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Okay, well I went and took a look at the euro 635csi today and am now certain that I'm going to buy it. The cosmetics were a bit worse than I expected, but the mechanicals were surprisingly good, especially since the car had sat for a year. The front bumper and airdam are in good shape, but the rear bumper has some dings that could probably be repaired. The driver seat is torn up, but the passenger seat is in OK shape. For some reason, the previous owner attempted to die the rear seats black, and did a very shitty job.
There is essentially no rust on the car; the only I could find was some small surface rust where some paint had chipped off. The paint is a nice color, but is rather faded-it might be recoverable with a lot of elbow grease. The rear spoiler has been painted over and the paint on the spoiler is cracking.
The car drove quite nice. The shift linkage is tighter than that of my 535i and the motor performed as one would expect in the lower RPM range. The motor didn't warm up enough during my drive so I never hopped on it. The seller claims that it stumbles occasionally and may need a new AFM, but it drove fine when I took it out.
Here's the weird part. The pink slip has "salvaged" written on it, but CARFAX claims that the title is clean with no salvages (thanks Omead for the carfax). So which one is it? The guy I am buying the car from is puzzled over this as well. During my short inspection, I didn't notice any collision damage repair.
The transmission is a normal overdrive unit, but I'm not sure whether it is the Getrag 260/5 or the Getrag 265. I am also not sure whether or not the motor is the higher compression model or the catalysed low compression model. The car does have a catalytic converter, but it looks ghetto-rigged for a factory exhaust. I'm pretty sure it didn't come with a cat from the factory and was just added when imported. Also, the part number on the intake manifold of the 6er motor is the same as the manifold on my 535i. Did the high comp and low comp motors share the same intake manifold?
I tried to find a good VIN decoder to find out which motor it has, but was unsuccessful. The VIN of the 635 is: WBAEC710108173805. Anyone know how to decode a VIN?
Now here's what I plan to do with the car. It would be a shame to part out this car since it is in not-too-bad shape, so I'd prefer not to. I plan on snagging a couple goodies for my car (i.e. 16" BBS wheels and replace them with TRX's, snag the passenger sport seat and swap it with my driver's seat, and maybe a couple other little things). Then I would like to sell the car whole to someone that would be interested in restoring the car. It would need a new interior and a tune-up since it's been sitting for a year, but should not be doomed to be a parts car yet.
Hopefully, I'll go pick up the car next weekend. Any and all input is appreciated.
Raj
'85 535i
'84 euro 635csi (soon)
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