1990 BMW 735i Manual - Re-acquired

[rob0r]

I've been lusting about getting another BMW back on the road, as was targetting to fix the red low E28 for the start of the year, then this fell in my lap.





I got it from Bodieandoyle's work and it's pretty luxurious! It's in very good condition and has all of the toys, I shouldn't have a car this nice... It purrs along nicely and drives excellent, I love it!

The deal was I bought it with no wheels so I had to return the 15" BBS. For now I was going to fit the 16" BBS from my E28.




For the E28 I wanted stretch tyres and this combo on 16" on the E32 just looked silly undersized. So I bought some style 5s, 17" x 8" with some lovely dish




All this has been in the space of half a week, it seems pretty hectic It should be getting lower in the forseeable future...

[rodney]

very tidy car , really needs to be slaammed in the weeds , aint these got self levelin tho?? , will it sit lower if you ajust the sencors etc?,.

[grizz]

Lower, off course.

These have to be stupidly good value for money.

[Mark]

Bargain buy of the year. What do you reckon it cost new?

[mcbodge]

Nice one.

Me and my Dad went for a ride in a in a bronzey/champagne coloured 1987 one in about 1989. At the time it seemed incredibly posh and we got a few looks cruising around St Ives in it, squeezing down the narrow streets. As a 12 year old I loved it.

From what I remember the owner said it was something like £35-40k new, 22 years back.

[Chops]

Looks realy clean, these cars are great value luxo-barges that love sitting on the bump-stops
Is it a straight 6 or v8?

[rob0r]

Cheers guys, with the car in this condition it really was a steal

MrRodney: The suspension is just simple coil/shocks all round, luckily in one way that there is no self levelling for my plans.

The rest: 'Course it will be slammed! For the meantime I'll lop a few coils off, but I have a coilover conversion kit for the front coming in the post and I already have coilovers for the back. It will be a while though before I coilover it since I'd ideally want to find some shorter housing sport shocks for the front so I can get the struts cut for maximum lowness and keep some dampening properties in the suspension!

Chops: A silky 6 in this puppy. Do you have a link to your E32 so I can go have a look? Presuming its the one in your avatar it looks amazing... Have I seen it at the Retro-Rides shows?

[Chops]

Dec 14, 2009 13:59:39 GMT rob0r said:

Chops: A silky 6 in this puppy. Do you have a link to your E32 so I can go have a look? Presuming its the one in your avatar it looks amazing... Have I seen it at the Retro-Rides shows?

There is a build thread on the Lordz lowrider site but I just checked and all the pics are buggered .......I might start one on here
I had it at RRG08 and RRG09 so you might have seen it


EDIT: BM thread here

[will]

Looks good, like the fold down tables

[griffo20022]

White E32 on Style 5's Christ if I rub my knees anymore i'll be on fire!

[mrzee]

I soooo need another beemer in my life

[surprisingskoda]

Does the 32 not share any suspension with any of the other models? You can get ready made suspensions for the 5 ranges, surely something will fit?

[whitbytom]

Love this Rob, we must get mine and yours together at some point. 7's are most definitely ftw.

Oh and I want your style 5's please!

[Mark]

After seeing this last night I deffo need an e32.

[rob0r]

Dec 16, 2009 1:34:13 GMT surprisingskoda said:

Does the 32 not share any suspension with any of the other models? You can get ready made suspensions for the 5 ranges, surely something will fit?

Hey, as far as I can make out the shocks and struts are interchangeable as long as you have the right diameter top mounts to fit the shocks (got bigger over the years). I'm sorted at the back with E28 sport shocks converted to coilovers. Fronts will be more tricky, I've got a coilover conversion kit, 400lbs 2.5 springs (harder than I want, but cheap!) and E34 struts to abuse. My E32 came with Mtec suspension and I want to keep the original stuff together, so I'm currently looking for E34 lowering shocks so I can slam it and not worry about blowing the original shocks!

Cheers Tom, definitely should get them together. I think we share similar tastes... E21s and now 7 series! This should be hitting the shows/meets this year, maybe with an E21 on tow.

[whitbytom]

The E32 with a '21 on tow would be a winning combination!

I'll try and make my first RR gathering this year, if I put a tenner a week away between now and then I may just be able to afford the fuel!

Running a 7 on coilovers is the ultimate sacrifice I reckon. A car renowned for its comfy waftiness, slammed hard on its bump stops! I need to investigate if mine's got self levelling or just springs and shocks, fingers crossed for the latter

[Chops]

Jan 13, 2010 19:53:49 GMT rob0r said:

Dec 16, 2009 1:34:13 GMT surprisingskoda said:

Does the 32 not share any suspension with any of the other models? You can get ready made suspensions for the 5 ranges, surely something will fit?

Hey, as far as I can make out the shocks and struts are interchangeable as long as you have the right diameter top mounts to fit the shocks (got bigger over the years). I'm sorted at the back with E28 sport shocks converted to coilovers. Fronts will be more tricky, I've got a coilover conversion kit, 400lbs 2.5 springs (harder than I want, but cheap!) and E34 struts to abuse. My E32 came with Mtec suspension and I want to keep the original stuff together, so I'm currently looking for E34 lowering shocks so I can slam it and not worry about blowing the original shocks!

Cheers Tom, definitely should get them together. I think we share similar tastes... E21s and now 7 series! This should be hitting the shows/meets this year, maybe with an E21 on tow.

I'm pretty sure I've got a pair of brand new front springs for an E32 somewhere in the shed, let me know if they're any use to you

[rob0r]

Tom: My only concern is that it might trash the ride of the car, obviously this is going to happen but I'm hoping it won't be too bad... It hasn't cost me much yet so thats why I'm trying to keep the original suspension in one piece if I wuss out!

Chops: Thanks for the offer, I might of gone for them if I was chopping the springs but going coilovers will save the original suspension.

Cheers

[mclellanmac]

All this Luxo Barge action is exciting me no end, i need to get rid of the hastle MGB and get something Huge and German! No sausage jokes please!

[rob0r]

Since the E21 is due to take the 735's insurance in the coming months, I had resigned the 735 to the fact it will lanquish in the sheds for the forseeable future. I've not changed the car at all since fitting the BBS, I guess I didn't have the balls to modify such a lovely car, until this week. Halfway through last week I decided to take it to wheels day - slammed. I put in some late nights this week but I failed to get it there as I chose sleep over a 4-5am bedtime this morning. My alarm failed to go off so I never made it to wheels day anyway...

I've DIY coilovered some E34 struts (same fitment as E32) with the help of a compbrake 2.5" coilover conversion kit and some rather hard springs. By the end of the last night I had only sorted the front end, here's the results

Before


way too much thin air...


E34 525i struts, with f'kd discs


Cut the spring perches off, grind flat, slide down the coilover sleeve (perfect fit!) and work out where to weld it, then I got Edd's trusty mig skills to lay down some welds and lathe skills to turn down the shock nuts. Reassemble and copper slip the hell out of it!


BAM!










Even though the rear is untouched, it doesn't look too bad IMO!


The front wheels are spacered out 20mm each since the tyres hit the spring, smaller tyres should sort that out and it should look great. Now I just need time to coilover convert the rear!

Thanks to Edd for taking time out of his hectic schedule