97 2.8 Manual, My Forever Car (Unless I buy an M coupe)

[jdfixter]

Hi ladies and gents! Im James, and this is the love of my life, my 1997 2.8 widebody manual Z3! Bought around 2.5 years ago now for 3000quid and lots has been done and changed since then! I wish I had started this thread sooner but ill do my best to try and recap and keep it updated going forwards! Ive lost a lot of the early photos of the car on an old phone that died and hadn't been backed up so this first post will be fairly text heavy but I did manage to find one photo from the Facebook market place advert that doesn't really show much!

 

[t-tony]

Hi James, welcome from me near Lincoln. I look forward to your project thread or build thread whichever you call it.

Tony.

 

[jdfixter]

My second Z3 and it was bought completely original for 3000quid pretty much the cheapest running example for sale in the UK at the time in a half decent colour, good service history but the car was far from perfect! ill try and list the specs and the issues below;
2.8 manual in black, with black and red interior, pretty basic spec (no heated seats, no aircon, manual roof) 160k roughly on the clock but good service history, plenty of MOT, plenty of receipts and only a couple of previous owners.
Issues when purchased included;
Rotten sills, torn rear window, dash lights not working, gearbox detents worn, front shock blown, seat bushes gone, cracked front bumper and I'm sure there were a few other things but off the top of my head they were the main ones, however it was love at first sight and I drove it back home from Cheshire the same day!

I previously owned another 2.8 manual z3, this was broken for spares years ago but some bits I held onto, knowing I would have another at some point! so I got the car home on a Saturday morning and by Sunday afternoon I had replaced the suspension with a set of adjustable coilovers lying around from an old E36 3 series, a new rear window delivered by amazon prime, new seat bushings, I replaced the headlight switch with one from my old Z to fix the interior lights, gave it a very deep clean, fitted some orange 'us spec' led bulbs to my bumper markers and it looked a little bit like this...

Just in general a lot tidier and importantly watertight!

 

[jdfixter]

After spending about a week with the car I'd decided I was not really a huge fan of the original red leather seats and floor mats, both the seats and mats were quite worn and stained and I just found the inside quite gloomy and dull. Luckily I had held onto the full tan interior from my old z, complete with heated seats and the switches to go with it. with the car being black though I wanted to keep the black dash and door cards and not go 100% tan, I lost the photos of the process unfortunately but I dismantled both sets of door cards, took the tan inserts from my tan doors and glued them into the black doors after removing the old red inserts, I took the tan heated seats off the original tan bases and fitted them to the black seat bases, back into the car and all the wiring is fitted already to run the seat heaters, a little bit of trial and error to work out which switches were drivers and passengers and job done! I also had the tan tonneau to go with it, I think the results suits this car perfectly and its got to be my favourite interior combo in general! few pictures from a regular trip to Caffeine and Machine that kind of show it off...

The eagle eyed will also notice the change in wheels, this came a few weeks after the interior swap, they are 17 inch staggered RH ZW3s in 5x112 fitment, I bought these and had some custom machined adapters (20mm for the front and 35mm for the rear) to convert to 5x120 for my old Z3 but never got them fitted. I did have them on my VW Caddy for a bit but they were too small for that really and just didn't suit it, so I managed to search through boxes of old parts and dig the adapters out for this car again! more to come on the wheels later as they have been changed somewhat

 

[jdfixter]

Next on the list of Jobs was replacing the front bumper, it had some deep scuffs and a large crack when I bought it, as if fate had planned it, I still had the front bumper from my old z, and the rear luckily...

