An introduction to willswheels...

willswheels

RMS Regular
Messages
148
Location
Dungannon
Drives
BMW!
Thanks to Andy for setting us up.
Let me take a minute to introduce willswheels.

Our first day of trading was June 27th, 2011. Rapid expansion meant we moved premises to our current location in May 2012 and have since extended to two further satellite sites. We started out solely breaking / dismantling old BMWs, but after a few years of that we were being offered cars too good, too valuable, too rare, to kill off and so we started the restoration and sales side of the business.
At the minute that is the primary focus and further down I'll post some pictures of some of the cars we've worked on over the last three or so years.
We've kept up a high stock level of old and rare parts, and for many older BMW models we are the sole source of spares in Ireland, sometimes all of the UK, and for one particular model, the world. We've sourced and bought up spares from all over the place, including large collections of cars and parts - May 2017 saw us bring 6.5 E30 cars and two LWB van loads up from Laois; in August 2017 we bought a four-car collection with a similar haul of spares, and in October 2018 we incorporated the stock of Border Motor Works into our inventory.

Many of you will know the owner Will (OK yes it's me that's typing this), but there is also a great team here as well. Generally on the phones you'll get the other Will, yes, really, or sometimes Ali. Also there's a grumpy old man in the workshop called Stevie but we don't let him talk to customers any more.


So this business has grown and it's hard to keep on top of just everything that we do now. We're still supplying used parts - our stock goes into the deep recesses of several large units. We buy in restoration projects - currently well over 30 on the waiting list - and undertake pretty much all aspects of work on them. In terms of customer work we do light mechanical stuff and some electrical. We don't do customer bodywork though. Engine conversions have been a staple for the last couple of years, with many an old BMW coming out of the workshop 75-100 bhp better off. We also refurbish wheels for sale, rebuild engines to sell occasionally, and, maybe too often, get in way over our heads with projects nobody else would agree to. I'll post up some of the videos we've made of various project cars we've worked on.

If there's any questions of queries feel free to PM, leave a comment or ring on either number - 07749520510 or 07840500520. We're located just off the M1 (junction 14), near Dungannon, and really we are just here to help.
 

willswheels

RMS Regular
OP
willswheels
Messages
148
Location
Dungannon
Drives
BMW!
Where it started in June 2011:
IU7FiI7.jpg


with very little space:
KmKYygz.jpg


And moved in May 2012:
1VCtCpm.jpg


Which was rightly filled in April 2014:
pABSpHC.jpg


After a huge clearout, nearly empty in May 2015:
VtylOZJ.jpg


And jam packed again by late 2016:
8gl9Su2.jpg



One of our "action" photos is this one - there are 5 M cars in the workshop in this picture, although two are barely, barely visible.
YqX6Oxg.jpg
 

Carson

RMS Regular
Messages
7,823
Location
......
Drives
R53 JCW/A4 B8.5
Welcome. Look forward to seeing some restoration examples in this thread.
What is the rarest / most valuable you have been offered / came across which you simply could not break?
 

willswheels

RMS Regular
OP
willswheels
Messages
148
Location
Dungannon
Drives
BMW!
A few of the cars we've worked on previously:

AaqroPu.jpg

This 2002 530i Sport Auto was a lovely car but when we picked it up as a non runner (ECU failure) from near Heathrow in the dark, we were unaware that the sellers had unplugged the ECU wires to hide an array of terminal engine problems. Nevertheless we took a team over to England and at a friends workshop we rebuilt the car and drove it home with a fresh MOT. It was a low mileage, near immaculate car and is still in NI now... somewhere.

eOwCXBZ.jpg

This 1986 325i Sport was pretty rough when we rescued, and it was a rescue, from up near Omagh. it needed extensive remedial work and we were going to start on it but a local bodyshop owner prised it away from us, did the bodywork then brought it back to us to sort it out mechanically with all new parts. One (well, several) hefty bills later and it looked like this. He promptly stuck it into his garage with his other 80s cars for show use only.

XpdpFPi.jpg

This 1996 840ci came up to us from Belfast with an absolutely unrepairable ABS issue - the pump had failed and nobody could fix it. E31 breakers throughout the UK laughed - laughed! - when we rang looking for one. Apparently a very common problem, and a good used unit cannot be found. Over £1000 new from BMW. So we fitted a similar 5 series pump, and although it took two days, decoded the programming from the E31 original, and slowly installed it onto the E39 pump. That cured it, the mighty 4.4 V8 was returned to the road, and we sold the car to a customer from Dublin.

