Wednesday, 11 September 2013

E30 'Sit Rep' (or Why I'm glad I didn't buy Italian)

So I've just spent an hour on the BMW.

And, in that time I've fitted the wing mirror controller (electric wing mirrors) and refitted all the drivers door bits, complete with the new OEM handle, which is a bit flappy but will more than suffice for now.
Behold:

Bonus points is that this car has central locking no less. And it works! This is why I am glad it's German and not Italian - an Alfa would have burnt out in a shower of high voltage sparks by now.

It's not all roses though, for some reason once ignition is off, the windows stay active - I can't work out if that's timing (very trick and very unlikely) or bad wiring (very likely). 

And, someone sent me a pic of this car in Brisbane - I pretty much aspire to have my car look like this


Albeit with different rims, though they do look nice don't they.

Finally, I am having second thoughts on pulling the gearbox off - the more bits I niggle away at and realise they're not too bad I wonder if it might be prudent to have someone do the whole thing in one hit. I'd be looking to:
  1. Replace rear main seal.
  2. Lighten the flywheel.
  3. Replace the clutch.
  4. Replace (with nylon bushes) the prop shaft & diff bushes.
  5. Replace (maybe nylon) the rear sub frame bushes.
  6. Replace/recondition the diff.
Quite the collection of tasks really, and a lot of propensity for messing it up big time - and this car is dangerously close to gender/name stakes at the moment.



No comments: