Massachusetts 1989 ix Project

[1SGDHORN]

Funny how things have a way of working out.

I was on the hunt for plastic bumpers for my 1990 vert and ended up finding a very rusty Alpinweiss 89 ix sedan as a donor 2.5 hours from me in Vermont. Paid $800.00 and drove it all the way back to MA without a hiccup. I was also on the hunt for a sedan or coupe as an all around driver in bad weather when it's not ideal to drive the convertible but, after driving the ix on a couple of snow covered Vermont back roads I new exactly what car I wanted... A 4-door, 5-speed, ix.

Well, I found ALMOST what I wanted. An exceptionally rust free Alpinweiss 89 sedan with a bad auto transmission... No worries, the 89 parts car I bought for the bumpers has a 5-speed manual. Time to swap out the bad auto and transplant in a 5-speed.

Paid $1800.00 for it and thought that was a good deal given how exceptionally rust free the car is. And the auto would have been swapped even if in good working order.


The Good:

Very, Very rust free. The ONLY rust on the car is at the bottom of the driver's door. That is it, even the battery box is rust free.
White with black interior.
The motor runs very smoothly with no knocks or valve noise.
Heat works as it should.
Brand new Kuhmo tires.
A working VC as far as my testing shows. The parts car VC works as well.
Have several thousand in receipts for recent maintenance.
Car has an original NLA Racing Dynamics rear apron.
Door cards are not delaminating at all.
All exterior lights work as they should.
Lowered on M3 coils. Or so the receipts say.


What needs looking after:

Timing belt age uncertain, already have a replacement.
All new belts and hoses will be needed. Just to be safe.
AC compressor present but not hooked up. That will need fixing. Probably just replace the compressor, dryer, etc...
Rear windows not working. Donor car may come in handy.
Tach not working. ???
Missing OEM radio. A pet peeve of mine is having and original radio.
Original basketweaves are in rough condition. Lots of curb rash. Probably replace with wheels with ones in a lot better condition.
Seats are mismatched black sport seats. Same style just one is leather and one vinyl. I am considering E36 or E46 seats as I can source them at my local pick and pull for $35.00 each. Leather non powered.
Bottom of driver's door has some surface rust. Donor car's does not.
Front valance and lip need replacing. Valance is only $125.00 at my local dealership with my 20% BMW CCA membership discount.
Has an exhaust leak. Good excuse for a custom exhaust.
sunroof hand crank doesn't stow properly but, sunroof works as it should.


She will be in the company of my 90 325i vert and 1987 E24 M6.

[maxg765]

Funny how things have a way of working out.

I was on the hunt for plastic bumpers for my 1990 vert and ended up finding a very rusty Alpinweiss 89 ix sedan as a donor 2.5 hours from me in Vermont. Paid $800.00 and drove it all the way back to MA without a hiccup. I was also on the hunt for a sedan or coupe as an all around driver in bad weather when it's not ideal to drive the convertible but, after driving the ix on a couple of snow covered Vermont back roads I new exactly what car I wanted... A 4-door, 5-speed, ix.

Well, I found ALMOST what I wanted. An exceptionally rust free Alpinweiss 89 sedan with a bad auto transmission... No worries, the 89 parts car I bought for the bumpers has a 5-speed manual. Time to swap out the bad auto and transplant in a 5-speed.

Paid $1800.00 for it and thought that was a good deal given how exceptionally rust free the car is. And the auto would have been swapped even if in good working order.

The Good:

Very, Very rust free. The ONLY rust on the car is at the bottom of the driver's door. That is it, even the battery box is rust free.
White with black interior.
The motor runs very smoothly with no knocks or valve noise.
Heat works as it should.
Brand new Kuhmo tires.
A working VC as far as my testing shows. The parts car VC works as well.
Have several thousand in receipts for recent maintenance.
Car has an original NLA Racing Dynamics rear apron.
Door cards are not delaminating at all.
All exterior lights work as they should.
Lowered on M3 coils. Or so the receipts say.

