e28 that's been standing for years..

[snakebrain]

Much later.........It'll be on the drive tomorrow!!

Spec includes LSD, OBC, M-Tech kit, cream cloth interior and Zinnobar(?) red paintwork. I'm chuffed, but it needs a lot of love before it'll be up to scratch!

[broadie777]

Rust is the killer of most e28,s i would take a small tap hammer and (hit)tap everypart of the bodywork sills arches.
Ive owned 3 e28's all have had rust issues.
The e28 525i/528i has the bomb proof m30 engine so no problems there.
Dont know how much your paying for this car but if it helps iam selling my 1985 e28 525i with t&t for £450.This may help you with priceing your e28.

[snakebrain]

With 9000 miles?! It's pretty good rust-wise. Just that patch on the A-pillar from a storage accident, and the battery tray really. Panels are all tidy and sills are solid.

[Speedtouch]

9000 miles from new, or has it been around the clock? We need to see pics of this dude!

[snakebrain]

There's no history to confirm, but the car is competely rust-free from front to back, the steering wheel and driver's seat look pretty much untouched and, rather amusingly, the original owner's dirty mags were found, bone-dry and in more or less mint condition too, when I ripped the carpets in the rear passenger footwell up this afternoon! He must have been hiding them from his missus there or something. The fact they were so dry after 17 years in a barn is very encouraging.

(Anyone who wants a copy of 'Dave & Katie's Home-Made XXX Amateur Collection', originally priced at £5 in circa 1986 can PM me. The less interesting 'Miss Behaviour's Pocket Phone Book' with 'not just phone numbers but names and addresses of escorts, chat lines, sex shops, saunas.......' is also available for the connoisseur. Sent in a plain envelope naturally.)

Back to the car...the mad hatter seems to have been employed to rewire it at some stage, the battery tray is a corroded mess, the engine had no coolant in it whatsoever when I got it, and the gaiter on the gear stick got torn by a spare door I stashed inside it when it was being trailered down here.

Otherwise, it's not too bad really!! Current eta in my estimation is probably something like 6 months to have it sorted. My bro, who knows a lot more about cars than I do, estimates it at sometime round 2020!!

Oh, and the reg plate is 'xxx 5281' which with a little creative typefacing could very easily resemble 528i which I quite like.

Oh, and the guy I bought it off threw in an e30 radiator he picked up somewhere along the line. It's untested and I'm not vouching for it, but if anyone wants it they can have it for nowt, plus p&p!

[Speedtouch]

Sounds great mate, but once again;

[snakebrain]

Zinnoberrot 528i. Lock barrels have been removed by the chap who had it last having a tinker with the central locking. Likewise with the door cards. None of the electric windows work, fuse maybe?

[snakebrain]

Hmmmph, noone like my car then?!

[inlovewithRWD]

It looks pretty good for a car that has been standing for a very long time. It should look stunning when it is finished.

[snakebrain]

It looks pretty good for a car that has been standing for a very long time. It should look stunning when it is finished.

Ta mate! She was feeling unloved then!

I think it'll be a beaut when it's done. It's already looking a lot better for a few days of love. I'll post some more photos as it comes along.....

[inlovewithRWD]

Was the barn pretty dry? The underside looks remarkably rot-free.

[snakebrain]

Was the barn pretty dry? The underside looks remarkably rot-free.

It seems to have been. There's a patch of rust on the inside corner of the passenger door, where the door meets the bottom of the A-pillar. That's about all I can find, and I've got a spare completely rust-free door if I ever decide I can be bothered changing it.

I hoovered out an unbelievable amount of loose sheep's wool(!) and general crap the other day. All round the rim of the boot and bonnet lid were filled with an unspeakable decaying mess of pine needles and who knows what else. All in all, she was definitely not looking her best, but it's amazing what a wash and a brush have done.

The side-skirts are off now too for a rust-hunt. All good there too!

