F10: Rear Parcel-Shelf Swap / Replacement

The original parcel-shelf was in a sorry state, with several rectangular slots cut in it where Police lights had been fitted. The two in the below picture were glaring at me every time I looked in the rear-view mirror and third, twice the size and facing the rear, could be seen clearly from outside. Despite not being one of the first things to get replaced, it became my biggest concern with the interior and has ended up being the piece that has made the most difference to the car's appearance.

A mint and very clean  replacement was £60 from eBay and came with the speakers, grilles and all trim pieces, handy as mine was missing some.

FITMENT:

1. Remove the rear-seat squab by pulling the front edge up sharply at either side and sliding it forward.

2. Remove the 3 bolts holding the bottom-end of the rear seat-belts to the body using a T45 Torx-socket.

3. Remove the rear-seat back-rest by undoing the 2 bolts holding the bottom brackets in place using a T45 Torx-socket and lifting it vertically up off the upper brackets.

4. Remove the 5 plastic-clips holding the leading-edge of the parcel-shelf by prising the centre-pin out with a flat-screwdriver [or ideally a trim-tool] and then prying the clip out.

5. Loosen both of the C-pillar trims. They are only clipped on and should pop off easily enough at the bottom. They do not need to be completely removed, just loose enough to allow the lip at either side of the parcel-shelf to slide in and out.

6. Slide the parcel-shelf forward partially, pop the seat-belts through the apertures and disconnect both speaker wires. The parcel-shelf can now be fully removed.

7. Swap trims/speakers over to new parcel-shelf.

8. Reverse steps 1 - 6 to refit.

E60: Front 12V Socket spring mechanism assembly.

PROBLEM:

• Mechanism has collapsed and 12V socket will not pop up out of housing.
• Ash-tray has been removed during work on car and has fallen apart.
• Coins or other objects have jammed in the mechanism and are stopping it from operating.
• The 12V socket is jammed up and ash tray will not close.

As with everything on the E60, even the mechanism that pops the 12V socket up and moves the trim around in over-designed to death. There are two springs in the assembly. A main flat-coiled spring that lifts the 12V socket up when the ash-tray is slid open and a small one that operates a tiny trim-flap that fills the gap created as the socket rotates up. You know, so everything looks neat!

These come out really easily when the ash-tray is removed from the fascia, or when things get jammed and the ash-tray is forced shut, but it is quite confined under there and the springs should not get lost. Be careful not to push them under the foam-trim at either side while retrieving them.

The main spring is on a spindle running through the socket housing, with a screw at one end. The protruding arm faces forward and tenses against a lip in the plastic. The screw will need removing to get the spring back into place, so do not over-tighten it when refitting so the socket still rotates freely.

The smaller spring slides onto the plastic stud on one side of the front socket hinge and the two protruding arms should be in a V shape pointing upwards and sit in the grooves on the hinge and trim-flap, as pictured.

** For a guide on removing the dash and fascia trim required to get to the ash-tray see THIS POST. **

E60: Replacing headlight-washer caps / hinges!

Despite how it looks, you can't replace them with the bumper on. This is best done while the whole front bumper is off the car, but thesis the quick and dirty method, of course.

1. Lift each cap out of the bumper on the hinge and remove them by depressing the clips at the back and sliding the lugs out of the hinge.

2. Remove the screw holding each corner of the bumper to the wing using a 10mm wrench.

3. Pop the corner out of the wing and bend it out enough to reach behind the headlight-washer cap.

4. Remove the hinge / lever by bending one side out and unhooking it from the outer lugs, the other side should then come away easily.

5. Remove the spring by squeezing the coils towards each other and unhooking them from the inner lugs.

6. Fit the new spring as a reverse of removal.

7. Lift the spring up forwards and fit the new hinge / lever as a reverse of removal, then release the spring ensuring it is tight against the flat-bar on the hinge.

8. Refit each corner of the bumper.

9. Lift the hinges / levers out of the bumper and fit the caps.

New trim pieces for M-Sport bumper + painting!

