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Having had the car for just over a year now I felt this thread was long overdue. I picked it up on around 100k miles and it was obviously feeling very sorry for itself; it had one owner for the first 15 years of its life and was obviously pampered but then tore through six other owners before it found its way to me. This is how it looked on the day I picked it up:  After nursing it back on the 4 hour drive it was obvious it wasn't in the best of health; the air filter was black, the oil was like tar and the plugs looked older than me. However, the chap did throw in a new backbox, and he did almost pay me to take the car away. If the above wasn't enough to get my spidey senses tingling then a quick poke around the car showed that it had been *cue suspenseful music* got at. It seemed the PO's idea of "FSH" had been to hoover it occasionally, but no one would lie in a car ad, would they? With every intention of restoring it I dutifully gave it a service and a clean, drove it to work for a few months and then bunged it in the garage and forgot about it until February of this year, where a load of parts were bought, much knuckle skin was lost and I fell in love with this lump of Bavarian steel. Currently the car is looking like this:  I'll be sure to go through this saga in a slighlty more chronological manner as soon as I get all my old photos in order! |
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Bookmarked!
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1986 Mercedes 200 (W124) (Standard and daily)
1976 Peugeot 404 1800 Stickshift (Standard - awaiting complete resto, engine done)
1984 Ford Cortina (P100) LDV - Cab and chassis restored, interior and glass not fitted, brand new 3 liter engine (last 110kw Sierra XR6 engine fitted and married to 5 speed Toyota Gearbox), load body needed.
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Yep like that,,more please!
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Fraud owners club member
2003 W211 Mercedes E class
1989 Sierra sapphire
1998 ex bt fiesta van
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Come on Dan, there is loads to post about!! Get your  in gear! James |
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Starting with the day I got the old beast there was one immediate change that had to be made; remove the M badges. This is probably my biggest pet hate with the BMW "scene" and this was dutifully carried out by my good friend metroman. If anyone wants two free M badges they're on the A303 about 10 miles West of Amesbury, free to a good home. He was piloting my mx5 (now a CAT B, very sadly) that you can see above. With the car back in Kent it was time to take stock and introduce the car to it's new home; a garage that was built with the sole purpose of housing an abused car that I could tinker with and take it away from the nasty people that had hurt it. Imagine Battersea Dogs Home, but slightly more rubbish. And full of rust.  Two things became clear; apart from a couple of small scuffs to the trim the bodywork was in surprisingly good nick and it also desperately needed new shoes.  With a quick clean and hand polish it looked ok! About a month after getting the stock 15" rims clad in some Rainsport 3s (fab tyres, heartily recommended!) metroman linked me to a set of Style 32s that had been freshly refurbed and, without thinking about my outlay on tyres, I snapped them up. I was chuffed that I would finally be rid of the stock 15s; I feel they date the car and the fact that these had lost all their lacquer was really bringing it down a bit. I mean just look at that arch gap, I could have an entire family paying me rent for that space:  Now that I've got through all the preamble I should have some meatier posts; I have my pictures sorted and the work on the car will, to your eyes, dear reader, speed up no end. It has actually been over the span of about 6 months! |
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After such a high point of getting some new wheels and just generally enjoying driving the thing I had two pretty bad strokes of luck. First up, UPS had RUINED my lovely new Style 32s. I had bought 5 wheels (3 x 8J, 2 x 9J) and not one had escaped damage. All of them had marks like this:  or this:  These were dumped on the backburner and unfortunately they won't make a reappearance for a few months but, I assure you, they're worth the wait!  Secondly, my viscous fan let go (on the M25 at 8am on a Monday morning), shortly followed by my clutch. With work filling up all week and most of my weekends I didn't have time to sort it myself and I bunged it into Munich Legends in East Sussex to sort for me. I hated paying someone else to work on my car but I didn't have too many options. Two good points did come out of all this however; my wallet was so light that my back pain was a thing of the past and I also saw a car that showed me the potential in my E34:  It was about this point that my E34 got the nickname Rommel and metroman got a hankering for a BMW of his own. I'm sure you've seen his weldathon on this lovely thing:  If not then I urge you to have a read of it here. Turns out his very first photo was mine and uncredited though, the naughty so and so. |
