E34 518i wheels ‘n lows 28/07

[tomti]

Just a quick one to show my latest purchase. It’s a 518i built in 1996 so one of the last e34s.
The previous owner owned it for 21 years! Very clean bar a few chips and scratches that need touching up and slight bit of rust on the very bottom of the drivers door. Interior is basically mint. Engine is virtually silent not tappy like a lot of m43s. Even has a matching set of Dunlop D90 stupid metric tyres. Shame the metric wheels take silly tyres as they’re quite dishy.
I’ve been after another retro car for a while so I can get back into the car scene after buying a house and generally doing grown up stuff.
The missus mentioned something about needing money for our upcoming wedding in April next year or something. I didn’t quite catch it....

Anyway a few pics from the for sale ad

[tomti]

Not sure wether to keep it all bone stock or as a long term project hitting it with the stick and some wheels, then maybe an engine swap.
It’s not as slow as I was expecting to be fair. Quite happily cruises at over motorway speeds. Seems to be really good on fuel too. I would like to stick an m44 from a 318is and bolt a supercharger to it for around 200bhp but still not sure.

[tomti]

Here it was after an hours drive home. Got a bit of the e34 shimmy around 55mph but that will get sorted as and when I get time

[ivangt6]

Nice purchase! Those cloth seats look in remarkably good nick

[pauly22]

Nice. Looks in great condition

My e34 had those wheels, and 4 new tyres cost more than the car so bought some cheap wheels.

Most of the e34’s left have later e39 wheels fitted.

I really want to find a black saloon, turn it into an m5 replica with a s54 m3 engine up front.

[🇿🇼Kingludba🇬🇧]

Jul 8, 2018 21:47:18 GMT pauly22 said:

Nice. Looks in great condition

My e34 had those wheels, and 4 new tyres cost more than the car so bought some cheap wheels.

Most of the e34’s left have later e39 wheels fitted.

I really want to find a black saloon, turn it into an m5 replica with a s54 m3 engine up front.

Sounds lke a plan

[tomti]

Right, finally got a day off work today to have a play with the 34. There was a few bits I’ve been wanting to do, mainly sort out the faded black trim. I touched up some scratches and stone chips that needed doing. No pictures of paint drying lol.

The headlight surrounds were particularly bad so bought some boiled linseed oil as I’d heard it’s great for trim


I applied using a half inch paint brush and it was really relaxing and therapeutic! Here’s the headlight surrounds before and after



Please with the result, I carried on with the rest of the black trim, mirror surrounds etc.

Next was new front and rear badges as the originals were a bit knackered
Old



New



The other job I got done was neither of the rear windows were working when I bought it and fortunately it was a very simple fix. Hold the button down and slam the doors and hey presto


All in all it was nice to have 4 or 5 hours just bringing it back up to date.

Here’s some generic pictures






Also had some good news in that my mate has managed to get a place on his mates stand for the OhSoRetro show in September so now I want to pull my finger out and sort some wheels and lows for it.

Also debating wether to go for clear indicators all round or leave the ambers

[keyring]

Looks an extremely clean example! It’s always unreal the difference it makes on a car just blackening the trim!
Can’t wait to see the future plans take shape!

[tomti]

Just a quick teaser pic of the new wheels I picked up for it today



Nice 3 inches of dish on the rears.

Will post some pics up next weekend when I get around to lowering it because now I have the low profiles tyres in I have 3 and a half inches of arch gap on the front which is, frankly, embarrassing

[tomti]

Finally got around to hitting it with the stick today. Happy with the way it sits on the wheels now. Could maybe do with being a smidge lower on the back but didn’t want to go too low as I wasn’t sure on the clearance with 10j’s.

Wheel specs are
Borbet A
17x10j et13 rears.
17x8.5j et20 fronts.

Going to get some autosol on the polished lips before the Ohsoretro show and ideally I want some flat Borbet centre caps as not keen on the hexagonal ones.

[ken21]

Nice, looking good.

[Deleted]

Woah!! What an awesome transformation with the Borbets and lows! That fitment and ride height looks spot on to my eyes.

[tomti]

Cheers I love it. Amazing how simple things make such a difference

[keyring]

It looks perfect on those wheels! Loving it!!