And so it starts, Maeve

[gwb72tii]

Close, very close, but no cigar

[garageboy]

Close, very close, but no cigar

I was gonna say Phuket, because I like to say Phuket...

[gwb72tii]

Onto a little cleaning today. Somewhere along the way of acquiring pearl beige interior pieces I wound up with 3 sets of door cards, most of which are in good shape. However most of which are in need of serious cleaning. The foam insulation(?) backing is completely dried out to no surprise, but in good enough shape to use as templates for cutting out new foam pieces for final reassembly.

Looking pretty old:


basically dust


The difference in tone doesn't really show up in this comparison, clean on the left


Here you can kinda see the dirty cleaning fluid coming out of the pores of the door card. Lots of fluid and hand scrubbing and then the portable Bissell carpet machine to suck it all out.


and you get this. I think it looks pretty good.

[gwb72tii]

Pearl Resorts Bora Bora

Actually off of Taha'a, but you can see Bora Bora:

[Blue Shadow]

Close, very close, but no cigar

Actually off of Taha'a, but you can see Bora Bora:

The entire earth and I missed it by 10 miles? Dang. Was it Le Taha'a Island Resort & Spa? They have a similar view

Thought of Bora Bora first and searched for images of overwater accommodations and the build techniques and especially the color were the same. Looked for a resort that had the view you had but the land mass was much taller. Didn't back out and look for other nearby locations.

Must have been nice, hope the shoulder repair didn't get in the way all the time.

[gwb72tii]

I must admit it was a very good guess Shadow
https://www.letahaa.com/

Have you spent time there?

[Blue Shadow]

No, Dad was in the Army and I've been around and was good in geography because of living in Europe 1st-4th grade and sightseeing vacations. Then visited my Dad in Korea when I was in college since he was there with family and I was still a dependent Uncle Sam got me there and back. He put me on a tour of the Far East run by the USO.

Then he retired and traveled the world with my step mom. I'm sure my dad enjoyed his visit to Bora Bora and such way more than his year on Eniwetok when in the army. So I've seen pics and well with my first guess, the hut construction was the same. I didn't know there was such a nearby island with some similar accommodations. So my geography database is improved.

[Mdreamer]

I've got to get myself one of those Bissell carpet machines...

[Mike W.]

I've got to get myself one of those Bissell carpet machines...

Not sure I've ever used it on the cars, but I can see it would work, but they're dynamite inside the house.

[gwb72tii]

The Bissell worked really well. With the door cards it was essentially a wet/dry vacuumm sucking all the dirty fluid out of the pores.

https://www.amazon.com/Bissell-Multi-Pu ... r=8-5&th=1

next up is the interior carpet, which is quite dirty.

[Mdreamer]

I'm sold! Thanks to the two of you.

[gwb72tii]

A little more progress. When I mounted the rear wing, I clamped the outside edges to the trunk lid to provide pressure to the adhesive tape that holds the outside "wings" to the trunk. It's about 45* here max during the day and the tape adheres better when its warmer.


don't you love Zinno?


I haven't had the e28 down from the top of the lift since surgery, and I had forgotten what shape the carpets are in. I know I need to shampoo them, but they are pretty worn out. You can see before/after pics below after one attempt at cleaning. They need more than one attempt. My goal is to get them clean enough so when I get floor mats they hide how rough the carpet is. The pictures really don't show how dirty and stained they are.



And this guy wants to be in the middle of everything

[Panici]

don't you love Zinno?

Looks stunning!
You've got that rear end dialed in, spoiler and badge.

Carpet came up decent for a first-pass. You have to figure there may be 30+ years of dirt in some parts.
I've seen some detailing videos where they vibrate the carpet to help knock some dirt loose from the fibers. Haven't tried it myself but seems to help?

[John in VA]

Carpet came up decent for a first-pass. You have to figure there may be 30+ years of dirt in some parts.
I've seen some detailing videos where they vibrate the carpet to help knock some dirt loose from the fibers. Haven't tried it myself but seems to help?

You can pull the carpet out to clean, agitate & pressure-wash it. Blue Shadow has done that with great results.

[gwb72tii]

I have a commercial carpet cleaner coming Monday afternoon to do their best. $100 and it should wind up as clean as it can be. Part of the issue is I can only use my left arm right now to scrub and vacuum. Plus $100 seems pretty reasonable.

Fingers crossed.......

well the carpet guy is sick as a dog, so as I am out of town starting Saturday this is on the shelf until mid February

hey Shadow, spend any time in Tokyo or Kyoto?

