E24 RESTORATION PROJECT.
The car is a 1988 E24 BMW 635 CSI Highline finished externally in Negaro Silver paintwork with black leather interior. It has a 3.5 litre M30 straight 6-cylinder engine which produces a whopping 208 BHP. I purchased the car back in 2004 for £1000, it needed welding and a full respray but mechanically was generally sound. The car went into storage then when I went over to work for BMW Sydney in 2006 as their Master Technician and when I returned in 2009, I secured a job at BMW UK in the press
workshop in Bracknell, this enabled me to start collecting all the necessary Original BMW parts using my staff discount which I did for the next few years including the famous front wings which had rusted away on the insides. In 2014 I took the car out of storage and sent it to BMW Heathrow for a full back to bare metal respray where it had the wings fitted. Life got in the way, and it remained there for a few years until I got my act together and decided to finally finish it which I have just completed. I used BMW Berry who are my current parts supplier to my own BMW Specialist Turner Automotive to order many of the final parts to finish the project such as trims, clips, switches, motors and just about anything else you can think of. I decided to replace the fuel lines and brake lines recently with Original BMW parts which were luckily still available from
Germany and whilst they were off, I took the opportunity to have the underside ice blasted which has removed 36 years of the dirt and grime from not only the body but all the metal, rubber and plastic parts including the engine bay. I would like to thank Neil Hyatt at Berry BMW especially for helping me source as many parts as possible from Germany as sadly lots are no longer available and on more than one occasion, I had managed to grab literally the “last one left” Phew!! The car is now taxed and MOT’d and drives like an absolute dream! I keep it at home in my garage, but I take the opportunity to always take it out most weekends (if it’s dry) for a blast down some county roads, often ending up in a pub where I will of course only park it where I can look at it whilst having my pint. I have managed to take it to a couple of car shows where it has gotten lots of attention which makes all the effort absolutely worthwhile! Barrie Rowles – BMW Specialist Turner Automotive
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