An Exercise In Beautification - The Mömus BMW E39

[Rolf@Mömus]

Finding the car.
In order to promote our newly founded family business, we are building a demo car. We design and create automotive and road trip lifestyle goods, and want to build a car to show this off. Something we’d like to share with you.

The car in question was to be a 2005 VW Mk5 Gti. It was my daily, and as both the designer and all round car-guy of the team, it was meant to be. Right up to the moment when the bolt on the camshaft sprocket decided it was time to let go. Heart broken, I put the Gti aside.







I was in dire need of a new daily and so the hunt began. This time though, I wanted a bit more comfort and definitely more reliability. Not that the Gti was all that bad. It was a reliable daily that started on the button each and every time, it just needed a lot of maintenance to keep it that way. So the new car was to be easier on the wallet in terms of maintenance, a step up in comfort, and needed to have that coolness. It also needed to be a car I could build up to be something fresh, something that would stand out. Being a fanatic of cars of the German persuasion, I narrowed it down to the Audi and Bmw brands. Specifically the C5 A6, the E39 5-series and the E46 3-Series. Eventually, due to my passed experiences with both brands, I ruled out the C5, and went to look for the right Bmw.







This new car was going to be used as the shuttle car for our company, and on top of that be my daily. I decided, even though I am a huge fan of driving a manual, that an auto-box would suit the use of the car more. Would it have fit my budget, a 330ia was the dream. Alas, I could not find the darn thing anywhere near my budget, let alone in it. Then a strange thing happened. I scoured the good old internet for some 5 series inspiration and came across a few of the older generations. Man, did I fall in love. Head over heals in fact. The E12, the E28, and the E34 were the new apples of my eye. I found a nearby E34 530ia. It’s the model with the smaller Bmw V8, and this was a model I had in fact driven years before, and really liked it. It was no surprise, as I love the V8 engine configuration in general. Just the sound alone… Don’t get me started.







I called the dealer and a date to view the car was set. The day came, and right before I left, I rechecked the dealer's website to see the car again. Scrolling down I came across a pre-facelift, purple on purple, 528ia. Please, don’t get me wrong. This thing looked amazing. I had always wanted a really well executed, build-up E39. In my mind though, it was a 540i manual, and had to really entertain my optional-extras fetish. Why not an M5, you ask? To me the 540i manual had this whiff of rarity about it, like it was a special gem in the otherwise normal line-up. All M5’s were manual, so finding one was not that unusual. Scouring the listings for a 540i and finding a manual was. The value of the 540i’s were and are still much lower than the M5’s, and so a fully build up one would still end up owning me less than an M5.







Optional extras such as a sun-roof, and electrically adjustable and heated sport seats were a must. Leather of course, and full size navigation, xenon headlights, and nice rims were too. This purple magnificence had them all, except for the sat nav.
“Oh well, this would be nice thing to upgrade.” I thought. And became so enthusiastic about the the thing that I jumped on the phone to the dealer to arrange a viewing for this car too, next to the e34 530ia.

“Are you a dealer or something?” he asked, not amused.
“No, I just can’t make up my mind.” I replied, very much so.

So, I get to the place, and see the cars. The spec of the E39 was obviously so much better. The E34 had no leather, no sun-roof, no sport seats, standard too small wheels, and not really much else to write home about. But the body was in good condition, and the engine ran great. We went on a test drive and the car was a bit disappointing. Again, engine runs smooth and strong, and the auto-box shifts are velvety. However, the suspension is knocking over bumps and the steering was the biggest let down: it was loose and vague.

The E39’s mechanical condition was great. Really clean and well taken care of. However, the body was not. Both front and rear bumpers were scratched up and had several dings and dents in them. So there I am thinking: “Not too bad, you wanted to replace them anyway.” And so still smiling i walk around the car to the other side. And the smile is punched off my face in a cold and hard fashion: the “scratch” on the pictures on the front door turns out to be a nasty, deep scrape along the side of both doors.







