E12 M535i Project - 08-21-19 Update

white chocolate · Post by **white chocolate** » Jan 04, 2017 5:26 PM

The entire car looks great, but man, those stripes!

Adam W in MN · Post by **Adam W in MN** » Jan 04, 2017 5:36 PM

Stunning quality and attention to detail, and it's sad to think this thread might be running out of updates! The story can't end!

Corner Carver · Post by **Corner Carver** » Jan 04, 2017 9:36 PM

That's sooo sexy.

Truly awesome Chris.

Karl Grau · Post by **Karl Grau** » Jan 04, 2017 10:00 PM

Awesome progress!
The stripes look great and I can't express how impressed I am that you did it yourself. I've had e30 Hartge stripes sitting around for years because I don't have the balls to even think about trying to apply them without professional help (and i'm talking shrink and pro vinyl guy) .

cek wrote:Dayum.

I sure hope you bring this to St. Paddy's day. I want to fondle it.

Me too. I would even move everything out of my garage so it could park undercover.

waxonwaxoff · Post by **waxonwaxoff** » Jan 05, 2017 12:13 AM

Looks great, Chris! Your garriage is something else!!

Collin380 · Post by **Collin380** » Jan 05, 2017 12:36 AM

Just stunning...Great job!

wkohler · Post by **wkohler** » Jan 05, 2017 1:56 AM

Thanks! I took some photos of it outside today. Just in the driveway, but it was kinda tough getting work done since for some reason, all I wanted to do was look at the car.

The trunk spoiler isn't finished yet. Still a stripe, roundel and badging that need to go onto it, even though it's technically acceptable as is.

leadphut · Post by **leadphut** » Jan 05, 2017 8:15 AM

Pure wow.

Wow.

Wow.

I could never drive it.

hugh1850 · Post by **hugh1850** » Jan 05, 2017 10:34 AM

leadphut wrote:Pure wow.

Wow.

Wow.

I could never drive it.

This. Except the last part. Exceptional!

Post by **tig** » Jan 05, 2017 10:58 AM

hugh1850 wrote:
leadphut wrote:Pure wow.

Wow.

Wow.

I could never drive it.
This. Except the last part. Exceptional!

This is the second thing I like about Kohler: He drives his cars.

leadphut · Post by **leadphut** » Jan 05, 2017 1:10 PM

cek wrote:
hugh1850 wrote:
leadphut wrote:Pure wow.

Wow.

Wow.

I could never drive it.
This. Except the last part. Exceptional!
This is the second thing I like about Kohler: He drives his cars.

checking back in. still wow!

luckily the amount of win in the thread will overlook cek's sexual innuendos.

delvin · Post by **delvin** » Jan 05, 2017 6:24 PM

DAAAAANG

Outstanding work! Congratulations sir

GBel · Post by **GBel** » Jan 05, 2017 8:00 PM

Chris, That is beautiful. It would be so great if it was sitting rt next to Eddies at Tedfest this summer.

Gary

offroadkarter · Post by **offroadkarter** » Jan 06, 2017 6:30 PM

Its just dawned on me that you probably have one of the most impressive and expensive collections of vintage BMW's on this forum. This and the B7 just put it over the top.

How many of these e12 M535i's are known to be in the US? Like 30?

ElGuappo · Post by **ElGuappo** » Jan 06, 2017 7:15 PM

Do like, would fondle

1st 5er · Post by **1st 5er** » Jan 06, 2017 7:45 PM

ElGuappo wrote:Do like, would fondle

2nds.

bkbimmer · Post by **bkbimmer** » Jan 07, 2017 3:10 AM

I hope it does brodies.

Tammer in Philly · Post by **Tammer in Philly** » Jan 10, 2017 1:01 PM

The before/after pic series is just amazing.

Really nicely done. Be proud of that.

davintosh · Post by **davintosh** » Jan 10, 2017 4:49 PM

Tammer in Philly wrote:The before/after pic series is just amazing.

Exactly. The car couldn't be in better hands. Well done, sir.

I can see how it's hard to get work done with that around; I'd want to look at it all day too.

wkohler · Post by **wkohler** » Jan 14, 2017 2:24 AM

Thanks guys. It's been a lot of work and it hasn't always been fun.

Haven't done a lot of big stuff over the last few days, but we are getting kinda down to the piddly crap now.

I figured out the 2500 rpm hesitation issue. I bought a new old stock AFM from a guy in Germany and hopefully I'll receive it sometime in 2017. Everything was pointing to the AFM being the issue. Given tracking status hasn't changed in over ten days (WTF), I decided to look at other things. I swapped Ignition modules, ECUs, did a bunch of other checks on stuff and finally said, "I need to adjust the TPS again." I put the meter on it and I had "001" with the throttle closed. I couldn't rotate the switch anymore, so I was thinking it was bad. I decided to move it the other direction. The number shot way up, then gradually came down and then I got "000." Runs really smoothly now. It was off quite a bit. I guess when the motor was hitting about 2500 rpm, the TPS was saying idle. So, as long as the AFM shows up sometime, I can relax a bit.

