Schaefft's Bargain Barge Extravaganza - Fleet Update

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, hairnet said:

500 lol

Was supposed to get replaced by an E38 but GF gave up and kept the Fiat. She doesn't even like driving it that much.

[brownnova]

What fantastic (and seemingly painful) work you’ve done there get this back on the roads! 

[Schaefft]

9 hours ago, brownnova said:

What fantastic (and seemingly painful) work you’ve done there get this back on the roads! 

First 120 mile round trip to the North Yorkshire coast completed without any trouble, it finally feels like it was worth it!

It definitely loves to get thrashed, compared to the Twin Spark it feels like a rocketship, especially above 4000 rpm, and sounds awesome doing it. I'll see if it behaves over the next couple of weeks, if yes the ebay special catback exhaust goes straight in the bin and gets replaced by something more decent. I might even try to get the A/C working on it.

[sdkrc]

Does it handle as well as the TS or is the extra engine weight detrimental? 

Id love to fix and rescue cars like you do but I lack the competence or desire to put the effort in and become competent. Great to live vicariously and watch you do it though

[Schaefft]

37 minutes ago, sdkrc said:

Does it handle as well as the TS or is the extra engine weight detrimental? 

Id love to fix and rescue cars like you do but I lack the competence or desire to put the effort in and become competent. Great to live vicariously and watch you do it though

Not sure where my dedication is coming from, must be the addiction of having to own all these cars (always wanted them or recognizing their rarity) combined with the necessity to somehow make them roadworthy to be able to keep them😂 At the same time there's a sense of satisfaction coming from achieving something, particularly from making something undesirable desirable again. That and watching too much YouTube of people buying shit heaps and somehow bringing them back to live which I simply cannot get enough of!

And hard to tell, there must be a difference, I just haven't driven the TSpark long enough to tell.

[Schaefft]

I've spent the last few evenings stripping anything valuable out of the parts 166. Everything came apart fairly easily, the deeper you look the more you'll find the crusty bits though so a few bolts were snapped in the process. Demand for parts doesn't really seem to be there for these despite posting on a few Alfa pages, FB marketplace/Ebay, quite a different story to the E38 BMW I was breaking last year.

With the parts I need for mine and scrap value in mind it still very much made sense financially though. Just not too keen on storing a ton of Alfa parts in my living room until they are gone.😂 Also, if you are ok with only using two wheel bolts, LS400 wheels actually fit on a 166!

As mentioned before the flip E38 found a new home in Edinburgh, however not before taking the oportunity to take a facelift-prefacelift comparison shot! The ULEZ refuge 728i is filthy right now, I gotta give it a bit more attention once I get some time, got plenty of brand new parts ready to go on it to make it perform as best as it can.

With the parts 166 blocking the drive right now I finally motivated myself to get back to the W140. With all the suspension stripped off months ago it was time to start cleaning up the subframe. For now here's only another before shot, Im hoping to have it cleaned up enough tomorrow to start painting it. Everything still is very solid (not too obvious in the photos below), interestingly enough the passenger side does look a little better than the driver side.

The oil leak from the pan gasket seems to have preserved quite a few area of it nicely😂. It will need an oil change so I might as well get that sorted while its up on jack stands. If you wanted to do a 100% proper job you'd have to remove the subframe and sandblast it before painting. This will have to wait for until I have the proper facilities to do this though, for now removing as much rust as possible and painting it with the proper stuff should push any further work a few years into the future.

Hopefully another update with it clean (and maybe even painted) tomorrow.

[Schaefft]

Well, the parts 166 donated the last few bits today before it's being collected to be further broken by a guy looking for a gearbox tomorrow morning. Believe it or not, this is a running and driving car, albeit a very loud one with the cat and exhaust manifold missing.

With it gone the empty space in the drive naturally had to be filled with something. And what could be better than a car known to some as the peak of unreliability, with this example having been off the road for at least 3 years.

Here's a little hint, it'll arrive tomorrow...