A little upset, we go on the test drive. The smile comes back. And how. This thing drives so nicely, so tightly, and so solidly, that only after a few turns I know there is no way back. The steering on this is so good, man! I open the negotiations with the dealer, but he does not come down far enough. I leave the place empty handed and with a few doubts.

What about the V8? What about the doors? What about the older generations? However, over the next days, the car doesn’t leave my mind. Back on the good old internet, I look for replacement doors, and actually find a pair in the right colour, for a reasonable asking price. Than, I look at the various 540i vs 528i threads out there. And i finally read something interesting: the six cylinder E39’s had a new rack and pinion system, and the v8s retained the recirculating ball system of the previous generation. So than I tell myself about how much better the insurance rates, the road tax and the fuel economy will be (fully realising that the last one is a lie) and I’m back on the phone with the dealer.
We reach an agreement and the purple one is mine. After a few difficulties at the registration and technical control, such the auto-leveling headlights (hello there, E39 community) the car was on the road and ready to go.







Starting work.
The plan for this car was to beautify it according to my dreams. Already as a young boy I fantasised about the type of car I wanted to drive: sporty, yet comfy and luxurious. A Grand Tourer. Now over the years, the taste has changed a little.
So I want to give this car the appearance of the coolest cars of when I was younger, yet give it a bit of facelift to make the current taste happy.
First off though, before any modification can start, the biggest bang for the buck upgrade: a full wash and light detail. Because as you can see, this thing needs it.



See how the wheels were left out? Now why would that be?











The interior in this thing is already pretty close to what I'd like it to be. Like mentioned before, it's already pretty loaded. The colour combination is really growing on me, as it's something you don't see everyday, yet still quite tasty. After a little clean up, it came out great too.







Now the second step, is to get this thing in better condition in relation to the bodywork. Having thought about replacing them altogether, in the end I opted for repairing them myself in our little self built tent-workshop. Because DIY is life. It might have something to do with the cost too.
With the extend of the damage not actually requiring any panel beating, since it consists of deep scratches rather then dents, I went with the good old filler and spray can paint job. Yes, we have a compressor, but I wanted to see how effective this method could be.












Being no pro at working with bondo, I began to become fairly nervous at the sight of the filler build not becoming smooth at all. But with some patience, some sanding, and some filler spray, it came out reasonably smooth. Not perfect, but I prefer it to looking at the smashed up panels that they used to be.







The work done up to and including the glamorous process of applying the gloss clear coat can be seen in the video of the first part of the build:










Currently we're working on getting the bumpers off and starting the facelifting, upgrading and modifying of our new E39

[eohagan]

This might be my favorite thread yet.

[bE34ST]

Hell of a first post!!

[JPR10]

Love the pictorial approach. I wish every camera (and photographer) can shoot like this... Great work so far!

[JimLev]

Welcome to the forum Rolf.
Did you pull any of those dents out or just fill them in?

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Yeah, good body work is one where hardly any mud was used...

[amancuso]

Interesting. Best of luck!

[Rolf@Mömus]

Hi there, thanks for all the feedback!

@JimLev, the 'experiment' on the doors was indeed a quick and dirty filler only job, to get it to look halfway presentable for this season.
Also, I was really interested what the results were going to be using this method, keeping in mind that replacing or redoing it properly would always be possible.

[StephenVA]

Great job on the 540. It is always great to see things from Luxemburg

[Rolf@Mömus]

Starting the mods



Hello there! Got some more work done on the car:


Right from the get go, I was set on replacing the bumpers with some M-package units. The reasons for this desire were manifold, but the two most pressing ones were as follows: To me, the E39 seems to be designed with and for the M-sport bumpers, as the lines flow so much better. And secondly, they freshen up the car enormously.








As with most M-sport designs, they remained basically the same throughout the entire run of production, and do not receive a major facelift somewhere in the middle, like it's more everyday bumper-siblings. This makes the car look a lot fresher, as the design was still current in early 2004, instead of 1999 Also, the sport bumpers give the car a bit more edginess and sharpness that I have come to appreciate in contemporary designs.





