FxSlin - 97 Z3M & 97 1.9 Z3

[fxslin]

Long time since last update here, however life has not been boring for me.

After the big operation with swapping panels and getting the cars ready. I had no motivation to work on the car, but only drive and enjoy the M. I've been attending a few meetup with various clubs and I also did a roadtrip to Berlin (Oslo - Berlin) with the car (work related). Biggest event was with the BMW Car Club Norway, which where at a local racetrack where I displayed the car at the exhibition and also managed to get a few rounds my self on the track. Great fun!'

At the exhibition:

Enjoying the track:

A week later I got phone call from leader of Norwegian Sportscar club, asking me if I could display the M at a marketing event at one of the largest shopping malls in Norway. Which was also great fun.

Some pics from this event:

And with the M starting be in quite ok shape and the dark time arriving here in Norway (winter and salt on the roads). Meaning that I would not be able drive a Z3 as much as I wanted:-(

I somehow managed to get my self another "problem child": A 97 1.9 Hellrot Z3 with a fresh MOT. However the car does have some of the common flaws such as rust at the sills, windows not working properly, water leakage and broken seats (both lifters and the seats are very worn out). However the engine and gearbox is sound and the M44 engine pulls strong around 3k rpm.
I got the car for a very good price ( way below cheapest one on the market in Norway ATM).

Current plan for this car:
- fix rust
- fix all minor things (windows, missing button, water leakage).
- Upgrade front brakes to wented brakes like 2.8 (I got a set from a E46 already)
- Replace seats, they are in really bad shape.
- Fogged airbox
- Square 225/45/17 with some ok tracking wheels.
- new exhaust setup (some freeflow variant)

Some pics, the car look better than it is:

The plan for this car is to keep as an budget DD with some track oriented modifications. Ie. It still has OEM (or similar) dampers, so the car is uber soft compared to the M under "active" driving.

I've already started on the rust fix work and the frame is a lot better condition that expected, just the sills where bad. However nothing that a little rust work, fresh ruststop coating and some primer+color+lack won't fix. This car never going to be a beauty, its all about pur fun.

Adding this picture showing you the "truth" about the car's condition, but everything is fixable and managable.

Working on the car, getting it ready for the winter:

And today I got a package in the mail, opened it up and this little trophy was inside.


Turned out that on the BMW Car Club Norway event I wrote about in the start of this post. My Z3M got the second position in the "Nicest car - from the Nineties". So that was a good start on the weekend

 

[t-tony]

Looks like you've had fun with the ///M, hope the DD gives as much enjoyment on a daily basis.

Tony.

 

[Althulas]

Nice surprise with the prize I’ve done a lot of air repatriation from Norway and always enjoyed my time flying over that beautiful country and enjoyed my stays over there. On my bucket list is a road trip over in Norway just need to finish working away from home and concentrate on working on my ///M. Not if but when I get to do my trip I’ll Time it for one of your meets.

 

[DavidM]

Well done in achieving second position in the competition and best of luck bringing your new purchase up to your standards!

 

[Jjim]

Just read this post from the beginning. Fantastic Zed journey and some amazing work you have done.

 

[Dino D]

Those Alpina wheels with that stance, just lovely!

 

[Ianmc]

We are fortunate in having both M44 and S50/54 engined cars also. We love both cars which are great, but in very different ways. A bit like our children!

 

[fxslin]

Looks like you've had fun with the ///M, hope the DD gives as much enjoyment on a daily basis.

Tony.

Thanks! I did get a few days with the DD, before the mod/fix itch started. Hope fully I have done the needed mods before next season.

Nice surprise with the prize I’ve done a lot of air repatriation from Norway and always enjoyed my time flying over that beautiful country and enjoyed my stays over there. On my bucket list is a road trip over in Norway just need to finish working away from home and concentrate on working on my ///M. Not if but when I get to do my trip I’ll Time it for one of your meets.

Please feel free to contact me, I'll be happy to setup you up with a nice road trip plan and events to attend!

Well done in achieving second position in the competition and best of luck bringing your new purchase up to your standards!

Thanks a lot!

Just read this post from the beginning. Fantastic Zed journey and some amazing work you have done.

