MyE28.com

Snob came home.

Installed new coolant bottle/cap, coolant temp sensor, coolant flush and picked up more parts from the dealer. Oh, also pressure washed the engine bay, looks like it only has 250k miles on it now.

I drove my favorite car tonight.

wkohler wrote:I drove my favorite car tonight.

When did you get a Taurus?

Ha!

Went from Motronic 1.0-1.3, got my car running, installed trans and shifter, had beer.

Ordered a steering and subframe reinforcement kit

Lined 2 of 'em up for some mowtown tunes.

I played musical e28s. Took the big six out to get a battery for the eta. On the way to wake the eta from its storage unit slumber, the big six alt belt started to come apart. Swapped cars at the storage unit and came back home with the eta to finally install the euro turns on the M5 and give its first wash of the year. Also aired up tires on the eta and M. Finally my projects are getting smaller.

The M gets DD duty this week.

I finally installed the new drive shaft and components for the 84 eta.

The 88 535is I did some touch up paint on the rear valance. I wound up sourcing custom mixed Alpine from tower paints http://www.apstowerpaint.com/ the paint itself seems high quality, and they put it into a spray can, but for $40 I'm a little disappointed in the color match. HOWEVER, I know that's the game we play when it comes to matching 26 year old paint. Because its the lower part below the bumper its hard to tell, but at my seam lines in the wheel arches the color difference is very noticeable. Overall though the look is much improved over the discoloration and general shabbyness of the area that I started with.

I would be disappointed with the color match as well, since it clearly doesn't match. That's just not the right color.
Your paint looks very well maintained. If the color was right, I doubt you would be able to see much of a difference, given the location.

Went from this


To this

waynet1 wrote:I would be disappointed with the color match as well, since it clearly doesn't match. That's just not the right color.
Your paint looks very well maintained. If the color was right, I doubt you would be able to see much of a difference, given the location.

It's not for lack of trying either. I looked all over locally before I settled with tower online. I sprayed a "test" piece before application and it looked good held up to the car, but once I got it across the whole panel it was way off. I don't think the sides look nearly as bad as the rear. It's ok I'll give it another go soon. I want to do my air dam also, but I don't think I'm going through them again. There's a couple places locally that I'm told can color match into a quart or whatever, but their hours don't work well for a weekend warrior like myself.

And thanks for the compliment on the paint, when I purchased the car it had sat outside for some time and was in need of some help. A lot of elbow grease there.

I treated it like a "work truck".

Installed 245/40-17 tires on the rear wheels and lowered the rear coil overs just a bit more. The cutting on the inner rear fenders was done last week. Plenty of room between the tire and the fender now.
Refreshed the rear bumper black trim.

Changed all of the coolant hoses and flushed system... Sprung a leak today so replaced everything.

Drew in NYC wrote:I treated it like a "work truck".

Beautiful bumpers.

That pic looks like it was taken somewhere in the downtown in the wall street area?

Cops don't hassle you with the front plate?

What roof rack and load bars are you using? Am looking to get some so I can slap on my bike rack.

BonitaBeast wrote:What roof rack and load bars are you using? Am looking to get some so I can slap on my bike rack.

I used Yakima bars on mine when I had them. Very satisfied with them. I think he's using the same system or it's more modern equivalent, but I'm not 100% sure.

BonitaBeast wrote:

Drew in NYC wrote:I treated it like a "work truck".

Beautiful bumpers.

That pic looks like it was taken somewhere in the downtown in the wall street area?

Cops don't hassle you with the front plate?

What roof rack and load bars are you using? Am looking to get some so I can slap on my bike rack.

Good eye! I have not been pulled over for the plate (knock on wood), but you will get a ticket if it's parked like so on the street. Needless to say, I try to keep street parking to a minimum.

Jeremy is correct, I am using Yakima 1A towers and base bars. My first time using them, and they seem to get the job done.

Drew, that is awesome. Your car looks super sharp, too. The drop and wheel fitment is spot on.

For the first time in 10+ years of owning old BMWs, one of my cars has working AC.
IT IS GLORIOUS!!

Thanks for the info. Gonna search for Yakima towers now!

Meanwhile, my new subframe bolted on to my chassis really easily (relief). Getting all the steering and suspension in order. The new Bilsteins are in as well. And since I had the lower control arms out, I also had the new bushings pressed into them. I do have spherical upper control arm bushings but that's a whole other topic. I will save that for another thread.


Oh yes, that's a new oil pan as well. I installed that a few months ago.

woke up at 6 and shot some primer and hand blocked half my car.

Took a 3D stereo pair photograph. Right eye image is on the left, for viewing cross-eye style.

Bought him a starter.

I changed the cap, rotor, plugs and voltage regulator. The #1 spark plug was loose enough to have an exhaust leak Runs better and quieter!

Removed upper control arms (for the Nth time!!). Removed spherical bearing/bushings (The noise just doesn't want to go away). Replaced with Bav Auto heavy duty bushings.

I am also having a machine shop bend the left control arm a smidgen (3mm) to try to correct the caster angle. After replacing the sub frame last week, the caster was the only alignment issue I had left. The cross caster was off by almost two degrees so bending the arm a bit should hopefully resolve the issue.

All measurements checked out except for the wheelbase.

Changed the rear pitman arms, dogbones. Put in new Lemforder.
Easy job when you know that the suspension needs to be under load the properly align the bolts. Removed wheels and compressed the trailing arm with a floor jack.
The old ones were done, one bearing on each didn't want to move at all the other could be move with slight pressure.
Inspected the subframe bushing. Those and the trailing arms are next on the list.

Right rear black door pull installed, to complete the set. Thanks Ahab.

Got a spare set of keys made. Last on the list but first on the things that will irritate me if I do something stupid. Brass core FML

I am about to Install the Steering box reinforcement from Ed Raether. The kit arrived in no time! Thank you!