Schaefft's Bargain Barge Extravaganza - Fleet Update

[Schaefft]

32 minutes ago, 24vdiamond said:

I feel your pain with the bumper bolts, too be fair when they are a bit newer they are captive in the bumper bar, still looking for the radio displays which I know I have somewhere, i can see them in my mind still in the little leather carry cases! I will keep looking but im a bit sidetracked with my "not a restoration"

 

Yeah, this seems like a severe case of "while I'm in there". Things can really escalate quickly once you start sorting things that will surely only take a minute. My W140 has been on axle stands without front suspension for a year now because a control arm bush needed replacing. I've now cleaned up/painted the subframe and bought pretty much every single suspension component needed for a full rebuild.

You don't happen to have a few suitable clips for the bonnet insulation mat still? I'm also looking the the sill trim on the right side of the car, probably taken off by the previous owner to have a closer look at that rust spot developing...

The days are finally getting longer again so I can pop out to do a few quick jobs after work. I think the next few nights will be spent cleaning the interior step by step. I've turned the car around to prevent any water leaking in from the back (doubt that was the problem), the wooden steering wheel felt great in my hands, its funny how such little things to a car can make a big difference.

Speaking of little things, I've tried one of these Japanese proxy buying services now that Yahoo Auctions doesn't allow users from outside Japan to access the site anymore. A lot of stuff for Japanese imports simply isn't available outside of Japan unless you look in Russia and Ukraine of all places, they still have huge numbers of grey imports (hence me buying taillights for the Corona in Odessa last year). One of these items were two original blank keys for the Infiniti Q45.

Mine unfortunately never came with them, instead I have two of the original plastic keys which don't even remotely have the same heavy feel these have. Infiniti put a lot of effort into very subtle details to make their flagship feel special and the key is one these things you interact with whenever you start the car. I'll get one cut and keep the other as spare. Who was our resident locksmith/key cutter again? I might require his services!

I also got a book about the development of the car where it's being compared to the W126, E32 and XJ40. Aside from the BMW most of the Infiniti's foreign competitors felt ancient, especially on the drivetrain and interior design front. An aluminium DOHC V8 was state of the art back in '89, something that BMW and Jaguar wouldn't even offer until years later.

Having a strong interest/feelings about automotive design I love seeing original concepts of what could have been.

Interior detailing, fascinating stuff. It's a crying shame that mine happened to be the most conservative color/trim you could have spec'd a Q45 with. Infiniti offered some amazing color combinations in the Q45, the leather interior was manufacturer by Poltrona Frau.

Only in Japan you'll find a pretty young lady being this excited to present you the onboard toolkit:

Anyway, I'm hoping to find a decent set of original floor mats for the car as well. It's the little things etc. etc.

[rm36house]

On 04/02/2024 at 21:26, Schaefft said:

Thanks for the info. I still got the spring but that locking washer is indeed gone. I bought a new ignition cylinder with a set of keys, fortunately they can be had for very little on Autodoc/Ebay. It does mean that I have different keys for ignitition and doors now though.

Some more progress today. I wrapped up the work on the steering column and managed to straighten it out a bit. However now is the time to make a decision about the steering wheel, and naturally I wanted to use the opportunity to replace the missing boring old 4-spoke with something a little more exciting! Cue the 1980s synth pop!

Yes, we now have a selection of two fantastic looking wood/leather Momo steering wheels to add some Italian flair to the Senator's interior! The Opel wheel was an official accessory you could find in the Omega A while the Momo branded one was a common aftermarket option more often found in a Mercedes.

I honestly can't decide which one I prefer, which is why I bought both. The Opel wheel is in slightly better shape although a good polish would go a long way with the Momo. Which one would you pick?

The horn wiring needed a little bit of love, no before and after but for those curious what the base steering wheel looks like, many official sports steering wheels were based on this basic Momo design.