[Schaefft]

And it's gone, sold to Peak Alfa who are doing motorsports. The 6-speed manual will probably end up in a racecar GTV. Naturally the 166 didn't make it out the drive under its own power. At this angle you need quite a lot of fuel in the tank and it refused to start until on flat ground, another Alfa quirk I guess...

The new acquisition should be here in about 3 hours! Opposite end of the build quality spectrum, yet probably still as troublesome!

[Jim Bell]

1 hour ago, Schaefft said:

And it's gone, sold to Peak Alfa who are doing motorsports. The 6-speed manual will probably end up in a racecar GTV. Naturally the 166 didn't make it out the drive under its own power. At this angle you need quite a lot of fuel in the tank and it refused to start until on flat ground, another Alfa quirk I guess...

The new acquisition should be here in about 3 hours! Opposite end of the build quality spectrum, yet probably still as troublesome!

 

What's that absolute piece of shit pulling the Alfa away?

[sdkrc]

I've been waiting 2 days to find out what this new car is. The tension is killing me. Can you put me out of my misery @Schaefft?

[Schaefft]

7 minutes ago, sdkrc said:

I've been waiting 2 days to find out what this new car is. The tension is killing me. Can you put me out of my misery @Schaefft?

I have to write a proper post tonight, there's just so much to say about this one.😂

[Schaefft]

Well, the forum shutdown has delayed the reveal by a few days so here we finally go! And oh boy what project it is...

Yes as you can tell from below, it's another BMW 7-Series! And not just any 7er but most likely one the cheapest, yet lowest mileage E65 745i I have ever seen come up for sale!

Well, it certainly looks like one of the cheapest... After @cort16 posting the 2 grand JDM import 745i a few days earlier I must have felt the need to have a browse through FB marketplace again. Spotting the ad on Saturday morning just 2mins after it was posted I felt the sudden urge to immediately write the seller a message after realizing that this had indeed only had 51 thousand miles at it's last MOT in 2019. Yet you would never be able to tell by looking at it as this must be the nastiest car I have bought yet.

Well, turns out it must have been stored in a farmyard for almost 4 years. Surely long enough for all 4 sunroof drains to clogg up and slowly but surely flood the interior with water. The result you can see in these pictures.

However, I knew that at this low mileage, the car underneath all this grime cannot be a gonner. So a call was made, deposit left (the seller was glad not having to deal with any timewasters anymore) and transport all the way from Southampton booked. The car arrived on Tuesday, a few hours after the parts 166 left.

Naturally the seller never mentioned the fact that water must have leaked into the car for months if not years. However, after getting the car into the drive (to the tune of the mandatory whiny powersteering pump) I finally had a chance to really figure out how bad this car really is.

Here's the good news: The absolutely abysmal first impression of an absolutely run-into-the-ground car (despite its low mileage) fairly quickly vanished after throwing a decent battery in, checking/erasing all the codes stored in the most important control modules and topping up the powersteering fluid. The engine literally sounds like brand new, the gearbox shifts perfectly, there are no unusual noises and the remaining errors can be counted on one hand, with most of them likely coming straight from a submerged DSC sensor in the driver footwell. Even the aircon blows cold, what are the chances of that?

The body itself looked straight with the worst damage being a scuff on a replaceable trim panel, the sensor is still inside the bumper. Even the rear tires are in excellent shape and from mid-2018!

Looking around the car it became somewhat clear to me who owned this before. The car naturally spent a good chunk of its life in London before it moved outside of town further west. With so much junk left behind I could read through, it was pretty clear that it must have been an older couple.

I even got 3 umbrellas out of the deal:

In case there is any remaining doubt:

The car actually came with the complete BMW bookpack as well, plus this still hiding in one of the cubby holes:

The infamous BMW iDrive control knob:

With the iDrive screen trashed (bought a replacement unit for 35 quid on Ebay) Im currently unable to get the full E65 experience unfortunately.

