Half Moon Miles F31 Alpina D3
Discussion
Last month, on a whim, i sold my daily GR Yaris to a trader. It had covered 46K miles from new and i was the sole owner. When i got the car i had an old BMW 2002Tii that I was modifying as a 'restomod' sort of project and the Yaris filled in the gaps when i was tinkering on that and it was off the road.
I sold that 2002 early last year and bought a Porsche 996 to tinker with, the main aim was to create my perfect road going 996. The fact this car was a lot more usable than the 2002 was and that it also spent less time off the road meant the Yaris was only being used for commuting and not for drives out. This type of use is a pretty terrible use case for the GR Yaris, so it had to go, sadly. As much as i loved that car, I'd been kidding myself for too long already.
The day the trader was picking it up i actually had to do a 250 mile round trip in it and i got caught in traffic on the way home. I had an amazing drive down as i took the cross country route and got one final run on the Blakey Ridge road. With the traffic on the way home, it was a bittersweet ending and 30 minutes of stop start on the motorway cemented i'd made the right choice, despite the amazing drive on the way down.
I had planned to use the 996 until i figured out a replacement, although i was never keen on the idea of turning up to meetings/ sites in it.
Like many of you, i've got watch lists set up for anything and everything and one watchlist is for Alpina D3's. Im not diesels biggest fan but have very fond memories of my old e46 330cd and have always thought that the D3 makes more sense as a use case for these cars. I've had the watch list set up for years and have occasionally seen my ideal F31 come and go but its been a rare occasion and often the cars are too expensive for me at the time or circumstance stops it being a possibility! Not this time...
I'd seen 'my' car crop up on Auto Trader, it was priced pretty cheap, there were no other touring models for sale but i knew it seemed good value. The pictures weren't great and it was a white car with black wheels, instant ick. It also had 126k miles on it, which i know seems high to many and out of context it does to me as well but i sold my e46 on 125k miles and it felt no worse than when i bought it on 55k! I'd seen one on Ebay a few weeks prior in the same white/ black combo and it was up for £7k more but did have 40k less miles, it disappeared off Ebay pretty quickly! (it later turned out the seller changed his mind)
With the turn off of the touring on Auto Trader, I started looking at other options. I wanted an auto and something that was comfortable, heated seats and prefferably a good sound system, basically the opposite of the GR Yaris! I was doing my own head in by looking and stopped for a few days. I came back to the touring on Auto Trader and decided to consider it properly and get past the colour combo, it had also been reduced £300. I asked friends for advice, one being Mr Slippydiff on here, an opinion i value, we have similar views when it comes to cars and he told me it would all be okay, which is all we ever want to hear
A very helpful chap off the Alpina Facebook page (Thanks Neil) did wonders for instilling confidence in these cars for me as well.
On messaging the owner back and forth, i arranged a viewing and gave him my phone number so we could keep in touch easier. He messaged me and a flurry of past messages were present, he'd tried buying my Lexus ISF nearly 4 years to the day! Ever the small world! He couldnt buy the ISF at the time as his car didnt sell before someone else came and got the Lexus, the car he was trying to sell at the time was a 996... Do we live in a simulation? Sometimes i think so!
The car was 3 hours away and we were away camping that weekend, so it was a long old day of driving that day, my long suffering missus drove me up to view the car. On getting out and looking at it, it was quite the disappointment after the initial hit of excitement. All of the wheels had kurb marks, 2 tyres had multiple cuts out of the sidewall/ rim protector and another tyre had a very visible bulge. The front brakes were dead, discs heavily lipped and no pads left. All of the door/ boot shuts were filthy, the boot shut was actually green, i hate cleaning cars and dont do it often myself but this was all a little too much, even for me. The dead brakes became even more apparent on the test drive, with a judder under initial braking, however, the rest of the car felt great. On the test drive the owner also told me of a fault code it occasionally threw up as well but apparently didn't have any effect on the car. The car was pearlescent white, rather than the flat white it looked in the pictures, this took the edge off and was a nice surprise:
20250622_190625 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
I had a good feeling about the car on one hand (i definitely get the car version of 'beer goggles'!) but also a bad feeling on the other. It felt great, even despite the above but it was a risky purchase, it needed 2-3k spending on it in reality. Negotiations didnt go well, i was initially going to offer a grand under asking price, which i thought was more than fair for the state it was in, floating this idea didnt go well and we ended up in a bit of a silly stalemate over £250, i wanted at least £500 off, he wouldn't budge more than £250, it was all a little frustrating. I must stress that 3 weeks after he'd purchased the car his circumstances had changed and he ran it for another year with it being nowhere near his top priority, he didnt want to sell the car either, so i get it but it had to make sense for me as well. Retrospectively, in the week after i bought the car and gained access to the Alpina Facebook page, i saw it listed on there some 6 months ago for £3.5k more than it was advertised for when i caught it on Autotrader, which goes some way to explain his reaction to my offers.
