bigcoupe.com

Greetings from Greenville SC, USA. I bought this 1987 635csi two weeks ago. It goes to a shop Monday for some serious work by professionals (steering and brakes), then I will try to update the rest over time.

I have already read like 20% of the posts in these forums, trying to get a handle on what I've gotten myself into here. Or as I told my wife, "And you may say to yourself, my God what have I done?!"

Congrats and welcome, looks pretty good

Of course we will be interested in your progress, lots more pix, and we are here to offer help along the way

Once again, welcome to the madness

Love it, "My Gawd, what have I done?!?"

Welcome to the madness! It looks good, but we need more pics! This site has helped me thru more problems than I would have ever been able to figure out myself!

Some more pics below. Like many of us after a certain age, a well-kept exterior hides some inner flaws...

The good: Paint is a relatively recent coat; overall looking good although the pics overstate it...good to very good, w some flaws. Glass also very good and seems well sealed in general. Interior seats and carpets all re-done and looking good. Engine is strong; starts great, runs smooth, no issues. Transmission also. Shifter is a dream. Clutch is relatively new. Powertrain gets an A. Well balanced and smooth as silk on the highway at 80mph, which is the best way to drive it IMO.

The bad: I had to change two power steering hoses including the high-pressure hose with the banjo bolt. Now it doesn't dump fluid every time I drive it!..but I'll assume more hoses and seals will get me unless I get them first. So steering and brakes need to be inspected and likely a lot of rubber replaced to make it somewhat reliable. Also there's a lot of play in the steering, not sure how to address that. Missing passenger door handle. Hand brake ratchet doesn't hold (on manual car... not good!) Dash overlay is warped along with the original tan interior bits. Feels older than it looks inside. Suspension needs to be updated.

The ugly: while shock towers/mounts and wheel wells are mostly rust-free, the floor pans have substantial rust, enough to need fixing. I dunno what that will take. I think I broke the odometer by pressing the trip reset on the trip home from buying it. Speedometer broken... is that bad??

So for now, steering hydraulics rebuild and floorpan rust repair, fix speedometer/odometer, then new suspension. Will probably move to some BBS rims and new exhaust also... those are luxuries for after I get the rest paid up. I'll post more as it progresses.

Good to be here among the gurus, there is much to learn...

Car looks good.

Pictures of the rust?

What's up with the tan and black interior?

Ah yes. The rust. Hard to get an angle for the right photo...but it exists.

When I bought the car I did an amateur rust inspection on the lot. Especially at shock tower mount points... I scrutinized those all I could. All look fine to me. (Though I am no professional, read on....) Wheel wells look fine. Front wing looks fine. A tiny bit of bubbling under the paint behind the front wheels and minor corrosion at the jack points. All of that seemed manageable.

I could also see there was some rust at the rear floor pans; but at the time I thought it looked like a small patch job, nothing too major.

But I had it up on jack stands this weekend and saw more. And ... the passenger-rear floor pan, is major.

So now I am cringing at what it's gonna take to seal that up. I can fix mechanical and electrical bits. But I have never welded anything.

So my #1 search term on bigcoupe.com in the last 48 hours is 'rust....'