Hi all, been perusing and enjoying this forum for quite some time now and finally thought I'd start my own thread.
I currently own an E34 535i sport and an E38 728i sport, both in which I would consider the best colour of red.
Always been a huge fan of vw's in the past owning about 7 mk4 golfs, a mk3 and most importantly a mk1, which is dearly missed. But I bought my first barge about 2 years ago in the form of an e34 525td and loved it, always loved the e34 shape, it was slow, old and rusty but I loved it, unfortunately it ended up scrapped due to crumbly sills.
Always fancied another e34 after that, I was ideally after a 540i manual but finding a good one proved to be quite a task, that was when the 535i showed up on ebay about 4 months ago, it was the right colour and the exact spec I wanted so went to view it and fell in love, it certainly wasn't the cleanest and needed some tlc but it was what I wanted so I quickly wrapped up a sale and got it home.
Quick run down of spec:
91' 535i manual
Brilliantrot red
Genuine sport model so LSD, full sport kit, black leather sports seats.
185k miles with a decent enough service record.
Stainless steel exhaust
Also has an lpg system fitted but this has never worked, I filled it once and switched it over and it cut straight out and still thinks it's empty, just a single point system so not the best but would be nice to get it working, anyone have any ideas as what the problem could be? I'm not overly clued up on it as I've never owned a car with it fitted before.
Few pics from the week I got it:
Thoughts on the chrome window trim? It was fitted by one of the previous owners as there is paper work for it bought from bmw but I'm not sure whether I like it or not, I do have some black trim to go on but can't decide whether to change it or not.
Anyway, first plans for the car where maintenance, so a full service including: oil, filters, plugs, gearbox & diff oil, also attempted to chance the distributer cap and rotor arm but the bottom screw has been rounded off so may need to take the radiator off to gain access to it, it needs a coolant change anyway so I'll get round to it soon enough. Also got it through an mot without anything major. Definitely needs the valves adjusting as the tick is getting very loud, I can hear the tick over the exhaust now. I also swapped out the headliner as the original was sagging quite badly.
The paintwork on the car as a whole is pretty bad, major lacquer peel on the bonnet, roof and boot, not awfully noticeable from a distance but once you get up close you notice it, also plenty of other marks everywhere on the car, some small bubbly starting on the bottom of both rear quarters near the sills and some very minor rust showing on the drivers side door. Unfortunately has the crumbly silly problem as most E34s so that will be the priority before paint, hoping to get a good job done that is going to last.
The lacquer peel:
Also had a lot on the bonnet but that has been sorted and resprayed as the car came back from its mot with a lovely large dent in the bonnet! So the full bonnet and top of wings were resprayed.
Makes all the difference to the front end of the car, has some minor rippling but nothing that won't flat back and polish out.
Hoping to get the rest of the car resprayed at some point but that may not be until mid next year.
So now mods!
I didn't intend to modify the car massively, just wheels and suspension mainly, for me it was either a set of BBS RC090 or a set of staggered alpina classics, so I went for the alpinas, which are genuine and set the car off very nicely.
(Excuse the awful photography skills)
The arch gap on the front failed the shoe test as I could fit my foot in there so recently purchased a set of KW coilovers attached to some M5 3.6 front brakes, don't plan on going mad low like my previous cars but just so it sits nicely, although I do fancy a set of OZ futuras in the future so we'll see.
Plans for it in the future are just mainly to tidy it up, first will be getting the mechanical things sorted, just as valves, distributer and coolant, then the coilovers will go on then hopefully paint.
Now, my most recent purchase, my new daily, in the form of a 728i sport E38 in imola red.
An absolutely lovely car, just gone over 200k but is extremely quiet, and drives absolutely fantastically.
Has the heated contours, which are by far the most comfortable seats I've ever sat in.
The car is an absolute pleasure to drive, I've always wanted an e38 and thought a 728i would be underpowered but it really isn't, you don't really need the power in a car like this as it just glides along, it is near silent when driving, plus it's spec'd pretty well with it being a later sport model.
No major plans for this as it's my daily, first thing will be a good service and some maintenance then probably a sound system upgrade as it seems to lack the quality, I'll more than likely fit iPod integration as well, hoping to make a dock in either the armrest were the original phone was or where the ashtray it. Then possibly just retrofits, I already have a hydraulic boot kit ready to fit, just don't know where to start with the wiring, then probably a 16:9 and mk4 nav, then maybe double glazing and some more leather trimmed bits off a 750i. But they will all come in time. It currently has the dashboard removed as it need the blower motor replaced which will hopefully be done this week.
Also here's some photos of my old mk1:
'Twas a 1.3 running gsxr bike carbs, do miss it but didn't have the storage at the time and couldn't bring myself to leave it outside over winter, no doubt I'll have another eventually.
