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Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Mon May 23, 2016 2:44 am
by Shipper 01
Gaz I have no idea why you have just 'got to laugh'. MH's shoddy performance was no laughing matter and to be honest, I'm insulted by your last post.

I get he's your friend. You actually recommended him to me.

Let me clear up a few misconceptions. I get he is talking to you. He lied through his teeth to me and had every bullship excuse under the sun. Gaz he lies to you as well. But, as you get him to work on your cars for free, there's no pain. So let's get to clearing some things up.

1. The project only grew at MH's advice/recommendation. And then he was negligent in said advice/recommendation. I wanted a gear box swap and he said keep your old overdrive box (project got smaller). So in all fairness apart from some wiring and brake master cylinder reconditioning, there was no additional work from me.
2. The growth was small. Placing an e28 rear subframe as advised by MH. Funnily enough this was not required and never needed and would never have worked. But I had to pay for it.
3. He did not work for months on end. This was (per his email) a 3-5 week project. He took the car in May 2014. By December 2014 he promised it would be finished by Xmas 2014/2015 and if not, it would be free. Nothing else was changed bar refurbishing the brake boosters and the rear sub frame which he never put into the car. He stuffed it as parts in the boot.
4. I paid the $2,500 to him up front for the new exhaust and every bill as it came in. There weren't many but then to be fair he did not do much. I never got the exhaust. Gaz that's $2,500 stolen and remains his responsibility.
5. The car was not in a poor state of repair. It was old but he managed to drive it 850kms from Sydney to Melbourne at his request and knowing the brakes were soft. He wanted a weekend away from the kids with his wife. Apart from a little wiring for rear brake lights and indicator and the brake master cylinder rebuild, the car was fine.
6. I did not call it a day and take the car unfinished. He lost his work shop and closed down his business. He moved into a housing commission and was unable to work as neighbours complained and council shut him down. My car was stuffed up the back of a small exhaust shop out in the burbs and was there for months abandoned. Only when I found out that the exhaust shop was about to be sold did I need to run down and save it. MH had ample time to work on the car. He just did not. I took my car back unfinished and as a non-runner as that's where he dumped it, for months, without telling me and with no intent what so ever to ever work on it again. Had I not acted, I would have lost the car as well.
7. The work done by classic custom cars and Graeme Bell was not duplicated work. It was either work that needed to be done and MH had never started or work that was done faulty by MH and needed to be corrected.

I get you want to defend him but seriously, the more I write what happened the more pissed off I get at being ripped off. I handed him $2,500 for the exhaust and get nothing. He steals my dogleg box at a value of what, $2,000? And then he sits there and tells you all of these wonderful things he did to the car that Gaz, just are not there. It’s BS! That’s why I needed to pay Classic Custom Cars and Graeme Bell so much. Because they needed to do so much. Because it was not done.

You know I should not be ripped off like this and $4,500 plus all the repair work is a hell of a lot of money to lose on this. His performance was absolutely pathetic and borderline criminal. You are right Gaz, I need to get over it. So I’ll call Fair Trading Victoria now and get an action going. You’re not impartial mate. I wish you were. Fair Trading Consumer Affairs Victoria will get this sorted and will be impartial. I need a week or two to put my case together and talk to the two firms whom fixed the mistakes. But that’s why Consumer Affairs are there. For when you are ripped off $4,500 and then need to pay thousands to fix a professional’s negligence.

Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Tue May 24, 2016 11:30 am
by GazM3
Wow.
I'd prob suggest to not vent on a public forum. It's the last I'll say on this here.

Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Fri May 27, 2016 1:02 am
by Shipper 01
Gaz. After all I went through with MH, laughing at me or my situation was very bad form. I'll now put together all my costs and get back to you. I'm not willing to have $2,500.00 stolen for the exhaust and then lose another $2,000.00 when someone steals a gearbox. We either settle it amicably now (I'll make one offer that is not negotiable) or I'll take it to court.

Separate to this. Boots being replaced in the rear e28 subframe now. Hydraulic fluid leak being addressed as is leaking timing chain cover (new gasket). The engine is leaking a lot of oil from the timing chain cover. The gasket is gone and this could be the source of my vacuum leak. When I say a lot of oil, 50-100 mm a day even when sitting still and engine off.

