just not as much as the E28. It gets parked under a hedge and used as a toolbox so it was filthy.
As long as I've had this car I've hardly ever taken pics of it, and that still rings true. Meant to when it was clean, forgot entirely. Good job too as the guy that detailed it a year or two back would have a meltdown, never even got a wash since.

On Wednesday I collected a radiator I'd left in to be fitted with a new core. The PO had put plastic ties through the core to hold an electric fan on - traveller extremes. Needless to say it's being mounted properly now. £154 I paid for that stupidity.


Also completely removed the dash panel and instruments so I can get a better look at the wiring as I contemplate rewiring another Austin 7 from ground up.


And today I also rebuilt a tricycle for my sister that's been laying in the workshop taking up precious space for a mere 18 months. Needed entire front brake assembly, thankfully I have plenty of spares which I keep meaning to sell of but never do, good when you need a cable and lever and bits at 6.30pm on a Saturday.


Getting ready to go to England in a week when there will almost certainly be a vehicle purchased if not several.

The 525i was a bit of a mess in the end, it had obviously been in a bit of an incident and nobody had thought to check it out and the "bag of nails" experience was down to a bent coilover and a suspect bottom arm. Somebody obviously thought they were cute by replacing one of the control arms and thinking that would do it.
Anyway it is now PROPERLY fixed but although it drives absolutely gorgeously now, it isn't for me. So up for sale.


I was walking past the Cadillac (now, shamedly, I've owned it for a month shy of three years and it's still not going to be done anytime soon) and I spotted some MORE rust, this time just behind the door on the pillar, and I poked, and next thing you knwo there was a hole...


And then I had no choice but to peel the vinyl roof off because I can't leave that as it is.
So now this:


And because no vinyl trim I will have to figure out another way to mount the window chrome surrounds etc and make it look tiday again. I'll probably now have to paint the entire car which is annoying.
Whoever did such an absolute pig of a paintjob on this a few years ago has a LOT to answer for. It really is shocking.

And... what else is new? Bought an E34 520i Touring because... well, cheap. Don't like it, very boaty. Mini Cooper alternator jammed and seized so ran around for weeks trying to find one eventually stumped up the GDP of a minor nation for a new one, specific to the Cooper S wouldn't you know. Bought two more white E34 Sports because there are no more Avus blue ones to buy. Lowered the E24 so it sits on the floor, finally got the E21 registered and kept the original NI plate so that's back to the top of queue, um I think that's it for now.

Finally I remembered that the S110R was not in the workshop for giggles. it needed work. So I ordered some NOS caliper rebuild kits and Vinny rebuilt it one morning in work. You might as well note down his name because despite being the youngest guy that works for me by some margin, Vincentas has a capability and work ethic that puts most people I know to shame and if it were not for him, most of my cars would be languishing at the bottom of the yard steadily progressing further and further away from the realm of "restorable". In short, Vinny keeps my fleet mobile.

One rebuilt caliper:



Also my recently acquired 530d, which I had intended to sell on, had too many problems to address which would have led to a very narrow and therefore unacceptable margin. So, instead, I'm just going to run it into the ground with 9 months MOT to play with. Put some winter wheels on it, bogged around for a while ignoring the propshaft donut clattering, and generally putting lots of miles down until I noticed a top end clicking. My initial thought was a duff injector but noticing a slight whiff of exhaust smoke we checked the oil level fearing impending disaster. And yes, caught it just in time. The high pressure pump seal was leaking and letting diesel into the crankcase which was diluting the oil and raising the level, endangering the turbo. Very common on BMWs M57 common rails, and the cause of so many blowing up. Well, having bought one to fix recently and being given a recon pump with it, we had one on the shelf and it was duly fitted and serviced. I had bought engine flush before diagnosis along with the oil thinking we had top end work to do and gunk to clear out but that was unnecessary once we knew the diesel had mixed in the oil and thereby it could not possibly have been more flushed than it was.
Back on the road.

A pic has been requested of the 635i, so here it is, as is:


Now, to more serious news.
I am not a great driver. That said, I'm definitely more aware and capable of 75% of the other drivers out there. But I'm no Alonso, that's for sure.
A few days ago, with a bit of damp on the roads and a keen desire to avoid using the dreary 530d, the E28 got a final rattle before being tucked away for winter.
Unfortunately, rattle it I did, and lost it, going broadside before mounting a verge and smacking a fence and barely wrestling it round again rather than go through the flimsy wooden fence and plunge 50 feet down a near vertical bank.


Death race 2000 anyone?


I love how aggressive it looked...
However, reality:


Thankfully, and testament to not only how solidly these old cars were built, but how solid mine is, it suffered bent panels, but no ripped out sections or weak metal failing. So the bonnet, inner wing, slam panel and very slightly the outer wing were bent. The inner was hammered out a bit, the bonnet squashed down, the slam panel pulled back into shape and with the addition of a new headlight - again, on the shelf - it is looking almost presentable again. The grille was busted but in areas unseen so it was screwed back on and looks ok.
I have said it from the start; this car is not about looks, it is about performance. That's why the bad (previous owners) paintjob doesn't bother me, nor the half stripped interior or the missing exterior trim pieces etc. Its a 1400kg 215bhp manual straight six with LSD and polybushes and bilstein suspension - I don't care if the paint needs buffed.

Bumper still needs fixed but that's not bad.