The other big list item for today was the front bumper. As a reminder, the center upper black plastic section has been damaged since I got the car, some black tape did its best to hide it a little. It's part of the bumper cover and not replacable. No idea why Opel decided to do it this way, literally everything else on it is. However, after a taxi reversed into the car one night a few years ago it did end up getting more damaged on the passenger corner:

Well, I actually managed to find a replacement bumper in the right color a while back, not easy considering the rarity of the car. Its not perfect either but fixable which mine wasnt really. So off the car it comes:

Things looked surprisingly good underneath. However, now's the time to do some quick touch-ups where rust is trying to take hold as I'm not planning to take this bumper off a second time.

It's all mild surface corrosion fortunately. The 10 years younger parts Alfa 166 was crumbling to pieces behind the bumper and neither make was famous for their corrosion protection.

Some Kurust should slow things down, I'll add some etch primer and/or order some decent rust inhibiting paint later so I can apply it over the next few days while the bumper is off the car.

The two bumpers side by side. Opel offered several burgundy colors on the Senator and I'm still not sure if these are 100% identical. I would say they are close enough though. There's one visible crack I had to glue that will remain visible until I repaint the bumper (some day). The rest is just tape residue and other garbage stuck to it from storage.

I must have looked like a proper nutcase sitting on my front lawn (in the rain) disassembling a bumper into a million pieces.

I've started reassembling the new bumper but felt like now is the right moment to try and get some of the moisture out of the sealed foglights. Since I still need to paint the crusty areas hidden by the bumper I'll finish that job another day.

I did however use more of the sunlight to replace the torsion bar springs of the trunklid. This is the second time I had to replace them and having installed them myself for the first time I can understand why.

They snap into brackets under the parcel shelf and the tension they are under even with the trunklid opened is nuts. Figuring out how they fit wasn't easy (please dont tell me I did it wrong), trying to get them into place was on another level. Once again a job that would have been a fraction of the effort on any other car. This is really becoming a theme with almost anything I've done with this car in my ownership.

Once again I ran out of sunlight so we'll leave things there for now. The bumper will go back on the car hopefully by next weekend. Should I find a suitable nut for the steering wheel it wouldn't need much more (that I know of) to get back on the road now.

Nice one Sir! Quite similar looking wheel to BMW Style 5.  Are those R15 or R16?

[Tickman]

On 12/02/2024 at 18:30, Schaefft said:

Who was our resident locksmith/key cutter again?

@Dave_Q 

[Dave_Q]

Hi, my machine should be able to cut your blank from a picture of your existing key, might just need a bit of detective work to find out what profile it uses.

[Schaefft]

4 hours ago, Dave_Q said:

Hi, my machine should be able to cut your blank from a picture of your existing key, might just need a bit of detective work to find out what profile it uses.

Awesome. I'm happy to send you the blank and original key so you got the reference right next to you. It should be pretty much identical to the US market Q45, might be easier to find the info there.

18 hours ago, rm36house said:

Nice one Sir! Quite similar looking wheel to BMW Style 5.  Are those R15 or R16?

They are indeed similar, one of the best wheel designs for that era saloon in my opinion, had them on two E38s before. They are 15s on the Senator, I think BBS etc. would offer a 16" version which are appropriately expensive nowadays.

Quick Update on the A8: Its continues to be a great car. I've had Kwik Fit down the road reseal the front right tire, so far it seems to hold air. Fingers crossed it'll stay that way.

[24vdiamond]

There you go, these are 90277034 which changes to 90487451, all new but a couple have been stored poorly and have a few marks on the face which probably wouldnt notice once fitted

 

[Schaefft]

3 hours ago, 24vdiamond said:

There you go, these are 90277034 which changes to 90487451, all new but a couple have been stored poorly and have a few marks on the face which probably wouldnt notice once fitted

 

Awesome, send me a PM with the prices, maybe I can polish the damage out of them. I've just installed the bonnet insulation clips as well, thanks for sending the part number. No clue why I never looked them up before, I ended up needing 15 of them and not having a hanging mat after years of seeing this makes a big difference:

It's still hanging a little on the side where it would normally be rigid enough to slide under the little edge leading front to back, no clue why Opel decided to go without clips there. Once I've cleaned it properly it will finally look tidy again though.