As I drive a work van for most of the week my ex girlfriend used to use the car regularly, after originally thinking it was an old, terrible, silly and useless car she did actually come to love it! one evening she went to the gym, parked it up, went inside and the handbrake failed! The car rolled backwards down the car park and into a brand new Audi A6! Lets say the Audi came off worse but the Z had definitely looked better! the passenger rear had took the impact, it smashed the rear light, the rear bumper was cracked in half and the crash bar had taken quite a hit and pushed it back in, thankfully the rear arch and boot had not been touched and all the panel gaps remained perfect! we called the insurance and did all the necessary bits but made it very clear we didn't want to claim on the car and that we would sort it privately, I knew I could fix it myself for minimal cost! at this time the car was valued with the insurance at 5k so it would have been a good pay out and 2k in profit, but I just didn't want to see the car go! From the photos we sent them the insurance was adamant it would have been a total loss (shows how little they know haha)

To cut a long story short this meant that I now needed to replace the front and back bumpers, and the rear crash panel, and the rear light... guess what... I had all these parts. Sent my bumpers of to be professionally painted by a friend that works for an accident repair centre, I tied the front of the car to my garage and the back of the car to my range rover and pulled the lower rear panel back out, mounted up a new crash bar, new rear light and it was a near perfect fit, Job done! Again most of the photos of this I have lost but I've got a couple of the new bumpers being fitted and I did a YouTube video on the process! link in my signature if you want to see it.

That's the rear end after the repair, absolutely spot on! Strangely at least a month later the insurance company then decided to send out a loss adjuster to inspect the damage to the car... after it had already been repaired, he looked at it and had absolutely no idea why he was there and decided the car was obviously fine!

 

[jdfixter]

The car stayed as is for a while then, I was doing a lot of work on my Caddy too at the time so this took a back seat, just used it and enjoyed it, couple of small jobs, the drivers side front calliper seized so I replaced that and eventually the mot came around! it wasn't too painful but she failed on corrosion on the inner and outer sills both sides (this was expected) and a few other small bits, think a cracked mirror was one fail! all in all quite happy with the result! I had been meaning to get the sills replaced for ages but work and other projects had put it off. A pair of brand new OEM sills were ordered from Sytner BMW and I passed this on to the friend that painted my bumpers to be done professionally, I took the old sills off and the corrosion on the inner sill wasn't actually bad at all! the outer sills were just so bad it looked a lot worse, regardless of this I welded a small patch in and gave it a good coat of Hammerite before the replacement sills were fitted back on!

so now I have brand new, freshly painted, front and rear bumpers and sills, which is obviously great! but the downside is that it now shows up the only remaining corrosion on the rear arches that bit more! They are still on the list to be done this winter!

 

[Althulas]

Hi James and welcome from me.

 

[jdfixter]

Hi James and welcome from me.

Hi Mate! thank you, if you reading the thread there is still a post in the middle that's missing currently awaiting moderator approval

 

[Althulas]

I’ll keep an eye out. If you go into your profile you can add extra info about yourself like where abouts your from etc.

 

[jdfixter]

MOT passed and the car went away in the garage for the winter. Now that it wasn't being driven I took the opportunity to give the wheels an over hall! I had had these wheels about 10 years at this point in there factory configuration, 17 inches, 8.5j on the back and 8j on the front, I felt they fit the car well but I wanted to make them a bit more special and stand out, they had also gained a few curb marks in that time so needed a complete refresh! My plan was to switch the wider dished 8.5 rear wheels to the front and rebuild the other two with a much bigger dish, taking them out to 11.5 j wide!

I bought a pair of 3.75 inch outer lips and all of the replacement bolts for all 4 wheels in gold from SRR Hardware and set about the transformation! I stripped down and separated all the wheels, prepped the centres and sprayed them in 'ford ivory' which I believe is a colour mostly found on old ford sierras, Ive used it in the past and just like the sort of off while shade, just something a bit different, I also think it goes really well with the gold hardware and the tan interior. I gave my existing lips a wet sand and polish and fitted them and new the new lips back to the wheels with the new hardware, torqued up all the bolts to 26nm (144 bolts in total, fun task) and sealed them up with tiger seal!

there is also a a couple of videos of this whole process on my youtube if your interested

 

[jdfixter]

I love how the wheels turned out and on the car they look incredible! the fitment was mostly just luck, I didn't measure anything, I just wanted some wide wheels and would work it out afterwards! I had to swap the adaptors around, put the 35mm on the fronts this time and the 20mm on the back and it just about works! the back is perfect for the look I want but the front is probably a little bit too aggressive, I'm planning to have the 35mm spacers machined down 10mm and the front should be spot on then! couple of artistic photos of how the wheels look on the car...

