E34 Touring Family Wagon

[pauly22]

Not sure why but I just like BMW’s had a few over the years. Normally mid 2000’s ones, I did have an N reg 520i e34 about 10 years ago.

I own an e46 m3. Which I have put up for sale and should be sold next weekend and need a family car that will take me the mrs, our son, a new baby that’s due this month and now a dog, plus all the stuff for family holidays etc

So I’ve bought a 525i touring, in orient blue, a previous owner re trimmed all the headliner and added a black leather sports interior, and the big drug dealer wheels, it also came with roof bars which apparently sell for silly money if you can find them

Picked it up yesterday and it seems good, airbag light is on and it tells me some lights are out when they work ok, but drives ok, bit slow really but not terrible.

Plans are sport bumpers, throwing star alloys, USA style marker lights, re trim steering wheel and seat repair, then body respray, 540i brakes and an LSD, and ultimately a engine swap with a straight 6 M car engine, e36 evo bolt straight in as the engine is based on the current engine in the car.

Which would give it around 320bph and a 6 speed gearbox.

Not much will happen over the next few weeks as I haven’t sold the m3, so all my money is tied up for now.

[legend]

lovely, had a boggo manual 6 cylinder for a week, was really fun for a big old barge. E36 evo motor will be ££££££££, would a N53B30 268bhp be any cheaper?

[Alpina99]

Very nice,
Love an e34, really enjoyed mine,
Looking forward to seeing future updates on this thread to see where you go with the conversion,
Nigel

[andyg16v]

My favourite wheels on a big BM, although the throwing stars will look good.

I like the plans you have for it, keep us updated 😎

[alx]

Bookmarked!

AL.

[adam73bgt]

Very nice, will bookmark and reminisce about my old E34 touring

Those 18" M Parallels command quite good money these days, but then so do the Throwing Stars!

The S engines are hard to get hold of, M50's turbo quite well if that appeals I do love the interchangeability of the BMW's though, when I had mine I was looking at swapping in the 4 pot calipers from a much later model 3 series (I forget which one, but those Blue M calipers that a lot of them have) as the bolt spacing was apparently still the same, I think I was going to couple it with a 750i disc or something.

Looking forward to seeing how you get on with it

[pauly22]

Feb 11, 2022 12:33:51 GMT legend said:

lovely, had a boggo manual 6 cylinder for a week, was really fun for a big old barge. E36 evo motor will be ££££££££, would a N53B30 268bhp be any cheaper?

No idea, I’m only looking at the more straight forward conversions, the m3 lumps go straight in a wire up easy from what I have found online.

Feb 11, 2022 14:34:42 GMT adam73bgt said:

Very nice, will bookmark and reminisce about my old E34 touring

Those 18" M Parallels command quite good money these days, but then so do the Throwing Stars!

The S engines are hard to get hold of, M50's turbo quite well if that appeals I do love the interchangeability of the BMW's though, when I had mine I was looking at swapping in the 4 pot calipers from a much later model 3 series (I forget which one, but those Blue M calipers that a lot of them have) as the bolt spacing was apparently still the same, I think I was going to couple it with a 750i disc or something.

Looking forward to seeing how you get on with it

Yeah, I’m watching a set on eBay to get an idea on what they sell for, yeah I need to have a look about brake upgrades as bolt on bmw stuff makes it easy.

A big job broke out today





Can’t have the covers missing.

Car started up and done about 45 miles today. All ok, slight knock on suspension, prob wants a bush or something on the front,

I really wanted a black car but there just isn’t the choice of these, but dark blue is a nice colour .



I’m not sure if the car is lowered or anything. Really need to find out.

[welshpug]

definitely lowered!

[HmmDK]

These are good looking estates. It's going to be interesting to see how this ends up.

[pauly22]

Feb 12, 2022 7:41:30 GMT welshpug said:

definitely lowered!

Had a quick look and the springs are bright red so defiantly lowered

A lot of rain today and the sun roof leaked, so knowing the forecast is a lot of rain I switched cars around and put the touring in the car port, but managed to just get it stuck, did get it under cover after half hour of messing.







Made a list of all the bits I need for the car, so once I have the money, will just order everything and get this done.

[pauly22]

My m3 sold on Thursday, so now I can start putting some money into this.

Front brakes are purchased, will rebuild them, fitted some m3 exhaust tips,

Searching for bumpers still

Will have an order to bmw on Monday for some bits and will trawl eBay etc to find a few other bits.

[rm36house]

Great project Sir, I'm following with big interest. And if you go S50 route, than even more!

[squonk]

This is so much better looking than any BMW fron the last 10 years (or longer!).

[pauly22]

Feb 26, 2022 7:30:57 GMT rm36house said:

Great project Sir, I'm following with big interest. And if you go S50 route, than even more!

Yes, it will be powered by s50, or s54

Feb 26, 2022 11:30:10 GMT squonk said:

This is so much better looking than any BMW fron the last 10 years (or longer!).

Wish I had bought one ages ago, much better than new stuff

Managed to get some bits ordered now



Hopefully tick a few more boxes off over the next week or so, and get stuck in, in a month or so

Second child was born on Sunday, had to deliver it myself in a lay-by as it didn’t wait long enough to drive to the hospital, pretty nervous few mins but everything is fine, so spannering time is a bit none existent, but I can order stuff online still.

Most things on the list are easy to find at least.

[aero]

Congrats on the child, you really are a diy enthusiast!

[dandam]

Congratulations, no doubt it will be a special experience you relive through telling it for many years to come

[yoeddynz]

I love these cars. We had a 525tds wagon for a year or two in Oxford just before moving back to NZ. Damn it was a lovely car to drive. Handled well, quiet, refined and very cheap to run. It was also a fantastic tow wagon.

We bought it for 1000 squid and sold it for a little bit more. But for a set of glow plugs we didn't have to do a thing to it. Drove it to Switzerland for a mtbing holiday and it saw 190kph on the autoban so not too shabby at all for a big car.

I wish we had brought it over to NZ with us because the diesel ones were never sold here and there's not a lot of any e34 wags about.

[pauly22]

Picked, up the 540/M5 rear callipers, ordered the USA marker lights and trims from BMW, didn’t make sense trying to find a second hand set and get them shipped from America, bonnet ram struts, and a used steering wheel which will be sent off to be re covered.

Not sure if best to send calipers off to be refurbished, or do it myself.

[pauly22]

Key torch fixed.

[pauly22]

M5 rear discs, £7.69 each from eurocarparts, seems cheap enough.