I've got a bit of general replacing of perishables to do - all the engine bay hoses, brake lines, few bits of trim etc - then just the exhaust and welding, bit of wiring headache and a bloody good service should see her more or less straight. Exciting times!!

[snakebrain]

By the way, does anybody know if an M5 boot battery tray will bolt directly into one of these? It's one option I'm considering....

Part 15 on this diagram.

[snakebrain]

Update, haven't done that much really beyond get her cleaned up and figure out what she actually needs. The list is a tad daunting!!

Seats out for a clean....



Arty parcel-shelf...



Yukky rust - inside of passenger door where it meets the A-pillar, got a new rust-free door that can go on...



Locks reassembled, door cards on and a bloody good hoover out...



Bit of a wash on the outside...



Sparing amounts of cutting polish and liberal amounts of elbow grease later - the paint's coming up a treat, look at the difference in these doors....



Halfway along that side done before I had to drop everything and go to work. Been raining since....

[toby]

It's coming along nicely. Is that a bit of tape still left by the driver's lock barrel?

[snakebrain]

Yeah, I was only polishing up a bit to see how the paint would come up. Didn't want to get too heavy with the T-cut round it so I just left that for now...

[toby]

I was going to say if it needed painting you could do away with the door locks altogether and go with remote central locking. A bit OTT maybe but an idle thought I couldn't keep to myself. Especially if there is a problem with the locks anyway or was just in the central locking system?

[snakebrain]

Nope locks are all good now - well they're working perfectly but occasionally when you close the boot they'll all start opening and closing which I think is probably a loose connection...

[snakebrain]

Bit of an update..

Going in for bodywork love to the a-pillar and a respray for the kit, hopefully this week. The paint's actually come up really well for a good polish so I'll try to leave it alone if I can.

Decided on a stainless exhaust to replace the rusty old centre and non-existent back on it at the mo. That'll come when the engine's all nice and sorted.

Starting to slog through replacing hoses and so on in the engine bay. When that's all done it's timing belt and water pump time, then she can finally be started up in earnest and we can start on the rest of the problems!

SI board batteries might be dead, or the board might be fried. The mpg, rpm and temp guages are all dead. The temp guage was definitely working when I got it though. Getting that sorted would be nice as I'd like to have an idea of engine temp and rpm. Mpg can go f*** itself!

The interior's coming along for some intensive scrubbing. 5 hours on the oily stains in the passenger seat has made all the difference!

My bro found a couple of sets of polybushes left over from when he did an e24 that fit the e28 so I'll get the rest of them and polybush throughout eventually.

New brakes lines and discs on soon as well.

Ouch, this might take a while!!

Edit: Also discovered the car was originally a demonstrator at Bavarian Auto in Belfast. They put the number plate and nice spec on it before it was bought by the 'original' owner...Hopefully it wasn't ragged too badly by test-drive heroes!

Before...



After...



Before...



After...



Before...



After... (I couldn't shift the stain under the passenger seat, even with half a bottle of Autoglym's finest and several hours scrubbing. It's under the passenger seat though, so could be worse..)



Before...



After...





Haha, I still love this! Pardon the missing cluster..

[snakebrain]

Something makes me think this might not be an original BMW fitment...:laugh: :laugh:





Yes, that is a household radiator tap!

[Ollie_bwoii]

Who would do that......

Seriously looking good.

[snakebrain]

Seriously looking good.

You think?!



That radiator tap is unbelievable, isn't it?

[gooner1]

Only just spotted this.
Fairplay for at least trying to save it.
Re the carpet, Dye it Black ?.

[snakebrain]

Only just spotted this.
Fairplay for at least trying to save it.
Re the carpet, Dye it Black ?.

It's actually probably not as bad as it looks. The shell is good, which is the main thing. Only significant rust on the actual structure is a patch where the rear panel joins the wing. Sort that out, (and the a-pillar and battery tray!) and you've got a remarkably rust-free E28 with nice, unfaded Zinnobar paint and a decent engine.

