I have been given first refusal on either one or a pair of 635CSi's and I'm not sure how I should proceed as I have little previous experience of the marque.

1980 reg, 265000 miles, fsh, two tiny surface blemishes on bonnet, sound engine/body, drives well..requires brake pads for MOT, stored for 2 yrs

and/or

1983 reg, 127000 miles, fsh, no blemishes, BMW a/m alloys, sound engine/body, new 12 month MOT, in daily use until 6 months ago.

1980 is £450 and 1983 is £1450 or £1500 the pair.

Anything I should know about the cars...vices, parts probs etc before I decide?

You have actually been offered efectively two different cars. The 1980 six is based on the e12 5 series and no parts are interchangable with the later model. The later 1983 model is probable an e28 chassied car. However it depends on the build date. If the car was built in Jan or Feb 1983 then they both are the same model. The 1980 car is not worth having for spares unless it is the same model. To be able to tell the difference, the earlier cars rear bumpers will stop once they turn the corner whilst the later cars will go all the way to the wheel arch. Also within the engine the earlier car will have 6 exhaust coming from the engine and going downwards, while the later car will have the airflow meter on the top of the engine and a lot less flash manifold system.  The six is a good car and is mechanically solid, however its biggest problem is rust and they rust everywhere. Check wings wheel arches, floor pan inside the boot. basically everywhere. If the 1983 car is solid i would get it, but remember a pair of new wings will cost the best part of £1000. The earlier car whilst looking the same sufferes worse from rust and handles much worse as it's based on a more flexible chassi. Getting parts for the early car will be difficult where as the later model car is much easier and all parts are available. One other thing to bear in mind is that most sixes come with TRX metric wheels and tyres which are very exspensive to replace when the boots wear out and offer poor handling and wear. The earlier car will not so i would see if you could swap around the wheels and tyres. The choice with the wheels and tyres comes down to weather you want to keep the car original ar if you want to change things. Most six owners get rid of the metrics. (£200+ per corner).

Hope this helps.

Any more questions send me a private message.

James

I am going back to the sales yard tomorrow - Monday - to have another look at the earlier car.  Altho high miles on it, she is all original - apart from the new body panels done last November - and out of the two she sounds and pulls the best.  She needs some tlc doing internally, the leather is growing mould and the carpets are filthy, but nothing insurmountable.  If I go for the car, which I think I might, I'll take about 6-8 weeks to sort her out and MOT/tax her for mid summer, not going to rush the job cos I want to make sure its all done right.  I'll use my sick Nissan until the 6 is finished and then scrap the Nissan.

Really quite looking forward to doing the car up, being retired very very early I need something of a challenge to do and I think this is exactly what is required.  Should I get the car, I'll let you kno, and quite possibly ask you some seriously daft questions too...seeing as this will be my first BMW and a classic one at that 

Well she is now mine 

Collect her week on Friday.  Paid £425 for her and she is a beauty, been stored since 2002, started on the button without any hesitiation, smoke or idling problems.  I went for the earlier car in the end as she was in better overall condition, the later had been badly repainted and filled, had huge chunks missing out of the radiator from fan stikes and wasn't cared for as well as the one I went for.

She is Polaris Silver with blue leather interior, beige carpets..and apart from some TLC interior wise, she is as near perfect as she can be.  Already organised for a BMW trained mechanic to service and MOT her...inc changing the timing chain as a precaution...and I have a friend from the site I used to go on, cos I had a car of the type, the Mk3 Supra site who has a shed load of spares, inc an 'M' engine incase I need parts for her.

I is a very very very happy bunny 

One thing that really did it for me was the condition of her bodywork, immaculate all bar two spots of bubbling no bigger than a 2p piece on the bonnet leading edge.

The tyres are brand new too, Avon Turbospeeds..saves expense for a while 

Definately looking forward to a summer with her, she will be well loved and cared for, good mechanic and a good dealership over here too, Snows - Isle of Wight, they have been extremely helpful 

Well the M engine is like gold dust. I would bite your friends arm off for it if i were you.

Well done.

Another Sharknose coupe member (

Unfortunately I haven't had previous experience with the Avon's, always used General Grabber XP2000 on my Supra Turbo, Supra N/A and American cars.

Am I correct in thinking the Avon's might not be too great?

Sounds about as much fun as the Supra Turbo I used to own then....