Weather looks good for the weekend so hopefully I can make some progress on the E65 interior over the next few days.

[Schaefft]

Fortunately the weather did indeed turn out to be mostly great this weekend (it actually felt like spring, imagine that) which means I could finally tackle ripping out the old smelly interior of the E65. The headliner was by far the worst of it all and impossible to safe:

Fortunately I'm the expert for BMW headliners at this point (5th or 6th time I remove an E65 or E39 headliner) so things went pretty smoothly until one of the damn seat rails of the driver seat decide to seize up again, which meant I akwardly had to disconnect it from the rest of the seat base which probably took the best of 2 hours of my time yesterday...

With both seats and the sunroof glass out the headliner was gone in no time:

This is when I noticed that BMW decided to install subwoofers directly underneath the seats. And to nobody's surprise plenty of water made its way into that as well. 

Amazingly it still seemed to work perfectly fine despite being submerged, the wiring hardness and connectors certainly were very well insulated. And thats where the difference between BMW and brands like Alfa lies, alot of this stuff is surprisingly solidly engineered while even in perfect conditions the electrics in the latter are a nightmare.

As always with the seats out now was a good time to remove all the grime you'll never otherwise reach underneath. With the seat removal such a pain I didn't want to take any chances so I actually ordered a replacement woofer on ebay for a total of a whopping 27 quid incl. postage.

While faffing around with the subwoofer I noticed a cable that didn't quite look OEM to me. I have been wondering what another wire leading up the driver c-pillar and suddently ending right in the middle of nowhere was before. Well, turns out one of the previous owners had a tracker installed in the car...

Well, it is no more. It's always very satisfying removing junk wiring, one of the cables had its insulation stripped which cannot have helped much with the onboard electronics.

Well, 2 solid days of faffing around, transfering control modules from one set of seats to another, testing and carefully reassembling everything later we now have a headliner and two replacement (identical to the old) front seats again. And the best of all, thanks to the breaker 750i it cost me exactly nothing.

The driver seat isnt fully bolted in yet as the subwoofer can only really be installed with it out, hopefully it'll be here soon. I also won't properly install the C- and A-pillar trims yet as more work will be needed for other reasons in these areas. Seeing the before and after photos I'm quite satisfied with what I managed to get done though. If I hadn't done the front seats and all the other while I'm in there jobs this could have been done in 2-3 hours.

I'm probably going to request to have the windshield replace before putting the A-pillar trims on one last time. I got comprehensive cover with Admiral, has anyone however experienced their premium going up because of a windshield claim? It won't take long before this will be right in the driver's view.

[Schaefft]

Work on the E65 will continue this weekend, however I'm using any other hour of sunlight I get to continue improving the Senator. It's had it's headliner carefully stapled back into place (until I can be bothered to retrim it) and received a badly needed wash yesterday:

I admit it might not look much different from the photos posted before but it really made a difference. I will have to take the heatgun to these black rub strips as the plastics restoration stuff has long worn off.

Now that the car is reasonably clean inside and out I decided to have a closer look at the rust spots visible on the passenger side sill. They were partially hidden by the sill/door rubber strip, removing it gives us the real extend of it after having cleaned off all the grime:

Yeah, that is indeed one crusty sill. Thanks Opel for designing a proper rust trap, ingenious.

It's much better in the back as I'm fairly sure the whole rear sill/door jamb was professionally replaced by a previous owner on both sides, hence them being near perfect, but that of course leaves the rest of it untouched. Some very gentle sanding with the Dremel revealed this...

It's pretty clear that all of this needs to get cut out eventually (@gm this might be the moment I need the details of the guy who welded the Eunos...) but I could for the moment get away with filling the holes and properly rust proofing the rest until a proper repair can be done.

