MyE28.com

wkohler wrote: Tomorrow morning, I'm heading out for Denver, so I'm going to drop the car off at my friend's shop and have him go through it, do the fuel lines, etc. I figure it will save me some time and he can keep telling me what a mistake I made buying this car.

Great news with the car! Hope it is going well.

wkohler wrote: he can keep telling me what a mistake I made buying this car.

Yeah, right!

wkohler wrote:my friend's shop

Is this the same friend in town that I keep hearing about? I think I need his number...I'm pretty sure my rear main seal is leaking and I don't really have the time to do it myself.

Don't tie him up with your car if you're leaving town...

Glad to hear it, Chris! It is certainly a lucky car to fall into your hands.

Been a while since an update, I guess.

Dropped the car off as planned. Went to Denver. I actually got in touch with the PO. I tried to get in touch on my last Denver trip, but he didn't check his e-mail until the Tuesday after I left. This time I called. Turns out he works just a couple miles from where I was staying, so I met him, but it was in freezing rain, so it wasn't for long. He gave me some parts, too. I got the center support for the airdam (badly bent, but I've straightened it. It's sitting in the Touring awaiting installation), the tow hook (bent 30°. Not sure how that happens without destroying the car, but the car looks perfect there), the rubber strips for the airdam and the left side of the center console.


Here's what was done while the car was away:

-New Brake Master
-Clutch master rebuild
-New slave and clutch hose
-Ate Super Blue fluid
-New Plugs, Cap and Rotor
-New Belts
-New Coolant hoses and tank (actually the one I gave Ray in Phoenix - he found another in the yard and graciously returned mine for my car)
-New Fan Clutch and water pump (updated to the later style since it was 1/2 the cost of a new early clutch - consequently, had to replace the pulley, so I went with the B35 pulley)
-Had the radiator rebuilt (why replace it? It's copper and the only one I can get is for an automatic and is over $700)
-BMW coolant cocktail
-New fuel lines
-New vacuum lines
-Oil, filter, air filter (interestingly, this car has an OX 68D Mahle filter (M5x) instead of the 51D I thought it would.
-Rebuilt injectors I sourced from Five-O
-muffler hangers

Everything is in nice shape on the valvetrain. My massive oil leak was coming from the back of the head. Interestingly, that plate is much, much easier to get to on E12s than on E28s. I also got to find out why the car really had a no-start and that I just got lucky for a while. I had a hard time imagining what actually would go wrong with an Ignition Control Module. I figured it would be a soldering issue (which Peter Florance confirmed on FirstFives), but with the way they put them together, It's not like I could crack it open for giggles.

Turns out that over the week and a half my car was away, it didn't start when it had to be moved since the radiator was holding things up (thanks to me and my comment of, "we're 0 for 2 on doing cooling systems but leaving the radiator, so send it out."). So, it got stuck in a place where it wasn't entirely in the way. I got a call last night while working. Turns out the problem was a loose ground. Not only does it run, but it seriously fires up almost instantaneously.

Also, since the brakes had to be bled, etc and the 620 treadwear Big O tires on the 14s were in a sorry state, I decided to get the Alpinas rebalanced and throw them on the car so it could be driven without risking the lives of the driver and others. The left rear rubs, even under moderate acceleration. Not sure why, as I've seen these on several E12s.

I picked the car up this afternoon, and I just have to say that it hauls ass. I kept thinking of this from Rat Race:

Enrico Pollini: Look at us go! We're zooming!
Zack Mallozzi: I told you! We're hauling ass!
Enrico Pollini: We're hauling ass! All righty!
Zack Mallozzi: Guess what I got back there.
Enrico Pollini: You just told me. Ass! We're hauling ass!

I'm shocked at how this thing moves. Of course, it burns it's share of oil, which was kinda fun to watch in the mirror the first few times. I guess the consensus seems to be that if I spend enough time in the higher revs, it will get better. I figured that would just mean I'm out of oil.

Here's a couple of photos, since this is Eye Candy, after all.







I just stuck the strips on the bumper for the photos. The nuts and washers aren't affixed.

I got to see the car from underneath a couple of times while on the rack. I didn't find any more rust (I guess I really lucked out!). The trans tunnel is clean. There's a couple of spots of concern that are simply because brake fluid has made the paint do funny things, but that will all be addressed during the respray.

There's a recently-replaced control arm, but I figure the rest of the front end will need rebuilding. The rear end as well. Axle boots are toast. The rear shocks are leaking, moreso the right. They are Bilsteins all around, though. I do like the look of the car on stock suspension, so I'm not sure if I want to change it or not. I think with a car like this, I want to keep it as-is. The car feels more stiffly sprung than other E12s I've driven.

It sure looks like a piece of crap, but it runs well.

The next big hurdle is getting the car registered. It has no cat. That means, I have to put one on to get it through. Problem is that then it has to be tuned to work with the cat, as there's no o2 sensor feedback. I'm looking into collector's/limited use insurers since we have legislation here which precludes cars insured under such policies from emissions testing.

Great news Chris! It looks pretty good in the pictures!

Very cool!!

Chris that is a sick ride.

AZ still requires emissions even at 29 years of age?

Texas shuts off that part at 25.
Took my 79 down yesterday for the sticker.
15 minutes and $12.50 later I'm on my way, all legal again for another year.

Oh yeah, congrats on the starting issue getting solved,
and I agree, great project.
Can't wait to see it completed.

Very cool, keep up the good work!

That is awesome progress Chris! What a great project. One day...

Great shots Chris...like the last one the best.

I'd like to request you post a high RPM drive by sound clip.

nice read and ofcourse greaT car.

whats limited use insurers.

Aaron told me about this thread. Congrats on rescuing the M 535i . Yuh done good. It is my favorite 5er.

Wow, just knowing it's running well makes it look a million times better. Congratulations again, I think you definitely scored!

It looking good, Chris.

I got a ride in it, yesterday and i sat in the captians seat. The seat is PERFECT. it holds you down, Perfectly. This car is the real deal folks.

Nice pictures and a good looking car. You were right about Polaris looking good on these body styles.

WOW, That looks like a great project! Kudo's for saving an m535, they (and many other e12's) are quickly becoming a rarity. Keep us posted,
TIA
Justin

Nice mate, very nice.

SWEET. I can't wait to see where you go with this one, Chris.

And we're registered.

well done Chris.

wkohler wrote:And we're registered.

Get your seats yet?

Any recent updates?

Interested to see the progress.
My E24 seems to have the identical engine, differential, and transmission. Pictures are of the engine are identical, and the no start issue ended up being the combination relay (havent looked into taking it apart and fixing solder joints).

Another note, the interior dial controls appear to be the same.

A long overdue update, I guess. I've mostly been working on acquiring the parts I need. Brian is working diligently to get just about every E12 trim piece I can still get. I've spoken with a couple of body people, one of which is pretty excited to work on the car, and am also doing some calculations on a worst-case-scenario engine rebuild.

I've also acquired EPA and DOT documentation on the car. It's not so much documentation as letters that say documentation exists. It was a tricky process, but in the end, it all worked out. The interesting thing here was that while my car was made in July, 1980, the VIN tag on the B-pillar says January 1981.





After speaking with a few local folks who were in this business, they said that refers to the date of importation. What I found out through the documentation was that my car entered the US September 8, 1989 and the bond release date was October 26, 1989. I found that rather puzzling. It also doesn't say much for the 147,000 miles shown on the odometer. Of course, I was happy to have the documentation.

This past weekend, I decided that there were a couple of things I needed to do on the car so I could stop thinking about them.

Well, I decided to start by doing some redecorating.



I started by removing the door panels. I needed to look inside the doors to see if any rust was forming. All four doors are original - at least to the time of Federalization. I noticed the cap screws on the edges of the doors, so I thought I'd check to see what I was really dealing with. It's a pretty trippy setup. They used a telescoping pipe. One fits inside the other. Then, they secured it to the bolts, I guess, welded the ends to the door and then welded the two pipes together at the junction. I was happy to see I had no rust inside the doors. Yay. No need to replace doors.

Since well before the PO had the car, it had a leaking clutch master. They carried a bottle of brake fluid and topped it off. I was overjoyed when I found out. Real top-notch care-taking. Obviously, the first opportunity I had, we rebuilt that master.

So, as you could imagine the carpet and underlying insulation was soaked. Even in the floor behind the driver's seat. That was most-likely caused by Mr. Genius leaving a bottle of fluid there to leak. It had to come out. I know brake fluid is corrosive to paint, so I knew that would be trashed, but once the paint had gone, what happened? From being under the car, there's no sign of rust anywhere on the floorpan, but I had an E21 that rusted from the inside out. We needed answers! What do we want?! Answers! When do we want them?! Now!

I moved on to removing the carpet. I removed the seats, then started on the aftermarket AC. Glad that's out of there. I still need to remove the wiring and everything forward of the firewall (wiring goes through the firewall). Glovebox came out. Driver's lower dash panel came out, the seats, etc. Carpet came out easily. No fuss, no muss.

Then, the fun came. It was nitrile glove time. My favorite. Dishwashing gloves probably would have been good, but these allowed me to caress the floorpan. I was stoked to see that there was no fatigue at the seat mounting points. Excellent. Party Time. Let's get that insulation out. Both rear floor pieces were poor. One piece, but poor. They went in the bag. Then, I got up front. The front insulation is one piece. Since the right side was fine, and quite rigid, I decided to remove everything affected by brake fluid. When the time comes to replace the insulation (bodywork time), those parts will be removed, of course. I got everything out of the driver's footwell, sopped up as much as I could with absorbent fibers and got the shop vac. Once I realized I survived the vacuuming without exploding, I used Simple Green on what was left and that was all she wrote.

I still have some work to do in the back seat area, as the horsehair dust has bonded pretty well to the paint, so it will take some extra effort to remove it. No rust, though!

I decided that since I still wanted to drive the car some, I needed to put some seats in it. I had a set of E21 Recaros under the workbench, so I bolted up the adapters and put them on a set of bases. Installed.

I'm also running the 4-spoke Momo wheel because it's all I have that fits this car. My stock wheel is being recovered, so it won't be in the car until much later.

Here are some photos:







I also sold the Alpinas, so I had to figure out what to put on the car, which left me with the original wheels, TRX or RSs.

I went with the RSs for now. I don't like them on this car.



Thanks for reading.

Nice to see some progress!!
Thanks for posting update and pics.

Good news on the rust Chris. I think the Alpina's would have looked the best on this car but I am sure you can dig something up from the fort .Whats the next step ?

I love me some progress!

I really like the Alpina wheel in there, and I think the RSs will grow on you.