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Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Fri May 27, 2016 10:10 am
by Paul Humpage
I remember when the boots failed on my car during a drive out to Oberon. There was so much smoke coming from the back of the car from the grease being thrown onto the hot exhaust that I thought the engine had blown up even though it was running perfectly. It was a relief to open up the bonnet and see an intact engine.

Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Sat May 28, 2016 4:15 am
by Shipper 01
That was lucky Paul,

You can see how much grease the boot has thrown onto the exhaust of my car in one of the photos above (and there is just as much on the underside of the car floor!) so I can imagine what your car looked like and how large the smoke cloud was. Must have scared you silly. I had oil, hydraulic fluid and this grease all cooking away slowly coming back from Melbourne. Car was full of oil when I left and just above/on the min line on the dip-stick the next day. No idea how many litres that is. Assuming 7 litres in the car, is that 3 litres gone for a fry?

So coming back it smelt a bit like a WWII military vehicle in a museum, all burnt oil and all.

All gaskets at the mechanics now. Boots at the mechanics. Hopefully ready to go in a week or two. Getting the gaskets in means dropping the front subframe and removing the sump, so will not be a small job. Then the hydraulic leak is a tricky one. Then the boots. So 2 to 3 days solid work?

But you can see why I could just not go for a drive. She would have run dry and ruined an axle.

Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Sat May 28, 2016 5:20 am
by Paul Humpage
Mine have gone twice in the time I've had it (10 years) I don't know if I've been unlucky or if that's par for the course. The second time around there was no drama with smoke but I had a clicking noise and the cv joints under the boots were as dry as a witch's tit so the grease must have gone a while before. No damage fortunately and it wasn't an expensive fix up at Bee-Emms.

We've always been used to your car smelling of something petro-chemical so the WWII military vehicle scent wouldn't have raised an eyebrow with most of us :wink:

Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Sat May 28, 2016 6:36 am
by Shipper 01
Paul Humpage wrote: We've always been used to your car smelling of something petro-chemical so the WWII military vehicle scent wouldn't have raised an eyebrow with most of us :wink:
But this time it over-powered the wet dog smell inside the car. Which in itself is quite the feat!

Trev, where did you get your carpet done?

Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Sat May 28, 2016 7:51 am
by TrevorB
Hi Josh,
Simmons Automotive in Bathurst but any trimmer can do it. The jobs good but in hindsight would have sourced some thicker carpet.

Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Sat May 28, 2016 11:38 am
by Shipper 01
What did it cost Trev?

Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Sun May 29, 2016 8:38 am
by TrevorB
600 bucks maybe including the boot? It's the labour that costs but you get a new car for the money (unless you like wet dogs)!

Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Mon May 30, 2016 1:30 am
by Shipper 01
Did you take the seats out yourself plus remove the old carpet? And did you remove the tar from the floor and place in the new lightweight sound proofing material?

Not keen on the smell although it is drowned out by WWII bomber smell at the moment.

Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Mon May 30, 2016 8:06 am
by TrevorB
The interior was already stripped to replace the floors. Fitted new sound deadening material and painted before trimming. Your probably better pulling them yourself, check the floors and firewall, and around the seatbelt mount at the base of the B pillars.
Good luck!

Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2016 11:01 pm
by Shipper 01
All fixed bar the vacuum leak. Awaiting startup early this week to see if the torn timing chain gasket was the vacuum leak source.

I'll temp wrap that exhaust. No wonder the boot went.
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Here's the ex mechanics power steering hydraulic pipe. It comes from some air conditioning unit. Cracked as he bent it by hand. Gary, it's still costing me to fix his shoddy work.
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And here's the replacement pipe, and red hosing leading around under the radiator.
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Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2016 9:21 am
by TrevorB
Hi Josh,
Shocks and steering done, rockers adjusted, rego paid, how about a drive?

Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 12:39 am
by Shipper 01
I'm in, slight issue with waiting for the last of the parts for my car and want to get Isaac's booster seat in (professionally), so will give you an update each week.

Josh

Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 9:53 am
by TrevorB
No rush, I've probably got another 3 weeks of footy, then a 3 week break before finals.
Snuck out for a lap this afternoon, she feels like a different car. Even the engine runs better after the rockers were adjusted.
Do you still have that B34 head for sale?

Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 1:52 am
by Shipper 01
Yep, still got a performance B34 head for sale. Warm to hot street CAM. One that is very street-able and lots of low down torque. Porting and in good nick. Came off of my E3 race car when I tried a different head. This was actually the better flowing head as my triple 45DCOE Webers needed to be de-jetted as the spare head I have now flowed better than the stage 1 ported racing head.

Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 8:57 am
by TrevorB
Cool! Put it the boot and I'll tx the money across when we go to Gosford?

Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 10:36 am
by Wazza0707
Hi Shipper 01
I'm about to replicate (give or take) Gertie and wondered if you could give me a bit of advice?
How hard to do was the rear subframe swap and was it from a 535? I'm looking at fitting an E28 front Subframe also so I have more choice with suspension/brakes. Also Fritz's bits headers will go straight on. I have everything apart from a pedal box and sort what brake booster to fit. Was going to leave the subframes E12 but I only have one LSD sideloader so rather leave that in my other car.

My other car is a CSI 3.0 E9. I was intending to fit the S38B38 into my E9 but decided I'd rather keep it close to original. Also didn't want to twist the body or put it into a guardrail on a track day!

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers
Warren

Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 1:14 am
by Shipper 01
Hey Warren,
I’ve learnt a lot by doing my builds. Mostly, I’ve learnt not to trust people. Bullship artists and rip-off merchants talk the talk way way better than an honest professional mechanic or race engine builder. So;
• Qualify that you are using the right guys. My $3,500 engine swap saw the original guy dump my car and run off with my dogleg gearbox and me needing another $16k to fix all his mistakes.
• So only used qualified insured professionals.
• The e28 rear subframe swap is easy. Recondition and paint the new e28 rear subframe. The e12 suspension (springs and shocks) carried over in mine. You can pick a huge number of LSD’s if you go e28 subframe rear. Well worth it.
• 540i disks and callipers will fit the rear.
• I’m going 135i 335mm dia’s and big 6 pistons on the fronts. They just fit the 17 inch.
• The engine swap is difficult but I’d recommend opening it up and making sure it is good first. A reconditioned S38B38 is better than paying to install it twice as you had to take it out and fix the vacuum leaks and other issues.
• Place the battery in the boot. Go here for the right e12 rear strut brace and battery frame. Note you use a smaller high performance batter. https://www.racetep.com/bmw-e12-rear-sh ... ttery.html
• Run the S38B38 ECU. If you can, run a megasquirt MS3-PRO. It will fine tune the B38 and get the extra 5% out of it.
• Consider an uprated radiator. I run a 540 radiator but will upgrade again now my engine is running race CAMS, performance springs and valves.
My complete car build is on bimmerforums here, https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/show ... 3CSi/page2
I run an E3 converted to an E9. It will soon be running a 370hp M30B35 with original Group A and Group C parts. You can easily build an M30B30 to 280hp and if you swap in an M30B35 to your E9 (which is period correct, as would an M30B32 be), you can get to 3.9 litres (M90 block & B35 crank plus overbore) which gives you 370nm of torque (huge, S38B36 like) and in a streetable form, easily up to 300hp. Your E9 would rocket along. My E3 build runs triple webers and can be found on Bimmerforums here, https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/show ... acer/page4

Good luck with the build. Again use only reputable, certified and insured specialists.

Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 10:44 am
by Wazza0707
Hi Shipper
Sorry for the late reply, didn't get a notification that you'd replied.

Sounds like you had some fun, I'm doing most of the work myself. I have a cousin with an automotive (reputable) workshop and a mate who owns BM World here (what he doesn't know about BMW's is hardly worth knowing) if I need help.

My engine was in a car when i bought it so I know how it runs but will still be replacing some gaskets, seals etc before installing.

Where did the ECU go in your car, glovebox?

The biggest thing I can see being a problem is getting the braking system working well.

Mine is auto so I need to source an E12/24 manual pedal box or go for an aftermarket race pedal box.

Cheers
Warren

Re: Gertie Ready & M635 sale at Shannons

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 11:02 am
by Wazza0707
Hi again Shipper

Forgot to mention your E3/E9.
I've seen posts and I think a youtube video on that car.

I was thinking of putting a higher HP M30 in mine but decided to stick with the standard 3.0 and 4 speed. E9 is my cruiser and E24 the have fun car.

Warren