E12 M535i Project - 08-21-19 Update

Post by **tig** » Nov 16, 2016 9:28 AM

Glad it's come back together, Chris! Congrats.

hugh1850 · Post by **hugh1850** » Nov 16, 2016 10:45 AM

CSBM5 · Post by **CSBM5** » Nov 16, 2016 10:55 AM

Sweet!! Wow, absolutely amazing.

duggi · Post by **duggi** » Nov 16, 2016 3:15 PM

This is one of the few build-threads I've really kept-up on -- didn't expect to feel so happy for you when I saw the video of it running. Congrats Chris!

Adam W in MN · Post by **Adam W in MN** » Nov 16, 2016 4:15 PM

Thanks for the text last night, I'm excited that you're moving right along here!

tschultz · Post by **tschultz** » Nov 16, 2016 7:20 PM

Great, you will really enjoy all of the hard work that has gone into this one!

Plus as you know, there is so much more satisfaction in the end result when you have been able to overcome the trials and tribulations of the build!

Once you get it back together and worn in, I am interested to hear your thoughts on the M90/dogleg combination as compared to the euro b34/dogleg. I am pretty sure there is a difference in the low end torque but I am certainly curious.

Adam W in MN · Post by **Adam W in MN** » Nov 17, 2016 10:23 AM

So what's next on your to-do list?

strupgolf · Post by **strupgolf** » Nov 17, 2016 5:24 PM

After reading all you went through, its nice to see it's getting better. Good luck from here on.

wkohler · Post by **wkohler** » Nov 20, 2016 11:53 PM

Thanks.

Wednesday, the exhaust went on and the final torque sequence for the head was performed. Came back to me on a tow truck on Thursday. I haven't done much to it other than wipe it down since it did sit in the shop for three months. Amazingly it seems to be in pretty good shape after that.

Anyway, since I had to unfortunately remove the airdam to have the car towed (I didn't have another eyebolt yet for the factory tow hook - my original was severely bent and while it's been straightened, I would never trust it for actual use), I had to reinstall it. I was particularly upset by this because I installed it before putting the radiator in to make it easy. It is a pain to install otherwise. In fact, it took me a little over 2 hours to get all of the fasteners in place. Access is abysmal with the oil cooler installed. I decided to install it since I was sick of looking at it in the living room and it belongs on the car anyway.

I also put the new wheels on. I'd rather have them on the car than in a stack in the garage. Since all of this was done at night, I didn't take any photos. It rained much of today, so I didn't do any other work on the car, but during a break from the rain, I did roll it out and took a couple of photos showing how it sits now. We haven't seen much of the exterior of the car lately, so now is as good a time as any.

It's sitting pretty high right now. I hope the interior and front and rear glass weighs more than I'm envisioning. Everything else is in the car.

I've also been working with my upholsterer doing some tweaking here and there. It's been a difficult process, but we are making progress.

austin8753 · Post by **austin8753** » Nov 21, 2016 1:15 AM

Looks fantastic, Chris. Thanks for sharing.

bkbimmer · Post by **bkbimmer** » Nov 21, 2016 3:03 AM

I want to crush my e12 when I see yours, looks amazing, Chris.

tschultz · Post by **tschultz** » Nov 21, 2016 10:43 AM

I had never seen BBS RA's with a machined lip and clear coat. I saw those in your garage and meant to ask-- is that really how they came from the factory? Man so much better looking than I ever would have guessed!

It's coming along, and the finished product should make you excited to think about. Just another hurdle to overcome to get to the finish line.

muleskinner · Post by **muleskinner** » Nov 21, 2016 10:56 AM

Those wheels look great

Adam W in MN · Post by **Adam W in MN** » Nov 21, 2016 12:25 PM

I like the wheel choice. Are those the same springs (stock I assume) that Clayton had on there?

white chocolate · Post by **white chocolate** » Nov 21, 2016 12:37 PM

Oh my, that looks so good! Excellent work.

bkbimmer · Post by **bkbimmer** » Nov 22, 2016 6:21 AM

I'm really digging the off road stance, needs to be in timed rally stages!

maybeillbuyit · Post by **maybeillbuyit** » Nov 22, 2016 12:32 PM

Awesome , glad to see the engine running. Nice perseverance!