I went and sat with my missus for 10 minutes and ran through the pros and the cons. It was still a risk but walking away for the sake of £250 quid wouldve been cutting my nose off to spite my face. I just had to prepare myself for getting it up to scratch pretty quickly before it soured my taste of Alpina ownership after wanting to be in one for so long. Thankfully the money went through instantly and I made my way home in it!
The rain was pretty bad on and off driving home but i stopped on a familiar road after about 2 hours and wanted to have a walk around it on my own away from the purchasing situation. The drive had been fine, i'd kept it fairly sensible with the weather, state of the tyres and the state of the brakes. The car had an android auto converter in it and i'd managed to get that working after some faffing around (very simple once you know how!) so i was very much enjoying the comfort and the Harmon Kardon sound system. The fact it had this gizmo fitted also took the edge off as they are around £250!
Finally, some pictures i hear you say!
20250622_220014 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
20250622_215918 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
20250622_220306 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
20250622_215941 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
I walked around it and crossed the road, viewing it from every angle. I looked past the bits i didnt like and i loved it. At this moment I committed myself to sorting it out quicksharp!
TBC
Scott
I sold that 2002 early last year and bought a Porsche 996 to tinker with, the main aim was to create my perfect road going 996. The fact this car was a lot more usable than the 2002 was and that it also spent less time off the road meant the Yaris was only being used for commuting and not for drives out. This type of use is a pretty terrible use case for the GR Yaris, so it had to go, sadly. As much as i loved that car, I'd been kidding myself for too long already.
The day the trader was picking it up i actually had to do a 250 mile round trip in it and i got caught in traffic on the way home. I had an amazing drive down as i took the cross country route and got one final run on the Blakey Ridge road. With the traffic on the way home, it was a bittersweet ending and 30 minutes of stop start on the motorway cemented i'd made the right choice, despite the amazing drive on the way down.
I had planned to use the 996 until i figured out a replacement, although i was never keen on the idea of turning up to meetings/ sites in it.
Like many of you, i've got watch lists set up for anything and everything and one watchlist is for Alpina D3's. Im not diesels biggest fan but have very fond memories of my old e46 330cd and have always thought that the D3 makes more sense as a use case for these cars. I've had the watch list set up for years and have occasionally seen my ideal F31 come and go but its been a rare occasion and often the cars are too expensive for me at the time or circumstance stops it being a possibility! Not this time...
I'd seen 'my' car crop up on Auto Trader, it was priced pretty cheap, there were no other touring models for sale but i knew it seemed good value. The pictures weren't great and it was a white car with black wheels, instant ick. It also had 126k miles on it, which i know seems high to many and out of context it does to me as well but i sold my e46 on 125k miles and it felt no worse than when i bought it on 55k! I'd seen one on Ebay a few weeks prior in the same white/ black combo and it was up for £7k more but did have 40k less miles, it disappeared off Ebay pretty quickly! (it later turned out the seller changed his mind)
With the turn off of the touring on Auto Trader, I started looking at other options. I wanted an auto and something that was comfortable, heated seats and prefferably a good sound system, basically the opposite of the GR Yaris! I was doing my own head in by looking and stopped for a few days. I came back to the touring on Auto Trader and decided to consider it properly and get past the colour combo, it had also been reduced £300. I asked friends for advice, one being Mr Slippydiff on here, an opinion i value, we have similar views when it comes to cars and he told me it would all be okay, which is all we ever want to hear
A very helpful chap off the Alpina Facebook page (Thanks Neil) did wonders for instilling confidence in these cars for me as well.On messaging the owner back and forth, i arranged a viewing and gave him my phone number so we could keep in touch easier. He messaged me and a flurry of past messages were present, he'd tried buying my Lexus ISF nearly 4 years to the day! Ever the small world! He couldnt buy the ISF at the time as his car didnt sell before someone else came and got the Lexus, the car he was trying to sell at the time was a 996... Do we live in a simulation? Sometimes i think so!