What needs looking after:

Timing belt age uncertain, already have a replacement.
All new belts and hoses will be needed. Just to be safe.
AC compressor present but not hooked up. That will need fixing. Probably just replace the compressor, dryer, etc...
Rear windows not working. Donor car may come in handy.
Tach not working. ???
Missing OEM radio. A pet peeve of mine is having and original radio.
Original basketweaves are in rough condition. Lots of curb rash. Probably replace with wheels with ones in a lot better condition.
Seats are mismatched black sport seats. Same style just one is leather and one vinyl. I am considering E36 or E46 seats as I can source them at my local pick and pull for $35.00 each. Leather non powered.
Bottom of driver's door has some surface rust. Donor car's does not.
Front valance and lip need replacing. Valance is only $125.00 at my local dealership with my 20% BMW CCA membership discount.
Has an exhaust leak. Good excuse for a custom exhaust.
sunroof hand crank doesn't stow properly but, sunroof works as it should.

She will be in the company of my 90 325i vert and 1987 E24 M6.

Great finds. The garage company is perfect. Theres a low mile 91 318i vert for sale that's caught my eye recently....if I bought that our garages will match.

Max

[Kershaw]

An original radio is your pet peeve, but hacking in later model seats doesn't bother you? Lol.

Looks like a great pick up. A manual transmission totally changes the feel of the car.

[1SGDHORN]

I wasn't thinking E36 seats would look THAT out of place but, maybe E46 would look too modern. I'm not talking Vader as those, to me, I do feel look out of place in the E30. For $70.00 a pair for leather non electric at my local pick and pull and an additional $140.00 for the custom brackets to make them a drop/bolt in I figured it's worth a try.

[1SGDHORN]

Thanks to the storm that hit New England today I had lots of garage time. The engine and transmission have now been removed from the donor car. I decided to drop it out the bottom and found that to be much easier. The whole process wasn't too bad. I am betting the removal of the auto transmission won't be as easy since I am leaving the engine in place.

The shifter will need rebuilding and the guibo between the transmission and tranfercase looks like it have seen better days.

Once the weather gets a bit warmer I will power wash everything and then begin the separation of the transmission from the motor.

[1SGDHORN]

Transmission is out and was pretty easy even working alone. Much easier with the engine out of the chassis. Clutch and flywheel off as well. Now I need to find a local machine shop that can resurface the flywheel, have the shell of the parts car removed from my garage and the auto ix pushed in so I can start the actual swap.

[1SGDHORN]

I found a mint set of E46 electric sport seats yesterday in my local pick and pull. $100.00 with tax can't be beat. Wiring should be pretty straight forward. Powering them is easy but, I am still trying to figure out the seat belt wiring. More pictures to follow once I have them set in place.

[1SGDHORN]

Seats installed. I am really liking them, especially their adjustability.

[1SGDHORN]

My new to me ix had replacement speakers, 5 1/4" Alpine SPS-500 in place of the standard round OEM speakers. In a parts car I had the premium speakers/housings but, the speakers were pretty far gone. I wondered if the Alpines would fit in place of the OEM speakers. Nope... Same size but, the center tweeter of the Alpines hit the metal screen. Then I thought, what about mounting them from the backside??? Other than trimming two reinforcement ribs they fit and the center tweeter no longer hits the metal screen. I would have added speaker cloth to the backside but, I was worried about any glue that I would use would clog up the holes and make a total mess. Yes, you can see the speakers through the screen but, this doesn't bother me. I also left the original tweeter in place so there wouldn't be an empty hole there.

And I also discovered that ALL parcel shelves have the ability to mount the larger "Premium" speakers/housings, you just need to cut along the dotted line on the back of the parcel shelf to fit them.

I know the sound may not be all that much of an improvement but, I like the looks of the original premium speaker housings much better than two aftermarket speakers back there.

[1SGDHORN]

I dyed the parts car's factory premium grey parcel shelf black but, one large and another small section just didn't seem to take the dye. Any ideas why? Contaminates? Thankfully I have a second shelf that seems to not have this issue but, I did have to cut the holes larger in the second one to fit the premium speaker housings.

If the second one doesn't come out nicely I am thinking of maybe covering it in black vinyl. Maybe. I know the rear shelf in my M6 is covered in leather but, I don't think I need to go that far...

[1SGDHORN]

Finished installing the newly dyed rear parcel shelf. Deep black to match the rest of the interior.

[1SGDHORN]

Once the auto was removed I discovered rust behind the exhaust downpipe heat shield as well as a small hole in the rear passenger's footwell. I ordered a rust free section out of California and had a local restoration shop cut out the bad sections and weld in the new rust free sections.