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

[dadsbmw]

Back when I parted out my PGT I ended up keeping the fire extinguisher. The other day when driving the e30, I got the strong smell of fuel and popped the hood to find an injector not fully seated in the rail and leaking fuel onto the head. Put two and two together and purchased a mount from Garagistic for the following result








Sorry for the dark pictures

[dadsbmw]

Since the pictures are now available in the COTM thread, figured I'd post them up on here as well...












And while I was laying on the ground working on the new exhaust setup for the Z4, I happened to roll over and catch a glimpse of this beauty, and of course had to take a picture

[dadsbmw]

Still got another day !!!

Sent you a PM a bit earlier today

[2mAn]

Funny you should ask...

Still got another day !!!

[dadsbmw]

...for a photo shoot?

Funny you should ask...

[2mAn]

Gettin the lady cleaned up on this fall afternoon

...for a photo shoot?

[dadsbmw]

Gettin the lady cleaned up on this fall afternoon

[dadsbmw]

All things considered I think ScratchWizard is the best solution. Best color/flake match and full coverage.

[Northern]

Did you ever get that third rattlecan of paint to compare? I need to do a sunroof/bumper/fender bottoms soon and I'm in the market but last time I tried this, my colour was off by a lot.

[dadsbmw]

Been a while since the last update due to a lot of focus on the E89, but I did finally get back to work this weekend. Sold the ESM wheels and put the RS style Emortals back on, which is definitely the correct look for the car.

Project for this weekend was getting the Garagistic 2nd diff mount installed. Had purchased it a while ago and installed the mount portion on the diff itself, but due to the Lukebox being in the way, never actually attached it to the car. Spent Saturday getting the garage cleaned out to park the e30 in it, and removed the Lukebox. It's always an annoying process... have to remove the rear seat back, remove the anchor screws, disconnect the wiring to the amps on the box, and then pull the whole damn thing out of the car. The install should be pretty darn simple from there, but the arms that connect the bushing to the floor of the car were just slightly too long. After trying to cut away the undercoating and failing, I eventually just leveraged the bolt through and hammered the arms into the correct place. Got 2 pilot holes drilled from underneath and then used the top mounting plate to line up and drill the rest. Screwed it all together and took the ol girl for a ride.




Now I had been dreading doing this project mainly because the Lukebox would be a pain in the ass, but I was also a bit dubious about the net benefit of the whole thing. It felt more like a preventative maintenance item than an upgrade. Boy was I wrong! The rear end feels SO much more stable. No looseness at all in the drivetrain. I've always felt the diff on this car felt wrong, even back when I was in highschool 20 years ago. There was always an amount of play in it that I just couldnt button down as incorrect lash in the diff, or bad diff mount, or gosh knows what. I figured it would all go away when I rebuilt the rear end got a new diff, but no. BUT THIS DID IT. the stock mount arms on the chassis must just be completely rocked, which kind of isnt surprising at 400k miles. Anyways, super stoked to have done it... but I was really only half way there.

Today I met with my next project, which was to modify the top mounting bracket to fit with the Lukebox installed. Unfortunately I didnt take any before pics of it installled, but 2 of the bolts will fit fine with the box installed, but the other 2 sit directly under the box and I was afrait would prevent it from installing correctly, so modification was necessary. Ended up welding the bolts into place and then cutting the heads off and grinding it all smooth.




Then gave the ol gal a test fit. The line in the below picture is the location of the edge of the Lukebox


Removed the front bolts and reinstalled the box


With all in working order, got everything reinstalled and took her out for a drive. And once again, this thing is a riot! I know its because its on old all-season 205 width tires and it's about 50* out, but this baby loses traction hard rolling into power in 2nd gear and even will get sideways shifting hard into 3rd! Haha!

More updates soon.

[dadsbmw]

Thanks Mazi. Curious what your username stands for?

The new Z4 got lowered and gunmetal grilles (to match the wheels) installed today.. total game changer.

[Mazi!]

Very nice build!!!

[dadsbmw]

Agreed! The black with red interior really sets the car apart. I'd actually been looking for this color combo for so long I had concluded it would never be an option. Then somehow I managed to find 3 within the course of 2 weeks! For context if you look for a sdrive35i with manual trans across the country, there are like 5 for sale at any given time. There are tons of false positives saying they're manual even though they're actually DCT.

Definitely much better looking that the G29, but I think it's pretty neck and neck against the e85 z4m

[mjweimer]

Gorgeous color combo on the Z4 - the E89 has a more timeless design than the E85 and IMHO looks waaay better than the current G29. Well done.



MJ

[dadsbmw]

Car looks great, its come quite far!

Thanks mang!

A few things have happened since I last posted. When I moved several months ago I knew I'd need to move down to 2 cars by October. When putting myself into this situation, I had come to terms with the idea that the car to be disposed of was my 1997 Ford Probe GT. I've been in the PGT game since 2001, and owned that car in particular since 2008. It was tough to come to the decision, but after letting it digest for several months, I finally pulled it into the garage to pull parts of value, and send it off to the JY. The unfortunate fact is that these cars have basically no resale value, and in California, they are completely forgotten about. Time to move on I suppose.






So now I am at two... but... getting rid of a car, just creates another itch. So, as of this weekend, a new car was purchased to replace both the project and the daily. For now her name is Mazikeen, we'll see if it sticks. She's a 2011 z4 sdrive35i in black with red interior and a manual trans. VERY HARD TO FIND. I've been vaguely looking for a few years and finally found one and pulled the trigger as of a little over a week ago. This particular example happens to have 45k miles, Pure stage 2 turbos with all supporting mods, and ~450whp at a conservative 18psi. It is... fun. The 2003 Z4 will be sorely missed, but after driving this thing for the weekend, I'm pretty damn stoked about the decision.