Jins 840 sport restoration thread

Hello all,

I've been lurking here quite a while now, waiting for the arrival of my '97 840 sport. It finally arrived Dec 15th after a 2 month wait - which gave me time to brush up on my E31 knowledge and plan out the schedule of works that I had planned.

A short while reading up here and Roadfly inevitably led me to Gerry at PhoenixMotorsport - a prolific poster and all round E31 wizard - i was in no doubt that the car was going straight down to him!

I managed to get the car at a very good trade price which left me with enough breathing space to plan a shedule of works that would otherwise be extremely uneconomical - as it's turned out so far the car owes me less than some of the better examples currently for sale - I'm quite pleased with that considering the amount of work carried out so far.

Thanks to Jud for the build sheet which showed a well specced car which included EDC (gulp)

Here are some pics of it's arrival.

Phase 1 - PhoenixMotorsport

The car came in need of a good going over so it was over to Gerry at PhoenixMotorsport for a comprehensive check over and service.

After a through going over we settled on the following jobs (amongst others):

Full Inspection 2 service:
fluids (engine,Transmission,coolant, brake) +filters
spark plugs
fuel filters
Cam cover gaskets
drive belts and pulleys
Braided brake hoses

Repairs
Auxiliary Water pump (heating working nice now!)
ABS pressure switch
Powerflex thrust arm bushes
heavy duty trailing arm bushes:
http://www.8er.org/forum/showthread.php?t=9647

Track rod ends
fix twisted seat

Suspension
Bilstein dampers all round
Eibach springs all round
Rear CSI bump stops
Rear strut reinforcing plates.
more here from Gerry himself:
http://www.8er.org/forum/showthread.php?t=9646

Others
Too many to list - Gerry sorted out many bits and bob, trim pieces etc FOC as a part of the service - Thanks Gerry!

Here are some of the pics Gerry took for me:

Phase 1 completed - new rims

Here are some pics with the new M-Parallel Reps - very pleased with them look great and the price is even better - Yes I know they are cast not forged therfore heavier weaker but I reckon this:

At £80 - £100 per wheel - who cares? if you bend it buy another - as compared with BMW at £250 per wheel.

Headlight bulb upgrades

Today I installed Phillips Xtreme power H1 halogen bulbs to replace the Osram bubls which were just rubbish - poor light and very yellow.

The result - like night and day - huge improvement - wasn't expecting much form just a bulb change but I am very satisfied indeed - The light is white and strong and there is much imporved road visibility,

Having a look at the lamp buckets further improvment can be gained by removing the lenses (the clips pop off) and polishing it should also be possible to to access and polsih the projector lenses as these have grease marks on them which is probably affecting the beam.

Sidelights
I couldn't be bothered to install LED and resistors so went down the route of making the sidelights use the 21W filament of the bulb instead of the meagre 5W - the proper way is to re-wire - but I'm too lazy for that! A bit of reading up and I found the ultimate cheat!

file the offset bayonet pin on the base of the bulb down so that it potrude about 1-2mm then force the bulb in with the pins the opposite way to normal - a firm twist and voila nice bright whitish sidelights that are very good at low light levels and help throw some extra light at the road - infact I hope I don't get pulled by the rozzers thinking I'm a boy racer with my fog lights on!

Very easy and cheap mod (you dont even have to buy new bulbs) and very satisfying as you don't need to get the popups out till its very dark.

Next up paintwork, polishing, and full interior removal and restoration!

Zitat von ukzero;73897

Warning!
Be very careful when cleaning the reflectors in the lights.
Past experience taught me the expensive lesson that the electroplating on these surfaces can be very thin and after a few years not very well attached, despite appearances to the contrary.

Thanks for the heads up - I was just going to clean the projector lens glass which seems to be a bit greasy/cloudy - is this what you mean or so you mean the reflective mirror behind the bulb?

Zitat von stevep840;73898

I quite agree with you, this is the best way to get into 8 series motoring now these cars have turned the corner, contrary to those that still advise 'get the very best you can' each to their own I guess but I'm with you on this one;-)

keep enjoying your car

"Get the very best you can"

People are starting to ask silly money for examples like that: £8-9K+ The ones that sell quickly are the 97+ sports for less than 7k

many of the items I've had repaired are wear items that could easily need doing on one of those.

Zitat von Timm;73909

Great thread and a good looking E31 Jin. I agree with you on the replica's, they look near enough to the OEM's but are a third of the price! Did you go with the DP rims in the end and did you get them shod with tyres?

Yep - Dp Motorsport with falken tyres (not 452's) for £750 - 235/40 front and 265/35 rears - LOL - the rims are cheaper than the rubber they sit on.

Just playing around with the Hipstamatic photo app on my iPhone - some cool effects to be had

Zitat von keenan;80519

Lookin' good Jin - you've a nice sheen on her at present, great to see. Great thread - any more updates, keep 'em coming!

Ah - that would be the 30+ hours spent machine polishing then more finishing with Zaino.

Never again - I'll save up the pennies and get a pro to do it next time!

coming soon

As Stevep840 is selling up, I thought I would try to carry the 20" Alpina torch onward.

I picked up a set today and had to get the sellers local tyre co to take the E38 tyres off as there was no way all 4 were going in my E39!!

Im gonna get them refurbed (they're in pretty good nick but I want to start from scratch)

Pics to follow.....

thanks for the inspiration Steve and the German gentleman with daytona purple CSI.

Interior refurb

Ok finally got round to this after putting it off for months because I enjoying the car so much.

here are the pics of getting the seats out - the refurb will take longer and to be honest I don't know 100% how it will turn out.

Have to say, taking out the Interior was easy - very sensibly put together - just always err on the gentle side with clips etc.

The front seats are heavyish, but I like weightlifting in my spare time (no joke) so I was fine - I'm not sure how another person could help here TBH, IMO its one of those things where you just need to get a good grip and "spin" your way out of the car.