Next, I had to do the sun visors. I had a brand new pair I had gotten a few years ago. I went to put them in and discovered that the brand new pair weren't for an E12, rather an E21, so they were useless to me. I went through the stack of visors and found the originals from this car. Of the E12 visors I had, they were actually the best ones.

After lots and lots of cleaning, a huge improvement for sure, but next to the new headliner, a bit of a let down.

I had never mounted the trunk spoiler. Reason being that there were two holes that needed to be made on the underside of the trunklid so I could put nuts on the outermost spoiler studs. The original had them but in all the commotion, Mike lost track and I wasn't thinking about them either. I was going to wait and let Mike make the holes, but I got tired of nothing getting done, so I sprung into action. The current owner of my old white M535i was nice enough to take some measurements of the holes in his trunk lid and I figured out the diameter of the hole and started shopping for a hole saw or something to make it. I soon discovered that the big drawback to hole saws is the bit that drills the pilot hole. There isn't enough of a distance between the bottom layer of metal and the top of the trunk lid. After conferring with a friend, he suggested I use a cutter with a spring loaded locating pin and said to look at the Rotabroach. So, I bought a set from Amazon and the largest size in the smaller set was sufficient.

I bought the stick lube as well. I used a small drill bit and drilled a pilot hole through the hole for the stud in the top of the trunk though the bottom layer. That was perfect for setting the locating pin.

Then I chucked up the ol' Rotabroach and voila!

Super clean hole. Very impressed. Made quick work of it too. I touched-up the bare metal with some primer and then later some polaris and good to go.

I mounted up the spoiler. So interesting.

Once the spoiler was on the car, I affixed the stripe, the roundel and the model badging.

I hadn't yet mounted the lower left dash panel. Reason being that I didn't have a reverse light harness. I have no idea what happened to the one that was on the car. I decided to pull the one out of the 6er in the backyard and use that as a guide to make one. Turned out it only had half of one. Fortunately, it had the grommet and the part that connected inside the car. I had an E28 one, so I combined the two to make a good one and then spent an hour feeding it into some heat-shrink tubing. Hooked it up and everything worked. Awesome. With that done, I attached the fader, switch for the power antenna and the power window circuit breakers and then the panel to the car. I can't find my new pedal pads, but they're cheap enough and easily available that I can just pick up a new pair.

I while I had the front of the car in the air, I put the lock wire on the front strut to knuckle bolts and called it a day.

Just a couple of piddly things left. I should be able to drive the car now, but it's still insured for like $6500, so I need to figure all of that out before it leaves the garage again.

5280 JB · Post by **5280 JB** » Jan 14, 2017 3:32 PM

The few times I've needed to drill holes into a trunk lid or other body sheet metal, the "pucker factor" is pretty high when the drill actually starts cutting into metal. I always fear some huge screw up, even though you measure two, three, eleventy times first. Congrats on getting that spoiler mounted perfectly the first time!

Just an awesome, super impressive result on this car Chris!

Jim

bkbimmer · Post by **bkbimmer** » Jan 14, 2017 3:45 PM

I love the Arizona historic plates.

maybeillbuyit · Post by **maybeillbuyit** » Feb 05, 2017 11:55 AM

Beautiful, love the spoiler. Does the exhaust get chrome tips or stays as is? You're going to be bored, whats the next project?

fastcrs · Post by **fastcrs** » Feb 05, 2017 1:57 PM

Car is a stunner...The wheels look great on it.

wkohler · Post by **wkohler** » Feb 06, 2017 11:59 PM

Thanks!

I thought the wheels would look good as well. I had never put the RAs on the car before and I had them refinished a few years back. Lately, I was thinking more and more about putting the original 14" BBS-Mahle wheels on and I might still get them refinished and do something with them. For now, they're holding up the E28 parts car.

The exhaust is supposed to get chrome tips. I found a pair and paid about $200 for them only to receive the wrong 42mm ones for a 533i that are about $20 ea. Sadly, I only got a portion of my money back on them and I think the language barrier is a big part of that.

I don't think I'm going to be bored since I still have to get this thing broken in (about 95 miles on it now - it's ok). I've got plenty of projects and there's still some tweaking and some other stuff that will have to be re-visited on this car. At this point though, I feel pretty burned out. It felt good to get rid of that 635CSi though. Now I just need to get rid of the parts.

Here's a photo of the car somewhere other than in my driveway.

