My 1987 M6 "Refresh"

[dwcains]

The Orem-style TESA cloth tape is available on eBay from a few sellers. I did all the harnesses on my '85 and it looks great.

[MSGGrunt]

All the under dash wire has been re-wrapped and the newly refreshed dash is back in the car. These dashes do go back in relatively easy. The brown, though not as dark as the factory leather that was originally on the dash, is a nice contrast to the lighter tan. I think I'll look into drilling holes in my spare 635 door caps for the M tweeters and coat them with the same coating and paint them to match the dash. I will always have the original in storage if I ever decide to convert it back.

[MSGGrunt]

Euro headrests and premium speaker pods re-dyed. They came out nice. The headrests need one more light coat and they will be ready to install. I'd like to upgrade to newer speakers but for now the original ones work so they will probably go back in and leave the speaker upgrade for a future project.

[MSGGrunt]

Interior is 98% back together and I am very happy with how it turned out. The Leatherique product worked great once I got the pressure worked out and the type of gun worked out. I still have a few small interior details to complete like making new sun shade hooks, dying the contrasting dark leather, etc... but the cabin now looks really clean.

[MSGGrunt]

Another very nice find.... The previous owner, in his for sale add, claimed that the G280 had been rebuilt by Jim Blanton at Performance Gearing in Tucson, Arizona but, I could not find proof of this in the many thousands of dollars in receipts that came with the car.

I Emailed Performance Gearing and Jim got back to me in less than 24 hours. He sent me a copy of the receipt showing that the transmission had indeed been rebuilt in March 2011.... For the hefty price of $3000.00. This is especially nice knowing that many of the internal parts that wear and necessitate a rebuild are no longer available.

Kind of makes your day knowing the previous owner thought enough about this car to invest that amount of money into doing it correctly instead of just swapping in a different 5-speed.

[Dutch]

Very impressive rebuild, I really like the red paintjob and light interior combo. Keep up the good work.

[MSGGrunt]

Now that the interior is just about complete the next project will be a complete detailing of the engine compartment.

- I already have new insulations to install.
- Have the two under hood decals.
- Will powder coat the strut bar. The bright aluminum is just too much IMHO.
- Powder coat or buy a new blower motor cover.
- Powder coat the black wiper support that has some slight surface rust.
- Reseal where the main wiring harness goes into the cabin.
- Fix the non working engine compartment light.
- Wash and wax all the painted surfaces that I can get at.

Am I missing anything?

[MSGGrunt]

Started the hood foam replacement project today. The easy part, removing the foam, went very quickly but, from everything I have read getting all the glue off is going to be the really fun part... Not. I bought a can of Goof Off and hope this does the trick. I will be doing this with the hood still on the car as I didn't want to risk any damage to it while taking it off or not being able to get it lined up just right.

Any thoughts on which side of the foam should be showing or is a matter of personal preference? I like how the open foam side on the left looks versus the side that is closed, one on the right, but if there is a distinct advantage of having the closed side facing out then please let me know.

[JCS]

Here is a photo of the closed cell foam.

You can also do the washer system

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[songzunhuang]

Nice, your foam looks very different from mine. It's a much darker shade.
I didn't have a choice of side. It was a self adhesive situation. I thought I had the OEM part, but who knows.

How'd your "Goof-Off" go for removal of the old cement? I had to resort to lacquer thinner. I did it over a period of a few days because it was just too annoying to do at once.

[GRNSHRK]

I realize that the old school plumbing is far more simple, but I bet you could've figured it out

[dwcains]

Nice, your foam looks very different from mine. It's a much darker shade.
I didn't have a choice of side. It was a self adhesive situation. I thought I had the OEM part, but who knows.

How'd your "Goof-Off" go for removal of the old cement? I had to resort to lacquer thinner. I did it over a period of a few days because it was just too annoying to do at once.

The foam I used is the same as yours (purchased from BMW), and I also used lacquer thinner (and a plastic scraper) to get most of the glue off the hood. 6 or 7 months later it still looks good, and the foam is washable. I spilled some oil on it while it was waiting on a shelf, and was able to get it clean with a little warm water and SImple Green.

