Chuffin nora - the Nicky Clarke special dies

[scooters]

Well,

last week I was doing an Italian Tune up of the E30 Baur (BMW 320i Baur Top Cabriolet Automatic AKA The Nicky Clarke Special, the 80's hairdresser's wet dream) on the M8. foolishly I had ignored the OIL PRESSURE WARNING LIGHT when it started a flickering the previous week and wrote it off as another of the issues caused by leaky batteries on the Service Indicator PCB (a common E30 fault) Anyroad, the oil levels were OK.

 

Except

 

I had forgotten that the car had obviously not been serviced for many many years if the condition of the washable K&N panel filter was anythign to go buy. Asthmatic running issues last week were cured by washing the air filter it was that blocked.

 

When I had got the car I did an oil service on it but got disturbed so never changed the air filter. The car was mothballed in September.

 

Anyway, the oil pressure light came on with a vengence on the M8, slowed downstraight away and limped home with what was obviously a stuffed oil pump probably caused by lack of servicing, the rattling that manifested sounds like a knackered rocker or cam, 3 cylinders are out.

 

Now 320i M20 engines are not really worth rebuilding. They give the same MPG for 45BHP less than the 2.5i with no discernable difference in insurance (I have trade insurance anyway). At the risk of the car turning into one of those 'projects' I have contacted Boyd at Bavarian Retro in Hamilton who has a newly serviced 2.5 engine with new pumps etc. who will also drup it in for a very reasonable price. I'll replace the rear brakes with discs and bug on a 325i antiroll bar as well.

 

It's worth doing because late Baurs are rare items. By 1986 (I think) BMW had released their own convertible so shelling out the £5k on top of the cost of an E30 2 door and waiting the 8 weeks for delivery for Baur to chop the top off in Stuttgart was a very expensive option. Especially when the BMW tocal convertible was available at a lower price. So this car would have been ordered by a real pedant, this makes them idea shitter cars because their initial owners were able to afford to maintain them. They also held onto them. My car was sold by BMW Chiswick and was probably used by some city boy's missus to go shopping on the Kings Road. Only 70k on the clock when I bought it in Sheffield off a chap who had bought it for his missus (he had a Lamborgini Countach (splurt! oh dear, another keayboard) last summer after a drunken Ebay session.

 

BMWs usually don;t really do it to me as a child of the 70's they were ofrn driven by tools until that mantle passed to Audi in the late 90's (apologies to you Audi chaps) BUt there is somthing so bloody minded about the Baur, so pedantic and illogical that a late Baur makes perfect shitters sense as well as being an ideal convertible for the Scottish climate.

 

So - this means that the Scooters daily will now be Tiff's Carina E until the Baur re emerges. Probably the most sensible car I have every bought. But, reliability is featuring high on the adgenda at the moment.

[cort16]

At least it makes a change from the alternator.

 

You should have went the whole hog and put an m30 535i motor in it. I take it's the 12valve pre-vanos jobby you're dropping in it?

[scooters]

indeed,

 

I actually want to keep it as original as possible along E30 specs.

 

I would rather save the money for a new set of suspension bushes (not cheap) and potentially getting some new bits of the Baur roof (still available amazingly) and I might even splash out on a professional rust proofer - there are a myriad of cavities where the Baur frame welds to the BMW body which need watching.

 

I am also going to splash out on a respray - this is where running a sodablasting business makes sense - I can strip the car for cost myself back to the metal and our paint shop partners will respray it in return for some free soda blasting if I provide the paint.

 

red again I think

 

Keep the coiffeur image alive

[DodgyBastard]

I got an m20b25 from Boyd a couple of years ago. It was the best running and quietest m20 I'd ever seen and heard. Pity it was installed by Stevie Wonder... My E30 had been driven through a flooded road and sucked up some water damaging the engine. The guy I paid to fit the engine (not Boyd) barely managed to fit it, broke the radiator, ended up putting oil in the cooling system, put the heater matrix hoses on the wrong pipes and completely forgot to service the engine, replacing timing belt and filters.

When I went for the car a month later after having to pester him to get a move on, black smoke was coming from the exhaust and it was running like complete shit.

After getting it home I found out the reason it was running bad, He forgot to change the soaking wet air filter and clearly hadn't done anything I paid for.

As part of the deal I gave him the lsd which he repaid me with forgetting to tighten up the propshaft bearing mount properly.

Nightmare!

On finding this out, Boyd fitted a timing belt for me free of charge and has always been a great help in anything E30 related since. Your E30 will be in good hands!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

this makes them idea shitter cars because their initial owners were able to afford to maintain them

 

Sounds like you have benefited greatly from that little nugget!!!

 

 

Good luck scooters, have you still got the Lancia Beta? if so I demand to see some pics immediately.

[DodgyBastard]

I seem to be getting into the habit of spotting autoshiters cars lately, here's one I took today.

 

 

[seacow]

Will be a great motor when done and I applaud you for keeping standard (Ish). Guess its a keeper now?