'Izzy' (2.8 widebody)

[John_B]

Looking good John - concious we still need to sort out that trip to The Barrel Inn at Bretton but it looks like you are in full on maintenence mode

The 2.8 is now fully operational! The slight problem I have now is you wanted to see the new roof - which is attached to the 1.9 and currently SORN (and sans-interior ) I get back from Cornwall on the weekend of 14th/15th and I'm tentatively planning to attempt the switch then. If it goes well we could do any time after that. Of course if you're ever passing nearby Darley Dale, let me know and you can come and have a look. I'm only 10 mins from the Monsal Trail which I know you like to frequent

You're going to the Thoresby meet on the 29th, right? All being well you'll see the new roof on the 2.8 then if not before.

 

[John_B]

I was expecting delivery of a DA yesterday, I'd like to learn how to properly detail. I was already past the end of the expected delivery window, so I went out and started T-Cutting by hand, planning to switch to the DA when it turned up. Naturally I had just finished the last panel and was packing up when it came.

I didn't bother with the passenger front wing (which is technically more rust than panel and is going to be replaced as soon as I find one) and I forgot the A-pillars and top of windscreen (oops), but I did all the other panels. I don't feel as though it's had much impact on light scratches or swirl marks, but for a quick evening hand polish I am pleased with the outcome.

When we get back from Cornwall it'll be ready for another wash and then I'll get some proper detailing stuff.

 

[John_B]

Two steps forward, one step back...

Mrs B and I went out on a little errand run in the Z3 yesterday afternoon and were shaken to bits on the rough roads, to the point where we both agreed we didn't want to drive all the way to Cornwall and back like that, so a bit of emergency mechanicing yesterday evening to re-fit the stock setup. Including fitting and removing the coilovers to my 1.9, I make that now the 4th suspension change I have done in the last few weeks!!

I'll re-visit the coilovers when we're back and see what adjustments are available to soften them off, although I expect it's going to take a bit of trial-and-error and a few test drives to find a sweet spot I'm happy with

 

[John_B]

Cornwall trip was a great success.

I confirmed what I already knew, which was that the roof seals were knackered. There was a visible gap between two of the pieces on the passenger side, and there has been a tape product applied on the outer edge of some pieces. A shame because the material, frame and window were all really good. Thankfully after a soggy start, the rest of last week was mostly dry.

I know we don't own these cars for the economy, but I was really impressed with this - I managed 30.7mpg on the way down, and I wasn't exactly hanging about By comparison the same journey I did earlier in the year in the 1.9 it managed high-29s. My gut feeling is that the 6 cylinder is so much torquier that I don't have to wring its neck like I did the 1.9?

 

[John_B]

While I was away somebody offered to buy my 1.9 (sans interior and roof), so I had barely finished unpacking on Saturday when I was getting to work taking the roof off my 1.9 and cleaning all the adhesive off the sealing strip before transplanting it onto Izzy. The sealant is still curing and I don't want to speak too soon, but it all went rather smoothly! I was even able to fit the microswitch and replicate the correct wiring route through one of the metal tubes. All fitted up and it works a treat, so I'm really happy.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will spot the dehumidifier in the cab. Unfortunately we did collect a fair amount of dampness in just a few wet days, so while we're due some warm and sunny weather I am going to try and dry it out as best I can and hope I don't need to pull the carpets out like I did my blue one!

This weekend I also fitted the boot lid I got to replace the one with the holes for the luggage rack. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to physically fit the lid. I was expecting to need 5 pairs of hands and cloths and pads to protect the paintwork, but actually with those notches for the upper bolt holes in the hinge, it was easy to just slot those in and then tighten them up, like putting a monitor or TV onto a stand. In hindsight I should have changed the lock while both lids were off the car, but I managed to install the old lock into the new boot lid after it was fitted. Helpfully, the replacement came with the loom and wiring, so I didn't need to mess about transferring those across. However both looms are teetering on the edge of becoming another 'loom of doom', so rather than picking the best one and splicing it in, I have bought another loom repair kit from ebay and will fit that when it comes. In the mean-time I will just go without the centre brake light and central locking.

Not sure if it's related or just a coincidence, but while I was fitting the replacement boot lid, the overall central locking stopped working. I'm hoping that it is just because the boot loom isn't connected, rather than that I have killed something. I did have something similar happen with the blue one when I was working on the car one day with the key in my pocket and somehow it lost its identity and needed to be reprogrammed with the old 'dancing fingers' trick

 

[John_B]

This weekend I used a loom of doom repair kit to join the boot loom back up, sadly the remote central locking is still inop. Haven't gotten to the bottom of it it, but the plan is I'm going to continuity check the loom either side of the repair, I'm also going to transfer the solenoid from the old boot lid into the replacement, just in case that is the problem. I did have an appointment this week from a mobile key cutter to make me a second key, however I have postponed that until it's working again.

