back on the road

This evening i took the '85 e3 out on the road for the 1st time in 4-1/2 years!

But it was only a 6-mile drive over to Dan's shop, where the new tires'll be mounted (I went w/ Eagle F1 GS/D3s), entire fluids/filters change, some brake-duct / exhaust repairs, & mebbe even get those verdammt back-up lights to work again. The battery & wiper blades are coked, but hopefully he won't be doing anything major.

I'd started the thing up about once every 9 months during its down-time, it always fired up right away. Today, it started on the 2nd key-turn, w/ some minimal smoke, and was running fairly well after the 3rd mile - I think 2 of the injectors took that long to get awake.

I'm really up for the next 8-9 months of blatting around in this car - a real dream-machine in the curves - but perhaps we're both getting a bit "too elderly" now for any more track events!

k, got the black car back this evening, now he'll be my daily drive until the snow starts to fall! Ughfortunately, 2 of my Alpina 7x16 street-wheels had to be shipped out for some major re-rounding, so until they're back, i'm wearing the 7x15 MSW baskets w/ wonderfully aged Yokie A008R track-tires, let's all hope it don't rain too much before I can get back onto some more reasonable rubber.

The high-points of the action that took place in Dan's shop:
- replace engine oil & filter, replace transmission oil, clean K&N air filter
- replace battery (no longer rechargeable)
- replace Supertrapp muffler (core rusted out)
- clean fuel-injectors
- replace f&r sway-bar bushings (the M5 end-links were ok, but the mount bushings had disintegrated)
- replace brake fluid & brake pads (the Ferodo pads were ok for thickness, but started to fragment during road-test) (heh, must've been a fair serious road-test!)
- repair front brake cooling duct-work (that i've got these flex-hoses running from behind the air-dam inlets onto the front rotors, pieces of which were either missing or shredded)
- new wiper blades
- adjust seat-belt spring retract tension ('cos I was tired of slammin' my door shut over top of a danglin' shoulder-belt!)
- repair back-up lights (that my trick aftermarket 50w halogen bulbs had melted the wires all the way back to the transmission)
- complete int/ext detail (which totally transformed him from a rusty-dusty-moldy aged hanger-queen into the proud shiny master-blaster of today, please ignore those few dings in the sheet-metal, that i will totally need to photograph him this weekend & figger out how to post a pic here! )

Won't prob'ly get my repaired street-wheels (the full set of lovely Alpina E30 7x16s w/ new Goodyear Eagle shoes) until this time next week, meanwhile I can blat around on these elderly track-tires and play w/ how many baffles i want to wear on my trapp. Jeebus, this car is so sweet to drive - but if we have a rainy week-end in western PA, i'll be the black bimmer that's holding you up, doin' 10mph *under* the speed-limit!

Sounds like a very interesting car with some nice modifications.

Interested in seeing pictures of the beast when you get them.

Matt

k, Matt - i've got my camera in my tote, all's i need now is a sunny day & a photogenic location!

Lately, i've got the radio/cassette player to actually produce sound, mebbe over the next coupla' days i'll get the trip/comp readout set up, too - that'll be dicey, since the '10's button isn't working.

Car is running well, but w/ a bit of occaisional stutter or lack of torque - i'm told to run this full tank of gas + injector-cleaner before worrying about it. I hope to get my street-wheels (& new tires) fitted on sometime this week.

Mines a black 88

Restoring a Black 88 325i convertable. Saw it for sale in front of a Junk yard. Runs sweet. Has a new top. Working on restoring breaks and suspension. new calipers and pads. New OE springs, control arms / bushings, tie rod ends, shocks, etc. Want to get back to factory height. It was so low to the ground the exhaust pipe below the engine was only a few inches off the road. Was only going to replace back springs (the were both broke in half). After they were replaced, it looked jacked up in the back. Then I knew I would have to do the front as well. Hope to get it back later this week......! When you figure out how to post a photo, let me know. Look forward to seeing your 85...

here's a photo of the black car - still wearing the MSW 7x15s w/ 205/50-15 Yokohama A008Rs. The wing mirrors are from Schnitzer, the air dam is BBS. I'm also sufferin' from 'can't get the center front-bumper rub-strip' syndrome, anyone know of a cure?