[Kyler]

following to feel bad about my car but to learn these awesome techniques and ideas for restoration. Thank you for sharing

[Blue Shadow]

I have flown into and out of Japan and that is the extent of my time in the country. Layover on the way to Korea.

[gwb72tii]

I was wondering as my wife and I were headed to Japan for a long overdue vacation.
We went, and knowing the Japanese are into cars, I was curious to see what they have. Saw a few Ferrari's and a couple Lambo's, but this took the cake. Japanese gansta's. Not sure you can call it lifted as it's so small and cute

[Ricky535]

Kei trucks. They're available in different configurations. Right size for Japanese roads.

[RoyW]

Here is the truth. Since I was a wee lad, it's expensive to paint a car. To do it right, it's always going to be expensive. The "paint the car" part is the easy part. I have a friend who went through all the BMW manufacturer painting instruction over 30 years. Of course they learned about the evolution of BMW's brilliance in applying paint to a car, culminating in the BMW Paint System (the globally-environmentally-award-winning process) that is water-based and bulletproof. But none of that is possible without the initial assembly, rustrproofing, and dipping in zinc.

The time AND cost is in the preparation. It doesn't matter how well you paint a car if it isn't prep'd properly. And to really do it correctly, it takes hours of meticulous hand-eye work to mimic what happened when the car came out of the factory, to ensure the best quality paint job. And, of course, the post-painting part of the process is equally time-consuming.

THIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN TRUE. And it always will be. You get what you pay for.

The other truth is a less happy one. If you discover your E28 has rust, you will eventually be forced to accept that in addition to the rust you can see, there is more rust you cannot see. So unless it is a special car that will fetch more than US$100,000, chasing after rust is a fool's errand. Good luck with the restoration!

So, so true garageboy!!! I love to see these comments from some people in threads that say the body and paint work will be $10K, or even $15K. Not even close if you want it done right and looking proper... I'm on my 5th project car and the body & paintwork is always the most expensive factor in a restoration or "refresh"!!

-RoyW

[gwb72tii]

Lately Maeve has been ignored while my wife's number one project, the garden and shed for her, was finished (by me). Now that I'm close to done with that, it's about time to turn my attention back to Maeve and her restoration.

I am trying to formulate where to look for the problem I had driving her north from Mesa, AZ to Seattle. Here's the symptoms:
1. Maeve would die suddenly when driving on the freeway at speed, somewhere around 75mph. I'd cost to a stop, and she'd restart within 5 minutes, sometimes right away. I learned to drive in the right hand lane only.
2. Would die when giving her too much throttle.
3. Died going up the hill north of Grants Pass, Oregon, a long incline. Could not get her restarted sitting on the side of the freeway. Started immediately when lowered off the flat bed towing truck in Roseburg when the ground was level.

I thought all the above might have been from the in-tank fuel pick up being fowled by rust flakes but is not the case. Installed an in-tank fuel pump (identical to Vlad) but no change to symptoms.

So you e28 experts, what do you think the cause is?

[1st 5er]

Lately Maeve has been ignored while my wife's number one project, the garden and shed for her, was finished (by me). Now that I'm close to done with that, it's about time to turn my attention back to Maeve and her restoration.

I am trying to formulate where to look for the problem I had driving her north from Mesa, AZ to Seattle. Here's the symptoms:
1. Maeve would die suddenly when driving on the freeway at speed, somewhere around 75mph. I'd cost to a stop, and she'd restart within 5 minutes, sometimes right away. I learned to drive in the right hand lane only.
2. Would die when giving her too much throttle.
3. Died going up the hill north of Grants Pass, Oregon, a long incline. Could not get her restarted sitting on the side of the freeway. Started immediately when lowered off the flat bed towing truck in Roseburg when the ground was level.

I thought all the above might have been from the in-tank fuel pick up being fowled by rust flakes but is not the case. Installed an in-tank fuel pump (identical to Vlad) but no change to symptoms.

So you e28 experts, what do you think the cause is?

Sounds temp related.
I'd start with relays and ECU.

[John in VA]

Blue Shadow & I have had similar problems. Make sure that the sockets in the plugs that the fuel pump &other relays are well seated within the black plastic plugs. It may seem the relay is properly seated, but the connectors might have backed out a bit & not make good contact with relay prongs.

[Blue Shadow]

As John stated, the relay socket allowed the connector female spade to back out over the multiple changes of the relay. It made limited contact and powered the car until it lost connection. Car rolling along just fine, tach drops to zero and we roll to the side of the road. Touch stuff under the hood and it starts back up until it didn't.

Must have been a low current connection as the touching connection would not have supported the full power through the relay.

[gwb72tii]

This came today. Super excited about getting the new motor, which is taking way longer than wanted, and attaching this header.