Tweet
Greetings from the land of the long white cloud
Soo I have lurked and lurked and lurked , lurked a lil more and finally decided to post.
Not much of a "build" as such as I didn't really document the process (even though I'm an amateur photographer, dumb I know ��)
But hey here we are..
Starting around June 2014 the hunt for a cheap daily driver began, having a budget of between $1500-2000 ( us - $1000-1500 / uk - £500-1000) pickings where good but only within range of the basic grandma owned jappa or run down euro. Having owned a couple cars before , old Subaru Legacy wagon and a 1.3l Toyota Corolla hatch I was in the same boat as any 21 year old, wanting something manual and rear wheel drive. Unfortunately a silly dream until one day...
I had a pile of cars sitting in my watchlist, browsing through I noticed I had thrown a rusted no wof no rego, basically undriveable on the road 1985 Bmw 528i. Factory manual with a couple owners, latest being an older lady out on the coast, she had upgraded to a small reliable hatch and the car had failed it's last wof due to rust and a couple small bits.
Quick phone call from dad one evening and he had popped up and given it a test drive, was amazed at how solid everything felt and basically said hey it could work out or it could not work out, risk you have to take.
Running an auction style sale I threw in a couple lazy bids and told myself to stop once it hit $2000, with dad alongside egging me on with various "I'll lend you the rest" etc the bidding hit $2230 and I was now the owner of a manual , rear wheel drive Bmw e28.
Pretty over the moon yet nervous we drove the next night, exchanged some details and drove her home, didn't miss a beat and quite frankly loved the motorway! The speed limit here on motorways is 100kmh, so being a euro import in 1995 the manual gearbox and diff had me sitting at 2k rpm while cruising at 100kmh ����
Got her home and set about a plan of how to get her back on the road!
You guys will have to excuse the quality of photos, most were lost when my last phone died on me, but as we progress they get better ��
So long story short, we stripped her down, dropped the rear subframe, all interior etc to find both front foot wells rusted out, rear subframe mounts absolutely destroyed and a couple smal cosmetic spots, got to work and a mate cut , grounded and patched everything up! Quick coat of under seal and we were away, took her to the local wof guy and boom we are on the road!
Did all the usual maintenence, oil, filters, bulbs etc etc, replaced any missing parts I could find at scrap yards and generally gave her a good once over. Over the following weeks the car never failed to amaze with fully working sun roof, all electronics in order, electric Windows all round, full 4 corner abs, personal computer including trip, consumption and distance left in tank. Added a cheap boss kit and wood grain steering wheel, short shift from a z4, new sway bar links, bushes, battery, wiper blades. Pretty much no Rock has been unturned, bearing in mind this is no restoration at all.
Fast forward one week and I purchased a set of cheap 14 inch bottle caps and did the obvious.. Hacked a few coils ��
Drove her around for a while before deciding it was time .. Sent off a fair amount of money and an extra set of front struts halfway down the country, week later I recieved freshly built coilovers, all welded in to ticket, crack tested and sorted!
Picked up a set of 15x7 basket weaves, threw on some 185/55/15 tires and installed the coilovers with the help of a few extra hands.
So let's just say during discussions with the company making my coilovers I did request to be frame scraping low.. They more then delivered, as the coils were installed at the height they were sent to me at I had no idea how the car was going to sit.. All went to plan with install, turned the car over and went to set off andddd didn't go anywhere! Weird I say as I hop out, walk around the front and peer underneath.. Both lower control arms are grounded, like property grounded haha lifted it about 65mm and enjoyed my first drive..... Until 500m up the road I hit a road marker and cracked my sump, oh the low life I have longed for..
Used some knead it metal epoxy to fix the sump and enjoyed the car as it was for a few months.
This is where things got bad real quick, so in New Zealand every modification needs to be certified, a process everyone dreads and avoids at all costs. I had a good run lasting around 6 months before one night I got pulled, lectured about how I'm mm's from the ground, given a nice pink sticker for my windscreen ordering my "unsafe vehicle of the road". Thankfully one of the cops wasn't a **** and let me drive it home. There it sat for the next 3 months neglects and sad.
Fast forward and I'm motivated again, booked in the cert and got about fixing everything up. This ranged from cleaning up the engine bay to raising the car and getting everything checked off to fly through! Little did I know that once the car hit the shop it was going to be a very very very bad uphill struggle.
Being quoted $850 for cert and wof I saved and was good to go, until the alternator died, then more rust was found, then my wheel and tire combo was out, then my pre load was wrong, then my washer bottle wouldn't work, then my handbrake wasn't up to standard, then my brake hose needed replacing and so on
Finally nearly 3 months later and just over $3000 I now have a fully certified, legal, road worthy e28 on coilovers to enjoy for a few weeks until I get bored, lower it back down again and become once again illegal. This probably sounds like a stupid process to most of you, but now if I do get pulled and stickered again, I literally just raise it up and pay 80 bucks to get the sticker off, is it worth it? Maybe , maybe not but I sure as hell know it looks a million times better on its guts then it does in its half ass lowered state.
And here we are, sorry for the long post, will update as things progress!
Sorry for the photo dump at the end of the post but this was all done from my iPhone and photo bucket is driving me crazy!