However, only when checking the odometer I could finally confirm that this car was indeed what I thought it would be:

[Schaefft]

As a few days have passed since I go the car I already started to tackle some of the most urgent issues. The sunroof drains had to get unclogged before the next rain so a combination of a tire air compressor and pressure washer was used to make that happen. Fortunately all the stuff that had to move out of the way for that to happen was designed exactly the same way as in the E39 5-Series (to my surprise considering how much of a leap this generation 7 was supposed to be).

I couldn't handle the state of that footwell either so a wetvac and drill brush got the worst gunk out of it without too much trouble:

I've started removing trim panels around the area to get underneath the carpet. Unfortunately the driverseat motor decided to get stuck, which means I cannot remove all 4 seat bolts to lift the carpet now... The connector to the motor has 4 wires, one being the power supply and one being the ground. There are 2 more wires which must be signal wires of some sort, unfortunately connecting my drill battery to said power supply/ground wires didn't result in anything happening (any advice would be appreciated).

I did give the car a clean today though, and it's already starting to look much better. The clean did reveal all the paint imperfections, however most of these should very much polish out.

I think Toledo Blue is a great color for the E65, especially in combination with the tan interior. I've always been interested in these cars, and despite the more than controversial Bangle design people loved to hate for a long time, I think it has aged very well. It does look great in darker shades. I only realized later that I already had one in this exact spec (bought years ago to satisfy my craving for one of these, that worked well didn't it...).

Hopefully I can get the carpet lifted enough to drain the remaining water and reach any submerged sensors/modules over the coming days. It will take a bit of time to properly clean up this car. At only 52k miles I am hoping that it will turn out to be worth all the effort though.

[cort16]

9 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

Well, the forum shutdown has delayed the reveal by a few days so here we finally go! And oh boy what project it is...

Yes as you can tell from below, it's another BMW 7-Series! And not just any 7er but most likely one the cheapest, yet lowest mileage E65 745i I have ever seen come up for sale!

Well, it certainly looks like one of the cheapest... After @cort16 posting the 2 grand JDM import 745i a few days earlier I must have felt the need to have a browse through FB marketplace again. Spotting the ad on Saturday morning just 2mins after it was posted I felt the sudden urge to immediately write the seller a message after realizing that this had indeed only had 51 thousand miles at it's last MOT in 2019. Yet you would never be able to tell by looking at it as this must be the nastiest car I have bought yet.

Well, turns out it must have been stored in a farmyard for almost 4 years. Surely long enough for all 4 sunroof drains to clogg up and slowly but surely flood the interior with water. The result you can see in these pictures.

However, I knew that at this low mileage, the car underneath all this grime cannot be a gonner. So a call was made, deposit left (the seller was glad not having to deal with any timewasters anymore) and transport all the way from Southampton booked. The car arrived on Tuesday, a few hours after the parts 166 left.

Naturally the seller never mentioned the fact that water must have leaked into the car for months if not years. However, after getting the car into the drive (to the tune of the mandatory whiny powersteering pump) I finally had a chance to really figure out how bad this car really is.

Here's the good news: The absolutely abysmal first impression of an absolutely run-into-the-ground car (despite its low mileage) fairly quickly vanished after throwing a decent battery in, checking/erasing all the codes stored in the most important control modules and topping up the powersteering fluid. The engine literally sounds like brand new, the gearbox shifts perfectly, there are no unusual noises and the remaining errors can be counted on one hand, with most of them likely coming straight from a submerged DSC sensor in the driver footwell. Even the aircon blows cold, what are the chances of that?

The body itself looked straight with the worst damage being a scuff on a replaceable trim panel, the sensor is still inside the bumper. Even the rear tires are in excellent shape and from mid-2018!

Looking around the car it became somewhat clear to me who owned this before. The car naturally spent a good chunk of its life in London before it moved outside of town further west. With so much junk left behind the car it was pretty clear that it must have been an older couple.

I even got 3 umbrellas out of the deal:

In case there is any remaining doubt:

The car actually came with the complete BMW bookpack as well, plus this still hiding in one of the cubby holes:

The infamous BMW iDrive control knob:

With the iDrive screen trashed (bought a replacement unit for 35 quid on Ebay) Im currently unable to get the full E65 experience unfortunately.

