Resurrecting a full M-Tech vert

[bradnic]

Yes he is

[robrez]

Just saw the car again this past weekend. The new owner's fixed the heating system and almost complete with an A/C install. He also has a hardtop on it.

He is also taking it back to SoCal where it is originally from and plans a full resto project with all the E30 studs out there.
Car's in great hands, and I'm fortunate to be able to look into it once in a while.

Great news. Is the new owner on the forum?

[bradnic]

Just saw the car again this past weekend. The new owner's fixed the heating system and almost complete with an A/C install. He also has a hardtop on it.

He is also taking it back to SoCal where it is originally from and plans a full resto project with all the E30 studs out there.
Car's in great hands, and I'm fortunate to be able to look into it once in a while.

[bradnic]

blue top?

even though the car originally came with a black top, seriously thinking of switching to blue when the time comes.

[bradnic]

After running the numbers, the 16k Macau Blue isn't a bad deal at all.

TOTALLY true. and the car's still available! can't believe it hasn't been snagged yet. I will have that much into this car by the time I'm done. orb0554's car has 52k miles on it and hasn't been messed with!

[bradnic]

started tearing the interior down to see where things stood. some very nice surprises and a few disappointments. as mentioned earlier in the thread the PO-C had parts of the interior redone in vinyl.

a full mtech with the 0318 upholstery has leather covered door cards, console, shift boot and ebrake handle. the vert rear seat panels are leather covered too. on my car each of the panels included a common handwritten code on them (the "ordernumber" that appears on the build sheet). one of the parts is actually signed too. was pretty cool to see that

here's the front console, which is in excellent shape


rear console leather's toast though, as is the ebrake and shift boot. will need some kevin chinn magic


detail on the map pockets - really nice stitching


the door pulls are just about perfect


front ash tray's leather covered too


this section of one of the rear door panels is in the worst shape


some of the good news - the original mtech2 fabric is still sitting behind the crappy vinyl the PO-C covered the door inserts with


what I found after pulling the door card. note the 2 piece door card.


and the panel after removing the vinyl.


fortunately when the rear seat was recovered they kept the build sheet which matches the car

[catuned]

Still working on it. Upgrading and making it better. It's a joy to drive. Always do what makes you happy.

[bradnic]

Thanks for the kind words!!! *LOVE* your Henna coupe

[catuned]

I think your doing it right. Just take it one step at a time. Get it road reliable then work on the looking good part. It isnt cheap. You got it tho! Good work!

[bradnic]

try ddmtuning

[Dirtsquirt]

- new front spoiler ordered from bmw

The front spoilers are back in stock again? When I tried to order a few months ago stock was "0" with no thoughts on ordering more up.

[cactusjacks1]

Yum Yum - makes my mouth water !!!!

[bradnic]

new arrival

one step at a time. from Germany. shipping was a bitch.

[bradnic]

Brief update - lots of work planned this winter

- sourced top motors and hardware, replacement crack free dash, factory front exhaust including cats, 3.73 LSD, euro grilles and smileys, headlamp washer system. Will add a Stromung or Eberspacher cat back at some point, not a priority now (5 speed swap will probably happen before that).

- basic engine maintenance planned for this month (car's parked for the winter, so no real rush). timing belt, water pump, valve adjust.

- installing thermostat and reconnecting heater core (hopefully no issues there, but carpet is in fantastic shape which has me worried - maybe it was replaced)

- stripping exterior and interior this week. leather console and rear quarter panel trim pieces will be recovered over the winter.

- new front spoiler ordered from bmw

EDIT - forgot to mention dash replacement. while I'm at it I'll recondition the @#$#! butchered radio wiring harness. will also replace the heater and evaporator cores if necessary and install an r134 expansion valve.

I'll go over the bodywork this winter and try to avoid part replacement. may not be possible with the fenders though. rear tail panel is also low along the trunk lid. not sure what caused that but will need to be straightened.

[bradnic]

My car came with the full-leather upholstery [SCHWARZ VOLLEDER 0318] option, so I'm going to get some new leather seat covers, hopefully nappa.

BTW, I found this translation for the interior options lingo on an M5 board. Full leather was an option that could be ordered with the M-technic cars, though most of the cars were sold with evo cloth.

Sitzleder = seat-leather (and centre door trim)
Teilleder = half-leather
Volleder = full-leather (including door cards, centre console etc.)
Komplettleder = complete-leather (additional leather on dashboard etc.)
Stoff = cloth
Sonderpolsterung = special upholstery

Hi Robrez

sorry for resurrecting an old post of yours from your build thread, but I see you mention the 0318 upholstery code as full leather. I have a 0318 upholstery code too, and the vin lookup one of the bimmerforums guys did for me does show the same SCHWARZ VOLLEDER description. The strange thing is some old pics of the car show it had mtech cloth at one point. Just wondering if anyone else with 0318 has seen this. Come to think of it PKelly may have mentioned something recently.

UPDATE: traded some PMs with robrez on this. Quoting for the community

Regarding the full leather m-tech option code, I believe it was CactusJacks1 who told me that full leather was the basic option, hence the option code. But either the dealers 'upgraded' to the m-tech cloth option, or the customers opted for m-tech cloth when order. No doubt, to many people, the m-tech cloth'd cars were more profitable to dealers and desirable to customers, so most of the m-tech ended up with it.

He goes on to say he ordered some of ErikJ's cloth as a future owner may want to have it. right on bro. Based on his note I'm gonna go the reverse route and do an extra set of leather door inserts. Still sticking with the MT2/evo cloth though since it was definitely on the car at one point.

btw I go to cali quite a bit (used to live in Belmont). will definitely be looking robrez, barry and cactusjack up when the time comes. PKelly too