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Read the WELCOME ALL BMWFANATICS post.
Gavsadler’s 1st Classic, and a South African Special
- Thread starter gavsadler
- Start date
gavsadler
///Member
Thank you all for the well-wishes.
It has been a rather frantic and intensive 2 months since getting the car. I have lots of updates to share, but before we get to that, I would like to specifically mention some specific things which helped persuade me that this is a good idea, haha.
I may have eluded to it previously, but the car has a solid maintenance record with the previous owner, who in turn also commented that when he bought the car 2-3 years ago, that owner had also maintained it properly (e.g. GM stamped/branded Cambelt, amongst other things).
First of all, the car has its original owner’s manual, as well as a Haynes manual. It also came with the original key (it has a small LED light in it), and a spare key. It also has an aftermarket remote alarm + anti-hijack system fitted.
Mechanically, there has been a solid amount of work put into the car. New Bilstein rear shocks, front shocks are “new” 2nd hand items (I may change these in the near future). New control arms fitted, new rear brake pads. A new LUK clutch was fitted about 18months ago. New cambelt and pulleys done last year. Gearbox selector shaft seals were done, as well as fluid change.
Here’s some pics of the inside of the box. Clean clean clean…
And the Unobtainium LSD showing "the cross":
Two days after concluding a deal, the seller sent me some pics of the car in pieces, and the turbocharger on a workbench. He had a spare replacement core sitting on his shelf, and he did notice a bit of an oil sweat under the turbo, so he decided to replace the core, out of goodwill, no questions asked, no additional payment required. I was stunned, as good deeds like this are few and far between these days.
For the power junkies, here’s a dyno run from 2024, still plenty fresh for a 30year old car. Note how the power band builds, and from 4000-6000rpm it’s all-systems-go, old school is cool
The next update will be where we started tackling the car once it arrived in JHB…
It has been a rather frantic and intensive 2 months since getting the car. I have lots of updates to share, but before we get to that, I would like to specifically mention some specific things which helped persuade me that this is a good idea, haha.
I may have eluded to it previously, but the car has a solid maintenance record with the previous owner, who in turn also commented that when he bought the car 2-3 years ago, that owner had also maintained it properly (e.g. GM stamped/branded Cambelt, amongst other things).
First of all, the car has its original owner’s manual, as well as a Haynes manual. It also came with the original key (it has a small LED light in it), and a spare key. It also has an aftermarket remote alarm + anti-hijack system fitted.
Mechanically, there has been a solid amount of work put into the car. New Bilstein rear shocks, front shocks are “new” 2nd hand items (I may change these in the near future). New control arms fitted, new rear brake pads. A new LUK clutch was fitted about 18months ago. New cambelt and pulleys done last year. Gearbox selector shaft seals were done, as well as fluid change.
Here’s some pics of the inside of the box. Clean clean clean…
And the Unobtainium LSD showing "the cross":
Two days after concluding a deal, the seller sent me some pics of the car in pieces, and the turbocharger on a workbench. He had a spare replacement core sitting on his shelf, and he did notice a bit of an oil sweat under the turbo, so he decided to replace the core, out of goodwill, no questions asked, no additional payment required. I was stunned, as good deeds like this are few and far between these days.
For the power junkies, here’s a dyno run from 2024, still plenty fresh for a 30year old car. Note how the power band builds, and from 4000-6000rpm it’s all-systems-go, old school is cool
The next update will be where we started tackling the car once it arrived in JHB…
gavsadler
///Member
Update Apr-2026:
Aaaand, the car arrived safely in JHB around the 3rd week of April. I elected to use Exotic Carriers for the transport, as it is an enclosed truck. The deal also included a number of spare parts, which filled the boot and back seat to some degree, so I was more comfortable having everything out of sight, specifically if the truck stopped anywhere or overnight during the trip up. All was well though,
Work was extremely busy though, so as much as I wanted to get stuck in doing various things, I had to pace myself. I had a game plan in mind, the intention was to do do some small jobs incrementally, things which could be done in one session, so-to-speak,
First up, when we washed the car, we noted that the wheel brush picked up some grease from inside the wheel barrel. Upon pulling the wheel off, we found that the CV boot was not properly secured to the CV joint, and as such, must have spewed CV grease all over the wheel. Thankfully this was a quick repair, but the associated cleaning took about 2-3 times as long. But all spewed grease was cleaned up.
Before and After:
The rims will probably get refurbished later this year, and new tyres will be fitted, so for now, rigorous cleaning will have to do.
