1988 daily driver fun!

[Maverick]

So, I found her fairly locally after a fruitless search for an E30 to replace my previous.. (rusty sunroof tray.. alas a massive pain in the ass) 130k off the road for 8 years, new rear arches, inner and outer sills, wings and all the work to the inner wing etc done..

[Maverick]

After fitting the brakes and giving her a good clean sadly something more pressing appeared.. a pool of red dexron under the car.. yes.. sharky was bleeding! As always the trans cooler pipes had rotted where they run round the crossmember to the rad (very common) luckily a call to vines and two new complete lines were in my hand..

the most difficult bit was getting them home in my e90.. they're quite long!! Now.. as any E1x/2x/3x owner knows, viscous clutches are a no brainer when picking up a new car, so this was my next port of call along with some new coolant pipes.. also, worth bridging the aux cooling fan just to check.. nothing will kill your car faster than overheating!



And of course.. time to fit all these goodies..

[Maverick]

So... now.. she's a little lower and handles as God intended! Sadly I've no pics of the trans service but that was next on the agenda.. along with a Cat1 alarm and immobiliser and a GPS tracker.. I think the guy spent longer stripping out all the old alarm wiring than fitting the new one! At least she's all safe though.. now, a pioneer dab radio, standard-fit phoenix gold speakers and hands free adapter all tucked in I can listen to something other than the hum of that M30 :)


Aaaaand two of these.. no more slamming the damn doors!!!

[Maverick]

And then.. these happened

I'll be adding a 10mm spacer to the rear to fill out the arches and using a 235/45 17 tyre.. more pics of the boots on when I get a bit more time.. as it is I've had the front end in bits all day so I'm taking a break! :)

[wattsmonkey]

That looks awesome!

I fondly remember tooling down to Brighton in my M535i, picking up my mate Iain who spent all of our university years raving about BMWs (when I was stuck on British stuff) and driving to Eastbourne to get a set of 16" E38 Style 5s to replace the bald 15" E34 Style 5s from BM Wheels.

Such a cool place!

Rob

[olympia57]

RC090's are lovely but for a daily driver in the UK the best money you could spend is on a pair of Lokari liners.

[Maverick]

That looks awesome!

I fondly remember tooling down to Brighton in my M535i, picking up my mate Iain who spent all of our university years raving about BMWs (when I was stuck on British stuff) and driving to Eastbourne to get a set of 16" E38 Style 5s to replace the bald 15" E34 Style 5s from BM Wheels.

Such a cool place!

Rob

Thanks it's ok, I think it's less fun now than ten years ago but I was born here so I probably know it a little differently! I miss my M535i.. and my crappy Opel Mantas always loved a German!

Oh and Olympia.. I have heard mixed reviews about Lokari liners.. they're a pig to fit and leave glaring holes for crud to gather, currently I've a thick coat of underseal and no liner at all meaning I can get right up there and down the front of the wing / sill with a jet wash most weeks.. every E30 / E38 I've had has suffered with soggy bits there so I'm loathed to cover it up!

[Maverick]

Today, I retrofitted an E30 analogue clock I had laying about, my OBC display is kaput and until I can find a replacement lcd I thought I might fill the hole with something useful, you'll need a bracket to fit it in place of the larger 13 button obc but they are still available for £20 from the stealer..

the OBC harness has about 12 wires, only 4 of those wires are needed to get the euro spec clock working. The analog clock has a number above each pin. They are:

30- Power
31- Ground
58k- Light power
31g- Light ground

On the OBC harness side cut these wires and connect them:
brown - Ground
gray/red -Light power
brown/white - Light ground

Now for the 12v constant, use the red wire in your radio harness, the red / green or red / white wire in your OBC harness runs through your instrument cluster board and many poor souls before you have knackered the SI board connecting this to an analogue clock!

Now I've a nice simple clock and I've two possible LCD replacements en route from China (I am an electronic engineer so once I've sorted I'll do a write up) the whole display on the OBC is run from a driver chip so I may have to swap that out to get it to read any sense but we shall see another day when it isn't so cold!

[Maverick]

[olympia57]

That looks awesome!

I fondly remember tooling down to Brighton in my M535i, picking up my mate Iain who spent all of our university years raving about BMWs (when I was stuck on British stuff) and driving to Eastbourne to get a set of 16" E38 Style 5s to replace the bald 15" E34 Style 5s from BM Wheels.

Such a cool place!

Rob

Thanks it's ok, I think it's less fun now than ten years ago but I was born here so I probably know it a little differently! I miss my M535i.. and my crappy Opel Mantas always loved a German!

Oh and Olympia.. I have heard mixed reviews about Lokari liners.. they're a pig to fit and leave glaring holes for crud to gather, currently I've a thick coat of underseal and no liner at all meaning I can get right up there and down the front of the wing / sill with a jet wash most weeks.. every E30 / E38 I've had has suffered with soggy bits there so I'm loathed to cover it up!

OK ....
Ah , that wonderful sound of fresh salt grit blasting the underside on a wet night , worse than Slade at Christmas time.

[Maverick]

OK ....
Ah , that wonderful sound of fresh salt grit blasting the underside on a wet night , worse than Slade at Christmas time.

Fresh salt? Clearly your council are more efficient than mine
Your car underside will always be blasted with crap liners or not.. at least mine has the chance to sluice off, why do you think trumpets and sills always rot

I've read very mixed reviews about Lokari liners, they leave a lot to be desired in fitting and actually provide lovely access points for grot to get up there.. I may fab my own in time, as it stands though it has many layers of schutz and gets rinsed off every few days, suits me!