More to come soon!
I currently own an E34 535i sport and an E38 728i sport, both in which I would consider the best colour of red.
Always been a huge fan of vw's in the past owning about 7 mk4 golfs, a mk3 and most importantly a mk1, which is dearly missed. But I bought my first barge about 2 years ago in the form of an e34 525td and loved it, always loved the e34 shape, it was slow, old and rusty but I loved it, unfortunately it ended up scrapped due to crumbly sills.
Always fancied another e34 after that, I was ideally after a 540i manual but finding a good one proved to be quite a task, that was when the 535i showed up on ebay about 4 months ago, it was the right colour and the exact spec I wanted so went to view it and fell in love, it certainly wasn't the cleanest and needed some tlc but it was what I wanted so I quickly wrapped up a sale and got it home.
Quick run down of spec:
91' 535i manual
Brilliantrot red
Genuine sport model so LSD, full sport kit, black leather sports seats.
185k miles with a decent enough service record.
Stainless steel exhaust
Also has an lpg system fitted but this has never worked, I filled it once and switched it over and it cut straight out and still thinks it's empty, just a single point system so not the best but would be nice to get it working, anyone have any ideas as what the problem could be? I'm not overly clued up on it as I've never owned a car with it fitted before.
Few pics from the week I got it:
Thoughts on the chrome window trim? It was fitted by one of the previous owners as there is paper work for it bought from bmw but I'm not sure whether I like it or not, I do have some black trim to go on but can't decide whether to change it or not.
Anyway, first plans for the car where maintenance, so a full service including: oil, filters, plugs, gearbox & diff oil, also attempted to chance the distributer cap and rotor arm but the bottom screw has been rounded off so may need to take the radiator off to gain access to it, it needs a coolant change anyway so I'll get round to it soon enough. Also got it through an mot without anything major. Definitely needs the valves adjusting as the tick is getting very loud, I can hear the tick over the exhaust now. I also swapped out the headliner as the original was sagging quite badly.
The paintwork on the car as a whole is pretty bad, major lacquer peel on the bonnet, roof and boot, not awfully noticeable from a distance but once you get up close you notice it, also plenty of other marks everywhere on the car, some small bubbly starting on the bottom of both rear quarters near the sills and some very minor rust showing on the drivers side door. Unfortunately has the crumbly silly problem as most E34s so that will be the priority before paint, hoping to get a good job done that is going to last.
The lacquer peel:
Also had a lot on the bonnet but that has been sorted and resprayed as the car came back from its mot with a lovely large dent in the bonnet! So the full bonnet and top of wings were resprayed.
Makes all the difference to the front end of the car, has some minor rippling but nothing that won't flat back and polish out.
Hoping to get the rest of the car resprayed at some point but that may not be until mid next year.
So now mods!
I didn't intend to modify the car massively, just wheels and suspension mainly, for me it was either a set of BBS RC090 or a set of staggered alpina classics, so I went for the alpinas, which are genuine and set the car off very nicely.
(Excuse the awful photography skills)
The arch gap on the front failed the shoe test as I could fit my foot in there so recently purchased a set of KW coilovers attached to some M5 3.6 front brakes, don't plan on going mad low like my previous cars but just so it sits nicely, although I do fancy a set of OZ futuras in the future so we'll see.
Plans for it in the future are just mainly to tidy it up, first will be getting the mechanical things sorted, just as valves, distributer and coolant, then the coilovers will go on then hopefully paint.
Now, my most recent purchase, my new daily, in the form of a 728i sport E38 in imola red.
An absolutely lovely car, just gone over 200k but is extremely quiet, and drives absolutely fantastically.
Has the heated contours, which are by far the most comfortable seats I've ever sat in.
The car is an absolute pleasure to drive, I've always wanted an e38 and thought a 728i would be underpowered but it really isn't, you don't really need the power in a car like this as it just glides along, it is near silent when driving, plus it's spec'd pretty well with it being a later sport model.
No major plans for this as it's my daily, first thing will be a good service and some maintenance then probably a sound system upgrade as it seems to lack the quality, I'll more than likely fit iPod integration as well, hoping to make a dock in either the armrest were the original phone was or where the ashtray it. Then possibly just retrofits, I already have a hydraulic boot kit ready to fit, just don't know where to start with the wiring, then probably a 16:9 and mk4 nav, then maybe double glazing and some more leather trimmed bits off a 750i. But they will all come in time. It currently has the dashboard removed as it need the blower motor replaced which will hopefully be done this week.
Also here's some photos of my old mk1:
'Twas a 1.3 running gsxr bike carbs, do miss it but didn't have the storage at the time and couldn't bring myself to leave it outside over winter, no doubt I'll have another eventually.
More to come soon!
. 
