MyE28.com DEV

Hey guys,

Some of you may remember I have an M5. I haven't shared photos recently and I figured I might as well. It is still a work in progress and has been going much more slowly than my E24 turbo, but I have been routinely driving it. Well I snapped some photos and thought I'd share.

It was owned by may father and got wrecked back when I had first gotten my driver's license. My dad had been following me to meet for lunch before a lady ran into him Luckily it still ran and drove and we were able to escape the insurance situation with a clean title.



Unfortunately my parents were going through a divorce situation at the time and fixing the car was a little low on the priority list. My dad had it brought to his friends house who he had used many times for body work on his mopars a decade earlier. Unfortunately this guy didn't have the car high on his priority list, so it sat for years.
Fast forward to the time where I actually started hounding him for getting the repairs going. He 'fixed' the car and it was apparent that it would be prudent to get the car back and make progress myself. Here's how we got it back in 2012.



I messed with the bumpers and made an improvement on the alignment. The car stayed this way while I worked out mechanical issues such as trans mount replacement, engine mount replacement, spark plug wires, cap, rotor, water pump, thermostat, AFM repairs,, and SLS repairs. At the time I was also commuting a lot for work and didn't have a space to work on the car, so I just drove it. Here was D4C 2013 and 2014:















Then I took the plunge and did a euro conversion as the bumper alignment always bothered me. I still have to figure out if I want to replace the rear tail panel or what, but I was pretty happy with the result. Euro headlights and turn signals along with new fog light lenses was a big change!

In process:




I tried a Pfeba spoiler but didn't like how it was a US spec part:



Then I decided to remove the SLS and I went with Bilstein sports and H&R's.



I wasn't happy with the ride height and eventually came up with the current configuration of Dinan fronts and stock rear springs set to the height I want. This are some photos I just took of the setup.













This car is certainly a work in progress and I am making very slow progress, but I have put 7000 miles on the car and it is running better than ever. Trying to decide how I want to tackle some of the body work and other repairs...

Thank you for your part in saving another E28. Looking good!

Now I know exactly what my car would look like with this exact air dam! Ha!

Thanks Travis-- I also still have that modified valance that I used to mount it!

Thanks for sharing, Tom. Lots of progress from when we first saw it!

Well done! That thar is a really nice car.

What a great story and historical timeline of the car. Were the quarter panels damaged from the collision?

Thanks Guys. It's slow going and I have to come up with a way to move some of the front end tow hooks because the sheetmetal underneath is pushed upward. I can't mount any spoiler correctly because of it. I'm just not sure how I want to get it fixed. But that's what's holding me up from mounting a spoiler/air dam.

Yes Adam, the rear drivers side was replaced from a good 528e

I enjoyed this very much.

Awesome car!

Took the M5 on a group BMW drive and had a good time. It was sure weird being one of the newer cars on the trip!

The main thing I don't like about the Style 42 wheels is their overall weight. They are pretty heavy and it is noticeable (especially at 7-9000 ft). The stock wheels are all around really good on the E28, but sometime it is nice to switch it up.

We went to a historic mining town (Victor, CO). There's a few photos of the area in my 633 turbo thread, but I hadn't explored down town before. Here's a few other photos from the drive









My brother's early model turbo 325iX





























I'm going to mess with the hood alignment a bit more today. It hasn't been right since I got the car.

Tom, Awesome pics. Looks like a great group. Interesting story on the M5. I always wondered about this car as you seem to be mostly working on the e24s. Seems like the M5 has to stay in your family forever Would love to more of it, engine, interior etc

Sure Dave,

The e24 turbo has been more of my project since it had needed a lot of work for track use. I can do mechanical work no problem but body work, welding and upholstery are items I haven't ventured into yet. The M5 has had slow progress but it still isn't where I want it, so I haven't really shared progress. I haven't decided what to do about the seats since they need recovering but the motors don't all function properly. I thought about doing the GAHH covers but want to make sure the seats are good to go before I spend for the leather and then tackle the job.

Here are some photos from I think 2013 when I had spent a fair amount of time cleaning the car up after sitting during the repairs. The interior is largely the same since it has been garaged since. Mileage in the pictures was 153k, I am now only 156k.

M stiched wheel came from croatia































The bumper trim and bumper alignment all bothered me when it was US spec. It just wasn't repaired 100%












the temporary storage space

Its a great car, pretty low miles. Looks much better with the Euro bumpers.

I can do mechanical work no problem but body work, welding and upholstery are items I haven't ventured into yet.

^^^ This is the same with me, and the upholstery is so expensive!

Good luck with all that , looks like a awesome car. I wish my dad had been into BMWs

Yeah really, haha.

I actually would have kept the US spec bumpers on the car if they had been more straight. I don't think they look bad on a black car with the spoilers.

But I certainly don't regret moving to the euro bumpers either!

I hadn't driven the M5 in a while as I had been focusing on other projects. The last time I drove it, the passenger seat only moved in one direction. I took the seat out to get it back into position (that took some work!), but hope to try a new relay box in the next few weeks. In the mean time I fiddled with the hood alignment some more. It isn't where I want it, but it's better that it has been.

I also got a new camera lens (zoom) and am super impressed with it! I had been using the stock 18-55 for the past few years but decided to try to get something else. The variety of images that can be taken with a single lense is impressive! I can't wait to get distance images that I couldn't really in the past. It would have been nice to have at the local race track when I took photos of the vintage cars.

I was limited to this with large image sizes even though I was pretty close to the corner (just 10 feet behind the tires):


Anyway, I took the M5 out and used it as my subject. This thread is a photo thread, after all!





















Local E28/M5 drive on July 8th.

Had a good time on the short route we took. Some traffic, but not the worst. Here's a few photos.

