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Hi all, new member here but I used to look in on the forum occasionally. I just purchased a 1987 blue 635 euro that needs some tlc. My local BMW dealer is giving me support with this as my family have long history with them so I'll be able to do some work on my own in their garage and have their mechanics step in on the more major work.
I'm planning on fixing her up as a daily driver and do a complete restoration in the future. First issue i need to address is overheating and replacing numerous leaking gaskets followed by almost all rubber bushings, seals and mounts. There's a slight dent in the nose by the kidney grill and a full paint job is neeeded.
As soon as i picked her up got her washed then cleaned her up with some bug and tar remover and gave her a good wax. Tomorrow I'll try to flush the radiator and replace the coolant before getting insurance and registration sorted and she goes back to the dealer for a complete fluid change, replace spark plugs and to start a checklist on what urgently needs replacing and what's not so urgent.
I'm looking forward to learning a lot from this forum and to hopefully try to contribute something back.

Pics of the 635
The wheels on it don't look oem so I'll try to find some original oem alloys ir a set of the bbs style wheels, exhaust needs a proper tail pipe to replace the crap welded on it, if funds allow I might do a full custom ss sport exhaust.

Welcome to Bigcoupe desert dweller. Looks like a nice place to start. Curious about the World bumpers on your 87 - what is the build date?

Find a garage to store that thing in so the sun does not destroy it. I know as I'm also a desert dweller. Good luck with the restoration.


Ralph

Thanks for the welcome, from checking the vin build date is 20/Nov/1987 although it was registered as an 89. It's currently in a shaded parking at the dealers, some parts of the interior and all exterior rubber have taken a beating from the sun. Our summer temps reach up to 50°c so parking only in shade or indoors for the next four months.

On Sunday we spent the whole day flushing out the radiator from the dirt in it.
Tuesday we changed out the spark plugs and engine oil, gearbox oil was clean so we left that and replaced the power steering pump and changed out the fuel filter. Today we're going to be cleaning the injectors and inspecting the rear diff oil as well as doing a complete brake pad/disk replacement. Need to order a resistor for the aux fan, throttle cable bushing and replace the cylinder head top and rear gasket, still need to check why rear ac blows colder than front, cannot adjust blower speed for ac, heater doesn't work, rpm gauge works intermittently and the odo and trip don't move at all.
this is going to be fun

Didn't get time to do anything on Wednesday, today had insurance and registration sorted, aux fan should be operational by the end of the day. As it only has one key I'll take it for a road test on Saturday and get 2 spares made at the same time, it has a generic key shop key, I'll try to find an original or one that looks close to an original bmw key. I'll try to get some nice pics over the weekend and if the overheating issues are sorted I'll take a good drive out on a road that cuts through the middle of the desert and get proper shots with a dslr.

Baby steps are still progress, Got the steering box tightened up and made a huge difference, the loose/wandering steering has completely gone.

Compiled a list of parts to order to overhaul the suspension, Tie rods, trailing arms, support arms and sway bars. Hopefully with those all that's left with the suspension should be the shocks. I'll need to find rear axle shafts as well as a new drive shaft or have it machined to be able to fit a universal coupling.

Found some aftermarket wheels that closely resemble the bbs wheels that came on these 6ers might pull the trigger on them to at least have a half decent set of wheels on it.

A couple of pics after taking her out for a run on the freeway

Previous owner had 1-2 wheel studs missing on each wheel, every bolt was a different length and thread thickness than the other. Luckily the bolts were more damaged and the hub wasn't so bad, we cleaned out the threads and ran a thread cutter through each hole and managed to spin it through without putting much pressure and installed a set of new studs. Going to have to wait for 2 weeks until brakes arrive from Germany. In the meantime will try to sort out some electrical problems, instrument cluster needs inspection, ac/ ac switch wiring needs fixing as well as the window switches.

I tried looking for the part number of the engine bay rubber seal but couldn't manage to find it, theres a rectangular seal firewall side that is under the hood vents. If anyone happens to know the part # i'd appreciate it.

Desert635 wrote: I tried looking for the part number of the engine bay rubber seal but couldn't manage to find it, theres a rectangular seal firewall side that is under the hood vents. If anyone happens to know the part # i'd appreciate it.

