Hey guys. I've been a long time lurker on this forum - mainly reading up on builds and little projects that have been done, and I've finally decided to join the club so I could get some help from the gurus about fixing up my car. My name is Ariff and I'm 21 years old. I've recently taken over my dad's BMW E23 728i that he's been slowly restoring from time to time. It's been my daily for about 3 months now, and I've enjoyed every second spent in it. I've taken it to Ipoh and back, been trapped in Bukit Bintang rush hour traffic, and endured some pretty nasty traffic jams in and around Kuala Lumpur. I dream of owning the handbuilt E34 BMW M5 3.8 one day.
But first: a little history. This car was originally bought by my grandpa in 1984 and was left abandoned in his house a few years before he passed away in 2001. Several attempts were made to restore it, but were done cheaply. in '06, my dad decided to take on the challenge and restore the car. It has been with us ever since, and I do not plan to sell it! As I have recently graduated Uni (and looking for a job), I thought I might as well take this opportunity to learn more about the car and attempt to fix it up myself! The previous restoration attempts meant that the car has aesthetically become sort of a franken-monster - which means that the body work wasn't done properly, and the interior doesn't fit very well.
Here's the car as it is:
- 1984 "whale-nose"
- Stock M30B28 engine with the 4-speed auto.
- Titan shocks with original springs.
- Car idles slightly rough but easily driveable.
- Interior dash is damaged and cracked (theives tried to yank an aftermarket radio with a screwfdriver a long time ago)
- Chrome/aluminium bits need restoring.
- Front and rear lights need replacing.
I intend to turn this car into a sort of a "resto-mod" project, so many things need to be fixed up, and luckily we have a 732i as a donor car. I have many plans for it, and some might be quite unrealistic due to time and money constraints, but here we go! :santaclaus:
- Swap the interior bits.
- Replace the dashboard
- Restore all interior trim bits ala E23 L7.
- Retrofit an E32 140A alternator to replace the tired stock 90A E23 one.
- Fit an electric fan to keep the car cooler.
- Upgrade to the 3.2/3.4/3.5 headers with injectors for more power.
- Fit Style 32 17 or 18 inchers.
- Rewrap leather seats to dark brown/nappa leather-ish colour.
- Fit some sort of sway bars to make the car drive a little better than it already does.
- Swap the front end into the pre-82 sharknose from Donor car.
- Retrofit pre-82 chrome mirrors from Donor car.
- Lower it an inch further.
- Source some BBS/Zender Front bumpers and rear spoilers (at USD$250 a piece online, I doubt this will happen)
- Maybe one day, look for M52b28/M57d30 engine swaps. Or maybe an S38/S50 :69:
- Find out how to get it on Classic Car Road Tax exempt!
- E28/E34 rear view mirrors (because the night lighting in this car is horrendous)
That's all I have for now! Time and money willing, I hope to get it done myself without too many purchases or mechanics! I hope I can learn a lot from the gurus that seem to be around here!
(Tried to upload photos but it seems the file was too big.)
Thank you!
But first: a little history. This car was originally bought by my grandpa in 1984 and was left abandoned in his house a few years before he passed away in 2001. Several attempts were made to restore it, but were done cheaply. in '06, my dad decided to take on the challenge and restore the car. It has been with us ever since, and I do not plan to sell it! As I have recently graduated Uni (and looking for a job), I thought I might as well take this opportunity to learn more about the car and attempt to fix it up myself! The previous restoration attempts meant that the car has aesthetically become sort of a franken-monster - which means that the body work wasn't done properly, and the interior doesn't fit very well.
Here's the car as it is:
- 1984 "whale-nose"
- Stock M30B28 engine with the 4-speed auto.
- Titan shocks with original springs.
- Car idles slightly rough but easily driveable.
- Interior dash is damaged and cracked (theives tried to yank an aftermarket radio with a screwfdriver a long time ago)
- Chrome/aluminium bits need restoring.
- Front and rear lights need replacing.
I intend to turn this car into a sort of a "resto-mod" project, so many things need to be fixed up, and luckily we have a 732i as a donor car. I have many plans for it, and some might be quite unrealistic due to time and money constraints, but here we go! :santaclaus:
- Swap the interior bits.
- Replace the dashboard
- Restore all interior trim bits ala E23 L7.
- Retrofit an E32 140A alternator to replace the tired stock 90A E23 one.
- Fit an electric fan to keep the car cooler.
- Upgrade to the 3.2/3.4/3.5 headers with injectors for more power.
- Fit Style 32 17 or 18 inchers.
- Rewrap leather seats to dark brown/nappa leather-ish colour.
- Fit some sort of sway bars to make the car drive a little better than it already does.
- Swap the front end into the pre-82 sharknose from Donor car.
- Retrofit pre-82 chrome mirrors from Donor car.
- Lower it an inch further.
- Source some BBS/Zender Front bumpers and rear spoilers (at USD$250 a piece online, I doubt this will happen)
- Maybe one day, look for M52b28/M57d30 engine swaps. Or maybe an S38/S50 :69:
- Find out how to get it on Classic Car Road Tax exempt!
- E28/E34 rear view mirrors (because the night lighting in this car is horrendous)
That's all I have for now! Time and money willing, I hope to get it done myself without too many purchases or mechanics! I hope I can learn a lot from the gurus that seem to be around here!
(Tried to upload photos but it seems the file was too big.)
Thank you!
