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My Father passed away back in October, so now I own his 1987 M6.....


Birdman
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Copy/Paste from the BMW Forum. Too Lazy to edit

 

I have assumed his account to keep track of his old post history for the various cars etc. I may change the profile name, but I haven't decided yet. Grab a beer, or a whiskey and put your reading glasses on (I know you’re mostly a bunch of old-timers like Dad and need glasses haha)… This is the start of a build/reno thread

Car:
1987 E24 M6, 145K miles, Black, White-ish leather interior with a LIKE NEW backseat, 5sp manual, 12/86 Build date (just like me, kind of serendipitous), stock except for some damn 1990’s Wolf of Wall-Street car cell phone antenna with RJ11 plug and an ancient car alarm system…more on that later

History:
Dad fell in love with the E24 and 80's body style BMWs when he was stationed in Germany back in the 80's and 90's. He eventually was able to buy a white L6 automatic sometime in the very late 90's but was never happy with it being an automatic, and not being an M. He found a Black 1987 M6 at auction and quickly sold the L6 and bought his M6 in 2000. I remember riding with him in the car once, maybe twice before he parked the M6 in the garage back in 2002, not too long after he bought it. He had received 2 speeding tickets in ONE WEEK with it and, being the miserly man he was, decided the insurance/temptation was too much. I was in High School at this time, so there was no way in hell he was going to let me drive his beloved M6 either. As we're all well aware with life, one thing led to another, and the car hasn't been driven since (that I know of). He retired from 30yrs active duty in the Army as a CW5 and Master Army Aviator and began trying to "get it back on the road" somewhere around 2015. I think he had swapped out the front control arms and sway bars, the front coolant reservoir, and a small list of other items, but I can't seem to find that damn list anymore.

Plan:
-I'm going to treat the car as a Barn Find since it "ran when parked" but that was 20 years ago.
-I’ll borescope the gas tank for how bad the rust is this weekend, I can't imagine it is anything short of terrible. The gauge is showing empty right now, so maybe Dad started down that road already…
-Replace the fuel pump and fuel filter regardless (unless it is obvious he just did that)
-Flush the fuel lines with fresh ethanol free 93
-Replace the spark plugs and check the coil packs (this thing has coil packs or something equivalent I assume…right?)
-New air filter and cabin air filter, check the MAF (again, I assume there is a MAF…right?)
-He had mentioned the week before he passed away that the A/C compressor was bad and he either HAD or was GOING TO get a special replacement from a forum member out of FL (I think). I think the Freon needs to be updated or modernized it sounded like
-The tires are showing definite signs of Dry-Rot but are holding air and will need to be replaced before I drive it any further than the gas station. I don’t think they’re the original tires, but they’re OLD.
-Then, I guess I’ll just go from there…….

Currently:
-When I pulled it out of my parents place 2 weeks ago, I was elated that when I hooked it up to the jumper cables on the truck, the seats worked, lights came on, dash lit up, but I couldn’t get any of the windows to work. Three of them were down, with a massive line of thunder storms between my parents place, and my place. I chalked it up to a bad switch, or relay….or something. No time to wrench, needed to get on the road and make the trek back home as the wife and kid were getting hangry. We got it winched up onto a car trailer with a friend’s Jeep, got a car cover from AutoZone that fit surprisingly well, and hit the road. 2 days later (only a 90 min drive, I was just lazy) we got it pushed off the trailer and into my driveway, but not into the garage. There was some mold in the car from sitting for so long and I didn’t want to seed that mold into my own garage.

-I did some research and found that a mixture of warm water, vinegar and a dash of borax works wonders to kill and remove mold from porous surfaces. I’ve spent the last week doing just that, combined with an Ozone machine intermittingly. Once I knocked back the mold to a level I was comfortable sitting in the car at, I began cleaning the seats and putting some moisture back into them with Lexol. They needed it pretty bad. The driver’s seat should probably be reupholstered, the passenger seat it pretty decent, and the back seat, to quote the wife, “looks pretty damn comfortable and new.” The headliner and rear pillars had most of the surface mold, but other than that, it’s in great shape. I did find a small mouse house and dead field mouse in the glove box with some droppings in the floor board, but the ozone machine took care of any smells surprisingly well.

-Today, I spent some time researching the window issue, looking for anyone with similar issues. It brought me right back here to a post from 2011 with an excellent answer by “master6” https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...ws-not-working
I never in my life would have thought there was a damn circuit breaker in the dash that locked out the windows. So I got a new battery from AutoZone over my lunch break (fits great, is an exact fit Group Size 93 and Made in Germany, $199) and tossed it in the car after work. Hopped in, and turned the key over, fighting every childish instinct in me to try and start it (I won thankfully, I didn’t try and turn it over). All the lights came on again, the antenna went up, the A/C or heat started spooling up and blowing, it just came ALIVE. I reset the crusty feeling circuit breaker and started mashing on window controls to see if that was really all it was. The driver’s side goes right up, SWEET! Now for the rear windows as the passenger side was always up. They don’t budge. So I mash on the rear controls to see if I have a dead switch. Nothing. Then I find what looks like probably the child window lock button, fiddle with that, then try again. The left rear decides to go up now! Two down one to go. I try every combination of button presses and old TV Antenna alignment tricks to no avail on that last window. Then I try the passenger window to see if it will go down, it does, then goes back up when I ask it to. For the hell of it I try the right rear one more time. It goes up! Now I can wash 20years of dirt and dust off this poor car.

-There’s a rumor that it has a bad computer and won’t run/start, but I can’t confirm that. My uncle said my dad told him he had driven it up to the mailbox and back “recently”, but I can’t confirm that either. The driver’s side kick panel is out and there’s some wires dangling, it looks like he was messing with something as there were some tools and bolts laying around. I just found today what looked like maybe an old car alarm (it turned out to be exactly that) velcro’d to something else and a kill switch or remote control maybe? “Code-Alarm Model TRX-717SD” I’m hoping the computer is fine and the alarm system has failed and is locking out the starter/computer or something to that effect. Maybe the dash is apart because Dad figured that out, bypassed it and got it started and drove it to the mailbox? It is quite the quandary……

-I confirmed I have the dreaded TRX rims and tires, so I’ll be looking for some “new” BBS or similar modern rims in a 17” with modern rubber. As I understand it, the M brakes are good enough and to just leave them alone (no upgrades needed)

SO, what have I overlooked, where should I start looking, and what should I look out for? I started wrenching on older Audis when I was 20, so I’m familiar and comfortable with the German engineering mindset, just need to learn this new platform. I know my way around a car forum and how to use the search feature, I just don’t know what I don’t know.

So now I sit here about to post this, reminiscing about Dad, thinking about how I’m going to finally get this car on the road, make him proud, and daily driver an M6 for work. (2 mile roundtrip, 3x a week…I love my commute haha)

 

 

 

 

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Thanks for sharing this story. My condolences over the loss of your father, from the stories you have told me you had shared a few memorable adventures with him,

 

As I have told you, this shape 6 series is one of my favourite BMW body styles (next to the E46 M3) and one of the few classic cars I would want. 

 

I watch a bunch of automotive You Tubers and this lady is working through a restoration of a 1985 E24  635 CSi, although not the M it may have some useful tips and tricks. Good luck with your build.

 

PS Welcome to the forums! Feel free to post pictures!

 

 

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That's one helluva project, nice motor there aren't many BMWs on my 'I like list' that is one of the few that are 👍

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