E36 320i Coupe restoration

[kdevitt]

Heres my 320i - its a particularly long restoration! Hopefully its of interest to people. This has been a work in progress for a while - don't have any particularly good photos of it from when it was new-ish, but had a mag feature with Total BMW about a decade back.


I bought it 13 years ago from Alan Dorgan Motors in Monkstown, was very much a paddy spec car, but drove great and looked great.











Yes, it was sitting like a 4x4 - but in my defence I did have an eibach pro-kit on order for 8 weeks or so at the time! I added the Mtec kit, the wheels, interior and a few other small bits. Hard to appreciate how hard it was to source parts back then - I then got introduced to a website called eBay by a guy in work, and my credit card hasn't been the same since.


The car was in my dads possession for a few years, although he hasn't been what would be considered a careful owner. Its back in my name now and on my classic policy with the E30. The car is definitely the worse for wear, but still a good base for a project car. Naturally I could go out and buy a minter for a lot less that what this will cost me, but that's no fun, and the car is part of the family at this stage.


Some obligatory pre-work photos:



















The interior looks pretty clean in the last photo, which goes to prove how deceptive photos of cars can be. The drivers seat was destroyed and I felt like a change from the silver grey. I managed to get a saffron comfort interior, which was heated and electric. The main reason to buy them was to get my hands on some saffron door cards and rear seats - intention was to dye some vaders for the front.





The doorcards were missing the plastic trim at the top to secure them to the door, its more than likely still stuck to the doors to interior came from - it was something I never managed to fix properly on the current cards. This is a really common issue on E36's, and can be a pain to fix. Finally got it sorted properly though -


Bought two packs of araldite extra strong glue and two packs of mini g-clamps.





Mix the glue and apply it the the length of the plastic strip, then align and clamp to the door card. This was left to cure overnight. Am very happy with how it worked out.








Gave the interior a good clean with autoglym leather cleaner (my Dr Leather from Spirit Detailing hadn't arrived at this stage!) and it came up very well.








I realise that without an after photo, the comparison is a bit useless - but you get the idea.


Also ordered some other bits to go with the interior -


Heated switches and loom from eBay.de








New parcel shelf and a third brake light -

[kdevitt]

Had my first 'oh shite' moment with the parcel shelf however -





A new and old comparison shows I must have ordered a shelf without the speaker holes. Not sure if they're all that way, but it wasn't the end of the world.





I used the old shelf to mark up the area to cut on the new one, and dremeled the holes out.


Then I removed the full interior, parts of which may have constituted a toxic hazard.





Took a feed off the nearside wiring (above) for the third brake light. There are some pre-scored insulation parts to be popped out from the rear, and the light then clips into place, secured with a nut from below.








With that wired in (and working) I could put the parcel shelf and rear bits back in.





I know some people aren't huge saffron fans, but its been my favourite E36 interior colour for ages now, so happy to be getting it in place.


The wiring for the front seats was a bit more time consuming -





In the end, the heating isn't working - so I won't post up any details of my dodgy wiring! The powered functionality and lumbar support is working fine though - which it should be, just needs 12+ and an earth.








The carpets and dash had to wait for a while, as will the re-wiring of the heated seats - but it did give me a good idea of how the finished product will look.

Another decision I made was to strip back the spoilers and splitters. Bought this GT Class II spoiler a long time ago from eBay.de. It was sold as genuine, but was in fact a fibreglass copy. With time it started sagging in the middle and showing some age related deterioration - just like myself.





Anyway, I decided to go spoiler-less. Bought a new lid from ebay, in a rush I might add, and didn't notice the massive writing saying it had holes from where a spoiler was fitted. A copious amount of drink had been consumed that night, which might explain the oversight.





Stripped back the wiring loom from the old lid -








Got a helping hand to hold the lid while I unbolted it, and fitting the new one was just a case of reversing the process.


Am very happy with the look - not so much with the M and 328i badges though, but they're gone now. Also fitted new plates I bought from eireplates.com








Also picked up a towing eye cover - the last one was nicked. Its one of those annoying thing that another E36 owner has obviously nicked - they're very cheap to buy.





Sprayed and fitted this, and then gave the car a bit of a clean.








It looks deceptively clean in the after shot to be honest. Had all front and rear bushes replaced at this stage as well. (Oct 2011)

[kdevitt]

All of the work above was done while home from Sydney for a few weeks in 2011 - so fast forward to March 2013 when I moved home, and I kicked off again. (This will be a slow restoration).


