And it starts

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Rob1642

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I picked the car upon Thursday and drove it to the inlaws, where it now awaits the following work to be done:

Front control arm rear bushes converting to Powerflex
Front brake hoses
Rear brake pads and discs
Parking brake shoes and adjustment

Having paid a bargain price for the car I expected that there will be quite a bit of work to do. I'm looking for some recommendations on the following bits:

Doors seals - Are there any other seals that can be used for the door sill seal apart from OEM?

Rust treatment - Recommended substances? There is alot of surface rust under the car, so this will be getting attacked over the next week or two.

Exhaust system - MoT picked up a slight blow. The outer case of the silencer is shot, so looking to at least get a back box sorted

Along with those bits, the sills,wings and quarter panels have to come off as there are bubbles starting to appear.

Looks like this car will keep me busy for a few months getting it ready for winter :)
 
Brian, yes it is. Just querying if E36 seals from other models were similar,as it isn't something that I really looked at before.
 
Rob1642 said:
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Rust treatment - Recommended substances? There is alot of surface rust under the car, so this will be getting attacked over the next week or two
.............

Along with those bits, the sills,wings and quarter panels have to come off as there are bubbles starting to appear.
Click to expand...

:welcome: Rob - which model have you got?

With regard to rust treat @TaffZee came up with this earlier this year http://rustbulletuk.com/home/17-car-rust-paint-rust-treatment-primer-quarter-us-pint.html

I have used it on his recommendation - not cheap but seems to do the job and goes a long way.

With regard to sills etc have a look at this https://zroadster.org/articles/bmw-z3-sill-removal-and-protection.67/ - the main areas are the voids behind the wheel arch liners and sills/front wing panel (front and rear)
 
Lots of work to be done but it will be worth it :p
Take lots of pics so we can see what your doing on your Z :)
 
That's the b*****d locking nuts removed,the retread tyres that were older than the car swapped out for some winter tyres, and new pads and disc on the rear with a fully functioning parking brake.

A bit concerned with the backing plate holes for the drivers side parking brake, will maybe have to strip it down and fit a washer.
Tomorrow's work is a new battery as the current one is goosed, clean the engine mount earth strap,fit new front brake hoses,and the control arm rear bushes.
 
Rob1642 said:
That's the b*****d locking nuts removed,the retread tyres that were older than the car swapped out for some winter tyres, and new pads and disc on the rear with a fully functioning parking brake.

A bit concerned with the backing plate holes for the drivers side parking brake, will maybe have to strip it down and fit a washer.
Tomorrow's work is a new battery as the current one is goosed, clean the engine mount earth strap,fit new front brake hoses,and the control arm rear bushes.
Click to expand...


Beware the holes in the backing plates, on my old E36 (much the same brakes) one of the retaining pins for the handbrake shoes pulled through and locked up the brake for me. Luckily not too far from home, managed to get it back and wound up using a small screw with a decent sized washer and nyloc nut to replace the pin. Did all four just to be on the safe side, looked like too much hassle/expense to replace the backing plates. I guess even BMWs suffer from rust.
 
Back plates can be fitted by using an air cut off tool to make the plate open and be slipped over the drive flange then welded back together when bolted to the hub. This applies to most cars which utilise the same type of parking brake system.

Tony.
 
The backing plates are a bu**er to change, been there bought the tee-shirt! You will get away with a standard washer for a while (see below) but ultimately the back plates will need to be changed.

17H4374.jpg
 
Yup, the backing plates on mine are shot so nothing for the spring retainer to hold to. Luckily it all sits there happily and works without being held in place. Makes a bit of noise, but until I can sort something a bit better...
 
Like I said easy enough to fit even if you don't have access to air tools. You can split the back plate with a hacksaw and it's not necessary the re weld the cut either. I've seen many without. After all it only mounts the parking brake shoes. They're not particularly cheap though!

Tony.
 
t-tony said:
Like I said easy enough to fit even if you don't have access to air tools. You can split the back plate with a hacksaw and it's not necessary the re weld the cut either. I've seen many without. After all it only mounts the parking brake shoes. They're not particularly cheap though!

Tony.
Click to expand...

I thought long and hard about cutting the back plates @t-tony but they are only held on with a couple of small bolts and they get a lot of their strength from being a single piece. You mentioned welding back together, I guess this would work but certainly would not want a split backing plate on my car, the backing plate also holds the rear brake line (not much pressure there though).
 
Absolutely agree Brian but sometimes the price of replacing the back plates puts people off and they'll get bodged with washers and the like, or worse still do nothing and that leads to the shoes running out of line with the drum or perhaps jamming inside the drum and locking the wheel, which is much worse than a split, brand new thick steel back plate.IMHO.:)

Tony.
 
I'll more than likely change it out over the next few months and do the bearings at the same time. Managed to get a new battery in, and do the control arm bushes.

Still got to adjust the drivers headlight aim and then crack on with rust treatment and an MoT.
 
That's the car passed it's MoT. 3 advisories,front brake hoses slightly perished (already in possession of new ones) O/S front shock slight misting and underside corrosion.

Looks like next week I'll be attacking all the rusty bits and pieces with kurust and waxoyl.

Can't believe the difference with the powerflex control arm bushes though.
 
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