1988 535is Ohio. 5/4/23 zender skirts and hood insulation

[Panici]

Looks great already from just the garage pictures.
Can't wait to see some beauty shots!

[BDKawey]

well, car is officially "done". over the weekend I got the roof, sunroof, top half of a rear door, and both mirrors wrapped and then drove it for the first time in 7 months as well as the first drive on air home to Columbus 125 miles. car drove great on the way home and the catuned suspension was very comfortable even not having yet played with the dampening.

for dramatic effect here is the day I got it even before a wash and then the photo recreated 16 months later.

IMG_4979 by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

I'm actually really loving how this thing sits on the 235 tires. its meaty enough to look normal when aired up. no reason to have stretch stance tires when my fitment doesn't require it. so when the time comes these may get replaced with the same size.

Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

still a few things on the to do list however. tonight I'm rewrapping the main face of both mirrors. they shrunk a little/lifted during my initial drive home. after that I'll be giving it a jax wax ceramic coat, hopefully finding my fuse 5 drain, and then its going to a shop to have a rear wheel bearing done. I intended to do it myself at my friend's garage but now that it's home, there's a slim chance I'd have a good time doing it myself with my limited resources.

[BDKawey]

Last night a took like 45 minutes to rewrap the front section of the mirror, the wrap shrunk just a little on both mirrors causing a few wrinkles and exposed silver in the seam of the mirror. plan is to ceramic coat the car myself this weekend so I want to make sure I'm happy with everything.

I went for a different approach and wrapped across the seam so you wont see silver between them. I thought I'd share the process and show how the knifeless tape works.

Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

I peeled the vinyl off and cleaned the surface with isopropyl alcohol before laying down the knifeless tape, which is essentially tape perforated in the middle with a string under it. not a good idea to cut vinyl when you're overlapping 2 edges. one piece is going around the bottom and another across the top.
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

after you get the vinyl laid down and heated up so its good as stuck, once cool you can pull the string which cuts it, kinda tricky to get started but not too bad when you get the hang of it. once the string is out you can peel the side of the vinyl off that isnt on your part and then pull off the 2 sides of the knifeless tape.
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

after its cut you can stick the edge down and in this case I pushed it into the seam a little more with my finger nail.
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

[BDKawey]

some work to share from over the weekend, polished the wheels up for the first time and installed the '535is' badge then saturday ceramic coated the car with jax wax shield pro 9h. went well and took about 3 hours start to finish. afterwards I finally installed a functioning antenna (unphotographed).
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

and then fathers day the girlfriend and I drove to a very local brewery for a car show and so she drove the daily civic with the dog in it. later I returned to the show with tetanus just for the entertainment (also unphotographed)
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

[BDKawey]

over the weekend my aftermarket cat failed internally causing some lovely noise. I'm not required to do emissions so this weekend it'll get "dealt with"

here's a picture since this is the eye candy section.
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

[BDKawey]

Did kind of a dirty fix for my over centering trunk torsion bars. if you open the trunk all the way it would over center the mechanism on the passenger side and you would have to fight it to flip over by basically shutting the trunk by using only that side.

I dont know how this bracket gets bend like that, maybe an accident with the trunk open, or maybe has something to do with the damage that was done to the antenna and the body where the antenna attaches.

you can see up top its not how it should be where it connects to the top of the trunk, these photos are after I smacked it with a hammer a few times and with the trunk not fully open.
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

found some strips of furniture/floor protection felt pads that would the perfect width to buffer the hinge so it doesnt open so much. it took a few more than I thought it would (5) because they squish so much. downside is now the other drivers side doesnt even touch the stop, I may go back and add some just so it can seat. but the trunk opens and closes MUCH nicer now.
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

[tschultz]

Was there much body work required before the wrap?

[BDKawey]

Was there much body work required before the wrap?

we did a fair amount, could have done more and spent more time finding the little tiny dents and better sanding chips/scratches. vinyl shows a lot of defects if you look close enough.

at the end of the day its better than it was and I'll do better if it comes time to respray it salmon silver.

[BDKawey]

yesterday I did a quick and dirty string alignment and while on the test drive I deduced that my steering box mount may be broken. came home and with the ol' lady's help it was confirmed.

Currently waiting to hear back from Ed about a dowel fix. more than likely ill play with the alignment again after I fix it but it was surprisingly easy to reach my tie rods with it on the ground.