L_N_Love · Post by **L_N_Love** » Nov 22, 2016 11:11 PM

^^^ very nice. Thanks for sharing.

wkohler · Post by **wkohler** » Dec 13, 2016 5:19 AM

Thanks for the replies and kind words!

tschultz wrote:I had never seen BBS RA's with a machined lip and clear coat. I saw those in your garage and meant to ask-- is that really how they came from the factory? Man so much better looking than I ever would have guessed!

They actually did. Some were all silver, gold with silver lips and some had the machined lips. I had 10 wheels refinished a few years ago and sold a set of four. I have a matching spare in the trunk and a spare 8" wheel in one of the bedrooms.

Adam W in MN wrote:I like the wheel choice. Are those the same springs (stock I assume) that Clayton had on there?

The springs are original, but every piece of rubber is new. Original M535i Bilsteins (well 3 - Clayton did the absolute bare minimum anything) came out of the car. Comparing the original shock mounts, I'm expecting there to be a difference in height and I did move the rear up a tiny bit over where the original perch was since the replacement Bilsteins have three perches versus the original one.

I posted those photos up on the E12 Facebook page and mostly got a bunch of comments suggesting there's something wrong with my car with an attached photo of what their car looks like. Fortunately, some of our astute members here understood that the car had a lot of parts missing, which seemed to be lost on others.

So, the last couple of days I was thinking, "oh, I should probably update the thread, but with what?" Then I downloaded photos from my phone a little bit ago and realized I had a few. Hokay then. What the hell.

Obviously, the car has been without a dashboard since 11-18-10. You know how I know that? I made a thread where information like that is stored until I need it. I realized that I needed it when I figured it had been about 6 years. Sure enough. So I sent my turd dashboard off to Just Dashes back in April. It was returned in July. I didn't bother doing anything with it until I had the car running. Anyway, it's been sitting there in my living room with the rest of the interior for the last few months, so time to do something with it. I've got a running car now. So, I shipped them a totally stripped dash since they didn't want any of the vents, which I found odd, but whatever. I started looking at the vents I pulled out of the dash and they were pretty hammered by UV, particularly the defrost vents. Fortunately, I had a couple more dashes here which had good usable parts, so I did a lot of cleaning. I didn't take any photos (we are off to a good start). I got all of those parts installed on the bottom of the dash. Great.

Then I decided to turn my attention to the center console. This car had an aftermarket AC system fitted in Europe which was in really sad shape by the time I got it. Fortunately, I was able to procure a center console from a car without AC - and a really nice one at that. I had bought two other consoles (not in great shape but complete - anyone want to buy one?) which had the wooden base for the storage partition. This is key. No point in having the non-AC console in an M535i without this guy. I had both refinished (someone want the second one?). I put all of the rubber bits back on one and mocked it up along with my sweet Becker Bavaria radio procured from a close friend.

Wow. This is so exciting.

So, with that set, I decided that Thanksgiving was going to be the day of the dash installation. We don't eat until really late and this year, the Turkey didn't thaw out, so we did it another day. Yay. More Thursday for me. I started out by cleaning all of the dust and crap off of all of the wiring and then finalizing wiring routing and trimming all of my zip ties. Then replacing all of my zip ties because the tongues broke once I started tightening. With that set, I replaced all of the foam insulation around the outlets. Then, I turned my effort to getting the accordion pieces cleaned up and installed. Once I had all of the ducting crap installed on the heater, I put the dash in the car.