Awesome, you're a mad man it looks like you're going to be in deep with the anti bacteria spray and hazmat suite for the next few days though.

Is it leaking oil, or should I say how bad are the oil leaks?
There's a nice 730i for sale locally for £1450 that's tempting.

 

[Schaefft]

1 minute ago, cort16 said:

Awesome, you're a mad man it looks like you're going to be in deep with the anti bacteria spray and hazmat suite for the next few days though.

Is it leaking oil, or should I say how bad are the oil leaks?
There's a nice 730i for sale locally for £1450 that's tempting.

I'm not seeing any leaks at all yet. I know the low powersteering fluid means that there might be a leak somewhere, it has been mentioned in the mot history for ages, but that probably has happened over years. I just havent had a chance to properly look underneath yet though. At least the undercarriage has held up extremely well despite being parked in mud for years. I've had it running for probably an hour total by now, definitely no drips on the ground yet, no smoke at start-up either. The fact that this car has such low miles was one of the reason I felt I might be save from the typical N62 horrors you read about everywhere. My train of thought has always been that I can only really justify E65 ownership if I find a low mileage example, yet I didnt feel like paying the premium for getting one with such low miles.

[Supernaut]

Wow.

Just wow.

[hairnet]

baaaaaaaaaaaaaarge

[cort16]

35 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

I'm not seeing any leaks at all yet. I know the low powersteering fluid means that there might be a leak somewhere, it has been mentioned in the mot history for ages, but that probably has happened over years. I just havent had a chance to properly look underneath yet though. At least the undercarriage has held up extremely well despite being parked in mud for years. I've had it running for probably an hour total by now, definitely no drips on the ground yet, no smoke at start-up either. The fact that this car has such low miles was one of the reason I felt I might be save from the typical N62 horrors you read about everywhere. My train of thought has always been that I can only really justify E65 ownership if I find a low mileage example, yet I didnt feel like paying the premium for getting one with such low miles.

I know what you mean most of them are high milers and run into the ground.

You one looked dirtier inside than by 320si but did you find a vintage breakfast in the centre console?

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, cort16 said:

I know what you mean most of them are high milers and run into the ground.

You one looked dirtier inside than by 320si but did you find a vintage breakfast in the centre console?

I haven't but I found this vintage year Apple and Raspberry sparkling water that expired in 2019. I didn't dare tasting it but it smelled perfectly fine after cracking it open.

[davehedgehog31]

You mad bastard. 

That looks howling but hopefully the neglect is only skin deep, it looks like it will be very satisfying to bring back to its former glory. 

[Back_For_More]

That looks am epic bargain considering the lack of horrors so far. Top notch bargain hunting. 

My e46 330ci is the same combo of blue and tan leather...... Definitely a smart look overall. 

Will there be belt swaps and other servicing going on or not keen to go into that until tested first? 

[Schaefft]

11 minutes ago, Back_For_More said:

That looks am epic bargain considering the lack of horrors so far. Top notch bargain hunting. 

My e46 330ci is the same combo of blue and tan leather...... Definitely a smart look overall. 

Will there be belt swaps and other servicing going on or not keen to go into that until tested first? 

Thanks, I'm hoping that I can get away sorting all electrical gremlins for relatively little, those should be the main hurdle to overcome for an mot right now. Fortunately parts are plentiful and cheap so we'll see if it stays within bargain territory.

With cars like these it's always important to confirm that there aren't any major issues making any further work pointless. I'm hoping that not to be the case though, a proper service would make sense then. BMW V8s are chain driven so no worries there, not sure if they still suffer from chain guides getting brittle, at 52k miles I'd hope that I'm still a very long time from having to think about those though.

[Jim Bell]

Well. All my flabbers are truly ghasted.  

Top shitting. 

[TheOtherStu]

I very much approve of this German barge.
It's one of those cars you could properly smarten up, put a wanker plate on it and feel like a proper toff. Doesn't look its age at all.

