Unseen £200 e38

[Slow]

Having problems, my bonnet wouldnt close. Well it would shut but then jump back up to the safety catch, the latches wouldnt catch.

To begin with neither would latch in any way at all. Found the passanger side one with the spring had come out of the little guide for the spring. Fixed that no problem.
Then the drivers side there theres the little arm on a ball where cables join from either end. One of the ends of the cable (side leading to the other catch) had come out, put it back in and closed the bonnet.

It locked! It then opened correctly too on the lever, tried again just to make sure it was fixed.... It wouldnt open.

st!

Ended up prying the drivers side grille out (unbroken remarkabley) and managed to pull the cable to release. This time the little ball has popped out of the arm. Put it back in, tested the locks with just a screwdriver to avoid the bonnet being stuck down again. Yet again the little cable from the passanger side has come out.

Currently I have tiger seal (very sticky black stuff) all over it, a zip tie round it and going to test tomorrow.

Also found the locking wheel nut key down beside the battery which was lucky. Fitted my 17" alpina replicas, including 1 missing center cap

Tiger sealed the front + back number plates on as I didnt have double sided tape to hand and didnt want to screw it on. Also tiger sealed the front fog lights into the bumper as both had broken brackets so wouldnt stay without help.

Pictures tomorrow when all is fixed and shes rolled outside hopefully.

[Slow]

Flickering side light fixed as well as the passanger side one working.

Ran new wiring for the passanger side off the drivers side wiring. Didnt bring it to life, already tried new bulbs. Turns out the holder was slightly corrodded so gave it a good scratch with a screwdriver. Came back to life and now neither of the lights flicker

3 colours in 1 corner



New wheels (need a good clean)





New rear plate



New front bumper, needs taken off to fit a new connecter for the washer nozzles though



Got 6 of these horrible wheels now (1 in boot as spare)



Fairly new looking discs and pads

[Slow]

I disagree about the origional wheels looking better, really cant stand them.

Without caps:



With caps:



fk knows what has happened here except a poor respray maybe?

[Slow]

Some Gump said:

Why are you messing about with an old BM when you have a corvette? Fix the corvette!

Its my mums and is being worked on slowly along as my rusty e30 + e38.

Its a 1981 5.7 manual corvette, currently awaiting a new radiator + belts#


Edit: Would like to point out that my e38 has ice cold aircon which is first for me.

Edited by Slow on Tuesday 15th March 00:36

[Slow]

twoblacklines said:

Does a lot go wrong a lot of the time on these?

I am looking to spend £3k and currently the ideal car is a golf v6 4mo... but I have seen a few 735i/740i's for sale that look pretty decent with low (100k ish) mileages.

Thoughts?

I wouldnt actually know, but from my own personal look around the car it seems almost ready for an MoT which for under £500 all in is pretty good.

Needs a fuel line secured, a brake pipe cleaned up/maybe replaced and sort the reversing light out (is that even on the mot?)

Other than the fact I needed to remove the drivers door, front bumper and bonnet just to remove the wing it has been pretty simple to work on. Thats coming from a 21 year old chimp who hasnt ever been taught mechanics, just ask friends/family and try stuff myself.

[Slow]

C70R said:

Slow said:

sort the reversing light out (is that even on the mot?)

Yes.
It's probably a contact issue at one end of the circuit - check the bulb holder and the switch on the gearbox.

Cracking little project, by the way. Given the amount of rot on the body panels, have you had a good poke around underneath with a screwdriver? My major worry would be that the sills are going to need a decent amount of welding to get it through an MOT. However, if that's not the case, and you can prep/paint the new panels yourself (dubious about the end result quality in a ventilated garage in Scotland), you're onto a bit of a winner.

Sills are solid and undersealed from the factory

I'm not sure about the quality of painting it at home either, but there's laquer peel on 2 doors, a silver door, a silver bumper and a red wing. Not sure it can get worse? Also notice that paint below the fuel cap in previous picture, it's not a pretty car.

[Slow]

Barchettaman said:

Great thread, Slow, cracking work.

I reckon you should leave the multicoloured panels as they are. It's kind of a barge Polo Harlequin.

Is the fuel tank OK?

It's got laquer peel and rust coming through with poor resprays so it really does need something doing.

No idea about the fuel tank, it tells me I have 17 miles of range left since I got it. Think the fuel leak only shows above half a tank, I've never put fuel in yet as its not mot time.

[Slow]

Failed it's mot

He's put down the abs light didn't come on, it did when I left the test centre so dunno if he's blind or what.

Then 2 ball joints dust covers are split, not a big deal as I planned on replacing the arms to sort the 50-60mph shimmy anyway.

[Slow]

ing car tried kill me...



3 wheel nuts are stripped and 2 are bent, time to rob my dead e46 I guess.

Do they weaken with age? I know they were all done up tight so they didn't wiggle loose.

[Slow]

HustleRussell said:

Slow said:

3 wheel nuts are stripped and 2 are bent, time to rob my dead e46 I guess.

Do they weaken with age? I know they were all done up tight so they didn't wiggle loose.

They must've been loose- there's basically no other way this'd happen, especially since two of the bolts came out in one piece.

They are all in 1 piece, all stripped however but 2 are bent also.

Never had this happen before so it's a odd one to me.

[Slow]

Ah right, bks! Thanks for explaining

Gonna rob the e46 and try get it sorted tomorrow and fit the lower arms to pass the Mot retest on Friday.