#3

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showpar ... Id=41_0197

ron wrote:

Desert635 wrote: I tried looking for the part number of the engine bay rubber seal but couldn't manage to find it, theres a rectangular seal firewall side that is under the hood vents. If anyone happens to know the part # i'd appreciate it.

#3

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showpar ... Id=41_0197

Thanks! I owe you a cold one for that.

I think Sharjah will have changed a bit since I was there in 1965!!

ron wrote:I think Sharjah will have changed a bit since I was there in 1965!!

I think just a handful of buildings are still standing from that time, I don't think you would recognize the place. With the developments the past few I really hope they keep some areas of the desert intact

Last of the suspension bushings and bars have arrived, should start tearing into it on Sunday. Also will try out the AFE dry filter and see how well it copes with our dust here. Waiting on AC temperature sensor to arrive to replace and fix the AC wiring so we can start taking it out on drives to se what else will need replacing, once those are done will probably put in the order for rubber and chrome trim and start on the interior.

Started on the 6er today didn't get much done as the battery was flat and the way the previous owner had the remote lock setup was completely electrical and the key wouldn't unlock the doors. Opened the trunk and ran a current through the wires to unlock the car with the remote, popped the hood and jump started it. Lots of the bolts are seized so I'm letting them soak tonight in rust remover and will try again tomorrow, if they don't budge will resort to using a blow torch to heat them up.

Parts:




Lifted and ready:


Couldn't get more pics, after that my hands up to my wrists were covered in dirt, grime and axle grease.

Managed to replace both front sway bar end links, removed both rear sway bar end links but might need a press to fit in the new ones, also unbolted the central tie rod assembly as well as the tie rod ends but haven't removed them off, will pull in a hydraulic lifter tomorrow to remove them.

Your personal garage? Very neat, a/c work space? Very cool, too.

sansouci wrote:Your personal garage? Very neat, a/c work space? Very cool, too.

Thanks, wish it were mine this used to be a storage room at the dealers but was converted into a training school. I can use the area when it isn't booked for training sessions. On the left behind the shelf you can make out an X4 promotional advert and on the right one of my favourite portraits they have of the M art cars.

Forgot to update the thread but finally got a little bit of progress done,







Soaking everything in rust remover really helped alot when the time came to remove those bolts, Especially the rear links wouldn't budge at all but now with an air gun it was a breeze. All the ball joint ends are firmly in and only one came off with prying the rest will need to be hammered or with a ball joint removal tool. Feels good to get my hands dirty again.

When we pulled off the wheels we noticed the front left studs were all damaged and that the last time the threads were cut wasn't sufficient. I tapped out the threads again, cleaned them out and got a new set of studs for that wheel.



We've already removed the cats and welded the exhaust shut.

I got a new master blank and had it cut out.



Found a set of style 32 wheels and put some new tires on them. First set i looked at online were off an e39 so required hub centric rings to fit on the hub, these i found much closer to me are off an e46 so picked up a pair of H&R 25mm spacers to get them to fit.


Got the 25mm H&R spacers on today, mounted the wheels and the front still managed to hit the shock absorber. I've spent too much time with my land cruiser and had front and rear tires of the same size put on, rears are 245/45R17 and swapped the fronts to 225/45R17. Gave it a run around the block and all seems good, we did visually inspect to make sure no contact from lock to lock and as an extra marked the shock with chalk so if the tire does make contact when the shock compresses we can easily tell. Won't have time to give the 6 a decent test run until Thursday or Friday. I'll make sure the Canon is charged for that, enough chatter some pics.

Local h&r supplier here didn't have spacers with the pre 2006 12x1.5 thread and only had the newer 14x1.25 so when i mounted the spacer i used the stock bolts on the spacer and was able to get them to sit flush and bolted the wheels on using the shorter spacer bolts, i was going to go find longer bolts (~2mm) to get the required 9 turns of thread from the bolts and was going to drive the 6 down through the indistrial areas to give a quick sort of pre-test drive run, went to fill up the tank as it was almost empty and it just started pouring petrol oit when it was nearly full. Leak was coming from the o-ring by the sender. I should get the ring in 5-10 days and then we'll drop the tank, inspect the inside and thoroughly check all the fuel lines and replace all thats necessary.
If funds allow will also order complete set of shocks/springs and the top camber adjustment plates and fit everything before the test drive.

