Dragged Out of the Salvage Yard - Bringing a Coupe Back to Life

[Randy Forbes]

Granted that you can mount the alarm siren anywhere you want, regardless of the length of wire supplied. If the alarm installation was done to the letter, as spelled out in the included instructions, then the siren would be mounted just inboard of the LH frame-rail within the aluminum armature of the front bumper. The supplied cable with plastic sheathing would pass around the outside of the LH shock tower, and be secured along with the existing harness, similar to your first picture in Post #4. That's not the correct cable clamp in your picture, and the wiring would be grouped between the welded on stud and the shocktower, instead of outboard of the stud.

Since we're splitting hairs

I really wish I had a better picture to show for an example__and I may have, but I'm just not in the mood to look through the 50,778 pics in my gallery at the moment__but apparently there's not much exciting to look at on the outboard side of the LH strut tower!
As can be seen in this 2000 IR Coupe, it has the same cable/same sheath as shown on your car. The plastic clamp, for lack of a better description, looks like a typical 1-hole conduit clamp. This was one of the earliest cars I did the reinforcement on (#5?) and followed that up with a turbocharger installation. It was an awesome car!

[lokijibber]

I would be curious to know the economics of buying this car + restore vs. buying a 170k non-salvage M-coupe and rebuilding the engine / etc.

Beyond economics is teaching the kid to diagnose / repair and building the father/son/car relationship. Rebuilding an engine would be fun but not as practical.

I did something similar at 15 with an 1984 Camaro and my Dad. Now, I have convinced him to buy Z and I am teaching him different jobs and nuances of these cars. It's been incredibly rewarding and brought my Dad and I very close. Not to mention that it started me on a life-long hobby that is much more productive than the other shit I was doing at 15.

This is an awesome thread. I absolutely love it.

[MudHut]

I went and looked at this car on the 22nd of December 2014 by my picture stamp. You must have bought it up soon after seeing that there snow in your driveway picture. Good for you for saving the car. I have a bunch of pictures of this car in the salvage yard if you want them for posterity sake.

Jay

[Outrider]

Randy, thanks for the guidance on how to place the alarm components. I want to "encourage" my son to put the car together as BMW intended, absent some compelling reason to do otherwise.

Jay, we got the car in January, so you've pretty much nailed the timing. I'd love to get the photos. I generally find salvage yards to be pretty depressing, but was glad to see this car hadn't been subjected to the worst kind of scavenging even when other cars had clearly been stripped.

[2santiago]

Great work!!! Love seeing father and son protects. Brings back memories. 😊

[Outrider]

A couple of updates...

David put the new fender on.



The rear bumper cover had the VIN sticker on it, but the metal beam was bent, as was one of the bolts that secured the beam to the beam mounts.



You can also see what sitting in the dirt did to the inside of the bumper cover. Washes right off, but it means that every part of the car needs cleaning.

[FarEast1]

This is a great project. Congrats!

FE1

[bimmerbri2]

Can't believe no one has said this so to the OP...your wife is awesome!

[Outrider]

Can't believe no one has said this so to the OP...your wife is awesome!

She tells me so all the time. ; )

[Outrider]

There were a few challenges yesterday. David put on the hood latches and discovered the importance of proper alignment. We spent a lot of tense moments with the hood unlatched, but un-openable.



I also got a good look at the rear bumper shock mounts. The paint scrapes show these were compressed at some point. My guess is that these dampeners are probably not intended for repeat compressions.

[Rabbi Doom]

Awesome work! It's great seeing a father/son tackle something like this!

[bubbafett]

Mad props for saving a rare z3 coupe! So glad to see this, too nice of a car to be parted out or crunched.

What did you pay for the totaled car if you don't mind me asking?

[MartyBtoo]

When my Coupe was rear-ended one rear bumper mount was only compressed 1/16", and they left it. The other was compressed 1-1/2" and they replaced it.

Marty

[328 Power 04]

You sir are a gentleman of true character. Thank you for rescuing that particular coupe. I've been following it from place to place, auction to auction, waiting for someone to bring it back to life, as they all deserve. BMW is NOT making any more unique cars like this anymore. Last one that attempted to get close was the 1M.

[Outrider]

No progress today, but my parts list is building. Looks like I'm going to spring for both of the rear bumper shocks and a new beam. Ironically, the bumper cover, which I've already got a painted replacement for, looks like it would've been relatively easy to refinish.

