Ratch's 318iS Resto is back!!!
Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 10:29 pm
Testing testing 1, 2, 3...
This thread was deleted a while back, I don't know why but I love resto threads so here is mine.
1990 H-reg Lazer Blue 318iS. I'm the second owner, have had it for over 11 years and it had 50K on it in the dark winter of 1997 when I bought it for 5G's!. Since then it's lived with me in Germany and Holland and has done London to North Africa twice, Munich to North Africa once, Munich to Milan once, Munich to Amsterdam twice and countless UK and European road trips. It has never once missed a beat.
Here is what it was like before the resto lol!
Red rear licence plate surround - makes a huge difference I think. Have a spare for a Cabrio if I ever find one unmolested!
Only mods here are MTECH II Wheel (bought 9 years ago for £150, just bought replacement for £260!) this one is on eBay. Illuminated gear knob and of course the Indigo re-trim in Cabrio pattern.
The fearsome badge! How many Cayennes I've dispatched using just these 4 characters...
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Anyway, I've known about the bubbling paint on the roof for a while and decided it was time to take a look and deal with it.
Pulled the stuff away to see how bad it was. A-Pillar is clean, if it get's here you;re in real trouble.
Inside, passenger window ahead, windscreen on the right.
Rest of the roof was perfect - which made it even more annoying.
Not that bad but still a lot of work to sort it properly. Two ways to repair this - a local repair, chop it out, bond in new sunroof tray etc but the whole roof will need a skim of filler as it will warp after all that welding and chopping etc. The other way is to replace the entire roofskin, which is still available from BMW.
Item No 1
So, roofskin and sunroof tray ordered, in it went to Townley Panel & Paint in Essex - highly recommend. Not cheap but sterling work. Here is the roofskin at their shop. BMW didn't tell me that it comes with a sunroof tray bonded in so I now have a spare tray. They did very kindly refund the cost of the tray and let me keep it too - !
Also converting to power sunroof so need a new motor drive panel to replace the manual one.
New drainage tubes, clips and sound proofing etc - best not to put any grotty stuff back in there.
At this point, you (PacerPete) are all wondering why the hell I'd spend £1300 all in to replace the roof of a car that's not that special, find another one re-shell it mate bla bla bla.
But.
Where else am I going to find a mechanically perfect, full BMWSH Lazer Blue rot-free 2 door shell? And if I do, it wil be at least 2G's before all the hassle of mixing and matching. I'm very attached to my car, had it since I was like 19. That VIN has heart and soul in it - I will one day hand it down to a grand kid and it will still look like this mark my words.
Enough gayness.
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Whilst the car was there, I'd decided that my interior and spec levels needed to sorting. It's always nagged me that the seats need to be the correct stitching pattern. My original seats were re-trimmed in Cabrio style and I wanted them to be the vertical stitched version. So I sold the whole lot for £500 to an Irish dude (they are heated and mint so were worth that) and picked up an entire tidyish fabric blue sports interior for £80 with rear arm rest and ski-hatch (I have the BMW ski bag kit!) and got in touch with my guys at B-Trim for another round of cowhide madness.
Also adding in the new heating elements from BMW, a must in Britain, just awesome after shooting 18 in a cold winters morning.
All new foam for drivers side - I can't stand a saggy seat and I want the car to look, feel and drive like new.
Also got new seat rails as when I bolt a freshly trimmed set of seats onto a new carpet I don't want manky rusty rails.
All vinyl door cards this time - despite what people say, these cannot be replicated well in Leather. Very nice set thanks to Kos. I actually have 2 sets - gotta hoard that shizzle for the E30- parts armageddon that we all know is coming lol!
I'm also adding some door speaker pods made by AudioSport (the least chavviest looking on the market). They will also be trimmed in leather. These were the most factory looking so chose themselves really. Chunky MDF backed fiberglass so quite rigid.
6.5" Alpine Components - old now but they were £300 back in the day and I got them for £50 clearance.
These will sound AND look great when trimmed up in blue leather. May actually not keep them on as it's dangerously close to Max Power stuff but nice to have and I'm getting the re-trim done for next to nothing.
Infinity coaxials in the back, in a new parcel shelf I might add.
Tweeter pods also new from BMW, I've removed the Nokia tweeters and will replace with the Alpines.
Genesis Profile 2 to run the fronts, stealthily mounted under the passenger seat to keep the boot clear for my Golf Clubs lol. Decent Phono cables too, from my audiophile days.
I'm now waiting for delivery of my new Becker Cascade 7944 Single Din, Europe-Wide SatNav, Bluetooth telephony, CD Radio head unit. A truly awesome bit of kit, state-of-the-art and the best bit is it looks totally at home in an E30. Understated in black, it has 15 backlight settings - one of which matches the amber in our cars. Does absolutely everything, looks retro and simple.
Some light sound deadening too. Rear seats, transmission tunnel and firewall. Doors too but not too much.
Also building up the spec with various bits.
Full 13-Button Computer retrofit with brand new loom and a truly mint display with clean LCD.
Maplight mirror is a must too - also with new loom.
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Got the car back from Townley, the results are solid.
All waxoyled and seam-sealed to death.
Before.
After.
So, with the car back in the garage, I set about waxoyling the crap out of it. It was already done about 4 years ago but time for some more. I used about a full large tin in every single cavity. Chassis rails, inner wings, doors, footwell, rear arches, parcel shelf - everywhere! Trick is to let it sit in a warm place for a few days and it softens and runs deep into the the tight cavities and crack for full effect.
Flooded the wiper cavities too - tidy scuttle!
Sorted a rusty mirror base that bugged me for a while - mint mirror in correct paint from my stockpile!
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Then it was lifted off to Cooks Ferry in Enfield for some engine work.
£600 worth of full timing case kit, water pump, thermostat and endless other bits and pieces.
Engine candy lol!
Also have a couple of these cases of BMW hardware - they really are the only thing to use quality wise. I just hoard that stuff as you always need more.
Cooks Ferry did a LOT of great stuff - all the bits that really matter and all BMW parts. New clutch, Slave Cylinder, Prop Bearing, Prop Coupling, New ICV, deleted the throttle Heater Plate (only because it adds a stupid amount of unnecessary hosing and not to gain the magical extra 2bhp lol) Full Inspection II and a ton of bushes and linkages at the rear etc, including the gear shift knuckle and steering damper - again for that 'new' drive.
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Whilst it was away I prepared the interior a bit more. Got a mint blue carpet to start with and will to steam clean it - it's actually pretty damn clean as is. I wanted a new one but of course it's NLA. This one is cool because it's the posher 6-Cyclinder (:roll:) carpet which is much better quality with better sound deadening.
Also doing a fair few tweaks whilst here. Converting to power sunroof so picked up a motor and loom for £12 and this mint sunroof control panel trim (NLA!) for £35 or so.
Moving back to the greasy bits, got box loads of stuff waiting to go on, BMW control arms, tie-rods, ARB bits and various linkages etc to tighten up the front-end. I've done all this before so should rip through it.
Eccentric TCA bushes - can't wait to see if they make the difference everyone says they do.
So this is where we are at the mo. Got a brand new front valance to paint and fit with all new exterior black trims, strips etc.
Will be at it again in the coming days getting the interior back in, wiring up all the goodies and once it's painted all that tatsy new exterior trim to fit. Alloy wheel refurb and we're away!
