Maytag: The Alpine '87 529i

[knunger]

Yeah, and I'll bet Maytag has had more loving attention and care than all of those other cars combined...

[tig]

Looks great! Did you consider installing rear headrests while you were doing all the prep for the seating project, why or why not?

Bumping my question

Sorry I missed this question!

I did. In fact I have a set of headrests that I acquired from another member that are in such a condition that they need to be refinished. I also have a rear-headrest 'kit'.

Those parts were originally purchased for Vlad. Then I realized the PO installed Vlad's audio amplifier in such a location that the rear headrest mounts interfered. So I punted on that idea.

Now those parts are nominally for Minerva and I don't know the final interior plans for Minerva yet, so I'm holding out. I have enough of the tartan fabric and leather to have my guy do the headrests for this car someday. Unlikely at this point.

[oldskool]

Sitting on a park bench. . . eyeing Charlie’s work with fad intent . . .

[Adam W in MN]

Thanks Charlie. I did them on my e12 for that euro look that many of us are after, but then I started to admire the simple horizontal surface, unbroken by big head cushions, in standard e12 and e28 rear seats. I guess I want it to be configurable but absent that, I’ll probably hold off from rushing to add them to any future cars. Especially considering I almost never have rear seat passengers so I needed rear headrests.... why?

That’s just a small sample of my odd logic.

[tig]

Thanks Charlie. I did them on my e12 for that euro look that many of us are after, but then I started to admire the simple horizontal surface, unbroken by big head cushions, in standard e12 and e28 rear seats. I guess I want it to be configurable but absent that, I’ll probably hold off from rushing to add them to any future cars. Especially considering I almost never have rear seat passengers so I needed rear headrests.... why?

That’s just a small sample of my odd logic.

Your logic matches mine. You are a smart man.

[tig]

Maytag is back on summer wheels. RZ FTW.



Maytag is also now sporting Vlad's old plates, now that Vlad has been titled and registered in Utah. Go Sounders!

[George Hanson]

Before:


After:


After that:

Awesome! Look forward to following...

[George Hanson]

What an amazing transformation.

These are the proper wheels for this automobile, look great.

Love what you did with the interior.

[tig]

Before:


After:


After that:

Awesome! Look forward to following...

:-)

And after THAT:

[tig]

Full Maytag engine bay evolution:

Before:


After:


After that:


And after the 2.9L e2i weirdo motor build:

[boomvader]

Charlie, finally finished reading up on all 3 of your build threads. Nice work! Thanks for documenting in such detail. I've learned a lot.

[tig]

Charlie, finally finished reading up on all 3 of your build threads. Nice work! Thanks for documenting in such detail. I've learned a lot.

Congrats. Thanks. I'm sorry. I hope you remember more than I have.

[tig]

I put my Kienzle MCR 1016BT in before the drive to 5erWest. This is a really great mechless head unit if you can find one. No line level outs, but powers the stock speakers in Maytag quite well. Bluetooth works perfectly. The orange SD card was just there to test.


Maytag kicked ass to and from 5erWest and on 5erDrive. Even with the stock Eta exhaust and no tune (stock 360 ECU) the 145whp/163wtq allowed me to not fall too far behind Chris in Joel's S52 powered '82. I had to push all-out to do so, but it was fun. I'm excited to get a real exhaust and a tune on this thing.

The new seats felt great too.

However, I'm not as pleased with the Spax suspension. I now understand why people say they are too soft. With four people in the car driving around Saturday night the springs would regularly "clunk" as they rebounded. Then, during 5erDrive on Mt Hood, i had the same experience with just me and CJ in the car.

I've decided I'm going to put the H&Rs that are currently on Minerva on this car. Minerva will get something else...

Oh, and Maytag loves gravel roads.

[Bonsaibacker]

#meanttobedriven
#alwaysmorework
#e28allday

Glad to see it gets as much love as the others!

[tig]

Forgot to note that the AC quit just as we got on the gravel road. So we were without AC (90 degree day) the rest of the trip.

I have a feeling I sprung a big leak in the AC core because there's nothing noticeable in the engine bay.

[Smileyboy]

After all the sound stuff, how is th envois level in the cabin?

Tuesday, I had just enough time to get about half the sound deadener in. This is harder work than I thought.

On Minerva I'm doing the spray on sound deadener (see @occoupe's E9 thread). But for this car, I was not prepared to do the prep work required to paint (and I suck at paint) the interior, and I was curious how this stuff works. I know there's some risk to using dyanamat-like product (it's possible for moisture to get under it), but I took care to ensure it was installed correctly.

I bought two brands of 80mil Dynamat clone on Amazon. Both are made in the CCCP. Far cheaper than Dynamat and the customer reviews were all very positive. As far as I can tell both products are the same except for sheet size and one has a logo.

This stuff comes in small sheets which worked well for the rear. I should have saved some of it for parts of the front.


On Amazon: Kilmat 80 mil 36 sqft Car Sound Deadening Mat

This stuff comes in big sheets which worked very well for the front part of the car.


On Amazon: Siless Sound Deadening mat 80mil 36 sqft - Sound Deadener Mat

It'll be interesting to see/hear how it works...



I would have gotten more done, but we had tickets to the opening night of Hunchback at the 5th Ave Theater. It was better than I thought it would be. I think they have a hit on their hands and y'all can expect to see this make it to Broadway. But what do I know about musicals... I mostly go because it's a great date with Julie.