Turning my attention to the front of the car, I removed the wipers so that I could clean out under the scuttle panel. To my amazement I needn't have bothered as it was already spotless under there! However with the wipers off I wanted to repaint them. I'd already had a go at touching up a few spots while they were on the car, but they came up looking horrendous. Also the drivers' side wiper had been put on the spindle one or two splines too high, and it wiped past the edge of the windscreen and parked too high, so I was able to sort that out when I reinstalled them too.

I sanded them down to bare metal, then used acid etch primer and a random gloss black spray paint I found in the garage since the Hammerite was nowhere to be seen... They've come up really well, a nice little afternoon job all in all.

Botched touch-up

Is it just me or would they look pretty cool chrome plated?

After! (They are spots of rain rather than bubbles or dust in the paint! )

 

[John_B]

Along with attending the Notts Classic Car show this weekend, I also built a car port!

Last winter I had problems with waterproof covers not being waterproof, and also mould festering in the cool, damp and dark conditions underneath. So this year I have been hinting to my father in law about whether I could use his spare garage, but he wasn't going for it.

So instead I have built a car port. It's pretty lightweight, only intended to be for the winter and some time in Feb/March I'll disassemble it and put it away until this time next year. Requirements were to be tall enough to walk under without hitting my head, still be able to get a wheelie bin past the car and long enough to cover the roof.

 

[t-tony]

Why not leave it up?

Tony

 

[John_B]

Yesterday evening I fitted the sidelight kindly provided by @RickyBobby. No more torn sponges/cloths/skin when washing the car!

Much better!

I also got to the bottom of the central locking problem, and it was a fuse. Major face-palm moment

Lastly, I still haven't found a cosmos black passenger-side front wing. So, remembering that I had a pair in Atlanta Blue in the garage, I have taken matters into my own hands. There is a little bit of corrosion and bubbling which will be why it was taken off my first Z3, but I figure if I sand it down, treat & repair it and then paint it back up, it will be an improvement over the existing "panel" (collection of rust held together with paint). Even if it looks crap and I still want to find a proper replacement, it won't have cost me anything but a bit of paint, sandpaper and time.

This is how much crap was under the raised part, including a snail!

After about 15 mins with an 80-grit sanding disc on the DA. I couldn't find any 40s, so I've got some of those coming today to help get through the corrosion in the bottom left corner since the 80 was struggling.

 

[John_B]

I got the wing down to bare metal, used some body filler in that bottom corner to make it smooth again, and I've done a couple of coats of primer before it had chance of flash rust.

This winter I want to paint the calipers orange, instead of using the sand blaster attachment for the karcher like I did last time (which made a lot of mess and didn't really do a very good job), I am getting a compressor and sand blasting cabinet instead. With the added bonus that the compressor will also set me up for a proper painting spray gun. So rather than going at this wing with a rattle can, it's going to wait now until I've got the compressor up and running, and am comfortable with a spray gun.

 

[IainP]

Make sure the compressor is 10 bar or you’ll struggle to get decent results. That really means belt driven, biggest tank you can fit it, the direct drives don’t last long, 5-7 years if you use it a lot. And they’re NOISY! A low noise/silent type is fairly useless for blasting, I have to link mine with the direct drive Aldi thing to get any sort of result. Even then I have to pulse it a lot and wait on the tanks filling.
Buy yourself a big pile of acetate sheets for overhead projectors, tape to the glass on the inside, far better than replacing the glass every few months.
Good idea to fit a baffled extractor in a top corner, helps get rid of the light dust, which means your blasting medium both lasts a lot longer, but is much more effective when not contaminated.
I can recommend

Air Compressors, Hobby Compressors,Industrial - Workshop Compressors

www.shiremoorcompressors.com

 

[John_B]

Thanks Iain, appreciate the advice.

I picked up the compressor last night. Not sure of the specifics yet, but it's a 50L tank and the pressure gauge goes into the red at 150 and tops out at 180psi, and the cabinet I have ordered specifies a minimum of 100psi, so I am hopeful it should be a sufficient pairing for sand blasting. I don't see any belts so I presume it's direct drive! I need to do a bit (lot) more research into painting before I start looking for a gun & paint, however the chap I bought it from used it for painting and said it was fine, he just didn't have anything left to paint . It's only going to get occasional use anyway, so having to wait for the tank to refill now and again isn't going to be the end of the world.

The blasting cabinet I have ordered has a filter in the corner that I should be able to connect a vacuum cleaner to to handle the dust. Also great idea with the acetate sheets!

I should have everything I need to have a go at blasting this weekend, although Izzy is off to JWS for a few days for them to recommission the AC, so it's probably not going to be until the weekend after when I can start on the calipers.