 

[jdfixter]

The only other addition to the exterior up to now has been a rubber front lip on the bumper, partly for looks and partly to try and protect the bumper as the car is extremely low to the ground, it scrubs on every speed hump and every time I leave my driveway haha! I just cant bring myself to raise the suspension... for context here is a picture of it parked underneath an artic trailer at my workplace, I couldn't resist!

I forgot to mention the front grilles have been painted black as you can see. I think this was done on the first weekend of ownership, the finish is terrible though a few years later, stone chips and power washers have taken their toll on it so ill probably buy some aftermarket gloss black ones. The only other exterior changes I am planning in the near future is a pair of M Mirrors, extremely expensive new so I'm looking for a good used pair but obviously they don't come around often! so if anyone has a pair please let me know! I'm also after an original aero 3 piece boot lip for the pre facelift, I think everything aftermarket for these cars looks terrible and as much as I prefer the design of the older shape, there is more options for the newer shape I am toying with the idea of making my own out of fiberglass maybe but its something I have never tried before

I'm 50/50 on having amber or white indicators all round, I like the more modern looking white style but equally I think the amber suits the black and tan combo. Finally, the roof has a split seal and leaks in the rain too now so I'm leaning heavily towards a replacement top in tan rather than black? opinions? anyone have any pics of a black car with a tan roof? thanks!

 

[jdfixter]

After the wheels were done, I carried out a rebuild on the rear end, the car is 27 years old and now has over 170k on the clock so as you can imagine some of it was toast! the brake shield on the drivers side pretty much turned to dust and caused my handbrake shoes to jam on! so I ordered a new pair of dust shields and a new hardware kit for the brake shoes, the shoes themselves had been replaced before and had loads of life left. To fit these without cutting the shield you have to remove the rear hubs and I wanted to do the job properly, so while the hubs are off I might as well get new wheel bearings and on the passenger side hub, one of the threads for the wheel bolts was knackard, I bought a replacement hub also! this was a bi*** of a job and took a lot longer than it should have done! everything was rusted solid but eventually with some serious force I got all the old bits off, new wheel bearings, new hub, new brake shields, and new hardware fitted, the old and original shock absorbers were also dead and not absorbing any shocks so they got replaced too!

 

[jdfixter]

The next mot was due and I had a problem with the horn... it didn't work and this would mean a fail, I checked fuses, relays, replaced the horn itself, all the connections and it still didn't work, I narrowed it down to be the slipring in the steering wheel, it was too late to sort before the MOT test and sure enough it did fail on the horn. I knew I needed to get a new slipring behind the steering wheel to sort this and it got me thinking, I love this car but I do also like some creature comforts, and one thing these cars lack is radio controls on the steering wheel! So can I get a steering wheel and slip ring from another model BMW, with multi function controls and make them work? yes you can!

Having owned most models of BMW at some point in time, I knew the E39 5 series has the same wheel as my z, and also the old E38 7 series, I did a bit of research and found out that as long as I got a wheel and slip ring from one of these cars made before 1998 then it would work with my airbag and existing loom and function correctly without an airbag fault! I managed to find a wheel and slipring on eBay for sale for about 80quid, looked at a few wiring diagrams from the Z3 and the E39 and worked out where I needed to send the extra wires that came with the new slip ring. Got the buttons to power up and because I've got an aftermarket Sony head unit I had to get the relevant adapter but it means I can now use the radio controls on the wheel in my Z3. No cruise control yet though! This requires an extra module and some coding but I do plan on retrofitting this in the future to and getting full functionality

I also got rid of the original Z3 chrome shifter and replaced it with an E46 ZHP shifter, the chrome was peeling off my old one and I never really liked the size and shape, the ZHP just sits lower, its a nice leather feel and just overall fits better! After doing the steering wheel swap I realised the 5 series wheel I put in is actually noticeably bigger than the Z3 sport wheel, they look the same but when you put them back to back you can spot the difference. In the end I removed the buttons and wires from the 5 series wheel, fitted them to the Z3 wheel (the middle bit and airbag is the same size) and put the Z3 wheel back on, sold the 5 Series wheel back on eBay for 55quid so the whole thing only really cost me 35quid. Horn was fixed, MOT passed, happy days!

last little change on the interior was the leather boomerangs by your knees on the centre console, I still had bits of my old tan dash and decided to swap them over and add a bit more colour inside. I'm pretty happy with the result!