And so, the normal, pre-facelift bumpers came off and were to make way for the new ones. As i'm sure you all do too, I scoure the online-lisitings to look for upgrade parts for almost any car I think of buying. For the e39, it like hitting a gold mine. Endless pages of parts are available. However, trying to find original, good condition upgrade parts such as the M-bumpers, can present a real challenge. I therefore sprung for some replicas, made by a reputable company in Germany.





At least, I though I did. The company I bought the bumpers from, informed me the rear units were out of stock. Next delivery would be in a month. So i scoured again, and amongst the many listings I found a matching rear unit. However, the company selling it was unknown to me. I did some investigating, and what a did I find? The bumper was on sale on yet another listings-website. I went ahead and ordered, and got this:





It turns out the ad for the bumper with discount was not the same as the one I found earlier matching the front, but for a Chinese unit. Oh, well. In fact, after some doubts about how flexible this thing was, and how bad the fitment was at first, the bumper was easier to get sitting right then the German one on the front.








I decided to fit everything up first, including trim, and see if they actually line up right, prior to any painting. With this step of the facelift complete, I turned my attention to the pre-facelift grills. Every small part seems to make such a huge impact, yet they only work when done all together. I therefore ordered some facelift grills, in a piano black finish. Not a huge chrome-enthusiast to start with, but to me these kidneys contrast a lot nicer with the Aspen Silver finish then the originals.








I then turned my attention back to the rear of the car. Again, I wanted to give this car a bit more of the edginess and sharpness that i've come to like in modern car designs. The rear bumper and its diffuser already go a great way to achive this, but I felt more could be done. A modest spoiler lip would make a world of difference here, wouldn't it?





The spoiler is awaiting its paint treatment, together with the new bumpers. Speaking of them, with the front now looking so clean and smooth without the plates ruining any of the lines of the car, the rear was attacked too. Sadly, I don't have the minerals to run without any, so I removed the frame to clean it up just that little bit.


All of that can be seen in this video we made of our progress:





We are currently doing something with these:

[gmak]

You don't show the fitment at the wheel well. Do you have a picture of this? Looking good!

[geargrinder]

Nice thread and well written story. +1 to hearing from Lux! Cool.

Cool colors - not massively popular colors but I like the 'differentness'. Assume the interior is "Aubergine" too... which is a great if weird color. I'd love to have the aubergine interior for sure.

Only critique is not huge fan of the new piano black grill on the color. The paint color is light and subtle and the piano black isn't right for it. For a dark colored car - black or dark blue or english green or whatever - the piano black grill is fine or great even. IMO this looks too out of place and just screams "here's the eBay aftermarket grill that was purchased for this car!" when you look at it.

Since you obv have color matched paint going already - I would strongly suggest body painting the outer kidney surround (the kidney's come apart in case you hadn't noticed yet...) then you can keep the piano black for the kidney grill/ribs themselves. (although even then I'd lean satin black). That approach is a very elegant look for the lighter colors, and blends the black grill to the body much better. And its far more custom unique interesting than "just another cheap set of eBay black grills on an E39". I might even also consider using the pre-facelift kidneys too as they are a bit subtler and elegant anyway, but that's more of a toss up.

[Rolf@Mömus]

Thank you!

@Gmak: I will post one asap! (don't have one currently)

@Geargrinder: Thank you for the feedback. Interior is aubergine indeed. The grilles are my favourite part! I like details that pop out, when I walk up to the car. These details make the car feel like it's mine.

- - - Updated - - -

Have I been waiting for this! The old-style, dull looking, pre-facelift headlights have finally made way for some updated, clear lens units. The new headlights started life as original halogen equipped Hella's. Before I took command of them, some LED bulbs had already been installed to give the angel eyes some more brightness.





