MyE28.com

wkohler wrote:Glad you're entering (I assume you are). Clean or Super clean? I would start with clean as it seems under the hood is a crazy endeavor. I won't be entering. Didn't figure I was before, but house go boom and spending several hours a day over there trying to get stuff out (the thieves are more efficient I guess), plus taxes and my usual workload leaves me no time to even put the car together to even make the trip let alone think of entering, so maybe we can have 3 M535s there again.

Clean, definitely just Clean. There's a month worth of engine bay work alone. Just getting the rest of the car up to level is going to be hard enough. What's nuts is two weeks later is the Huntington Beach Concurs and I plan on have both the M535 there as well as the E39.

Yes it will be cool to have the 3 E28 M535's again on the grass. I'm crashing at Chez Chas that Saturday night before. You going to be there or at Darin's?

I had some free time this evening after Ellie went to bed so I hopped in Heinz and took him for a drive north around the Olentangy River. I do love that car.

And I've decided to cowboy up and work with coolant. My fear of the cooling system will be no more when my next parts box arrives and I need to replace a bad hose. Or really a bad clamp. I'm not even sure the hose is bad but that clamp looks like a rusty antique!

I gave it an alignment

Not today, but drove her 2700 miles to St Louis and back for a film gig.

Spent some time on the way back in the Blue Ridge mountains driving the curves in a "spirited" manner, happy to report that the Mustangs and other newer rides couldn't keep up

Also happy to realize that this thing just EATS freeway and spits it out, I've never had a car so happy to run all day on the interstate climbing hills like they're nothing. Great road trip car!

Yesterday, Snob got a new to her right front strut housing with a good wheel bearing.

Finally got the style 29s and all new tires on. Also fixed a broken brake light switch which I'd been putting off for weeks because I "didn't have the time." Took me ten minutes. I feel stupid.

I did some engine cleaning, rear main seal and oil pan gasket on the S38. The alt bracket is ridiculous. All to get to one oil pan bolt. I was able to get the engine high enough, without the trans, to get the pan past the oil pump. Saved some time there.

Put on 4 coats of wax. 1st coat: synthetic wax, 2nd coat cream based carnauba wax, 3rd coat hard glaze and 4th coat 33% pure carnauba yellow wax (zymol). Set my cocktail on the hood and it slid off and shattered on the driveway.

Recently purchased my E28 and it had front end clunking/shimmy. I replaced all the control arms, upper strut mount/bearings, sway bar end links and bushes. I also took off the calipers to clean and grease the slide pins. The clunk is gone but I still have the shimmy because it needs an alignment and possible wheel balancing. Either today or tomorrow I am going to do the string alignment for my first time and see where I'm at. I would like to get a "real" alignment but I need to go over all the tie rods to make sure all is tight before I spend the money. Once this is all done I will move to the rear end and see what it all needs...hopefully not rear subframe bushings

I removed the front bumper and side moldings because... Damn they ugly.

Installed a new stereo with bazooka subwoofer.

Removed the rear bumper and side moldings... Didn't like that look placed the bumper itself back on tight to the body but then the bumper sticks out too far on either side.

So I then took 3" inches out of the center of the rear bumper, built aluminum brackets and pop riveted from the inside out (so you can't really see them) and then reattached the rear bumper directly to the body. MUCH better!

Oh and I put gas in it and found the tank leaks...

RAB71 wrote:I removed the front bumper and side moldings because... Damn they ugly.

Installed a new stereo with bazooka subwoofer.

Removed the rear bumper and side moldings... Didn't like that look placed the bumper itself back on tight to the body but then the bumper sticks out too far on either side.

So I then took 3" inches out of the center of the rear bumper, built aluminum brackets and pop riveted from the inside out (so you can't really see them) and then reattached the rear bumper directly to the body. MUCH better!

This we gotta see.

RAB71 wrote:Oh and I put gas in it and found the tank leaks...

Not likely.
More than likely it's one of the vent hoses.

I'll get some pics. And vent hose on top of said tank? Looked like the seem to me but I've been wrong before.

Got some dumb things done that felt good.

1. Finally installed new hood insulation. It's the 3 piece junk, but will look good for a while.
2. Installed E23 hood struts. Sweet Jesus:) Hood does not fall on my head AND it goes really wide open.
3. New Trunk seal. A fun one man project.
4. Replaced the rubber exhaust hangars. One had failed a couple months ago and was patched together.
5. Replaced drier and most of the o-rings and schrader valves in AC. Charged with R134a per the BMW recommendation - 1.95 lbs. I have an R12 system that was converted (poorly - IMO). I now have 37 degrees at the vents. Only 74 degrees here with 40% humidity. Will be interesting to see vents in 95 degrees with 95%...

Next weekend - rear output shaft seal. MTL on cat stinks. Bought some Loctite 270. I swear the Hylomar-something stuff from 2 1/2 years ago did not hold up. It's been leaking for a while. Recently worse.

replaced the bypass hose from the water pump to the t-stat housing no more leaks. i also put the heater control valve back in while the system was drained of coolant.

Drew on it.

it's PAC-Beamer

Began trying to figure why The Beast's left rear tail lamp quit working.

Got my bumper shocks back from the bead blaster!

Swapped the steering column UJoint, and (finally!) found proper center on the steering box.

Side note - This is definitely a part where you want to use the factory (i.e. dealer-supplied) part. My 12 year old and I swapped it in about an hour start to finish. A couple of months ago, my nephew and I did the same part on his 535, though he had purchased an OEM part from an aftermarket supplier. After wrestling with it for 90 minutes, we compared the old and new and found that the bolt-holes were not aligned properly, so the bolts were not hitting the land properly on the shafts. After some re-drilling on the replacement part, we got it all together, but it was a frustrating process and very time-consuming.

