Henna Red 323i
Moderator: martauto
UBL has been with me for 22 years now. 
Probably longer than some of you guys have been around!
She and her sister car 401 go around together and 401 was built in May 83 whereas UBL was built in Dec 82; hence no side vents in boot.
It was in Motor magazine for the year from March 83 until May 84 and the pilot was Jeremy Sinek. I have all the reports from the magazine covering their ownership. It then went back to BMW who put on the side repeaters and sold it on through the dealer network.
I picked it up from Calterdon in Inverness with 40k on the clock, being the second owner. It now has 101k.
The TBMW article was done in Sept 2002.
Probably longer than some of you guys have been around!She and her sister car 401 go around together and 401 was built in May 83 whereas UBL was built in Dec 82; hence no side vents in boot.
It was in Motor magazine for the year from March 83 until May 84 and the pilot was Jeremy Sinek. I have all the reports from the magazine covering their ownership. It then went back to BMW who put on the side repeaters and sold it on through the dealer network.
I picked it up from Calterdon in Inverness with 40k on the clock, being the second owner. It now has 101k.
The TBMW article was done in Sept 2002.
'82 323i henna
'90 320iSE sterling silver No more!
'10 116d Sport Red - MkI
'12 1.4 Punto Easy Exotica Red
'11 X3 3.0d SE
'89 240 DL Estate
'90 320iSE sterling silver No more!
'10 116d Sport Red - MkI
'12 1.4 Punto Easy Exotica Red
'11 X3 3.0d SE
'89 240 DL Estate
Dug out the Total BMW last night. Car looks great - question - it says your car was recalled for a 'performance upgrade'. Did they all get that??
If i remember correctly, the very first 323i's only had 139bhp and from contemporary road tests, the lack of perfomance was something journo's commented about. BMW soon after upgraded the B23 to 149bhp so at a guess recalled the earlier cars to upgrade them.kdevitt wrote:Dug out the Total BMW last night. Car looks great - question - it says your car was recalled for a 'performance upgrade'. Did they all get that??
The first few hundred or so off the line had the wrong inlet manifold on and instead of 139bhp, they were showing less than that. The new bits were meant to take them to 139bhp.
I believe all the press cars were in the recall as the early private ones were as well.
The 1984 model year that started in August 83 went to 150bhp with a change of cam, I believe.
I believe all the press cars were in the recall as the early private ones were as well.
The 1984 model year that started in August 83 went to 150bhp with a change of cam, I believe.
'82 323i henna
'90 320iSE sterling silver No more!
'10 116d Sport Red - MkI
'12 1.4 Punto Easy Exotica Red
'11 X3 3.0d SE
'89 240 DL Estate
'90 320iSE sterling silver No more!
'10 116d Sport Red - MkI
'12 1.4 Punto Easy Exotica Red
'11 X3 3.0d SE
'89 240 DL Estate
A few more updates. The fuel guage hasn't worked since I got the car. I also decided I wanted kph dials on the car, so decided to buy some german dials and swap over the fuel guage while I was at it.
Old and new -
KPH dials out...
Quick bit of mileage correction!!
Unfortunately it seems the fuel gauge wasn't the issue. So I ordered a brand new fuel level sender from my dealer. Relatively easy to install - rear bench comes out.
Panel comes off to reveal the old sender unit.
The layout of the pipes is different on the new unit - so I still need to order new hoses. The smaller hose fits, but its kinked.
So back to the never ending bodywork issues! There were plenty of spots of bubbling paint on the drivers side sill. Took a wire brush and drill to it, and then treated the rust.
Then I sanded this down to bare metal
I removed the side trims panels and sanded down the rear quarter arch section. I'll spray up to this trim panel and see how it comes out.
Have a brand new nearside wing, so that got some paint - after one coat and some wetsanding -
Getting the old wing off was troublesome to say the least. Most of the bolts and rusted, rounded, seized etc! One bolt refused to budge, so with the rest removed I had to pull down the wing and convince it to come off with a hammer. Check out the amount of mud caught in behind the wing!
Took a steel brush to behind the wing and cleaned off any surface rust.
Thankfully there was no rot behind the wing at all. To keep it that way I put down two coats of underbody sealant with Waxoyl in it.
Need to get a new bottom valance now as well - its destroyed as you can see below. New offside wing required too. They'll be on the way next month hopefully - I'm not stuck for things to keep me busy with this car at the moment thankfully.
Finished spraying the wing. The finish is nice and smooth - but not as smooth a job as a pro would do. Until it does get a full professional respray - this will have to do! I'm waiting on new arch liners to arrive so I only put the arch on loosely and put in two bolts to hold it while I buffed it.
Heres the arch after its last sanding:
After one pass with the porter cable:
I also got a new front valance from Germany - its a pattern part, the OEM is stupidly expensive.
