BMW 750il Challenge Build

Sold the audio stuff out of the car. 66.12 ending price on Ebay, minus 16.90 in shipping. 49.22 back to the budget!

Total running budget as of now: $1,052.87

In reply to rcutclif:

BTW, you can DIY the power bleeeder pretty cheaply with a spare master cylinder cap and a garden sprayer from the local hardware store.

Sold this cyber 5 thing on ebay (amazingly). Sold for 3.25, but I underestimated shipping a touch so I get to add 1.67 back to the budget!

Total budget now: $1,051.20

turboswede wrote: In reply to rcutclif: BTW, you can DIY the power bleeeder pretty cheaply with a spare master cylinder cap and a garden sprayer from the local hardware store.

Thanks for the tip! In fact, I have already done this. I guess I am doing it wrong though because mine leaks all over, makes a huge mess, is hard to use, and still cost about $50 with all the parts involved.

I'm hoping the actual tool does a slightly better job. We shall see.

In reply to rcutclif:

You don't need much pressure. That's an easy mistake to make.

I like this project.

In reply to Harvey:

Thanks! I like it too. We will see how it turns out.

Following

Finally got the calipers all switched over to rebuilt ones, and got all the soft brake lines off to have them re created new.

Super weird though, the passenger rear was so rusted I had to cut the fittings. Passenger front needed some heat to come off, and the two driver side wheels all came out like butter. Since I did the passenger rear first, I was afraid the whole car was going to be the same and I was prepared for battle, then the rest were easier than I thought. How often does that happen?

Usually I get unlucky and start with the easy one.

All this will go to the shop tomorrow to to have new lines made. Then, I'm just a brake bleed away from starting to do some road testing.

The fuel lines seem to be something that happens with these. My father had a 95 740 where one of the fuel lines decided to destroy itself. He had the dealer replace it and for some reason it took them waiting two weeks for a part from Germany before he got the car back.

if you choose not to rock those 16x8's, i will buy them from you at a reasonable price. Ursula the E12 needs new shoes.

My guess on the milkshake issue is condensation. Very common on cars that have sat for a long time and/or have only been idled/driven very short distances. Got to get'em good and hot for a while to burn that condensation off.

Harvey:

Yeah, weird. In this case, I'm pretty sure it was just a case of 25 year old rubber lines, but you never know.

Angry:

Thanks for the offer! I think I'm probably going to stick with these, as I like the looks and the 8 inch width. Unless you have an interesting trade wheel set? These have an offset of 23, which is just a touch high for the car. (the front 225s currently barely rub on the strut housings, so I will need to get some spacers to run wider tires up front - rears have TONS of room.)

Nick:

Good point. Thanks for adding that. Hopefully I can get the brakes done this week and get er out for a good n hot run to burn that crap out.

Well, got the brakes working today, big step! Now I can drive it and like my buddy said, work out the rest of the demons. Ha. Pick of one rear wheel with new soft lines and a new hard line:

Had to sort out what I think was a stuck solenoid in the abs unit:

Cycled the pump and the solenoid by jumpering the relays, then whacked the abs pump with a hammer a couple times for good measure. Seemed to fix it, and the brakes work well now (haven't tried slamming into the abs yet though).

Also, I saw a good deal on some 15x7 wheels with good tires on the cl, so I went and grabbed them as backups, and may be able to use them if it rains during the autox at the challenge.

Came nice and clean, with all 4 caps and great all season tires with lots of tread left, paid $140:

Forgot the budget update.

from before ($1,051.20) add in the 1 liter of brake fluid - even though I only used about half - (18.90 - ATE typ 200 yellow) I get $1,070.10.

I did not add the calipers or lines (and pads and rotors were not replaced) because stock equivalent brake stuff is exempt. I added the fluid because I don't see that called out as exempt.

Stuff that I have accumulated that may or may not get used (depending on other budget requirements):

• extra wheels and tires - $140
• rear diff - $200
• Dinan chip - $100

Total = $440

So, at this point I'm somewhere between $1,070.10 and $1,510.10.

Unless it's changed in the recent rules revisions, fluids were not counted against the budget.

Lots of progress, little updates. Let's catch up a bit.

