The story of "Swamp Thing"

[c-bass]

I've been lurking here for a while and finally decided to join in on the fun.

Last year I bought an E83 X3 and gave it to the Mrs as her first car and not too long after she realized that it was just a liiiiiiiiiitle bit too small for her to fit a lot of the items she's picking up.

She's in the vintage/antique business and is always stuffing the X3 to the roof with milk cans, wicker furniture etc etc. and it seems like quite a few things are just a couple inches too big to be able to fit.

Now I don't know about you, but to me that sounds like I get to shop for more truck

I was on the hunt for a relatively low KM 6 cylinder facelift model with a working A/C but ever since COVID the prices have gone up and demand has increased to the point where any ads that looked clean were gone within 24 hours.

Around these parts it was the hottest and longest summer that I ever remeber and naturally the A/C doesn't work on the X3 which was definitely putting some pressure on me trying to find her an upgrade.

Another big issue is that I live in the middle of nowhere and it's a couple hours drive to the city so by the time I would see a listing and get a reply from the seller it would usually be "There's a guy coming to look at it".

Finally I find something interesting with a listed phone number and I happen to be going in that direction.

The seller is an older couple and the husband had a stroke 6 months ago which is why they're selling the car, sounds promising.

It's about an hour away from Toronto in Barrie...so I decide to drive up there and check it out.

I had an idea it was going to be a nicer house when I heard "We left the gate open for you"

Impressive Property





The X....not so much

[timmyc]

This outta be good.....

[c-bass]

Originally Posted by timmyc

This outta be good.....

For who?

[c-bass]

The owner and his wife were probably in their late 60s early seventies. They spent the winters in Florida and used to drive the X down there.

2005 M54 3.0 with 218k (pretty low km for these parts) and they're asking $2500.

The old guy tells me there's some noise coming from the back but other than that the car is "very reliable"

When I first pulled up to the house the tailgate was unlocked with a roofing shingle placed in between the hinge. "the battery dies after sitting for a while so we have it disconnected, but it's brand new"...right on

The back is all torn apart, I reconnect the battery and the truck does start right up so I take it for a quick drive.

As the ol' guy told me, it sure is making noise in the back. I can't quite tell if it's the brakes or something else in the rear but everything is rusty and stiff from sitting around.

After the quick drive I give it a bit better look...

A/C does work
windows and doors work
panoramic roof works
Front outer boots are torn
a little "moist" underneath
The brake rotors are a little rusty from sitting and it looks like they might clean up ok but they definitely will need rear pads.

oh and the usual check engine and several other lights are on in the dash.

Also, the carpet is wet, VERY wet. Push your finger and water squirts wet and overall the interior condition is gross.

I told the owner this isn't exactly what I'm looking for and that it clearly needs quite a bit of work. For me this would basically be a parts car and I wouldn't pay more than $1000.

He says he'd like $2000 and I proceed to give him back the key when the wife says "How about $1200?"

So like the dummy I am, I made the deal and had the car towed back to home base.

[timmyc]

Originally Posted by c-bass

For who?

Haha! For those of us who will watch the rise of the Swamp Thing from it's murky depths!

[timmyc]

Obviously a dog was in there ruining the leather. The PO of my X did the same but not to the extent of what I can see of your passenger seat. Let me know if you find a way to repair the lifting of the leather where the dogs nails scratched it. I have several I need to try to repair.


From what I have read, the leather has a clear coat on it. I was thinking of dye then some kind of clear coat. Still researching that one.

[c-bass]

Now that this thing was home It was time to get the carpet dried out and the interior cleaned out.

This thing was GROSS!!!













How in TF does this happen???













No that's isn't rice crispies, it's a 1/4" of dead bug carcasses

[c-bass]

Originally Posted by timmyc

Haha! For those of us who will watch the rise of the Swamp Thing from it's murky depths!

HA! You got that right

[c-bass]

Originally Posted by timmyc

Obviously a dog was in there ruining the leather. The PO of my X did the same but not to the extent of what I can see of your passenger seat. Let me know if you find a way to repair the lifting of the leather where the dogs nails scratched it. I have several I need to try to repair.


From what I have read, the leather has a clear coat on it. I was thinking of dye then some kind of clear coat. Still researching that one.

This was definitely the dog road trip car. Personally I would never be able to drive around with the sound of dog nails on my leather seats.

There's a couple things you can try depending on how bad it is and what result you're ok with.

You can literally use leather glue depending on the damage, but realistically if it's anything deep you have to fill, sand and paint.

I have seen some VERY good results from the kits used here: https://www.leatherxkits.com/

[c-bass]

The interior has to come out to deal with this level nasty













A little bit of vacuuming goes a long way!





The salt we use around here in the winter is BRUTAL on a car interior if you have proper floor mats so I pulled the gas pedal off to try to get that rock salt formation under control