As my bumper didn't come with the cover-caps or hinges, I had to source them separately. I got the headlight-washer hinges directly from BMW Parts [Williams, Liverpool] and they were only £2.70 each inc. VAT. BMW are good for clips and random bits, but trim pieces are a bit more expensive, especially if you have them painted in your colour-code.

I turned to eBay, but was surprised to find used pieces are thin on the ground and no silver ones coming up. New, the headlight-washer caps start at £16 each and go up, plus delivery, so a pair of genuine ones for £30 delivered actually seemed reasonable. These came from MM Autos [eBay ID: adrian5882745], the same place in Wrexham I got the bumper, but I checked and the silver caps from mine are long sold! The tow-hook caps start at £25 for a new one and again no used ones in silver, so I recommend buying from a seller on eBay Germany called bmdoubleyou24. A new genuine one in primer is £18 delivered and only took 5 days to arrive so was worth the saving.

£70 worth of plastic. Headlight-washer caps, hinges and tow-hook cap, only the essentials.

Finally, I bought a can of Titansilver (or Titanium Silver, same paint-code) spray from Halfords, along with a fresh can of clear-lacquer, £6.49 each. After giving the caps about six coats of both, I gave them a good rub with T-cut so they look OE, though I have a feeling they will look a lot shinier than the bumper. I will have to get polishing and sort those scratches...

M-Sport Bumper Total Cost:
Bumper - £200
Hinges - £5.40
Washer-caps - £30
Tow-hook Cap - £18.11
Paint/lacquer - £12.98
TOTAL - £266.49

Pre-primed ABS-plastic is a piece of cake to paint and was going great...

...until it rained and spotted the lacquer...

...so needed a bit of flatting back...

...and repainting, followed by a quick blast with rubbing-compound.

New 'M-Paket' hinges do indeed need the corner of the bumper pulling out to fit, they can't be done from outside.

E21: RETROFIT - Stereo / CD Player.

Yep, the old adage of BMWs not coming with a radio is true. For higher models an FM-radio or 8-track tape player (this was the '70s) was an expensive add-on, but for the 316 they weren't even included in the list of options. There are holes in the console where a previous owner has had some sort of radio installed and there are Pioneer 4x6 speakers already mounted in the footwells and wired in, although they're only paper cones and are going to need upgrading. I bought Alpine 5x5 with the intention of making an MDF riser to fit them into the car's apertures, but it turns out they would foul the glove-box on the passenger side and require a chunk cutting out of the steering-column trim so they had to go back. The flappy paper ones will have to do until I get hold of some decent 4x6.

I got given a fascia-adaptor with the car, which replaces the ash-tray / lighter trim with a deeper one that adds a radio slot above. It's a period OEM item, bought from BMW Classic, Park Lane, and is rather nice, but I'd hoped not to use it and conceal the radio in the back of the dash somewhere. It doesn't look like there's space in the console after all so I reluctantly tore open the sealed BMW parts bag and decided to fit the new fascia.

E21 316: Re-Spray Strip Down 2 - Grilles + Lights Removal.

A. Front Grilles, Headlights + Indicators:

1. Disconnect the corner-indicator wiring-plug - the small round light-grey socket in the front corners under the bonnet - and push the indicator-side plug through the hole in the inner-wing it's wire goes through. *When re-fitting, the plug will need to be accessed from inside the wheel-arch to push it back through the hole into the engine-bay.

2. Using a pozi-screwdriver undo the screws located at the top and bottom of each corner-indicator lens and gently prize the lens free of its seal.

3. Remove the larger pozi-drive screws from the top and bottom end, inside the indicator itself and pull the it, along with the wiring-plug, out from the corner-grilles.

4. Remove the two small screws holding down the lower edge of each front-grille, located between the bottom grille-bars. Use a pozi-screwdriver with a pretty fine tip as it's easy to round off the old heads with larger ones.

5. Remove the 2 metal clips from the top edge of the kidney-grilles by gently prizing them forwards and upwards. Tilt the kidney-grilles forward, hold the bottom centre and lift it clear of the plastic clip at the base.

