The Project Pad

This is now a thread for all of my non-Audi related projects!

This thread used to be for my 635csi only, but I don't want to muck up the forum with a ton of other threads for other BMWs with marginal project status, so I decided that this will just be a collective thread for all of them.

The cars involved include:

1985 635csi 5MT
1989 turbo'd E30 (5MT) (not mine)
1990 M3
1994 530i (mini V8) 5MT
1998 328i with M3 suspension and other sporty goodies (5MT)
2001 330i (5MT)
2001 M5 (6MT)
2009 Porsche Cayenne Turbo S

Hope you enjoy it and get your BMW fix here

The original 635csi post starts below:

***********************************************************************************************************************************************

Well, I went and did it. After looking at one *euro* (see bottom of post) 635csi, an NA spec M6, and considering two other M635's, I bought the euro 635 csi. I got scared away from all of the other cars for various reasons. I even almost got scared away from this one because of some rust issues, but I'm glad I went through with it.

When I went to look at the car again today, I checked the inner fender wells, inside of the strut towers, etc. and found that everything was coated with undercoating. Thank goodness! All felt solid in there. The underside of the car is also very clean amazingly. After that, I was confident enough to hand over the cash and drive the car home. It did so beautifully, and I couldn't be happier for what the car is (a daily). It is very solid mechanically, and drives quite nicely minus huge body roll around corners. There are no clunks, it runs smoothly, etc. Clutch feels good, the power is all there, all of the windows work, sunroof works, almost everything works in the car. Most importantly, the rust isn't even close to as bad as I thought it was. I'm very happy about that! I suppose I could be happier if it had AC. That is on the to-do list.

So, the to-do list is as follows so far:

Immediate future
-put my polished style 5's on (gotta get tires first) Done
-new front fenders Bought, but not painted or installed
-re-spray sunroof, panel in front of the hood, etc. Sprayed nose, still need to do sunroof
-take the seat brackets out and clean them up/tighten up Done
-get the temperature gauge working (car has new rad and rad fan, water pump, etc., but I still don't like driving without a temp gauge)... either the gauge itself or the sender, we'll see Done, problem was in the cluster
-air conditioning (compressor will turn on, but will blow the fuse after 5-10 minutes

Sometime soon (maybe within the year)
-make the car not handle like a pig (coilovers using Bilstein sports [shorten front struts] and Eibach 2.5" coil springs, etc.) Done

Eventually if I keep it (this is what will make it a Project Pad project
-Standalone engine management (either VEMS or MS2/3)... if for nothing else, to make it more fuel efficient and run better than it does with the stupid trap-door air flow meter and WOT switch Bought and built, but still need to install

-turbo




Here are a few pictures. It started raining out as soon as I got home, so I'm sorry about the quality. I need to break out the DSLR for some good shots when the style 5's are mounted. Speaking of the rain, I couldn't help but "check" if the car has an LSD by getting a little sideways on the way home (thanks 218 hp euro M30!). I think it does. I'll have to take a look when it stops raining.



Most of the stable, but not all of it. The best one is in super-duper project mode!



Style 5's that will go on this car. Just waiting on some new nuts from Wokke.de.



Also, here is a picture from the craigslist ad so you can see what it looks like with the style 5's on it. He kept his set. I didn't need any more wheels in the garage.






*The euro E24's (6 series) came with significantly better looking bumpers, were a few hundred pounds lighter, and had about 30 more hp (215-ish vs. 185-ish) than their US-spec counterparts. That makes for a much more desirable car. Add the fact that all of the interior buttons are written in German, and I couldn't help but fall in love with the car. It's just cool!*

Beautiful car...You really have quite the stable. I'm beginning to think you like a good bavarian over Audi now though....

Du fuq. I absolutely love those cars, I am insanely jealous right now. Great pick up man!

Nice! I'm a fan of the big coupes and think they are headed up.

