Butler's E34 M5 Restoration Thread

[Butler]

Finally got my hands on a set of euro projector fog lights but I didn't know ahead of time that they used different connector plugs. For anyone else looking to do this you'll need to snag a set of H1 plugs and wire them in place of your 9006/9005 plugs.

The H1 plugs and wires can be bought brand new for about $45 all in or from any local E34 parts car. You'll want to snag them from the front bumper trim trim lighting. Picture here.

Untitled by Nick Butler, on Flickr

Spliced them in, bolt up the new fogs and enjoy!

Wahoo! My lighting setup is finally coming together. Leaps and bounds ahead of where this car came from, which was moss filled broken fog lights and cracked, water filled US spec halogens. A set of HIDs are the last step to complete but not a priority at the moment.


Untitled by Nick Butler, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Butler, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Butler, on Flickr












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Oh and heres a teaser for you guys.
I know a few of you saw it on insta, so its only fair I post here for everyone else.

IMG_3295 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

happy-meme2.png

Im so happy! Definitely the coolest car stuff I've ever bought.
Shipping from Latvia to Portland is a decent distance so we have about another 7-12 days before its here.

[RVAE34]

Awesome! Let me know when you are ready to sell this car

[Eero]

If driver seat is little more worn than passenger side, you can switch them so you have perfect driver seat. Only swap levers others side and they fit.

[Butler]

Project Motorsport Interior is officially underway -

I love this car very much but its short coming, hands down, is the interior. Its absolutely trashed. The silver lining? It allowed me to justify buying something new, which is a direct translation for something special. :P

The interior I went for is a complete antracite leather with silver M cloth inserts. It is 1 of 500 interiors made for the E34 M5 for the european market!



Package 1 of 4 arrived today.
Door cards - Here is the before & after for you all, starting with the most god awful of the 4 original door cards. LOL



M Cloth door cards-3 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

M Cloth door cards-5 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


M Cloth door cards-4 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

M Cloth door cards-10 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

M Cloth door cards-11 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


M Cloth door cards-2 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

M Cloth door cards-6 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

M Cloth door cards-7 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

M Cloth door cards-8 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

M Cloth door cards-9 by Nick Butler, on Flickr




Drivers door is here too, just ran out of time and I'm still waiting on the rest of the shipments! Enjoy the pics. More to come soon.

[CarterH]

Very cool but I'm still going to miss that beautiful dove interior.

[Mendozart]

Those door cards look sweet!

[KSEADUB]

Gah! You're killin me!

Love it love it love it! Can't wait to see the seats.


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[Grim Reaper]

All I could think of was the song by Yello Oh Yeah as I was looking at the pics.

Well done!

[Butler]

Very cool but I'm still going to miss that beautiful dove interior.

I almost spit out my coffee! HAHAHAHAH You can't be referring to my interior.

[BleedsBlue]

Ohhhhh, you BASTARD. That new new looks quite sharp, and I'm trying to control myself. Are you doing the black console/dash/dark grey carpet, etc? Silver needs a black-biased interior like that IMHO, that's going to really solidify this "barn" save.

[Smith Jason]

That new interior is going to look so good. Not gonna lie I actually do not mind the M cloth. Curious to see what the finished product is going to be

[toomanyparts]

Nice car and thread. You got your hands full!

[sreten]

Accidentally stumbled on this thread as I mostly hang out in e39 section.

It was a joy to read it! I love refreshment threads like this, especially with many details and pictures!

Story and the car are great. Keep up the good work!

[Tristan36]

where did you find the trim panels?

[fo3]

Good question and also are these trim panel inserts usually cloth from the factory? I've got a blue interior (ultra-marine), which used to be cloth seats but the previous owner got rid of the blue cloth seats for parchment leather seats.
There's also these awful black pleather/vinyl black inserts where your new ones are and the black doesn't go well with the blue door cards or the parchment seats.

