Dupont Cars and Coffee is every third Saturday of the month...only car show I will visit. Not much of a car show guy, but the Ferrari's, etc are fun to see/hear.
More previous owner fun...at some point it likely went into the ditch and got pulled out from the rear...using the sheetmetal lower control arms...no wonder we couldn't get any camber in the rear:
OEM replacements went back in...fit like OEM (of course):
Also scored (or so we thought) a pedal setup...remember this is an undesirable slushbox auto:
As we pieced it together using internet diagrams...we were lacking many key parts...much easier to start with a stickshift! But certainly not impossible. The pedal 'box' is only held in with 5 bolts so quite simple.
Complete with 'euro' aluminum clutch master:
How to convert E36 from auto to manual...just pop these cardboard plugs out...ok not quite that simple, but these cars are still from the good generation.
Yup...more previous owner fun!
Replaced by a radio delete plate...like $10 from BMW! Why don't all cars offer that...
Then to address the disgusting interior...it could be worse, but it appeared a 12 ounce of soda drained from the center console to both rear footwells...another stench producer:
Some burly carpeting it is...1-2 inch foam backing...no longer sold new...so Simple Green and elbow grease to the rescue. My assistant was surprisingly absent on a campout this very weekend...:
You can see the radio delete plate in this image...serious floor pan!:
And the the clean final product...took like 3 days of fan/blow dry to rid the foam of moisture...:
The other reason for pulling the carpet...front to rear battery cable was failing...clamp was inoperative...assistant was the one that discovered that during trouble shooting. No wonder the car would skip a beat at night when we hit a bump...car would cut off for an instant - including the lights!:
And to keep the enthusiasm up about a slow 4 door...last years Daytona 24 hours event displayed a 1997 BMW M3 race car...why...to advertise the first year 4 door offering as an M3...first year for the auto as well (although don't believe the race car was an automatic...):