Cheers for reading!
Not much of a "build" as such as I didn't really document the process (even though I'm an amateur photographer, dumb I know ��)
But hey here we are..
Starting around June 2014 the hunt for a cheap daily driver began, having a budget of between $1500-2000 ( us - $1000-1500 / uk - £500-1000) pickings where good but only within range of the basic grandma owned jappa or run down euro. Having owned a couple cars before , old Subaru Legacy wagon and a 1.3l Toyota Corolla hatch I was in the same boat as any 21 year old, wanting something manual and rear wheel drive. Unfortunately a silly dream until one day...
I had a pile of cars sitting in my watchlist, browsing through I noticed I had thrown a rusted no wof no rego, basically undriveable on the road 1985 Bmw 528i. Factory manual with a couple owners, latest being an older lady out on the coast, she had upgraded to a small reliable hatch and the car had failed it's last wof due to rust and a couple small bits.
Quick phone call from dad one evening and he had popped up and given it a test drive, was amazed at how solid everything felt and basically said hey it could work out or it could not work out, risk you have to take.
Running an auction style sale I threw in a couple lazy bids and told myself to stop once it hit $2000, with dad alongside egging me on with various "I'll lend you the rest" etc the bidding hit $2230 and I was now the owner of a manual , rear wheel drive Bmw e28.
Pretty over the moon yet nervous we drove the next night, exchanged some details and drove her home, didn't miss a beat and quite frankly loved the motorway! The speed limit here on motorways is 100kmh, so being a euro import in 1995 the manual gearbox and diff had me sitting at 2k rpm while cruising at 100kmh ����
Got her home and set about a plan of how to get her back on the road!
You guys will have to excuse the quality of photos, most were lost when my last phone died on me, but as we progress they get better ��
So long story short, we stripped her down, dropped the rear subframe, all interior etc to find both front foot wells rusted out, rear subframe mounts absolutely destroyed and a couple smal cosmetic spots, got to work and a mate cut , grounded and patched everything up! Quick coat of under seal and we were away, took her to the local wof guy and boom we are on the road!
Did all the usual maintenence, oil, filters, bulbs etc etc, replaced any missing parts I could find at scrap yards and generally gave her a good once over. Over the following weeks the car never failed to amaze with fully working sun roof, all electronics in order, electric Windows all round, full 4 corner abs, personal computer including trip, consumption and distance left in tank. Added a cheap boss kit and wood grain steering wheel, short shift from a z4, new sway bar links, bushes, battery, wiper blades. Pretty much no Rock has been unturned, bearing in mind this is no restoration at all.
Fast forward one week and I purchased a set of cheap 14 inch bottle caps and did the obvious.. Hacked a few coils ��
Drove her around for a while before deciding it was time .. Sent off a fair amount of money and an extra set of front struts halfway down the country, week later I recieved freshly built coilovers, all welded in to ticket, crack tested and sorted!
Picked up a set of 15x7 basket weaves, threw on some 185/55/15 tires and installed the coilovers with the help of a few extra hands.
So let's just say during discussions with the company making my coilovers I did request to be frame scraping low.. They more then delivered, as the coils were installed at the height they were sent to me at I had no idea how the car was going to sit.. All went to plan with install, turned the car over and went to set off andddd didn't go anywhere! Weird I say as I hop out, walk around the front and peer underneath.. Both lower control arms are grounded, like property grounded haha lifted it about 65mm and enjoyed my first drive..... Until 500m up the road I hit a road marker and cracked my sump, oh the low life I have longed for..
Used some knead it metal epoxy to fix the sump and enjoyed the car as it was for a few months.
This is where things got bad real quick, so in New Zealand every modification needs to be certified, a process everyone dreads and avoids at all costs. I had a good run lasting around 6 months before one night I got pulled, lectured about how I'm mm's from the ground, given a nice pink sticker for my windscreen ordering my "unsafe vehicle of the road". Thankfully one of the cops wasn't a **** and let me drive it home. There it sat for the next 3 months neglects and sad.
Fast forward and I'm motivated again, booked in the cert and got about fixing everything up. This ranged from cleaning up the engine bay to raising the car and getting everything checked off to fly through! Little did I know that once the car hit the shop it was going to be a very very very bad uphill struggle.
Being quoted $850 for cert and wof I saved and was good to go, until the alternator died, then more rust was found, then my wheel and tire combo was out, then my pre load was wrong, then my washer bottle wouldn't work, then my handbrake wasn't up to standard, then my brake hose needed replacing and so on
Finally nearly 3 months later and just over $3000 I now have a fully certified, legal, road worthy e28 on coilovers to enjoy for a few weeks until I get bored, lower it back down again and become once again illegal. This probably sounds like a stupid process to most of you, but now if I do get pulled and stickered again, I literally just raise it up and pay 80 bucks to get the sticker off, is it worth it? Maybe , maybe not but I sure as hell know it looks a million times better on its guts then it does in its half ass lowered state.
And here we are, sorry for the long post, will update as things progress!
Sorry for the photo dump at the end of the post but this was all done from my iPhone and photo bucket is driving me crazy!
Cheers for reading!
Comment