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Start of the year i bought a Citroen XM, never had a Citroen before, was a lovely quirky thing but sadly i didn't really bond with it Phase 1 interior was epic. Last month i swapped it for this black E34. Interior has been all retrimmed in cream leather. This is not my first BMW, had a couple of E38's recently, a 728i and a 750iL, the 750 was nice but it's a heavy lump of a car (400kg heavier than the 728) this can really be felt in the corners, straight line performance was epic though, i don't do a lot of motorway driving so it just seemed crazy keeping it so passed it on, enjoyed it while i had it though and at least i've had a V12 The E34 came with the original metric wheels and tyres, one tyre was worn so i fitted these E38 wheels but they look horrible really I have these staggered 18" Style 32's to go on though, just halfway through painting them (satin black for now), tyres will be huge, 265/35/18 rear and 245/40/18 fronts These will fill the arches out like this (hopefully my car will sit a bit lower at the front). Have a set of - 30mm Apex springs on order, hopefully things will progress a bit next week.
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72 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400. 95 BMW E34 525i Manual. 80 Lotus Elite, sold 86 Mk4 Escort RWD V8, sold
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GT4ME
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,729
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Nice car.
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Cheers man, love it so far, drives superb.
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72 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400. 95 BMW E34 525i Manual. 80 Lotus Elite, sold 86 Mk4 Escort RWD V8, sold
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Very nice E34 that.... Makes mine look like the scrapyard dodger it really is!!!!!
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'96 Volvo 850T5 x2, '97 Alfa 145 Cloverleaf '96 Alfa 155, '91 XR2i 2.0 Zetec (sold), '88 BMW 520i slug (sold), '81 Escort Mk3 Project, '68 Mk1 Escort Estate, Berlingo Parts Chaser.
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Aug 10, 2015 15:47:12 GMT
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Looks like u found a good one there....very nice. The 2.5 is a good engine, guess yours is the 24v? I loved my 525 it used to fly even with the 12v. Still miss it after 10 years.
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Aug 10, 2015 17:44:28 GMT
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Looks like u found a good one there....very nice. The 2.5 is a good engine, guess yours is the 24v? I loved my 525 it used to fly even with the 12v. Still miss it after 10 years. Yeah, it's the M50 24V single Vanos in this, goes really well with the Manual box. Said in the add it has an LSD but it hasn't, would have been a real bonus that, one nearly bald tyre on the rear when i got it told me all i needed to know. A big bonus has turned out to be NO RUST Removed the plastic sill covers and all i've found is solid steel and shiny black paint All this dirt was trapped behind the N/S cover, other side was the same. Just has some surface rust around the jacking points and along the seam so will clean, treat and underseal that and fit the covers back on. Car also has a bit of rust at the fuel door but only surface so will deal with that. Been working through a full service on the car over the last few weeks too, changed the oil and filter, found the plugs and airfilter looked new though so recon the car has been cared for, changed them anyway, last MOT was done at a BMW main dealer, advises were play in the front Thrust arm bushes, rear brake pipes corroded and fuel pipe corroded, have fitted new Thrust arms, still to change the fuel and brake pipes. Noticed when i was changing the plugs there was oil in the two rear plug recesses, cam cover gasket needed, common fault on M50 and M52 engines, got a new gasket from the main dealer and fitted that, also going to change the serpentine belt, pulleys and tensioners. I'm figuring at 157K odd miles the original (plastic impeller) water pump will have been changed, had a look and the body of the pump looks cleaner than the reast of the motor. Have these 728i 4 pot Brembo's i may fit, they will need adaptor brackets though and of course 728i discs but would be worthwhile i think.
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72 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400. 95 BMW E34 525i Manual. 80 Lotus Elite, sold 86 Mk4 Escort RWD V8, sold
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Aug 10, 2015 20:38:01 GMT
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I also have a black E34 with the 7 series brakes to go on and staggered Style 32's! Small world! You seem to have managed to snag a lovely car; bookmarked!
ETA: Just seen your post on my thread Mark, I hadn't realised you had commented!
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Aug 13, 2015 20:08:21 GMT
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Small update here, got my springs at the start of the week, just finished fitting the fronts tonight, delighted with the result , car now has equal arch gaps front and rear with a slight rake instead of the rediculous gap on the front these cars (and E38's) suffer from, bought four springs but may leave the rears standard. Front struts came off no problem. Had a chance to use my fancy spring compressor for the second time , used it to get the standard springs off but was able to fit the lowered ones by hand, still a bit of tension on full extension so they don't rattle about (- 40mm do and need lowered struts). Comparison pic with old and new springs. Also got tyres fitted to the rear style 32's, a fair bit meatier than the stock Metric Dunlops, will get tyres for the fronts next week. Going to get the car booked in Saturday for tracking so will get some street pics then
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72 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400. 95 BMW E34 525i Manual. 80 Lotus Elite, sold 86 Mk4 Escort RWD V8, sold
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Got my 18" Style 32's on last week, only got around to taking some pics yesterday, still to paint the fronts but found myself having second thoughts about satin black wheels , didn't want them silver though, now thinking they may have looked better primer grey, also driving about lately i've noticed just about every other car has black wheels, even spotted a few black cars with black wheels So now undecided whether to re-do the rears grey and do the fronts to match ? (the fronts are currently just dulled with a Scotchbrite pad) Really pleased with the way it sits though, drives perfect with no dreaded "BMW Shimmy" at all, it's also surprisingly quick which is nice. Apart from the lowering and wheels i have some smoked front indicators and side flashers to go on (arrived yesterday), bought some rear light tinting spray (found in my local Halfords surprisingly, they only had a single can though i suspect it was old stock), plan to replace the missing kidney grill trims. May try some 5mm spacers on the rear. Still to fit the sill trims back on, leaving the mud flaps off though as it looks cleaner without, the mounting brackets were rotten and an eyesore, also predictably they were trapping a ton of mud
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72 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400. 95 BMW E34 525i Manual. 80 Lotus Elite, sold 86 Mk4 Escort RWD V8, sold
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peddyp
Part of things
Posts: 710
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Aug 23, 2015 10:38:45 GMT
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Staggered style 32's are awesome! Worth a fair chunk of money too especially when tidied up. Car is looking nice and I've just wet myself at the sight of your fancy spring compressor! I must get one NOW!!
