Nick's Long Term Project: 1981 BMW E23 733i.

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A little history about this car.
My great Uncle bought this car in the mid 1990's with low kilometers on the odometer and used it as a classic old man car- to and from the shops and to and from the RSL. I grew up around this car and saw it every school holidays when I went to Geelong, where my love for this car began.

Sadly my great Uncle passed away in 2007 and the car was left to his son and he still took great care of it up until 2011.
Not sure what happened but it sat under the car port until my Uncle passed away in January 2016.
The car had only been washed for the wake of his funeral and that was it.
Come April 2016 I went to see my Aunty in Geelong, she was selling the house and needed to sell the car, her sons did not want it and there was no interest from anybody else so my Aunty and I agreed on a price.

A few mates and I done a weekend road trip to pick the car up with a trailer in June 2016. We packed the car up with tools and made our way to Geelong, got settled in for the night and tried to turn the car over. It was not seized thankfully but we confirmed the fuel pumps were both dead.
Next morning we pushed the car out of the driveway and winched it onto the trailer and made our way back to Adelaide.

I have not done much work on the car since June but I have got it up and running, all that really needs to be done is check the suspension, service the transmission, flush the coolant, replace the brakes and replace the tires.

I'm currently organizing pictures on the computer.

 

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Sounds like a great project.
I love hearing stories like this with heaps of family history. The older 7 series are a beautiful looking car.
Friends dad had one from new and sold it in 97 with over 500,000kms on the clock. Still ran fine he just wanted a newer one.
What colour is it? Black or that nice blue they came in?

 

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Photobucket is being a proper knob and taking forever with the uploading process.
The color is "chestnut metallic" according to the translation of the sticker in the engine bay.

It is a beautiful color but it needs some minor rust repair and a proper paint correction.
There is no rush for this build either, so there won't be frequent updates.

 

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Okay, I'll do my best to keep this in order!
These photos were taken in April 2016 when I first inspected the car before purchasing it.

 

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Interior, yes that is a genuine 159,XXX on the clock
Black and beige interior with working electric sunroof, power windows and power mirrors.
Actual wood in the doors too which isn't stuffed.

 

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Engine bay, M30B32 engine backed by a 3 speed automatic.
I would LOVE to do a 5 speed manual conversion but they are rare as hens teeth these days.

The factory METRIC wheels. unfortunately these will never go on the car again due to availability and price of the tires, last time I checked there were 13 tires in Australia at $675 EACH.

 

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The first issue to tackle was replacing the fuel pumps.
These have a low pressure internal pump that feeds a high pressure external pump with a return system to the tank. It was a easy process and I made sure I done it once and done it correctly.
They didn't have any black fuel hose in 1/2" ID so red had to do. I am going to put some sleeving over it when I start working on the car again when funds allow.

Original rubber fuel hose- the zip ties were zip tied to the new hose and pulled through from under the car. When I started removing all the hoses they crumbled.

High pressure pump and filter underneath the car.

Original pump out.

New pumps.

New high pressure pump and filter installed with new hoses and clamps.
Yes, that is exactly how the factory system looked before hand, I didn't change any of the design.

My work of art with the low pressure in tank pump.

Draining the tank was a interesting process for me as I had no idea how to.
The fuel pumps only activate while the car is cranking so it takes time to build up fuel pressure.
I simply went around this by bridging a couple of relay points for the fuel pumps with the ignition on, voila!
Fuel was drained via the return line from the engine bay.
This seriously smelt like sh.t, 20+L of 6 year old varnish fuel.

 

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Another problem occurred, the battery was not charging- dead alternator.
With some luck (I really don't know how I got so lucky) there was a 1984 E23 735i at the local wrecker and I took the alternator off and tried to fit it. what a PITA!!!
I didn't realize they changed the alternator style, the power steering bracket and alternator brackets between the 3 year difference. Good thing is that they used the exact same length belt.
After 4 or 5 trips back and forth I had everything I needed and it took me a week to get it sorted out properly.

Next up was the exhaust, it had a few holes in it so I decided to take it off, wire wheel it back, weld up the holes and paint it.
Some smart cookies decided that it should be a one piece system, it was welded where flanges would normally be to join the two sections.
I did manage to remove it by myself, it weighs 30+ kilograms and I'm not the biggest of people.

Interesting design for the tail lights, you have to remove the lens to change the bulbs!
Factory wiring, not kidding. Thankfully it is covered by trim panels in the boot.

I've also serviced the engine and inspected the brakes which will need to be replaced.