The Spirit of Ron Stygar: "keeping the car fresh"

Ron Stygar used to change the fender well liners in his cars “to keep everything fresh” he used to say.  I always liked Ron and I learned a great deal about what I know about BMWs from him.  On a continuum, if enthusiast is at one end, fanatic (or "nut" in my case) is in the middle, Ron would be on the other end all by himself.  Anyway, I think about him saying “keep everything fresh” a lot.  So I’m changing out the fender well liners with new.  I suspect Ron probably changed out his fender well liners annually.  No kidding.  

In addition to those parts, I am replacing a whole bunch of other parts that are worn, cracked, missing or flawed.  I won’t go over all of them except for a parts list with prices.  The early M coupes had an A/C button that didn’t exactly match the other center console buttons.  The later one did match.  The rear trunk shocks were worn out, so I’m replacing them along with the hood shocks too.  The little rubber bumper in the fuel door had disintegrated.  I’ve replaced those before and I remember them only costing about $1.  Not anymore.  Latest retail on that little rubber bumper is $10.31r!!  The Interstate battery in the car was not connected to a battery vent tube, so I am restoring the car to factory condition.  The windshield cowling on this car looked tired and weathered and was graying, so I’m replacing that with new too.  The windshield arms and the rear hatch spoiler all looked weathered, so I am having those repainted.  My dad paints all the parts for LeatherZ.  He is retired, he has built a small paint booth at his house, and he's quite a good painter.  Good price too, LOL.   

While I have the wiper arms off, ‘might as well’ replace the cowling too.  I used 3M Window Weld Butyl tape for the windshield cowling.  [WTF Blogger, why is the font size wrong here?  I am not trying to yell]  It's not shown in TIS as a part, but it (or something very similar to it) was on the old cowling I removed.  The trick to working with it is put the roll in the refrigerator, take it out when you need it, cut it to length, apply to the cowling, put the cowling in, and then let it come up to ambient temperature.

I cleaned the underbody as well as I could within reason.  This will never be a concours car, it will be driven.  But I wanted it clean enough so I can easily spot problems and also so I could start off with a "pretty clean" car.

I did have trouble finding a replacement rear wiper that fit the coupe.  The stock wiper is 11" wide.  There are lots of sleek-looking 11" wipers available nowadays but most do not fit the coupe.  You need an old-school 11".  I went with Trico 15-110 Teflon Wiper Blade, 11" (Pack of 1) from Amazon.

The door handle surround gaskets had cracked, so I got new ones for $12.76r each.  Easy to change those.  All of these things do add up to a substantial cost, but also they add up to a much newer, younger, and sharper car.  And as Ron also used to say, “As always, feel free to do it your way”. 

Prep and paint windshield wiper arms (qty 3), $0.00a
Prep and paint rear hatch spoiler, $0.00a
Sikaflex 255 FC for rear hatch spoiler, $17.57r (Amazon)
3M Window Weld 1/4" x 15' Butyl tape for windshield cowling, $14.99r (Amazon)
JVCC Closed-cell foam tape, $10.79r (Amazon)
Fuel Door Rubber Bumper Stop, 51178153364, $10.31r

Wheel Well Liner FR, 51712268661, $80.04r

Wheel Well Liner FL, 51712268662, $80.04r

Wheel Well Liner RL, 51718400107, $62.24r

Wheel Well Liner RR, 51718400108, $62.24r

Air Dam R, 51718398827, $21.44r

Air Dam L, 51718398828, $21.44r       

Trunk Shocks, 51248399296, need 2, $64.82r each

Hood Shocks, 51238397401, need 2, $53.98r each

S52 engine cover trim, 11121403345, $7.66r

Updated AC button, 61316901575, $85.48r

Hatch Trim top, 51498400143, $38.76r           

Hatch Trim female clip, 51437194187, needed 8, $0.77r each

Windshield cowling, 51318413095, $70.08r    

Windshield cowling fasteners, 51718195811, need 8, $0.56r each

Windshield cowling fasteners 51718186501, need 8, $0.60r each

Antenna, 65218375160, $40.92r          

Door Handle Surround L, 51218400195, $12.76r        

Door Handle Surround R, 51218400196, $12.76r

LEFT LATERAL TRIM PANEL SHIELDING, 51718410029, $9.41r         

RIGHT LATERAL TRIM PANEL SHIELDING, 51718410030, $9.41r

Covering cap, 52108119867, need 2, $0.82r

Rear Wiper Arm cover, 61628357518, $6.76r
Battery vent tube right angle, 61211377835, $2.05r
Battery vent hose, 1 meter running, 61211377745, $2.12r 
Rear wiper blade, Trico 15-110, $14.44r
Front wiper blades, Bosch Icon 21A and 20B, $17.97r and $16.99r

Miscellaneous Hardware that goes with the above pieces:

Body nut, 07129904150, bought 10, $0.41r each

Hex head screw, 07119901299, bought 10, $0.42r each

Expanding nut, 63171367868, bought 10, $0.33r each

Cap nut, 51711934930, bought 10, $0.35r each

Hex head screw, 07119900409, bought 10, $0.62r each

Hex head screw, 07147129161, bought 10, $0.77r each

Fillister head screw, 07149149399, boutght 10, $0.61r each

Screw, 07146959892, need 2, $0.42r each

Cap, 51181823474, need 2, $0.34r each

Washer, 07119904208, need 2, $0.49r each

Total price of this mod = $1332.51r
Total investment in vehicle to date = $5926.70

This is closed cell foam weather stripping I used to replace the 8 pieces that are under the roof rail seals.

New weather stripping pieces in place.  1/8" thick, 65mm long each.

Roof rail seals complete.

This is the adhesive I used to reattach the underhood weather stripping to the car after installing the new cowl.

3M Window Weld applied in groove

New cowling

Correct wiper arm positions.

These brackets help secure the under-radiator cowling.  I found corrosion on them, so I sanded them and refinished them.

Refinished with SEM primer and SEM Trim Black

Here is how the wheel wells started out "before".

Before pic, left rear

Before pic, right front

Before pic, right rear

Cleaning complete, before liner installed

Cleaning complete, before liner installed.  Yeah, if you didn't know, the body should be the same color as the exterior!  Not gray/black/dirt color.

 

Cleaning complete, before liner installed

Cleaning complete, before liner installed

Left front, complete "after"

Right front, complete "after"

Original A/C on the left in my hand.  New matching A/C installed on the right.  Note the switches we re-ordered too, this is my preferred orientation.

Stupid fuel flap bumper pricing.  Clearly I need to detail the inside of the fuel door!

This car is certainly no stranger to scrapes.  We will get to that eventually.

The rocker panels and nearby underbody came out nice and clean.  Really happy with those.