|
|
Oct 18, 2015 18:31:04 GMT
|
Hi Guys, Long time viewer of the forum but until recently I've never owned anything that would belong here. My 'project' car over the last few years has been an MX-5, however I'm now at the point where I'd need to spend big money/commit time to taking it off the road and going FI to make it any better (in my opinion!). My previous daily, an E39 540i with an LPG conversion, has been moved on after a failing an MOT with a failure list longer than Ron Jeremy's wotsit. As such, I needed another relatively comfy daily car - but I also wanted something with a bit of cool factor! So this car came round at a (relatively) good time and I've always liked the shape, and avus blue is a favourite. The for sale advert was pretty accurate and reasonable - but the car had been sat a while and was pretty dirty. As such I had reservations about buying the car. A quick pub lunch and a think about it had me driving home in this, an auto E34 525i (pictures from the ad): A quick shot taken with adam73bgt 's 750i (he was kind enough to drive me 200 miles to pick it up!). First artsy shot I took, very dirty so luckily it was from a distance! So the car has 115k on the clock, history up to ~70k and the previous owner changed a lot of the usual suspects (read: cooling stuff!). I still need to get the car up in the air and give it a proper going over but I'm pretty happy with it. First thing on the agenda was to give it a good cleaning! Before/after of the leather: Interior cleaned: First on the outside was the wheels, a quick shot with cleaner just applied: An action shot, I didn't think the wheels were that dirty so when they reacted this well I knew they'd come out quite well! And the finished results of wheel cleaning (I had some E30 15" BBS on the MX-5 - this style of wheel is a PAIN to clean!): And finally some pictures of it all finished! Sadly I have no proper tools so everything has been done by hand. At some point I'd like a proper machine polisher etc! My future plans are to clean the car up a bit more. Some trim panels need replacing/reconditioning, I need to get a full set of BMW wheel badges to cover up the Calibre ones and the car will be treated to a full service soon. Thanks for looking! -Matt
|
|
Last Edit: Apr 12, 2017 11:53:14 GMT by Rafftank
1995 BMW E34 525i Sport - Avus Blue on the outside, brown and crusty on the inside! 1998 BMW E36 328i Sport - Daily Commuter
|
|
|
GT4ME
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,729
|
|
Oct 18, 2015 18:50:46 GMT
|
That looks great.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oct 18, 2015 19:17:30 GMT
|
I like that a lot.
|
|
|
|
adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,946
Club RR Member Number: 58
|
1995 BMW E34 525i Sport adam73bgt
@adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member 58
|
Oct 18, 2015 19:39:11 GMT
|
Made quite a difference on that before and after with the leather mate! I didn't realise it was that dirty haha
|
|
|
|
|
1995 BMW E34 525i Sport Mercdan68
@forddan68
Club Retro Rides Member 68
|
Oct 18, 2015 19:44:20 GMT
|
Yes that is very nice!!!
|
|
Fraud owners club member 2003 W211 Mercedes E class 1989 Sierra sapphire 1998 ex bt fiesta van
|
|
|
|
Oct 18, 2015 20:19:43 GMT
|
Very nice mate! What wheel cleaner did you use? That stuff is amazing.
|
|
1974 Skoda S100 tarmac car 1998 BMW 750 daily 1994 Mitsubishi Evo2
|
|
|
|
Oct 18, 2015 20:22:27 GMT
|
Thanks guys it was Wonder Wheels Alloy Cleaner. It doesn't go very far but it's good! I'm looking to get some new cleaner in a larger bottle to dilute down so I don't have to go out and buy some every 5 washes!
|
|
1995 BMW E34 525i Sport - Avus Blue on the outside, brown and crusty on the inside! 1998 BMW E36 328i Sport - Daily Commuter
|
|
l33dwc
Part of things
Posts: 226
|
|
Oct 18, 2015 20:27:13 GMT
|
Sits lovely on those wheels. And the colour makes it as well. Did this reside in North Devon? As it (or one similar ) used to over take me when I was leaving Barnstaple early in the morning.
|
|
Current fleet 1991 Fiesta 1.1 Popular Plus - The garaged queen 2003 Shogun 3.3 DiD - The family truck and general dogsbody 2004 Audi A4 1.8t.- Project that needs Mot 2007 Nissan Note 1.4 - Business car 1 2008 Vauxhall Corsa 1.4 Auto - Business car 2 2014 Toyota Yaris 1.4 - Business cars 3
|
|
|
|
Oct 18, 2015 20:30:54 GMT
|
I am trying hard to convince myself that I don't need a cool old bmw...this does not help! Best colour as well.
|
|
|
|
Al3x
Part of things
Posts: 105
|
|
Oct 18, 2015 20:32:48 GMT
|
This is Really Gorgeous mate i love the colour and the wheels really suit it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oct 18, 2015 20:56:08 GMT
|
Sits lovely on those wheels. And the colour makes it as well. Did this reside in North Devon? As it (or one similar ) used to over take me when I was leaving Barnstaple early in the morning. I picked it up from Barnstaple
Thanks again guys!
I have plans for a few changes/fixes but I'll wait till I actually make progress with them before I let the cat out of the bag..! Gotta keep it interesting
|
|
1995 BMW E34 525i Sport - Avus Blue on the outside, brown and crusty on the inside! 1998 BMW E36 328i Sport - Daily Commuter
|
|
hamps
Posted a lot
www.medwayrscentre.co.uk
Posts: 2,077
|
|
Oct 18, 2015 21:24:00 GMT
|
I want it!!!! thats lush
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oct 20, 2015 20:22:42 GMT
|
Getting up early for work has its rewards (of sorts!)
