Hello everybody, been a while since I've been on TMF and I thought I'd share my next project with you all. Apologies for lack of action with the Mini, that's staying on the back-burner for now until I get a decent enough job to have the disposable income to run the Mini as a fun second car to lavish it with the attention it really deserves.
So then, this here is my new light "project" for the summer, a 1989 BMW 325i Touring; apologies in advance, I do appear to have waffled on a bit, so please skip past my essay if you just want to see pics.
I bought this off of a chap called "spiny" on Retro Rides, after he lost motivation with fixing the car up after a "little" problem occurred sometime last summer. From what I've gathered, the cam belt was due to be replaced, but for one reason or another it always ended up being a "next week" job. I'm sure you can see where this is going... In the end, the belt didn't go completely but rather sheared in half down it's length, with the front half flinging off around the pulleys and the half that was left jumping a few teeth. Unfortunately it was enough to mash a few valves, and so for the past year and a bit spiny has been spending the odd weekend here and there dismantling the top half of the engine and repairing what was necessary. Now, after recently getting it all back together he was greeted with the lovely sight of coolant gushing from somewhere up front down the side of the block, an ever rising temperature gauge, and obviously an ever decreasing coolant reservoir. Which is where I step in.
Spiny advertised the car on the Area 52 Facebook page back in November '13, briefly explaining the situation and saying that he now wants to shift the car to someone else as he's had enough of it. After a few questions as to the spec. of the car and so on, I was happy enough to take a drive down to his place and have a poke round the beast. He was selling it cheap, and even with the risk of a potential cracked head or maybe even the need for a new engine (very unlikely, but you never know!), I just couldn't say no.
This wasn't as easy as just bringing it home though, as I'd first have to convince my Dad to let me keep another car at his house! There's sensible space for 4 cars (2 in the garage and 2 on the drive): he keeps his car in the garage along with the Mini, and seeing as I also had the BX as my current daily it took a bit of persuading that I really needed 3 cars at the age of 20 when I have no job and no source of income apart from the government (Student grant ). However, I knew I'd won when he made the comment, "I've always fancied a Beemer on the drive". I'm sure he wasn't envisaging a rusty, 24 year old car that's a bit broken, but it's still a BMW! So, back at the end of November I paid for it and got the car transported to it's new residence at my Dads house.
It's going to need a lot of niggly things fixing, but the main issue is of course the coolant leak, which could get pretty involved. It's a project though, and one I'm happy to spend time and a fair chunk of money on to make it right - these are appreciating classics in my opinion! Not much has happened with this so far, and nothing will happen until the Easter holidays and then summer holidays, as I'm currently in my third year of a four year uni course and won't be able to work on it whilst I'm away from home.
Anyway, enough of the back story, and on to the car. It's fairly basic, spec. wise, as these cars go, but it has had a few options ticked. It's got the standard cloth interior, front electric windows (keep-fit rears), a 13 button on-board-computer (quite desirable, and unfortunately for me, quite broken as the LCD display has melted inside), an M sport steering wheel, and a few other things I've forgotten. It doesn't have a sun roof, which will make the job of re-upholstering the headlining much easier! Most importantly though, it's got the 2.5 straight 6 engine (M20B25) and a manual 'box - the only drivetrain I'd consider in one of these!
It's going to need a fair bit of attention cosmetically, there are a few bubbles of rust and plenty of odd blemishes in the paint, along with a couple of smallish dents. The bonnet has also had a nice bit of artwork applied to it by the previous owner, which unfortunately isn't to my tastes, so that'll be going! Overall though, it's a solid base and should be a bit of fun for me in the summer whilst on my last long uni summer holiday!
I only managed to take a couple of phone pics on the weekend I got it home (early December), I was too excited playing with my new toy to be taking pictures of it
If all goes well and I can get it fixed up properly, I'll use it as my daily from August. It'll cripple me in fuel costs, but I'll be doing less mileage next year and I reckon it'll be fun enough to be able to put up with 20-25mpg! As far as mods go, I've got a few things in mind and I've already bought a few bits for it, which I'll talk about in subsequent updates (I'll gradually be catching up with the past few months worth of updates).
The first major thing I've got to do is find where all this coolant is gushing from...
Edited by The Otter, 30 March 2014 - 11:51 AM.