Maytag: The Alpine '87 529i

[1st 5er]

I’m a fan of how far this car has come along. And great choice on the interior with the green pattern.

Can hardlywait to see the install.

[Foonfer]

Wait just a sec - Wasn't Maytag labeled as "527i" just a few days ago? When and how did she get the bump to "529i"?

I've been thinking of your issues with Pearl Beige, and my conclusion -valid only to myself- is that white with Pearl Beige is about the worst combination, a serving of plain steamed potatoes without a speck of salt. On that topic, the move to dark upholstery is a definite improvement. Love the Black Watch tartan doorcards - Not sure if the intent is to propagate the pattern to the seats as well, hopefully it is.

Not a fan of the shiny BBSs though. What can I say. Kind of bittersweet to feel like we're approaching a season finale...

[cek]

Wait just a sec - Wasn't Maytag labeled as "527i" just a few days ago? When and how did she get the bump to "529i"?

I've been thinking of your issues with Pearl Beige, and my conclusion -valid only to myself- is that white with Pearl Beige is about the worst combination, a serving of plain steamed potatoes without a speck of salt. On that topic, the move to dark upholstery is a definite improvement. Love the Black Watch tartan doorcards - Not sure if the intent is to propagate the pattern to the seats as well, hopefully it is.

Not a fan of the shiny BBSs though. What can I say. Kind of bittersweet to feel like we're approaching a season finale...

I had failed to update my sig after the motor went in and I did the math on the displacement. 529i is more accurate. Both are silly.

The seats will be tartan in the middles and black leather on the outsides. Front and rear seats. That is what will supposedly be done next week. Then I need to re-assemble the seats onto the seat bases that I have so carefully restored and pray they are not all loosey goosey still.

I too feel like we're approaching a season finale. I've got some news brewing on this car that may leave us with a cliff hanger... Stay tuned.

[Bonsaibacker]

[Dale3783]

I've got some news brewing on this car that may leave us with a cliff hanger... Stay tuned.

Holy suspense!

[cek]

Son picked up the seats for me at the upholstery shop today. He was too lazy to take pics for me. "Just look at them with the security cameras, dad."

This is the best I could do with cropping...

[davintosh]

Son picked up the seats for me at the upholstery shop today. He was too lazy to take pics for me. "Just look at them with the security cameras, dad."

This is the best I could do with cropping...

I guess we know what that kid will be getting for Christmas.

[cek]

I finally got some garage time after many moons. Started getting the newly covered seats ready for install.







Very, very pleased with the workmanship. One of the reasons I did these was to 'test' the shop (Matt at All-City Customs and Convertables https://www.allcityconvertible.com/) to see if I could work with them for Minerva. I'm convinced. Perfection all around.

I should have gotten all the mechanicals refurbished by now, but I forgot I hadn't done it. So it will be a bit longer before the seats go in (the rear is in; no pics yet).

I am installing these (thanks Ben!): http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?f=3& ... 8&start=50

Did one re-using the grease...


Then I decided that was stupid and that I should replace the 30 year old grease if I'm going this far. So I'll redo that one. Here's one all cleaned up.






I'm going to use this grease. Someone yell if there is something better i should use.


Seems like it has all the properties you'd want for something with both metal and plastic. https://webaps.ellsworth.com/edl/Action ... anguage=en

[cek]

Got one of of the seats done today. Took a lot longer than I expected. But, as usual, I couldn't just slap things together... Had to clean and test everything. No way was I going to spend this much time & money only to find something was wrong once installed.

Of course, I'm sure I missed something...



A few of the gear boxes had a fair amount of rust pitting on parts. Those boxes will go with the 'spares'.




I tested each gear box with power. I recorded before and after noise levels just to see what's up...

Before: https://youtu.be/b7W77Q6dB_w
After: https://youtu.be/gHrvMxHcl5E

Base cleaned, greased, painted, assembled, and tested.

[Adam W in MN]

Thorough and inspiring as usual

[maybeillbuyit]

Those seats look awesome Charlie. Love that fabric. Also very nice photos of the gearboxes.

[mottati]

Wow i love those seats!

[cek]

Wow i love those seats!

Me too.

Finally finished everything today. I have one adjustment to do on the rear seat (self threading bolts are no longer holding; need to find a size up), but I hereby declare Maytag's interior upgrade complete.

- Replaced all ugly pearl beige, including carpet, with anthracite
- Vlad's 535is steering wheel
- My E34 540i M-Sport's shift knob
- Crack free dash
- Refurb HVAC (new condenser, heater core, etc...)
- Refurb'd E28 Sport seats with Porsche Tartan fabric. Re-enforced gearbox covers by @bengerman. Powered air-bladder lumbar adjustment on driver's seat.
- New head unit
- Sound deadening

Whew.

