My e28 finally arrives home

[RangerGress]

It started here.
http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?t=107587

I didn't want to bring it home until it was in reasonably good condition. Major efforts were the installation of AC, a full day with the local Dent Wizard taking out hail damage, and redoing the black seats in "carmine" which is almost indistinguishable from cardinal red. As part of the seat effort I had to get a new driver's seat base, and have some serious repairs done to the passenger's side. There's still some issues, but now that it's home I'll fix them one by one.

I have carmine vinyl inbound to redo the door cards to match the seats.

This started out as a $4500 car. It has become a $10k car. Let that be a lesson for all.

[David B]

Looks great, I'm sure I'll see it around town.

[Nebraska_e28]

Sweet!!! Can't wait till mine is back on the road.

[cddallara]

So, you've got an is for ///M5 monies.

Funny how that ends up happening. Very nice looking car none the less, congrats.

[wkohler]

What happened to the airdam?

Good luck with the car. If you decide you don't want to keep the coilovers on it, let me know.

[C.R. Krieger]

Sorry, but no; that is not a close match for Cardinal red. It is, however, pretty close to an Audi 4000 interior I had - and I loved it. Nice job.

[Das_Prachtstrasse]

Who cares what colour it is, my arse would feel like royalty sitting in those badboys. Beautiful.

[L_N_Love]

Seats look great!

[RangerGress]

Re. air dam. Glad you reminded me, I'd forgotten about that. I'd stashed it away a couple months ago when I first got the car. I'll put that on later this week maybe.

Re. color. The pics make the red look a little bright and orangy. I have cardinal door armrests and allowing for some darkening of the aged cardinal, it looks really close to my eye.

Got some issues resolved today. An old Moosehead quote told me how to fix the brake light switch at the pedal. That effort went very poorly for the first hour but once I read his old post the next 10min were highly productive.

I pulled the rubber and plastic trim off of the rear bumper and put a bolt thru the right end of the bumper rub strip so it would stay fastened down and not try to droop away from the car. Is there a way to flatten the waves out of the long center plastic bumper trim piece or is the only solution to buy new?

It took ~2hrs to get the hood latching problem fixed. PO bought a new hood after the first got damaged by hail. Something was going on tho such that the hood didn't want to release. Eventually the pull handle gave up. It took a while to figure out what the problem was.....the left hood catch wasn't located correctly. The problem wasn't the installation of the catch but was a manufacturing (or design) fail on the hood itself. The hood improperly located the hood latch. That probably means it was an aftermarket hood. Ultimately I had to relocated the hood latch by 12-13mm. That required removing a lot of material from the hood latch flange, and also some material removed off of the hood itself.

I decided that my brake MC is failing. Nice. Symptom is that the brake pedal is soft and gradually goes down under the foot. It doesn't go down to the floor and the brakes engage fine, but the pedal definitely has spongy travel that it shouldn't.

Putting in about a cup of brake fluid took care of the brake light on the dash.

[Nebraska_e28]

Who did your seats? They look awesome! What can a guy expact to pay for similar treatment?

[RangerGress]

Who did your seats? They look awesome! What can a guy expact to pay for similar treatment?

The leather kit was made by AutoCustomLeathers.com. I chose a kit that wasn't entirely leather. Some of the inconsequential trimmings around the edges are vinyl, and that saved a couple hundred $$.

The kit was $900. The installation of the kit by a local shop was to be $400, but they had to do a bunch of extra work cobbling together 2 working seats out of the 3 I'd brought them, doing some welding on another seat, and a redye the seatbacks of the front seats. Ultimately the install was $850, so $1750 total. Not trivial beer money, but the result is spectacular.

I chose AutoCustomLeathers because they had the pattern, which most shops didn't, they were easy to work out the details with, which Kevin@CreativeCustoms wasn't, and because they said they'd be able to make the kit in 7-10 workdays.

My second leather kit from them arrives tomorrow. It's for the F-250 tow vehicle.

[RangerGress]

What happened to the airdam?

Good luck with the car. If you decide you don't want to keep the coilovers on it, let me know.

Air dam is on. I was a little embarrassed that I'd completely forgotten it existed. So I did it in the dark.

The GC coilovers are growing on me. They aren't has stiff as I feared.

[mooseheadm5]

[bobby in Derby City]

Got some issues resolved today. An old Moosehead quote told me how to fix the brake light switch at the pedal. That effort went very poorly for the first hour but once I read his old post the next 10min were highly productive.

Linkage please?

[RangerGress]

Got some issues resolved today. An old Moosehead quote told me how to fix the brake light switch at the pedal. That effort went very poorly for the first hour but once I read his old post the next 10min were highly productive.

Linkage please?