Thanks, it's really hard not to like them... sorry guys! However, nothing can replace a good turbo 5-cylinder. I got another ride in a local urS4 (just about the only one I know of) and was reminded again how much I love them. I could buy about ten old BMWs with the amount of money I'm spending on the 200, so that should tell you something

I would have bought another Audi, but there are literally NONE on craigslist in south Florida. I've been looking all month. It's sad :( I almost bought one at Carlisle, but the gf would have killed me because she wanted someone to share the long drive back to FL with.


Ben, check out craigslist in you area! These things are cheap! I paid just over 3k for this one because of it's rust problems. It is really straight in every other way and mechanically great, so I'm happy.

Ed, they are already on the up, although I'm not trying to make money on this one. I know I'll never lose on it though even if the body just rusted away completely (I wont let that happen). I could part it easily for what I paid.

awesome selection of cars - going to read about that 635csi haha I know nothing about it

Beautiful car! I have always liked those 6's and now I've learned about the euro version 8)

loxxrider wrote:Ben, check out craigslist in you area! These things are cheap! I paid just over 3k for this one because of it's rust problems. It is really straight in every other way and mechanically great, so I'm happy.

I will have to keep my eyes peeled for one! I bet these could make a good 'investment' car too, BMW stuff like this is only going to appreciate in value. At the moment though I have my eye on an 82 FJ60, new engine, really straight body and good interior for only 3k.

EDIT: Found this little guy in Portland... 1500 bucks...

http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/cto/3811051365.html

Nice pick up chris! Their style isn't really my thing but I can definitely see the appeal. You better get something going on with the motor though, even my 200 beat a turbo'd US spec one at the strip last weekend

Edit: a few hundred pounds weight difference should go a long way!

07k it?

Nice Chris - sweet ride

Hank wrote:07k it?

LOL. 07k EVERYTHING

Seriously, I bet the 07k weighs close to half of what the big block 6 in the 635 weighs, and I bet it flows double through the head.

It is just money

lol maybe after the 200 is done. I'm on a holding pattern now with funds otherwise I will not be able to finish that old POS 3B build.

Lame to give a better update here than on the "real" project thread, but it's all I've got

I fixed:
-the odometer
-temp gauge
-the radio

and put my style 5's on with brand new tires. Yay! one less set of wheels in the garage lol







Caps need to go on the wheels and it needs to be a lot lower with a refreshed suspension! Before that happens though, I've gotta weld up some rust holes and allocate the big ticket item budget to the 200.

I also need to adjust the valves soon and put a new shift bushing in as well as figure out what the power steering pump is moaning about so much. Oh, and there is no room for it in the driveway of the new house :( Not sure what to do about that. I'm really going to be conflicted once the Audi is back in the stable too. 6 cars at a house which can only fit one in the garage and two in the driveway is not cool.

Looks perfect! What size tires in those 17x8's I'm assuming?

"I'm really going to be conflicted once the Audi is back in the stable too. 6 cars at a house which can only fit one in the garage and two in the driveway is not cool."

Easy, just buy more houses...


The car looks great!

Thanks!

Casey, they are 235 45 17. I can get better pics of them if you want to see how they look (yes, the wheels are 17x8). I think they are appropriate for the car. They could be lower profile for a 3-series, but this car is better suited to the taller tire.

Toph wrote:"I'm really going to be conflicted once the Audi is back in the stable too. 6 cars at a house which can only fit one in the garage and two in the driveway is not cool."

Easy, just buy more houses...


The car looks great!

Well, I think the solution is actually going to be to expand the driveway lol. This is actually my Dad's house, but I intend to stay here for a few more years until the gf is done with school. I may buy a house, but I'll rent it to someone until I'm ready to move in a few years down the road. When I do get one though, it will have at least a two-car garage and decent-sized driveway

Chris...I dunno if the valve depressor tool is the same for this engine as for the S38, but if it is you're welcome to borrow mine...its already cut in half too, so it clears the DME.

roortube wrote:Chris...I dunno if the valve depressor tool is the same for this engine as for the S38, but if it is you're welcome to borrow mine...its already cut in half too, so it clears the DME.

Hmm, I'll have to check on that. I was under the impression that you don't need any special tools for this engine (M30). I'll let you know though if I do find that I need one, thanks!

This car is getting some love as soon as the parts for it come in. I mentioned that the car had a seized front driver's side strut. Well, here is what I've ordered to fix that little problem.

-Koni Sport front strut inserts for an E30ix (3-4 in shorter than stock inserts for room to cut the strut housing down a bit for more suspension travel at lower ride heights )
-Bilstein sport rear struts
-Threaded sleeves front and rear
-adjuster nuts front and rear
-top hats front and rear
-Spherical bearing camber plates
-Eibach coil springs (375 lb front, 200 lb rear... the E24 is not supposed to be a racecar )
-new, OEM rear upper shock mounts
-Lemforder upper front control arms

I think that's it! The car has been doing the 50-60 mph shimmy and I'm hoping the front upper control arms will eliminate that. I adjusted the steering box today to reduce any play in the system and it definitely helped to de-amplify the wobble.

Still chasing a very strange blinker issue and I need to overhaul the PS system, and get to eliminating rust. So far it's been a pretty fun project, my only complaint is to my wallet! Speaking of that, I gotta get a check to Jeff Gerner for that revver head build...

Expect some nice pictures in the next week or two when I get the suspension put together.

Nice list Chris. Sorry there is so much cancer to deal with. I hope its only the fenders as I saw. It would be nice to only have to replace fenders FTW. Bimmer blinker issues are almost always grounding problems. Make sure each light assy has a good ground, and be sure nobody has put the wrong bulb in the wrong socket. Honestly, I wish I could take my whole tool collection with me in my backpack, you know I would give you a hand for sure. I've worked on every model of car in your driveway once or twice.

Looking forward to seeing progress on that gem.

I guess we could have busted out the tools and gotten to work on it while you were here, but it was probably more enjoyable to relax instead I've got just about everything needed to do almost any job on the car, so it'll all get done sooner than later. The good thing is that most of the rust is just cosmetic. The more time I spend under the car, the more confidence I get in it. There are a few spots that I don't like, but its not like the car is going to split in half because of them. I'm going to be chipping away at it little by little... sanding and painting what I can, and cutting and welding the harder spots with new metal. The only thing I'm not sure how to deal with is how to get paint on the back of parts that I'm welding shut... hmm, that's a head-scratcher!

I agree that the blinkers are some kind of grounding issue. I did some investigation today and found that the rear taillight area is a little crazy... it looks like it was all kinda hacked into when the car was federalized (they had to get power and ground for the two rear quarter running light things). I have my suspicions in that area.

Oh, and you missed all the boat trailer rebuilding fun. I should have taken some pictures, but I did a complete overhaul of the double axle trailer for the Grady White. Hubs, bearings, leaf springs, wheels, tires, etc... just about everything short of the frame! Boat trailer work is so fun. If something isn't going your way, a big hammer can always fix whatever the problem is! I kept commenting that Jeremy Clarkson would love working on trailers since the hammer is his go-to tool in pretty much any situation which requires fixing something.

Yeah, bimmers having grounding issues....never heard of it! Lol. Almost every bmw car that came into the shop in my care had rear light issues. Under grounded, and melting the housing due to overheating from the high resistance problems. Such a common problem.

Sorry I missed the trailer happy meal. At least we didnt go to jail that night for queen freak over none of her business. Meh, they couldnt have held us on anything anyway. It was still funny to have dealt with it in a way.

Hi Chris,

That's a nice E24 you have there! I love those big ol' BMW coupes, especially in the Euro CSI flavour! I think the style 5's look great on the car, even better without the center caps. I can't wait to see it lowered on coilovers. I bet it will look mean!