I spent a couple hours last night taking off the valance and looking at the location of the tow hooks. Due to their movement in the accident years ago, every spoiler I tried mounting wouldn't fit properly. The hooks would interfere with the US spoiler bracket, they caused the Pfeba to have to wrap and bend causing an awkward bulge in the center, and the Replica Hartge had the same problem but wasn't flexible to fit. The good news was since they didn't fit I didn't mount anything on the car yet, so when I stumbled on a euro M5 spoiler, I decided I would try to make it work.

The tow hooks had been protruding both up and out. I don't know if they were yanked during a tow or if it was simply carnage from the 'repair' that the shoddy shop did. Either way, they were way out of place and it had been frustrating me and causing me to not want to mess with the car.

You can see in these two photos that the hooks were so far up and out the valance was actually resting on them.





After removing the valance and looking under, I could see that the the hook to sheet metal attachment at the rear had been torn and was about an inch to two inches off on each side. I tried by using some c clamps to get the sheet metal more straight and to my surprise the hook starting moving down a bit.
I continued, eventually switching to hammer and block of wood, and then evolving to sledge and narrow block of wood.
I was very excited to get the hooks moved down to what I think is close to OEM as well as bending the oil cooler down a bit further (it was angled up) and the vertical sheet metal below the headlights back tight up against the horizontal sheetmetal.

I mocked it up and this time the tow hooks didn't interfere! It took some more time drilling the holes and I don't think it is perfect, but it's on there now and it changes the look of the car! I'll probably continue to fiddle with it as it looks like the stud in the middle is slightly too high, but I'm excited!









I was thinking of driving it out to a BMW BBQ this weekend. Hoping to try to convince my wife to bring her e28 too!

Lovely lovely lovely. Great pics. Thanks for posting.

No problem sharing! Thanks for the kind words Charlie.

I took the car to a local BMW BBQ-- something that hasn't happened here in a while.

I figured I'd share a few photos













Eric's M5 was there



As was Fox's M535i clone



And this sweet M5 replica from BAT a while back. I really like this car! 3.8L and not so subtle, but a lot of detail work done on it also. Came from CA as I understand.



I also liked Jonn's euro B35 powered 733. It's lower than I like and the wheels are bigger than I like, but the early nose and everything make it really stand out. I guess this car came from CA in July.



The E28 looks small next to the 3 series!

Looks like an amazing gathering Tom. Your car looks absolutely transformed with those bumpers! I am thrilled for you as you have been wanting to do this for quite some time.
best,
jeff

Awesome pics Tom. Great work with tow hook move and M5 chin spoiler. Looks great.

Thanks for the comments!

Last month I was preparing for Drive 4 Corners 2017 and unfortunately my E24 turbo was having an issue that I didn't have time to resolve before the trip, so I got the M5 ready for the event weekend. Really all I had to do was wash the car, change the oil and make sure the spare was ready for emergency duty.

I did wash it, wax it and swap back to the stock wheels. Luckily, I was able to fit our luggage and a trunk full of D4C shirts and swag. I had it staged in the driveway next to the other E28's. I probably should take a real photo of these cars in a better photos location, but here's when we started out.



I had to represent one of my new favorite shirts.




We had about 18 cars depart from our Denver caravan and travel to meet up with the Colorado Springs group 180 miles away where we picked up more. Then we continued to the large caravan meetup and group drive.







Pulling into the Resort.










Our Suite had covered parking and I was lucky enough to get the spot where I took a few more photos.





That morning we had a group photo.







My brother was able to snap this after. With Travisj's new ride.



That was followed by a scenic group drive













Lunch in Ouray, CO (My car is in the background but I was still eating when they took the photo-- instead you see Aaront's car)



BBQ, raffle prizes and Awards





Sunday included some epic alpine slide races with those who stuck around




And a great hike up Engineer Mtn at over 10,000ft.









Monday morning we hit the road to go on to see a Mining museum in Silverton (forgot the camera in the car ) and then continued on to drive through Crested Butte, CO and drive the dirt roads of Kebler Pass. I have it on gopro but this Aspen grove was probably my favorite stop along the journey:







Bugs and dust-- this car is driven!









The view on Kebler Pass





Dinner at a historic Inn



Our small cabin stop for the night


The view in the morning (and no cell phone service!)



Historic Coal 'coking' ovens



After brunch we headed up to the ghost town of Independance and Independance Pass





Independance Pass had a great view and I decided to stop on this small overlook for some photos





The last stop was this unique Jewish synagogue in Leadville, CO from the early 1900's.




The 2017 event video will capture more of the trip but this was sort of a photo story that I figured some may enjoy...

In all we went over 850 miles and averaged somewhere between 22-25mpg. We climbed at least 12 10,000 ft passes with the route we took and multiple times I drove over US-550. I rolled past 157k this trip and the car has been as reliable as ever. I got one comment from the guy next to me at a stop light saying 'Great looking car; nice choice in Black' and I sort of wondered if he knew the irony in that statement. I also had one turbo WRX STI owner take notice of me while driving up CO-133 when I guess he decided he wanted to pick up the pace once I passed him. His turbo had me on acceleration, but apparently not the handling/confidence my car had as he'd pull up closer to me distinctly after the turns.

Great photos! And the M5 is looking good!
I had a nice easy drive back on Sunday on the Million Dollar Highway. I wish I had a good camera and the photography skills to get some of those kind of shots!

That shot in front of the cabin looks like something from Texfest. You should join us down in Rockdale for some highly spirited southern driving!

Thanks Travis-- I have thought about that or Sharkfest but haven't been able to make a long road trip work yet.

We need to see more photos of your car!!

Another one that was shared recently: