1988 BMW E24 M6 total restoration project!

Although I usually start my projects in May, the time has come a little early for this one.
I bought this car about a year ago, thinking that I could restore it over the winter. As it turned out (as always) there were other projects that kept us away from working on it. But, we are finally doing it!!!

It’s an 88 M6, 2 owner car (last owner had it for 15 years), clean car fax with only 63,000 MILES !!!

Unfortunately, the car was stored outside and needed full paint job as well as the interior restoration.

Prior to the sale, the previous owner performed full tune up to the tune of $2,837 (including all new catalytic converters, new gaskets, wires, caps, rotors, bushings regulators, etc..etc..)
I replaced the clutch, fixed the self leveling rear suspension, replaced rear pitman arms, etc…

This will be one of the cleanest, most original M6 on the East Coast once we will be done with it.

The day I picked it up –

after being in the shop for almost a year, the work has finally began!

The E24 is nothing like the E30, although, not as complex as modern cars, this 22 year old is temperamental and not easy

as of today

hope to finish the bodywork / welding on Mon, then start on the pre-paint process. Will update next week!

Yes, original red and 63k miles for the S38 is very low!

a little dusty but you can’t argue with BMW Motorsport

Finished the body work today

the rest of the car was primered today as well!

Towed the car from my shop to Azevedo to replace the clutch salve cylinder so I can drive it around the shop

Finally, F-I-N-A-L-L-Y ! The car is painted !

have to say that the car looks amazing, even being all apart, just freaking cool to see such a clean, freshly painted e24

unmasked (iPhone pics)

Power washed the undercarriage before applying the undercoating tomorrow. The car is exceptionally clean for 22 years of collecting dirt on it’s bottom

working on it

Had to get the new ECU that took few weeks to find. The old one just gave up and the car would not start.

it went to the mechanical shop for some maintainence

came back, the car is running flawlessly now !

putting some finishing touches on it

My buddy came today with a carpet washing machine and we gave this 22 year old rug a good clean up, it came out awesome, even better than expected !

Tomorrow I’ll finish up cleaning the interior and will put two newly re-upholstered front seats back in, also the windshield will be installed tomorrow. Sat I will lower the front.
That’s it for now, she goes back to sleep in a good company 

Got the new winshiled gasket and the new windshield.
The glass guy spent about an hour on the windshield installation, what a bitch, just didn’t want to go in

We also spent like 30 min trying to get the rear glass molding back in, these moldings on e24 are such a pain to install, especially when they are 22 years old and bent, but it’s all good now, only the minor stuff left.

99% complete, few very minor details left, last night I drove it first time in 2 years, car feels great, a true GT cruiser!

not sure how I feel about the wing yet, I kind of like it without it…

few more pics