 

[t-tony]

That size compressor will cope with painting odd small panels, but would be hopeless for doing a full respray and would struggle to do a Z3 bonnet too.

Tony.

 

[John_B]

Before I got the compressor, I'd found some rattle cans on ebay that claimed not to require clear-coat, so I thought it was worth a punt. They arrived yesterday so I thought I'd give it a go on a couple of tasks.

The first was the boot lid door jamb, I'm not sure what had happened or whether this is how it came from factory, but the paint was really patchy, to the point where you could actually see the grey (primer!?) between the panel gap when the boot lid was closed. I masked off the bodywork and the boot opening itself, removed the dampers and gave the area a good clean and degrease. I did two coats of this paint and am thrilled how it came out.

I still have the door handle covers that I abandoned when the clear coat failed, so I cleaned them off and though it was worth giving them a blast with this paint. I'm really pleased with how they look. I'll fit them next time Izzy gets a wash

That size compressor will cope with painting odd small panels, but would be hopeless for doing a full respray and would struggle to do a Z3 bonnet too.

Then it's a good job I am not planning a full respray

 

[t-tony]

My E85 Z4 had similar issues with the paint inside the "shuts", although I left ot as it was how it left the factory. I seem to remember @Paul Rice painted those areas on his car.
Those door handle covers look very nice.

Tony.

 

[John_B]

Izzy was at my local BMW indy for the last couple of days, I asked them to inspect the Aircon system and if it all looked OK to re-gas it. I knew it hadn't been used in at least 4 years since the previous owner didn't even know it had AC! The news came back that the aircon fan was seized, which was a bit of a shame as I could have established that myself if I had thought to check. Oops. I declined their generous offer of a replacement fan and re-gas for £600 and will attempt to sort the fan myself, then take it back for the re-gas at a later date.

Now that she's back home it's almost time to send the steering wheel and gaiters away to Royals for a retrim, I just want to remove the brake calipers first which requires shunting the car around a couple of times for access. So I'm planning on doing that this weekend, then I'll send the wheel away and while I wait for them to come back I am going to strip, paint and service the calipers.

But before all of that, I had a little bit of booty bling to fit...

 

[John_B]

I removed the brake calipers last weekend and sent the steering wheel and gaiters off to Royal Steering Wheels to be retrimmed in black alcantara and orange stitching. I cannot wait to get them back. With the steering wheel missing, the chance of me hopping in the car and taking it for a spin was admittedly low, but I thought a subtle reminder that there are no brakes wouldn't be the worst idea...

Having a bit of a 'mare with the compressor, so far I have only managed to sand-blast half of a front caliper carrier There is nothing wrong with the 50L compressor I got from Marketplace, but you were all quite right that 50L was too small, it took a long time to build the pressure and I was uncomfortable about the prospect of running a motor of unknown quality, age & maintenance non-stop for hours on end (and only getting a few tens of seconds of useful pressure at a time) And so I am re-selling the 50L and bought a new one from SGS with a 100L capacity, more powerful motor and double the CFM - this seems a good compromise between improving over the old 50L unit and not spending hundreds and hundreds of quid on one which will only see very occasional use once I've done these calipers. Unfortunately it's not been a smooth compressor upgrade process so far. It's looking there is a fault with the non-return valve, there should be a gasket which is missing, and so it builds pressure fine, but as soon as the motor stops, the pressure vents straight back out. SGS are sending me out a replacement NRV. Hopefully then I can finally get on with the brakes!!

Rather than lose a weekend, I did a few other little jobs I wanted to tick off;

I re-painted the drivers door mirror using that same no-lacquer paint I used on the door shut around the boot. I'm not so sure about it this time. The colour is a good match, but the finish isn't great. Once I've finished sand blasting the calipers I am going to have a go at painting with a spray gun for that front wing I prepped a few weeks ago, I'll do the mirror housing again at the same time I reckon.

And I polished my headlights, which I have been meaning to do for months, but it never made it to the top of the list. Very pleased with the results for half an hours work

 

[John_B]

Painting the calipers is nearing completion. Carriers, anti-rattle clips and 16mm bolt-heads are all done. I had to start the front calipers again this weekend though as there were fish eyes coming through. I reckon the microfibre cloth I used might have had some residual WD40 on it The sandblaster made light work of removing the new paint. I had them back to bare metal, cleaned (with a new cloth ) and ready to start painting again in less than half an hour. I should be able to get the lacquer on today and then give it a few days to harden before I service them and hopefully get them re-fitted this weekend.

In a case of perfect timing, I got my wheel, gaiters and handbrake handle back from Royal Steering Wheels today, which I needed before I could have pulled the car out to re-fit the brakes. I am so pleased with them, I can't wait to get them all re-fitted

 

[Peter1450]

Parts from Royal look really good

 

[t-tony]

You always get a quality job from Royals.

Tony.