1996 BMW 750iL - ubershed
Discussion
HI Everyone,
I've been browsing the Best Smoker Barges topic for a while, while my Housemate's been looking for a donor for the V12 E36 project he's thinking of. It culminated a week or so ago in me bidding on ebay for a 1996 BMW 750iL, which I won, for not a lot of money...
In fact, so little money it technically falls into the 'Shed' category rather than 'Smoker Barge'...
When I announced this in the Smoker Barges thread, the general responses were mainly along these lines:
I've taken a few photos, but will get a load more up when I've got some better weather (hopefully this week), my poor photo skills, coupled with a Digi Camera so old it's a scheduled historic monument meant that I couldn't get any good shots in the light yesterday evening...
First impressions - it's bloody awesome and I love it - what an amazingly engineered vehicle. Despit the fact it tips the scales at over 2 tons, it's still amusingly quick.
There are a few problems - rusty arches, bonnet release lever has snapped off so you need pliers to pull the release, a wobble at about 70 mph (which I've been advised is probably bushes rather than just wheels needing balanced) and there's a couple of fault codes on the dash:
One related to the lights, which probably isn't helped by the aftermarket le rear lights and clear indicators
Two is more worrying and is a general engine 'Failsafe Mode' code - I need to check this out a bit more, but it only comes on on start up and then vanishes - everything else seems OK...
Oh, and the towbar isn't a great job - wil get some more photos, but looks as if whoever fitted it got bored after bolting it up and couldn't be arsed to pretty the job up - I'll correct that, but not remove it, as it will prove useful I think...
I do like the wheels - the budget tyres, not so much, but they seem OK so far - I'll see what they're like over a few more miles though...
I've been browsing the Best Smoker Barges topic for a while, while my Housemate's been looking for a donor for the V12 E36 project he's thinking of. It culminated a week or so ago in me bidding on ebay for a 1996 BMW 750iL, which I won, for not a lot of money...
In fact, so little money it technically falls into the 'Shed' category rather than 'Smoker Barge'...
When I announced this in the Smoker Barges thread, the general responses were mainly along these lines:
loafer123 said:
You, sir, have balls of steel.
I salute you.
I salute you.
Jobbo said:
How long will the recovery truck take to get you home? 
bmthnick1981 said:
Brave purchase, keep us updated. I miss mine already.....
jonnydm said:
Wow! Straight in at the very deep end. A 750 is quite something although not all the bits on that are quite to my taste - will you be keeping the wheels / re-ambering? Do get a thread up in Readers cars.
So taking on those comments, here's my first thread in Reader's Cars I've taken a few photos, but will get a load more up when I've got some better weather (hopefully this week), my poor photo skills, coupled with a Digi Camera so old it's a scheduled historic monument meant that I couldn't get any good shots in the light yesterday evening...
First impressions - it's bloody awesome and I love it - what an amazingly engineered vehicle. Despit the fact it tips the scales at over 2 tons, it's still amusingly quick.
There are a few problems - rusty arches, bonnet release lever has snapped off so you need pliers to pull the release, a wobble at about 70 mph (which I've been advised is probably bushes rather than just wheels needing balanced) and there's a couple of fault codes on the dash:
One related to the lights, which probably isn't helped by the aftermarket le rear lights and clear indicators
Two is more worrying and is a general engine 'Failsafe Mode' code - I need to check this out a bit more, but it only comes on on start up and then vanishes - everything else seems OK...
Oh, and the towbar isn't a great job - wil get some more photos, but looks as if whoever fitted it got bored after bolting it up and couldn't be arsed to pretty the job up - I'll correct that, but not remove it, as it will prove useful I think...
I do like the wheels - the budget tyres, not so much, but they seem OK so far - I'll see what they're like over a few more miles though...
BorkFactor said:
Looks fantastic! Got any pictures of the interior? 
Hope it works out well for you!
Cheers!Hope it works out well for you!
No good pics of the interior yet - weather's been awful so I've been waiting for sunshine before takig a load more pictures...
The interior is good, but smells of smoke a lot - a previous owner must have smoked like an unfeasibly smoky thing!
I'm ging to hit it with a serious dose of Autoglym leather cleaner and leather care/feed when I get back home later in the week, hopefully that will take it out - along with Autoglym carpet shampoo on all the carpets etc...
BorkFactor said:
The AutoGlym stuff is brilliant, I use it on my E46. They also do an odour eliminator which I have found to work very well in the past. I haven't tried their carpet shampoo yet, is it any good?
Good luck, there is always the option of a Magic Tree if all else fails
Hi Everyone,
As promised, finally got a good day for photos, so I've given the interior a really good clean out with Autoglym Leather Cleaner and Interior Shampoo. I've also given all the leather surfaces a thorough dose of Autoglym leather feed.
The interior had been valeted before the guy put it up for sale, but I reckoned a full deep clean would be worthwhile anyway. Given the colour of the water the amount of dirt I've taken out suggests that it was a good choice The smoke smell seems to have gone, but I'll see when the autoglym smell wears off
Some pictures of the interior - I'll give it a wash and get some exterior pics ASAP...
As promised, finally got a good day for photos, so I've given the interior a really good clean out with Autoglym Leather Cleaner and Interior Shampoo. I've also given all the leather surfaces a thorough dose of Autoglym leather feed.
The interior had been valeted before the guy put it up for sale, but I reckoned a full deep clean would be worthwhile anyway. Given the colour of the water the amount of dirt I've taken out suggests that it was a good choice
The smoke smell seems to have gone, but I'll see when the autoglym smell wears off Some pictures of the interior - I'll give it a wash and get some exterior pics ASAP...