Dabbling in the engine bay, the heat shield for the turbo was also looking a bit caked up with corrosion. This was a quick 20min job. 3 bolts to remove, then 10mins in the bench vice, and I polished it up with a brass wire disc in my electric drill, before reinstalling, much better:
My trail of thought and attention then turned to the interior. I decided to tackle things top-to-bottom. The original headliner in the car is still in fantastic condition, no sagging material, broken clips or bent board. This cleaned up really nicely with my top-secret mix, which also does not attack the glue of the fabric. I also removed all the grab handles, sunvisors and interior lights, and cleaned them up before reinstalling. Whilst it didn't look too bad beforehand, the after pics really to highlight the changes quite significantly.
Before cleaning:
After cleaning:
Our first jobs on the body / paint were in the door jambs. There was a fair amount of Waxoil residue and runs all over the door jambs. These yellowy brown streaks and runs looked rather awful on the white paint. They have probably been there for 30-odd years since the car left the production line, but to me it was a real eyesore. So we first spent a solid 8hrs with various cleaning solvents to remove the old goop. Once everything was cleaned up, we clayed the paint, and polished and sealed the door jambs. This was probably another 8hrs of work. As you can see, my "quick jobs" line of thought escalated quite quickly. 2 days just to clean door jambs, lol. This set the scene for things to come...
Unfortunately, I don't have any pics of the before and after here, but it is looking great now.
That pretty much wrapped up the last 10 days of April. Moving into May, less work stress and more free time meant that things could properly ramp up on the car. I think it's also a bit of a drug / disease, once you start, you can't stop. Having seen the results achieved with our efforts so far, I was really keen to push on and dial in the rest of the interior, as well as moving on to the exterior and mechanical bits.
Aaaand, the car arrived safely in JHB around the 3rd week of April. I elected to use Exotic Carriers for the transport, as it is an enclosed truck. The deal also included a number of spare parts, which filled the boot and back seat to some degree, so I was more comfortable having everything out of sight, specifically if the truck stopped anywhere or overnight during the trip up. All was well though,
Work was extremely busy though, so as much as I wanted to get stuck in doing various things, I had to pace myself. I had a game plan in mind, the intention was to do do some small jobs incrementally, things which could be done in one session, so-to-speak,
First up, when we washed the car, we noted that the wheel brush picked up some grease from inside the wheel barrel. Upon pulling the wheel off, we found that the CV boot was not properly secured to the CV joint, and as such, must have spewed CV grease all over the wheel. Thankfully this was a quick repair, but the associated cleaning took about 2-3 times as long. But all spewed grease was cleaned up.
Before and After:
The rims will probably get refurbished later this year, and new tyres will be fitted, so for now, rigorous cleaning will have to do.
Dabbling in the engine bay, the heat shield for the turbo was also looking a bit caked up with corrosion. This was a quick 20min job. 3 bolts to remove, then 10mins in the bench vice, and I polished it up with a brass wire disc in my electric drill, before reinstalling, much better:
My trail of thought and attention then turned to the interior. I decided to tackle things top-to-bottom. The original headliner in the car is still in fantastic condition, no sagging material, broken clips or bent board. This cleaned up really nicely with my top-secret mix, which also does not attack the glue of the fabric. I also removed all the grab handles, sunvisors and interior lights, and cleaned them up before reinstalling. Whilst it didn't look too bad beforehand, the after pics really to highlight the changes quite significantly.
Before cleaning:
After cleaning:
Our first jobs on the body / paint were in the door jambs. There was a fair amount of Waxoil residue and runs all over the door jambs. These yellowy brown streaks and runs looked rather awful on the white paint. They have probably been there for 30-odd years since the car left the production line, but to me it was a real eyesore. So we first spent a solid 8hrs with various cleaning solvents to remove the old goop. Once everything was cleaned up, we clayed the paint, and polished and sealed the door jambs. This was probably another 8hrs of work. As you can see, my "quick jobs" line of thought escalated quite quickly. 2 days just to clean door jambs, lol. This set the scene for things to come...
Unfortunately, I don't have any pics of the before and after here, but it is looking great now.
That pretty much wrapped up the last 10 days of April. Moving into May, less work stress and more free time meant that things could properly ramp up on the car. I think it's also a bit of a drug / disease, once you start, you can't stop. Having seen the results achieved with our efforts so far, I was really keen to push on and dial in the rest of the interior, as well as moving on to the exterior and mechanical bits.
