BMW 635CSi Restomod
Discussion
You MUST sort the steering. Even if you do nothing else.
I did 20,000 miles in my 635CSI and the steering was terrible. It was a top-spec low mileage car with LSD.
A mate of mine had a MG ZT190 and chasing him down a country road, despite the 635 having better figures it could not get anywhere near the - slower on paper - MG ZT-190.
The reason for this... even in a straight line the steering was hard to control so I could not keep my foot down solid.
This is in the real world. Yeah, on a motorway maybe it wouldn't be a problem. But you said at the beginning of the thread that you wanted this to be a b-road blaster.
Sort the steering, you will regret not doing that. Take some parts from another BMW which had a rack.
I did 20,000 miles in my 635CSI and the steering was terrible. It was a top-spec low mileage car with LSD.
A mate of mine had a MG ZT190 and chasing him down a country road, despite the 635 having better figures it could not get anywhere near the - slower on paper - MG ZT-190.
The reason for this... even in a straight line the steering was hard to control so I could not keep my foot down solid.
This is in the real world. Yeah, on a motorway maybe it wouldn't be a problem. But you said at the beginning of the thread that you wanted this to be a b-road blaster.
Sort the steering, you will regret not doing that. Take some parts from another BMW which had a rack.
ingenieur said:
You MUST sort the steering. Even if you do nothing else.
I did 20,000 miles in my 635CSI and the steering was terrible. It was a top-spec low mileage car with LSD.
A mate of mine had a MG ZT190 and chasing him down a country road, despite the 635 having better figures it could not get anywhere near the - slower on paper - MG ZT-190.
The reason for this... even in a straight line the steering was hard to control so I could not keep my foot down solid.
This is in the real world. Yeah, on a motorway maybe it wouldn't be a problem. But you said at the beginning of the thread that you wanted this to be a b-road blaster.
Sort the steering, you will regret not doing that. Take some parts from another BMW which had a rack.
I would love to see a rack conversion but I think something was up with your car, e39 M5 has recirculating ball steering very similar to the e24 and no one says that steering is unusable. Sure it's slow but so we're lots of BMW's of that era.I did 20,000 miles in my 635CSI and the steering was terrible. It was a top-spec low mileage car with LSD.
A mate of mine had a MG ZT190 and chasing him down a country road, despite the 635 having better figures it could not get anywhere near the - slower on paper - MG ZT-190.
The reason for this... even in a straight line the steering was hard to control so I could not keep my foot down solid.
This is in the real world. Yeah, on a motorway maybe it wouldn't be a problem. But you said at the beginning of the thread that you wanted this to be a b-road blaster.
Sort the steering, you will regret not doing that. Take some parts from another BMW which had a rack.
Stick Legs said:
Given these used the factory steering & an M30 engine I think Group A spec is a good starting point.
https://historicdb.fia.com/cars/list/field_range/6...
shalmaneser said:
That’s a great resource.Stick Legs said:
shalmaneser said:
That’s a great resource.
ingenieur said:
You MUST sort the steering. Even if you do nothing else.
I did 20,000 miles in my 635CSI and the steering was terrible. It was a top-spec low mileage car with LSD.
A mate of mine had a MG ZT190 and chasing him down a country road, despite the 635 having better figures it could not get anywhere near the - slower on paper - MG ZT-190.
The reason for this... even in a straight line the steering was hard to control so I could not keep my foot down solid.
This is in the real world. Yeah, on a motorway maybe it wouldn't be a problem. But you said at the beginning of the thread that you wanted this to be a b-road blaster.
Sort the steering, you will regret not doing that. Take some parts from another BMW which had a rack.
The car is going to be either race spec poly bushed or have spherical bearings in the suspension, all the steering components will be new so there won't be any play in the steering at all. I cant just puts a rack on from another BMW because all the cars that had racks on had the rack infront of the subframe.......right where my sump is going to be. I can't put said rack behind the subframe because then turning the steering wheel left would make the car turn right. Other racks are available but it simply isn't worth the hassle. If steering box systems are so woefully terrible as you make out then why did BMW persist with it for so long and use it till the 90s? I'm not sayin racks aren't better but there isn't a problem with what I've got, trust me I know what I'm doing.I did 20,000 miles in my 635CSI and the steering was terrible. It was a top-spec low mileage car with LSD.
A mate of mine had a MG ZT190 and chasing him down a country road, despite the 635 having better figures it could not get anywhere near the - slower on paper - MG ZT-190.
The reason for this... even in a straight line the steering was hard to control so I could not keep my foot down solid.
This is in the real world. Yeah, on a motorway maybe it wouldn't be a problem. But you said at the beginning of the thread that you wanted this to be a b-road blaster.
Sort the steering, you will regret not doing that. Take some parts from another BMW which had a rack.
If your old car was as bad as you say it was I can only assume it had a fault either mechanical or with the alignment. I had my E9 off the clock and it never felt anything other than absolutely planted
Edited by gazzol on Sunday 10th December 01:27
Edited by gazzol on Sunday 10th December 22:39
So, not much of an update but I finally got the car completely stripped to a bare shell. Starting on the driver's side I started cutting away at the rot. I had to remove the lower section of the rear quarter panel so that I could cut away the central section in order to fit a complete new inner sill. The inner sill is going to be hand fabricated by yt but in no way will I be trying to replicate the original......there's no point as it's not that kind of car.
