So it’s been about a month since the last update. I have once again overestimated my ability to get out into the garage. I’ve been busy focusing on the yard to keep our sanity, being stuck at home with the little ones all the time. It’s also been a bit harder to justify going out to the garage when Mrs. MTechnically and I finally get some time to sit down and unwind. I’ve also been distracted a bit from what is in the garage with thinking about what to put into the garage. I had thought that the M5 was going to sell, which naturally had me hunting for a replacement. But that didn’t end up happening, and I’m starting to wonder if I will sell the car. I’m not sure there is a sedan out there that I want more than this car. It really is just the maintenance that put me off and had me ready to sell. Plenty of time to ruminate on that one.
So with those qualifiers out of the way, let’s get down to what has happened with the cars. Or I should say what hasn’t happened. I haven’t looked into diagnosing the E34 any further. The weather has been spotty enough that all the good days get taken up with other tasks, and since it’s just sitting covered outside, it’s waiting for the time being. Another thing that didn’t get done was that I didn’t end up stripping out the interior of the ‘02 completely. I had been considering that for a little while, but it’s just another big project that I don’t need to take on right now.That’s an important step in the right direction in keeping a lid on my habit of scope creep. I’ve also decided to pause on the wiring harness, until I can figure out what I’m adding to the car, I don’t want to finalize the harness.
I started this out wanting to fix the rust under the brake reservoir, but the reality is that this car is old at this point and has had some weird things done in that time. The car was originally polaris silver, but at some point the majority of the car was painted some type of dark blue. I think it was professionally done, because what remains of it seems to have held up well. Someone had at some point painted the door jams and a few other places in a generic white, with what seems like a worn out toothbrush, it’s just terribly done and flaking off in places. This picture kind of highlights all those issues in one image.
So the right thing to do would probably be to strip the car down entirely, bring it back to bare metal, repair the panels and paint from there. But I would like to get this car back together before winter, if at all possible, and honestly I’m just not ready for a project of that scope yet. The current goal is to clean up what I can and try to make the car just a little more cohesive. I know that the wrap is only going to last a few more years, but that’s vital time to get my garage in order and maybe enjoy the car a little bit more.
Over the last few days, I took lights, grills, and hood off of the ‘02 and began prepping the front of the car for paint. I laid down a second coat of primer the other night and it’s starting to get there. I’ll probably sand this coat with 400 and then lay the last coat of primer before laying down some base.
I also started reconditioning some of the old suspension parts that I will be reusing. I scuffed up and used some self etching primer before laying down some gloss black enamel. Not perfect, but a marked improvement from where they started out. I still need to tackle the front struts, but once they are done parts can start going back together.
In between paint prep, I’ve been shopping for and accumulating more parts for the car. Ever since I bought the car the shifter has been pretty sloppy. It’s very common on these cars for the linkages to wear out, since they are a bit needlessly complicated. Instead of just doing a simple rebuild, I decided to upgrade the shifter mechanism to AKG’s sport shifter. It should provide a shorter throw with a more positive feel, with the dual shear selector rod and Z3 shift lever.
I was seriously tempted to get the tunnel mounted shifter, for maximum motorsports awesomeness, but this is going to be a street car and solid engine and transmission mounts are recommended when using that shifter. I don’t think the cool points are worth the NVH trade offs.
I’ve always planned on adding fog/driving lights to this car. I try to use quality parts in any of my cars, and if I can use period correct parts I’m even happier. I happened to find these Marchal 880’s on eBay for a pretty decent price, and they are like new. They are probably my ideal fog light for this car. I am really happy to pick these up to say the least.
I also picked up a set of Kooglewerks front fog light mounts. They are quality pieces and I’m really excited to see how this looks all put together.
At this point I need to finish the second coat of primer, put down the base coat, and start putting some parts back onto the car. Once I get the front suspension back in the car I think I’ll focus my efforts on getting the wiring harness back together. After that’s done I’ll be able to piece the interior back together. I've not made quite the progress I was hoping for, but at least things are moving along steadily.