J1eBi7V.jpg

This 1990 318is came to us for breaking, but was one of those ones that happened just as we were changing what the business was about, and it was almost too late when we realised the shell was really, really clean. Unfortunately we had already sold the good bits - the interior and engine - but we actualy did a deal for a 2.5 engine with a customer who traded in his modified 1.8 is engine. So we combined the two, plus some bucket seats from another E30 that had just come in for resto, and built a rather silly but good fun 318is stripped out road/track car. It went to England and we never heard about it again...

KbWFNbu.jpg

This 1990 535i Sport was a genuine, original NI one owner car, bought out of Country Garage and lived in Cookstown since then. Unfortunately the owner had trusted a garage in the town to look after it and we've come across their bodgery before - in fact they threatened us once when we called them out on shoddy work before this! We fixed the issues - all simple issues, but compounded by poor work and bodges - there is no other word - so it was involved enough. When it was sorted it was a lovely car, and it sold very quickly indeed to a German man living in London, who when he came to pick it up, proceeded to drive down the wrong side of the road!

SQK30Fu.jpg

This 1998 318is was a really tight little car but just needed paintwork. Lots of paint, in the end. The colour was what attracted us to it, but also what made it slow to sell. It was bought by a young guy from Mid-Ulster - who still has it, and hasn't ruined it. It did alredy have a nice exhaust though.

Another E36 just in for paint was this 1995 M3 saloon. We ended up doing a lower end rebuild on the engine, as well as fitting some £500-750 of new seals and trims from JKC to bring it up to a very high standard. The paintjob was done elsewhere, but by two of the guys that worked here at the time and it took a full three weeks, but it was exceptional. It's tucked up in a garage in Dunmurry now.
byupe18.jpg


y12BLzy.jpg

UYGhvuU.jpg

This 1983 316 was another one owner car, pulled out of a farm shed near Magheralin, with no engine present and scuffs all over. It proved difficult to return to the road mainly because DVLA had no record of it - eventually solved by finding the scraps of an old log-book in the car. It waited patiently inside for many a month but we eventually got another good engine for it and re-piped the whole car. We actually left the bodywork alone as it needed zero welding, and so it was an "oily rag" resto with just a good compound and buff to take the worst of the scuffs away, leaving it presentable and honest. It sold to a man from Antrim less than three hours after being advertised - that is, rang within one hour, here within two and deposit within three.
Still not the fastest selling car we've had though!

And this is a 1996 325tdci. Yes, if it had got a badge, it would have needed a Ford one. We took two things that BMW never put together, an E36 coupe shell and a diesel engine, and made it work. We were not the first, possibly the first here though, and definitely the first to finish one to a fully-legal standard. The young woman that commissioned this car drove it around for a month or so last summer then put it in her garage beside her Nova.
 
Last edited:

willswheels

RMS Regular
OP
willswheels
Messages
148
Location
Dungannon
Drives
BMW!
Welcome. Look forward to seeing some restoration examples in this thread.
What is the rarest / most valuable you have been offered / came across which you simply could not break?
Probably either of the M6's

HJaZTzo.jpg


Or perhaps even this, a Toyota Cressida which someone had taken to be scrapped. We arrived not long after to drop something off and spotted this in the corner (people in the automotive trade must have some of the best eyesight in the country!)
tWfIc4U.jpg


We got it running, then one of the mechanics we supply to spotted it, and he and his brother bought it as they are well into Japanese cars, with plenty of Silvia and Prelude kind of things already.
Unfortunately they didn't do anything with it for a while then someone bought it off them to reshell a rotten diesel one. We wouldn't have minded but it was really close to immaculate bodywise and that 2.0 engine was a real peach when we got it going.
 
Last edited:

Marc

RMS Moderator
Messages
9,908
Location
Belfast
What happened to your YouTube channel? I have not seen a new post in a long time now.
 

willswheels

RMS Regular
OP
willswheels
Messages
148
Location
Dungannon
Drives
BMW!
They will be posted on here now as well whenever they go live. All of them are in our video thread now, every terrible one of them.
 

