We bought a Baur

[gjm 3258]

Some of y'all will know, others will have seen, but our recent trip to the South Island was to collect a car for Mrs M.

A mid-1990 ex-South Africa Baur 325i.

We'd had it checked over by a friend in Dunedin and while certainly not perfect, it was substantially a good car, so we flew down and were met at a very sunny Dunedin Airport by the seller. My chance to drive and check over, find a few more things that need sorting, pay some money and start our trip towards home.

First stop - Oamaru. On the way up I noticed a quite pronounced shake through the steering wheel, and Beaurepairs in Oamaru found one wheel was 50g (!) out of balance. That'll do it. They also noticed that while we had a matching set of tyres in terms of manufacturer and model, the fronts were a different profile to the rears.  

While in Oamaru I checked the toolkit:

There's something you don't see every day.

From Oamaru to Lake Brunner via some scenic roads:

And an overnight stop at Moana.

Awesome place to stop. Not cheap, but great hospitality, location, food, wine... Aldamere Lodge.

After that, it all gets to be a bit of a blur. Lake Brunner to east of Picton via Greymouth, stopping in Greymouth to replace the front tyres with some that were the correct size. Made a noticeable difference.
North up the coast towards Westport, stopping at Pancake Rocks, then across south of Nelson to Waikawa Bay where we stayed at the Buccaneer Lodge. Cheap, cheerful, and would go back. Nice scenery for dinner, too.

The following day we had a quick tour 'round some wineries and got the boat to Wellington where we stayed with friends, before joining Andy and the southern convoy heading for Taupo and the E30 Megameet.

Edited November 23, 2017 by gjm

[qube 3570]

this thing is a beaut! very glad it went to someone whos going to enjoy it probably the most! 

[Michael. 2313]

Awesome. Be sure to bring it to the next Penrose meet! 

[MD13 496]

Great road trip!

[gjm 3258]

8 hours ago, 3pedals said:

Is it a genuine Baur or S,A replica? 

The SA cars are genuine Baurs. ?

[gjm 3258]

Turns out we have a fairly high-spec car. Being ex-SA it's harder to decode the VIN for options, but things we know:

Air conditioning
Leather seats
13 button OBC
Cruise Control
LSD
Front foglights

Reading some Baur history suggests this is unusual - because of the high cost of having Baur convert a coupe, many were pretty low spec and had cloth seats (for example).

[gjm 3258]

So, it's a 27 year old car. What does it need?

To be used, very little. To be right... Well, the list is not quite endless, but there are many things to be attended to.

When we picked it up the service indicator wasn't showing. It came on soon after, but being so far from home and suitable tools meant squashing my oil change OCD and living with the indicator on the dash.

The Friday morning in Wellington saw us at chez Andy @_ethrty-Andy_ who despite having a busy morning preparing parts for transport to Taupo, somehow found time to change the oil for us (I was hopelessly incorrectly dressed for under-car crawling). What came out was black - definitely time for a change. Sadly, that well-known mechanic Edward Gorillahands had fitted the oil filter and it proved impossible to change that too. Still, clean oil and an old filter is better than old oil and an old filter.

The drive to Taupo via Mana, Palmy and Waiouru wasn't as much fun as the South Island trip had been. Rain. Lots of it... (The weather in the previous 4 days had been beautiful, brilliant sunshine!) What I did notice was that there seemed to be a lack of get-up-and-go: this is a 2.5 litre six - surely it should pull up hills better? OK, it's an automatic, but all the same... Suggestion is that the fuel filter could be blocked (see here) and I just happened to have a genuine BMW filter in the garage (saved from many years ago when we had an E30 320i  ) so that was raised towards the top of the to-do list.

Once home, another oil change. Removing the filter was a mission... Damn - that had been put on tight! The oil that came out this time wasn't quite as bad, but still pretty black. We'll give it a couple thousand kms and do it again.

Power steering felt a bit... Off. Change the fluid in there, too... Once again pretty yuck - a silver-grey colour fluid was replaced by some that is red.

On to less maintenance-related items:

The rear seat has a split in the top:

The drivers seat has the usual outside bolster wear:

There's numoerous minor scratches, but most significantly, the passenger door is a different colour:

The PO advised that a HiLux had backed into the door, and he'd replaced it with one which was "the same colour"... Close, but not quite. The car is 'Dolphin', and (I'm fairly sure) the door is 'Delphin Grau'. Translation aside, the name and intent is the same but the colours are slightly different. That'll be stripped back and sorted.

The rear part of the roof has been replaced (and the rear screen is crystal clear) but doesn't quite meet the front part of the roof. There's no leak, but the two parts don't meet as seamlessly as they should.

The clips fastening the rear hood to the roof are secured by aluminium rivets. these are weak and if you over-adjust the clips the rivets break. (Yeah - guess how I know?) I have replaced these with cut-down 4mm pan head bolts, secured with nylock nuts.

Modifications? There will be very, very few. I have a set of Eibach springs for an E30 325i coupe that will probably be fitted, but as much for aesthetics as anything else. The front does sit quite high, and it'd be nice to gain a better 'wheel in arch' fit. At the moment it's a little on tip-toes. (Can I get different thicknesses of spring pads? I'll have to check.)

[Eagle 1679]

My ex 325i was Delphine Metallic. Loved that colour, so much better than than your typical BMW 3 choice line up.

Yep you can get diff thickness pads for the rear (5-15mm)

[gjm 3258]

Just now, Eagle said:

My ex 325i was Delphine Metallic. Loved that colour, so much better than than your typical BMW 3 choice line up.

Yep you can get diff thickness pads for the rear (5-15mm)

It's a great colour - more 'interesting than most. That little bit of green in the grey looks good.

Good news about the pads. The height at the back is fine, but the Eibach springs may bring it down a little. Pads should help address that.

[Olaf 3341]

Graham, when I next run into it in my (somewhat disorganised) workshop, I've got an e30 service light reset tool.  It's yours if you'd like it, gratis.

best

R

Edited November 25, 2017 by Olaf

[_ethrty-Andy_ 2136]

On 25/11/2017 at 9:59 AM, gjm said:

The Friday morning in Wellington saw us at chez Andy @_ethrty-Andy_ who despite having a busy morning preparing parts for transport to Taupo, somehow found time to change the oil for us (I was hopelessly incorrectly dressed for under-car crawling). What came out was black - definitely time for a change. Sadly, that well-known mechanic Edward Gorillahands had fitted the oil filter and it proved impossible to change that too. Still, clean oil and an old filter is better than old oil and an old filter.

Happy to help, was pretty feral oil! Could have got it off with enough persuasion but hot exhaust and splashing oil would have been enevitable, and not enough time either!

M20 are pretty lethargic, they were. 20 years old before they made it into the E30, and that’s 30 years ago now!

is it just me or does it have prefaceloft rear guards, just looks it in that pic, maybe it’s just because it’s one the last E30s on monster truck suspension

[darkblue44 3]

Nice ride!