 

[jdfixter]

I think that's pretty much up to date now with changes and fixes to the car, earlier today I ordered a full set of 'focal' speakers for the car because the sound system has always let it down and I like my music! that should be delivered tomorrow (Saturday) and ill try and get them fitted and see what the results are, its a pair of 5.25inch woofers for the kick panel, 1inch tweeters for the doors and I'm going to cut the trim behind the seats and fit some 5.25inch coaxial speakers in there, just running off the head unit for now, they are pretty high quality speakers so if the head unit cant handle it ill have to nip out and get a small amp but we shall see! ill keep you updated! I'm also going to order the Blaupunkt Frankfurt head unit at some point in the next couple of weeks to go with this, giving me a factory looking radio but with DAB, Bluetooth, aux, usb, everything basically

To-do list still on the car for now;
Electric roof retrofit (I have the switch and the motor from my old z, just need to fit them)
Aircon retro fit (I absolutely don't really need it, I just want the car to be max spec)
New coilovers to be fitted (the ones on the car were cheap and are about 12 years old now so basically finished)
E46 330 front break upgrade, master cylinder upgrade, drilled and grooved discs all round with yellow stuff pads
New rear arches to be painted and fitted
New roof in tan maybe?
Z3 M mirrors
Tan sports seats
M50 Manifold (pretty sure I have one somewhere in a box, just need to find it and get the fitting kit)

 

[andyglym]

Good stuff

 

[Z Victor 1]

Very impressive work on the car! Looks great, except I prefer the other wheels, think the replacements are a bit too much, but it's your car so.

 

[jdfixter]

Very impressive work on the car! Looks great, except I prefer the other wheels, think the replacements are a bit too much, but it's your car so.

Thank you! that's a fair comment about the wheels, they are pretty aggressive! I don't mind the originals and they still get used during the winter, but they just didn't fill the rear arches out at all

 

[jdfixter]

Speakers arrived 8am this morning, got to love Amazon Prime! they were 85quid a pair so not the most expensive but right in the middle of the range, I'm not trying to win a car audio competition, just need an upgrade!

I set about stripping down the interior, seats and all the rear plastics out, managed to find about 3 quid under the seat in change so that paid for breakfast!

Immediately I ran into an issue, obviously the replacement speakers are a lot bigger, across and deeper, and there is next to no room in this area, my car is fitted with the factory folding wind deflector, which I really like, unfortunately though it had to go, I need to remove the brackets to make room! I used a bit of my old tan interior as a test piece to see where to cut the new holes to make the speaker fit.

Eventually found a spot that worked, the back of the speaker is touching the frame of the car and I had to cut a section out of plastic to allow for it to flex outwards but it looks pretty smart when its all back together! significant size difference too!

I'm now on the lookout for some roll hoops and a fixed wind deflector, gutted to lose my old one but needs must! Front speakers is an easy strait swap, plastic covers off, plenty of room in the kick panel to accommodate the size of the new speaker 4 8mm screws out and then reverse with the new one!

The difference is like night and day! took some time to mess with the EQ on my head unit and get them dialled in but the sound is so much better, louder, clearer and much more bass! I could really do with a dedicated subwoofer but I don't want to loose my storage compartment, I'll have to think about a more subtle location for the future. still need to fit the tweeters into the door but I was running out of light and had to get some diner so I put the car back together again, I'll get the tweeters installed tomorrow along with a new pair of handle gaskets I bought a few weeks ago. Overall its been a huge improvement!