I wonder if the PO got that done because they wanted to get rid of all the cloth trim and went with a 'safe' black, or whether the inserts were pleather/vinyl and they changed them from blue to black for a different dumb reason.
Right now I'm considering changing them to blue, but not sure to go vinyl or cloth as I don't know what was OEM. Did most cars have cloth there regardless of the rest of the upholstery? More modern domestic cars usually do.

[Eero]

Good question and also are these trim panel inserts usually cloth from the factory?

If seats are cloth then door panel centers are also cloth.

[Butler]

Ohhhhh, you BASTARD. That new new looks quite sharp, and I'm trying to control myself. Are you doing the black console/dash/dark grey carpet, etc? Silver needs a black-biased interior like that IMHO, that's going to really solidify this "barn" save.

:P

Accidentally stumbled on this thread as I mostly hang out in e39 section.

It was a joy to read it! I love refreshment threads like this, especially with many details and pictures!

Story and the car are great. Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the read!



Hi guys!

I was gone on a cabin trip with my wife for the last week. Deep Northern California in the Trinity Alps hours from reception! We had a great time beating up my Landcruiser on some trails, river time and lots of time unwinding. Honestly, I was eager to get home knowing the project I have waiting for me.


Offroad_Trinty-28 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

Offroad_Trinty-29 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

Offroad_Trinty-7 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

Offroad_Trinty-21 by Nick Butler, on Flickr




The rest of the shipments arrived the day before we left. So, I have my work cut out for me. Heres a sneak.

M5 Interior Shipment by Nick Butler, on Flickr

[Kingpin025]

If you thing you love the car now just wait until those parts are in. I bet you will feel like you're cheating on the old interior for a while until you get used to the change.

[tmswell]

Amazing changes! Keep it up!

[Butler]

Motorsport Interior continues! Day 2, Seats


Pulled the rear seats


M Cloth Seats-1 by Nick Butler, on Flickr



Started the cleaning process for the rear seats.

M Cloth Seats-2 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


Just doing a basic scrub down for all the leather portions and a damp rag on the cloth. MADE A HUGE difference

M Cloth Seats-3 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

All the leather should be matte finish, like this, once its cleaned properly.

M Cloth Seats-4 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


Rag on the right was brand new moments before this.

M Cloth Seats-8 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


50/50 shot of the rear head rests. The left side is clean.

M Cloth Seats-5 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

M Cloth Seats-7 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


More on this later

M Cloth Seats-6 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


M Cloth Seats-9 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


Moving on to the fronts!

M Cloth Seats-10 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


M Cloth Seats-11 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


Yep, more scrubbing. So worth it.

M Cloth Seats-12 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

My drivers seat ready for install.

M Cloth Seats-13 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

M Cloth Seats-14 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

M Cloth Seats-15 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


Part of the passenger side seat motor isn't working very well and provided to a big pain in the ass getting it removed. Ugh. Also, why are my floor mats so discolored? lol

M Cloth Seats-16 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


Caution, hard hat zone.

M Cloth Seats-17 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


Passenger seat ready for install.

M Cloth Seats-18 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


And then there were two.

M Cloth Seats-19 by Nick Butler, on Flickr



This was an all day project and I'm beat. The new seats are no joke probably 50% the weight of the electrics they replaced.

As always- I'm not done yet. More coming in the next couple days.

[BleedsBlue]

Good work, my dude. The condition is really great on the new seats and panels!

I maintain that you would work better and longer imbibing better beer, but beer is beer

[Smith Jason]

Looking really good. I feel like the console etc are coming based off the pictures.

And having a Stella Artois ? Good choice. Makes me want a beer and I rarely drink like maybe 2-3 times a year.

[CblockM3]

This is turning into an amazing build man! This thread delivers

[Eero]

Quite nice. Driver seat cloth looks quite dirty, buy/rent proper machine and wash it. So you did not replace driver/passenger seats?

[CarterH]

Those seats look amazing! What did you use to scrub them?