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Aug 23, 2015 14:16:34 GMT
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Staggered style 32's are awesome! Worth a fair chunk of money too especially when tidied up. Car is looking nice and I've just wet myself at the sight of your fancy spring compressor! I must get one NOW!! Cheers man. I was left wishing i'd kept the staggered M-Parallels instead (left them on the 750iL above), nicer wheels but they were replicas and needed spiggot rings, the style 32's are genuine and the right bore size so are better really. don't know if i mentioned but i'll get the wheels professionally re-done next year, the rattle can job is only temporary, annoyingly i found out a local company has a special summer offer on, 4 wheels for £180 which seems excellent, then again i've got other things to spend £180 on at the moment. The spring compressor is a godsend, so much quicker and safer than clamps, not cheap though, think it was about £140.
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72 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400. 95 BMW E34 525i Manual. 80 Lotus Elite, sold 86 Mk4 Escort RWD V8, sold
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peddyp
Part of things
Posts: 710
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Aug 23, 2015 14:46:07 GMT
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The amount of pain I could of and have caused myself over the years £140 is well worth it !!
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Aug 23, 2015 17:09:25 GMT
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It's a job i hate TBH, was a Mechanic back in the early 90's (damn i feel old ), boss at one of the garages i worked at had a bend on the bridge of his nose and a deep scar on his forehead, turns out he was hit in the face by a coil spring when he was an apprentice, he was at the opposite side of the workshop from where the spring was being compressed.
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72 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400. 95 BMW E34 525i Manual. 80 Lotus Elite, sold 86 Mk4 Escort RWD V8, sold
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Aug 23, 2015 23:43:03 GMT
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When I was an apprentice we had a wall mounted spring compressor, because one of our mechanics (actually, Pat Rafter's cousin) had half his face taken off with a spring gone loose. Much surgery and morphine later, he returned, but had a massive chip on his shoulder. Take care with kinetic energy..
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Finally got this done over the weekend, sill covers back on, front wheels painted, smoked indicators and side flashers fitted, also gave it a good clean Ignore the yellow side lights, these will be changed soon, will get around to replacing the missing kidney trims but liking the blacked out look for now. Really pleased with the results, drives superb, will probably hang onto it for a good while.
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72 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400. 95 BMW E34 525i Manual. 80 Lotus Elite, sold 86 Mk4 Escort RWD V8, sold
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bazzateer
Posted a lot
Imping along sans Vogue
Posts: 3,653
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Aug 31, 2015 19:58:34 GMT
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Looks good with the black on black.
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1968 Singer Chamois Sport 1972 Sunbeam Imp Sport 1976 Datsun 260Z 2+2 1998 Peugeot Boxer Pilote motorhome 2003 Rover 75 1.8 Club SE (daily) 2006 MG ZT 190+ (another daily) 2007 BMW 530d Touring M Sport (tow car)
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,856
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Aug 31, 2015 20:14:04 GMT
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Looks great, very sinister although I'd be interested to see it with the kidneys fitted as a little bit of chrome might help to break up the black a bit
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Cheers guys. Agree Adam, the bright kidney trims will make the car a bit less drastic, will buy some centre caps for the wheels too, will need to wait till the bank account recovers a bit though
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72 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400. 95 BMW E34 525i Manual. 80 Lotus Elite, sold 86 Mk4 Escort RWD V8, sold
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Dr.AK
Part of things
Posts: 408
Club RR Member Number: 62
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Eh, can't say I'm much a fan of the black on black look, but it's not too bad. I personally would've went with RAL9022 pearl light grey - I had that on a cosmosblack E36 with some 18" Style 32s and it worked really well.
Now that the car's blacked out the trim looks really faded - I'd suggest making that next on your list to fix up!
Kinda jealous of this, had a E34 525i myself but I was stupid enough to sell it...
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hamps
Posted a lot
www.medwayrscentre.co.uk
Posts: 2,077
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Looks nice, but i just can't stand black wheels!, look at the last pic, it just looks like nothing! wheels are lost and it looks like your hub caps have fell off! Apart from that it's a lovely car, i'm a big e34 fan
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