My Inherited 88

[tonyloban]

So my brother bought this car. She's auto and has 160,xxx miles on it.

I don't know anything about cars but I have been on this forum for a year checking in once in a while and been reading non stop for past month.

It stood in the driveway for 2.5 years and so I decided to take care of it. So far, I've cleaned out the nasty mold it had on the carpet inside. The seats are gone (he disassembled them to get them re-upholstered but never got it done). I will have that done in next couple months probably because the guy will do it for really cheap to free (he is experienced, no worries). We already have the leather and padding bought.

I recently bought the front seats and have the driver side in, but don't currently have the bolts for the passengers (yeah, I fail. Forgot to get them from the guy).

I just took off the panels inside the car because I want to paint them, and so I am here now, asking for your help.

I know little to nothing about cars and need your guidance. Lead me!

I know I need to change the oil, oil filter, gas (yes, no?) What other maintenance should I do before I begin driving it? I let it idle the other day for about 45 minutes and drove it around the block once... bad idea, I know, but nothing went wrong so it's all good.

I also need to put air in the tires.

This is my accountability thread, because if I don't do this, I'll never work on it. Here are the pics of outside from like 2 months ago. I will post pics of interior and engine in a bit if anyone actually wants to help. Thanks in advance!

BTW, I have the BMW basket weaves, if that's what they're called. Will post pics soon.









I'll start posting pictures of progress or if I have questions about stuff that I can't figure out. Thanks for any help again. It is GREATLY appreciated.

SHE WILL NOT BE AUTO FOREVER. No hway. I'm sticking through to the end.

[tonyloban]

So I found this link and will try my best to go through and do all those checks... I'll probably learn a lot in the process as I will have to research like half of it. Especially the clean your glass part. I have no idea how to do that.

http://www.procarcare.com/icarumba/resourcecenter/encyclopedia/icar_resourcecenter_encyclopedia_vehmaintenance.asp

[mtechnik]

Lovely vert you have there. Give it some detailing love and watch it come alive. Congrats.

[kalib0y]

looking forward to seeing what you do to it!

[tonyloban]

So today I had to go to school to turn in an essay. Sat in class for an hour and left early because I was pumped to start doing something to the car.

I took pictures along the way. I took off the panels in the car and I'm planning on painting them black with white... I'll photoshop a picture of the ideas I have in a second and I wanna know what you guys think. I want the interior to be black and white as the leather I'm getting will be black. So a little bit of of white inside I think would look cool.

So I got home and cleaned the panels. I used water and dish soap to scrub em down, and then I used dupli-color grease and wax remover on them. Didn't get to paint them because I won't have enough time today, nor the materials to do what I want to do (like painters tape).

Also, here are the pictures I promised of the car engine and interior and stuff.























I know this is a crap update and nothing to special done, but you gotta start somewhere. I'm going to try and get the supplies and paint in by the end of this weekend.

[tonyloban]

so here's some ideas I have. I have everything set up in photoshop so if you have ideas of colors, throw them out please! Thanks

[kingston]

I think the last one looks...OK. I think accents tend to work better on small parts. If you have a guy who can do apholstery, I'd talk to him about redoing the cards in microsuede, and do the stitching in one of the colors you have above. Subtle

And if you haven't done the timing belt & tensioner yet, don't start the car again until you have!

Keep up the good work

[tonyloban]

I'm going to have to agree with you on that. I think the red is too much. I originally said I want black and white. In the future, I want the car to be alpine white, so it will match real nice.

What do you think if I paint it myself with duplicolor? I have the flat black and all the materials I need for it. Just need white paint.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

[kingston]

I think if you don't like it, you can always redo it...

[tonyloban]

I finally got around to painting the door panels. I used dupli-color wax and grease remover, fabric and vinyl flat black and gloss white, and adhesive promoter. and Rustoleum painters tape.

I didn't finish yet. I still need to paint that white strip white, which i'll do after I attach the pieces to the panels because I don't want to paint the parts that I won't see anyways.

I think it turned out pretty nice actually. The passenger door looks a bit nicer though because when I painted the drivers side... I forgot to add the adhesive promoter before the first coat. Ridiculous fail, i know. I got too excited to start. So I let it dry, and then sprayed the promoter and then another coat.

Over-all, 2 coats per door, and 3 per door pieces. Took about 4+ hours because of the tape (I did that because painting white over black is a bad idea I think).

I still have to do the back pieces but those will be all black so that will be MUCH easier and faster. Probably finish everything in the next week. If you got any questions, shoot!






















Sorry for the crappy quality pics. I let my friend borrow my camera so I'm using my crappy phone. But as you can see, it looks pretty clean for spray paint.

[tonyloban]

- THINGS I DID WRONG WITH THE DOOR PANELS -

1. I didn't spray the adhesion promoter for the first panel before the I painted with the black.

2. I should have just painted the whole door black, and then the stripe white instead of taping it off (to make the white painting easier).

--------Why you ask?

- 2+ coats will cover anything
- I wasted tape
- I wasted paint because I had to paint everything black anyway
- The reason for painting again was because of the little cracks between the plastic parts and the actual panel. White wouldn't look good there.
- I wasted around 2 hours by doing that probably.


