1985 635CSi Rescue
Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2021 11:56 pm
Hello everyone!
I joined this forum because I am now happily an e24 owner. My first car was an e28 528e, which I still have today. A few weeks ago, my father was in Alabama trying to find some project cars, and he texted me with photos of an e24. I couldn't tell that much about it based on the photos, but I could hardly contain my excitement because I have always wanted an e24 since I saw one in person for the first time after buying my e28. Here are the photos he sent me.
After my dad told me that we were going to be able to go pick it up about a week from then, all I could do is think about the car and contemplate whether or not it would be worth saving. As you can see, the rear passenger window is down, which had me a little bit concerned about how the car looked on the inside. Regardless, last weekend me and my dad headed down to Alabama to pick up the car. Equipped with a phone gimbal, I took a pretty awesome video of all the things I saw there (skip to the end if you just want to see the car).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns1ddb6k ... RobyFaught
Upon seeing the car in person, I found that it is an auto 1985 635CSi in arctic blue with a pacific blue interior. Options include TRX wheels\tires, mtech1 steering wheel, sport seats, and seat memory. While the TRXs are no good for anyone that's not trying to do a 100% original restoration, I'm particularly excited about the Mtech wheel and sport seats. My other BMW being an eta, these are things that i have never been able to experience. After pulling the car out of the woods, we took it to a car wash to see what exactly was hiding under the years of grime and growth that had built up on the car.
It was still wet in the photo, but after cleaning the car off I was happy to see that underneath all the dirt that had built up on the outside of the car the bodywork seemed very straight and solid. I could only find minor amounts of rust at the end of the rocker panel in front of one of the rear wheels, and next to the license plate mounting holes. While i believe that my hopes were fulfilled, and that this car is most certainly worth saving, it does have its issues.
The interior is quite rough. Sitting outside with one window open has done it no favors, and a lot of the vinyl interior pieces such as the dash, center console, and door panels have quite a bit of cracking. Additionally, the gauge cluster has some weird spores growing inside of it. Lastly, the rear seats and presumably the rear speaker covers have seen better days from the window being open, but i've yet to see anything that has scared me away from this project. I'm hoping I will be able to find all of the interior pieces I need on this forum, and maybe the folks over at Bavarian Restoration may be able to help me with my instrument cluster. Other than that, the car doesn't start due to a lack of fuel supply to the fuel rail, the doors don't shut completely for some reason, the driver door has no lock cylinder, the ignition switch has been changed and I have no keys for the doors, and as stated before, the rear windows do not move. I tried to use the manual override to raise the window that was down, but I fear that the window being open has caused it to seize up completely, as the manual override would not budge the window, which could easily be moved by hand. So first orders of business are getting the window up, getting a key to open up the trunk, and figuring out why the car cranks, has spark, but gets no fuel. I hope you guys will agree with me that despite the clear coat and interior issues this car was worth saving, and you'll follow me in the process :)
I joined this forum because I am now happily an e24 owner. My first car was an e28 528e, which I still have today. A few weeks ago, my father was in Alabama trying to find some project cars, and he texted me with photos of an e24. I couldn't tell that much about it based on the photos, but I could hardly contain my excitement because I have always wanted an e24 since I saw one in person for the first time after buying my e28. Here are the photos he sent me.
After my dad told me that we were going to be able to go pick it up about a week from then, all I could do is think about the car and contemplate whether or not it would be worth saving. As you can see, the rear passenger window is down, which had me a little bit concerned about how the car looked on the inside. Regardless, last weekend me and my dad headed down to Alabama to pick up the car. Equipped with a phone gimbal, I took a pretty awesome video of all the things I saw there (skip to the end if you just want to see the car).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns1ddb6k ... RobyFaught
Upon seeing the car in person, I found that it is an auto 1985 635CSi in arctic blue with a pacific blue interior. Options include TRX wheels\tires, mtech1 steering wheel, sport seats, and seat memory. While the TRXs are no good for anyone that's not trying to do a 100% original restoration, I'm particularly excited about the Mtech wheel and sport seats. My other BMW being an eta, these are things that i have never been able to experience. After pulling the car out of the woods, we took it to a car wash to see what exactly was hiding under the years of grime and growth that had built up on the car.
It was still wet in the photo, but after cleaning the car off I was happy to see that underneath all the dirt that had built up on the outside of the car the bodywork seemed very straight and solid. I could only find minor amounts of rust at the end of the rocker panel in front of one of the rear wheels, and next to the license plate mounting holes. While i believe that my hopes were fulfilled, and that this car is most certainly worth saving, it does have its issues.
The interior is quite rough. Sitting outside with one window open has done it no favors, and a lot of the vinyl interior pieces such as the dash, center console, and door panels have quite a bit of cracking. Additionally, the gauge cluster has some weird spores growing inside of it. Lastly, the rear seats and presumably the rear speaker covers have seen better days from the window being open, but i've yet to see anything that has scared me away from this project. I'm hoping I will be able to find all of the interior pieces I need on this forum, and maybe the folks over at Bavarian Restoration may be able to help me with my instrument cluster. Other than that, the car doesn't start due to a lack of fuel supply to the fuel rail, the doors don't shut completely for some reason, the driver door has no lock cylinder, the ignition switch has been changed and I have no keys for the doors, and as stated before, the rear windows do not move. I tried to use the manual override to raise the window that was down, but I fear that the window being open has caused it to seize up completely, as the manual override would not budge the window, which could easily be moved by hand. So first orders of business are getting the window up, getting a key to open up the trunk, and figuring out why the car cranks, has spark, but gets no fuel. I hope you guys will agree with me that despite the clear coat and interior issues this car was worth saving, and you'll follow me in the process :)