Nah I've got my own set. I'm down for the beers and chicken though.
Nice. I've never got any Christmas cards from any parts supplier. And I've spent a lot at Tischer. Just what I have into front strut assemblies for my M-Sport is more than most people around here pay for an entire E34
That sounds a lot like how my M-Sport is now.
Cosmos Black/Black 1995 540iA M-Sport
BMW Individual Exclusive Edition, 1 of 65 total, 9/25/95 Build
OEM additions include Euro trim, passenger seat mounted first aid kit, tool kit warning triangle, clears all around, black chrome exhaust tips, spare tire well gas can, and rear armrest fridge.
Waiting for install is an adjustable lumbar support, & drivers side glove box...
Subscribed!
Sergio
__________________
'94 530iT with M60B40, 5 speed swap and 3.23LSD
'91 Swift GTi sold
'91 318is US-spec
Okay, so the first thing I went to work on that Sunday after bringing her home was the windshield washer system. It worked, but it was weak and you may recall from the Great Windshield Washer Debate of 2012 that I am a stickler for that. It goes back to me being stuck in the mountains of West Virginia after a snowstorm and the aggravation of having to stop every five miles to clean the salt off of the windscreen. Anyway, the bloody nozzles disintegrated in my hands and the washer bottle was yellow. I hate yellow underhood bits. I said screw it and ripped the whole system out, ordered new everything and replaced it from stem to stern. One of the new, heated $20 nozzles came DOA and the bottle cap was the wrong one. I have yet to actually find the correct part, believe it or not. No matter which one I order (bought three different part numbers now) I always get the same, black, too small cap. I gave up and will try to bleach the old one along with the brake fluid reservoir.
Still annoys me every time I open the hood. I am serious when I say it took weeks before I actually had a leak free, working washer system. A couple of months actually. Crazy, but a harbinger of how the whole project would go.
I took the car over to a pal's place for a "weekend" project to replace the intake gaskets. The car was on his lift for over a month. Now THAT is a great friend.
During that time I replaced every bit of rubber and every fastener that one has to remove to get at the valley pan. If it came off it went back new. I believe that even if it looks okay, 20 years of underhood heat cycling means the rubber needs to be replaced. New water pump, all new hoses and overflow tubing, new pulleys and belts, injectors, fuel level sensor (yay for a working fuel gauge!) drained all of the fluids, pulled the oil pan and found the obligatory loose pump bolts, new plugs and boots, new water pump and associated parts and had the rocker covers powder coated. Finally, after five weeks of weekend warrioring I had everything buttoned back up and was ready to start her.
I poured in a gallon of distilled water and watched it run out onto the shop floor. I muffed the water pump gasket. :facepalm
Back in I go, reset the water pump with a new gasket (I had ordered one before I bought the new pump) and finally, FINALLY got to he point where I could start the engine. She turned over three or four times and fired right up. On six cylinders. Gah! So I am diagnosing that with the help of my pal (who by now I am SURE was ready to do the work himself just to get the car out of his bay) and we came to find out that two of the brand new coil boots were DOA. I do not recommend the Bavauto universals for this reason, buy the BMW parts. I put two of the old oil soaked ones on and she smoothed right out. And vibrated, horribly. Screw it, she's coming home. And that leads to chapter two, The Great M60 Vibration Hunt. Tune in later for that.
Yes, they are red. Farmall Tractor red, to be exact. Yes, they will stay that way.
Engine was replaced under recall at ~30K. Still clean 110K later.
Can you say vacuum leak?
He didn't actually send me a card, he did wish me a Merry Christmas, though. Great guy, I am going to miss him. Between losing him and Trevor I am going to have to build new relationships for all of my part needs.
Last edited by Sneezy; 01-19-2013 at 12:08 PM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost
Current Fleet:
E34 1991 M5 Macaoblau on Complete (ruined)Leather Champagne - http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1705166
Past:
E34 1989 535i 5-Speed AlpineweissII on Natur - Parted
E34 1992 525i 5-Speed Islandgrun on Pergament - Parted
E34 1995 540i 6-Speed ShwarzII on Shwarz - Sold to Sneezy.