With the sill covers and rubbers still in place things were perfectly covered up on the driver side. I honestly didn't really want to look closer but needs must:

Yeah, thats not much better. I've cleaned it all up with the Dremel and drenched it in Kurust so I can start covering it all in zink primer. Right now theres only the odd pinhole and its easy to cover it up with all the trim that caused this in the first place.

I do intend to keep this car for the foreseeable future though so eventually it needs welding. I don't wanna know whats hiding underneath those lower sill covers however...

[Schaefft]

In other news, I've now done almost 1000 miles in the A8. It continues to be excellent. There might be a clunk developing on the driver side front and the brake warning light comes on for a few seconds under hard acceleration but the later might just mean I need to top up the brake fluid slightly.

Looks great when its clean, no bodywork rust to worry about with this one!

[gm]

20 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

(@gm this might be the moment I need the details of the guy who welded the Eunos...)

it’s heading up to Andy’s this week for an mot, will see if he’s happy with the welding  - it’s not pretty but seems to be strong enough - will report back with his findings  

 

[Schaefft]

5 minutes ago, gm said:

it’s heading up to Andy’s this week for an mot, will see if he’s happy with the welding  - it’s not pretty but seems to be strong enough - will report back with his findings  

 

Nice, take a few photos, would be interesting to see! If not this then a few other areas that are more hidden where pretty doesnt matter as much.

[gm]

this was buried under the outer wing

not pretty but it’s a pretty solid repair 

 

[Schaefft]

Quick post before a bigger update on the Senator rust repairs and E65 interior tomorrow.

I mentioned it a few times before, me and my other half have been looking for a house together for quite a little while now. After probably about a year of searching we might have finally found the right place for us, and from what I can tell the seller's and our own price expectations aren't very far apart at this point.

This means I might have to sell a few cars over the next few weeks/months to bolster our deposit, and the Audi A8 Sport of many shiters might be the first one to become available.

Why? Because out of all the cars in the fleet this might be the overall best one I own and therefore to sell without having to worry about things breaking a week later. I know that some of you have already voiced some interest and I have sent/will sent a few PMs soon. Since I need the money it will probably be slightly under market value here (so starting with a 1), which is still a mind boggling value considering the condition of this car. This seems to be a pattern lately, selling the good cars only to keep the stuff that needs work...

Anyway, today's rain was on and off so I basically spent most of the morning/afternoon starting various cars that are not moved much during the salty season.

The 33k mile Infiniti Q45 was one of them. Started right up, I cannot wait to actually start improving this one, which will mostly involve raising the coilovers and throwing all the tacky V8 badges and LED lights in the bin.

I havent driven the Cadillac in a little while and the cobble roads around the estate proof that nothing quite rides like a Cadillac. Even the hydropneumatic Citroens I've driven can't really compare at around town speeds, it's just sooo smooth... This might however also be a candidate for being sold on if I really need to, so should anyone be interested in a 77k mile DeVille...

The Riviera hasn't seen much action at all since it arrived. It does however now have new bonnet struts which will make working on it about 200% more fun. Another one that might have to go, should anyone be interested in what will be the cheapest Buick Riviera you'll ever see for sale.

I've also started the Corona Exiv, SL500 and Alfa 166. Someone must have knocked into the Alfa's wing mirror recently as I noticed the housing being cracked today. While I still have a spare mirror it is not the same paint, and this pearlescent style paint will certainly not be easy to match/find a replacement for either...

I'm not 100% sure yet if I should let the Alfa go. It would be impossible to find another one in this spec, however I might just put it up for sale for an optimistic price and see if anyone bites.

Thats it for the moment. The E65's windshield replacement that was planned for today hasn't happened as Autoglass can't get their shit together and the Celsior is booked in for exhaust work on Monday so I'll probably drop it off tonight or tomorrow. That should hopefully be the last big bill it will need for the foreseeable future now that everything has been done on it. Let me know if you are interested in that one, too...

