The Blue Backup Plan (Laser Blue/LSG 91 525i5 Thread)

[dannyzabolotny]

If y'all were tired of seeing threads for M50NV cars, well, too bad. Here's another one!

I've had this car for almost a year now, and I've forgotten that I owned it at times. I bought it from a friend who had purchased it from a local tow yard. It was dirty, had no exhaust (cats had been stolen), no keys, and was completely dead. I'll have to do some digging to find pics of it when it was first purchased. Anyways, my friend got keys made for it, threw a used battery in it, and lost interest in the car entirely shortly after that. That's where I came in, purchasing it for a pittance.

A little about the car— it's a 1991 525i 5-speed, built in 10/90, so a super super early M50 non-Vanos car. It's such an early build that the battery is under the hood and there's still a spot to mount the ignition coil for an M20. It's Laser Blue with an LSG interior, and has 250k miles on the odometer. The car is originally from Washington, and the tags have been expired since late 2019.

I got it running a while back, which consisted of charging the battery and fixing some wiring at the fuel pump connector. The car ran, but pretty poorly with an obvious misfire and an extremely loud exhaust, given the fact that it was dumping straight after the headers (the cats were hacked off with a saw). I threw on some 15" style 5's with decent tires and drove it briefly just to verify that it was indeed a vehicle.

It mostly sat around since then, first in front of my shop and then in the parking lot of the shop I worked at for a bit. I never had any grand plans for this car, figuring it would just be a good backup E34 in case mine got totaled or put out of commission in some way. Given the way prices are trending upwards, Dane and I have been buying up every cheap manual E34 we can get our hands on.







A week ago, Dane and I were bored on a Sunday after going for a drive, so we got the blue car over to the shop and got to work. Things spiraled out of control pretty quickly, and we ended up taking care of a lot of things in a few hours.

The first order of business was removing the hacked-up exhaust... I thought we would be able to just swap the midsection with a good catted midsection that I had laying around, but the dunderheads that cut the cats out destroyed the flanges on the rear section as well, so it all had to go.





With new exhaust gaskets, we installed a whole new exhaust, consisting of a stock 525i midsection with good factory cats + a good rear 535i section. The rotted bungie cord hangers were replaced with proper new exhaust hangers. Perks of having tons of spare parts at the E34 mecca, lol.

Now that the engine wasn't trying to blow out our eardrums, we moved on to diagnosing the constant misfire. Step one was pulling the plugs to see what we were dealing with.



The mismatched coils were a good sign, and the plugs were... interesting.



One of these things is not like the other!



Zero evidence of any combustion on cylinder 4, the cylinder with the new-ish Bav Auto coil. Dane also noticed this gem in the door pocket, aka a stray injector:



The injector on cylinder 4 was newer looking than the others, hmmmmm. Time for a compression test! Surprisingly, all 6 cylinders were around 150psi, with very little variation, even on a cold engine. With the health of the engine confirmed, we turned our attention to the electrical system. Checking for spark on cylinder 4, there was absolutely nothing happening, even with a different coil. Just to try it out, I whipped out Kurtis' old non-Vanos DME that was left over when we did his S50 swap.



Looking at the VIN on the DME, it didn't match the car's VIN. The VIN on the back of the cylinder head matched the DME but not the car. Plugging it into Carfax, we found that the engine and DME had come from a 1991 525i automatic car at some point, fascinating! I can't imagine it was fun driving this car with an automatic DME, it makes for some very sluggish revving.

With the proper manual DME swapped in, fresh plugs installed, and matching Bremi ignition coils, the engine ran on all 6 cylinders, victory! I'm guessing there was a bad coil driver in the old DME. Amazing that nobody figured that out, I wonder if this is why the car ended up at a tow yard?

Since the engine had been running for a while on only 5 cylinders and the DME had still been firing the injector on the dead cylinder, the oil was chock full of gas, so it was drained out and replaced with Castrol 20W50. As a bonus round, the oil pan drain plug was broken off inside the pan, but an extractor bit made quick work of it and a good used drain plug replaced it.

