98 BMW z3

[frankbreau]

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Bought a 21 year old BMW this week. While I understand that's probably not the most local decision, we had a few good reasons and are hoping to keep it long term. This was my father in law's Z3 that has been in his barn for the past 15-ish years. I had been jokingly saying I wanted to buy it for almost a decade now. He surprised us when he finally wanted to sell it.

While there's not much wrong with it.. I'm guessing that will change sooner or later. Figured I would post a few shots of it here while I have a few minutes.

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Exterior is relatively clean. It has a new top, some kind of aftermarket rack on the trunk that I like, new-ish tires, etc. A few of the trim pieces are starting to show their age and I'll eventually replace them.

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I think the wheels are original, and in abnormally good shape for their age.

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Interior is also in decent shape. I did a pretty basic interior detail and it got nice and shiny.

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Driver's seat has some cracking on the leather of the outer bolster, but otherwise in decent shape. The lack of storage is pretty funny. There is almost nowhere to put a wallet and phone, they go in the passenger door pocket or the glove box.

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Mileage is super low for the year.. supposedly it has only been out in summer for a couple thousand miles a year. It's been sitting for the last 2-ish years but has been driven pretty regularly until then.

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Needs a trunk floor unless I can find it somewhere in the barn.

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2.8 straight 6. Pretty ok access to most of it when the hood is up.

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Looks like there is 1 cylinder that is kinda under the cowling.

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[frankbreau]

I've always liked roadsters for some reason. My first car was a 73 MGB. After that I daily drove an 05 S2000 for a few years before selling it. This is the first time, however, I've had a car that I didn't need to drive on a daily basis. I don't know a whole lot about working on cars yet but I'm pretty excited to learn as I go. I have a decent garage, a basic tool set, and hope to learn some stuff and acquire tools over time.

As of now it runs and drives really well. Turns/stops fine. No weird sounds that I've noticed yet. Near term I want to do fluids and clean up the exterior a little.

[kevm14]

This is great. Definitely better than I thought when you first told me about it. Hopefully the E36-based architecture will age better than Adam's E46.

[bill25]

Dude, that looks awesome! Congrats!

[frankbreau]

Installed the hard top this morning. Not a huge project really, just kind of dropped on and a few bolts to torque down. There are a couple of scratches and dings around the rear edge from the way it was sitting in the barn, but it's in otherwise good shape. Looks like the rear defroster works and everything.

There's some wind noise at like 35+ MPH, so I'll have to figure out where that's coming from.. Otherwise looks like it's good to go a little longer until the snow flies.

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[kevm14]

Have you driven it to work yet?

[frankbreau]

Nope. Haunted by visions of waiting for a tow on the Newport bridge.

[frankbreau]

So now that we're well into December and it's less likely I'm going to be driving this much later into the year.. any advice on winter storage? I'm basically at fill the gas tank up, put a battery tender on, and start it every now and then.

[kevm14]

Battery tender is all I do on my CTS-V. I don't even start it in the middle of winter or anything. Never have and I've had it for 9 years.

[bill25]

Stabil, and I think I read you should drive for 15 minutes to get it through the system.