Bitten by the e34 bug.

[etcetera]

I bought my 525i as a fun DD with decent mpg's. The plan was to just clean it up a bit and maintain it. Now that I've driven it for a couple weeks, I've decided (with a little persuasion from a few board members) to put a little bit more into it and make it a really nice car again.

I recently sold my 01 F-250 Crew Cab, and originally budgeted about $5000 for a daily driver when I picked this up. I've decided to put that much into it and see where that gets me. I imagine I'll $1000 over budget by the time it's all said and done.

$1600 Purchase price 93 525i 5 speed 182k miles Oxford Green metalic/silver gray. Well maintained mechanically. Newer radiator, water pump, clutch. Just had spark plugs and valve cover gasket. Cosmetically it's rough. Just an occasional wax and some leather treatment would have went a long ways.

$500 E60 5 spoke 17's with near new 225/50R17 Continental OEM tires from a 2006.

$600 Koni's Sports front and rear (on order, Ebay)

$225 Lowering (Eibach?) springs (Haven't quite ordered yet, not set on brand)

$400-540 for front and rear suspension components. (Meyle worth the extra?) Doing the shotgun approach here. I don't want to be chasing problems.

$25 injector O-rings, pintle caps, etc. (ebay, used him before with good results)

$100 for strut mounts

$150 for some misc trim pieces and hardware

$0 Traded computer work for tint, yet to be done.

$0 Added subwoofer from the truck. Just a cheap bazooka, but it gives it just enough bass to fill in the bottom end.

Paint? $500-???? I have a friend who is good but slowww. Not sure how long I want to be without it. My neighbor had his mid 90's camaro painted at Maaco about 4 years ago and it still looks great. Relatively cheap with a warranty. I got a couple suggestions from another thread that I'll follow up on.

I'll probably order an EAT chip, even if it puts me over budget.

The budget isn't fixed exactly. It needs a rear seat, the seams are split on top from the leather shrinking. The rest of the interior is OK.

I've been told silver gray is a hard interior color to find. Hopefully I'll luck out.

Other than an alignment and paint all work will be done by me. I'll get all the mechanical stuff done first, then paint. Don't want to risk a clumsy accident causing a scratch.

The one thing I forgot to do was take some pics with the when I first brought it home. Just a good wash helped a lot, but the clear coat is wasted on all top surfaces. Zero rust and only a couple door dings though.

Am I missing anything?

[Boom n Zoom]

Welcome to the delights of the E34, I'm sure you'll enjoy your experience

Looks like a good buy, those rims do look good (Do a search for Mr Project and look at his sig pic same rims, same exterior colour just in touring flavour )

I didn't realize the silver gray interior was difficult to obtain. Was it not a popular option in the states?

Tip on the suspension items, get the Lemforder parts as they are a superior quality to the Meyle items, this is just from reading posts on this board.

Please do keep us updated with pics on your progress.

Cheers and have fun!

[Ross]

HA HA Sucker!
Seriously, the car will reward you. My only advice is to do any deferred maintainance and all needed freshening before spending on mods. If the budget is shot from goodies and real service gets put off it can become an unpleasant experience.
Enjoy

[etcetera]

HA HA Sucker!
Seriously, the car will reward you. My only advice is to do any deferred maintainance and all needed freshening before spending on mods. If the budget is shot from goodies and real service gets put off it can become an unpleasant experience.
Enjoy

I totally agree with performing the regular service. I replaced all the oils when I got it. There are a couple hoses that look original so those will be getting swapped out once my coolant level sensor gets here. I didn't add that stuff to the budget because I thought of it as maintenance.

I didn't realize the silver gray interior was difficult to obtain. Was it not a popular option in the states?

Hopefully I'm wrong. I've only checked a couple places. One guy who parts out a few at a time locally told me someone broke into his car and stole the silver gray interior and some other parts but left the stereo?!? Maybe he was pulling my leg. There are a couple decent BMW salvage yards around that I haven't checked with because they are expensive. I guess as a last resort.

What about HAMBURG-TECHNIC? I imagine then they are a step below Meyle. Looks like I'll add to the budget for suspension and get lemforder.

I thought I was going to need a brake light switch because of the message on the computer. All the lights worked. I checked them and they were pretty crusty looking, probably original parts. Replaced them and the message went away. Same with the parking light message. Replaced the bulbs and message went away. The LKM must be pretty sensitive. At least it's a better setup than the 91 Jag I had.

[Ross]

Hamburg technic is regarded as inferior, there was a post by Shogun I believe a while back.
Did you say you formerly had a Jag? The E34's weaknesses are so few by comparison.

[etcetera]

Did you say you formerly had a Jag? The E34's weaknesses are so few by comparison.

You can say that again. The Jag was a nightmare electronically.

[Spasso]

You can say that again. The Jag was a nightmare electronically.

Lucas, Prince of Darkness (intermittant light)

[Ross]

Legend on Lucas headlight switches reads; OFF- DIM -FLICKER

[BFEINZIMER]

check those headlights to euros and put hid's in, ull love it!

[etcetera]

check those headlights to euros and put hid's in, ull love it!

I've been salivating over that setup. I have a broken high beam lens, the perfect excuse. It'll wait till suspension and paint though.

I'm so glad I didn't order the FCP Hamburg Technic kit. Just got done reading a dozen or so threads with lots of problems.