[Dabooka]

 

3 hours ago, Schaefft said:

This means I might have to sell a few cars over the next few weeks/months

If I could follow this thread twice I would… 

[Schaefft]

On 02/03/2024 at 20:23, Dabooka said:

If I could follow this thread twice I would… 

Im not sure if I'm gonna announce anything in here beyond what I've written above but I appreciate the enthusiasm.😄 Let me know if you are interested in anything specifically.

Anyway, quick update on the Senator. Thanks to @24vdiamond I finally have a replacement Opel bonnet badge which I will put on the car at the earliest opportunity. It also came with the nut and locking washer for the steering wheel so once again thanks for the easy transaction!

The crusty sills are at least protected from further damage now, at least until this gets dealt with properly with the sparkly stick. Rust-Anode and a bit of paint should keep things under control for a while.

I could have easily covered this up with wob to look like brand new but that wasn't really the point.

The core support got a little love as well, surface corrosion on there so really just a cosmetic improvement.

Some more progress on the E65. For some reason its battery went flat over the last 2 weeks, which wasn't a problem before. It might have been because the amp under the driver seat wasn't plugged in (which would be odd) or because the driver seat fell over (not yet bolted in), triggering the interior alarm. If it isn't that then thats another issue to investigate. Unfortunately I've confirmed that there is still water somehow making its way into the car through the sunroof. It's not a lot and the drains are free but this is something that just needs to be fixed to avoid any damage to the new headliner. People suggest it could be the sunroof seal, even if it looks fine. I'll have a very close look at it tomorrow after work.

I had a closer look at the radio tuner which likes to fail on these even without water damage, this obviously doesn't look promising. I tried to clean it but no luck, another part to add to the list, I plan to update the entire infotainment system to the post-facelift spec anyway.

With the interior now pretty much back together I had a moment to slap the V12 kidneys on the car. Normally an easy job but naturally one of the bolts seized in the aluminium bonnet and had to be removed with some violence. I now have a cordless Dremel that will replace the old one as best tool anyone can have in their toolbox.

In case you are wondering why I bother, the V12 kidneys (top) are shaped slightly differently and are nice and thicc now, clearly a symbol of status and exclusivity.

Done. If you are shaking your head looking at this, if you own the car you do notice and appreciate the subtle difference!

In other news, I dropped off the Celsior at the garage yesterday to have the exhaust mended. This is the same place that fabricated the stainless steel exhaust for the Corona, welded in the cat section for the Oxford green E38, built the exhaust for my ivory Mark VIII and possibly more that I can't think of now. Japanese-market exclusive post-cat sensors meant that the shop had to be extra careful removing them.

Seems like they managed to do just fine, I picked up the car tonight and its nice and quiet again. I'll get a slow tire leak sorted tomorrow, I'm hoping that this will be the last big bill on this car to get it onto reliable daily shape, the rest is really just convenience and cosmetics.

[jmsguzzi]

The Celsior will be mighty tempting if I ever manage to shift this W124.

What's your plans for the 728i, would be interested in that also!

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, jmsguzzi said:

The Celsior will be mighty tempting if I ever manage to shift this W124.

What's your plans for the 728i, would be interested in that also!

The E38 is the car I might struggle parting with the most! It's not impossible to find another one in similar condition (although it does need cosmetic attention) but I feel finding one for somewhat similar money in a similar spec would be near impossible. Unfortunately that's the problem with almost any car I own!

[Schaefft]

We've viewed the house we are planning to put a counter offer in a second time today. I think the A8 doesn't look out of place although the XM might have felt even more at home!

Anyway, a little progress on the E65. I mentioned above that there was still water somehow making its way through the sunroof which I didnt understand as the drains were unblocked and any gap water could come through located right above the tray it would normally drain from. Yet here we were:

Funnily enough these drops would make their way onto the headliner and down towards the A-pillar where it would drip onto the seat from, apparently that dripping was enough to trigger the interior alarm, something I didn't notice until a neighbor up the street actually told me. I'm praying that this might also be the reason why the battery would go flat more recently...

