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Life with the M Coupe

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  • Life with the M Coupe

    Hi all,

    I thought it about time that I started putting a journal together about my newly acquired M Coupe, I will try to update with all the tidy up pieces I do if I remember to take pictures.

    It’s a 1998 Arctic Silver S50 with all black leather which I bought from this forum and was previously owned by Martin aka Wefail.
    First task was a good clean and polish both inside and out, resulting in this:-





    Reading through threads etc I kind of got the sense that the two issues to worry about are the Vanos and the boot floor, well the Vanos was replaced by Martin , so that just left the boot floor, when i bought the car the boot floor looked ok, not being easily satisfied i stripped all the sound deadening off and the seam sealer, i think my car was at the last of the run when the seam sealer was doing its best as it was a good centimeter think in places and a pain to get off, I was working on the basis of prevntion is better than cure anyway,
    This is what greeted me:-





    so at least 1 spot weld had pulled,

    I then got the car on some ramps and had a look underneath, I didn’t remove the exhaust etc as i didn’t have time but the boot floor had extra welds approx 1" every 2" I would guess these were done at the factory looking at the condition etc.



    I took the car down to a local car garage who specialize in fabrication (Daytona Auto's in Congleton) and asked them to have a look, Ray the owner has repaired the floors in M3's in the past so knew about the issues, however this would be his first Z3M. Any way he said no problem to strengthening the floor and he would remove the exhaust etc to gain access and underneath to check for damage, so I booked it in for the next available slot two weeks later, I left a camera with Ray so he could take some pictures for me .
    Starting with inside the boot you can see that circa 7 spot welds were actually starting to show signs of failure so these were opened and then welded up with a Mig.



    Next you can see where the seams have been seam welded 2:1





    From underneath when cleaned up slight metal fatigue was visible so strengthening and seam welding was carried out here as well




    Once welded up underneath red lead and then a coat of stone chip undercoat was applied.




    And a coat of red lead in the boot, and this is how I picked the car up.



    Well you wouldn’t want to remove all of the trim ( as I think has become the norm for all Z3M owners every week) and see red lead so I started this afternoon to prep for taking the boot floor back to something like standard.

    First job, there had been a little surface corrosion around the cable grommet, so this was cleaned up to clean metal and Krust added to kill off any remaining, the black is the kruse when dry.



    Then the whole floor area had a going over of scotchbrite for a paint key and then degreased using white spirit and clean cloths, then on with the first coat of grey primer:-



    Three further coats and I am left with this:-


    And this is how the car looks whilst I await delivery of some new bitumen mat as per original and a can of Arctic silver paint which should finish it off, I can then have the joyful task of rebuilding the zillion pieces of boot trim.

    I took the car for a trip to Hamble on the south coast and it ran brilliant, smooth and quick and was pleasantly surprised by the fuel economy, on the way back mind the wiper which Martin had told me was intermittent as to whether it would work decided it wouldn’t, so I decided to take a look at it. Well it turned out to be an easy repair as all that was wrong was a loose connector which was not clipped in correctly, it was the twin connector which at a guess is the signal cable.


    Second job was to sort out the rear wash as this didn’t work either, so starting at source I disconnected the pipe at the first of many elbows near to the tank and water was getting to here, so I then disconnected the water pipe from the rear jet and surprise surprise the water got here meaning only one issue a blocked washer jet, a quick strip down and removal of the jet balls from the holder revealed it was clogged solid with 14 years of c**p, a quick clean up and the jet now works

    Cheers
    Ian
    Last edited by Madlotus; 12-08-2012, 08:57 PM.

  • #2
    That's a very detailed and useful bit of info, good pic's too, Gaz

    Comment


    • #3
      good work so far Whereabouts are you in the Country?

      Comment


      • #4
        good wright up..
        S50 Roadster....

