Alpine White Zender Kit E24 633CSI

[straight6pwr]

big 6s make the best noises.

thought about painting the bumper surrounds white, like on e30s verts?

[B C]

gorgeous!

[m42b32]

Those tips look awesome!

[YoungCR]

I'll scrounge through my parts this weekend, for sure have plenty of window switches.

[Jdesign]

YoungCR said:

I'll scrounge through my parts this weekend, for sure have plenty of window switches. 

Awesome! Thanks Chris!

straight6pwr said:

big 6s make the best noises.

thought about painting the bumper surrounds white, like on e30s verts?

 Those are actually World Bumpers ^^^ I was looking for a set but they only came on the later model E24's. 

To answer your question though, Yes I have though about it. I thought about painting the entire car..

AND THANKS GUYS!!!!

[Jdesign]

Have not really touched this car in awhile. Partly because I have been working on other projects, and partly because I have been really busy at work. I did but something simple to install, and the next big purchase will be lowering springs and struts.

Keyless entry. I installed a similar unit on my E30 and its one of the greatest things ever. Plus I really had to squeeze my pockets for the $10.49. 

I have been slowly refinishing the Style 5's I bought for this, and they are about 50% done. barrels are stripped and polished, paint is mixed and waiting, I just need to finish sanding the centers. They should look pretty similar to the theme of these RS's when they are done minus the gold "BBS" logo, the caps I have a chrome:

[SteelBlue]

Jdesign said:

Have not really touched this car in awhile. Partly because I have been working on other projects, and partly because I have been really busy at work. I did but something simple to install, and the next big purchase will be lowering springs and struts.

Keyless entry. I installed a similar unit on my E30 and its one of the greatest things ever. Plus I really had to squeeze my pockets for the $10.49. 

I have been slowly refinishing the Style 5's I bought for this, and they are about 50% done. barrels are stripped and polished, paint is mixed and waiting, I just need to finish sanding the centers. They should look pretty similar to the theme of these RS's when they are done minus the gold "BBS" logo, the caps I have a chrome:

Are real BBS logos really like $200 dollars or is someone just wildin on eBay?

[Jdesign]

SteelBlue said:

Are real BBS logos really like $200 dollars or is someone just wildin on eBay?

Real logos are a little under $200 yes. I wont be buying real ones though. LOL

[Jdesign]

Very Excite. Wheels are almost finished. Faces are painted and lips are brushed. I need to do a final polish but im waiting on the center caps. 

I also finally made a decision and bought some Vogtland lowering springs. Now I just need to order struts. I will update with more pics onces the springs come in!

[YoungCR]

Looking good! How are you gonna finish the barrels?

[Jdesign]

YoungCR said:

Looking good! How are you gonna finish the barrels?

I think I am just going to sand them out to 1500 and polish them. Then a coat of clear.

[Jdesign]

Centercap logos showed up. Giggggity.

The gold lettering looks messed up, but I promise its not, just bad images.

I will need to machine a spacer so that they sit flush with the hex head. I did this with my style 19's and it worked out great for example; (left front is spaced out compared to the other 3)

[Jdesign]

Springs came yesterday. Trying to figure out struts and shocks now.

Barrels are all in various stages of finishing. Progress is good!

[Jdesign]

I had a few minor things left on my list that I spent some time on Friday trying to button up so that I can finish up this car and actually drive it before it snows.

I managed to Install keyless entry with a vintage looking fob kit I found on eBay for $9. It works great and is very similar to keyless in an E30/4/6 where you just wire it into the trunk latch.

I then focused my attention on the turn signal issue. When I put the turn signals on, the lights stay illuminated and DO NOT flash like they should. I ran a voltage check from all the lights, to the fuse, and then I went to check the hazard relay switch. It look very new, but I still took it apart, cleaned it, and tested it, and it worked as it should. I then focused my attention on the hazard switch in the dash. I pressed it about 50 times to try and see if it was just crusty. Sometimes the light would come on, other times it would not. Is this my intermittent problem? So I pulled it out of the dash and someone had it out prior and managed to super glue the backside of the switch together, along with the metal tabs to keep it in the dash. 

Here's where I almost filled my pants:

Luckily I found a guy that just listed one for $17, tested and working. So I saved myself a few pennies. SHESSSH.