It went pretty smoothly. Fit pretty well and I amazingly knew exactly what needed to be done despite it being 6 years since I took it out. Great. So then it was time to get the HVAC panel installed. I pre-fit everything in the dash with it off the car so I could see how things go. Amazingly, I didn't have any trouble, but it was good I did so I could reveal the holes which were obscured by the new vinyl. Here's a shot with the HVAC panel in, also showing the dash from the business end.

You might notice the wiring laying on the carpet under the HVAC panel. That's for the radio, lighter and the defroster, all parts that go in the center console. Once I had all of that and the cable for the power antenna ready to go, I began the fun and exciting journey of trying to make a part that has never been in this car fit with brand new carpet, brand new carpet padding and a rebuilt dashboard. After much consternation, I finally got a satisfactory result.

I decided that for the first time, I needed to install that brand new - never used steering wheel I picked up a couple years back.

So with that, I called it a night.

Friday, I decided to make some progress on getting the rest of the dash ready to go together. I figure something that I should have been working on while the car was away was to re-flock the glovebox. I gave up on trying to find a nice one (I've got three more but they all have some defect inside). So, I spent about four hours or so removing the original flocking.

Once I got a satisfactory result, I then spent about an hour looking for the box that had the kit in it. Then I flocked the glovebox.

This sucked. You might notice that every surface that isn't the padded vinyl front section has flocking on it. Trying to get even coverage with the adhesive on all of these areas and then get the fibers to do their thing is a nightmare. Once it's done, it takes about 10-12 hours for the adhesive to cure. Unfortunately, leaving it in the garage made the whole house smell like solvents, so that was great. It turned out nicely though.

Someone in Australia started reproducing the E12 M535i trunk spoiler and people were asking questions about how it fit his car and saying it didn't look like original, so I decided to throw mine on and take a couple photos to show how the real one fits for comparison. Also, it gave me a bit of inspiration.

While I was cleaning up all of the defrost vents, I also took all of the fresh air vents completely apart and had them soaking in a cleaning solution. Unfortunately, none of them were in spectacular shape, so it was necessary to completely refinish them, which I did.

I had some excellent condition screws to install them with and to my surprise, they all fit relatively well.

I made sure I had everything finished up in all four doors and made my vapor barrier. I used Con-Tact clear. Bought two rolls, but one is more than enough. It's only 18" wide, but that allows you to make it more like the original since there is a small strip at the top and a larger piece that covers the rest of the door. I was on a roll and frankly didn't want to waste time with photos. I like the clear because it's more like stock than the white I used on the B7 Turbo. Admittedly, the white sticks better but this stuff should do the job just fine.

With those installed, I decided to next install the seat belts I picked up. I got the fronts in place and the recovered b-pillar covers installed. Came out satisfactorily. I can complain until the cows come home but it is what it is, and I don't own any cows.

With those finished and my vapor barrier installed, it was time to start doing the door cards. I pulled a gorgeous set of cards from a '78 in September 2010. Fortunately, it had power windows and just had a super interior. I'd have taken more of it but pre-9/79 cars were actually quite different inside if only subtly. I installed my refinished wood and glued the strips of headlining the factory used to protect the clips on the wood.

On to the other side.

Neat.

The upholsterer didn't really pay attention to what I gave him and did his own thing with the rear seat where it goes over the top of the parcel shelf. I can kinda understand that given that he didn't see any of this installed, but he's been such a pain in the ass suggesting that I have too high of a standard and am too focused on one or two things that I decided to tackle the issue myself. Once I got into it, I realized it was a bit bigger than I was comfortable handling, simply from a position of how to manage the material as I move it around. He told me he didn't have any time to work on it as he was super busy. I asked if I could bring it by and just get his opinion and get some guidance and he said that was fine. When I showed up, he was watching some TMZ segment. Okay. Anyway, he looked at what I had and the E28 backseat I brought for comparison. He understood what I wanted but did the opposite, but after watching him, I was able to fix it myself at home. It came out okay. At least that rear shelf looks good.

