525i Touring Build Thread

[ColtonBH]

Alright, bought it this morning, I'm just going to start off with a thread for it right away. Being a senior in high school, I don't have a large amount of time or money, but as I get little things done to it, I will upload pictures.
So let's start off with a little bit about the car, it is, at the moment, a completely stock 2002 525i Touring, other than the fact that the previous owner put an M5 bumper on it. It has 200k miles, mostly highway, and has had two previous owners, both the same family. It has no rust at all, amazing for being in a midwest climate, and only a few dings and chips. So enough of this, here are a couple (not very good) pictures.





I think tomorrow I am going to start by polishing the headlights.


Maintenance:
199K Oil Change, Castrol Edge Extended, 5w-30
205K Oil Change, Castrol Edge Extended, 5w-30
211K Oil Change, Castrol Edge Extended, 5w-30
211K Alignment
212K Secondary Air System Delete
212k Front Coilovers - JOM Blueline

[Fast88fiero]

Looks like a nice car! Congrats.

[justinca540i]

Looks good. Kind of puts a damper on modifications. I'm a senior in high school also.

[nikatkimber]

Congrats! What's the color?

After you get mechanical things sorted, you could pick up 17" OE wheels on Craigslist pretty cheap: I found a set of 5 Style 19s an hour from me for $300. The Style 29s are pretty drab wheels. But at least tires will be cheap(er) with them!

[ColtonBH]

Alright, I couldn't find the polish I like anywhere for the headlights, so I scratched that for now, they weren't that bad anyway. Instead I decided to go for painting the trim first, starting with the grill. I know some people like the chrome trim, but I hate it on most modern cars. Looked good in the 60's, we've moved on. Anyway, I know that I am only 17, but due to the fact that I work at a hardware store in the paint department, I do know my way around paint, and I am pretty damn good at spray painting things, if I do say so myself.



Around the grill there are some clips that just pop off, not too hard to figure it out, the only place I had a bit of trouble was on the top clips, little difficult to get at.



So the grill just separates into four pieces like this, pretty basic stuff. Now since the middle bit is already black I'm just going to leave that be. So with this apart, I gave the "chrome" a quick wash and gave it a light sanding with some 600 grit.


Most Important: Always use Rusoleum Gloss Enamel!
Best paint in the world for only $3.17 a can. Grab a can of black and crystal clear gloss.



Okay, so grab some cardboard to paint on, its best to paint indoors, if possible, but otherwise paint on a still day, get in the shade, and don't paint when it's humid.



So here's the secret to get the best looking finish, the tried and true method of many diy-ers.

Start out with the base coat, in this case, black
1st coat: Real light coat, don't worry about coverage. Just keep it LIGHT.
2nd coat: Within 15 minutes of the first coat, do another coat just like the first, you'll be mostly covered, but don't worry if there is a bit showing through still.
3rd coat: Within 15 minutes of the 2nd, but before you spray it, look it over, find the spots that will need the most paint. This should be the final coat of black. Put on a slightly thicker coat, but still pretty light, with three coats, you should be completely covered, but check in case you missed something, this is the last easy chance to fix it.

Now it's time to move onto the clear coat.
1st coat: 15-30 minutes after you finish the black, do a medium-light coat of clear.
2nd coat: 15 minutes later, repeat

I know doing 5 coats is way more work than one or two, but it's a much more durable, better looking finish.

Now just let it sit for 24 hours, don't touch it, don't think about it, just let it dry. Keep in mind that this paint dries in a few hours, it doesn't curefor several weeks, and until the it can chip or scrape fairly easy.
But after the 24 hours is over, it's probably safe to put back on the car. You should be left with a nice shiny paint job, but you will still have a little bit of orange peel, but it's not much worse than the orange peel on a factory paint job. A wet sand will bring you up to a mirror finish. So yeah, pretty much it for painting.



The wait between coats is a great time to give the car a wash



An e39 M5 bumper and that of a MKII Honda Odyssey are remarkably similar. Hmm.



Oh no! I forgot to put my thumb or a dirty rag or something over the license plate so no one can read it! Now someone is going to track me down and kill me! (or something?)



I had planned to paint all the chrome today, but I ran out of time before work. Usually, the only time I have to work on stuff is 8:30 until midnightish, and without room in my garage to work, my solution is to plug 3 500w halogen work lights into one breaker and pray that it doesn't flip on me, but hey, whatever works! So hopefully, I will be able to paint most of my trim tomorrow night, I will post pictures when all of it is done and on.

[AquilaBMW]

Nice looking car - congrats!!

[justinca540i]

Looks like it turn out pretty good.

[ColtonBH]

Bought some more spray paint, ready to paint the trim!

[extra]

Looks pretty clean and congrats on the purchase. I'm a junior in high school.

[justinca540i]

Looks pretty clean and congrats on the purchase. I'm a junior in high school.

wonder how many high schoolers that own E39s are members of this forum?