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Right, I'm on a roll and have opened a beer so let's get on with this. After 3 or 4 months of ownership I had come to the conclusion that there was something markedly wrong with Rommel. As a whole the car was just too damn comfortable. The suspension was like riding on jelly and in terms of noise it was like a summer breeze whispering through woodland. Something had to be done about this, and quickly. So we did something:  With the two resonators removed the exhaust sound was definitely louder. Unfortunately it sounded like a toilet flushing. It is the only way I can describe the noise; it popped and banged but just sounded like water circulating round a cistern. It was disappointing, to say the least! It led to the conclusion that this car needs straight pipes but I'm yet to bend the pipe for that - it's hopefully a job for this week! Skip forward 5 months and metroman and I had our own little weldathon on Rommel. His OS sill and both jacking points had been "professionally repaired" by tacking some sheet over the top and undersealing it. Why someone paid £600 for this God only knows but it had to be sorted. Out came the grinder, powerfile and MIG! First up we peeled the carpet back (a job in itself, the attached insulating foam is several inches thick and the carpet weighs a ton) and peeled back the soundproofing to get an idea of how much metal needed to be removed.  After a session with the wire brush and drill combo on the underseal we could see the extent of the "repair".  The rust was bad, but not as bad as first expected (and far better than James' 6er!) In fact, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel:  Pun intended. I'll get my coat... |
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After some of this:  We were left with half a driver's floor, two thirds of a front wing and a mostly whole sill. With the aid of a few sheets of steel and a repair panel from ECP the following happened:   Unfortunately I took criminally few photos but we ended up removing chunks like this:  And we got to a point where it looks like this:  Coming up next: I break my local postie's back with packages and the Style 32s reappear. |
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With the weldathon having taken up the Winter months I turned my attention to getting the Style 32s to Lepsons. I had got quite downhearted about these wheels and was considering getting them sprayed in silver and selling them. I was tempted by some BBS RC090s. I'm so glad I didn't, however. Being an entitled pig of a customer I sent Lepsons this photo and said "Make them like this but cooler."  Here's how they came back:  I picked their dark anthracite and it's almost a perfect match for the body colour. I love them  I got these shod in some Goodyear Eagle F1s and it was at this point that I realised it would have been mad to sell them.  With the car still apart from the weldathon I took this chance to pick up a new driver's seat:  and also a new brain for the E34, to make him as cunning as the Desert Fox for which he's named:  Megasquirt 3 with all the options  |
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I'm four beers in and afraid to stop. The MS unit went together really easily, although I did spend most of my formative years soldering.  My original plan was to package MS in the original Bosch Motronic 1.3 case but as I wanted the MS3X optional board I soon realised I wouldn't be able to package this acceptably. Here's my V1 adapter:  This has been replaced by something far neater:  Which, by chance, was finished this very morning:  This is all still to be installed though. While I was building the MS board itself metroman and I took a quick jaunt to our local scrappy on the hunt for a V6 Omega or similar. Having liberated the only one in the yard of its coil pack and MAF we set about making a weird lovechild of Vauxhall and BMW. I present to you the VMW MAF/airbox combo:  I shall have to grab a pic of the coilpack install later, but let's just say BMW should have done it from the factory! |
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With MS built I did a *tiny* bit of shopping:  I picked up some massive 4 piston Brembos from an 840 for a song:  Just need to mill out an adapter at work but time is always short for that sort of thing! I also found this lot lurking in the corner of my garage:  With MS going in the car it would be rude not to, wouldn't it? And with that I'm calling it a night. Any comments/criticism are more than welcome. Thanks for reading! |
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Speedle
Posted a lot
Need a Country Rock band in the Hampshire Area? https://www.facebook.com/DirtRoadDiaryUK
Posts: 2,221
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Jun 10, 2015 10:55:46 GMT
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Those wheels do look awesome! Always great to see a neglected car find the owner it deserves look forward to seeing the progress with the MS  awesome! |
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Jun 10, 2015 21:00:02 GMT
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T'was a shame about the exhaust, all the fabrication went so well, it came off and went back on without a fight, it all went to plan. And then the engine started and it sounded like a toilet. Sadness.