After priming:
The old one came off easily enough, 4 bolts on top, 2 at the bottom, and one on each side holding onto the plastic lip.
The new one seems a decent fit - I'll know for sure when I'm aligning the wings.
Have an offside wing on its way to me along with the new fuel hose needed for the newer type sender unit.
Had no takers for the Tec 1 kit which was surprising enough, so decided to have a go at spraying the front bumper and seeing if I like it on the car. It took a while to get it all separated - taking it apart gives you a good idea of how its meant to go back together though!!
Gave the valance a good sanding, primed and sprayed it last night
Took off the front valance I fitted the other day - I needed to remove the fogs from it.
There were 4 bolts holding in each fog light - once I had the whole unit removed I needed to just remove the fog light itself from the holder - it fits straight into the new bumper.
The new bumper was reassembled and fitted - its not aligned or fully bolted in, need to get the offside wing done first! I think I'll go ahead with the rest of the kit now though!!
Old and new -
KPH dials out...
Quick bit of mileage correction!!
Unfortunately it seems the fuel gauge wasn't the issue. So I ordered a brand new fuel level sender from my dealer. Relatively easy to install - rear bench comes out.
Panel comes off to reveal the old sender unit.
The layout of the pipes is different on the new unit - so I still need to order new hoses. The smaller hose fits, but its kinked.
So back to the never ending bodywork issues! There were plenty of spots of bubbling paint on the drivers side sill. Took a wire brush and drill to it, and then treated the rust.
Then I sanded this down to bare metal
I removed the side trims panels and sanded down the rear quarter arch section. I'll spray up to this trim panel and see how it comes out.
Have a brand new nearside wing, so that got some paint - after one coat and some wetsanding -
Getting the old wing off was troublesome to say the least. Most of the bolts and rusted, rounded, seized etc! One bolt refused to budge, so with the rest removed I had to pull down the wing and convince it to come off with a hammer. Check out the amount of mud caught in behind the wing!
Took a steel brush to behind the wing and cleaned off any surface rust.
Thankfully there was no rot behind the wing at all. To keep it that way I put down two coats of underbody sealant with Waxoyl in it.
Need to get a new bottom valance now as well - its destroyed as you can see below. New offside wing required too. They'll be on the way next month hopefully - I'm not stuck for things to keep me busy with this car at the moment thankfully.
Finished spraying the wing. The finish is nice and smooth - but not as smooth a job as a pro would do. Until it does get a full professional respray - this will have to do! I'm waiting on new arch liners to arrive so I only put the arch on loosely and put in two bolts to hold it while I buffed it.
Heres the arch after its last sanding:
After one pass with the porter cable:
I also got a new front valance from Germany - its a pattern part, the OEM is stupidly expensive.
After priming:
The old one came off easily enough, 4 bolts on top, 2 at the bottom, and one on each side holding onto the plastic lip.
The new one seems a decent fit - I'll know for sure when I'm aligning the wings.
Have an offside wing on its way to me along with the new fuel hose needed for the newer type sender unit.
Had no takers for the Tec 1 kit which was surprising enough, so decided to have a go at spraying the front bumper and seeing if I like it on the car. It took a while to get it all separated - taking it apart gives you a good idea of how its meant to go back together though!!
Gave the valance a good sanding, primed and sprayed it last night
Took off the front valance I fitted the other day - I needed to remove the fogs from it.
There were 4 bolts holding in each fog light - once I had the whole unit removed I needed to just remove the fog light itself from the holder - it fits straight into the new bumper.
The new bumper was reassembled and fitted - its not aligned or fully bolted in, need to get the offside wing done first! I think I'll go ahead with the rest of the kit now though!!
Last edited by kdevitt on Tue May 07, 2013 9:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Ollie_bwoii
- Married to the E30 Zone
- Posts: 8695
- Joined: Sat May 17, 2008 11:00 pm
- Location: Northampton
Great work! Would look cooler with chrome bumpers etc... in original spec imo!
Haven't posted an update in a while - have quite a bit done, but nothing worthy of updating people with. Will hopefully be getting the car collected within a fortnight to have to respray done and the brake lines replaced.
In the meantime - I picked up a very tidy sports leather from Steve (E30topless) on here a few weeks back, its been sitting in the garage ever since. There were no rips or tears, but the leather was cracking and in need of some work I guess.
I bought the leather restoration kit from Dynamix Dyes (www.dynamixdyes.com) - they have a full selection of colours available, thankfully black is as straightforward as it gets. The kit arrived quickly - and contains a leather cleaner, a conditioner, the dye, an applicator sponge and a leather scented air freshener.