The car was 3 hours away and we were away camping that weekend, so it was a long old day of driving that day, my long suffering missus drove me up to view the car. On getting out and looking at it, it was quite the disappointment after the initial hit of excitement. All of the wheels had kurb marks, 2 tyres had multiple cuts out of the sidewall/ rim protector and another tyre had a very visible bulge. The front brakes were dead, discs heavily lipped and no pads left. All of the door/ boot shuts were filthy, the boot shut was actually green, i hate cleaning cars and dont do it often myself but this was all a little too much, even for me. The dead brakes became even more apparent on the test drive, with a judder under initial braking, however, the rest of the car felt great. On the test drive the owner also told me of a fault code it occasionally threw up as well but apparently didn't have any effect on the car. The car was pearlescent white, rather than the flat white it looked in the pictures, this took the edge off and was a nice surprise:
20250622_190625 by Scott Osborne, on FlickrI had a good feeling about the car on one hand (i definitely get the car version of 'beer goggles'!) but also a bad feeling on the other. It felt great, even despite the above but it was a risky purchase, it needed 2-3k spending on it in reality. Negotiations didnt go well, i was initially going to offer a grand under asking price, which i thought was more than fair for the state it was in, floating this idea didnt go well and we ended up in a bit of a silly stalemate over £250, i wanted at least £500 off, he wouldn't budge more than £250, it was all a little frustrating. I must stress that 3 weeks after he'd purchased the car his circumstances had changed and he ran it for another year with it being nowhere near his top priority, he didnt want to sell the car either, so i get it but it had to make sense for me as well. Retrospectively, in the week after i bought the car and gained access to the Alpina Facebook page, i saw it listed on there some 6 months ago for £3.5k more than it was advertised for when i caught it on Autotrader, which goes some way to explain his reaction to my offers.
I went and sat with my missus for 10 minutes and ran through the pros and the cons. It was still a risk but walking away for the sake of £250 quid wouldve been cutting my nose off to spite my face. I just had to prepare myself for getting it up to scratch pretty quickly before it soured my taste of Alpina ownership after wanting to be in one for so long. Thankfully the money went through instantly and I made my way home in it!
The rain was pretty bad on and off driving home but i stopped on a familiar road after about 2 hours and wanted to have a walk around it on my own away from the purchasing situation. The drive had been fine, i'd kept it fairly sensible with the weather, state of the tyres and the state of the brakes. The car had an android auto converter in it and i'd managed to get that working after some faffing around (very simple once you know how!) so i was very much enjoying the comfort and the Harmon Kardon sound system. The fact it had this gizmo fitted also took the edge off as they are around £250!
Finally, some pictures i hear you say!
20250622_220014 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr20250622_215918 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr20250622_220306 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr20250622_215941 by Scott Osborne, on FlickrI walked around it and crossed the road, viewing it from every angle. I looked past the bits i didnt like and i loved it. At this moment I committed myself to sorting it out quicksharp!
TBC
Scott
v8notbrave said:
Looks lovely and helpfully it's been run in for you by prior owners, will do double that with no stress. I empathise with the man maths confusion of should I or should I not buy an imperfect but solid car at a good price.
Thank You and i certainly hope so, i would like to keep it for at least the next 5 years or so, unless circumstances really change! I think part of it was the fact i've hankered after an F series Alpina for so long and wanted it to be right from the off but it was a good price as you say and so here we are!lukeharding said:
I do like these, despite doing everything I can to avoid practical cars. I somehow hadn't realised you'd sold the 2002, even though I'd seen the 996! Someone got a great car after all that work you did 
You would be one of the first people i think of when impractical cars are mentioned 
Yes, sadly it sold out of the blue about a year and a half ago now, something i never intended to do but a big offer came out of the blue and he was the right person too, i'd have been silly not to! He's since spent a small fortune making it perfect cosmetically and had some new wheels made etc. It's even better now!
Mr Tidy said:
At the end of the day you can't be too fussy about colour when you are buying a pretty rare used car.
Good to see you found what you were looking for otherwise, and 128K miles isn't that high for a diesel.
