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Nope. I don't want another "traditional" car. OEM is fine, but sometimes you need to express yourself.
I am a co-founder of nwBMWclub. In a shocking move, a fellow member "gifted" me his 1983 633csi last year. At first glance, it's nothing special, but under the hood is a high compression M90 built block with M30b34 head and pistons modified with a Schrick cam, big injectors and a rising rate fuel regulator. Funtime.
This summer, as the weather warmed, the wrenches have started to turn to get this 6er back on the road.
It runs good, but has ZERO brakes. A must have for standard, non-death-inducing driving. An inspection of the system (and looking at the driveway under the car) showed some serious leakage happening. I started tracking them down in order to determine if I would be able to even get reliable brakes.
One of the most obvious was this leak in the ATF line. The connector looked BEAT UP and had definitely seen some AGGRESSIVE wrenching.
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I searched for the replacement, which turned out to be a bit frustrating, and had to have it shipped out of Germany. Luckily, I found a US dealer that would get it to me at their listed price with no additional fees. Yay! ($75) I went about replacing the part.
Here's a comparison of the ends...
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Now that was done, it was time to move onto the brake fluid side of the system. I filled the res, which was completely dry and watched for leaks. I still had NO brakes, so I knew that if it held fluid, I could bleed the system and hope it wasn't a problem with the master cylinder. Member, SprCpe (John Cooper) was kind enough to loan his BavAuto power bleeder to me to accomplish the task. I lashed the res to the cyl and applied about 15 psi to the system. OH SHIT. :freak. The footwell in the car was being sprayed heavily with brake fluid.
Inspecting the area, I found the leak to be coming off the clutch MS at the fill hose. It was loose enough to wiggle with my fingers. Somebody had replaced the original line with black fuel line which swells badly when exposed to brake fluid. Since the dealership was closed, I threw a worm drive clamp on there and pressurized the system again.
This time, the fluid sprayed out around the fitting that goes into the clutch MS. I'll have to order one of those. Since this isn't a pressurized part of the system, I opted to let it go and just use the pedal to bleed the air out of the brakes.
SUCCESS!! This worked great. The fluid that came out was pretty brown, so I suspect it boiled at some point.... no bueno. I didn't have enough fluid on hand to do a complete flush, but I'll do that when I get the hose and fitting for the clutch side. After bleeding, I put some wheels on and took the car for a short trip around the block and all the brakes functioned perfectly. YAY!!! This is exciting news, because if the brakes couldn't be fixed cheaply, the car would have been sold or parted.
So, here it sits... with my 5er's BBS winter wheels (capless) Waiting for parts and the NEXT phase in the projekt.
Here's a couple interior shots. Kind of rare color combo. Gobi/Mocha
The original seats had to go... Old/New
Installed.... Door cards color-matched.
Got the dash put back together and relocated the gauges with a bit of a stereo delete. The outer rings on the gauges got soaked with brake fluid so ruined the black paint on the bezel. I was pleasantly surprised to find shiny brass underneath. I think it really looks good with the Gobi interior.
The aftermath...
Shadowlining has begun. No going back now. John Deere Blitz Black is awesome stuff. I even did an Arizona personalized plate that I found under the seat.
Before...
AFTER!
Headlight buckets before...
After about an hour on each...
Assembly...
Peeling the old crusty, lakebed window tint. Yuck. Pieces of tint everywhere.
Wheel Deal...
I found a set of Style65 reps at a local Subaru dealership where a friend works. They had decent rubber so I offered to take them off their hands for $200 after tax. They're not the ideal wheel for this car, but for keeping the expense down, they were a great option.
Time for the EXTERIOR!
I had decided that I really didn't want to repaint the car just to keep from destroying the retail value of the car. Although the paint was not in perfect shape, it really wasn't bad. Seeing that I wanted to do a military theme, I decided that the e24 would get wrapped in vinyl.
In progress...
The next phase. Graphics...
My 8yo son is really into fighter aircraft and we thought that we'd go with a theme based on the German Messerschmitt aircraft that served in the Luftwaffe during WW2. I researched the ME-109s, the 190s, and of course, the original bavarian "shark", the ME-262.
I found a font that matched the stenciling and "conservatively" designed the exterior graphics for the e24. Although I didn't want the traditional "camo" patterns that were on the German planes, I did want to include the visual identifying bright yellow. I found a beat-to-shit airdam, made some quick repairs, and coated it in John Deere construction implement paint followed by a satin clear finish coat.
To fill the wheel gap left in the huge fenders on the e24, I installed 20mm hubcentric spacers in the rear and 18mm up front bringing the offsets down to 0 and 2, respectively.
I drove the car to Portland for 5erWest and had lots of fun talking with folks about the car. It drives fine and pulls like a train. The 3.25 rear diff offers a lot of legs, while the high compression big six gives plenty of torque to keep things fun.
Here is a shot from that weekend...
(euro turn lenses installed)
Now that the car looked right, it just didn't have the sound that it needed. Time for exhaust work.
Weight loss...
The only logical choice. Slash cut, side-exit straight pipes running out of the stock resonator. It's loud, but it suits the theme. Not a daily driver, for sure, but FUN to roll in once in a while.