I also had a bash at getting the carphone to work - got a SIM card from Vodafone (PAYG) and popped it in - it should work, manual says it uses the 900MHz band and can use Vodafone. But I'm not having any luck...
The handset doesn't light up at all, but when I press the power button the stereo system does make a 'beep' noise, as if something's coming on, but no more than that. If I use the MFD and scroll over to 'Telephone' I get the same 'beep', and no more.
I tried ringing the phone, but get 'number not in use' - could be vodafone haven't set it up right, a bit more experimentation is in order I think...
The handset doesn't light up at all, but when I press the power button the stereo system does make a 'beep' noise, as if something's coming on, but no more than that. If I use the MFD and scroll over to 'Telephone' I get the same 'beep', and no more.
I tried ringing the phone, but get 'number not in use' - could be vodafone haven't set it up right, a bit more experimentation is in order I think...
Still not sorted the phone, but I've had it out for a couple of runs, still an amazing machine!
Today I decided that it was time to sort out the towbar (when I say sort out, I mean remove). Not only did it look bloody hideous, it wasn't very well installed at all:
Somebody had basically drilled 2 16mm holes right through the bumper, inner bumper and spare tyre well then stuck two bits of threaded rod through (with some spacers between the bumper and the tyre well on the inside, and two crudely welded bits of angle bar on the outside)
At least they'd put a spreader plate on the iside of the tyre well (the cble on the right is the trailer light cable, nicely scotch-locked from the rear light clusters:
Note that instead of using loctite or nylock nuts, whoever installed it had just put a load of silicone sealant round the threads by the bolts - which were only just over hand tight
With the towbar off (took a while, bloody awkward to get the nuts on the section between the car and the bumper undone), it had left a bit of a mess, but some patience with a nylon scraper, some silicone sealant remover and a quick wash and it's better, but still not totally cleaned up (looks a s
tload better than it was):
Inside Doesn't look too bad, but the holes are a bit of a mess - I've plugged them with gromets now, but will be welding patches in when I get round to sorting out the dodgy drain holes in the bottom...
Today I decided that it was time to sort out the towbar (when I say sort out, I mean remove). Not only did it look bloody hideous, it wasn't very well installed at all:
Somebody had basically drilled 2 16mm holes right through the bumper, inner bumper and spare tyre well then stuck two bits of threaded rod through (with some spacers between the bumper and the tyre well on the inside, and two crudely welded bits of angle bar on the outside)
At least they'd put a spreader plate on the iside of the tyre well (the cble on the right is the trailer light cable, nicely scotch-locked from the rear light clusters:
Note that instead of using loctite or nylock nuts, whoever installed it had just put a load of silicone sealant round the threads by the bolts - which were only just over hand tight
With the towbar off (took a while, bloody awkward to get the nuts on the section between the car and the bumper undone), it had left a bit of a mess, but some patience with a nylon scraper, some silicone sealant remover and a quick wash and it's better, but still not totally cleaned up (looks a s
tload better than it was):Inside Doesn't look too bad, but the holes are a bit of a mess - I've plugged them with gromets now, but will be welding patches in when I get round to sorting out the dodgy drain holes in the bottom...
Just thought I'd Share the exercise in talented bodgery tht was the tow bar assembly - note the uninted spacers just next to the angle bar - these were inside the bumper, and are made from 3mm wall 25mm box section, with a profile on the end to match the slope of the bumper.
The angle bar sections were painted at some point, just not very well - I'd love to know when this was done, as the person who had it before the guy I bought it off wasn't shy on spending money on it (I've got a load of reciepts for it), so would be surprised if he'd had this sort of work doing (and there's no reciept for it...
The angle bar sections were painted at some point, just not very well - I'd love to know when this was done, as the person who had it before the guy I bought it off wasn't shy on spending money on it (I've got a load of reciepts for it
), so would be surprised if he'd had this sort of work doing (and there's no reciept for it...Max M4X WW said:
That really is quite shocking, I presume/hope they only used it to tow a small trailer otherwise that could have been quite an incident waiting to happen.
My thinking exactly - I'm guessing it can't have done much of the spare wheel well would be badly distorted, although the bumper would have taken some of the load...If I decide to put a towbar back on her, I'll buy a proper kit!!!!
Hi Everyone,
Updates have been a bit sparse recently, not done much work on it, although she's taken me to the South Coast and back a couple of times since, the only issue has been the passenger door actuator failing - I've disconnected it temporarily, and was waiting for the MoT before I committed to spending much more money on her...
MoT Was yesterday, which she passed!!!!
After a new pair of rear tyres - one was badly scrubbed on the inside at some point in the past, due to a dodgy upper bush which was replaced (thought I might get away with it, as it was much less than 25% of the width affected, but it was too scrubbed apparently), still not bad for an MoT and it means that I've replaced the dodgy Fullrun tyres on the rear with some nice Dunlop SP2000s...
Quite the shopping list now building up to tidy up a few small issues here and there - will start properly costing it out over the weekend I think
Updates have been a bit sparse recently, not done much work on it, although she's taken me to the South Coast and back a couple of times since, the only issue has been the passenger door actuator failing - I've disconnected it temporarily, and was waiting for the MoT before I committed to spending much more money on her...
MoT Was yesterday, which she passed!!!!
After a new pair of rear tyres - one was badly scrubbed on the inside at some point in the past, due to a dodgy upper bush which was replaced (thought I might get away with it, as it was much less than 25% of the width affected, but it was too scrubbed apparently), still not bad for an MoT and it means that I've replaced the dodgy Fullrun tyres on the rear with some nice Dunlop SP2000s...
Quite the shopping list now building up to tidy up a few small issues here and there - will start properly costing it out over the weekend I think
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