Wednesday, and I mean almost all of Wednesday, was spent finishing the sound deadener and installing new foam.
Maytag Interior Upgrade by Tig, on Flickr
Maytag Interior Upgrade by Tig, on Flickr
Maytag Interior Upgrade by Tig, on Flickr
Maytag Interior Upgrade by Tig, on Flickr

The original, disgusting, Maytag Bearl Peige carpet was the 'new style' with attached foam. That foam is pretty thick in places (like almost 2" under the dead pedal). The new, georgous, Anthracite carpet is the 'old style' without foam. To make it fit you need to build up foam because the OE foam pieces are NLA. I bought this product based on recommendations. Second Skin Luxury Liner Pro:

Second Skin Insulation Second Skin Luxury Liner Pro MLV Mass Loaded Vinyl Closed Cell Foam Sound Deadener - 9 sqft Sheet

I bought 4 sheets. I only needed 3. See below for why you may need 4 if you do this.

I used the old carpet as a template.



I asked the company if gluing this stuff down was required. They said it is not. I chose not to glue it, except in a few places because I want it easily removable and I'm pretty sure it's not moving anywhere.


There's actually 3 layers of the stuff in places here. The middle layer is actually small pieces of scrap that I pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle to fill in the space around the heater duct.



On the passenger side, I just used the original foam from the original carpet as it had easily pulled away from the carpet. Fits perfectly. Also explains why 3 sheets of LLP was enough in my case.


The new carpet went in easy. I was able to insert additional foam under a few places to build up (especially the dead pedal) and it now feels OE under all parts of it. The center tunnel is a bit thicker than OE, but I not enough to impact how the sides reach the sills.




I did a test fit of the center console to ensure the thickness didn't impact anything. It is definitely tighter than OE, but the bolts all reach.


It really warms my heart to see this interior come together! I really hated that PB.

Next up... heaters...

[tig]

Maytag has the quietest interior of all my E28s, by far. Part of this is the factory muffled M20B27, of course.

I think it all worked.

That said, Maytag also has the most hand-me-downs in terms of interior trim pieces and thus has the most creaks and rattles. Someday I will address that. E.g. missing tabs on front door toppers notoriously cause those pieces to move around and make noise.

[BoogerEater]

Very nice build, your passion for these cars is appreciated.

[tig]

Yesterday, I dove into fixing two things on Maytag. 1) The air conditioning compressor stopped working last year on our return trip from 5erWest and 2) a buzz that comes from the center console after the car is turned off; likely the battery drain culprit.

I have two choices for fixing the AC in this car. One is to install the R12->R134 kit a friend has been making for E28s. The other is to fix the compressor and keep using R12. I have a local guy who still does R12 service (he's awesome) and R12 just works better.

Either way, I needed to evacuate the R12 in the system. Kevin from Rick's came by Friday and did it. Almost all R12 that he put in last summer is still in the system proving the seals are good.


Based on consulting with Kevin and the fact that my system is "tight" I decided to keep the R12 system in tact and have the compressor rebuilt. Jay Stratton provides this service and reports are he does great work. So out it came.




Jay also restores the horsehair on parking brake boots. So I'm sending this for Minerva.


Taking the consoles of these cars apart is always a job. You get better at it over time because there's a certain order to things, and many parts are fragile; if you do it wrong you'll eff stuff up. Some parts, like the driver's kick panel, are super annoying to put back on. As a result I find I procrastinate on doing stuff in there longer than other areas.


I've discovered the buzz is coming from the head unit. I can only hear it when the battery is putting out full voltage (+13.7V). If the voltage is low, there's no buzz. I tried two head units (both Klienzle) and they both do it. I've reproduced the buzz by directly connecting the always-on power input to my battery with charger attached. Da Fuq? But if I power the headunit with my bench power supply it won't buzz, even at 14+V.. Anyone else have head units that buzz like this.

I've decided to do something I've never done in earnest, mostly because it seems like a pain in the ass: Use an ammeter to actually track down the battery drain. Wish me luck.

[athayer187]

Ground loop? Can you ground the head unit directly to the chassis?

[tig]

Ground loop? Can you ground the head unit directly to the chassis?

I'm going to try that.

In the meantime I got the multimeter out...



70ma is not horrible, but is still high. I started checking fuses. Fuse 4 was showing 50-60ma...



Fuse 4 is power antenna, power seats, and cig lighter... Unplugging the (inop; POS) remote unlock unit gave me 10ma back. But what could be pulling 50ma?

Turns out power window switches will plug into power seat lumbar plugs. And power window switches are lighted. And they draw 50-60ma each.


The driver's side had a lighted window switch in it. A quick refurbishment of two tired switches into one and ...




Much better. 100ma is still technically too high, but I've never actually measured an E28 before, so what do I know.

Meanwhile, so I can drive & test...


Curious if anyone notices what's odd about this pic?

[Zengineer]

First off, I love your builds cek. Vlad has inspired me for years to get another E28! It took a long time for me, but here I am once again.

Lets see, odd about the last photo...

- Is that your circuit breaker to the left of the radio? That seems like a much better placement than on mine!
- 39.5 L/100km is terrible fuel economy

[tig]

- Is that your circuit breaker to the left of the radio? That seems like a much better placement than on mine!

Glad I helped corrupt you.

No, that turns on/off the power antenna. I got tired of breaking antennas, which I never use.

Keep looking...

[Zengineer]

Is the rubber shift boot installed upside down?

[jayjaya29]

Curious if anyone notices what's odd about this pic?

Your shoelace is untied.