I didn't post this detail yesterday because I didn't take pics... But today as I worked on the driver's seat I did: Maytag was a comfort seat car. As a result the harness does not have the wire/plug for the thigh bolster power. A quick inspection of a spare harness that did come from a Sport Seat car proved that wire/plug is just spliced off the main R/Y and BR on the harness side of the plug. Instead of modifying the harness in the car, I modified the seat harness to splice on the SEAT-side of the plug. Not sure why BMW didn't just do this in the first place.


I had the upholstery guy install a powered air-bladder adjustable lumbar kit.

This one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D4 ... =ceklog-20, which he recommended.

After staring at it for a few minutes I figured how how to install the pump and switch. Spliced into power the same way as the aforementioned thigh bolster. Of course I did this AFTER I completed that so I had to undo a bunch of work. Typical.






A little plastic surgery... Almost looks factory. Great location.


More seat hinge surgery.


Here's a little video of the lumbar thing in action. Exciting stuff: https://youtu.be/-2SIqRRvmRw

After a test sitting, I discovered the bladder was too high in the back for me. So I moved it down "two wires". This is the before picture:


Feels good to have it all together. I didn't get a chance to drive it yet due to lateness and rain, but I did sit in both seats and go "vroom vroom!". I also didn't clean my finger prints from the leather on driver' seat.









I'm very pleased with how it looks. I took a big risk with this fabric and I'm glad I did. I'm pretty sure there's not another E28 like this one...

[1st 5er]

Looks awesome Charlie.
That lumbar support will come in handy on long road trips.
You'll love the cloth feel too as opposed to the leather on extreme weather days, or, at least I do.
Again, and .
Now, go drive dat bish.

[Dale3783]

Absolutely love it. Great job.

[Tiit]

Well executed and documented as expected from you.
check out my sunroom curtains.
IMG_4963 by Tiit Saul, on Flickr
Not same, but close enough for me to see my curtains differently from now on.

[muleskinner]

looks fukin awesome!

[Adam W in MN]

Looks great! Did you consider installing rear headrests while you were doing all the prep for the seating project, why or why not?

[davintosh]

Awesome work Charlie, as usual. Especially on the seat adjusters! And those seats have got me thinking again about returning mine to its original cloth seats in Anthrazit.


Just out of curiosity (and the inability to recall if you have it noted elsewhere in the thread) did you do a similar rebuild on the window motors on either of your cars? Slow windows is one of those projects that I just can't force myself to get around to, and looking for some inspiration.

[cek]

Awesome work Charlie, as usual. Especially on the seat adjusters! And those seats have got me thinking again about returning mine to its original cloth seats in Anthrazit.


Just out of curiosity (and the inability to recall if you have it noted elsewhere in the thread) did you do a similar rebuild on the window motors on either of your cars? Slow windows is one of those projects that I just can't force myself to get around to, and looking for some inspiration.

Thanks David!!

I did, but don't remember if I documented it. It will be in this thread of so (it's on my list for Vlad). However the best resource is actually that Mercedes guy on YouTube. He has a video that makes the procedure look easy. Oh, and it's not the motors. It's all about cleaning and lubing the mechanisms and guides.

[davintosh]

Thanks for the reminder; I should have known that guy would have a guide (and a $70 kit!) for lubricating windows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOyvvFCspn8

I had already cleaned & lubed the regulator and the metal & nylon guide parts and cleaned up the switches, but the one thing he did that I didn't think of was putting silicone grease in the felt channels; that still sounds a little goofy to me, but might be worth a try. He also makes a good point about using plain old moly grease on the regulator to prevent wear. I had leaned toward using synthetic grease to keep things moving in cold weather, but it makes sense to use moly where it's metal against metal.

[cek]

Thanks for the reminder; I should have known that guy would have a guide (and a $70 kit!) for lubricating windows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOyvvFCspn8

I had already cleaned & lubed the regulator and the metal & nylon guide parts and cleaned up the switches, but the one thing he did that I didn't think of was putting silicone grease in the felt channels; that still sounds a little goofy to me, but might be worth a try. He also makes a good point about using plain old moly grease on the regulator to prevent wear. I had leaned toward using synthetic grease to keep things moving in cold weather, but it makes sense to use moly where it's metal against metal.

Putting silicon on the felt works. I used Molykote 111 to good effect for all this. It works great on plastic and has great heat characteristics: https://www.fmv.se/FTP/datablad/M0743-0 ... OMPUND.pdf

[Adam W in MN]

Looks great! Did you consider installing rear headrests while you were doing all the prep for the seating project, why or why not?

Bumping my question

[Bonsaibacker]

Consistently great stuff and great taste! Digging the Men at Work in the background.

[cek]

Went to a "Cars, Wine, and Whiskey" today. Maytag stole the show.





Not sure they'll invite me next year.