[songzunhuang]

I realize that the old school plumbing is far more simple, but I bet you could've figured it out

OOh, you have 2 hood lights and they are painted silver to boot. Fancy.
When get finished with the "must haves", I'll move on to the concours stuff.

[MSGGrunt]

I have yet to tackle removing the factory glue. I was just wondering if it was recommended to install one side against the hood or the other. One side of my foam is open while the other side is closed/smoother. I just like the look of the open side better. It is darker black vs the smoother side that is more charcoal and as long as there wouldn't be a problem gluing the closed/smoother/charcoal side to the hood that is what I think I would like the looks of better.

The washer system works so it isn't a high priority right now.

[hornhospital]

I'd expect the smooth side to be the better surface for gluing, so your open foam side will show with it installed that way.

[JCS]

I realize that the old school plumbing is far more simple, but I bet you could've figured it out

Bobbo,

I thought about adding the 2nd hood light, but decided to keep the car as stock as possible.
I know the under hood foam is different than OEM, but the after market foam I chose is a much better product, also being a closed cell foam.
On the other items I have changed, like the CD43, I keep the old radio or parts.
My '87 m6 has only 68,000 miles and has always garaged, and i've have it for 22 years, and never driven in the rain.

Regards,

[MSGGrunt]

The hood foam project is still in the works but, today I had enough of looking at the rocker panels and seeing that the black coating, whatever it was, was coming off and I could see the red paint underneath.

I was pleasantly surprised at how easily the lower trim pieces came off. Removed the one 9mm plastic nut and then with the help of a body panel tool they just snapped off the clips, not breaking a single one. Sanded the rockers with a gray scotch bright pad and cleaned with some paint thinner. Tapped off draped the car in plastic (just in case) and sprayed three coats of SEM 39813 Satin chip guard.

With the trim back on and back down off jack stands the rockers look much better.

[MSGGrunt]

And while under there doing the rockers I noticed that the "dogbone" and swaybar links rubbers were all dry rotted. Will be ordering these tonight. Easy enough to replace.

I'd love to have a lift and really clean the underside of the car with a pressure washer or even a steam cleaner and then give it a protective coating of Waxoyl or something similar. Even so, the underside is pretty clean.

[MSGGrunt]

Jumped back to the hood foam/pad project today. I learned that if you tape off the edge of the new foam it helps to not get any of the glue on the exposed/unglued side. I installed the foam smooth side down. I like the darker look of the open side and decided to install the pads so that side was showing .

The smaller side pieces weren't difficult but, I will have to get inventive on the larger center piece if I am going to be successful getting it on correctly working alone and not removing the hood.

I'm thinking if I just glue a strip down the center to locate the foam, let that set up and then slowly work my way out to each side I may be lucky enough to get it on straight.

[dwcains]

If you're using contact cement you can cover most of the area on the hood with something, maybe wax paper, except the top edge. Align your foam piece with the top edge, press it into place, and then pull out the wax paper and press the rest of it down. That's sort of what I did with the OEM self-adhesive pieces of foam I installed. I peeled off just a few inches of the backing paper at the top, tacked the foam onto the hood, and then pulled out the rest of the backing paper.

[MSGGrunt]

I'm using 3M Super 80 Rubber & Vinyl Adhesive. The research that I did seemed to show that the Super 80 was the best 3M product for the hood foam, specifically it is designed for high heat areas.

dwcains, that is kind of the technique I was thinking of using. I just have to be careful where I have glue on the hood and foam not to let them touch until I know it is in the correct location. Once the two pieces touch after an initial cure of 5 minutes it is staying there.

I was thinking of masking off all of the foam except say a 3" wide strip right down the center and masking off all of the hood area except for a corresponding 3" wide strip down the center. Or using some double sided tape to hold the piece in place while I apply the more permanent adhesive.

On another note, the foam I bought seems to be slightly shorter than the original by about 1/4" or so.

[MSGGrunt]

Installed a new Bosch coil and new Karlyn ignition wires from AutohausAZ.

[MSGGrunt]

Hood Foam refresh done.

[MSGGrunt]

Resealed where the main harness goes from under the hood into the main compartment.

[francoid]

Purely proactively? Or there was a reason?
What did you use?