That's a cute mod, but nothing like what was in store for them. I'm a sucker for projector headlights. They can really make or break a (modern) car for me, just like a set of wheels and springs can. The by now 30 year old BMW 325i E30 had these things fitted as standard, so why are reflector headlights still around today?


I don't know either, but I can get rid of the dated look of these main beams by high-jacking the projectors out of the old units and refitting them right in here.



Mocking up.

After some struggling around, and getting everything to fit nicely, the lights were ready to be sealed and mounted back together.



To me, this takes the car to a whole new level. Mind you, BMW chose to only offer quad projectors from the F10 5-series on.








To match the front, some "facelift" replica tail lights were installed. Unlike the pro's of choosing originals for the front (such as the shroud and halo design), the con's of original facelift tails were mighty. To me, hammering out the body to make them fit, was not an interesting proposition.





These replica's do look a bit plasticky in real life. I'm currently looking into a way to hide that, such as a tint spray or foil. The side markers were also swapped for some clear ones, to match the clear indicators in the headlights and taillights.








Finally, the license plate lights were updated too. I went with some LED versions that have a relatively subtle blue-whiteish hue to them.





To see the modding of the headlights and the installation of all these parts, we made this little video:



I started work on getting the wheels off and to see how we can get this thing to sit a bit nicer.

[geargrinder]

@Geargrinder: Thank you for the feedback. Interior is aubergine indeed. The grilles are my favourite part! I like details that pop out, when I walk up to the car. These details make the car feel like it's mine.

Well... Just imagine how special it'd be if you body painted the outer kidney surround? I mean right now it's not really "yours" unique given that 10 million other low budget E39 d-bags have black ebay grills on their cars. VERY few have the body-color + blackoutgrill ..



Here's what that looks like in silver - would be cooler and more striking in your color even.

[gmak]

That is very sharp, IMHO!

[Rolf@Mömus]

Having always been a stance enthusiast, the wheel gap on our E39 has annoyed me from the start. Even though the car was equipped with the factory sports package, which offers a modest 20 millimetre lowering, the wheel gap is so immense it seems like the car is riding around on a lift kit (had a look, none was found).





In my original vision for this car, the replacement rims were a multi-piece set with a nice staggered lip. Somehow this fits incredibly well on the E39. However, refining the end results more and more in my head, the wheels were to be of a more modern design, in an anthracite or gloss black finish. This decision came along to tie in with the rest of the mods that were installed to give the car a bit of a facelift.





A set of original BMW Style 238`s in 19 inch were found. The wheels came with the winter tyres still mounted, in a for an E39 rather oversized 245/45/19. This was great as the nights over here still reach and exceed freezing temperatures. The gearbox has not yet thrown any faults, and apart from the occasional rubbing in tight turns, they are actually not that bad.
However, I'd like to save my fenders for once, so come the warmer weather they will be replaced for some 245/35/19's in summer attire.





On to the suspension. Through time my preference for cars that sit so low, the belly scrapes during normal driving, has changed a little. In this case, a set of lowering springs will suffice just nicely. The chosen springs were designed for the E39 with the sports package, and are supposed to lower the car another 30mm, for a total of 50 milimeter compared to a standard, non-sport 5 series.








Unfortunately for us DIYer's, the E39 has multilink suspension with Mcpherson struts, so the spring replacement has a little more to it than average. Especially in the rear, where half the interior has to be dismounted, the job presents a bit of a struggle. However to me, once everything was back together, the results were certainly worth it.





Due to the e39's odd centre bore, some hub adapters were needed. They also nicely space out the wheels 15mm.







@Gmak: This one is for you, re the bumper fitment.

We made a little video capturing the work we put in to this part of the build:





And so it finally time to attack those bumpers and a few other bits with some paint!

[gmak]

Every time I see that aftermarket 1/2 inch (sometimes 1/4 inch) mismatch between the m-sport bumper and the wheel well (including on my own car), I cringe and feel fidgety for quite a while afterwards. I notice that some of the pictures have the gap, but it's gone in others. Much better!