[Dking078]

Lookin good!

[ColtonBH]

I like that so many high schoolers have good taste in cars!

[dme88]

I don't get how highschoolers can afford BMW ownership.

[ColtonBH]

I don't get how highschoolers can afford BMW ownership.

40+ hour a week jobs and an optimistic attitude that a 200k car will not break down on them!

[justinca540i]

I don't get how highschoolers can afford BMW ownership.

mine actually hasn't been too bad. All though I've had a lot of help from my dad either covering the cost of it or giving me a job that's well paying.

[dannyzabolotny]

I know I certainly couldn't afford an E39 in high school, working for minimum wage at McDonald's. Plus in NYC the insurance costs were insane if you were a teenager. My parents never had any extra money to give me, nor any connections to work, so I pretty much had to scrape by on my own. I can only now afford an E39 at age 22, now that I live on my own in Arizona and work a well-paying full time job.

[auaq]

Nice looking touring. What colour is that?

[ColtonBH]

Nice looking touring. What colour is that?

Titangrau Metallic (892)

- - - Updated - - -

I know I certainly couldn't afford an E39 in high school, working for minimum wage at McDonald's. Plus in NYC the insurance costs were insane if you were a teenager. My parents never had any extra money to give me, nor any connections to work, so I pretty much had to scrape by on my own. I can only now afford an E39 at age 22, now that I live on my own in Arizona and work a well-paying full time job.

I've been saving up for about a year and a half now, and have money set aside for repairs and insurance

[extra]

I don't get how highschoolers can afford BMW ownership.

family member owns a shop, very easy to fix things when they go wrong.

- - - Updated - - -

I've been saving up for about a year and a half now, and have money set aside for repairs and insurance

Very wise thing to do, gotta be prepared for something to happen with these cars.

[justinca540i]

family member owns a shop, very easy to fix things when they go wrong. - - - Updated - - - Very wise thing to do, gotta be prepared for something to happen with these cars.

Wish I had a shop to use, (or at least a lift).

That helped me too, having a reserve for repairs when buying the car. But since I happened to get my 540i for free, all my money went into repairing anything leaking.

[DennisCooper]

Hi ColtonBH,

Welcome along to the forum ! There's some fantastic knowledge and members here and the collective wealth of information and experience and a willingness to share I think is great!

I'd also like to say that at 17 and a good level head then the 525i is a good choice for you to begin to learn to drive ! - I mean that from the view it's firmly my opinion that it's the best way to help build up your driving experience on the road for perhaps a couple years before moving onto a more powerful E39 or BMW or other brand car. A 5 series helps keep you under the radar from the Police who all know it's usually 3 series that teenagers will have! A Touring is more inconspicuous too!

I know there's yourself and a few other members who are still at school/teenage years with E39's. There'll always be the 'forum' attitude that it's bank of mum and dad paying for it, but there are guys like yourself who are paying for things themselves. To give you an example, over here in the UK where fuel is double and approaching sometimes triple the price compared to the US, where insurance for under 21 male drivers is extremely high, there's one enthusiast I know who had a 530i Sport in Imola at 19. He also had a limited edition E36 M3 GT2, all paid for, run by himself. He's now 22 I think and he's now on an E60 M5 that's modified extensively ! I did say to him get a property instead about a year ago, but he had his mind set on the E60 and now he's had it a few months, done some modifications on it, I respect him for his focus and dedication, it's one of the UK's best known E60 M5's too! He's now agreed to go for a property next - and again, in the south east of the UK, it's beyond insanely expensive to buy even a studio apartment!

So I simply wanted to say, stay working hard, enjoy yourself every once in a while, set your goal and go for it, it can be done!

After all that - E39 Touring's FTW !!

Cheers, Dennis!

[justinca540i]

Yeah, it's much better when everything earned not given. Hate those high schoolers that are just given a car and not have to work at all.

[extra]

Yeah, it's much better when everything earned not given. Hate those high schoolers that are just given a car and not have to work at all.

I know of a kid with a white m4 and I believe a ninja 600. Some 600cc bike, not sure which.

[justinca540i]

I know of a kid with a white m4 and I believe a ninja 600. Some 600cc bike, not sure which.

Some senior had an M235i last year.
There's two styles of spoiled.
First is when they are given brand new cars worth at least 40-50K

Second is when the are given older cars(wether paid full or helped out) personally i think that's a better way to help them out.

[ColtonBH]

Some senior had an M235i last year.
There's two styles of spoiled.
First is when they are given brand new cars worth at least 40-50K

Second is when the are given older cars(wether paid full or helped out) personally i think that's a better way to help them out.

My buddy drives a 1968 Olds Cutlass to school almost every day (not in the winter, mind you), he's wanted one since he was 10 and he saved money to buy a beautiful one himself. He does all the work on it, has completely restored the engine, and paid for everything himself, so just like Dennis said, you can do anything that you set your mind to!