[BDKawey]

not done with reassembly but over the past few days I pulled my seats and center console out to scrub the carpets. ordered the $100 spot and stain removing hoover "extractor" from amazon along with some drill brush attachments. while not professional equipment we'll do the DIY best we can. I opted for this instead of pulling and shampooing the carpet because Its late model carpet with insulation on the bottom, and I rent so I dont have a hose hookup to run water and scrub carpet all day.

for dramatic effect ill just put the before and after shots next to each other. lot of staining under the seats and on the driveshaft tunnel when you looked between the seats. drove me nuts.

started with this:
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

this was after cleaning just the drivers side
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

you can see the "50/50" shot of where the center console lived.
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

[tig]

Not my cup of cognac, but good on you for having a vision and executing it. Well done!

[BDKawey]

Not my cup of cognac, but good on you for having a vision and executing it. Well done!

thank you! goal is to be all reversible and keep it nice. which is why I went straight to air to preserve fenders and the pan.

[BDKawey]

photos from cars and coffee this past weekend (photos not by me). this ride height is a little lower than what I drive at. call it the parking lot/rolling low preset.
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
aired out
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
need to polish the bumpers, cloudiness is the worst part of the exterior other than chipping shadowline around the windshield
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

[BDKawey]

yesterday treated her with an oil change, fresh fuel filter and rear sway bar links. threw the roof rack on for a show next weekend and took some family photos. I got a 3D printed front plate filler from https://racegerman.com/collections/e28- ... ate-filler. it looks good, a perfectionist might want to sand it because it looks like a 3d printed part. you can see it in the photos but if anyone's interested I'll get a better photo. ive seen other places offer this piece but race german might be the only ones still offering with the "BMW" text. maybe only a matter of time before they're asked to cut it out.

Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

[Panici]

What are the limiting factors to getting the thing laid out on the ground?

I'm guessing your oil pan/subframe is touching in the front, but looks like the rear is pretty high?

Is it just not possible with the E28 suspension design?

[BDKawey]

What are the limiting factors to getting the thing laid out on the ground?

I'm guessing your oil pan/subframe is touching in the front, but looks like the rear is pretty high?

Is it just not possible with the E28 suspension design?

on this particular setup its limited by the wheel offset and tire size. so it bottoms out on the tire.

the rusty car used to be bagged on 16s and it would sit on the control arms. so ultimately I imagine that would be as low as any unmodified car could go in the front. rears can go pretty low and im not sure what would stop it, again in my car is airs out on to the tire. my rear arches are rolled but maybe could get rolled just a little more, they're thick panels

[Panici]

on this particular setup its limited by the wheel offset and tire size. so it bottoms out on the tire.

So you would need to tub the rear wheelwells on this setup to go lower?

the rusty car used to be bagged on 16s and it would sit on the control arms. so ultimately I imagine that would be as low as any unmodified car could go in the front.

I'm trying to picture this. It would be the inner mounting points for the control arms you are speaking about?
Would be looking at custom arms and/or moved pickup points in that case?

[BDKawey]

on this particular setup its limited by the wheel offset and tire size. so it bottoms out on the tire.

So you would need to tub the rear wheelwells on this setup to go lower?

the rusty car used to be bagged on 16s and it would sit on the control arms. so ultimately I imagine that would be as low as any unmodified car could go in the front.

I'm trying to picture this. It would be the inner mounting points for the control arms you are speaking about?
Would be looking at custom arms and/or moved pickup points in that case?

tubbing wouldnt solve the rear problem because thats more for inner side clearance while retaining the stock body lines. this bottoms out on the lip of the quarter panel so if I wanted to go lower I could roll/pull the quarters more, do smaller (stretched) tires, or should some higher offset wheels.

and yes the inner part of the control arm where it mounts to the subframe. rusty car was actually grinding the arms down because I used to be able to air it out while moving and touch them, in that case as they ground down that allowed it to go lower.

you could raise that mounting point on the arm in theory but that would just mess up geometry.

[Panici]

tubbing wouldnt solve the rear problem because thats more for inner side clearance while retaining the stock body lines. this bottoms out on the lip of the quarter panel so if I wanted to go lower I could roll/pull the quarters more, do smaller (stretched) tires, or should some higher offset wheels.

Got it, assuming more negative camber isn't easily achieved (or wouldn't help with the aggressive wheel setup).

and yes the inner part of the control arm where it mounts to the subframe. rusty car was actually grinding the arms down because I used to be able to air it out while moving and touch them, in that case as they ground down that allowed it to go lower.
you could raise that mounting point on the arm in theory but that would just mess up geometry.

Haha self-clearancing

I'm not well-versed in suspension, but if you moved both mounting points up (and kept arm length the same) that would retain stock geometry no?

[BDKawey]

tubbing wouldnt solve the rear problem because thats more for inner side clearance while retaining the stock body lines. this bottoms out on the lip of the quarter panel so if I wanted to go lower I could roll/pull the quarters more, do smaller (stretched) tires, or should some higher offset wheels.