Thanks, it's safe to say that I got the Zed itch now. Still want a coupe

Those Alpina wheels with that stance, just lovely!

Thanks, gotten a lot of nice feedback on those. Still got a ACS set on my wish list tough.

We are fortunate in having both M44 and S50/54 engined cars also. We love both cars which are great, but in very different ways. A bit like our children!

I agree! The M44 is a lot of fun when you start learn the engine. It is of course not in the same league as the s50/s54, however when you think about the price difference between a 1.9 and ///M is is surely Big Bang for the bucks.


Today I attended a small "auto slalom" event the local BMW club, got some runs and ended 5 secs behind the winner. Happy with that result as it was my first try at this.

Sharing Some pics a friend of me took today.

When willpower is higher than ability, you get this A Z3 going sideways.

 

[fxslin]

Ok enough fun Time to finish the rust work with the Hellrot!

After the driver side was finish (remember I got my steering wheel on "correct" side, compare to a lot of you :- ) ), it was time to finish the passenger side.

After X hours of taking on and off panels and sills on 3 different Z3's this summer, this strip down routine is now a 15 - 20 minutes job for me.

I quickly assessed that this side was also pretty bad with rust. The sill was almost "done", but the "channel" it self and the jackpoints were still good and only had superficial rust. So since I'm not to concerned about the "look" on this car, everything was brushed/sanded down. And treated with rust stopper, primer, color and clear coat.

This kind of work is dull and but is nice to have some good friends that like to help out.

I forgot to take pictures of the actual paint work, but here you get an idea. My garage is not exactly the perfect location to do this kind of work, so I spend some time with hanging up and down plastic walls to create temporary paint boot.

However we did finish the paint work and it was time to put things back together again. Another friend of my (the one that bought the 2.8 of me) came over to help out. On this pic you can clearly see the color different between new and old hellrot color.

Did also get time to test out my new ebay splash guards. Hoping to cover up the openings between the inner fender and sills, to reduce the salt and dirt level inside the car this winter.

Not sure if I have mentioned this, but seats in this car were completely worn out and the lift/forward/back mechanism completely rusted. So I was in the market for two new seats that could fit this Z3. As most of you know very few aftermarkets seats fits theses cars, however last week a shop in Oslo had a 1/2 price sales on two decent racing seats (no brand) with sliders. So I managed to purchase two them before they were sold out.

Wanted to test fit these and see how much I would need to shave of the shoulder support facing the door side. That meant that the OEM seats needed go out first. The passenger side had stopped working and I could not get it forward to access the rear floor mounts. I tried every trick that google could give me, but it would not move at all.
So we ended up bring out the "magic tool" and saw the whole seat and floor mount out. With the floor mount out, we quickly confirmed that the mechanism bringing the seat forward and back where completely rusted (where missing threads etc..).

Anyway we did get this result:

A quick test fit with a person, confirmed that I will have trim about 1-2 cm on the outside of the shoulder support. To get these seats fitted nicely.

But first I needed to look into how things looked like underneath the floor carpet.

A old Zed never fails with delivering wet floors

I manage to soak up about 5-6 liter just with sponge, before I inserted my drying machine. ( A shoe drier with hoses that I use for the kids shoes, it allows me to direct the air exactly where I want it)

When this is dry, I will need to go over the wiring and check everything before I close this floor again. While I was doing this my mate took a look into the "elephant nose drain" issue with these car.
Both holes where completely closed and was probably the major issue for the wet floor problem in this car. ( The "pool" fills itself up and water starts leak in to the car at the heat blower ).

Anyway we got it cleaned out and I have added this as a task to my annual service/inspection list for the Zeds.

So the work list for the hellrot now look like this now:

• new door seals (@spurs fan in a coupe might help with these)
• dry up the car and go through the wiring
• seat mounts for the new seats ( A shop in also had some that might fit)
• Airbag terminators to avoid airbag lamp.
• Change the rear wheel bearing ( I was planned to this my self, but my Indy offered to do this really cheap for me. So he will handle this next week).

Then the car is ready for DD duties trough the winter here.