E34 1995 525i 5-Speed Calypso Red on Parchment - http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1748143 - Sold locally.
E39 1998 528i 5-Speed Black on Black - Sold locally.
E34 1993 M5 Alpinweiss on Black - http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...lpinweissII-M5 - Parted
Ha! Every car I build has something red on it. The first engine I built was back in high school. When it came time to paint the block I was so broke I could not afford the proper paint so I snagged some from my old man that was leftover from having his Farmall tractor repaired. Hence the Farmall Red valve covers on this project.
Now you want ricer? This was one of those minor missteps I referred to earlier:
Rice blue lamps. umm, no. They came right back off and were replaced with Silverstars. And ja, it was a lot of rubber bits. I am looking over the invoice from Mike now and it is 2.5 pages long.
Alright, so now I have an M60 with palsy. I do a search here and lots of research all over the intertube and find that I am in good company. I think I have the vacuum issue sorted with all of the previous work so I give it a cursory check just to make sure I didn't miss something, and then I move on to other things.
So back over to my buddy's place and up on his rack to start with engine mounts, since they seem to be a major wear item on these cars. The driver side comes out in two pieces and I think I have found the cause of the vibration. I take the car out for a spin and while the vibration is still there it is greatly reduced.
I spent a couple of weeks (not in my friends bay this time ) putzing around with the thing, new gearbox mounts, check all of the exhaust mounts and replaced as needed, seafoam, injector cleaner, checked the plug gaps, on and on. I had most of the vibration fixed, but there was still a wee bit that nothing I did would help. I was just about to throw in the towel when somebody here suggested the ICV might be stuck. Now I have no idea why I didn't check that while it was in the part box for five weeks, but I didn't.
Yeah, it was stuck open. I tried to clean it but it was fused so I borrowed a good part from my friend and ordered a new one. The vibration was STILL there. I am beside myself at this point. While all of this was going on I had a set of throttle cable bushings come in. When I removed the intake boot for the install I thought to myself that it sure came off easily and when I took a close look I found the TB gasket was nearly flat and the ICV gasket had a split in it. I ordered new gaskets and had a fit getting the boot on once they were installed. It as tight, much tighter than it had been before.
Long story eternal, the vibration problem was solved. I never would have thought such a small crack would cause it, but it turns out that engine is just as sensitive to vacuum leaks as you guys have told me it is.
Crazy.
At this point I am tired of chasing wild geese and I just want to drive it. So I did, for about a month there was no work done while I just bombed around the state for fun.
Datazz.
Beach. This is actually from an earlier trip but I stay in the same room every time so is close enough.
Mountains. Gods I love Best Carolina.
Gixxer met the car here, no grill at the time. He seemed impressed by that
Some random tag I came across during some travel. I loled
Some other random things I saw at some show or something, don't really remember. Poodle skirts, mmmmmmm.
Okay. After that break I decided to get back to work. I already had a new MSport front cover and all of the associated parts to install it, and I had the rear M5 cover sourced from Trevor along with all new parts for the heat shielding and such. I took those to my painter and had him turn them black for me. While they were off I got some new Depo headlights, new Hella fog lamp parts (I reused the old reflectors but replaced everything else), and some Laminix in the 40mil thickness to protect the new glass. I wanted a new set of Hella ecodes but just couldn't make myself spend $600 on them. I have an old set of ecodes I got from sskoda, but I wanted new buckets. I figured I would try the Depos since you guys seem to feel they are decent and I am happy with them so far. I also picked up some smoked fore, aft and side marker lamps and the rear M5 filler plate from Mel. I got a new grill and kidney covers from Schmeidmann and was ready to do some cosmetic work.
I take the car back to my friends shop (yes, the same dude) and we get to work on some of the more pressing body issues. Now I am no bodywork guy, and it showed. With the help of said friend we got the trunk smoothed out, repaired the ripped up door brake and resulting door ding plus a couple of other dents. I had a set of MSport mirrors that were destined for the 525 that also got black and bolted on. The last part of this month long evolution was to shadowline the trim and bolt on the E31 M-Systems which I had this BRILLIANT idea about how I wanted them refinished. Pics are not in chronological order because I really can't remember what I did when.