Got it, assuming more negative camber isn't easily achieved (or wouldn't help with the aggressive wheel setup).

and yes the inner part of the control arm where it mounts to the subframe. rusty car was actually grinding the arms down because I used to be able to air it out while moving and touch them, in that case as they ground down that allowed it to go lower.
you could raise that mounting point on the arm in theory but that would just mess up geometry.

Haha self-clearancing

I'm not well-versed in suspension, but if you moved both mounting points up (and kept arm length the same) that would retain stock geometry no?

yeah you could go more negative camber, you'd need to weld in the eccentric tabs with bolts on the trailing arm mounts. I did that back in the day on tetanus.

and Im not well verse to know exactly what would happen, obviously things are already getting screwy when you're extremely lowing a car. you're essentially changing the one side mounting point when you lower it but modding the frame could do some more wild stuff.

this was tetanus at its lowest, small tires on 16" wheels, should be sitting on the control arms.
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

[Dimm6]

I noticed that when you first posted pictures of the car there was a weird bend in the front spoiler. After you wrapped it and did what you did with the car I see the bend is hardly there. I have the same problem with my spoiler and I’m wondering what you did to straighten it out. I assumed it had to do with the metal frame that supports the spoiler behind it. Maybe that’s bent? Any help as to what you did is appreciated. Your car came out perfect. Red is a killer color on e28 and e24.

[BDKawey]

I noticed that when you first posted pictures of the car there was a weird bend in the front spoiler. After you wrapped it and did what you did with the car I see the bend is hardly there. I have the same problem with my spoiler and I’m wondering what you did to straighten it out. I assumed it had to do with the metal frame that supports the spoiler behind it. Maybe that’s bent? Any help as to what you did is appreciated. Your car came out perfect. Red is a killer color on e28 and e24.

these air dams are so thick that we used a soldering gun to melt the cracks back together, front and back. and then finished it with some fiber glass as well as body filler. Extremely pleased with how it came out. maybe hard to tell in the one picture but it was pretty beat but still in one piece with nothing missing.
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

finished and ready for some primer
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

this is from page one when we fixed the airdam. the metal bracket to mount them supports it along where it touches the actual bumper and then just a few spots along it. unless its really mangled the spoilers can get weird and cut/twisted and the brackets still be fine.

[BDKawey]

picked up an mtech wheel that needs a few stitches pulled back together.
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

rolled 200k over the weekend
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

picked up a thule fairing for a 20 dollar bill
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

and got to park next to a buddy's zino m3 to finally see how the wrap color compares. just a touch brighter.
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

[BDKawey]

anyone here have a rear valance with US bumpers and trim? I picked up this original 3 piece zender rear valance from a friend locally and I'll either make it work or just sit on it for a bit. these were obviously intended to work simply with the euro bumper but I plan to see if I can get it looking half decent while:

a) not cutting up the actual spoiler its self, perhaps focusing on trimming the bumper trim since those are readily available.
b) not drilling any holes into the body, since if I went euro bumpers in the future chances are I'd tweak the mounting to get it perfect.

Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

scouring the internet as far as I can tell these want to sit parallel to the body line there where the US trim used to sit. which at that point it puts it so high that the bumper shocks would want to go straight through the valance.

Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

I found this picture on an old for sale ad here on mye28. seller stated it had been cut up to fit the US bumpers and as you can see it has all the US specific tabs and mounts. if I have to cut this one up that bad to be satisfied then I may as well spend ±300 bucks and get a fiberglass replica.
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

I found this photo of a bbs valance that if you notice the sides, they're either trimmed or made factory to sit around the black US side trim. which if I did chose that route, could be a solution but then it would never look good with euro bumpers.
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

I know this has been done but little to no info written out.

thoughts? concerns? hate mail?

thanks!

[BDKawey]

Pulled my bumpers off to remove the failed anodized finish and give them a sand and polish, was met with a little surprise. I dont remember it even remotely looking like this when I had the bumpers out for the wrap last winter. this was the drivers side and the passenger side had some but not nearly this bad.

solution was to clean it up the best I could with some long carbide burrs and POR15 everything in there. was not a fun or easy job but I'm pleased with the results. I did both the passenger and driver rear bumper mount. middle was as clean as could be.

Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

bumpers mid Strip, was not a fun job either. seemed like oven cleaner helped soften the anodizing and then I used an orbital sander. after that wet sanded to 3000 grit.

Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr

I also ceramic coated them with jax wax. hopefully I wont have to actually polish them much if at all. they're fully back together since taking this picture but I'll get some photos after I get them on.
Untitled by Aaron Wey, on Flickr