The structural bumper parts seem sensible to replace even if "they'll do" as is. The driver's side seems to have stroked about 1.5 inches. The passenger side shows a half inch scrape, but it does not look like it fully re-extended because it's shorter than the driver's side. I need to check the Bentley to see if they list any specs, but many times Bentley leaves out body repair info. My sense is that stroking the bumper supports couldn't have improved their ability to protect the car from my son, nor from someone who would hit his bumper.

Thanks for all the kind notes and support. We really hoped this would be a worthwhile project, both by saving the car and by getting my son into a "forever car" he wouldn't likely otherwise get an opportunity to own. As many of you have noted, there are great life lessons to be learned, as well as a sense of true investment in the car beyond just the money and the labor.

[BimmerBreaker]

That bumper would definitely have been salvageable... I've got a few projects I'd like to have a bumper for... if you are intersted in selling it please let me know

Great progress as well!

[wrench13]

I have a set of front bumper shocks you can have. Send me a PM w/ address. I though I was going to need them but tunred out not to be the case. Just pay the shipping to Va.

[Jeremy]

Glad to see it being restored and spared from the crusher. Have seen a few photos on Instagram here and there.

[Outrider]

Still waiting for parts. The engine is running without issue. The cooling system was intact in that it was full of fluid, but it was still bent. So with the front end off and a need to break open the system, we changed the water pump (replaced stock with Stewart) and, because David has to upgrade, we put in a metal ECS water pulley. The a/c condenser is in, but is not yet pressurized. The power steering loop was also replaced. I'm thinking about replacing the power steering reservoir, too, because it has a built in filter that can't otherwise be replaced.

The car is sitting on Style 18s which will be replaced in due time with Roadstars. The Style 18s are only on the car to keep it rolling and off the ground. I like Style 18s, but they are not the right rims for this car. Our Z is more likely to see Style 18s, since they are available in the right offset for a Z and can be had as staggered 17s.

[robb1887]

Too bad you went with the Z3 PS loop. You can swap the E36 trumpet looking loop onto the steering rack and it cleans up the front end a lot for other (intercooler ) projects.

I had my eye on this one a few times when I was looking a few years ago for mine and was considering doing what you are doing now but didn't jump in. Good work!

[dklay]

Mad props for saving a rare z3 coupe! So glad to see this, too nice of a car to be parted out or crunched.

I second that. Look forward to seeing it all put together and road-worthy!

[Outrider]

So the front end is going pretty well. One thing that can be very hard to sort out is aligning the hood. Given the hood's massive size, it's important to get this right. David got some advice on how to align the hood from the tech who did the bodywork for his car (Mike). David is not given to complements, but he was extremely impressed by Mike's experience and ingenuity. When we picked a body shop to help with the project, we wanted a shop with extensive BMW experience and were hoping to find Z3 expertise as well. The shop we chose is BMW certified and Mike is their Z3 guy.

IMG_6126.jpgIMG_6124.jpgIMG_6123.jpg

There was a minor amount of pilferage from the car when it was in the salvage yards. We discovered that one of the wiring pigtails was missing from the "good" headlight. So a big part of this project has been sorting out parts.

When I tried to order the part via a local dealer's Internet site, the part indicated NLA. This was an error with the web site that I got corrected when I called the dealer. I've used a few sources for parts. In this case, I went with closest because it was ordered in conjunction with a bumper beam and shipping costs dictate local pick-up. These parts should be in Tuesday or Wednesday.

[Randy Forbes]

On this car, I aligned the rearmost corners of the hood to the cowl and door tops; everything else__gills, fenders, bumper & hdlts__can be aligned to the hood.







Here's the before (BEFORE deer!) pics:





The USAA estimate on this one was initially $7500.00, but that was written without being able to get the hood open. I think there was another $1500.00 in damages (including the integrated S-54 MAF/air filter box and a/c condenser) but mostly more plastic, as they put the radiator support in the initial estimate.

[Outrider]

So time for another update...

Here's the front:

IMG_6167.jpg

And the rear bumper going on:

IMG_6179.jpg

And the rear spoiler now attached to the hatch:

IMG_6188.jpg

[BimmerBreaker]

That antennae looks wonky as heck

Nice progress overall, good to see it coming together