So first thing on the job list is a simple one. Fix the rear license plate bulb that keeps throwing errors on the dash...
A quick lunch time investigation showed the following:
Its fitted with curse word, cheap bulbs and the contacts are a little mucky. Non-LED Osram bulbs ordered and I'll clean it all up when they arrive.
I also noticed a pretty shoddy fix on the bootlid that I'll fix in time
Along with the plate lights I've also ordered silver/chrome indicator bulbs all round and new BMW centre caps for the wheels.
Finalising my parts order for a full service tomorrow morning. If everything arrives by Saturday I'll have a busy weekend
|
|
Last Edit: Oct 21, 2015 5:52:07 GMT by Rafftank
1995 BMW E34 525i Sport - Avus Blue on the outside, brown and crusty on the inside! 1998 BMW E36 328i Sport - Daily Commuter
|
|
|
|
Oct 20, 2015 21:56:24 GMT
|
Very pretty beading right there!
What is your cleaning/polishing/waxing method/products?
|
|
Current retro - 1996 Alfa Romeo GTV / Daily - 2016 Nissan Qashqai Previous retros - Prelude, Integra, XR2s, XR3s, Orions, CRXs, Sylvia S12, S13, Pulsar, ZX 16v, 205 Gti, MX5, MR2 etc
|
|
|
|
|
Very pretty beading right there! What is your cleaning/polishing/waxing method/products? Thanks For this all I did was rinse/soap/rinse using Meguiars Ultimate Wash soap (two bucket method), clean off all streaking/missed spots after drying with Ultimate Detailer and a microfibre cloth and then seal with one coat of Muc-Off Uber Wax. The wheel currently aren't sealed as I lost interest in cleaning them (such a difficult wheel to clean!) and I may fancy a colour change somewhere down the line so I'm not fussed if they spoil a little over winter Come spring/summer next year if I still have the car I'll do a complete protection removal, clay, polish and reseal with more wax. Sadly I don't have a DA polisher yet so it takes AGES and is never perfect, ho hum
|
|
1995 BMW E34 525i Sport - Avus Blue on the outside, brown and crusty on the inside! 1998 BMW E36 328i Sport - Daily Commuter
|
|
|
|
|
A box! Containing.... A smaller box! Containing... A coolant level sensor! I'm hoping this will cure the annoying beeping/warnings of the failed sensor. I've yet to check the wiring etc but it was so cheap and I don't think it was replaced when the rad/cooling overhaul was done and at ~£10 it can't hurt! Next delivery was some centre caps: Despite them being advertised as 'not like the other cheap stuff on eBay'.. they seem to be exactly that! Oh well, at £6 delivered... The badges do have imperfections but they're a lot better than the mismatched, damaged ones that were fitted. They just needed some fettling to make them fit. Locating clips were removed and I'm filler/smoothing up the back a little - then going to stick them on with some tigerseal/3M pads or something (whatever I can get my hands on!) How they should look fitted: In the mean time I have some sick custom caps that I made up myself... License plate bulbs are in the post so I'm hoping to get the caps and bulbs sorted this weekend. Looks like the service items won't be here until next weekend so that's a job for another time!
|
|
1995 BMW E34 525i Sport - Avus Blue on the outside, brown and crusty on the inside! 1998 BMW E36 328i Sport - Daily Commuter
|
|
|
|
|
Bulbs arrived: Except they weren't a direct fit, eugh. Luckily the bulb housing had enough flex to push the bulbs in anyhoo, and one of the previous bulbs was installed in the same way too so no biggie. Before/after comparison (it's the little things!): I also finished up the caps, I'm pretty please with the fit. And some fitted shots - I think they make a nice improvement (and not bad for less than a tenner!) Annoyingly changing the plate bulbs hasn't fixed the plate light warning message so I need to investigate that, and this morning a tail light was out having changed the indicator bulbs - so that's also next on the list. The service parts haven't arrived so I'll be tackling that another time.
|
|
1995 BMW E34 525i Sport - Avus Blue on the outside, brown and crusty on the inside! 1998 BMW E36 328i Sport - Daily Commuter
|
|
Geordie
North East
Course I'm out of my mind...........it's dark and scary in there!!
Posts: 2,518
|
|
|
Just seen this thread. One of my favourite cars in pretty much the best colour. Looks brilliant mate.
You seem to have the same ethos as me that a damn good clean and attention to the small details go a long way.
Keeping tabs on your progress. Enjoy the car. Slightly jealous.
|
|
CURRENT FLEET '95 Rover 623SLi (65k miles) '99 Renault Laguna Executive '01 Rover 45 TD (minter) '55 BMW 318i (52k miles) '06 Audi A6 (18 year old 'modern' daily)
|
|
|
|
|
Looks a tidy example, I had a 518 years ago and the built quality was immense compared to later cars.
Regards your warning light, check your wiring near the boot hinge, these get pinched/crushed/snapped over time, I had this on my e39.
|
|
|
|
les509
Part of things
Compulsive collector
Posts: 526
|
|
|
As Pete says, common for breaking the loom where it attached on the boot hinge, done quite a few.
|
|
61 Jaguar Mk 10 67 Austin A60 Countryman 69 Morris 1300GT 77 Triumph 2500S 84 Mk2 Granada Ghia Est 86 BMW 635 CSi 87 BMW 635 CSi
|
|
|