It hasn't moved since I last cleaned it up and started on the interior, so needless to say, that hasn't done it any favours.





Needed to jump start it, and it ran first time. Few minutes of lumpiness and it was idling nice and smooth. The tyres on the contours have seen better days though - so I bought a set of OEM 16's with decent rubber to allow me get the car moved around and eventually NCT'd. Got the inside of the arches cleaned while the wheels were off - was pleasantly surprised at the condition of the arches, although the nearside rear one needs some slight attention. These are the rears which came off - my dad had been driving on these!





Needs a wash though -





Tried turning on the headlights to burn off some of the condensation in the lens, at which stage the engine cut out - and wouldn't restart, so picked up a new battery from Murphy & Gunn - car was humming soon afterwards




Gave the car a quick clean at this stage - paintwork isn't in great nick, so have a respray lined up for once all the mechanicals and interior are sorted. Still - looks well!!


Before -








After -








Also got the selection of badges off the boot lid. For the uninitiated, the process is very simple for removing badges from the car is pretty simple. Heat them with a hairdryer, then use fishing line or dental floss to cut through the adhesive behind the badge.


Once thats done, use tar remover or something similar to help breakdown the remnants of the badge, then remove by wiping with a microfibre cloth or something similar.


The offending badges -





Heat them with the hairdryer -





The backing won't come off with the badge





I used Autoglym tar remover to help get it moving -





All done - there is some ghosting around both badges, so a quick polish with the porter cable would sort this out - not overly concerned with it since it'll be sprayed.


Also bought new plugs, filters and oil for it - will be running the current engine for some months yet, so no point it not keeping it tip-top!




Bought an auto dimming rear view mirror some while back (along with lots of other bits which seem to have disappeared into a black hole).





Fitting is pretty quick - there are three wires, one of which needs to be fed back down the a pillar for a reverse feed. The other two were soldered in neatly.





The reverse feed taps in under the glovebox - just used a multimeter to check for the reverse light showing +12V when engaging reverse.





Having to remove trim to fit the mirror gave me the ideal excuse to start stripping the old grey headlining and plastics out.


The grey items were well beyond salvation - and don't match the black plastics on the saffron interior anyway. I managed to pick up a new headliner and trims from Valdas at Motor Confidence, so they've been sitting there waiting to be fitted.


Old headliner -





Yes - it is mould!





I reckon had I left it long enough it might have turned black all by itself -





Didn't take long to remove all of it - only managed to refit one item, buts its a start!

[kdevitt]

Some decent progress at this stage. I was expecting this to be awkward, which it was. Needed to swap out the roof lining section for the sunroof. Everything I read before starting suggested the sunroof tray needed to come out completely, but I think it could be done without doing so.


Either way - with the headliner out you just need to undo a few hex screws to remove the sunroof tray. An extra pair of hands helps, as its slightly heavy and a bit unwieldy.


Big hole with the sunroof used to be!





The sunroof tray as it looks out of the car with the light grey liner:





You need to connect up the sunroof motor again to allow you to tilt the roof. Allen key goes in the centre and allows you to operate it without power.





With the roof tilted, you can remove the three 17 mm bolts holding in the rear of the actual sunroof panel, then undo two torx screws just inside the front of the panel - just lifts off then.





Heres the sunroof cassette minus the panel:





The grey vinyl part here didn't come with my headliner, so needed to color it. Used VHT vinyl paint purchased form cleancar.ie.





First coat is a fine enough dusting of paint -





Second coat -





Last coat -





Liner section just unscrews (10 by torx screws)





And new one screws back in -





Job done! Second pair of hands are even more useful when refitting! Once fitted, I could put the new headliner in - bit awkward, but its easily done on your own. Its significantly lighter than the sunroof tray!





Only noticed the damage near the sunroof panel as I was going to fit it - should be easily rectified though.

Got the looms made up for the connectors for the 18 button OBC. Not very neat soldering as you can see - but we all have to start somewhere:





Put heat shrink wrap on all of of them -





Will start connecting these in tomorrow.


Also got the OBC stalk finalised. There are three different versions - which I only found out when I went to fit it. The difference is in the grounding connections -


This is the connector from the new stalk - (the wires are already snipped)





The older version (my original one) had a bullet type connector and a separate ring connector. Quick bit of soldering and the first part of the install is finished!











Finished off the OBC wiring, which seems to be working fine now. Also have an original stereo loom soldered in, so will be able to eventually connect a CD43 to the car.