Driving the car after that, the engine pulled nicely and ran smoothly. The cooling system seemed to work fine as well, with no overheating. The original R12 AC still worked too, wow! It was a bit hard to get into 3rd gear and there was a fair amount of shaking from the driveline, so we put the car back on the lift and investigated.

The engine mounts were found to be the wrong style, resembling E46 mounts. They were quickly thrown out and replaced with new E34 M50 mounts.



The transmission mounts were complete garbage as well, and were replaced with new OEM mounts.



With the mounts sorted, the engine and transmission felt significantly smoother and it was far easier to run through all the gears, go figure.

Next on the agenda was replacing the destroyed ignition switch... the tow yard had taken it out and jammed a 10mm bolt in it to start the car without keys. Thankfully I still had the old ignition switch from the gold 525i I parted out, so with that swapped in I was able to start the engine with a key, just like a real car!



Wanting to dilute the varnish in the tank a bit, I drove to the nearby gas station and put some nice fresh gas in it. Laser Blue is a neat color, and this car still has a halfway decent amount of paint on it.



The body's got its fair share of dings and dents, and both bumpers are pretty destroyed, but oh well.







Remarkably, all of the lights and power locks work fine. All 4 windows and the sunroof worked well too, at least until the driver's window regulator motor quit working. Another thing to add to the list, I suppose.

Inside, it's a bit worse:





A lot of it can be cleaned up (I haven't cleaned anything on the car, inside or outside), but the front seats are beyond saving so I'll just have to swap in some black front seats like I seem to always do on my cars. It needs a radio as well, but that's a low priority at the moment.

The biggest mechanical issues at this point are the thrust arm bushings which are completely absent, sloppy steering, shot dogbones, and a leaky valve cover gasket + oil filter housing gasket. All of which will be fixed in due time, likely when I'm bored.

So much M50NV love these days, lol.

[BleedsBlue]

That color rocks. I look forward to the journey on this one, as well!

[q20v]

Awesome! Save them all!!
Nice work on all those little fixes. Looking forward to see where this goes 👍🏻

[Pink120]

Another one that won't bite the dust, nice. Keep them coming, they're in good hands.

[circuit.heart]

Ugh. People who let interiors tear, then keep tearing, can get reamed. Nice work getting the engine to run smoothly again, now for the pain of restoring the interior.

[a777fan]

Ugh. People who let interiors tear, then keep tearing, can get reamed. Nice work getting the engine to run smoothly again, now for the pain of restoring the interior.

Especially LSG. hens teeth.

[93FIM5]

Love the color and cant wait to see what you have planned!

[dannyzabolotny]

Thanks y'all. Not too much planned really, at most I'll make it drive decent in stock form and it'll be my backup vehicle if my main white E34 is broken or down for repairs. I'm a little annoyed at how well the engine runs in this blue car, it sounds really good and feels healthy, whereas the 306k mile engine in my white car feels a little lackluster.

[Desert E34]

Always exciting when you or Dane get another E34. This one might be one of my favorites, I just can’t get over how good that spec is. I’ll eventually need to get myself a backup car as well before they’re all too expensive.

[Cactuar]

Nice find! It has the same color combination as my 735iL, except mine has wood trim. Save all the E32s and E34s!

[dannyzabolotny]

Welp, now that the white 525i is totaled, it's time to get this thread going again. I kinda wish I didn't have to use my backup car so soon, but it is what it is.

I pulled the blue 525i out of the storage lot— it started right up even after sitting since January, almost as if it knew its time had come. I didn't even need a jumper pack, the battery was still good.

Here's how it looked when I pulled it up to the shop... mind you, this thing hasn't gotten washed in a year or two.





I gave it a quick wash, and it looked a whole lot better just after that.





However, the hood was bothering me with how dull it looked, so out came the DA polisher for a test panel.