Might see if I can get either Goodrich or General Grabbers for later, once the Avon's have worn down a bit...

Thanx for the advice tho, much appreciated 

I been driving RWD cars for almost 23yrs, and an ex HGV1 driver....this one shouldn't be any more difficult to drive than my last car..a 298bhp at hubs turbo Supra 

Discovered exact age of car now too...first reg on 31st December 1982

The car has slim profile bumpers that are full chrome and they do run from wheelarch to wheelarch front and rear....so I think she might be the series 2...built end May 82, reg 31.12.82.  I still can't get over how clean mine is under the bonnet...you can eat your dinner off the engine and surrounding metalwork....even the coolant bottle is spotless.  She is coming with a huge file of receipts from all the work carried out over the years.

She is all paid for now, collecting her 20th April then straight in for full service and MOT.

The other car is still for sale at £1450, however she isn't as good looking as mine, she has had a bad repaint...runs everywhere...major fanstrikes against back of radiator and lots of filler...and someone has painted the bright chrome black matt.

You have got yourself an absolute bargain.

Well done

Thanx for your help on this, much appreciated 

She should be on the road by mid May.  I am really looking forward to having her and getting the best out of her once I have restored the chrome and sorted the leather out inside where she has been standing for so long and is growing mould...

Heres to a great summer, me finx 

All being well I should be able to post 2 pics of the car in the next couple of days 

I had a friend come over to stay with his n/a Skyline and he took a couple which he will be sending thru via email when he gets home.

One query....

The front and rear bumpers have suffered while in storage and small patches of the chrome have peeled away....

Would you suggest I either find replacement bumpers or have then rechromed or use chrome finish paint to restore them?

If they are in good condition and have no rust get them rechromed. If they are in poor condition try and find some others, but they will be exspensive.

Anyone any idea how much it costs to get bumpers rechromed?

I shudder to think how much a new replacement would be!

Well tomorrow I finally collect my 635...can't wait either 

Got plenty of things to do on her to sort out her looks etc, and she is booked for a complete service and MOT at the end of next week.

Wanted one of these cars for nearly 23 years, never thought I'd actually manage to get hold of one tho 

-yeah,  me too, I was after one for a long time before I got one too, and I have not been disappointed; mind you spares don't come cheap or easy sometimes......

hope the job's a good'un

have fun

cheers

Got my 635 home today safely..despite a few niggles with the c/l.

Discovered the car has had the following completely replaced when I visited the garage where the car has been looked after for last 7 yrs....

Entire engine management system, ECU, entire ignition system - 26 mnths ago

Stainless exhaust - 26 mnths ago

Fuel pump/injector system - 30 months ago

Fueltank/all fuel lines - 36 mnths ago

Discs/calipers - 36 mnths ago

There are several other bits and pieces replaced over the 7 yrs, too many to list.  The car was also MOT'ed after the death of the owner despite not covering any miles.

She has got a very rattly top end which is going to be sorted when she is serviced.  She holds her water and temp perfectly.

I think I have bought a damn fine car for very little money

The ex owner sent her into the garage every time she coughed out of place, no expense spared, cost absolutely no object.  I have receipts totalling well over £5500 from the last 4 yrs alone.

I managed to sort the flap problem out!

Seems the c/l system has been disabled, so was able to pull the locking bar out from the catch on the flap manually..took a bit of fiddling about with but I now have it so it can be secured/unsecured manually from inside the boot.

Thanks for all the help guys, much appreciated....and thanx for the pm regarding the parts too Tan, again much appreciated cos the chrome covers on the front bumper are infact missing on my car at the mo..thanx again all of you, nice to kno there are such helpful people around 

Finally waded thru my car's service history today....its totally complete, which for an almost 23yr old car isn't bad.

From 1982 til 1994 she was cared for by Chandlers of Brighton, all stamped up in owners manual.  She then has receipts totalling just over the £7k mark from 1994 til she was put into store in 2002.  From 1994 til 2002 she covered just 10k miles, she was last MOT'ed in June 2002 and until the ticket ran out in June 2003 she covered just 1350 miles.

The second car that was for sale with mine has now been returned to its owner as it was overpriced and had many many things wrong with it.

I think once the MOT is carried out next week on mine, 3 bits of welding only, she will make a superb car...a real bargain too, I think 

I have discovered that owning a 6 series BMW has a very strange effect...