Heres a few pics of the seats before any work was done -
The interior needs to be cleaned thoroughly using the supplied cleaner, after which I gave it a wipe down with methylated spirits to remove any remnants of waxes or grease. I then gave the seats a sanding with 600 grit paper to remove major cracking. Probably could have done with sanding down a bit further, but I didn't fancy doing any significant damage.
I cut the supplied sponge into three sections and used it to apply very thin coats of the dye. Within about two coats the seats looked significantly better, the amount of dye supplied allowed me to do 6 coats on the full interior. I still need to apply the conditioner to the leather - the seats have to be left for two days before its done.
Heres the finished pictures -
Am delighted with the results - it came up amazing. Its obviously not like a brand new interior - the cracking can still be seen, but its well worth spending the money on the kit if your interior is a bit tired looking.
So with all that done, the interior got stuck back in the garage where it'll remain for a few weeks yet!
In the meantime - I picked up a very tidy sports leather from Steve (E30topless) on here a few weeks back, its been sitting in the garage ever since. There were no rips or tears, but the leather was cracking and in need of some work I guess.
I bought the leather restoration kit from Dynamix Dyes (www.dynamixdyes.com) - they have a full selection of colours available, thankfully black is as straightforward as it gets. The kit arrived quickly - and contains a leather cleaner, a conditioner, the dye, an applicator sponge and a leather scented air freshener.
Heres a few pics of the seats before any work was done -
The interior needs to be cleaned thoroughly using the supplied cleaner, after which I gave it a wipe down with methylated spirits to remove any remnants of waxes or grease. I then gave the seats a sanding with 600 grit paper to remove major cracking. Probably could have done with sanding down a bit further, but I didn't fancy doing any significant damage.
I cut the supplied sponge into three sections and used it to apply very thin coats of the dye. Within about two coats the seats looked significantly better, the amount of dye supplied allowed me to do 6 coats on the full interior. I still need to apply the conditioner to the leather - the seats have to be left for two days before its done.
Heres the finished pictures -
Am delighted with the results - it came up amazing. Its obviously not like a brand new interior - the cracking can still be seen, but its well worth spending the money on the kit if your interior is a bit tired looking.
So with all that done, the interior got stuck back in the garage where it'll remain for a few weeks yet!
Last edited by kdevitt on Tue May 07, 2013 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Think it cost around £90, not certain though!!ImysE30 wrote:Seats look like new
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Ollie_bwoii
- Married to the E30 Zone
- Posts: 8695
- Joined: Sat May 17, 2008 11:00 pm
- Location: Northampton
Looking stunning! Although imo Chrome bumpers looked better!
On the rear arch:
Are you going to paint the whole panel or just some how blend it into the original paint?
And what primers, paints, laquers are you using?
Although imo Chrome bumpers looked better!On the rear arch:
Are you going to paint the whole panel or just some how blend it into the original paint?
And what primers, paints, laquers are you using?
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ImysE30
- Married to the E30 Zone
- Posts: 22486
- Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 11:00 pm
- Location: Derby Massive!!
Works well, cheaper than a re-trimkdevitt wrote:Think it cost around £90, not certain though!!ImysE30 wrote:Seats look like new
Current Fleet:
E30 335i Turbo M3 Convertible Replica
E30 335i Turbo M3 Convertible Replica
The whole car is being sprayed - not by me. I did sections, and while my spraying came on leaps and bounds, I couldn't get the prep work right. I did paint that whole panel though -Ollie_bwoii wrote:Looking stunning!
On the rear arch:
Are you going to paint the whole panel or just some how blend it into the original paint?
And what primers, paints, laquers are you using?
Will hopefully pick up some decent equipment and keep practicing though - although am back from my honeymoon less than a week, so have to take things slowly with regards to spening money on the cars!!
Last edited by kdevitt on Tue May 07, 2013 10:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Had to drop a few parts over today to the lads doing the respray - work has begun anyway!
Got slightly concerned when the head guy tried to convince me to shoehorn a Tec 2 kit onto it though
Got slightly concerned when the head guy tried to convince me to shoehorn a Tec 2 kit onto it though
Last edited by kdevitt on Tue May 07, 2013 9:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Scruffymurphy
- E30 Zone Regular
- Posts: 775
- Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2006 11:00 pm
- Location: Ireland
Oh the humanity.kdevitt wrote: Got slightly concerned when the head guy tried to convince me to shoehorn a Tec 2 kit onto it though
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Rav335uk
- E30 Zone Meets/Events Team
- Posts: 27985
- Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2005 11:00 pm
- Location: Mad mad mad
- Contact:
Great writeup, just read all the pages.
Nice to see that some people still want to save these cars.
Well done mate.
Nice to see that some people still want to save these cars.
Well done mate.
If you Got "Haters",Then your doing something Right!
CR24v??? Where's it all gone?? LOL