Here's what's left of my list:

Parts to order / find

• Speakers (4 minimum)
• Wipers
• Door light switch
• Tires
• Shocks/struts

Labor

• Turn signal Relay needs to be cleaned or replaced
• Finish buffing the entire car
• Remove the pin stripe
• Installed the side skirts with stainless hardware
• Refinish the Style 5's

[Jdesign]

I started to match the hardware to the BBS logos, and the lips are much closer to being polished now. I also got the new hazard switch in the mail already. I installed it and now have turn signals on one side of the car. I think a little more tracing should bring the issue to the surface.

 

[Jdesign]

@m42b32 was nice enough to share a link to a guy on maxbimmer who has access to build sheets. Although my car is right at the beginning of them recording the data, he was able to supply me with this, which I thought was cool;

"At least 68 - 1983-1984 BMW 633CSi Manual (5274) - NA **Incomplete** painted in Alpine White (146) with Cherry Leather (0162) interior were built for the US market.
None were built for the Canadian market.
The most rare option in this car is the option S209A - Differential lock 25%. It was installed on 619 out of 2,821 cars that are available to me.
Keep in mind that out of 3,592 built, there are no build sheets for 711 cars."

[Jdesign]

Turn signals fixed!!

Turns out the inside of the new switch was moldy causing some issues, then to add to that, one of the small T4 bulbs in the corner lights had a loose wire causing an arc. So that was giving me an intermittent flash. It was hidden really good behind the light. I figured that out by removing that whole corner section to check the harness behind the headlights.

Now my next big mission is springs and struts.

[Jdesign]

Accomplished a little bit more this weekend. I got new wipers (impressive I know) and I got the side skirts remounted with nutserts instead of the lag screws that were previously used.

Here's what's left of my list:

Parts to order / find

• Speakers (4 minimum)
• Wipers
• Door light switch(s)?
• Tires for Style 5's
• Springs /Shocks/struts

Labor

• Turn signal Relay needs to be cleaned or replaced
• Figure out the Parasitic power drain
• Finish buffing the entire car
• Remove the pin stripe
• Installed the side skirts with stainless hardware
• Refinish the Style 5's

I sadly have no pictures to add.

[Jdesign]

Update!

Wheels have been a slow process as I have been busy with other projects. But I have some images to share. I am really close now. I just need to finish polishing the lips and assemble them!

I had to make spacers for the logos in order to get them flush to the hex's. I cut slices of PVC and used ______ to bond them all together so they wont fall off.

Before

Spacers

After

I also coated all the wheel hardware with a high temp transparent clear that I tinted gold/yellow/orange. I was really trying to match the centercaps with the materials at hand. 3 batches later I gave up and settled on this. Its slightly darker than I wanted but it still looks nice. Next time I will just buy gold plated hardware. 

[Jdesign]

I finally have new springs, front struts, and rear shocks. 

I started installing them a few days ago but have been hitting some speed bumps along the way due to a combination of missing and seized parts. 

FRONT

I was able to break all the bolts loose with minimal effort. Before I removed the main assembly I broke the strut cartridges loose while they were still on the car. I figured this was better than fighting them on the ground. One side had a blue Bilstein bellow which was covering the strut shaft but was severely dry and torn. The other side was completely exposed although I found reminisce of  a bellow once I had it all apart. 

See the difference between having a bellow and not. Its unclear the history here, but I think the passenger hub/knuckle (Image on left) was replaced at one point, or the driver side (Images at the right) was exposed to elements more often than the passenger side(i.e. parking two wheels on the grass often or for a long period of time) as not only was the collar solid rust in color, but the whole hub assembly was much rustier that the other. 

Spring comparison:

Upon pulling the cartridges out, which were almost airtight in the strut tubes, I found out that the old struts were really nice(at one time) Bilstein B8's. Check out the old labels.

 

The replacements I purchased were the touring models, which are vastly different from the B8's. I was about to learn the differences. First off, the strut shaft diameter is much larger on the B8's as seen below. On top of that the overall strut housing of the tourings was smaller about 1-2mm, they had stamped end plates vs. the threaded B8 counterparts, and the housing was about 5cm taller.

This wasn't an issue until I went to insert it into the strut tube and the collars that came with the tourings only threaded in halfway before cinching tight on the cartridge. This will hold, but Im not thrilled about the amount of threads exposed to the elements. 

I posted on an E24 page on Facebook and received confirmation that this is how they fit and I should not be concerned. I will be purchasing bellows to cover the threads so Im not really worried about the threads as there is plenty threads in the tube holding the cartridge in.

I forgot that I needed bellows and bumpstops as they all crumbled when removed. So those are on order and will halt reassembly up front until they arrive. In the meantime I cleaned and painted the strut tubes/hubs and recoated the wheel wells in rubberized undercoating.

Up next; My struggles with the rear Shocks.