While the bumper is off, might as well replace the aux fan and refinish all of the ugly stuff in there nobody will ever see. Wait, no...that was the 525. It all runs together. I did repaint the PS cooling coil and the supports on the 540 though, so just imagine this is the other car.
Less functional mirrors just for looks? Yes please!
Dent repair.
Photography skillz!
Shadow. Lined. I learned a lot when I did the 525. This one is done correctly the first time.
Yes, inside too. I actually ordered brand new inside pieces for the car, but when they arrived I was not happy with them. The folks in Germany just tossed them in a tube an sent them, no protection. They arrived scuffed and were a satin finish. I decided to refinish the old ones myself with more gloss.
Datazzz. The rear bumper cover has a bit of sag to it because a few of the wedge points are broken. I have all new wedges and shims to make it right, I just need to figure out how to fix the slots the wedges go in. Note the ugly exhaust tips because SOMEBODY bought the last set of M-Sport tips on the planet.
Dat face. The euro trim came in. It is a different compound than the ones I normally see. I dunno why. I will try to paint it black but if I still am unhappy I'll get a set from Mel.
I hated the Schmeidmann kit. Thai built crap that did not fit correctly and the kidney bits are just covers that tape on. I tossed it and ordered a new OEM grill and bright kidneys. Yes, they stayed bright. At this point I felt the car was getting too black ad wanted a little contrast. Note the black trim rings on the non-smoked Depos. I like it, they should offer it as an option.
Sexy bish.
Somewhere along that time I made my biggest mistake so far with this car and thought I would get creative with the wheels.
When I picked them up from the painter I thought wow.
When I put them beside the car I thought well.
When I saw them on the car I thought whoa.
They just looked like a faded set of black wheels. Yeah, no. I was super disappointed but back off to the painter to get some silver they went. No more stylistic limbs for me.
Still looking through invoices and I have literally bought hundreds of small items for it. Glove box rubber bumpers and pins, all new door trim, door handle surrounds, boring bits and pieces all over the car. It's been fun so far, but like I keep saying...miles to go yet.
Items in the parts bin yet to install:
Interior (this will get it's own chapter)
Rear subframe
LSD
Springs and dampers
Sways
All of the steering and suspension stuff
Brakes
Items yet to be remembered.
For your lulzing pleasure I present proof that I do, in fact, own and wear a pair of jorts whilst working on the car. Not seen is the wolf tshirt my daughter bought for me because she thought it was cool.
And I do not mind getting dirty, I just wish the arthritis and carpal tunnel would leave me be. It makes doing what I enjoy literally a pain. After reading what Brian has to deal with I feel like a pansy for even mentioning it.
And that is pretty much where it is today.
Comments, questions and criticisms are welcome.
Last edited by Sneezy; 01-20-2013 at 10:27 AM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost
Schwarz/schwarz, Nice car sir! Amazing color and paint work.
Where did you get your bumper? Looking to get a new one...
I think the cheapest I found it was around $380.
Last edited by M540fella; 01-19-2013 at 08:22 PM.
This is a really great thread. I'm enjoying that your car is a 540. You tell a thorough and entertaining story about the car, one which I just happen to have. I also love that you're in to addressing the smallest details. Great stuff!
The red valve covers are cool. A panned out pic showing the engine and some of the black car would be cool too.
I'm thinking about painting mine a very dark blue, like this
Last edited by thatonedood; 01-19-2013 at 09:04 PM.
That is very kind of you to say, but it's a driver. I just like everything to operate as designed. There are many more cars with much more detailed work around here. While I admire their work and take inspiration from it I am not trying to compete with those guys, just build something I can be proud of.
Last edited by Sneezy; 01-19-2013 at 09:15 PM.
That's what makes it a great thread. And because 540.
Gone but not forgotten:
'95 540i/6 M-Sport. GA65474. Alpineweiss/Parchment.
Supercharger project
Nice, so you've actually been a busy bee on the down low.
Great save and nice work. That farmer red looks awesome.
Cosmos Black/Black 1995 540iA M-Sport
BMW Individual Exclusive Edition, 1 of 65 total, 9/25/95 Build
OEM additions include Euro trim, passenger seat mounted first aid kit, tool kit warning triangle, clears all around, black chrome exhaust tips, spare tire well gas can, and rear armrest fridge.