On this item, do NOT save the money - it will waste your time!

1st 5er wrote:

RAB71 wrote:I removed the front bumper and side moldings because... Damn they ugly.

Installed a new stereo with bazooka subwoofer.

Removed the rear bumper and side moldings... Didn't like that look placed the bumper itself back on tight to the body but then the bumper sticks out too far on either side.

So I then took 3" inches out of the center of the rear bumper, built aluminum brackets and pop riveted from the inside out (so you can't really see them) and then reattached the rear bumper directly to the body. MUCH better!

This we gotta see.

X2, I want to see this. Sounds like something I might be in to....lol

unt0uchable wrote:

1st 5er wrote:

RAB71 wrote:I removed the front bumper and side moldings because... Damn they ugly.

Installed a new stereo with bazooka subwoofer.

Removed the rear bumper and side moldings... Didn't like that look placed the bumper itself back on tight to the body but then the bumper sticks out too far on either side.

So I then took 3" inches out of the center of the rear bumper, built aluminum brackets and pop riveted from the inside out (so you can't really see them) and then reattached the rear bumper directly to the body. MUCH better!

This we gotta see.

X2, I want to see this. Sounds like something I might be in to....lol

Here is a pic of the bumper. Keep in mind it will be painted with the car. Once the seam is sealed and then painted you won't even know it's there.


Last night I cut the springs in the front. (that was fun... NOT) First one took about 20minutes to half hour... The second one went ALL wrong took about two hours... Probably would have gone better but I ran out of daylight... Anyway, took two coils out of the front. And for future reference you CAN cut your springs without removing them but shit can go very wrong very quick... Then all it takes is some swearing throwing tools and a deep breath and you're all good.

I did a bunch of small stuff:

Pulled back my brake dust cover so it stopped rubbing the rotor
Oil change
Brake fluid resuvoir filter flush (kind of... couldn't get the last clip off)
Washed it
Got all the crap out of the inside
And put the bottom part of my dash back up.

Not too bad for a few hours...

Cleaned the contacts in the box and a fresh set of BavAuto fuses, shiny!



I won't even post the old ones, but suffice it to say I haven't heard from any electrical gremlins since the switch.




PO did this to the hood, makes the car look like junk from any distance. Other than this lip and one other area the car's paint is still good, soooo out comes the scraper. A mosaic of Bondo, rust, and steel awaited me and my sandpaper.



"I Hope I know what the f%&# I'm doing"



2 coats of Rustoleum gloss and it's already much better. Two clears and some polish tomorrow when its not raining. I think it's gonna be good to pass the 10 foot test now



Also cleaned the trunk and threw away the old liquor boxes that were holding my pieces, parts, and tools.

Bought two of these to transfer them into, worked well but only 1.5 fits between the wheel wells.

http://www.harborfreight.com/trunk-organizer-65178.html

I bled my brakes. Got out all the old orange goo that was in it and replaced with pretty blue ATE stuff.

Well, I managed to lock my only set of keys in the car on Tuesday. Boy that was fun getting back in. These cars were not meant to be broken into (what car was, right?)
(I know what you're thinking. How the fuck did you lock your keys in your car when BMW engineered it so that you CAN'T lock the driver door lock with the driver door open? Well guess what: That lock is broken, so I lock my doors via opening the back door, reaching around the front door lock and pushing it down. Central locking takes over from there. Doesn't matter if the keys are hanging for the ignition or not. BMW didn't care about that.)

The worst part of it: My wedding invitations were sittin' shotgun waiting to go take over the mailroom at the closest post office. That shit wasn't happening. Not unless a brick fell onto a window or a meteor ripped the back half of the car off and left the box somehow unscathed.

I ended up inside after about 25 minutes of first messing with the gas door thinking I might be able to trigger the central locking with the lever in there. That's a no go. Fuck you David. That's what it said when I slid the lever back into its home. So I moved onto the driver door (again, second attempt) with a metal coat hanger to the wrap around the door lock level and pull up. Somehow I managed to get it open without too much grief. Now I hate my car even more than I already did because I proceeded to ruin what ok paint I had left (The door jambs, that's about all on this one)

Check it out:

Drove the 528 to Pahoeeenix and back for Waffle House. This car just eats up miles.

Also, ordered a mishimoto e36 radiator for the 535. yeehaw.

unt0uchable wrote:Well, I managed to lock my only set of keys in the car on Tuesday. Boy that was fun getting back in. These cars were not meant to be broken into (what car was, right?)

I did this recently. Just popped off the lower window trim with a block of wood and a hammer, reached down in and pulled up the lock with a hook. Not exactly secure.

Today I put on my S38 oil pan, new clutch and reinstalled the transmission. My god, did that suck. All I used was a floor jack. Gotta be like 50 lbs in the tail of that trans and it won't sit flat. Took me 2 hrs to stab that stupid thing.

I put bilstein sports and H&R springs on my piece of shit 528e...the stance homos were right...the H&R's are for old people. Im not sure if the springs are just not short enough, or the new front and rear strut mounts jacked up the whole thing The back looks ok on the second from the top setting, but the front looks the same as my worn out old shit with one coil cut.
As soon as I get permission, I guess I'll buy some spax. @##$!

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?p=1149932#1149932

and then...

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?p=1150117#1150117

dsmith wrote:Took me 2 hrs to stab that stupid thing.

[size=0]...[/size]...only because BTDT.

I'm getting closer to driving this pos. Remaining Trans bolts, starter, ICV hoses, shifter bushings, fuel lines, alt bushings, guibo , exhaust today. Mechanical almost done. Should hit the body work next weekend.