After a lot of trial and error it could only be water running down the sunroof tracks, an area that should be physically impossible for rain water to reach (and hence was never properly sealed off). I got a few suggestions on FB that the sunroof seal itself could let too much water through, overwhelming the drains, but this didnt make much sense either, the seal looked alright aside from a tiny gap in the center, none of which would cause water to get through in such volumes to flood the sunroof tracks. I taped it shut but it didn't seem to make a difference.

It took me most evenings after work this week before I noticed this:

Not the replaceable seal around the sunroof hole but the damn seal around the sunroof glass itself somehow started to separate from the glass. And since that seal wraps underneath the glass and reaches way beyond the channels that were intended to guide the water into the drains some of it made it past that seal and onto the tracks, eventually ending up on the headliner.

You could squeeze the seal and water would come out of it. If that isn't a smoking gun I dont know what is...

Fortunately its easy to get the glass out, 6 bolts are all that hold it in place. It actually started to separate in several areas around the edge of the glass pane, no idea how I didn't notice this earlier. Fortunately I still had the sunroof glass of the donor car which was in perfect condition. I installed it yesterday and re-initialized the sunroof. Wish me luck that this will finally be the last water leak in this car... A replacement seal for the hole in th roof would have been around 80 quid from the dealer, a replacement glass (seal not separately available) would have been close to a grand...

[RichardK]

On 02/03/2024 at 16:47, Schaefft said:

The Riviera hasn't seen much action at all since it arrived. It does however now have new bonnet struts which will make working on it about 200% more fun. Another one that might have to go, should anyone be interested in what will be the cheapest Buick Riviera you'll ever see for sale.

Yes. Interested. Sort of vague glance at the Deville but I am very much into coupes or wagons, and I was rather envious of this one when you posted it.

[Schaefft]

2 minutes ago, RichardK said:

Yes. Interested. Sort of vague glance at the Deville but I am very much into coupes or wagons, and I was rather envious of this one when you posted it.

Noted! We haven't looked into what it needs yet but should it need to go I'll keep you in mind. It will however be exactly the opposite of the PT Cruiser condition wise.

[RichardK]

Just now, Schaefft said:

Noted! We haven't looked into what it needs yet but should it need to go I'll keep you in mind. It will however be exactly the opposite of the PT Cruiser condition wise.

That's probably a good thing. The Deville looks gorgeous now I peer at the picture but I couldn't afford it, realistically.

The Riviera would be perfectly fine to put a projector in the garage and play GTA:Vice City in first person mode in.

[Schaefft]

31 minutes ago, RichardK said:

That's probably a good thing. The Deville looks gorgeous now I peer at the picture but I couldn't afford it, realistically.

The Riviera would be perfectly fine to put a projector in the garage and play GTA:Vice City in first person mode in.

Haha yes, that would certainly suit it!

[Schaefft]

Well, replacing the sunroof seems to have fixed the leak, no water making its way into the car anymore! The alarm doesn't seem to randomly go off either after unplugging the bonnet sensor (naturally with me writing this it now will at 4am tomorrow), it might have just decided to expire right around the time I installed the new headliner. I won't plug it in anytime soon either to prove my theory...

I celebrated the occasion by finally cleaning the interior properly, messy footwells begone!

I'm still looking for an original beige driver side floor mat, the car did come with one but it literally desintegrated after having been submerged for a year. Naturally most of them are long worn out nowadays.

As controversial as it may have been originally, I think this is still a good looking car. I'm not sure if I'm going to tackle any of its remaining issues anytime soon (the only really urgent thing is a potential small leak in the powersteering cooler), everything else planned really are just minor niggles or retrofitting a few options like electric blinds and soft-close which it didn't come with originally, which can wait.