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?t=84114

[bobby in Derby City]

Got some issues resolved today. An old Moosehead quote told me how to fix the brake light switch at the pedal. That effort went very poorly for the first hour but once I read his old post the next 10min were highly productive.

Linkage please?

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?t=84114

Thanks ... I found it and was just reading it while you were posting. I always start in Gen Convo and work my way down....

[RangerGress]

Got some issues resolved today. An old Moosehead quote told me how to fix the brake light switch at the pedal. That effort went very poorly for the first hour but once I read his old post the next 10min were highly productive.

Linkage please?

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?t=84114

Thanks ... I found it and was just reading it while you were posting. I always start in Gen Convo and work my way down....

It might have been more appropriate of me, instead of finding again the same thread my search found before, to instead berate and ridicule you. My search found the thread and your hapless (or entirely absent) search didn't. I find, however, I just don't have it in me to treat strangers poorly so I let it go.

<I'm just kidding around, don't everyone get their panties in a wad.>

[C.R. Krieger]

Linkage please?

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?t=84114

Thanks ... I found it and was just reading it while you were posting. I always start in Gen Convo and work my way down....

It might have been more appropriate of me, instead of finding again the same thread my search found before, to instead berate and ridicule you. My search found the thread and your hapless (or entirely absent) search didn't. I find, however, I just don't have it in me to treat strangers poorly so I let it go.

You're gonna have to step it up if you're gonna fit in here. Bobby can take the shit he deserves.

[RangerGress]

Got some issues resolved today. An old Moosehead quote told me how to fix the brake light switch at the pedal. That effort went very poorly for the first hour but once I read his old post the next 10min were highly productive.

Linkage please?

Bobby you slacker. This isn't the Welfare office. You want to get ahead you have to show some small degree of gumption or you can starve.

Search for "brake AND switch". AND has to be in caps because it's an "operator". Sniveling wretch.

Get a haircut for crying out loud. Now get off my lawn. No it's not a "gun" for chrissakes, it's a "pistol". Turn that godawful racket down on your way out. Don't look at my daughter, I get a little crazy when punks look at my daughter. Beat it kid.

<There, how was that?>

[mooseheadm5]

[oldskool]

Got some issues resolved today. An old Moosehead quote told me how to fix the brake light switch at the pedal. That effort went very poorly for the first hour but once I read his old post the next 10min were highly productive.

Linkage please?

Bobby you slacker. This isn't the Welfare office. You want to get ahead you have to show some small degree of gumption or you can starve.



Search for "brake AND switch". AND has to be in caps because it's an "operator". Sniveling wretch.

Get a haircut for crying out loud. Now get off my lawn. No it's not a "gun" for chrissakes, it's a "pistol". Turn that godawful racket down on your way out. Don't look at my daughter, I get a little crazy when punks look at my daughter. Beat it kid.

<There, how was that?>

I would have included the terms "Dickless" and possibly "JizzMagnet" but hey, . . .that's just me.

[1st 5er]

Nice work.
The car looks great too!

[winfred]

i whip out "cum gargling sphincter muscle" "dick hugger" and "assmaster" for special occasions

I would have included the terms "Dickless" and possibly "JizzMagnet" but hey, . . .that's just me.

[RangerGress]

For all practical purposes, I've not driven my e28 in 4 months. It's been killing me.

In mid Nov I started working on a hole in my floorboard and some paint flaws. The floorboard is ok now I suppose, but the paint flaws were a real problem. I spent several weeks on paint redo after redo before finally deciding that it was time for professional help.

I had a relationship with the local MAACO shop. They've done a number of my cars over the years, especially the race cars. They did fine work for not much $$. So I took the e28 to the shop owner and gave him very specific written guidance. Essentially, I required a perfect paint job. Absolutely perfect, w/o the slightest flaw. Not the slightest orange peel, but a flawless surface that looked like water.

It didn't work out. The car went to them in early Dec and I have them $1k. It was supposed to be done by Xmas. In early Jan I started to either call or visit the shop each week. Over and over again I was told that the car would be done "on Friday". Finally, last Friday, >3 months after giving them the car, I told them that we're done. I gave them an additional $500 and took the car keys.

MAACO had sanded the car down to bare metal and did a lot of work to make the surface perfect. They sprayed paint and clearcoat, and then did a bit of wet sanding.

This week I talked to local folks, made a lot of phone calls and visited a few shops. I needed the whole car wet sanded and all my trim (to include bumpers) painted. Yesterday I left the car with a local paint shop to get the work finished. Theoretically I'll be picking up the car Monday. Then I have to reinstall all the trim, bumpers, mirrors, air dam, and spoiler.

I really miss my e28. It will be very good to have it home again. And it's paint will be absolutely perfect.

[Drew in NYC]

I feel your pain. But sounds like it'll be over soon