You get looked at when you drive down the street...highly weird feeling that I have only ever experienced when driving in my best mate's Skyline's.

There are lots of different BMW's over here, of all marques/ages, but mine for some totally unknown reason always gets stared at....quite unnerving..thought something had fallen off her at first...hmmmm, definately odd behaviour from people...

Anyone else have this phenomenon?

Thanx for the history info about my car, Tan.  Sounds like I made quite a sound investment 

And as for selling her.....never in a month of Sunday's will I be selling her, she is way too special 

Now that I kno, thanx to Tan, that she is an E28, that makes her even more special in my mind and I am even more certain that the place who sold her to me had no idea what they were selling for £450.

After much faffing about my 6 is finally having an MOT on Monday morning at 9am.

Welding being done tomorrow and Saturday, then its me with large brush and larger tin of underseal generously attacking the under arch areas, sills and any other part that requires a coating...mainly due to the car living 6ft from the sea.  The blemishes on the bodywork are now rubbed down and primed ready for top coating...not looking forward to this bit cos the car is Polaris silver and will no doubt be a bugger to blend, but seeing as I like a challenge, it should come out ok...fingers crossed.

The bootlid has gone on strike at the moment, so good job I don't want to get anything out of it at the moment.  Bit of gentle persuasion and swearing should sort that little problem out, hopefully.

So if everything goes to plan, she will be out terrorising the natives in a couple of weeks time 

-I'm sure I speak for many others when I wish you good luck with the MOT- it's be a bit sad if it didn't pass after your mini-saga so far...

cheers

Well apart from a bad earth to be sorted tomorrow so the brake lights work, she is all ready for Monday...fingers crossed.

New battery fitted this afternoon, and after a month of standing idle she started on the button without hesitation and the Kenwood 6 disc changer works too...nice bit of rewiring, even if I do say so myself  lol.

Just got to get thru Monday, I know she is going to fail on the welding and one wiper blade, but apart from that she should be ok.  Got nice and sunburnt today while undersealing the sills and repainting the front and rear valances that had been stone chipped to death.  She may be 23yrs old but she looks pretty good really.  Quite pleased with her

All things being equal, the old lassie will be back terrorising on the 1st June.

look forwards to it.

Another six cool

By the time the car actually manages to get back on the road I will have had her for almost two months.  In that time she has had her valances repainted along with her sides - below door/scrub rubber level - one of the previous owners had painted her lower sections in black gloss hammerite smooth finish paint, which I have redone as it was looking a bit tired and chipped.  I will be taking her to a local vehicle graphics company to have her '635 CSi' graphics replaced on both lower sections as they too were a bit ratty, and dog-eared.  All of the welding will have been done, including a very strange bit of damage on the inside valance doorskin between the hinges on the drivers door, the over-extension preventing bar had pulled its mounting plate clean through the skin.  Also totted up the receipts for the last 10 years...£10054.11, with 10000 miles covered in that time.  She may not be fully sorted body wise by the Beaulieu event in July but she will be around 90% there, all things being equal.

Managed to open the boot today, it refused to open cos the battery was flat.  Very odd seeing as the central locking has been disconnected, but she now has a heavy duty battery and hopefully no more problems in that department.

Next job will be to sort out the leather which is a bit cracked up and the speaker pods on the rear shelf have delaminated, so they are going to have to be ditched and replacement speakers cut into the shelf instead.  May well look into having the rear window and rear quarters tinted out with limo black, mainly to save any more damage to the shelf and the leather.

She will be ready just in time for the nice warm summer evenings...

MOT - failed, not unexpectedly.  Welding required, nothing major so will be sorted by end of the week.  Also a problem with the rear light clusters, from the history this has been a repeating problem on this car.  Lights either not working, or occasionally or staying on and refusing to go off.  I am going to do a spot of rewiring on the lights, bridge work from the offside to nearside with fuses inbetween.  The MOT tester was generally very impressed with the condition of the car for the year/miles.  All welding is due entirely to the car being stored under blankets and duvets and basically 'sweating'...

One fail that did catch me out was the ABS.  The dashboard light has been disabled, so I thought I didn't have ABS.  Wrong.  I have it and its all plumbed in, just the dash light isn't working.  So dash has to come out too and bulbs checked/changed.  The ABS unit itself appears to be in good working order, which is good news.

I am not happy...far far from it infact.

