welcome my new nightmare! squirrelled this away a while ago but now have time to work on it. so I got another bmw but this time it doesn't just look like its sat under a bramble hedge for four years, it actually has sat under a bramble hedge for four years 
lucky me.
its a BMW e12 m535i, bmws first M saloon. they made 1410 in total and another 250 in semi knock down form. of those only 490 were RHD and only 200 (LHD and RHD) are left on the register. not going to stop me modding the heck out of it though ;D
I got it because it was going to be scrapped. the engine had been sold, the gearbox and the interior too, so its a blank (rusty) canvas. I will be fitting a later e28 m535i engine with e32 wiring and injection, and an e34 manual gearbox. stripped out interior and cage will be the theme inside, I have a pair of prelude seats to go in, I was going to use them in the wartburg but I didn't.
there it is
spot the grotty arch
sills and floor pan too.
I love the front.
crusty bulkhead.
spare wheelbin is choice too.
we started like this. bonnet off and step back. reel in horror
that will need inner arch repairs and tops of chassis legs
hey craterface!
this hasn't got the moth, the moth has got it. thats the front behind the bumper opposite to the battery tray.
here you can see the back panel around the number plate lights is cattled. I have a repair section from an e39 to go in. basically I chopped a section of bootlid out with lights
jacked it up to strip the suspension off it. basically the suspension gets in the way, yet I still want it mobile. so the idea is to mount it on three seriously large castors about 2-3 feet off the ground.
I picked at the bulkhead
tore down the front suspension,
got down to some serious slicing to make provisions for these-
mammoth castors! thats my gearbox behind it.
and got this far on sunday. not totally fruitful but it was a start.
this is the engine for it.
and these are my new wheels, from an e32 750i no less. I love getting parts that are totally useless until the car's finished
they look a bit bland at the moment but with a bit of creativity they could look like-
well, I got to this stage monday. castors on the front, a leg on the rear but it didn't like staying up at the back
so I braced it and then it tried to go sideways so I ratchet strapped it on and legged it as I had to be taxi for the afternoon. I came back at about 6:30 to find the jack had sunk and the weight was on the leg, but it hadn't collapsed. so I brought some railway sleepers down from the house and put the axle stands on them under the rear axle that night.
today I found my home for the rear strut wasn't suitable as when I put weight onto it even with extra bracing, the boot floor bends because the back panel and wheel well is completly stuffed and has the stregth of tissue paper
so I reloacted it.
if I built a rollover jig, it would have ripped the back panel out I reckon.
the axle came off and I situated the strut under the rear diff mount which I knew to be solid as I had been jacking the car up there all along. a few braces and it rolls! needs the castoprs greased but I have moved it a total of three feet. it won't collapse either, I tried
theres the front all finished in case you were wondering. only thing I did was put an extra brace across the bottom to stiffen it a little more.
and now we can assess the damage. well thats not too bad....
but that side is completly FUBAR'd. lovely. the hole about 10" from the end in the floorpan is where the axle brace plate shuld be to put the pin into double shear. it kind of fell away...
this morining I chipped the sound deadening off the drivers side floorpan. I want to start in the middle, which sounds silly in sdome ways but I want to get the strength back into the shell where its needed.
I really can pick 'em
lucky me.
its a BMW e12 m535i, bmws first M saloon. they made 1410 in total and another 250 in semi knock down form. of those only 490 were RHD and only 200 (LHD and RHD) are left on the register. not going to stop me modding the heck out of it though ;D
I got it because it was going to be scrapped. the engine had been sold, the gearbox and the interior too, so its a blank (rusty) canvas. I will be fitting a later e28 m535i engine with e32 wiring and injection, and an e34 manual gearbox. stripped out interior and cage will be the theme inside, I have a pair of prelude seats to go in, I was going to use them in the wartburg but I didn't.
there it is
spot the grotty arch
sills and floor pan too.
I love the front.
crusty bulkhead.
spare wheelbin is choice too.
we started like this. bonnet off and step back. reel in horror
that will need inner arch repairs and tops of chassis legs
hey craterface!
this hasn't got the moth, the moth has got it. thats the front behind the bumper opposite to the battery tray.
here you can see the back panel around the number plate lights is cattled. I have a repair section from an e39 to go in. basically I chopped a section of bootlid out with lights
jacked it up to strip the suspension off it. basically the suspension gets in the way, yet I still want it mobile. so the idea is to mount it on three seriously large castors about 2-3 feet off the ground.
I picked at the bulkhead
tore down the front suspension,
got down to some serious slicing to make provisions for these-
mammoth castors! thats my gearbox behind it.
and got this far on sunday. not totally fruitful but it was a start.
this is the engine for it.
and these are my new wheels, from an e32 750i no less. I love getting parts that are totally useless until the car's finished
they look a bit bland at the moment but with a bit of creativity they could look like-
well, I got to this stage monday. castors on the front, a leg on the rear but it didn't like staying up at the back
so I braced it and then it tried to go sideways so I ratchet strapped it on and legged it as I had to be taxi for the afternoon. I came back at about 6:30 to find the jack had sunk and the weight was on the leg, but it hadn't collapsed. so I brought some railway sleepers down from the house and put the axle stands on them under the rear axle that night. today I found my home for the rear strut wasn't suitable as when I put weight onto it even with extra bracing, the boot floor bends because the back panel and wheel well is completly stuffed and has the stregth of tissue paper
so I reloacted it.if I built a rollover jig, it would have ripped the back panel out I reckon.
the axle came off and I situated the strut under the rear diff mount which I knew to be solid as I had been jacking the car up there all along. a few braces and it rolls! needs the castoprs greased but I have moved it a total of three feet. it won't collapse either, I tried
theres the front all finished in case you were wondering. only thing I did was put an extra brace across the bottom to stiffen it a little more.
and now we can assess the damage. well thats not too bad....
but that side is completly FUBAR'd. lovely. the hole about 10" from the end in the floorpan is where the axle brace plate shuld be to put the pin into double shear. it kind of fell away...
this morining I chipped the sound deadening off the drivers side floorpan. I want to start in the middle, which sounds silly in sdome ways but I want to get the strength back into the shell where its needed.
I really can pick 'em
think it might be a quick start then down pace at the begining of january but we'll see how fast it goes. floor pan isn't that bad, but the back end is shot to hell and back!