Waiting for install is an adjustable lumbar support, & drivers side glove box...
Man that Farmall red is the coolest valve cover color I've seen yet. Nice!!
Current
2005 E55 AMG
1998 Silverado K1500
1964 Impala
1964 Chevelle 496ci
Past
2000 Avus M5
1988 Suburban K1500
1987 Suburban K2500
2007 Suburban
1999 K2500 Suburban
2000 MGM
1999 K2500 Suburban
2001 Stratus 740i Msport
1990 750iL
1995 540i/6
1996 MGM
Pillars, headliner, & package tray all should match IMO. I don't know what you've got for an interior to put in it. But do it nice, do it right, and do it just once. Spendier up front to do that, but better in the long run if you're gonna keep that car for a long while (I would. My M-Sport is never leaving my ownership)
Just because it's not as bad as what I'm dealing with doesn't mean it's bad. Hopefully it doesn't turn doing what you enjoy into something you loathe. I used to like repairing & upgrading my vehicles. But now the thought of doing anything to them is dreadful.
Seeing what you've done in 9 months would take me over 10 years at the rate I'm going. That pic of my M-Sport I posted is it needing a new lower timing cover due to something getting caught in the serpentine belt and ripping the belt tensioner off the timing cover and destroying almost everything in that area. 3 years later and I've only got it all taken apart. It's sitting there in my friend's car port (hasn't moved an inch in those 3 years), waiting to be put back together. And now that it's sat for so long it needs more done to it.
Oh, and it's Brian btw, not Bryan...
Cosmos Black/Black 1995 540iA M-Sport
BMW Individual Exclusive Edition, 1 of 65 total, 9/25/95 Build
OEM additions include Euro trim, passenger seat mounted first aid kit, tool kit warning triangle, clears all around, black chrome exhaust tips, spare tire well gas can, and rear armrest fridge.
Waiting for install is an adjustable lumbar support, & drivers side glove box...
Yeah, the pillars would have to be done too, I just neglected to put that in the post. I snagged Tyler's M-Cloth Alcantara interior a month back. It didn't come with door panels, but the gathered leather ones the car came with are in great shape and I was able to rehab them to 90% new condition so I think they will work fine with the overall scheme.
meh, I took that pic as a way of whining to a friend how bad that swollen hand hurt after about six hours of putzing. At this point it is more annoying than anything and I always tell myself that the only thing worse than getting old is not. I wish you weren't a half world away, mate, I'd gladly pitch in.
My bad. Fixed.
Last edited by Sneezy; 01-20-2013 at 10:42 AM.
So you got M-Cloth/Alcantara seats? and trying to decide on the rest of the interior?
So wish I could get 6 hours of car work in before bad pain kicked in. I'm lucky if I can do the plugs on my M50. And that's super easy & quick. Had someone help me do front Koni's last weekend. With help, lots of narcotics, and an electric impact and other helpful tools I was in serious pain for 5 days straight because of that.
Would be nice of any of you helpful folk were around these parts. The closest people I'm aware of around to me (and aren't that close) that know anything are DUDMD & Camaroguy. They're both pretty busy guys, and I don't really know Dima yet. Austin is around here too. Nice kid, but doesn't know much yet about fixing E34's. He's learning though when I fix stuff on his Touring...
Hopefully when it stops freezing overnight I'll be able to get going on the M-Sport again. Not looking forward to the extra effort it's going to take to fix 3 years worth of sitting. I already know I've got to replace one of my nearly new PS2's. One has dry-rotted so bad it's cracked the side wall badly and is beyond repair. Need to pull the injectors to send to Witchhunter. Cleaning out the rest of the fuel system will be loads of fun.
Cosmos Black/Black 1995 540iA M-Sport
BMW Individual Exclusive Edition, 1 of 65 total, 9/25/95 Build
OEM additions include Euro trim, passenger seat mounted first aid kit, tool kit warning triangle, clears all around, black chrome exhaust tips, spare tire well gas can, and rear armrest fridge.
Waiting for install is an adjustable lumbar support, & drivers side glove box...
Bookmarks