With the 7-Series out of the drive the Senator is back. Thanks to @24vdiamond I finally have a replacement for the faded bonnet badge, something I wanted to get sorted since I got the car in 2017:

Not sure if the bonnet ever received a respray but the glue of the badge certainly stood the test of time. Naturally the badge crumbled to pieces trying to get it off:

I'm not sure if its just me but I'm fairly sure the two locating holes aren't perfectly level.

New badge installed.

It may seem like a small thing but badges on a car just complete the design for me, which is one of the reasons I don't get debadging, people are turning their cars into more generic versions of  the designer's intent. The Opel Blitz might not be the most prestigous logo but it finally completes the look after so many years. Now I just need treat that corner trim to look black again.

It's not unlikely that we will reach an agreement with the vendor of the house mentioned further above tomorrow. Should that happen I will start having to advertise the Audi. I'll also have to get my shit together and sort the fuel supply issue on the S-Class Coupe thats been waiting in the background for some action for the last 3 months, and reinstall the front suspension on the W140 behind it, which has been on axle stands for a year now. I'll probably have about 2-3 months to sort all of this so I'm starting to feel the heat!

[yes oui si]

Good luck! 

[Tickman]

Good luck.

The progress you make outside on a driveway is staggering, can't wait to see what you can achieve with your own place to work on them.

[Schaefft]

Thanks guys, hopefully I got some good news about it next week.

Until then, I've spend most of yesterday properly cleaning up the A8, polishing the front bumper and headlights to give it a little more curb appeal. The car's look now match the way it drives, more about that later.

Meanwhile, my mode of transport to the NEC has decided to snap a spring while it was parked. This is certainly not the first snapped BMW spring but its annoying nethertheless.

It doesn't help that it tore up the backside tire wall before I even noticed what was going on. That tire barely had any miles on it and I'm currently contemplating whether it would be safe to drive the 400 miles to the NEC and back without dying.😂 I don't think it damaged the cords.

So out it all comes, surprisingly straight forward:

That certainly doesn't look right either...

And certainly nobody has been in there to change an ABS sensor!

Here's the damage then. I've already ordered a replacement spring and droplink which should hopefully arrive in time for me to throw them on the car.

It pains me a little to replace a single spring as you should always do this in pairs. Now would also be the time to replace the shock mount and pobably the shock absorber itself considering it might still be the original one. It's a little hard to tell what has been done on it in the past without any history really. The plan is to do a "lets just replace everything ala Mercedes W140 but I don't have the funds for that for the next few months.

Speaking of the W140 S-Class, after months of nothing happening at all I've finally started to install all the shiny new parts I have gathered for it over the last year or so!

I don't think I ever showed any progress on any of the work done on the subframe. I didn't drop and sandblasted it as it should probably be done. I did wirebrush the hell out of it though, Rust-anode and POR15 should ensure that it stays this clean for at least a few years to come. Here's what it looked like before:

Pretty much everything you see will be replaced by OEM quality new parts. I think in the end it's only the ABS sensor, swaybar and knuckle that will stay. The brake disc shield will be installed whever the wheelbearing needs doing.

The swaybar bushings were probably the ones seeing the least wear. Almost forgot replacing those.

Anyway, that's it for the moment. I'll see if I can make some more progress on both the Mercedes and 540i next week, the latter really needs to be ready for the weekend as it'll once again be used to haul parts all over.

[Schaefft]

As mentioned, a few photos of the Audi as it looks now. I think it cleaned up well! You can find the for sale thread here:

I'm pretty certain I'll regret letting this one go.😬

[DVee8]

Reading an old copy of Modern Classics.

I turned apon 

 

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, DVee8 said:

Reading an old copy of Modern Classics.

I turned apon 

 

Nice, I still got my copy as well. This came to be after an editor asked about anyone owning interesting classics they wanted to get featured in the BMW E39 FB owners group iirc. It took them a few months to publish it, its quite a condensed version of the email I sent originally. Also I dont know why but they completely made up my dreamcar lol.