Called Dan this afternoon, they've got my repaired Alpina wheels now, so I can be properly re-shod on Monday! I'll post a new photo after the swap, 'cos those wheels are truly teh sweet.

Now, I've gotta' convince Dan that I want 5psi overpressure in front, otherwise the car don't balance right on a stiff turn-in or drop-throttle exit. Seems that ever'time I get him back from service, the tire-pressures are equal all round, say, 28psi, despite I wrote down "37psi front / 32 psi rear" on my clipboard when I handed it in. It rilly gets up my nose that they don't give me my car back w/ my preferred tire-pressures, 'cos the thing don't handle properly w/ 'equal all around' tire-pressures. </moan>

heh, now I'm back w/ the road wheels & new tires, the re-conditioned wheels look 'better than new', and my 1st take on the Eagle F1s is that they're a lot quieter than I expected from a high-performance tire, w/ no 'road-buzz'. New photos!

Those are Alpina 7x16 wheels, w/ 205/45-16 tires. The suspension is kinda' hybridized over many years' trial-&-error, the current ride-height is determined by Racing Dynamics front springs & Alpina rear springs. The car has 88,300 miles on the clock - but >5,000 of those are track-miles!

The side-photo shows the car is well-balanced visually - but it needs +5psi in the front tires for dynamic balance. The front air-dam is from BBS, the side/rear skirts & wing are Racing Dynamics. I've always thought the rear wing is too ostentatious, & would prefer a rear-lip spoiler instead.

He is running strong & handling true, despite the long period in storage. Actually, he's prob'ly handlin' a bit better after those fragged anti-roll bar mounts were replaced! I've yet to hit 200 miles since we've been back on the road. The motor seems happy, w/ no more than the usual response-dip at ~1750 rpm, tho' it does seem to take mebbe 1/2-second longer to fire up when I turn the key. The water & oil-temp gauges both read ~half a tick lower than usual, not that I'm complaining! Dan tells me that its useless to do any meaningful engine tune-up analysis, though, until after I've run through a full tank of gas+injector-cleaner. I think it'd be worthwhile to get a cylinder-compression test, to see if anything is out-of-sorts.

Jeff, Car looks good as ever. I hope you've held up as well! See you at Alleg.Chptr.Mtg. tomorrow. Love, Rudi

Hi Rudi, tonight i've been perusing the alleghenybmwcca.org site, catching up a bit w/ the posted newsletters to check out what i've missed out on, while the years flew by.

All things considered, I hope I've held up pert' well - I'm looking forward to seeing yourself again tomorrow, & any others from the old crew.

A-and I'm looking to tell briggs that, "yes, I've driven a Ford - poorly!"

best!
jM

here's a bad foto of the rear, where you can see:
- Racing Dynamics rear wing & lower apron, w/ 2-1/4" Supertrapp exhaust,
- rear-deck shoulder-strap fittings for the 6-point Sabelts,
- Hartge instrument-cluster hump under the rear-view mirror,
- tiny Schnitzer wing-mirror on the right A-pillar, &
- the 'PZKW-3E' license-plate number, that refers to the WWII German tank that used a Porsche-designed torsion-bar suspension, but still lacked the motor, armor & gun that would've made it a serious M-contender.

How did you adjust the spring tension for the seat belt? I didn't know that was possible!

Hi Sean, eckshully I'd asked Dan the mechanic to replace the front seat-belts, 'cos they wouldn't spring-retract & would hang outside the door when I closed it. I don't know if he was able to re-tension them, likely he cleaned & re-lubed the lower take-up reels & shoulder-height points on the B-pillars. They work great now, & don't flop around loose.