Freshbread's 1984 Euro 635csi

[Freshbread]

I've had many project cars but never have I been so excited to get to work on one like the 6.
Many months of waiting for a non US bumpered car paid off
This is a 2 owner car, the gentleman I purchased it from was 70 and had owned the car for 20 years. It had been in storage since 2004 in Tucson up until several weeks ago. I had many conversations with him before traveling to Tucson and was wary of the stereo and alarm nonsense but I figured this was a good candidate if I could get the right price.
Car stumbled and ran like crap but after a fuel filter change and plugs I drove her the 1 1/2 hr trip back home.
So far I have seafoamed, changed oil, coolant flush, passenger inside door handle frame, 303 aerospaced dash and plastics (AZ sun destroys plastics) gummi pfleged all rubber, leatheriqued interior, new battery, door latch buffers, dizzy cap, hood struts, buffed waxed, polished the South Westerns (I love me some stepped lip!)

She passed AZ emissions with flying colors and that along with registration for 2 years cost me a wonderful $62US

Plans are go throught and replace all the vac lines and just make sure the lump is up to snuff, stereo, coilovers, exhaust and some paint as she is rather patina from the sonoran deserts rays
Interior is spotless!!

Anyway I'll keep you guys up to date.

[Masked Man]

Damn NICE, freshbread!

Gorgeous car! Welcome to the madness and I'm green with envy that you have a 5 speed. ~le sigh~ Which rear end do you have?

Keep the shiny side up

Phillip

[BlackShark6]

That is the austria model, it has 25% lsd

I have a copy of the options on your exact car if your interested,

[Freshbread]

Thanks again for the info. You along with others convinced me I came to the right place!
Anyway this car is in good hands an will not be a garage queen!
My projects of the past

99 M Coupe

Z charged, dsr cams, very fast 250whp


01 tt 996


02 M3

[Freshbread]

So I've had some time to get the 6 driving rather nice. Master cylinder o-ring replaced, trans and dif flushed, all hoses and belts changed, thermostat, vac/fuel hoses, brake fluid flush aaannd another fuel filter.

With the car driving so well I figured I would tackle the sound system as I presumed I had some nightmare of a stereo to address but it was a pretty nice job from what I can tell. Speakers were deteriorated beyond saving and all were made in Belgium, the other components were alpine (HU, amp, alarm)
So I'm pulling the old speakers and I happen upon an m6 FS here in AZ and notice the rear parcel shelf/speaker pods are just like mine. Is this coincidence? Same car audio Co.?
Pic of m6

My car was in storage from 04 until Oct. 2010 and was in Tucson since the new. Also my car has some speaker pods in the doors as well.
Anyway I think someone with deep pockets threw a boatload of $$$$ at the sound system back in the day and did not shred the car in the process.










The seats are amazing condition!


Speakers also in lower door!



Anyway I plan to put it back together since as I said it was very well done and would likely cost me an arm and leg to revert it or I may change my mind

[Stoffie]

Pictures are too dark to make anthing much out of them, but from what I can see, they did a rather nice job of modifying the existing parts of the car.

Please post better pictures!

[Freshbread]

I removed the alarm (if anyone needs old school Alpine alarm stuff pm me) the piggyback off the dme...other than an expected fat running at initial start up she runs much better and fires up instantly!
The piggy back was in an Unibox and found no specific info on the board inside. I kept everything for the box very intact and just zipped tied off the O2 sensor wire in the engine bay for emissions next year. My dme is a 011 for the record.

I've also replaced the rear pitman, sway endlinks, and subframe bushings. I rewired the amp and replaced 75% of the speakers. So next up will be reversal of the federalization stuff and paint.






I also removed the 225/50's off the front and replaced with 205/55's...looks better and drives like new.

[german performance inc]

looking good !!!! keep us updated and motivated

[tschultz]

Looks very nice!!

[r2dmax]

Wow! Beautiful shark! Yours is a real inspiration for me.

[Brucey]

nice work!

I must say I've never seen that stereo install before. Looks like it took a heap of cash back in the day!

Glad to hear you are changing the speakers out for new ones; modern speakers are soooooo much better than old ones (even if they are in good condition) and usually old ones are knackered. It appears that you can put any speakers behind those grilles and no-one will know the difference, lucky you.

What speakers did you go for?

cheers

[FinsUp]

one word

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

[RoyW]

Lovin' those custom front and back speaker pods!! Looks like a real keeper and seems you're sorting her out... very nice!

-RoyW

[Freshbread]

Many thanks you guys! Phillip's update inspired me to go through the camera and really take a look at what I've done recently with my shark.

I had to spend some quality time with my gauge cluster for starters as speedo gear shit the bed:


Then the SI board batteries.

nice work!

I must say I've never seen that stereo install before. Looks like it took a heap of cash back in the day!

Glad to hear you are changing the speakers out for new ones; modern speakers are soooooo much better than old ones (even if they are in good condition) and usually old ones are knackered. It appears that you can put any speakers behind those grilles and no-one will know the difference, lucky you.