The car is still waiting for the welding to be carried out...only been at the garage for 6 days!!!!!!

Any ideas I had of having her road legal by June 1st is now entirely out of the window.  Rescheduled to July 1st now.  Reason for the delay???? HAYFEVER!!!!!!!!!  The flaming mechanic has hayfever...

Gets worse....

I went to see this 'Frank Spencer of mechanical wizards' this morning..

He has been too excessive with his grinder on one of the 2" wide holes on the rear...ended up removing the entire suspension unit, snapping two mounts as he went...then pressed too hard while grinding and made a 2" hole 6" across....

He has ultimatum now...get the car repaired, welded and thru MOT and then delivered to my driveway by this Friday or all hell will be breaking loose....

This idiot was recommended by the local BMW dealership...I should have done it myself, just thought someone recommended would do a better job of it...I kno in future...

-oh dearie me, many a slip twixt cup and lip and all that....

-incidentally the rear speaker pods/headrest cubby covers often delaminate. Mine did a bit, and I repaired them with glue and held it together with clothes pegs while it set. Seemed to work OK. I don't know if you are concerned with originality or not, but if you are it seems a shame to go making holes in the parcel shelf if it can be avoided.

-I hope your various bits and pieces get sorted out soon....

cheers

The car is in for a retest tomorrow at 1030.  It is very likely to fail.

Not only has the welding been done wrong and smothered in thick underseal, the welding is also in the wrong places too.  The dashboard is a complete mess, thanx to Solhman for a replacement which will be dealt with at Beaulieu.  The steering wheel is on all wrong.  The rpm is offset by 2750rpm according to the rev counter. The main fuel line from the pump under the floor of the boot is insecure and the power supply to the sender is now bare wires where he snapped off all the insulation.

He is on holiday in Great Yarmouth til next weekend.

I been in touch with trading standards who asked me to call them back once the retest is completed so our next step can be discussed.

I just got a txt message from mechanic demanding I pay him.  This is the 3rd txt message today so far.

To be honest, I have not a clue what to do if, as suspected, the car fails again tomorrow, I am loathe to allow the idiot anywhere near it again but by law I have to give him the opportunity to put the mistakes right.

If any of you were in my position, how would you proceed?  I could really really do with some advice here....

Right, well the car did indeed fail the retest.

The welding turned out to be nothing more than packing covered with filler and underseal and a few more electrical probs popped up on the dashboard.

Idiot who did the mess is back from his holiday at the weekend and he will be instructed by my solicitor to make good the damage he has done at his own expense and on my driveway so I can supervise what he is doing.  The cost of the reteast and the subsequent full test is also to come out of his pocket and not mine.  The written instructions from my solicitor will be waiting for him on his doormat upon his arrival back home.

I won't be able to attend the Retro meet at Pod, but will be at Beaulieu.

-blimey, what a nightmare....

-your experiences have reminded me of why it is that I some time ago gave up letting anyone else near my cars unless it was absolutely unavoidable.....

-I only hope things get better from now on.

-incidentally, I can't recall if/how you resolved your rear light problems, but it has since occurred to me that your symptoms were exactly consistent with an earth fault at the rear light cluster- the current from (say) the brake light runs to ground through the rear indicator bulb, its switched live and then the front indicator to ground. This of course lights up the indicator lights (feebly) whenever the brake lights are used.

cheers

The rear lights have been bridged from offside to nearside with inline fuses.  Not the best way to do things but they pass MOT, so for now they will be staying as they are.

The welding problem is the priority at the moment.  Thanx to Sohlman, I will have a replacement dash at Beaulieu.

I am extremely angry with the idiot who did this, I just hope he puts things right.

No joy with legal action threat, idiot hasn't taken notice.  So back to square one again.  Car sat outside not going anywhere fast.  Did have coach company say they would help, but theor workload has gone thru the roof, so thats on hold til the Autumn if the car still requires work.

Looking unlikely to be attending any shows this year, at least with the car.  Hope to go to Beaulieu with a friend of mine in their Supra instead.  Nothing finalised yet tho, may still get the 635 legal in time.

I think as anoying as it may be you should walk away from this guy and get the car sorted somewhere else.  Getting legal etc costs money. Might be worth taking pictures and report him to the TV's Rogue trader, but i would not let him near your car again.

Just my opinion

James

P.S. I must get your dashboard bit out for you