1. Started removing carpets to scrape out all the sound deadening material, but found the carpets to be wet in the foam underneath. ug, gross. Also means something is leaking. Double gross. Pulled all the carpet out, and laying it out to dry. At this point I'm not sure if the carpet going back in, or getting the foam removed then going back in, or staying out for good. There's like 65 lbs (still slightly wet maybe) of carpet... Here's a pic with the rear carpet out and the pool of water I found:

2. Fixing and gutting the front seats. I had to fix a 'seat twist' issue on the passenger seat where basically the motor turns to change the angle of the seat, but only one side of the seat responds. The fix is to shorten the sheath of the cable about 1/4 inch because somehow the sheath stretches over time and the drive cable slips out of the drive gear at one end. Pretty simple and satisfying fix. Here is the end I had to shorten: heat the metal fitting, pull it off, cut the sheath, heat the metal fitting again and replace (pic is after I was done).

3. I also decided to gut the seats a bit. I wanted to retain forward/back, and seat angle adjustability, but I have no use for lumbar support in the driver seat, or the electronically adjustable headrest motors in both seats. The headrests still have 5 or 6 positions that they will hold themselves in and now I can adjust them manually. I removed about 10 lbs from the passenger seat and 15 lbs from the driver seat. Whats left of the passenger seat: What I removed: I only took one picture of the driver seat:

4. Gutted rear seats. I don't have any pictures, but I have also gutted the rear seats (they had electric head rests, and seat forward/back and angle - ridiculous). I in total removed about 50 lbs of stuff. (WOW!)

5. In between gutting the seats, I have been slowly scraping away at the sound deadening mat. I go for as long as my poor little battery can take, then I put it on the charger while I work on seats. Repeat. I probably have the car about half done right now. I will vacuum it all out and try to get an estimate of the weight when I am all done (but I think it won't be that much...)

6. I also removed the rear bumper and associated hardware. (No pics) I will either cut out most of the metal support structure, or run without and fab my own bumper out of aluminum sheet or something. Haven't decided yet. 50 lbs of bumper and 15 lbs of shock absorbers and other mounts.

7. I found two more crossovers for the front speakers that I missed earlier. I got in contact with the guy who bought the rest of the set and sold them to him for $10 (minus $5.25 shipping). Found a bit more change too. Woohoo!

Budget recap: between 1065.27 and 1505.27.

Weight removed recap: 25 lbs front seats, 65 lbs carpet, 50 lbs rear seats, 50 lbs bumper, 15 lbs bumper mounts = 205 lbs out.

bluej wrote: Unless it's changed in the recent rules revisions, fluids were not counted against the budget.

Thanks for the heads up. I don't see where it says they are exempt, so I will leave them for now. I guess you can use the argument that when I bought the car it had brake fluid, etc. But this brake fluid could also be seen as 'performance enhancing'. I will leave it for now, and maybe at the end find that I have a little extra! We shall see.

Lots of work over the weekend!

First, out came the exhaust (this is all one piece!).

Its 2.5 inch tube true duals. Weighs 80 lbs. I haven't decided yet if I will gut this one and put it back, or if I will try to make a straight pipe version.

The cats are still hanging there, so I bent up a bracket for now.

Hanging cats

Bracket in place

I started it up without the exhaust and it was quite loud. Also, I think I could hear a miss that I hadn't heard before, so I will have to investigate that.

Sound clip!!

Next up was some work on the front suspension. I got these babies in the mail Friday, so I've been itching to put them on.

Those are bilstein sports. I got both fronts. $306 shipped from tire rack.

Started taking apart the front driver's side, and the shock is so blown I can push it in easily by hand. Now just gotta get that collar off to get the shock out of the strut body.

I'm going to cut a coil or two off the front springs as well, so hopefully that gives me a little extra stiff, a little extra camber, and a little extra low. We will see!

BradLTL wrote: Sound clip!!

Hahaha good idea I'll do one tomorrow night.

I have enjoyed watching your thread and I look forward to our battle of the Big Girls.

I didn't get a sound clip because I actually forgot. I'll get one tomorrow. Didn't have a lot of time tonight, but I did get the old shock apart. No amount of pb blaster, torching, and pipe wrench with a helper bar could loosen this collar nut, so I just grabbed the dremel (for accuracy) and cut the thing. That did the trick.

I also had to put the top mount back on temporarily to get the shock out of the strut housing. A bit of heat and some whacks with a hammer, and then I had lots of oil on my garage floor.

Anyway, old shock out, ready for reassembly tomorrow.

JohnRW1621 wrote: I have enjoyed watching your thread and I look forward to our battle of the Big Girls.

WOOT WOOT!

Sounds awesome, are you driving down?