Bought the correct cloth tape to wire off each section of the loom neatly, and with any luck will have the dash back in the car this weekend.

[kdevitt]

Also started dying the armrest to match the rest of the saffron interior - as usual, got the kit from dynamixdyes.com.


First coat -








Second coat -








Its had another coat since, and will be finished off with a matt sealant. Picked up a new rear subframe, brakes, lsd and prop shaft for it last night as well to add to the parts collection. Also had a bunch of other bits arrived recently such as new window trims, handbrakes, and also got an illuminated and weighted knob for it from Germany.


Slow progress, but progress all the same!

Start of July -


Wiring is complete (and working) as mentioned previously. Used slightly more cloth tape than they would at the factory Just wanted to avoid it snagging on anything while I was putting the dash back in.





Also got the dash sitting back in and cleaned up - photos are crap, didn't have the charger for my camera - so the iPhone had to do the job





The more messy wiring you can still see is the loom for the electric seats and heating elements. These will be next to come out of the car as I sourced some manual seats.
And here they are - silver grey vaders, soon to be redyed in Saffron.


Was quite a funny moment when the lad I bought them off told me they were covered in - only to realise he was being literal.








Seems like someone has stolen my Dr Leather cleaner -though so used some gliptone cleaner instead just to see how the headrest came up -





Came up great - there are one or two repairs necessary, so will get them done before the re-colouring begins in earnest.


These are the two M3 seat backs I got with the interior. Have decided to re-colour the existing saffron side sections and rear bench - will require very little dye and it turns out the leather is the same grade. This cuts down on the work I need to do - and raw materials obviously.


Both seats were pretty grotty - but there was no damage which is ideal.








I used the Gliptone type cleaner I had gotten a while back from Dynamix Dyes to clean them up - they supply a different type of cleaner now, but the finished result is similar. After cleaning they looked a lot better - two spots of rust didn't budge though.








Almost seems a shame to start re-colouring such tidy seats, but won't get a set of Saffron vaders otherwise! The first step for me is to try and get the dye into the seams - they're by far the most awkward spot to do. At this stage I hadn't masked off the M stripes.





After one coat it looked like this -





The suggested approach is to dab the dye on with the supplied sponge - this is to help avoid the finished result having a swirl effect in it. It far more efficient from my experience to firmly rub in the dye over a reasonably sized area of the leather and then dab it quickly. You get the same result - and it fills all the textures in the leather well. Its also significantly quicker.


So second coat on and the silver grey is still visible underneath - I removed the masking on the M stripes between coats so I could clean up any dye which got through the masking tape. Having the correct making tape for the job would probably remove the need to do this - I believe green bodyshop masking tap won't allow paint to seep through, but couldn't find any.





After a third coat it was looking very well - this shot compares the one with two coats (background) with the one with three coats (foreground).





Next step is a final dye coat, but with the spray gun - it will give a smooth final coat. This is then followed up with the sealant as I previously mentioned.

[kdevitt]

Managed to spray the final coat of colour and the sealant onto the armrest - its came out great. Some photos here to show the difference between the untreated headrests and the treated armrest.








Was doing a clear out of the garage and found these - they're genuine M3 mirrors which I bought ages ago - was literally about to bid on another set on eBay, so it saved me a few quid. Got these pretty cheap and was pleased to see there's no cracks or major damaged. There is however the thickest coat of what I think is brush painted primer on them! I can actually peel part of it off by hand


Am going to sand them down and see how well they come up, they'll go in with the car when its being sprayed.







More work done on the interior over the past two evenings - won't post any more pics of this process after this update as its very same-ish, but this includes some repair work, so might come in useful for others.


First up, the base was removed from the drivers seat.





First issue was a hole caused by some of the wire in the base prodding through -





Then some bad wear on the bolster -





Heres the repair kit for the tear -





Process is simple for repairing a tear. Cut the fabric to a size which is bigger than the tear, and place it under the leather, covering the hole. Once in place use the supplied plastic tool to push glue in between the leather and fabric, then put glue over the hole. Its designed to be flexible once set.


I removed the leather off the base and fixed the metal wire back in place.





The cover was put back in place and the hole was repaired -





Next up was the repair to the scuff and general cracking in the leather. I used a leather filler - which is very similar looking to PVA glue, lower viscosity though. This was applied over the bolsters - more heavily where the scuffing was bad. It was also applied over the hole which was repaired - its sandable, so allows for a good finish.








