I replaced the door with one of the wrong color. I was learning to paint on a silver Jetta, so what the heck, I sprayed the BMW door too. It's not a great job and the color match is not perfect but people don't point and laugh either. The door fit is not bad, as you can see, but there was a lot of wind noise. So I added some foam in the damaged part of the B pillar until the noise got better. Somebody who was halfway decent at bodywork could probably fix this, but i didn't want to try, I'd just screw it up.
It has no body filler in it that I know of, and it's basically rust free. I've had it on the hoist regularly, and I I took all the underbody plastic off and sprayed rustproofing oil all over. There is some surface rust on subframes etc but it's really solid.
I assume you may not have received the messages. I'd be interested in buying and would plan to both challenge and endurance race this.
I'm working with some other members on here to go endurance racing and this would be perfect for us, we also have fielded a lot of challenge cars over the last 5-7 years.
Let me know how best to get in contact with you! Thanks, Robbie
Edit the team I'm working with is team "bad decision triangle" and some of the other members here are nocones, Gumby, singleslammer, racecar, bobzilla, and probably more!
Huh, I just figured out I don't know how to find private messages. Where are they hiding?
Anyway best way is to text me, 734 six four five 4111.
The car and I are in Ann Arbor MI, you could definitely come look at it. No trailer needed. :-)
In reply to ekauppi7 :
Erik, private messages will go to your email and will be from "robot@mg.grassrootsmotorsports.com"
Edit: Should everyone who has already spoken up bail on this, let me know. I'd love to have another manual RWD car while I still can drive one. I'm right next door in Dexter.
Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:I assume you may not have received the messages. I'd be interested in buying and would plan to both challenge and endurance race this.
I'm working with some other members on here to go endurance racing and this would be perfect for us, we also have fielded a lot of challenge cars over the last 5-7 years.
Let me know how best to get in contact with you! Thanks, Robbie
Edit the team I'm working with is team "bad decision triangle" and some of the other members here are nocones, Gumby, singleslammer, racecar, bobzilla, and probably more!
Does this mean rx8 parts will be available shortly?
I found no messages from Robot. I updated my email address, maybe that will fix it.
Someone from Robbie's team is going to come look at it. If that falls through I'll let y'all know.
Thanks for posting the pics, car looks much better than I thought it would from the initial description. Would be a perfect fit for Robbie's team.
Sold! To Robbie and his team.
Heck of a deal
Yeah, I am amazed at how low the book value is on these really nice cars. I paid book for it 2017 or so, $6k with 120k miles. It would have been twice that with 60k miles. My theory is that all the yuppies are afraid of the money pit reputation and the value sinks like a stone when the warranty is over. Good for us DIY'ers! I thought I got a great deal.
And yes, $2k now seems like a great deal too. But the other guy's insurance company paid me $3k for the dent so I drove the car 6+ years for $1000 (plus parts).
I gotta say it, a well-treated high miles BMW is a great used car deal. I had to do some work on this one, but no worse than other cars I've owned. I was totally satisfied with it. And I'll have a lot of fun watching it in its new life.
For your amusement here is a photo of the dent when it was fresh. It was my 20 year old son's first wreck, on the first snowy day of the year. He was sitting at a stop sign and the kid turning right towards him ran wide and hit it. 
Nice that he was in a modern car that protected him. No the airbags did not go off. But think what it would have been like if he'd been in the Europa.
ekauppi7 said:Nice that he was in a modern car that protected him. No the airbags did not go off. But think what it would have been like if he'd been in the Europa.
well, he certainly would have been colder. ;-)
Now that's a "dent"! Surprised the side curtain airbag didn't go off.
Yeah, big hit. But pretty low speed. Almost all the damage was the door, the door beam held, nothing intruded past the interior door panel. Hinges didn't move and B pillar didn't move very far. So it makes sense to me that the airbag system decided not to fire.
People say "they don't build them like they used to" but I actually think the occupant protection in newer cars is vastly superior to what it was when I was bombing around in 60's and early '70's cars.
What size wheels are on this one, 16s or 17s?
In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :
16s on modern BMWs look awfully dated. Even my 17s show my car's age. I'm going with 17s -- let's see!
P3PPY said:In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :
16s on modern BMWs look awfully dated. Even my 17s show my car's age. I'm going with 17s -- let's see!
Can confirm they are 17s!
In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :
Too bad....I have some 16" RE71RS Bridgestones I'd sell cheap. I thought of you because you'll be coming right by me to get the car.
Hey Robbie, how is my old car? Is it going to the Challenge this year?
Bummed I didn't hop first in line when this came up before. Hope it gets well used!!
classicJackets (FS) said:Bummed I didn't hop first in line when this came up before. Hope it gets well used!!
You aren't the only one who was bummed.
Robbie - If you guys haven't stripped this yet (or kept the parts when you did), I'd be interested in some interior bits and pieces for my 128i.
The bmw is doing great! I am unfortunately not able to attend the challenge this year but am planning to get this bad boy out on track locally soon. After a couple track days, it will be time to start stripping interior, so please tell me what you need and I will try to remove carefully.
I have been way behind in making a build thread but I do have some pictures. For example here's me after I swapped the old lock cylinder into the driver door (to match the key) but then found the old lock cylinder was broken. I was able to swap this part and now have a working manual lock in the driver door.
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