And lastly.
Do you remember my 740i?
This one:

It was "out of mind" over in a storage yard when a friend of mine from Slane rang up looking an old BMW to use in a film. "I've five of my own cars hired out for it, but the only BMW I have is too new. Do you have an old 5 or 7 series? Dark colour?"
So it was dug out, interior refitted (rewiring needed to get them fitted in a hurry ready for collecting it the next day - they took two weeks to collect in the end!) and charged battery fitted, tyres pumped up, bumper trims refitted etc. I'd had to smash the grille in to access the bonnet to jump start it recently after one of the boys deadlocked it, but despite that, when the director came to see the car, he was over the moon. Right colour, and exactly what they were looking for.
So that's been away a couple of weeks for filming.
Here's the interesting part. I can't give the game away for reasons of confidentiality but the film is about someone currently doing time that wont speak to the media. My car is being used to be their car.
I was in HMP Magheraberry on Sunday to help with a church service for the prisoners. That was an experience in itself and we were able to mingle and talk freely with the inmates, and they really seemed to enjoy it and get something from it. In fact we did two services in two wings and it was in the second wing we visited that I got talking to one in particular. Now I don't think this can be put down to coincidence, but how shocked can you imagine I was when it turns out that this was the person being portrayed in the film - driving my car?! I've just met the person the film is about, that my car is being used to be their car in the film, and nobody writing or making the film has spoken to them. The timing, that these events would happen concurrently, oh, I just can't even put it into words the surprise? shock? hilariousness? bewilderment? that I felt.

I always like an SS update. Lots of super-concentrate progress, and new cars in every post

I'm not convinced anyone is still interested but the journal continues. Today was a day of taking things apart.

In the previous post I made mention of a pair of 320ds that are to be sold soon. One blew it's turbo on the way to the MOT, depositing oil all over the engine bay.
Having been told that a replacement is some £340, and arranging to buy a good, used unit from a local scrappies, only to find it binding internally, Vincent (mentioned before) and I decided to strip the turbo down and see if we couldn't diagnose, if not fix, it ourselves. We also stripped down a wrecked one at the same time, doing each step on it before doing the same on this one. We were also thinking to measure the internals and see if it's conceivable to swap the internals from a good similar sized turbo into the housing we need.

Some of you are thinking - so what? What's so hard about that? Well, sorry, but I don't know. I've never worked on a turbo before. I grew up with carburettors. So if this is reciting your ABCs to you, please excuse me, as I don't know how a turbo works. Well, I didn't, not until today.

Stock photo of a BMW turbo for anyone who doesn't know what one looks like:


So, remove the oil feed pipe, and the brackets, and in the case of the Garrett GT1749V I was working on, the circlips, then the connecting rod, then the electronic actuator.
Then get out the spanners and remove the 8mm pinch bolts holding the cold side body on, then tap to remove:


So far, so good. No damage.

10mm bolts to undo and then tap the hot (exhaust) side off. This took more convincing with the persuasion tool.
The "cartridge" as I now know its called, in the middle, is the bit with the vanes and oilways and turbines. Seems I didn't really do enough photos, blame the oil covered hands... The exhaust vanes were damaged causing it to stick causing the failure.
And then we persisted, and removed the central spindle, as it was dead anyway. The vanes slid off, and revealed a intricate lubrication setup to feed a central bushing held in place by a ridge one end and a screwed on plate on the other. Very simple engineering really.




And I now understand turbos, and also see why ball bearing turbos are such an upgrade, and necessity for big power.
Furthermore, as cartridges are readily available, we may well refurb this unit ourselves... which opens the doors to refurbishing all the damaged ones we get through...


So that was 6pm and time to lock up and go get dinner.

This evening, I set to my other rebuilding mission. I smashed yet another mobile last week and had to revert for a day to my previous one, a Galaxy S3 with a completely smashed screen. Still works well enough mind.
I have a large box of smashed phones, but they all worked apart from the screen. So I thought why not fix some of them, they're that old screens are bound to be cheap now. I asked about and was kindly offered a Galaxy S2 with a faulty circuit board - perfect for my needs as I have all the internals but needed a screen.

I have done this loads of times as I had to keep replacing broken phones but needed to keep the info on them. Not being able to use them, my only option to retrieve info etc was to build my original board into the new phones. Hence, my original circuitry passed through four or five bodies/screens, repeatedly being smashed, and leaving a trail of unused backs and boards lying dormant.


So here we have the "new" S2, face down, with working screen but inoperative board - and a replacement board from one of the many previous screen donor phones. Remove battery, SD card, SIM.


Taking a small screwdriver, remove the screws and prise off the rear cover. Be very careful not to break anything and do not stick the screwdriver in to prise it! There's no hidden screws on an S2 but there are on other phones so mind out.


The circuit board will have a couple of tiny screws holding it on. Lift up all the connectors as well. Mind the like of the white wire on the left, easy to miss. On an S2 all connectors are on the side we're working on, other phones have them underneath as well so don't just yank at it.


Peel back the sticky buttons and remove the board.


Now fit the new board. Carefully click down all the connections - they'll give a really positive click when they slot in.


The buttons are quite hard to line up and hold in place while refitting. Watch none drop out as you snap the cover into place.


Cover snaps on and screw it down again.


Switch on. Moment of truth!


Success. One revitalised Galaxy S2 which would be a very handy backup phone, but as I have another three phones to fix up, I've someone in mind to give this to that desperately needs to update their ancient old brick.

And to avoid the despair I sense setting in at the back, here's another car I picked up for work to restore and sell, but I quite like it and it may feature in my own little collection when it's done. I just like the look of a metal bumper E30, especially in my favourite BMW colour Diamond Black, especially when its a fully loaded 325i.

Ohhhh l love this, my dream car right there.