I still have a 1/4 inch gap on each side and it drives me mildly crazy. It's gotten to the point where I think that I will separate the bumper cover from the metal bumper, put the bumper on the car and then manually line up the bumper cover - hopefully to minimize the gap - and then peg it in place. Then I will take the whole thing off the car again and fully attach the bumper over to the bumper before (hopefully) reinstalling it with little or no gap.

Sorry for that digressing interlude. The new lines with the new wheels and springs are very aesthetically pleasing. Good job!

[Jason5driver]

How's the ride of the car with the original Sachs struts and shocks with the H&R lowering springs?
Which H&R springs did you get?
#: 29742.1 ?
https://www.tirerack.com/suspension/...1&autoModClar=

[Rolf@Mömus]

@Jason5driver: Hi there! I got the h&r 29742-3, these are the springs for cars that had factory sport springs already. The ride is very good, smoother then original, car corners more flat - and doesn't have to "set" for the corner: turn in is nice and crisp. Faster driving on twisty roads is now a smooth and cohesive experience.

[JPR10]

Looking good. What was involved with the prep for painting the trim? Which paint are you using?

Which H&R springs are those... race? or sport?

[DoriDori]

Fantastic work my friend. Love how quickly your build is going and looking forward to ep.5!

[sreten]

Were the stock struts/shocks still fully functional? I just couldn't go through all that work of changing springs and not get new struts.

[Rolf@Mömus]

@ JPR10, i believe these would translate to "sport" springs. We do not get the different H&R categories over here, just the different lowering heights.

@ DoriDori, update on the paint coming soon!

@ sreten, they were replaced at some point in the past (previous owner was the first owner, and took good care of the car). Not in perfect condition, but not yet due for replacement either.

[Rolf@Mömus]

Edit: double post

[Rolf@Mömus]

Paint and re-finish, the e39 reborn!


After a lot of work the exterior of our beast is finished! The m-sport style bumpers have been repainted, and a whole lot of body trim was refinished to match the general facelifting that has been happening.


Starting with the mirrors, these were masked off together with the window trim to receive a fresh coat of gloss black. In my opinion, the e39 has aged rather beautifully. But the mirrors didn't. They look big and clunky. Gloss black should make them disappear and blend in with the side windows nicely.





The window trim was already matte black, as part of the sports package, from the factory. However, a fresh coat of gloss black will give them a nice update and will make the car look and feel more modern and upmarket.





Sticking with the gloss black as our new design theme for the car - gloss black on aspen silver - the rear diffuser and exhaust tips were attacked next. The exhaust tips themselves are actually adapters for toilet piping. However they fit really rather nicely and DIY is life. I love little mods and adaptations like this.





The facelift style tail lights were chosen, as explained previously, so that no modifications to the body were necessary, yet still updating the look. However, I wasn't very pleased with the way they look: a bit plasticky. Looking for a solution, I decided to go with a black tint. First of all, it would match the rest of mods nicely, and on top of that hide some of the plastickiness that was going on inside the tail light housing.





The side markers were matched to suit. Then on to the big job. The bumpers needed to be painted. Unlike the experiment on the doors, these needed to be done properly. So without thinking "They're replaceable anyway", I got to work. We're talking compressor and spray gun here. The rear bumper of Chinese make was unfortunately not primed, so it was thrown in with the batch of side and bumper moldings to receive various coats of primer.





"Side and bumper moldings?", I hear you ask. Why yes, this car is getting facelifted and how! Color coding these will make the car look a lot younger. After the primer, a couple coats of base went on.








To seal them off and achieve factory levels of shine, three coats of clear were blasted on top of the base.





And after a curing time of 2 days, they were finally reinstalled back on to the car.





Along with all the trims.



Quite the transformation:











We made a video of how we went about tackling all this work:





Currently we are working on taking the interior apart to go through a bit of a facelift too: