My Fiji Green 2.8 Upgrade Thread

[Wilko58]

So, my son bought a 1998 2.8 Fiji Green Individual 2.8 on 22 April 2016. The car came with an almost new mohair hood, AC Schnitzer 18" wheels, a good history and a mileage of around 85k. However, he soon realised that it wasn't practical (for him)l and he was worried about parking it on the street but he didn't really want to sell it so it she has ended up in my hands.

My first move was a hard top which I found in Glasgow for £850 including the fitting kit (he wanted £850 but I got him down to £700 as I had to buy the latch covers because he'd thrown his away!); unfortunately Fiji Green hard top are like hen's teeth so I had to spend another £250 getting it painted.

I also had the wheels refurbished and some new tyres fitted. Next was a complete service including coolant, transmission fluid, differential oil and brake fluid.

Now I'd had all that done (I've not got a garage, space or even the physical wellbeing to try and attempt to do it myself) and having read up on Z3s and their good and bad bits I found myself giving the car a good looking over and on closer inspection I found that I would have to replace the rusty wings and sills.

Next up was things I wanted to do to make her nice so first up was a Royal steering wheel - flat bottomed, thickened and M stitching (pic to follow) - it's gorgeous!

But then came the bad news - I found five spot welds in the boot that had not only gone rusty but had cracked all the way around the weld (

So I pondered.....tbc

 

[EnthuZiaZT]

Well Wilko58 you have a highly individual car there, Fiji green is a beutiful colour, I'm sure you can get the spot welds sorted quite cheaply, just ask around the local garages for a quote. Keep going you will get there in the end.

Mike&Sandy

 

[Shelly]

What great work your doing @Wilko58
Well done to you

 

[andyglym]

Nice write-up, good luck

 

[Slam]

Can they be drilled and plug welded ? Great right up by the way

 

[Wilko58]

They can be drilled and plug welded but they are prone to giving way again and it also depends on how much damage has been done - the worst example I've seen had the whole left side of the beam ripped from the boot floor. I've also seen photos of spot weld repairs where the sheet metal around them has actually torn. Randy Forbes (USA) does a kit that takes 30 hours too install so is very expensive and there are a couple of UK companies that do a similar job of their own design; one has a 4 month waiting list as M3s have the same issue. I've trusted mine to Martyn Scott who has a lot of experience fixing these and M3s (he races M3s) and lots of experience with other mods and things like oversteer/understeer. He quoted around £700 but that includes dropping the whole rear subframe, cleaning everything and powder coating the bits that need it, plus removing all the underseal, rust treatment, strengthening the boot floor and returning it to standard plus resealing the underneath - I've obviously gone a lot further seeing as the car was being taken apart anyway lol!

 

[Wilko58]

First lot of photos - before:

 

[Wilko58]

The start of the good bits )
My Royal steering wheel - amazing

 

[Wilko58]

HEL braided brake lines

 

[Wilko58]

I cleaned and repainted the fuel tank straps (£44.88 plus VAT each new from BMW!) and Power Steering Cooling Pipe to give to Martyn to change over. These are the first pictures of the work in progress - the dropped subframe complete, Diff housing and propshaft cleaned and painted and new Meyle HD front arms and the beam being cleaned. The paint is POR15.

 

[andyglym]

Coming along nicely

 

[Wilko58]

I should have added a list of the work being done so here goes:

• Repair the cracked and rusty spot welds
• Replace ALL the bushes with (mostly) polyurethane ones - Powerflex purple including rear shock top mounts as they include a reinforcement plate and eccentric bushes to change camber introduced by lowering suspension. Direnza engine and transmission mounts. Z3M/M3 lollipop bushes. H&R anti-roll bar bushes.
• Fit H&R anti-roll (sway) bars.
• Fit Bilstein B12 suspension kit - 30mm drop front and rear using Eibach springs.
• Brakes: Change all flexible brake lines to HEL Stainless Steel (plastic coated) ones. Replace all brake lines. Replace all handbrake system components. Refurbish rear calipers. Change rear disks and pads (Mtec Gold Grooved disks and Mintex Pads. Change front brakes to 330i calipers and carriers (refurbished by me - changed pistons and seal and painted gold) including Hack Engineering brass sliders and 325mm Brembo Grooved disks and Brembo pads..
• Treat all rust and reseal the whole of the underneath with POR15.
• Replace power steering rack with an E46 Purple Tag rack - same ratio but longer reach so more lock and slightly faster - includes new arms and track rod ends.
• Refurbish the steering column lower arm (very rusty) - new one is £282 plus VAT from BMW!
• Remove viscous fan - prone to exploding and not really needed especially if an auxiliary fan is already fitted.
• Fit Dinan stut brace.
• 4 wheel alignment.
• MOT!

I think that's it!

 

[andyglym]

That's almost a new Zed. Should last for many years to come

 

[Wilko58]

I'm hoping so Andy!

 

[Dino D]

Need to add black sports to that list now @Wilko58 !

I was up at @Martyn Scott to see drop off @Wilko58 new seats and have a nosey.
This is going to be one seriously sorted Z3. Just when I thought I was done I got a few more ideas.....'never done' is the right phrase.
First time seeing a Fiji too, very cool colour.

Hopefully see you Thursday if you can pop down Canterbury (I have no seats to drive mine now )

 

[Wilko58]

Sorry Dino, car wasn't done until 5:00pm Friday and I was working Sat at 07:00 - only got home at 11:30pm traffic was that bad.

 

[Wilko58]

I'll update this thread soon. In answer to the question about the H&Rs - can't really say as I haven't been on any real twisties and even then, I've had that much done I probably won't be able to tell what mod did what

 

[DavidM]

Great work bringing the car back to a high standard!

 

[Dino D]

Sorry Dino, car wasn't done until 5:00pm Friday and I was working Sat at 07:00 - only got home at 11:30pm traffic was that bad.

No worries Tracey, I figured you must have been busy, hope you get a chance to try out that new suspension and rack soon!

 

[Luckylucas]

Steering wheel looks a great piece of work, did you exchange your old one or is it of the shelf ?
& of course how much??