It proved to be quite a stark difference, even after a quick test, so I ended up doing a two-stage compound + polish on the entire hood. I'm quite pleased with the results, it makes me like this car a lot more, even with all of the other cosmetic quirks. I really do enjoy Laser Blue, especially when it's shiny and clean.







Until the white car shows up at my shop on Saturday/Sunday, most of what I'll be doing to this car is cleaning up the interior and exterior to make it more presentable.

[dannyzabolotny]

Work continued on this car today, with a focus on getting the interior up to par. It'll eventually get swapped for black, but I needed to make it livable in the meantime.

Out came the destroyed driver's seat:



The carpet was pretty gross once the seat was removed, so I hit it with a vacuum, carpet cleaner, and a brush. An extractor probably would have done a better job, but this turned out reasonably well, all things considered. There's way less staining and the car overall smells better now.





After that, I installed the black comfort seat that I had recently removed from the white car. This car will eventually get the bucket seat, but that'll wait until the car is ready for the track... no sense in running a bucket seat in a car with a bad clutch, loose suspension, and awful tires.



Next up was installing the radio. Of course it wasn't just as simple as plugging in my Alpine head unit and adapter harness, it never is. Somebody had previously cut the car's harness and then twisted all of the wires back together... poorly.



That was quickly redone with crimp connectors.



All done!



Moving to the underside of the car, Dane and I installed his exhaust with the big single tip... the stock 535i exhaust that I had on this car originally ended up going on Kurtis' 535i, so for a while this blue car didn't have a rear exhaust. I still don't know how I feel about the big single tip, but I do enjoy how much noise it makes.





The final item to be address was the trunk, which had to be one of the most trashed trunks I've ever seen in an E34. There was about 20lbs of garbage/dirt in the trunk, I had to literally scoop it out like I was digging a hole. After the major dirt and junk was removed, the whole trunk got a thorough vacuuming with the shop vac, followed by a cleaning with Simple Green and a brush. It came out decent, not perfect, but it'll all be covered with the nice trunk linings from the white car.

[dannyzabolotny]

While I wait for my white car to be brought back to Phoenix (should be here tomorrow!) I've been continuing the process of cleaning the blue car to make it a nice place to be.

The engine bay was looking absolutely disgusting so that got a power wash. I put a trash bag over the battery because I'm paranoid and I've actually never owned a car with the battery under the hood.





Simple Green plus a soft bristle brush made pretty quick work of the engine bay. There actually wasn't a lot of oily grime, just loose dirt/dust from sitting for months, so it washed off pretty easily.





While I was in there, I couldn't leave the inside of the hood alone so it got a good cleaning as well.



Later that night after I finished with customer work, I finished the paint correction process. The paint is still trashed but now it's shiny! Even with most of the vertical surfaces only getting 2 passes with polish, the 50/50 was pretty darn good.





The trunk required a good bit of heavy compounding and polishing to get the water spots and bird poo etching out of the clear coat, but it came out pretty good.



Driver's door after polishing:



I still need to do a proper photoshoot with this car, but here's what it looks like for now:



Earlier today I was doing more cleaning inside the car and found the ashtray wedged under the passenger seat, so now the center stack is all complete!



Other things I did to the car in the last few days but didn't take pictures of:

- Replaced the mirror switch as the old did absolutely nothing. Now I have power mirrors!

- Bypassed the heater valve after I determined that it was causing the car to blow 100% heat, which is hardly pleasant when it's almost 100ºF outside. Now the AC works perfectly, and it's still R12-based, wow.

- Replaced a very blown aux fan fuse and found the aux fan to be working but quite noisy and shaky. Good thing I have a new fan in the white car.

I've put a few hundred miles of daily driving on this car in the past few days and it's done it all like a champ. Excellent AC, engine feels nice, trans shifts smoothly, and the hilariously bald tires on the rear wheels make this thing feel like it has 400hp (new wheels/tires coming soon).

[Mless5]

The car is starting to look very presentable!

[theBMWbeast]

I love seeing neglected cars come back. It’s almost therapeutic. This color is well worth saving, too!