[Slow]

HustleRussell said:

Be prepared to get medieval on those lower arms, I found myself using ever larger hammers changing the ones on my E34. You're going to have to be even more brutal than you were with those wheel bolts

Half done one side finally, well 99% done. Just cant get the steering rack balljoint to go back in its hole. Do you know if theres a trick to it?

[Slow]

HustleRussell said:

Slow said:

HustleRussell said:

Be prepared to get medieval on those lower arms, I found myself using ever larger hammers changing the ones on my E34. You're going to have to be even more brutal than you were with those wheel bolts

Half done one side finally, well 99% done. Just cant get the steering rack balljoint to go back in its hole. Do you know if theres a trick to it?

The track rod end (which connects the rod to the strut)?

If it isn't sliding straight in, check you're not trying to insert the track rod the wrong way up- they're tapered, so if during the melee you lost track of which way up the track rod fits it could be upside down.

Make sure you don't torque up the lower / upper track control arm to body / subframe bolts (the ones at the bushed end) until the car is resting on it's wheels and settled. This has a big influence on both handling and longevity of the bushes.

Not the track rod end. Hard to describe but theres a ball joint further up. Theres a large multi splined output with a arm attached to it which does the steering, a ball joint goes into the end of this to do the actual steering by moving the rack up and down.

I cant get the ball joint back into this arm now its out.

[Slow]

Car passed the Mot yesterday with no advisorys

Decided to give it a little love so it's having a wheel alignment and wheels balanced today

Next on the list is to change the gearbox oil as its not a fan of changing gear sometimes, not juddering, it's just holding gears quite long. Does anyone know what gearbox oil I need? Assuming it's a different box to the 740/750i so I'm struggling for info.

[Slow]

Had the alignment and balancing done.... Its brought back my 50-60mph shake which my new arms had got rid of. Not happy.

To cheer me up I got home and got the grinder out. This happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDHSP8qsnN0

Cut the right back box off no problem (excluding the fact the exhaust has a inner and outer pipe making cutting it hard work). Came to the left one and I popped the mounts off and the whole thing just fell out the center silencer (part 1 in this picture)



So I have 2 miss matching length pipes now, might just cut the pipes off and go side exits, just because I can really.

[Slow]

Review of day to day life.

Suspension is fked, on hard cornering or mild bumps in the road the mud flaps scratch.
Its wiggles its rear end at all the slight dips between lanes.
The 50mph shimmy came back after an alignment, dunno what to change as its got 4x new arms on the front.
Gearbox is clunky and isnt always keen to change up/down.
Will do 100 miles for £25 which is about the same as my Range Rover.
Rear tyres are st and will spin 1 up on the hairpins (2) on the way to and from work.

[Slow]

bomma220 said:

You really have no idea of what you're doing. You're clearly messing around with cars driving them & leaving them in a dangerous condition & continuing to press on regardless. Your stupid actions have not gone unnoticed & are now 'on record' with your local police authority. FWIW, not through my actions - I live far away enough not to bother - but through someone who lives close enough to you to be concerned

Dangerous? It just passed its Mot - yes it is legit and not a dodgy one. My idea of "fked" may be different to yours as I have seen some horrific condition Land Rovers (and driven off road).

No idea what your on about "on record" as I havent done anything against the law haha.

[Slow]

HustleRussell said:

Slow said:

The 50mph shimmy came back after an alignment, dunno what to change as its got 4x new arms on the front.

Did you torque the arms up with the car sitting on it's wheels?

Dampers and droplinks can also contribute, plus anything which'll introduce play into the steering.

Wandering rear is often dogbones or subframe bushes.

Wasnt torqued up while sitting on its wheels as I couldnt get into the back while it was on them. Not sure if a ramp is needed for this.

Considering a new set of springs + dampers on all 4 corners.

Assumed its something worn in the rear as I had similar with my Range Rover till I changed 2 rear arms.

TooMany2cvs said:

Slow said:

Review of day to day life.

Suspension is fked, on hard cornering or mild bumps in the road the mud flaps scratch.
Its wiggles its rear end at all the slight dips between lanes.
The 50mph shimmy came back after an alignment, dunno what to change as its got 4x new arms on the front.

These are very likely to be closely related.

Slow said:

Rear tyres are st and will spin 1 up on the hairpins (2) on the way to and from work.

Slow said:

Dangerous? It just passed its Mot - yes it is legit and not a dodgy one.

This tells you a lot about the standard of tyre required to pass the MOT.

The tyres are bridgestones on about 3-4mm but its the gearbox and its stupid ability to not change up/down. Its a corner you cant take at more than 10mph, properly tight corner. On the way out you have to boot it to get the car moving as its sat in a high gear and wont change down without alot of throttle.

vincenz said:

How's the m5 purchase coming along?

Just fine thats mate, glad you asked. Always like to be reminded on my project car thread.

[Slow]

TooMany2cvs said:

You do know that you can manually ask an autobox to change down, right?

Please do tell. Its not steptronic or anthing like that. Cant slide it over to the side then go up/down gears like my Range Rover.

[Slow]

vincenz said:

I hadn't seen a reply in the other thread

So why are you wasting your time with this when you can go and get an e60 and actually enjoy it

I had an e38 between moving house when I sold my e92 and they're a pain to work on when they're in the above condition.

Why not cut your loses and get rid of it, you're in real danger of spending the purchase price a good few times over when you shovel of just bought a £2k one to begin with.

So far ive spent less than £500 all in inc purchase. Its just a car to drive while I fix up my e30 really.

Its not a long term car, its just some fun for right now as I havent owned a V8 before.