Chimi-Changa · Post by **Chimi-Changa** » Feb 07, 2017 10:36 PM

LOOOK-ING GOOD!

bkbimmer wrote:I love the Arizona historic plates.

Right? They look antique-ish. Perfect on these cars.

Adam W in MN · Post by **Adam W in MN** » Feb 08, 2017 8:47 AM

What's the reaction driving on the street? It has to get some stares especially with the stripes!

Is the suspension settling a bit and are you happy with the wheels and ride height?

white chocolate · Post by **white chocolate** » Feb 08, 2017 1:44 PM

Looks great!

duggi · Post by **duggi** » Feb 08, 2017 5:15 PM

Can you restore my NK please?

All kidding aside, you've done an amazing job with that car. I'm very impressed by the level of detail and polish.

dukmon · Post by **dukmon** » Feb 08, 2017 6:16 PM

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice

wkohler · Post by **wkohler** » Feb 08, 2017 10:32 PM

Thanks!

Interestingly, this car doesn't really seem to get noticed on the street. I haven't really seen anyone looking at it.

The suspension feels pretty good. I am actually satisfied with where it's sitting. I think the 16" wheels accentuate whatever gap there is up front, but it feels pretty planted, so I'm happy with that.

Post by **tig** » Feb 09, 2017 4:27 AM

wkohler wrote:Thanks!

Interestingly, this car doesn't really seem to get noticed on the street. I haven't really seen anyone looking at it.

The suspension feels pretty good. I am actually satisfied with where it's sitting. I think the 16" wheels accentuate whatever gap there is up front, but it feels pretty planted, so I'm happy with that.

From the recent pictures you've posted it looks tits to my eyes. Stance just seems perfect for the era.

duggi · Post by **duggi** » Feb 09, 2017 11:07 AM

cek wrote:
wkohler wrote:Thanks!

Interestingly, this car doesn't really seem to get noticed on the street. I haven't really seen anyone looking at it.

The suspension feels pretty good. I am actually satisfied with where it's sitting. I think the 16" wheels accentuate whatever gap there is up front, but it feels pretty planted, so I'm happy with that.
From the recent pictures you've posted it looks tits to my eyes. Stance just seems perfect for the era.

Agreed. Personally I've always been more than fine with the stock ride-height on most BMWs. Looks fantastic, glad you went for the stripes...I think most people wouldn't have.

maybeillbuyit · Post by **maybeillbuyit** » Feb 11, 2017 10:52 AM

I thought the wheels would look good as well. I had never put the RAs on the car before and I had them refinished a few years back. Lately, I was thinking more and more about putting the original 14" BBS-Mahle wheels on and I might still get them refinished and do something with them. For now, they're holding up the E28 parts car.

Those RAs look awesome and I know 16s are the wheel for these cars, but I would love to see the stock 14x7s on this car. Its just another original detail. I know the tires suck.

wkohler wrote: The exhaust is supposed to get chrome tips. I found a pair and paid about $200 for them only to receive the wrong 42mm ones for a 533i that are about $20 ea. Sadly, I only got a portion of my money back on them and I think the language barrier is a big part of that.

I just had the exact same thing happen but didn't realize till you posted this. I found a NOS set on ebay for $14 to replace the beat ones on the 79 635.They go well with the car as the whole thing is beat. They just came in the mail.After reading your post I went and checked and they are 42mm and I need the 46 or 48. Into the hoard they go.

GaAlpinaOwner · Post by **GaAlpinaOwner** » Feb 12, 2017 2:47 PM

Chris the E12 looks awesome...really has come far! Congrats

David Frankel

grbbenny · Post by **grbbenny** » Feb 14, 2017 6:08 PM

Just went through this thread after not having been around the site much since I sold off my BMW fleet. I thought my M535i looked pretty good but this car is so many levels above that car it is ridiculous. My god that is nice.

Congratulations Chris - magnificent!

Graham

q20v · Post by **q20v** » Feb 20, 2017 6:36 PM

Very very nice build. I love the attention to detail. Have fun putting some miles on her!

Barry

DXXXIIIi · Post by **DXXXIIIi** » Feb 24, 2017 4:47 AM

Such an amazing journey.
I'm sure you might have seen this already, but I wanted to share what I stumbled onto on Petrolicious. I hope I get the link inserted correctly.

http://petrolicious.com/the-bmw-e12-m53 ... 459add8124
Mr Kohler, please submit your story!

Adam W in MN · Post by **Adam W in MN** » Feb 24, 2017 10:12 AM

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=142952

wkohler · Post by **wkohler** » Feb 24, 2017 11:08 AM

I highly doubt they'd have any interest in my car after running this story. That will be all their E12 content for the next 10 years.