A project too far?

unrealrocks

unrealrocks

unrealrocks

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Myself and Howard (who lurks on this forum somewhere!) popped over to a friend of ours yesterday who has just embarked on what is probably a totally loosing battle of a project!

He has been itching for the ultimate barge for a while. So when he found a 1988 BMW 750iL sitting around unused and only having been off the road for 6 months and the guy just wanted shot he jumped at it! £200 and a couple of pints later he was the proud owner of a V12 (!!!!) barge.

I have included some pictures below as it really is amazing ...

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This really is a fully loaded car, including adaptive suspension, fully electric heated seats (including the headrests!) front and rear, various sports or comfort settings for the gearbox ... and a whole array of warning lights!

Some of the many faults currently stand at a self rear levelling suspension system that leaks like Niagara, a flaky central locking system, a front wheel which scrubs fairly horrifically on the spring, also some unknown ignition issues (probably 25 year old HT leads!) and a dashboard that looks like Blackpool illuminations with warning lights!

The chance of getting it back on the road without spending serious cash is probably slim but it really is an amazing machine - even on axle stands. Thought I'd just pop it up ...
 
It certainly is a big old filthy ****heap at the moment, but it'll come good. I think. The electric headrests were the icing on the cake for me and I can't wait to hear that V12 burble.
 
Errrrrrrr.

The purchase price of something like this is irrelevent so I rather hope it wasn't the driver behind the purchase. Even if it was free it needs a long hard thinking about first.
 
[TW]Fox;23687394 said:
Errrrrrrr.

The purchase price of something like this is irrelevent so I rather hope it wasn't the driver behind the purchase. Even if it was free it needs a long hard thinking about first.
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It'll be worth nearly that scrapped. Which it will be once he figures out how much even the stuff just needed to get it back on the road costs. I'd imagine some bits would fetch ok money on ebay though so it shouldn't be much effort to get the purchase price back.
 
Gribs said:
It'll be worth nearly that scrapped. Which it will be once he figures out how much even the stuff just needed to get it back on the road costs. I'd imagine some bits would fetch ok money on ebay though so it shouldn't be much effort to get the purchase price back.
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I agree. He has essentially got it for scrap value because frankly unless he has some sort of emotional attachment to it thats all it is. If it had just a single issue then perhaps but the costs associated with fixing EDC on a 25 year old car, let alone the myriad of other issues and stuff he doesn't even know about, will just be too much for anyone sane.
 
I had to laugh. When I turned the ignition on, a number plate bulb warning message came on the dash. As if that's some sort of show-stopping issue and everything else that's likely to be wrong with it is trivial. I took some photos on my phone, I'll upload them shortly.
 
Awesome! Love it. Spruce it up and if you can ever get it through an MOT it'll be a fine barge! :)

Hope you have the commitment to get it on the road and get some use out of it even if you dont fancy a full-on resto. Might be a plan to abandon the edc and self levelling and stick on some normal dampers from a pov-spec model. Fixing that lot will either take some serious wallet damage or some serious spannering skill to rebuild it. Hopefully your hundred-and-one electrical problems are just a few sensors and nothing too nasty like water ingress that you'll never sort!

I'm using the word hope a lot - you'll need some! :) Keep us updated.
 
Awesome machine.

Heart > Head though, I'd have one in an instant if I could stomach the eye-watering bills!

Hopefully he can get it sorted and running without spending insane on it, then get that engine bay cleaned up and the paintwork sorted and it'll look sweet.
 
You can get a really nice running E32 with a V12 for about a grand or so if you dig around, which would be infinitely more sane and considerably cheaper. Plus you could use it and it'd have T&T... Missed a few and always regretted it.

Still, fun thing to play with though. Always find working on this era of BMWs very theraputic.
 
I'm with the number plate on this one **** OUL ;)

That's not something I would want to buy without having BMW or a specialist giving a looking over and sending me a list of issues needing fixing. It's not something you can really diagnose on your drive. Everything has potential though :)
 
Financially know that it likely won't make for a fiable purchase.

Personally I'd just have some fun getting it back to either working condition or better. It will be interesting if nothing else.

Bodywork looks good, is it good in the flesh?
 
Think the only redeeming feature is that now the lad can say he has owned a V12. As time ticks by though it will be his wallet that gets owned by the V12. :p
 
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