However I have a long term plan as well:

• Upgrade the front brakes to wented ones (same as Zed 2.x and upwards, already purchased).
• Some new rims and wheels for tracking.
• Roll bars (again @spurs fan in a coupe will sort me out here)
• Some new springs and dampers to get the car a little lower. The OEM ones are way to high and soft for spirited driving.

Have great weekend folks!

 

[DavidM]

The hard work continues - a great read!

 

[fxslin]

Didn't plan to work with a car today, however my mate pm'ed me and asked: "Shouldn't we do the oil change today?".

Since it was a nice and warm autumn day today, I agreed.

Cars lined up to get some TLC.

We started out on my old car, quick oil drain, filter change and refill.

My hellrot got the same treatment, but we also did a quick run with engine cleaning stuff. However the oil we drained didn't look to bad, so previous owner must have changed the oil quit recently. But better safe, than sorry. Now I know that it has fresh oil

Some more result of me playing with the camera.

Not a Zed, but a nice 1936 Austin Seven in good condition. Runs nicely and is uber fun to drive

 

[fxslin]

Looks like I've neglected this thread bit lately. However the Hellrot has recieved a lot of TLC lately.

As you might have seen in my previous posts, I started the process with swapping out the broken seats for some aftermarkets ones. However I struggled with finding some proper seats mounts for these ones. So I ended up with some mounts for E36/46 and adapt them to fit the Z3. I had to make them about 5 cm more narrow.

Did some ueven cuts to get the welding at different locations in the frame.

After cut out it was time to reassemble the parts into something useful. ( a friend of me will weld the seat frames at some point ).

Then time to get on the chair.

Was a lot error and trial to get the alignment perfect allowing to be able to bolt rear seatmounts to the floor and at the same time get the seat enough backwards in the car. Anyway ended up with this result:

The seats are not super comfortable, but does the job in a budget winter/play car.
Also did replace the door handles gaskets, in my effort to minizie water leakage into the car.

A few days later, I decided that I wanted to add some protection the rear wheel fenders. So I bought some cheap magnetic sheets on ebay. And made my own DIY stoneguards. Used the ones from the ///M as template. Good enough for me and covers my bad paint job

I always keep an eye on the market for rims, one never know what bargains the could turn up. However I was also in the market for cheap wintertires/rims to modify for this winters icetracking events. Suddenly a cheap set with decent rims and wheels came up in my neighborhood ( 50£ ), the seller even did home delivery

These turned out to be newer and in much better conditions that the ones I already had on the hellrot, so these quickly. So they quickly was mounted on and is now my DD wheels for this winter, whilst my old set will then be the icetracking set (they will get studs mounted on).

A few days later a long awaited package from @spurs fan in a coupe finally arrived. After some detours here and there

However I was a bit puzzled after removing the wrap.

One thing is sure @spurs fan in a coupe takes his packaging game serious! Which I'm very happy for, all the parts looked good and had no shipment damages.

This package meant a lot more garage time and winter is coming. So I just had get it done
I've installed roll bars before, so this task i kinda going quickly.
But first i needed to swap over the old locking cylinder from my old storage box to retain locking functionality with the key of my car. Not a difficult process just a lot of screws.

Got some help from a mate and we quickly got things apart and could start to install the roll bars. At the same time I also did some wiring of the rear window heater on the hardtop. And prepared things for the switch panel, @Jjim and @spurs fan in a coupe is sorting me out with the last missing parts for this.

Installing the roll bars with the seats out certainly speeds things up.

After the roll bars install, I also changed the door seals and worked the A-pillar drains making sure that they would work this winter. Found a few patches, where the drain has cracked. So I need to rework this a bit with some glue or buy new A-pillar rubber.

Old ones out:

New ones installed and now I hope the car is a little bit more resistance to snow and rain

I ended this round with cleaning the car and do some rust proofing (squirt oil in all openings underneath) to add some extra protection for this winter.

As a last detail I added some stickers with my clubs slogan to the car, which says something like this:
"We still play with cars"

 

[Jjim]

Certainly got a lot done on the red Z3. Looks good.
Bargain on the wheels

 

[Althulas]

Nice update, new wheels look smart.