Video w/ Sound clip on Facebook.... https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201285444634663
I am a co-founder of nwBMWclub. In a shocking move, a fellow member "gifted" me his 1983 633csi last year. At first glance, it's nothing special, but under the hood is a high compression M90 built block with M30b34 head and pistons modified with a Schrick cam, big injectors and a rising rate fuel regulator. Funtime.
This summer, as the weather warmed, the wrenches have started to turn to get this 6er back on the road.
It runs good, but has ZERO brakes. A must have for standard, non-death-inducing driving. An inspection of the system (and looking at the driveway under the car) showed some serious leakage happening. I started tracking them down in order to determine if I would be able to even get reliable brakes.
One of the most obvious was this leak in the ATF line. The connector looked BEAT UP and had definitely seen some AGGRESSIVE wrenching.
I searched for the replacement, which turned out to be a bit frustrating, and had to have it shipped out of Germany. Luckily, I found a US dealer that would get it to me at their listed price with no additional fees. Yay! ($75) I went about replacing the part.
Here's a comparison of the ends...
Now that was done, it was time to move onto the brake fluid side of the system. I filled the res, which was completely dry and watched for leaks. I still had NO brakes, so I knew that if it held fluid, I could bleed the system and hope it wasn't a problem with the master cylinder. Member, SprCpe (John Cooper) was kind enough to loan his BavAuto power bleeder to me to accomplish the task. I lashed the res to the cyl and applied about 15 psi to the system. OH SHIT. :freak. The footwell in the car was being sprayed heavily with brake fluid.
Inspecting the area, I found the leak to be coming off the clutch MS at the fill hose. It was loose enough to wiggle with my fingers. Somebody had replaced the original line with black fuel line which swells badly when exposed to brake fluid. Since the dealership was closed, I threw a worm drive clamp on there and pressurized the system again.
This time, the fluid sprayed out around the fitting that goes into the clutch MS. I'll have to order one of those. Since this isn't a pressurized part of the system, I opted to let it go and just use the pedal to bleed the air out of the brakes.
SUCCESS!! This worked great. The fluid that came out was pretty brown, so I suspect it boiled at some point.... no bueno. I didn't have enough fluid on hand to do a complete flush, but I'll do that when I get the hose and fitting for the clutch side. After bleeding, I put some wheels on and took the car for a short trip around the block and all the brakes functioned perfectly. YAY!!! This is exciting news, because if the brakes couldn't be fixed cheaply, the car would have been sold or parted.
So, here it sits... with my 5er's BBS winter wheels (capless) Waiting for parts and the NEXT phase in the projekt.
Here's a couple interior shots. Kind of rare color combo. Gobi/Mocha
The original seats had to go... Old/New
Installed.... Door cards color-matched.
Got the dash put back together and relocated the gauges with a bit of a stereo delete. The outer rings on the gauges got soaked with brake fluid so ruined the black paint on the bezel. I was pleasantly surprised to find shiny brass underneath. I think it really looks good with the Gobi interior.
The aftermath...
Shadowlining has begun. No going back now. John Deere Blitz Black is awesome stuff. I even did an Arizona personalized plate that I found under the seat.
Before...
AFTER!
Headlight buckets before...
After about an hour on each...
Assembly...
Peeling the old crusty, lakebed window tint. Yuck. Pieces of tint everywhere.
Wheel Deal...
I found a set of Style65 reps at a local Subaru dealership where a friend works. They had decent rubber so I offered to take them off their hands for $200 after tax. They're not the ideal wheel for this car, but for keeping the expense down, they were a great option.
Time for the EXTERIOR!
I had decided that I really didn't want to repaint the car just to keep from destroying the retail value of the car. Although the paint was not in perfect shape, it really wasn't bad. Seeing that I wanted to do a military theme, I decided that the e24 would get wrapped in vinyl.
In progress...
The next phase. Graphics...
My 8yo son is really into fighter aircraft and we thought that we'd go with a theme based on the German Messerschmitt aircraft that served in the Luftwaffe during WW2. I researched the ME-109s, the 190s, and of course, the original bavarian "shark", the ME-262.
I found a font that matched the stenciling and "conservatively" designed the exterior graphics for the e24. Although I didn't want the traditional "camo" patterns that were on the German planes, I did want to include the visual identifying bright yellow. I found a beat-to-shit airdam, made some quick repairs, and coated it in John Deere construction implement paint followed by a satin clear finish coat.
To fill the wheel gap left in the huge fenders on the e24, I installed 20mm hubcentric spacers in the rear and 18mm up front bringing the offsets down to 0 and 2, respectively.
I drove the car to Portland for 5erWest and had lots of fun talking with folks about the car. It drives fine and pulls like a train. The 3.25 rear diff offers a lot of legs, while the high compression big six gives plenty of torque to keep things fun.
Here is a shot from that weekend...
(euro turn lenses installed)
Now that the car looked right, it just didn't have the sound that it needed. Time for exhaust work.
Weight loss...
The only logical choice. Slash cut, side-exit straight pipes running out of the stock resonator. It's loud, but it suits the theme. Not a daily driver, for sure, but FUN to roll in once in a while.
Video w/ Sound clip on Facebook.... https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201285444634663
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