Carson

RMS Regular
Messages
7,823
Location
......
Drives
R53 JCW/A4 B8.5
This is awesome. Hopefully you’ll keep this thread updated with content. Love it !
 

willswheels

RMS Regular
OP
willswheels
Messages
148
Location
Dungannon
Drives
BMW!
On Saturday we returned this E39 to the owner after replacing the low mileage engine with another unit subsequent to some timing chain / valve woes. He was pretty happy with our engine at 1/3 the price of anything else he could source elsewhere, and our fitting service, also 1/3 the cost he was being quoted.
Apart from the dodgy stickers, underneath there is a really, really nice Avus Blue 540i Auto with black sports leather and genuine ACS split rim wheels.
FNfwyNq.jpg


On Monday we said goodbye to the 530i Touring we rescued last year - we rebuilt the 120k mile engine and replaced some carelessly damaged parts, and kept a really nicely specced, rare colour Touring on the roads. New owner intends to keep it for three years minimum, and ten+ if it copes with his 10k a year commuting between Belfast and his coastal town home.
IURI0Hs.jpg
 

Steve750

RMS Regular
Messages
2,925
Drives
750i
Looking back u should have swapped the splits with my 17 type 2s... he wouldn’t have noticed, and I would of had splits :sweat:
 

willswheels

RMS Regular
OP
willswheels
Messages
148
Location
Dungannon
Drives
BMW!
Yesterday we were fighting with this Mini Cooper rear caliper. The brakes were serviced last week at a garage and the owner told to "drive easy".
What you have here is a piston with no dust cover.
It actually freed up enough. What wasn't free was the seized handbrake cable. Which now means the brake disc and new pads are scored. Oh and the retaining nut in the hub flange is snapped.
a4bGztQ.jpg


Once we got that all sorted, we took it out for a test drive. Now that it's quiet again, you can hear the front bearing that's about to fall out. Wobbled the wheel and there is an inch of play - while the wheel is on the ground!
And to re-iterate... this car was serviced (elsewhere) last Thursday.
There are two Maxi-Cosi Priori seats in the back of it.
 

willswheels

RMS Regular
OP
willswheels
Messages
148
Location
Dungannon
Drives
BMW!
Mini wheel bearing and TRE replaced, finally the car is quiet again and nice to drive.
0Wo1AAg.jpg

Taken back to customer on Thursday.

Back to welding up the E30 and sorting out packages going out all over the place.

Saturday saw another MINI problem, but it certainly was not a small one. This strut failed going over a bump along a back road but had clearly been about to go for some time...
lpzH9QK.jpg

TIA47it.jpg

t7L9vK2.jpg


We were only asked to fix the broken one but while it was there we reached into the other side and flakes of solid metal started peeling away, so we did the both of them on grounds of safety.
Not just falling apart yet, but wouldn't have been long.
lc1r0AC.jpg


Good job we had a pair of front shocks in stock. One was genuine and one was KYB but it was enough for a same-day turnaround on that car and the young lady that owns it will be safe again. First comment on seeing it again - "Oh it's higher now too. Is that the height it's supposed to be maybe?"
 

willswheels

RMS Regular
OP
willswheels
Messages
148
Location
Dungannon
Drives
BMW!
Any metal strut with narrow gaps where muck can reside seem to fail like this eventually. MINIs, E90s, and some other old non-BMW cars we've worked on have gone like this, but this one was particularly bad.
 

willswheels

RMS Regular
OP
willswheels
Messages
148
Location
Dungannon
Drives
BMW!
Working on a BMW with a tiny shake in it at speed that we can't identify, we wanted to check the new brakes were 100% true. Needing to clamp the disc to the hub with the wheel nuts, but without the wheel fitted, this is the cobbled together solution using an old disc from another car.
d4Rmg1P.jpg


Worked perfectly. Discs were out by 0.5mm, which wouldn't account for the shake.
Oguvyfz.jpg


All wheels balanced and not much improvement, so more thinking required. Small improvement but not entirely gone, so the customer will report back later after a few days driving.

Also in for a set of front brakes, alignment and general check-over was this kooky Skoda Roomster. We recommended looking for one of these to the customer whose brief was "an adventure car" but easy to drive, run and insure. It's nice that they've decided to use us to look after it now too.
Fzbp9sb.jpg


And finally we can get back onto a long stalled project, after the donor car arrived from England after a 3+ month wait. It's been waiting at our little storage depot in the Midlands complete with an assortment of much needed parts for our E32 740i resto, so that's two projects reignited - no three, because the engine and box will get the E36 318is back on track!
Kf0rGXD.jpg
 
Last edited:
Top