With the rear seat in, I turned my attention to the fronts. I had my manual bases ready and my Recaro adapters, so I bolted everything together and got them installed.

I had been having trouble finding a speaker that worked with the stock grilles AND fit in the meager space allotted for the magnet. Fortunately, Kyle found some super high quality Kicker-brand speakers which actually had a tweeter which didn't protrude 1/2 past the mounting frame. Of course, the magnet was too big, but with the other issue not being an issue, I could use my factory spacers.

I decided to spend some time on the trunk. We were able to salvage the original trunklid foam, so I affixed it to the new one. I also installed the trim panels. I was going to recover the original set since the "elephant skin" is still available, but there is a bracket riveted to each one and I'd never be able to replicate it exactly so I decided to clean up this pair I got from the same '78 I got the door cards from and WOW are they nice. I also installed the tool kit that I bought off the Inland Empire Craigslist in 2009 for $75. I didn't add one single thing to it.

I rolled it out again for a photo hoping that maybe there would be some downward progress.

It took a while, but I was finally able to get Leroy up here to work on my glass. While I was waiting, I decided to make the car a little more complete-looking and it had been a while since I put the grilles in. The roundel is just sitting there and came off right after the photo.

He showed up and we started on the rear. Ended up roping it in with no trim. It doesn't fit right. Glass to seal location seems way off from original and I don't see any way the trim is going to go in. We spent about 2 hours on it. I even had to remove the rear seat and the parcel shelf.

Front window was in place with the sticks in about 20 min. Most of that was getting the bottom seal on the pinch weld. I had to unbolt the dashboard but that didn't help much. No way I could have gotten this dash in the car with the window in though. Unfortunately, we didn't finish. He had a customer with an issue with his Ariel Atom and he wanted to let the glass sit in the seals for a few days before doing any of the trim installation anyway.

So, here's how we left it on Friday. Hopefully sometime this week, I can get him back up here. He doesn't do mobile glass but made an exception.

More to come. Soon, hopefully!

Post by **Justin_FL** » Dec 13, 2016 8:09 AM

I've never been as keen on the looks of the E12 as compared to the E28, but this thing looks marvelous. Really love the edge of the hood where it rolls over to the vertical. Much cleaner than the E28 with the gap between the hood and fender.

Wish I had the passion and motivation to restore my M5 to the same level of detail!

Adam W in MN · Post by **Adam W in MN** » Dec 13, 2016 9:47 AM

Wow, you're getting soooo close!

Pavel · Post by **Pavel** » Dec 13, 2016 11:07 AM

Great work, Chris. I hope to be able to pull off something remotely close to this kind of work!

leadphut · Post by **leadphut** » Dec 13, 2016 12:37 PM

she's a beauty! love that interior, the color scheme, the wheels, etc. really impressive, Chris. nice job on the glovebox, too.

bkbimmer · Post by **bkbimmer** » Dec 13, 2016 12:51 PM

Everything looks fantastic, Chris.

Post by **tig** » Dec 13, 2016 1:04 PM

wkohler wrote:Neat.

+1

1st 5er · Post by **1st 5er** » Dec 13, 2016 5:45 PM

Here's another well deserved

hugh1850 · Post by **hugh1850** » Dec 13, 2016 9:03 PM

I love it. I miss my RAs too; those are sweet wheels. In some of those pics the interior looks blue...must be the exposure right?

Kyle in NO · Post by **Kyle in NO** » Dec 13, 2016 9:08 PM

hugh1850 wrote:I love it. I miss my RAs too; those are sweet wheels. In some of those pics the interior looks blue...must be the exposure right?

Nope. Blue interior is blue.

This car is fucking beautiful.

hugh1850 · Post by **hugh1850** » Dec 13, 2016 9:54 PM

Kyle in NO wrote:
hugh1850 wrote:I love it. I miss my RAs too; those are sweet wheels. In some of those pics the interior looks blue...must be the exposure right?
Nope. Blue interior is blue.