This was left overnight, then sanded back this evening - you can make out the filled cracks pretty clearly:





The base was cleaned and dried thoroughly - first coat of dye was then applied:








Once this coat is dry, I can move the thigh support out of the way and dye the bits I couldn't access with the first coat. This will go through another few coats by hand before being finished off with the spray gun and matt sealant.

Finished result with the sealant sprayed on - pretty happy with the results.





This is where the repair to the hole was done -

[kdevitt]

With the seat more or less fully dismantled, I took the opportunity to try and clean it down a bit. The photos don't quick capture the gunk which was on them - nor the smell.








Took them outside and sprayed a degreaser on the rails and left it linger for a few minutes. Then I used the steam cleaner to try and shift as much of it as possible.








Used a sponge and some car shampoo to clear off the remaining gunk. Seat frames looks substantially better afterwards, but some areas need a touch up with paint. Will get some hammerite to do them - would be annoying to have some rusty bits on show once the seats have been put back together.





Also managed to clean up the controls for the seat mechanisms and put some poorboys trim dressing on. They look ok, but not great. Will go over them again with Gtechiq C4 trim restorer. Got a bottle from Cleancar.ie a few days back and used it on once piece - no before photos, but this piece was practically white.





Took the seat backs off the vaders too - and unfortunately have a bit of work to do on them before they can be painted.








Not entirely sure what the holes were needed for, but theres an identical set of them on the passenger seat. Will fill from behind with fibreglass and then fill from the front with a plastic filler before sanding, priming and spraying.

[kdevitt]

Major bit of work done today - got the carpets dyed which means I can now go ahead and put in the rest of the interior.


Used VHT vinyl and carpet dye - got it from Cleancar.ie.


Removed both seats - guy collected them pretty soon after, they're becoming sitting room furniture!





Clean and vacuum of the carpets - pulled the seats looms through too and they're ready to be removed.





First coat of the dye -





Second coat -








Last coat - all done, looks great.





I actually have the rear piece (which is grey in this picture) from a car with original black carpets, so cleaned it up and it matches the rest of the carpet perfectly. This picture gives you a good idea of the transformation. Also picked up brand new black floor mats from M&G yesterday, so its beginning to come together.




Stuck in the floor mats today as well - picked them up from Murphy & Gunn.





Not that it'll be visible - but worth pointing out that the VHT dye also works well on plastics - so the heel pad is done perfectly too. Not that it'll be seen!





Floor mat fitted - interior is looking less like a scrapyard car now.

[kdevitt]

A few more bits and pieces to report on -


First up is the drivers seat - was hoping to have this wrapped up last weekend, but haven't had much time to do anything over the last few days. Sanded down the filler on the drivers seat.








Never thought some of my skills built up on my very nerdy 40k collection (if you know what that means, you're obviously a fellow nerd) would come in handy on the car, but I decided against masking off the M stripes for this seat. The process of masking is a bit laborious, and not as accurate as I'd like. Used a fine detail brush to get a few coats on.








First coat on the seat -





Three coats down -








Ready for spray coat and sealant now -





Also got a good bit of the interior back in - its really coming together now.





And collected my wheels from Wheel Wizards during the week - pretty happy with the results.

[kdevitt]

Seems to be so much to do with this, and so little spare time, that I'm jumping around and not finishing anything off. Finally got the two headrests finished this evening though, but there's still a good bit to do before I can get a seat back into the car.


The rear plastic on the headrests was still grey, and had some gouged areas too.








I used the leather filler on them - thought being that the vinyl is reasonably flexible. Seemed to do the job ok - had the refill though as the vinyl got too hot when sanding it back and started lifting off. Results were ok - not perfect, but definitely better than before.








Got both headrests masked up -





Used a coat of plastic primer on them -





Then with the mixed paint - Vinny Byrnes as usual did the mixing -








Finished job - will need to touchup some areas by hand around the edges - some of the masking lifted and blocked off some of the plastic. Will have to dig out my detail brush again for that.








Bought a brand new handbrake handle and gaiter - second part in a week which is for a left hand drive car though (also happened with a brand new gear lever gaiter). Got them from Bmminiparts - pretty irritating that you select a RHD car, but it still lists LHD parts. My own fault partially I guess.





Not the end of the world - can remove the leather section and fit it onto my existing one.

Got more of the interior back in today - centre console and armrest are in. Also got the handle off the brand new LHD handbrake and fitted to the RHD one.





Need to be able to move the car around - so finished off the main bits of the seat and got it in.





First impressions - very comfy. Still need to get the seat back finished, headrest and rest of the bits can't go on until that's done.