[Split_Pin]

What an absolute joy to find an increasingly decent car under the dirt. Very well bought. I'd love to waft around in one of these, it would be sensational.

[cort16]

I think I prefer the facelift one looks wise.  When they came out my reaction was one of horror much like people when they see that new grill on the m4 especially given how handsome and well proportioned the E38 was.

While I think the design is a bit clunky in parts I don't know if it's because we've had time to expose our eye balls to the them for 20 years or it was just a good bit of design to start with but I could see myself owning one and not just as a masochistic exercise like my 320si. 

To add to the radical styling I think BMW took a step too far, too early in their complexity around pushing controls into the MMI, which caused a lot of frustration and negativity in the press. They were either ahead of their time or everyone followed them but the iphone was 6 years away when these came out I just don't think people could get their heads around it. I also think they took a step further on the electronics and I'm not sure if it was all there yet. 

[Schaefft]

On 6/16/2023 at 1:55 PM, cort16 said:

To add to the radical styling I think BMW took a step too far, too early in their complexity around pushing controls into the MMI, which caused a lot of frustration and negativity in the press. They were either ahead of their time or everyone followed them but the iphone was 6 years away when these came out I just don't think people could get their heads around it. I also think they took a step further on the electronics and I'm not sure if it was all there yet. 

If anything the silly amount of control modules at least allows you to pinpoint issues fairly easily, which currently comes in very handy.

I've spent the last few days diagnosing more issues. One of the problems the car has (and which might be completely unrelated to the flooding) is the rear seat left passenger occupancy mat (communication error). Most cars have them in the front passenger seat, the E65 has them in the rear. While I do want to fix it properly eventually I'm currently trying to figure out whether a bypass is available, or whether you might even be able to code them out of the system. Easy for the front, apparently not so easy for the back!

I've also cleaned the floor mats and engine bay, things are looking much better already:

See further above for before:

I still can't move the driver seat as the motors refuse to move but managed to lift the carpet from the front. To nobody's surprise everything was submerged in rain water, including the DSC acceleration and yaw sensors that are most likely causing my Dynamic Drive and Parking Brake errors (both rely on these sensors).

I'm still amazed how all this water hasn't cause more issues, good thing wiring looms are water proof as the main power supply from the battery is also under water (runs underneath the black air duct). I keep sucking more water out of the footwell, its probably 2 liters at this point, the carpet just keeps draining though and all these green foam blocks are completely soaked with water. Not even sure how I'll get all of it out of them yet. Amazingly the earth points had pretty much zero corrosion despite being underwater for god knows how long, I cleaned them anyway.

I've replaced the iDrive unit as well, works perfectly now and was not expensive at 35 quid. The air must have held so much moisture with the doors closed that the old screen must have been ruined by it one way or another. Still haven't figured out how to set the radio stations though, the scan function doesnt seem to do anything.

I'm to get the second DSC sensor tomorrow so I can plug it all in and check if the errors are gone. Once thats the case the only thing MOT relevant left is the aforementioned airbag warning and the driver seat being in an akward position (I hope).

[yes oui si]

A friend commuted 150+ miles each way in a 750 for a long time and said the same thing about it being quite easy to diagnose. 

@cort16 - I agree with the e38, it's genuinely a design classic. 

[RoadworkUK]

I.... quite like early E65s. Especially on the inside; that analogue/ digital dashboard was a real foretaste of the colour TFT things that are everywhere today, and I love the chest of drawers in the centre stack, with that pop-out phone keypad. Also, the electric seat controls on the centre storage cubby are brilliantly placed.

The E65's shape was a tad* inelegant after the E38, but its bulbousness meant SO MUCH MORE interior space. It's far from pretty, but massively more individual than its W220 S-Class or D3 Audi A8 rivals. The facelift, which many people like because it tamed its excesses somewhat, turned it into a bit of a featureless barge in comparison.

[LoftyvRS]

Impressive rescue on the BMW, will be following this.