[dannyzabolotny]

I love seeing neglected cars come back. It’s almost therapeutic. This color is well worth saving, too!

For sure, saving neglected cars is my speciality... mostly because I can only afford super neglected/sketchy cars lol. Laser Blue is a lovely color indeed, it kinda reminds me of my old Orient Blue E39 540i/6.

Now that the part-out of the white 525i has commenced, parts are starting to make their way onto this blue 525i. But first, I removed the windshield washer system entirely... I never use it, so it's free weight reduction.



After that, I transferred my aftermarket steering wheel and gauge cluster from the white car. Fun fact, 10/90 build cars (that's how early this car is) still have the green back cluster, so the 95 cluster still worked fine. It's nice to have all working bulbs and buttons, which is why I've been transferring this cluster from car to car.



Next was the shift surround, shift boot, and ZHP knob. This blue car is originally a non-wood trim car, so I'm slowly putting in wood trim because that's what I like.





It's starting to feel like my car again!

[moroza]

This is heartwarming.

I love seeing neglected cars come back. It’s almost therapeutic. This color is well worth saving, too!

+1

...windshield washer...

Is the washer tank any good? I definitely use mine, or would if the tank weren't busted.

What's up with the airbox? Just water on top, or melted plastic?

...ignition coils...

Nearly as exciting as the car itself is the Murder Mystery Dinner Party of figuring out what the hell happened in its previous ownership.

[dannyzabolotny]

Is the washer tank any good? I definitely use mine, or would if the tank weren't busted.

What's up with the airbox? Just water on top, or melted plastic?

Nearly as exciting as the car itself is the Murder Mystery Dinner Party of figuring out what the hell happened in its previous ownership.

No washer tank in this car, that was already gone when I bought it. I would've thrown it out if it had it anyways, I don't care for the extra weight it adds or the space it takes up in the engine bay.

The airbox? It's either some stubborn cosmoline or some staining on top of it. Looks fine when dry.

Oh yes, this car has had quite the sordid history. It originally came to Arizona from Washington state in like 2017 or so, and at some point it ended up in a junkyard of sorts, but not a public one, hence the fact that it's intact and has a title still. It got the cats cut out of it and got the trunk filled with garbage and that's more or less how it sat for a few years. It's got dents all over the body, has hit something in the front, and almost every panel on the car has been painted at some point.

[dannyzabolotny]

Big round of work done to the car in the last two days, so this will be a pretty long post.

It started small, with redoing the whole trunk. As seen in the previous posts, the trunk was completely missing all of its linings, and the bits I did find were absolutely gross and dirty, so I pulled everything from the white car and got busy. I started by removing the lining on the lid and noticed the spot where the trunk latch mounts was starting to crack, likely as a result of the trunk being slammed shut with its completely dead shocks for years. Some washers will help reinforce things until I figure out a more permanent solution.



New(er) lining installed with the trunk toolkit from the white car.



I had a screwdriver in the factory toolkit until somebody borrowed it and it went missing, so I'll have to obtain one of those at some point.



Side liners, spare tire, and fuel pump cover installed:



All done! Yes, the main trunk carpet is stained from a prior spill, but it was in better shape than the one that came with this car, so whatever. It's nice to have a fully trimmed trunk again, with a proper spare, jack, tire iron, wheel chock, all in their proper places. I finished the job off with some new Stabilus trunk struts.



The taillights were mismatched, with one being an early yellow turn signal tail and the other having a newer style orange turn signal, so those got replaced with my clear Depo units from the white car. The inner taillights got swapped out as well, since one of them was cracked. I know clear turn signals are a little bit of a contentious subject among enthusiasts, but I enjoy them quite a bit on this color.



Moving towards the front of the car, I replaced the door catch on the driver's door, now it no longer dings at me with a "door open" warning every 5 seconds like the old one did. After that, I swapped in the driver's door seal from the white car to replace the completely destroyed one. The tan is pretty dirty so it doesn't look too out of place against the gray interior.



