All the external trim has been fitted. In the advert, the chap said it was complete. As I suspected, he was hallucinating. I've had to buy at least two interior trim bezels. Other than that, it was *absolutely* complete.
The door handles were indeed the predicted nightmare. Refitting the rear ones involved completely stripping out the door, glass, regulator, seals, trim etc. right down to the bare door. All four doors and two front locks plus refitting the door furniture removed by the previous owner, took pretty much two full days.
"Exactly the same as a six series", I thought, forgetting entirely about the two additional rear doors.
The hole you can see on the rear quarter is for a US style side marker light - God alone knows why, but they were fitted early in its life - and lost some time later. A couple of wanted ads elicited a response from a chap called Rich on here. Just before he replied, I checked out the ETK for the early 6 series US spec side marker - the very one. NLA, but a supercession part number was listed.
I asked Fairbairn's to check, but was told that they didn't have access to US model information, but a supercession should fit retrospectively. I ordered them and they arrived from germany, but three days later at a very reasonable £55. Unfortunately they were nothing like what I needed - way too modern - and they won't take them back because I gave them the part number and they were special order. Cheers! Back to Eastern for me from now on.
Back to Rich, who gets a very nice man in Canada to e-mail me and they should be - subject to Canada's postal system - heading across the Atlantic now.
The other lights took a wee while as some of the connectors were a bit ropey, but this old 732i Sport:-
(sadly bought pretty much for its sport steering wheel) provided a couple of much better connectors which were soldered in place of the scotchlock butchery previously fitted. Getting everything working again took a wee while, but now all lights work - in fact everything needed for an MoT works, washers, wipers, horn, lights etc. The aircon doesn't. The headlamp wash wipe doesn't, the headlamp adjusters don't.
All the interior trim has been refitted and in doing so - actually in looking for the first aid kit - an interesting discovery was made - electrically adjustable rear seats. - they work too. As do the C Post reading lamps in the rear and the sun blind too.
The old 732i donated its radiator, various wee clips and spring clips, some wiring, steering wheel, radio blanking panel, HT leads, windscreen trim, bits and pieces and most importantly, a test car to break things off to see how they go back on properly. This sort of thing is so much easier to do with another car that's only biding out its time nearby. I'll save what's useful - including the sport suspension - and should get what I paid for it or very close over the weighbridge.
Still needs brake hoses fitted - it has new copper lines throughout, brakes bled and the PAS leak needs fixed, and thereafter its off for a valet and MoT. A set of staggered Style 5s has been sourced and I'm hoping it'll be set to perform its first official duties at my son's graduation in mid July.
Its first venture outside under its own steam for many years saw it introduced to a typical Glasgow summer.