6. Remove the 3 metal clips the top edge of each front-grille and lift the grilles off.

7. Disconnect the main headlight wiring-plug, just behind the headlight in the engine bay. They just pull apart, no clips here, but may be a bit stiff.

8. Using a large pozi-screwdriver, remove the single screw from the bracket on the outer side and the 2 screws from the inner side of each headlight and carefully remove the lamp unit from the body.

B. Rear Grille + Tail-Lights:

1. Remove the 2 pozi-drive screws from the lower corners of the rear centre-grille.

2. Inside the boot, pop off the 2 plastic push-nuts from the studs behind the grille.

3. Remove the two 10mm bolts from the boot-latch, just inside the boot lip at the centre and lift the latch  up through the gap and out of its recess.

4. Using a wide pair of need-nose pliers, or carefully tapping a flat-head screwdriver, unscrew the ring-nut from the back of the boot-lock barrel. The lock should then slid out of the boot-lid and the grille will come free. *Replace the boot-lock and redo the ring-nut, unless you are leaving it off for the re-spray.

5. Remove the six screws from the back of each tail-light unit using an 8mm socket with a few inches reach. The plastic back-covers are what hold the tail-lights against the boot wall, so once they're off the light-units are free so be wary of them dropping out.

E21 316: Re-Spray Strip Down 1 - Bumpers + Ext. Trim Removal.

A. Badges:

Use a slim flat-head screwdriver wrapped in cloth to prize the BMW roundel badges gently from the body, being careful not to dent the rim of their recesses. Move round the badge lifting a millimetre or two at a time to avoid bending the badge or tarnishing the rim. The two studs sit in plastic cups, which will likely stay in the bodywork. Use a flat-head screwdriver to separate them from the surface, but it's best to push them from behind while teasing them out to avoid snapping the ancient plastic-collar.

Do the same for the model-no. badge, but these have 3 studs, to the left, right and centre, so apply pressure here and there's less chance of snapping the delicate joints between numbers.

B. Side Rubbing-Strips:

*Avoid using the 'sliding off' technique used for the E30, as suggested on other forums - the E21's strips have fixed clips at each end.

1. Using a 10mm wrench remove the plastic nuts located just inside the wheel-arch behind the foremost edge of the front-wing strips. Gently peel the front end of the strip away from the wing until it pops clear of the push-clip to the rear.

2. Remove the 10mm plastic-nut located just inside the rear wheel-arch behind the end of the rubbing-strip. Gently peel the rear end of the strip away from the wing until it is clear of the push-clip.

3. Using a 10mm socket with at least 5" of reach, remove the plastic-nut located just inside the rear door edge behind the rubbing-strip and the one located behind the leading-edge of the strip, inside the door-jam next to the hinge. Gently peel the strip off the door from either end until it is clear of the 3 centre push-clips.

* Screw the nuts back onto the trim for safe-keeping.


C. Front + Rear Bumpers:

1. Remove the 13mm bolt from either side of the front-bumper, located just inside the wing and behind the bumper side-strafe about halfway down.

2. Support the bumper and remove the 13mm nut on each of the bumper-brackets than extend out of the front valance, behind the centre area of the bumper. The front bumper should easily come forwards off the car.

3. Remove the two pozi-drive screws holding each no. plate lamp into the rear bumper, pull the lamp down, disconnect the wiring sockets and replace the lamps to the bumper for safe keeping.

4. Remove the 13mm bolt from either side of the rear bumper, located inside the boot just to the rear of each wheel-arch in the storage compartments.

5. Support the bumper and remove the two 13mm nuts from each side of the rear section located inside the back of the boot. The rear bumper should come away easily.

*If one or more of your bumper side-bolts shears the captive nut away from where it's fixed inside the bumper it is possible to prize away the metal that cases the square-nut enough to get a slim 13mm or 1/2" spanner onto it and get a turn. You may still need to cut the bolt off, as we did with the N/S/F one, but the above process is still essential for tightening a new nut back on.