Yes exactly, thats why i came back to the car after initially dismissing it, beggars cant be choosers!Good to see you found what you were looking for otherwise, and 128K miles isn't that high for a diesel.
jackcactii said:
Congrats, I've got the same car in the same colour but newer. 
I'd love to add the silver tripes and get chrome kidneys soon. But the correct ones are rare to find and I refuse to pay full price for new ones of course lol.
That looks cool, im still not sold on the G series and couldnt afford one anyway but i think in time they will age really well, as most BMW's tend to! Maybe in time that may be the successor for me. Is the diesel G series still rwd or are they all x-drive now? I'd love to add the silver tripes and get chrome kidneys soon. But the correct ones are rare to find and I refuse to pay full price for new ones of course lol.CornedBeef said:
Any interior shots OP?
I'm afraid i dont, its in with a detailer this weekend coming so ill grab some after that!Ruskie said:
Lovely!! Hope it s a good one.
Thank You, me too!First on the list was to sort out a new set of tyres, i didnt want to put my other half or son in the car with the tyres in the state they were. I did my usual and got prices for Michelin Pilot Sport 4S, Good Year Eagle F1 Supersports and Continental Sportcontact 7's. The Good Years came up trumps with a 15% off deal, £855 fitted for all 4, once done the car felt immediately better!
At the same time i'd sourced some original chrome surround grills. There's an abundance of these on eBay and the like in more or less perfect condition for next to no money. I think this is due to so many people fitting cheap aftermarket black grills, m4 style grills and/ or with the m stripes on. This was confirmed when the chrome grills turned up in a box labelled 'gloss black m4 style grills', thankfully that isnt what they contained!
20250625_180538 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
20250625_191435 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
I also had the car over some of my favorite roads to scrub the tyres in a bit (seemed like a good excuse anyway!) My road of choice seemed apt as I always remembered the Auto Express review by Steve Suttcliffe on the same road back in the day!
20250705_160327 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
20250705_155202 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
I'm enjoying the white when the sun is on it:
20250705_160342 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
Next on the list was to sort out any fault codes that showed up on diagnostics. One of the things that showed up was the sensor problem i mentioned in my opening post where the previous owner stated it didnt affect the car so he left it. It was the vertical acceleration sensor, which helps to operate the electronic damping system, all of the shocks had been replaced at quite an expense so it seemed odd to leave this. It was pinging up pretty much every journey and seemed to be putting the dampers in some sort of a default mode.
The sensor itself simply bolted to the shock and plugged in, it was a swift 10 minute job:
VAS by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
I was advised to change the cable as well, this has a revised part number and seems to be the cause of the intermittent issues thrown up, this required a further 10 minutes whilst the wheel was off, taking the arch lining out and tracing it back to the connector:
VAS Cable by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
20250701_101538 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
20250704_141401 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
For 20 minutes and £150 i was very happy with this and that it wasnt anything more sinister! 1500 miles since doing this and the light has stayed off.
Another code that showed up was the 'AUC' sensor, this didnt show any sort of EML but i also wanted to remedy it. It essentially measures the air quality and if it senses nox gasses it will automatically put the HVAC into recirc, if its set on auto mode anyway. Not something that NEEDS to work but a sensor was sourced and installed:
20250704_150607 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
The car was telling me it had 500 miles left on the front pads by this point and light braking was providing worse vibrations than when i got the car. My jaunt out over the Blakey Ridge road obviously didnt help, even though i was being very sensible on the brakes because of this.
I ordered the parts up for the front, brake pad wear sensor, 2 piece discs and the associated pads. The Alpina brakes are essentially F Series M-Performance brakes with the calipers painted in Alpina blue and with their logo. This meant that discs and pads were readily available, the discs are constructed by Brembo so i sourced a pair of these discs and Jurid make the OE pads, so i also sourced these.
20250706_124452 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
20250706_151428 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
20250706_151439 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
20250704_141445 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
20250706_163424 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
This was the state of the brakes before changing:
20250704_135103 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
20250704_135107 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
Just in time really! No more judder.
Now this was kind of the only time i liked the black wheels, when the brakes were new with clean calipers and contrasted well:
20250706_170502 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
Whilst the car was up in the air i had a bit of a clean around and sprayed some Lanoguard stuff around, mainly on the subframes etc.