What speakers did you go for?

cheers

Brucey I think it was an AZ thing as I did find that local M6 with similar door cards and rear pods. Build quality is amazing and the vinyl is a spot on match for texture.
Yeah the grilles allow for any combo and depth is almost not an issue. I ended up doing Alpine to the dismay of my UK mate Paul, he helped me dial in the electronic crossover and clean up wiring (also supplied beers ) The sub with it's cut out between the pods is impressive (not trunk rattle) and the seperate control for it is awesome.

I acquired some HRE 525's 17X8.5 and 17X10 and needed some love. I spent some time with emery compound removing scale from these as it was obvious they had not been polished for many years.

Here you can get an idea of the scale...


Numerous felt and canvas bits of all kinds of size and many hours later they turned out pretty nice. I put some rubber on them this week and took some pics.






I've been putting off paint as I'm simply having too good of a time driving the car but have the quote and will most likely pull the trigger in the next month.
Again thanks for the good vibes you guys.

[PorscheDude]

Nice score on the HRE's.

[Ralph in Socal]

I applaud anyone willing to take on the task of polishing wheels. Very nice job and it shows very well. You have PM.

Ralph

[Masked Man]

Niiiiice work, freshbread! That is one striking 6er, buddy!

Keep the shiny side up

Phillip

[Freshbread]

Niiiiice work, freshbread! That is one striking 6er, buddy!

Keep the shiny side up

Phillip

Thanks Phillip, after your update I thought I should update, even though I forgot about 1/2 dozen things I did since the last time.

Dan

I applaud anyone willing to take on the task of polishing wheels. Very nice job and it shows very well. You have PM.

Ralph

Thanks a lot Ralph and I agree most folks really don't know what is involved. It is labor intensive but I find it to be a catharsis of sorts
Oh and thank you, you have $

This is my basic set up minus the different pads (too many to list!) and paper I use. Paper I keep on hand is 400-2000 grit. Emery compound is what I used for the initial scale removal but a bit of hand sanding was required

[Alex E24 E30]

Loving the HRE's. Nice score.


Alex

[Freshbread]

Well after a little over a year of ownership I finally bit the bullet on doing what my car needed most from day one...fresh paint.
She has been gone a little over a week now probably get her back next Monday.
I took the task of helping my painter out by doing a bit of prep...never again. Three days of pin hole searching, sanding and those hood grilles..those mother f'ing hood grilles. I hate them. No really I hate them.
Some PPG Global, some welding and she'll be back...I hope Anyway here are a few pics along the way.








Right before everything else (minus the glass) was pulled off the car

[GRNSHRK]

...plugging those friggin' DOT side marker light holes

Great time to do it

Not a problem up front, as the blinker assemblies have running lights as well

Out back, however, is a different story, will need to come up with another way to light up the sides

Just a thought

[Freshbread]

...plugging those friggin' DOT side marker light holes

Great time to do it

Not a problem up front, as the blinker assemblies have running lights as well

Out back, however, is a different story, will need to come up with another way to light up the sides

Just a thought

The wiring was done a long time ago...they have not been lit up for months...

Enjoy emoticons much

[PorscheDude]

The hard part is over.
Hope it turns out better than your expecting.
Should be a little better than awesome.

[Freshbread]

So I figured as I near my 3 year anniversary with the shark I would take a look back at some of my least favorite jobs this year. I just yesterday finished my speaker restoration but included some other fun stuff!

Heater core
I had noticed the obvious coolant drips above my gas pedal and was able to feel coolant in the foot well vent (not to mention the smell). I acquired foam and some insulation strip tape before hand and went at it. This is a long job and while I have taken apart the entire hvac of several sharks this was my first full refurb of a 635csi hvac and heater core. I took the time to replace the evaps foam and cleaned it as well not to mention cleaning all the dried jelly paste coolant from the heater box and vents lower flaps Anyway here is some pics of the carnage.



Heater box out. You can change out the core on the passenger floor.











Out with the old



Evap reconditioned


I also figured I would just go all in and do a little hood project. I've heard people say this job sucks and I'm here to confirm it does. Getting the old foam off is not for the faint of heart and do yourself a favor and just take the hood off.


Also tossed on some potenza's



I've mentioned before here that my car was the actual catalog car for the company Zbox back in the eighties. Well nearly 30 years had started to show on the speaker cloth and vinyl so I figured "I can do this!"
Original catalog pages:



This sucked. Working with glue and things that need to stay clean is challenging. I started with the speaker cloth as I knew damn well I could not reproduce the fit for the vinyl so I sent the pods off to a pro.

The speaker covers required two layers of cloth:










The pods prior to recover. The pictures are pretty forgiving...the vinyl was lifting everywhere. Something that bothered me since day one was how shiny the original vinyl was:




For those who have never seen it, the underside of these very rare speaker pods:


I am pretty pleased with the end results.





Anyway a very enjoyable third year of ownership that saw me almost sell the car, win some trophies and curse a ton

[hornhospital]

Well, I've got the cursing part down pat.

Mighty nice work.