This car is fucking beautiful.

How many posts has he made about hating blue! I, obviously, fucking love it!

Karl Grau · Post by **Karl Grau** » Dec 13, 2016 9:54 PM

The inside of the glovebox is flocking amazing! Great job on that.

austin8753 · Post by **austin8753** » Dec 14, 2016 2:46 AM

Fucking fantastic. Love it.

wkohler · Post by **wkohler** » Dec 14, 2016 3:09 AM

Thanks for the comments guys. It means a lot. I'm trying to build the best car I can with my abilities and resources. I do appreciate the feedback.

hugh1850 wrote:
Kyle in NO wrote:
hugh1850 wrote:I love it. I miss my RAs too; those are sweet wheels. In some of those pics the interior looks blue...must be the exposure right?
Nope. Blue interior is blue.

This car is fucking beautiful.
How many posts has he made about hating blue! I, obviously, fucking love it!

Well, there is one interesting post in particular:

Tonight, Leroy came back over to the house to do the lockstrips and trim. A job neither of us were looking forward to, but something that had to be done. He got to the house about 7:45 and the plan was to work until they were done. I was really concerned about the rear window because it just wasn't fitting right and the gap at the top of the window was so small, there was no way the lockstrip was going to go in. I mentioned using string to put the lower strip in, as jhh925 did in his thread and Leroy said that was a great idea. I didn't have the right kind of string at the house and Ace closed in 10 min so we high-tailed it over there and bought a couple different types. There was a definite struggle and the realization that it wasn't going to get the bottom lip seated in the rubber, so we ended up using the 3/16" nylon rope that Leroy used to put the rear window in the car. It worked like a charm. Turns out that all of the refinished corner pieces were essentially half of their original thickness now after the polishing process and that made them unusable. Fortunately, I had brand new ones as well, so we used those. The final bit of lockstrip was installed around 11:00pm.

After that, our fingers were killing us and he had to make an airport run for a family member coming into town. He's looking at coming back over this Sunday to do the front. I'm very impressed with him and he really appreciates the car and all of the time, money and effort that has gone into it and he really has been working at doing the best possible job. It's very frustrating work and I am glad that he's been willing to stick with it. I've run into so many attitudes on this project that I'm not sure I could handle another one and it gives me some faith in humanity that there are still people out there that try to do the best job they can and take pride in their work. One thing is for certain though. Next car I do, I'm saving the original seals.

Kyle in NO · Post by **Kyle in NO** » Dec 14, 2016 5:07 PM

Do you think that maybe the Russians hacked the lockstrips, making it near impossible for them to fit properly?

wkohler · Post by **wkohler** » Dec 14, 2016 5:11 PM

We definitely had a tough time Putin them in.

hugh1850 · Post by **hugh1850** » Dec 14, 2016 9:05 PM

Nanajoth · Post by **Nanajoth** » Dec 15, 2016 1:10 PM

I am more impressed with all that VR1 you have on the shelf.

Adam W in MN · Post by **Adam W in MN** » Dec 15, 2016 1:32 PM

Nanajoth wrote:I am more impressed with all that VR1 you have on the shelf.

It's the car enthusiast version of preppers.

GBel · Post by **GBel** » Dec 15, 2016 3:08 PM

Very Very Nice Chris.

Gary

travisj · Post by **travisj** » Dec 15, 2016 5:11 PM

That headliner just looks weird without any brown discoloration. Great job other than trying to recreate that.

dukmon · Post by **dukmon** » Dec 15, 2016 6:06 PM

On and off it has taken me more than a month to read this entire thread. It's been a great read. Nice work!

My first 5 Series was an 81' 528i E12 that I had to trade for a 72' 2002 so I'd have money extra money to pay for a semester of school. That was about 88'. I thoroughly enjoyed that car.