the project I said I would never do when i bought it project

Monkey

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2012
Points
21
When i bought the Z3, i said i wasnt going to do anything to it, apart from general maintenence.

that has now all changed.

Spec when bought:

1.9 Z3. Built March 1998 in Boston Green

Photo of when i bought it

Roof up



Roof Down




when i bought it, the list contained only

New boot lid to remove the luggage rack
New h/U as the car did have one
fix central/remote locking
fix electric seats

Electric seats were taken apart, freed up, rocking mod added and re fitted. and all working

H/U bought, a lovly pioneer MP3 with integrated parrot Handsfree kit, awsome

Central/remote locking fixed

whilst doing all this i found an oil leak, which is comming from crank case. this is a problem, which i still havnt permanently fixed, i was and still am planning on finding another 1.9 engine to drop straight in, and then completly rebuild this one. i was expecting to pick up an enigine this weekend, but it had already sold. so i'm back on the look. i'm NOT going to put a different engine in.

i put the car on a computer, as i noticed a possible miss fire, but i couldnt be certian, it was intermittant at best. the computer showed a miss fire, along with some other stuff (CAS sensor issue) so i check HT leads and found one to be a bit worse for wear (cylinder 3) replaced the HT leads and all codes now gone. and it runs alot smoother.

i have replaced the boot lid, which i found to be a different green entirely GRRRR, but i also bought a new front passenger wing, a new passenger wing mirror (both being the correct colour) and a new gear knob.

i bought and fitted a windbreak, i forget which one, but i'm not that impressed with it.

i also this weekend removed the mud flaps, and changed the BMW centre caps for new ones.

photo of how it looks now



To do:
Friday it going to get the back end painted so it all matches
need to find a passenger headlight washer jet, as this is how it looks



i want to replace the steering wheel, with a smaller BMW one, but thats not urgent.

and then in 2 weeks it having a very special treat.

i will say that all i'm going to do, but i know it wont be.
 

Brian4

Zorg Guru (IV)
British Zeds
East Anglian Crew
Joined
Dec 23, 2011
Points
173
Location
Near Grantham
Model of Z
Z3 3.0i Auto
Re: the project I said I would never do when i bought it pro

Hi monkey

Welcome and good to see another Zed being revived.

Quarry motors are a good supply of parts for the headlamp washer or one of the breakers search engines(24/7 spares etc).

Happy hunting and hope to see you at Silverstone in July

Brian
 

Jonttt

Zorg Addict
Joined
Dec 5, 2011
Points
60
Location
Liverpool (UK)
Model of Z
///M S54
Re: the project I said I would never do when i bought it pro

Which smaller BMW sterring wheel are you going to change it for as the newer ones will not fit and have non compatable airbag electrics ?
 

Snoops

Zorg Addict
Joined
Dec 10, 2011
Points
51
Location
Red Rose Country
Model of Z
2.8
Re: the project I said I would never do when i bought it pro

Good to see another Boston green being given a new lease of life - top job :-bd
 

GazHyde

Administrator
Administrator
Global Moderator
M Power
Joined
Dec 2, 2011
Points
226
Location
Berkshire
Model of Z
Z4 MR
Re: the project I said I would never do when i bought it pro

The bug gets to you eventually!

I've never mod'ed a car before I owned my Z3. It all started with a couple of tweaks....
 

Monkey

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2012
Points
21
Re: the project I said I would never do when i bought it pro

Brian4 said:
Hi monkey

Welcome and good to see another Zed being revived.

Quarry motors are a good supply of parts for the headlamp washer or one of the breakers search engines(24/7 spares etc).

Happy hunting and hope to see you at Silverstone in July

Brian
cheers for the welcome, i'll look up Quarry Motors cheers for that. I've had bad experiences with the 24/7 find-a-part type places before, so i'd rather not use them.

Jonttt said:
Which smaller BMW sterring wheel are you going to change it for as the newer ones will not fit and have non compatable airbag electrics ?
not too sure yet, i dont even know which wheels are smaller. but changing the electrics wont be a problem.

Snoops said:
Good to see another Boston green being given a new lease of life - top job :-bd
hard top said:
Nice work Monkey, like the pepper pots, not many people would run with those nowadays bit I kind of like them.
I hope you know that you can buy plugs for your boot lid if you remove the rack?

http://bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/Z3/Ro ... r_rack_z3/
Thanks, i didnt like the pepperpots that much, but they are growing on me. And as no one else likes them they are "rarer" thus my car looks different. thats the idea anyway. yes i saw the boot plugs, but i dont like that look. one thing you will notice is that when i do anything i'll do it the "best" way, no short cuts. if it costs more to do, i'll wait till i can afford to.

GazHyde said:
The bug gets to you eventually!

I've never mod'ed a car before I owned my Z3. It all started with a couple of tweaks....
i've owned lots of car, and mod'ed most, but the Z3 was not going to have any work done, apart from the essentials to keep it on the road, and legal. but i have wanted a project car for a while. and the Z3 is a much better car than i thought and i have grown to love it. and one thing after another and i'm here replying to this thread.
 

Jonttt

Zorg Addict
Joined
Dec 5, 2011
Points
60
Location
Liverpool (UK)
Model of Z
///M S54
Re: the project I said I would never do when i bought it pro

Monkey said:
Jonttt said:
Which smaller BMW sterring wheel are you going to change it for as the newer ones will not fit and have non compatable airbag electrics ?
not too sure yet, i dont even know which wheels are smaller. but changing the electrics wont be a problem.
Its not that simple I'm afraid as it would mean changing the "brain" of the SRS system. Later cars have a more sophisticated dual stage system which means that timing is an important factor in the way an aurbag is deployed, hence a later dual stage airbag wheel cannot be fitted to a single stage system car such as yours.

Some have fittd non airbag wheels but that depends how much you value your face and your insurance company accepting the much higher extra risk of personal injury without an airbag fitted ;-)

The only known option of fitting a smaller wheel whilst retaining an airbag in a single stage car such as yours is the raid wheels. Unfortunately these are predominently made for Porsches and hence are not cheap !
 
Top