Anyway, the Audi A8 of many shiters has now gone to live with @Split_Pin, thanks again for the easy sale! Naturally I only found out today that it was actually financially completely unnecessary for me to sell this car but I've at least shown some goodwill towards my gf and her parents🤷‍♂️ The BMW Z3 has taken its space in my multicar policy so hopefully I can get it out on sunny, salt-free roads soon!

As mentioned above the NEC happened this weekend and I've been there with two mates who haven't been before this year. It was a good show, still a little smaller than pre-Covid but great nevertheless. The ticket prices are rather high though and charging £17.50 for parking for a few hours on top is insane, especially if you have to walk 15mins to get anywhere. Naturally my favorite car of the show was this first generation Mercury Sable thats been living in the UK since 1992. Of course someone had to turn into into a copcar replica at some point, it was still great to see a Sable in person, I don't think I ever have such an early one!

To get to the NEC the 540i needed a bit of work. As mentioned further above in typical BMW manner it snapped a spring and destroyed a droplink the weekend before, so those needed to get sorted in the short moments of sunlight after work during the week:

Using everyone's favorite, the dodgy spring compressors, I managed to get it all reassembled, only to realized that I wouldnt be able to get the compressors off the moment the strut would go in the car.

So out it all came again, spring compressors released and reinstalled the other way around (none of which was easy), only to now see that the strut wouldn't fit underneath the car without losening the lower control arm.

That fortunately did the trick and revealed that the bushing of one of them must be so knackered that there was very little restriction at all lowering the strut assembly to get it in. Thats of course not good and another thing that needs sorting eventually.

For some reason the ABS sensor managed to remove itself, quite mind boggling considering its held in by a bolt and is usually seized inside the hole it resides in. The bolt decided to just snap at one point so the sensor was just dangling there.

A bit of superglue made sure that its not going anywhere anytime soon, but only after reseating the sensor a second time as it immediately triggered an ABS light the first time around. Extracting that snapped bolt will be a job for another time.

All back together, everything seems to work fine. As always, tighten up the control arm bolts with the car on the ground and loaded to avoid tearing up your bushings. This is the sparewheel that came with the car, which happens to be the same wheel design my Z3 was equipped with from new. I'm planning to keep this car as unassuming and stock as a non-sport pre-facelift E39 can look (pre-fl headlights with gingercators coming soon) but this design of alloys is currently at the top of my list for the Touring.

Which was quickly put into use to deliver the '64 Tbird trunklid I picked up for a mate in Berlin over Christmas. He ended up strapping it to the roof of his Peugeot 106 (only passed its MOT a day before after he had to replace both of his inner front wheel arches) and transported it that way all the way from Shepshed near Loughborough to Norfolk, an easy 140 miles.

Since I couldn't return to Newcastle empty handed after the NEC I toured pretty much the entirety of the Midlands to pick up a replacement E39 Touring tailgate (wouldn't recommend transporting one with 3 people inside the car) and a replacement rear bumper for the E38 later, something I've been searching for in the right color for ages.

As you can see, it all fits, just about. Even with this being a fast V8 estate its still earning its keep being a practical parts and scrap hauler. I left around 7am in the morning and got back at midnight, certainly put a few hundred occasionally pretty rough miles on it on that day.

I didn't have time on the day but had a look into the factory toolkit of the new tailgate yesterday, only to find the fabled original BMW branded blue polishing cloth still in its place. Naturally these are usually long gone and impossible to find nowadays, especially with the logo still in place, making this a very rare and desireable accessory for many BMW botherers. Considering the going rate for them in Germany this made my day as it paid for half the price I paid for the thing. The rest of the toolkit is in excellent shape and worth decent money, too.

To thank the car for its services it finally received a (used) replacement oem drivers mat, have the mandatory before and after for cleaning them for the first time:

Could have another go but considering this car is used regularly this should be ok for now. I've also got replacement sill/kickplates for it but didnt take any photos of that. The car will continue to receive regular action but with a house purchased soon locked in I need to get all the broken Mercedeses back on the road soon, more on those soon!