        Comment


        • #5
          Thanks Gaz, I have more pics but hit the limit and was in a rush to catch the closing ceremony for the Olympics

          Dave I'm in Cheshire

          Cheers
          Ian

          Comment


          • #6
            My baby!

            Great to see her getting some TLC, Ian. You've done a fantastic job of that boot floor, and all the extra amp wiring has finally gone!

            That rear wiper drove me bloody mad. Damn loose connection.

            Great work mate, really chuffed she went to an enthusiast.

            Comment


            • #7
              Hi Martin,

              Thanks, a few battle scars if you like!!!

              I decided it was worth getting the floor strengthend and sorted from the off, the amp 'phono' leads have gone now so she is back to standrard apart from the extra kilo of weld

              As for the wiper I didnt think it would bother me to much as doubted I would be driving it that often in the rain but driving up the M6 in a downpoor at night highlighted i needed to sort it.

              Next task is to fit the new bushes I have for the drivers seat runner.

              Cheers
              Ian

              Comment


              • #8
                Awesome work and a great start to ownership - at least you know the two most talked about issues are dealt with and the car should be rock solid now.

                Look forward to more

                Ex-Dakar MC Owner - Gone But Not Forgotten

                Comment


                • #9
                  Thanks Keith,

                  Boot now back together after a coat of artic silver, not a bad match to the original paint,



                  Boot nearly there,




                  Whilst I was putting it all back I checked the expiry date o the mobility pack, check it out expired 31-08-2001






                  I think a new one is on the cards,

                  Hopefully get the seat bushes done this week,

                  Cheers Ian

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I had the same type of mobility kit and it too had expired the can of foam is very hard to source if at all..so i replaced the whole lot from a newer car,a much neater bit of kit too!! and the foam is available!

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I bought one of these from dealers (like a lot of stuff the prices have increased from BMW)

                      http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-Genuin...item1c28d26e03



                      Smaller than the original Mobility kit so fits easily into opening.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        very good thread! i enjoy the boot floor bit thanks!!!

                        Click here to email me

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                        • #13
                          Cheers Dave, I’ll keep my eye out for one,

                          Cheers Indy,

                          Been a while and not much to update on other than a few little things and a trip to SPA for the F1.

                          So i noticed a little blister showing above the sill cover and dreading the worst took the cover off to find the blister was only small so a little clean up and touch in sorted that.



                          a little dirt, here you can see the offending area



                          a quick clean



                          and paint and back together,



                          I headed over to Spa in Belgium for the grand Prix and after a small amount of indecisiveness I decided to take the Coupe; I was camping with a few mates so space was the deciding factor,

                          Indy, just for you I hope the badges are spaced correctly



                          I wasn’t joking about space



                          I didn’t see another M coupe for the whole weekend nor the 977.4 miles it took to get to spa, however I did receive loads of comments about the car which was good including the French immigrations guy commenting on a rare car 'yes'.

                          A cheeky one Stavelot, Belgium



                          Then back home and a good wash



                          The car ran a dream and managed just over 30 MPG, which i didnt think was to bad, and we managed to get to Spa a little faster than anticipated

                          cheers
                          Ian

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            I had some spare time yesterday afternoon so i decided to tackle a couple of jobs on the list,

                            First the diff oil, dead easy job but the oil really does have a strong amonia smell to it!! anyway I got around 1.4 litres of Castrol Syntrax 75/140 in and the job was done.

                            I then tackled the seat bushes, again quite an easy task. The hardest part is getting the bmw rail grease off your hands its like s**t to a b**cket. anyway you can see the offending article here.



                            And here is the seat thread block which you need to fit the new white seat bushes to after sanding to size.




                            Luckily only my drivers seat rocked a little on acceleration / braking


                            I also changed the air filter, stock for stock, not sure why but i thought it a good idea to buy a new one last time I was in the local motor factors. The old filter wasnt to bad as i assume it was repolaced at the last service however, you can see the difference here.




                            cheers
                            Ian

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Mate,that old filter is bogging!!!

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