Replaced the o-ring on the fuel pump and sender also replaced one hose we managed to break while reassembling everything back. Seal seems to be holding tight but holding back on driving the car around until proper wheel bolts are installed.


We're going to get all the fuel hoses and brake lines replaced down the line but not worrying about that now.

While waiting for the extended wheel bolts to come from the US thought we could sort out the rough idle, still on the to do is to inspect the distributor rotor and the "fingers" in the distributor cap, also to check for any vacuum leaks.

Today we pulled out the AFM, firstly it was covered in grime, also the door was very loose at the very begining and the wiper arm was set at the very edge and would pop off the carbon track if tapping on the gas pedal at idle, we moved the clock gear and set it so the door would swing completely without resistance increasing, slightly rotated the arm to always stay on the carbon track and did some voltage tests which showed it should be working completely fine as well as the temperature sensor.

Tomorrow going to pull off the throttle body and give it a major cleaning and all surrounding areas before reassembling and testing out the afm.

After cleaning up the throttle body and reassembling everything back, started the car, the response from the afm was spot on and engine ran smoother.

Finally picked up the extended wheel bolts on Monday, on Tuesday put some injector cleaner in the tank, made sure the battery had enough charge in it and headed out for a 110km round trip.
Performance vastly improved, slight uneven misfiring but that will be dealt with in short time (distributor rotor and cap will be replaced). A few of the pics I got:

...man it looks friggin' hot there, I don't know how you do it

Also, question for ya, as you mention this being a Japanese edition

Wouldn't that make it RHD with the steering wheel on the right hand side of the interior

Again, great example

GRNSHRK wrote:...man it looks friggin' hot there, I don't know how you do it

Also, question for ya, as you mention this being a Japanese edition

Wouldn't that make it RHD with the steering wheel on the right hand side of the interior

Again, great example

Thanks, our summer tops out at 50c over here so sort of used to the heat . That day temps were high 30s but yeah ac and tinted windows is a must here. The beauty of Japan spec imports are some are RHD some LHD as they were allowed to register them LHD back then, also they have high road tax and expenses on ownership so most cars are maintained properly even though resale value is really cheap.

When i picked this one up it had nothing but water running through the radiator, and the engine oil was burnt, whereas the spark plugs and trans fluid were in good condition. The previous, previous owner took care of it whereas the guy who picked it up ran around with it, did no maintenance aside from hack job wiring and respraying the whole car. The main thing is trying to fix what the last guy did trying to "restore" the car.

Please be careful that the uneven misfire you speak of is not being caused by a lean afr. If you have adjusted the clocking of the spring in the afm to provide more resistance then you will need more air flow for a given angular deflection of the door and this can cause lean afr.

m6dave wrote:Please be careful that the uneven misfire you speak of is not being caused by a lean afr. If you have adjusted the clocking of the spring in the afm to provide more resistance then you will need more air flow for a given angular deflection of the door and this can cause lean afr.

We suspected misfiring from clogged injectors and/or distributor as it was there before opened the afm. I should be getting the distributor cap within the next few days and we'll be swapping it with the rotor and see if the misfiring is gone. We only adjusted the gear over by one tooth as the the first few mm of opening the door seemed way tio loose even the wiper arm would bounce further back than the closed position. From online info it stated the resistance shouldn't change while pushing the door open, and when we pushed it was complete even pressure all the way through, before it felt like the closed position was when the door was still open a few mm if it makes any sense.

Thanks for the warning, either way I won't run the engine until the distributor cap/rotor is swapped and if the misfiring is still there I'm not sure what peoples view on miller performance is but I thought it would be easiest to get a maf kit from them to see if the afm is the culprit.

I had the Miller MAF and WAR chip on my M6 and the difference in throttle response and smoothness was terrific. I have since gone to a standalone fully sequential system and would be happy to sell the MAF and chip if anyone is interested, only suits S38 not M88.