 

[fxslin]

A few days after I finished the DD project for the winter this happens So happy I'm managed to get most of stuff done before the first snow!

 

[Dino D]

A few days after I finished the DD project for the winter this happens So happy I'm managed to get most of stuff done before the first snow!

View attachment 68946

I'm jealous of that snow and having a second Z to enjoy it in! Better than summer driving!!

 

[Althulas]

First snow already! rarely get bad snow in Oxfordshire last dump was 2010 and at that time the Isle of Man got it which is very rare they even produced a snow book of the island quite quaint.

 

[fxslin]

Finally X-mas and New years celebration is over and time think cars again.

When thinking back since my last post here, I've realized that a lot has happened. Luckily I have a similar thread on a Norwegian forum, helping me with the details. I will try to bring this thread up to date over next few days.

In at the end of November a friend of me decided that he needed another car After a few rounds he settle that Z4 Coupe was a car bringing the missing piece to his collection.

Actually is the father of my friend who bought it for his collection, he already has an Austin Seven, Caterham and the green Z3 seen in this thread before.

So he bought a well known and well maintained Z4 Coupe from a Norwegian Zedder, however the car was located on the west coast of Norway. And the father didn't have time to go over him self to pick it up before the winter would arrive, so me and his son decided that we would drive over and fetch it for him.

A serious trip as you can see:

We decided that we would tackle the moutain on the way over and drive the costal route on our way back with the Z4. We packed up my X5 with the basic survial gears needed (snow showel, food and water), as it was reported that it could be a snow storm in the mountains. We also packed up a extra set of winter tires for the Z4 as it only had summer tires.

Ready to leave:

We did indeed face some massive snow weather in the mountains forcing us to drive slower, but nothing that would stop the X5 or feel unsafe. There was little traffic as well, since most normal people stay home when the weather is like this

Little pitstop, after crossing the worst part of the weather.

However we arrived our destination safely and could check in at the hotel for a good night sleep before picking up the car the next day.

As you can see our avg. speed over the mountain was not very high, but this was expected.

The following day we went to pick up the car. As we arrived the sellers place, he had everything nicely packed up, so all we needed to do was a quick tire change and pack up my car with the spare parts and tires.

What a beauty!

Mounting winter tires, luckily they fitted nicely over the brakes.

My car fully loaded and we were ready for the return trip:

We took the coastal road back home as the Z4 would not be able to handle the winter conditions over the mountain. Some nice roads at the Norwegian west coast.

Z4 Coupe vs X5, two cars in opposite side of the "scale"

After several hours on the road and swapping cars between us, to variant the drive a bit. We finally made to the last ferry over the Oslo Fjord.

Last leg, only 15min from our destination, after doing 1100km over 2 days.

Finally home and the journey computer reported this:

We got to "bond" with the Z4 Coupe on that trip. And I must say I loved to drive it, the 3.0L engine is such a responsive and willing engine mated with a nice transmission. The car handles really nice and does inspire the driver along the way. Very similar to my Z3M in enjoyable and fun driving. Definitely a car I want to own once.

 

[fxslin]

(still a catch up post)

Most of the time before X-mas went with just using the Hellrot Z3 as a DD and trying to get on top of all chores with family and work.

The Z3M is stored nicely for the winter and is left there alone most of the time. Just me checking in on it once i while to make sure everything is OK.

As the winter started to settle in, it became clear the thermostat on the Hellrot need to be changed. However a friend of me and my self did invest a hour to try to air it out to see if we could get it back to life again. (since the it is still giving hot air to the heater).
But we had no luck, so this part needs to be replaced.

However the Hellrot is a budget car, so I'm still in the "bubble" regarding its future. But so far it has been a good and fun winter car.

My wife car has the other "VIP" spot in the garage, so it has a hard life over here

But it does still get some attention ie. while picking up Christmas trees or being driven around in city at winter time. (Don't remember if I posted this pic or not).

Another pic, that I like a lot

Next post will be from the first ice track event with the Hellrot.

 

[Slam]

Just read these posts from the start and it makes for a very interesting read. You have some very nice cars there and Norway looks a lovely country. Keep up the good work.