20250704_134120 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
(Note the factory fit Akrapovic exhaust)
New badges arrived for the rear:
20250707_183329 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
20250718_162133 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
I did consider leaving the back end de-badged but i decided that if im going to have an Alpina then i want the badges too, the same as if the car didnt have the side stripes, id have had them fitted as well!
I've had a couple of days out with the family in it, the other half and my son are both big fans:
20250720_122841 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
The above was on a requested extended drive out by my 4 year old after we'd been searching for waterfalls!
Below, a trip over to the Lake District on a very hot day, in complete comfort and beating the sat navs time, naturally
20250711_104006 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
Last on the list for this installment was to get the wheels done in 'Sparkle Silver', i found somewhere that wanted to take them on and would do the center plates as well. They did want me to strip the locks out and the badges etc. so the night before i set about doing that:
20250720_173319 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
20250720_173324 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
I dropped the car off and the wheels/ caps were done the same day:
20250721_174441 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
They looked much better already and you could see the Alpina part numbers/ detailing around the center now, instead of being caked in black powdercoat!
I was waiting for some new hardware to get the caps back together, as well as the sticky foam pads that need to be fitted. Things looked promising though! One cap pieced together temporarily to try on:
20250721_180932 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
20250721_180720 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
A few days later i had all the bits:
20250723_194536 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
20250723_194552 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
Lo and behold:
20250724_171716 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
Much better, i feel the car is now much more 'me' and im much happier with it. The car goes into a local detailer for a good going over and coating inside and out this weekend, im very much looking forward to this taking place.
A picture at my friends place with one of his fine machines, i thought this was a great 2 car garage!
20250725_175942 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
The last piece before then (and im hoping it shows up in time) is one of the door sill trim pieces, it looks as if water has got underneath and it's spidered out:
20250722_145309 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr
It's on the passenger side and i'd held out sorting it until everything else was done really, i'd assumed it would be a fortune but the part was only around £40 for the full 'Alpina' logo trim piece. Compared to some £240 for the rear badges, this was a pleasant surprise!
I think once the detailer has been paid i'll have spent somewhere in the region of £2.6k on the car to get it ship shape, i've done what i can myself to keep the costs sensible and im happy with where i've ended up, both in terms of how the car is and where i am money-wise.
I really enjoy spending time in the car and find myself turning up to work much more relaxed. I used to dislike travelling to sites for meetings and what not as well but find myself looking forward to them now as its more time in this wonderful car.
Thanks for reading, i'll try to keep this up to date!
Scott
At the same time i'd sourced some original chrome surround grills. There's an abundance of these on eBay and the like in more or less perfect condition for next to no money. I think this is due to so many people fitting cheap aftermarket black grills, m4 style grills and/ or with the m stripes on. This was confirmed when the chrome grills turned up in a box labelled 'gloss black m4 style grills', thankfully that isnt what they contained!
20250625_180538 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr20250625_191435 by Scott Osborne, on FlickrI also had the car over some of my favorite roads to scrub the tyres in a bit (seemed like a good excuse anyway!) My road of choice seemed apt as I always remembered the Auto Express review by Steve Suttcliffe on the same road back in the day!
20250705_160327 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr20250705_155202 by Scott Osborne, on FlickrI'm enjoying the white when the sun is on it:
20250705_160342 by Scott Osborne, on FlickrNext on the list was to sort out any fault codes that showed up on diagnostics. One of the things that showed up was the sensor problem i mentioned in my opening post where the previous owner stated it didnt affect the car so he left it. It was the vertical acceleration sensor, which helps to operate the electronic damping system, all of the shocks had been replaced at quite an expense so it seemed odd to leave this. It was pinging up pretty much every journey and seemed to be putting the dampers in some sort of a default mode.
The sensor itself simply bolted to the shock and plugged in, it was a swift 10 minute job:
VAS by Scott Osborne, on FlickrI was advised to change the cable as well, this has a revised part number and seems to be the cause of the intermittent issues thrown up, this required a further 10 minutes whilst the wheel was off, taking the arch lining out and tracing it back to the connector:
VAS Cable by Scott Osborne, on Flickr20250701_101538 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr20250704_141401 by Scott Osborne, on FlickrFor 20 minutes and £150 i was very happy with this and that it wasnt anything more sinister! 1500 miles since doing this and the light has stayed off.