James
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Jun 11, 2015 11:33:34 GMT
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wheels look great, but I'm not sure they will have enough caliper clearance for the brembos,
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Jun 11, 2015 15:06:37 GMT
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Those wheels. I feel a tightening in my loin.
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Jun 11, 2015 20:07:46 GMT
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That's M50B25, right?
Needs a big turbo then!
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 Click picture for more |
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Jun 11, 2015 21:18:38 GMT
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That's M50B25, right? Needs a big turbo then! M20b25, I'm afraid. 8.8 stock CR though, so FI is the goal! I have loads more to talk about, and metroman sorted me out a load of photos of the welding (my phone died that night) so when I have a bit more time on my hands I'll get this updated. Thanks to everyone who has commented; it's great to see people like the car and it's reassuring to see I'm not worrying over nothing re: the brembos fitting with he Style 32s! |
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Jun 11, 2015 22:22:42 GMT
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Am liking this. Any car that the owner admits sounds like a toilet deserves to be bookmarked!
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bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,937
Club RR Member Number: 71
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Jun 11, 2015 23:20:54 GMT
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Oooh cross pollenation, welding style 32's big brakes and megasquirt - I'm in
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Jun 11, 2015 23:48:26 GMT
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I'm glad my brutal honesty is appreciated! I have a video somewhere of it; it's truly dreadful. It was so bad that every time I put my foot down I cringed - it did cause me to up my MPG rate considerably! Before I lose the imgur album I felt it would be time to deal with the welding on the OS sill and jacking point. This was done over the space of two or three weekends; the only time I had access to the car due to work. First up we had to make an offering to the Petrolhead Gods at the Altar of Speed:  There's quite a story behind this bit of memorabilia. In the last job I was in we provided total event solutions to some high end clients, one of which was a football club that hasn't left the Premiership in a long time and they have a mad budget. After a particularly bad 22hr shift there myself and my colleague decided a burn out down the red carpet was the best way to leave (it was in the work van, hence the feeble attempt). The above was the result. He was our chippie and he framed the result for me. Very sadly, he was found dead a couple of weeks later. It came as a complete shock and was my main reason for changing jobs. I felt hanging this in my garage was the best way to remember him! Next up we assembled our tools for the task ahead in a slightly dodgy manner:  The fire extinguisher was mainly for the welder as, while I knew the carpet was fireproof, it had never been extensively tested. I was also a tad concerned over the socket, but it was right next to where we were working and saved a longer cable run! Attacking the jacking point and sill with the assembled tools started to reveal the horrors hidden by underseal and shoddy workmanship.  The rust had ruined the bottom of the OS wing, the front of the sill and the floor around the pedals. After gently introducing the rust to Mr. Cutting Disc we had an E34 with rather more ventilation.  After cleaning all of this back we had this:   This is where the CAD (Cardboard Aided Design for anyone who hasn't seen Project Binky) came in. Lots of templates, lots of trial fitting and we soon had it all welded up. Unfortunately this was probably around 3am, so I don't think either of us had the presence of mind to take any photos! You can see the finished result earlier in the thread, though. The harshness of the camera flash shows up the slight difference in paint but viewed in the daylight it's really hard to see the repair unless you're looking for it. I was chuffed! That's about everything caught up to February so this thread is rapidly steaming towards the present day. I'm trying to be more thorough with my photo taking as well, so hopefully huge jobs like the above will have a bit more detail! Dan |
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awesome!