And now for the biggest chunk of work, I tore out the entire front suspension— the strut assemblies, control arms, steering linkage, and sway bars all got removed. None of it fought me too much which was nice!





The Moosehead thrust arm bearings got pressed out of the bent old thrust arms and into some fresh Meyle HD arms (they're really cheap and easily available from my supplier). The lowers I bought new from TRW, and the steering linkage is all new Lemforder stuff with a new Corteco bushing pressed into the old idler arm. The sway bar is the Racing Dynamics M5 bar from the white car, which survived completely unscathed.



Along with those parts, I also installed the BC coilovers from the white car, which looked to be unharmed by the accident. AKG bump steer plates were transferred over and installed as well. What's nice is that the BC assemblies have new wheel bearings and studs already on them.



The rear got BC's installed, along with the Racing Dynamics M5 rear sway bar. The Lemforder dog bones were in good shape on the white car so they got moved over too. Nothing to note in the rear, it was all pretty standard stuff.

Dane then quickly eyeballed the alignment so I could drive the car for a day before I can take it in for a proper alignment. He also let me borrow his GTA wheels, which I am absolutely in love with. They're so aggressive that I had to beat my rear quarters in with a hammer to make them not rub constantly.

With the suspension and wheel swap, the car looks pretty awesome:







It's amazing to me how wheels and lowering the car made me fall in love with it. Everything about the car looks better now and I couldn't be more pleased. Of course it drives a LOT better too, with zero clunks and a very confident ride. Even with the relatively low ride height, it's still pretty comfortable and practical for daily driving.

To top it off, Dane did some zip tie magic to get the bumper stitched back together on the driver's side.

Before:



After:



It's not perfect, but it makes the bumper look a ton better. It was such an eyesore before and now it looks halfway decent, especially from like 5-10 feet away.

[Martinator]

You gotta introduce me to that blue bavaria.

[dannyzabolotny]

You gotta introduce me to that blue bavaria.

Not my car unfortunately, it's a customer car at the upholstery shop that's across from me. Super cool spec though, blue on blue with a 4-speed manual.

Anyways, more progress! I started off today by dropping the car off at the alignment shop, along with some very specific instructions (around -4º of camber in the front, as close to zero toe as possible) and I'm happy to say that the alignment shop absolutely nailed it!



The car drives excellent now, and I'm still in love with the way it sits.



Later in the day, I added wood trim pieces around the steering wheel. It's a small touch but I do love what it does for the interior.



Then it was time to tackle the window regulator/door panel/door brake job. It's a little annoying because I've had to do this exact job on almost every single E34 I've ever owned... I'm real good at it now.

After removing the old door panel and broken window regulator, I installed the newer door brake from the white car, along with a reinforcement plate since the metal was already starting to bulge out on the door.



The window regulator replacement itself was pretty uneventful, with the worst part still being drilling out the rivets. Thankfully I've got a powerful corded drill that makes quick work of those little bastards. The new ACI regulator was installed with new Genuine BMW clips and M6 x 12mm replacement hardware, which will make it quite a bit easier to service in the future. Finally, the nice black '95 door panel was installed, and it still feels lovely.

Before:



After:



With a working window regulator, I can do fun things like washing my car, going through a drive-through, or enjoy the air-conditioning when it's 90ºF+ outside.

[BleedsBlue]

This is looking great already.

[lonestar22]

car is coming along nicely. love the blue. sucks about your other car though. saw that on fb and it hurt my soul.

[circuit.heart]

That broken bumper makes me want to cut off the bottom and tack an Alpina fascia on. It would look boss as fuck on the GTA's.

[danespann]

That broken bumper makes me want to cut off the bottom and tack an Alpina fascia on. It would look boss as fuck on the GTA's.

I've been suggesting the one you have which covers a good portion of the bumper. The 16" GTA's may not stay long on the car but the 17x9 et12 replica ones are pretty appetizing and would likely clear e90 brakes.