Bringing my dad's car back to its former glory and beyond

[AusScare]

Good progress so far. You should definitely paint the rear parcel shelf. I did on my 318is:

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showpost.php?p=4347055&postcount=49

[lambo]

This is so cool!!

[2mAn]

just be patient, and then bitch when his car doesnt get picked.... followed later by applause when it IS selected ;)

OP keep it up, I love the subtle improvements

[CENTURION]

if we HAD a car of the month! haha... Im working on bringing it back

That would be nice. anything I can do or any other members to get it started?
I nominate Dadsbmw

[Midweste30]

Awesome story and awesome car! 370k nice!!!!!! How do you like the wheels? Looking for something similar wondering how these are. If you could shoot me a PM that would be great! But really sweet car man!!

[2mAn]

Id vote for car of the month. cant keep my eyes off it.

if we HAD a car of the month! haha... Im working on bringing it back

[dadsbmw]

Ha thanks man! Neither can I!

[CENTURION]

Id vote for car of the month. cant keep my eyes off it.

[CRBR30]

Great job so far man and love the story. Keep it up!

[dadsbmw]

Been a while since I've posted so I figured I'd throw in some pictures I've taken since the wheels were installed and a couple projects I've been working on.

Shortly after installing the wheels I threw an 8mm spacer on the rears to get them sitting a bit more flush with the front. So now Im at et25 in front and et17 in the rear



With these new silver faced wheels with polished lips, I'm trying to move more towards that color scheme with the car overall. So I purhcased some 87 pop-outs from a local member and pulled upper door trim from an 87 at pick-n-pull. The pop-outs need a little paint stripper applied, but will soon do the trick!



And some pictures I couldnt resist taking while walking away after parking... I know you all know the urge!






















Sorry the pictures are low quality and always bad lighting, but its just the nature of the beast.

[plmichal]

Hey, very cool story and I'm glad you're maintaining the car. Keep it up!

[dadsbmw]

Couple small updates:

Got the required hardware to install the lower valence grille insert (for all of like 50 cents) and installed it...
Before:



After:



Although for the most part the interior is in good shape, the tops of the rear seat backs have seen better days and had several rips in them that were painfully obvious when looking through the rear window.



I found someone on craigslist selling grey "leather" rear seats so I picked them up. The car has grey cloth interior, but my dad has consistently had sheep skin seat covers on the front seats since the day he purchased it. Although theyre not my style, I plan on keeping them on for at least the forseeable future. So the fringe benefit of this is that although the rear seats technically don't match, you'd never know.

New "leather"


They actually look really good installed and match the rest of the interior really well, but they do also point out how sun bleached my rear parcel shelf is.

And yeah, that is a brown shift knob in a grey and black interior... it shall be replaced at some point in the future. Not a huge priority.

[jhaurimn]

Glad to see you are cleaning her up. I think the bmw logo would look weird on those center caps, personally.

As far as the grommets to hold on that front air grille thing, you want this part #- 51711927439
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=51_0721

I cant remember how many you need, I think you might need 3. Realoem doesnt list the number needed.

Good luck :)

[AllydNYC]

Great story and nice car!

[animal]

cool story - nice car.

Def BMW caps.