They'll rust whatever you do, I'd rather have the chance to catch it early.. having done all the restoration work.. trust me, the guy on here with 'they are ALWAYS rustier than you think' is not wrong!

[olympia57]

OK ....
Ah , that wonderful sound of fresh salt grit blasting the underside on a wet night , worse than Slade at Christmas time.

Fresh salt? Clearly your council are more efficient than mine
Your car underside will always be blasted with crap liners or not.. at least mine has the chance to sluice off, why do you think trumpets and sills always rot

I've read very mixed reviews about Lokari liners, they leave a lot to be desired in fitting and actually provide lovely access points for grot to get up there.. I may fab my own in time, as it stands though it has many layers of schutz and gets rinsed off every few days, suits me!

They'll rust whatever you do, I'd rather have the chance to catch it early.. having done all the restoration work.. trust me, the guy on here with 'they are ALWAYS rustier than you think' is not wrong!

No ,thankfully we don't get salt on the roads down here due to the close proximity of the Gulf Stream ,but growing up in Scotland I recall that sound vividly.

That's interesting re the Lokari liners ,what a pity , I heard that knocking up a set wasn't as easy as you'd expect either .

You're absolutely correct about them rotting and that guy that quotes that "rusty" saying may have a point , I just thought that you may have benefited from those " undesirable " liners.
You've done a magnificent job of restoring the inner wing area of your car and I'm sure that the covering applied will keep the rust at bay for many years . The info was also very enlightening re what destroys the sills and ,what you call them , Oh yeah , trumpets .

I like your car Maverick and as I said admire you in using it as a daily driver in UK , just thought I could offer a little advice to you .
Good luck and keep those interesting updates coming.
Don

[wattsmonkey]

My experience of the Lokari liners is that they do offer very real protection to the outer wings. They do not protect the "return" edge of the trumpets that extends back to the shock mount reinforcement.

My burgundy 635 was used as a daily driver for 20k miles on UK roads with the liners fitted. Upon removing them I was very impressed with the dry and protected state of the outer wings and most of the inners - the unprotected bit was as full of crap as you'd expect, but this is definitely not a hidden rust trap - it's obvious where the protection ends!

Other posts refer and I take your point about sluicing out the crap, but the 70s origins of the E24's design are made clear in the number of rust traps under those wings.

Did I mention I've just bought another 635?

[Maverick]

My experience of the Lokari liners is that they do offer very real protection to the outer wings. They do not protect the "return" edge of the trumpets that extends back to the shock mount reinforcement.

My burgundy 635 was used as a daily driver for 20k miles on UK roads with the liners fitted. Upon removing them I was very impressed with the dry and protected state of the outer wings and most of the inners - the unprotected bit was as full of crap as you'd expect, but this is definitely not a hidden rust trap - it's obvious where the protection ends!

Other posts refer and I take your point about sluicing out the crap, but the 70s origins of the E24's design are made clear in the number of rust traps under those wings.

Did I mention I've just bought another 635?

This is the review I was looking for, thanks! I shall order a set presently! And I'll go look for pics in the gallery when you get some up

And thanks Don, advice is always appreciated and anything that can be done to protect these old girls is probably worth doing

[olympia57]

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=25263&p=189212&hilit=Lokari#p189212

This may be of interest Tom.
Don

[sharkfan]

Today, I retrofitted an E30 analogue clock I had laying about, my OBC display is kaput and until I can find a replacement lcd I thought I might fill the hole with something useful, you'll need a bracket to fit it in place of the larger 13 button obc but they are still available for £20 from the stealer..

the OBC harness has about 12 wires, only 4 of those wires are needed to get the euro spec clock working. The analog clock has a number above each pin. They are:

30- Power
31- Ground
58k- Light power
31g- Light ground

On the OBC harness side cut these wires and connect them:
brown - Ground
gray/red -Light power
brown/white - Light ground

Now for the 12v constant, use the red wire in your radio harness, the red / green or red / white wire in your OBC harness runs through your instrument cluster board and many poor souls before you have knackered the SI board connecting this to an analogue clock!

Now I've a nice simple clock and I've two possible LCD replacements en route from China (I am an electronic engineer so once I've sorted I'll do a write up) the whole display on the OBC is run from a driver chip so I may have to swap that out to get it to read any sense but we shall see another day when it isn't so cold!

I'll be doing this soon to my 1982 car; have you a pic and part number of the bracket and a pic of your installed clock please?

[Maverick]

I'll be doing this soon to my 1982 car; have you a pic and part number of the bracket and a pic of your installed clock please?

No probs..
Part # is 62131380009

I'll take a pic when It's light

[Maverick]

[Maverick]

Nothing on telly this evening either so, time to sort those rear pods! The cover is lifting off the metal frame as always.. nothing that a bit of araldite and some patience won't fix!

[Maverick]

Well, after much deliberation and debate, I've decided that, as much as I'd love her as a daily, it's not fair and I think the English wet winter will ruin her, so here she is being tucked in to her warm storage. It'll also give me a chance to get all the little jobs done before the spring

[BenM635i]

Would agree with you, keep her indoors for the next couple of months.

They seem to be spraying especially toxic stuff on the roads at the moment - even for blighty. Took the daily out yesterday and after a little trip on the motorways it seems to be covered in some kind of treacle / salt / goop substance.. 100% sure it would eat through the e24 faster than Alien blood!