The carpet's actually come up beautifully now for a lot of work with some of this.




The bit under the passenger seat is the only visible mark left on the carpet now. I've decided it's almost certainly a can of coke that was rested on the centre console and spilled, because there were run marks all down the inside of the transmission tunnel on that side leading to the big patch at the bottom. It's under the seat though, so no big deal. Won't be winning any concours but hey, who cares? lol

The driver's seat took a bit of a battering in the cleaning process though. There were a few thin patches that got roughed up a bit. Didn't have much choice though - it was covered in oily handprints so it was scrub or nothing. I may just have my eye on a nice set of cloth M-Tech sports seats to replace it though..

Brake and fuel lines need to be done to be on the safe side, then it's pads, discs and other consumable stuff. Oh, and a lot of hoses and stuff in the engine bay. Otherwise, it basically all works!

[alan1272]

looking good, keep at it, zinnobar e28's look ace when polished up
this one's mine

[Ollie_bwoii]

Beige carpets are impossible too keep clean.. I put some floor mats (obviously oem ones) in mine too try and help out the carpet, but its worn and torn anyway.

[toby]

Radiator tap - that's just bizarre isn't it?

[snakebrain]

It's mad, isn't it?! That one's really going to impress the ladies.

'Turn the heating up.'

'Ok darling.'

'Why are you pulling over?'

[snakebrain]

Time for an update I think...

The current focus is on giving the engine bay area a bit of a tidy-up and general setting to rights.

So, first things first, out comes the air box and associated plumbing, then yank the radiator and and fan assemblage to create some room to work in there. The fan was unbelievably hard to shift - I even had a thread on here in my desperation. It came in the end, but it was more than a 'sharp tap' it took to release it! That's what you get when you're the first person to undo things in 20 years.... Bit of a whizz round the inlet manifold and rocker cover with the wire brush get us to here...



Not forgetting to give the inner wings a good clean and t-cut along the way..



Then pull the rocker cover for some intensive sanding and painting, revealing much delicious oily complexity...



Then it's onto tidying up the various bits and pieces that have come out of the bay. So, take one manky old headlamp unit...



Strip it down and take the 'car restorer's best friend', aka a good old drill with a wire brush on the end,to it..



Then spend a delightfully entertaining few hours sanding the worst of the corrosion damage off the surface, stick it in the dishwasher so it's lovely and clean(!), prime and apply several coats of satin black spray paint...



Leave to dry while you get on with stripping and sanding various other bits down...



And that's about all for now folks! B)

[johnna]

Stood about for 15 years just outside Belfast?

I'd be checking for tupperware!

Looks a great project mind. Well done.

[SLIMADI]

Looking really good keep it up loving the rad tap

[snakebrain]

Cheers lads - I'll never be cold on a winter's night with this car!

[TheHeap]

For 9,000 miles the interior is narf rotten

[snakebrain]

For 9,000 miles the interior is narf rotten

Don't believe that for a second! It was never MOTed though, so from being registered in Feb '87 that means it must have been off the road from about '92 at least. First owner sold it to a farmer about that time, who eventually sold it to the guy I bought it from. It looks like the farmer never really used it, or certainly never had it MOTed.

The guy I bought it from was into Fords and was buying a Escort off the farmer, and saw this one and took it too, just thinking it was a good car and worth saving. He never got round to it - when I met him he had 11 Fords in various states of repair or restoration, including a really stunning XR3i - and eventually put it up for sale when he ran out of storage space...

It was literally in a barn for a long time - the car was full of sheep's wool, they must have been storing wool or maybe even shearing in there - for a long time before I bought it. The windows had been open too, so it was full of mud and wool basically!

[snakebrain]

I did eventually get the interior pretty well cleaned up...

From this...





To this...







Worked long and late on that......