So now I have to put another coat of adhesion promoter and black paint on each door to fix the blotchyness of the drivers door (the failed one), covering the strip too.

Not done yet, but I have DEFINITELY learned a lot so far. Hope I help somebody out so they don't make the same mistakes! It does good though. I can point out my mistakes and admit them, but even then, it looks pretty sweet and I'm happy with it so far.

[tonyloban]

So I finally wrapped up most of the painting today. Boy did I learn a lot. And we learn from our mistakes which really sucks. lawlz.

Anyway, after painting the whole door black to get those little cracks colored, I did the white stripes. Everything went wrong. haha. There were little cracks between the paper in some places where the white paint got though onto the black. No idea how, but it happened. The tape I used was "cheap"? No idea why, but the goo came off (I think from the green tape), and ruined the paint in some places. The white ran up the textures under the tape and made the line not stright (although in one of the pictures you can see it came out pretty clean).

After much failure and cleaning and paint, I painted them panels completely black and will only have the big pieces white. Still looks nice and will have to do for now. Not like I don't like it or something. I went ahead and painted the rear panels black and the speaker covers white. Looks nice I think and will match the front panels.

I think the front door panels have like 9-10 coats of black + white on the stripes.

I DO NOT ADVISE THAT. haha. Just something that happened to go down like that. I am not proud of what I have done, but in the end, I managed to clean it up and it looks pretty okay. I still have the dash and the center tray to do and things like that, but I can do those while their connected or later.

I got the tires up to pressure. I need to renew the tabs and register the car under my name and get an oil change and all those goodies and she will be road ready I guess.

Before I put all the panels back on though, I'm still planning on putting that security system in, and I want to change the speakers (as my brother already started that and I think broke one of them?) but I'm really into music (I play in a band) and it's important to me to have clean audio.



















So next is to research into audio systems for cars and all the good stuff. I already have 3+ years of audio engineering experience with sound panels and stages so I think that should help me out and I worked electrical (residential) over the summer. Clearly I didn't do upholstery or painting of any kind before.


OVERALL - I don't necessarily recommend this path, but it's not bad. Pretty easy to do. Will see how it holds up against time and use. Not really sure how much it cost to just reupholster panels, but this (IF DONE WITHOUT FAILURES LIKE I DID) should cost around $100 + or - a few.

[tonyloban]

I'm finally back with an update of sorts.

I installed the door panels, which is either you like it or you don't. I like them.. obviously. Some people don't. I just have the picture in my head of when the car will be white and it will look sick. Can't do it all at once





Anyway. I have the dreaded leak in the corners (which is usually in the top left corner) but if rainstorm provided, it will leak on the right corner and even in the middle where the top meets the frame. I couldn't really find a fix online anywhere for this other than replacing the rubber piece. So I made my own fix, which is ugly as ugly can get... lol. I haven't tested it yet, it's drying currently, but I will update in next day or so. I pretty much made a little wall with the silicone so that if rain gets into the gap between the frame and the rubber piece, it won't go past into the car and just slide the sides or up and over... my theory of course. If it doesn't work, then I'll just cut it out with a blade. Shouldn't be too hard to get rid of.




Awful focus... I know. It's my crappy phone.


From what I understand, I'll be the first person to actually fix that stupid leak without replacing the whole rubber strip. I am ready to fail and be laughed upon though. ha. If someone has a link to a fix, that would be cool too... and I'd feel stupid. Still though, I want that link if it exists..

I also got those two front seats for $100. They barely bend down enough for someone to get into the back, but I got no seats back there, so it's not a problem.

The next thing on my list to get fixed is my electronic garbage. The whole cluster and gauge is working and not working. Checked the differential sensor and the wires and connections are all fine. So I'll probably be replacing the DME for that or I'll be digging into the wires and connections for the whole thing.

I also have a weird shifting problem when I floor it, where the car won't go into 4th gear or it does maybe if I don't floor it. Haven't checked out too much, but supposedly could be my "Crank/Cam shaft sensor?" or the DME.

Also, the car makes a screeching sound on cold starts and when turning the wheel all the way, so I will be looking at the timing belt and other stuff for the turning sound. Forgot the reason for that, but have a thread for that.

And I changed all the fuses with brand new ones and put in the missing fuses from the box... Nothing was fixed. ha. But they box of 120 fuses was $7. Worth it. Have a bunch of extras in the trunk now just in case.

Well thanks for wasting your time on me, and if you have any advice or judgement or constructive criticism for me... I'm all ears. So far though, I've learned a lot and am loving working on this car, even if it's miniature stuff for now.

[Eddie Lives On]

If the front seats don't fold too well, rear passengers can simply jump in. Wish I had a vert so I never have to open the door. Looks like you're having a good time putting some love into that little car. Get yourself a Bentley manual and get at it. The more you do, the more fun it will become. Good luck, you're on the right path. ;)

[tonyloban]

Thanks! Yeah, if you wanna ride, you gotta be able to jump. No fat kids allowed.

Already got my hands on a PDF Bentley and someone also found me a PDF of all the wiring for my model which is a God send. Definitely need to buy a hard copy of the Bentley though. Would be nice to have in the car. Just need some moneys.