[url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/HFxzhKtG[/url][url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/thHsUqDt[/url][url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/uWSzfu53[/url][url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/eu1EoGwH[/url][url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/jxWJw62e[/url][url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/cWSfYZgr[/url][url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/6fRV1PoX[/url]
The good news is that from this point onwards everything is progress or to put it another way: it'll never be as f#cked as it is now.
[url]|https://thumbsnap.com/HFxzhKtG[/url][url]|https://thumbsnap.com/thHsUqDt[/url][url]|https://thumbsnap.com/uWSzfu53[/url][url]|https://thumbsnap.com/eu1EoGwH[/url][url]|https://thumbsnap.com/jxWJw62e[/url][url]|https://thumbsnap.com/cWSfYZgr[/url][url]|https://thumbsnap.com/6fRV1PoX[/url]The good news is that from this point onwards everything is progress or to put it another way: it'll never be as f#cked as it is now.
Edited by gazzol on Sunday 10th December 01:12
Edited by gazzol on Sunday 10th December 01:21
with me.
This is going to be epic and utterly down my street! I'm also an M30 enthuisiast with E23s, an E30 with M30B34 and even an E3 3.0si which was bought with no interior or engine, that I have marked out for similar treatment...
The plan with mine is swapping the steering box out of an E12 M535i and bolting up an entire E28 rear axle, both being direct fitment. I believe E3s are the same in the front as an E9 so I'm curious if you have any tricks or tips... Is there a thread on the E9?
The plan with mine is swapping the steering box out of an E12 M535i and bolting up an entire E28 rear axle, both being direct fitment. I believe E3s are the same in the front as an E9 so I'm curious if you have any tricks or tips... Is there a thread on the E9?
rob0r said:
This is going to be epic and utterly down my street! I'm also an M30 enthuisiast with E23s, an E30 with M30B34 and even an E3 3.0si which was bought with no interior or engine, that I have marked out for similar treatment...
The plan with mine is swapping the steering box out of an E12 M535i and bolting up an entire E28 rear axle, both being direct fitment. I believe E3s are the same in the front as an E9 so I'm curious if you have any tricks or tips... Is there a thread on the E9?
Thanks for your positive comments. The plan with mine is swapping the steering box out of an E12 M535i and bolting up an entire E28 rear axle, both being direct fitment. I believe E3s are the same in the front as an E9 so I'm curious if you have any tricks or tips... Is there a thread on the E9?
Not sure about an E3 thread but I'm sure there's an E3 forum run alongside the e9 one but I may be wrong. You're right about e3s and e9s being mechanically identical same with the e12 too. When I had my e9 I used E12 M535 front struts (better choice of brake discs) with Bilstein inserts but converted to adjustable platforms with 2.5 inch id springs rear shocks were Bilstein again from an e24, rear springs were standard but cut down. I kept my suspension soft for compliance but went big on the anti roll bars. Still have springs and shocks etc if you're interested. Also have a 5speed dog leg too.
Edited by gazzol on Tuesday 12th December 23:07
|https://thumbsnap.com/TqpVnH2X[/url]
That video of the E9 is one of the best things I've ever watched. Good luck with the project, doesnt look like you'll need it though! A straight six manual BMW with an LSD is such a brilliant thing to have in the UK. Hope to see this on a set of BBS RC090s and nice chunky tyres ripping up Hartside sometime!
gazzol said:
ingenieur said:
You MUST sort the steering. Even if you do nothing else.
I did 20,000 miles in my 635CSI and the steering was terrible. It was a top-spec low mileage car with LSD.
A mate of mine had a MG ZT190 and chasing him down a country road, despite the 635 having better figures it could not get anywhere near the - slower on paper - MG ZT-190.
The reason for this... even in a straight line the steering was hard to control so I could not keep my foot down solid.
This is in the real world. Yeah, on a motorway maybe it wouldn't be a problem. But you said at the beginning of the thread that you wanted this to be a b-road blaster.
Sort the steering, you will regret not doing that. Take some parts from another BMW which had a rack.
The car is going to be either race spec poly bushed or have spherical bearings in the suspension, all the steering components will be new so there won't be any play in the steering at all. I cant just puts a rack on from another BMW because all the cars that had racks on had the rack infront of the subframe.......right where my sump is going to be. I can't put said rack behind the subframe because then turning the steering wheel left would make the car turn right. Other racks are available but it simply isn't worth the hassle. If steering box systems are so woefully terrible as you make out then why did BMW persist with it for so long and use it till the 90s? I'm not sayin racks aren't better but there isn't a problem with what I've got, trust me I know what I'm doing.I did 20,000 miles in my 635CSI and the steering was terrible. It was a top-spec low mileage car with LSD.
A mate of mine had a MG ZT190 and chasing him down a country road, despite the 635 having better figures it could not get anywhere near the - slower on paper - MG ZT-190.
The reason for this... even in a straight line the steering was hard to control so I could not keep my foot down solid.
This is in the real world. Yeah, on a motorway maybe it wouldn't be a problem. But you said at the beginning of the thread that you wanted this to be a b-road blaster.
Sort the steering, you will regret not doing that. Take some parts from another BMW which had a rack.
If your old car was as bad as you say it was I can only assume it had a fault either mechanical or with the alignment. I had my E9 off the clock and it never felt anything other than absolutely planted
Edited by gazzol on Sunday 10th December 01:27
Edited by gazzol on Sunday 10th December 22:39
With a new system it will start off feeling ok... but it won't last.
Here's what it's like... mine was nowhere near as bad as this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUkUclHlCB0
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