Another code that showed up was the 'AUC' sensor, this didnt show any sort of EML but i also wanted to remedy it. It essentially measures the air quality and if it senses nox gasses it will automatically put the HVAC into recirc, if its set on auto mode anyway. Not something that NEEDS to work but a sensor was sourced and installed:
20250704_150607 by Scott Osborne, on FlickrThe car was telling me it had 500 miles left on the front pads by this point and light braking was providing worse vibrations than when i got the car. My jaunt out over the Blakey Ridge road obviously didnt help, even though i was being very sensible on the brakes because of this.
I ordered the parts up for the front, brake pad wear sensor, 2 piece discs and the associated pads. The Alpina brakes are essentially F Series M-Performance brakes with the calipers painted in Alpina blue and with their logo. This meant that discs and pads were readily available, the discs are constructed by Brembo so i sourced a pair of these discs and Jurid make the OE pads, so i also sourced these.
20250706_124452 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr20250706_151428 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr20250706_151439 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr20250704_141445 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr20250706_163424 by Scott Osborne, on FlickrThis was the state of the brakes before changing:
20250704_135103 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr20250704_135107 by Scott Osborne, on FlickrJust in time really! No more judder.
Now this was kind of the only time i liked the black wheels, when the brakes were new with clean calipers and contrasted well:
20250706_170502 by Scott Osborne, on FlickrWhilst the car was up in the air i had a bit of a clean around and sprayed some Lanoguard stuff around, mainly on the subframes etc.
20250704_134120 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr(Note the factory fit Akrapovic exhaust)
New badges arrived for the rear:
20250707_183329 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr20250718_162133 by Scott Osborne, on FlickrI did consider leaving the back end de-badged but i decided that if im going to have an Alpina then i want the badges too, the same as if the car didnt have the side stripes, id have had them fitted as well!
I've had a couple of days out with the family in it, the other half and my son are both big fans:
20250720_122841 by Scott Osborne, on FlickrThe above was on a requested extended drive out by my 4 year old after we'd been searching for waterfalls!
Below, a trip over to the Lake District on a very hot day, in complete comfort and beating the sat navs time, naturally
20250711_104006 by Scott Osborne, on FlickrLast on the list for this installment was to get the wheels done in 'Sparkle Silver', i found somewhere that wanted to take them on and would do the center plates as well. They did want me to strip the locks out and the badges etc. so the night before i set about doing that:
20250720_173319 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr20250720_173324 by Scott Osborne, on FlickrI dropped the car off and the wheels/ caps were done the same day:
20250721_174441 by Scott Osborne, on FlickrThey looked much better already and you could see the Alpina part numbers/ detailing around the center now, instead of being caked in black powdercoat!
I was waiting for some new hardware to get the caps back together, as well as the sticky foam pads that need to be fitted. Things looked promising though! One cap pieced together temporarily to try on:
20250721_180932 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr20250721_180720 by Scott Osborne, on FlickrA few days later i had all the bits:
20250723_194536 by Scott Osborne, on Flickr20250723_194552 by Scott Osborne, on FlickrLo and behold:
20250724_171716 by Scott Osborne, on FlickrMuch better, i feel the car is now much more 'me' and im much happier with it. The car goes into a local detailer for a good going over and coating inside and out this weekend, im very much looking forward to this taking place.
A picture at my friends place with one of his fine machines, i thought this was a great 2 car garage!
20250725_175942 by Scott Osborne, on FlickrThe last piece before then (and im hoping it shows up in time) is one of the door sill trim pieces, it looks as if water has got underneath and it's spidered out:
20250722_145309 by Scott Osborne, on FlickrIt's on the passenger side and i'd held out sorting it until everything else was done really, i'd assumed it would be a fortune but the part was only around £40 for the full 'Alpina' logo trim piece. Compared to some £240 for the rear badges, this was a pleasant surprise!
I think once the detailer has been paid i'll have spent somewhere in the region of £2.6k on the car to get it ship shape, i've done what i can myself to keep the costs sensible and im happy with where i've ended up, both in terms of how the car is and where i am money-wise.
I really enjoy spending time in the car and find myself turning up to work much more relaxed. I used to dislike travelling to sites for meetings and what not as well but find myself looking forward to them now as its more time in this wonderful car.
Thanks for reading, i'll try to keep this up to date!
Scott
Edited by scottos on Monday 28th July 11:58
Edited by scottos on Monday 28th July 11:59
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