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Apr 24, 2020 22:40:04 GMT
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Hey guys, long time lurker, fairly recent poster. Thought it would be of interest doing a thread about my E34 which just about sneaks into retro territory. To start off we need to go back a few years before I bought my E34. The year was 2012, I'd finished my undergrad at uni, was going into the summer before starting my masters and about to go to my first Download festival (this is relevant, so bare with me). On the way there I had been (through my dad) bidding on an E28 that I'd had my eye on when advertised on here. Long story short, we won it whilst I was getting drunk listening to rock and metal, so my dad was enlisted to get over to England to pick it up, whilst I was still getting drunk listening to rock and metal. That done, I got picked up at the airport in my new daily driver (I'm from Northern Ireland). It looked like this:  I did, and still do love that car. I still have it, albeit in bits. After a while I started to gather bits to put air suspension in it, change the wheels with wider radinox dishes etc. Unfortunately for the E28 2 things happened. 1) I made a balls of measuring for dishes and ended up with wheels that were way, way too big, and 2) I got my first proper job. In Essex. That needed a car. So I had to move a fair distance and needed a 'sensible daily'. So about a month and a half before the big move (with Christmas and New Years in between) I bought this:  It cleaned up ok:  Then the typical 'hmm I wonder...' happened:  curse word, so this was not only a good service before moving, but also install air ride that me and dad had never done before  On Christmas Eve we got it like this, with some minor air leaks:  I've never been as happy with one of my cars than I was with this. A few days tweaking had the air leaks fixed, and the Schnitzers were put away, standard wheels back on, and it went to England with me as a daily for...3 whole months. I decided I wanted to have this as the good car back home, and buy a cheap daily (Ignis Sport). This is only update 1, I'll be updating this thread to get fully update with this car as it sits now. If any of you have been to Players Classic the past 2 years, or some other UK shows you may know the car! |
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Marc
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,037
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Apr 25, 2020 11:05:38 GMT
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Goddamn that's nice! Well looking forward to seeing more!
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Apr 25, 2020 12:57:55 GMT
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Beautiful,
(But if you check out my thumbnail picture you'll see why I'm biased lol,)
Bookmarked
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BMW E39 525i Sport
BMW E46 320d Sport Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 325 Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 320 Cabriolet (Project car - currently for sale.)
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neil79
Part of things
Posts: 141 
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Oh my word.... If you ever decide you're tired with the wheels.....
Can you tell us more about the air suspension install. I want to lower my E34.
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Apr 28, 2020 12:17:46 GMT
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Up to 2017 now, again show season was approaching, so last minute dash to get the car in shape for Dubshed. Got on the Airlift stand.  Fitted a coolworx shifter, nice and tight shifting, and plenty of adjustment:  Got a US front number plate blank for show use as well:  At this time I had started to think what to do next, so started gathering funds to take it up a notch, also started into tidying the wiring in the engine bay to make sure things would work for the next step. Did a run down to Rollhard at Cressing Temple, when I say run I mean it haha, ferry over to Scotland the night before, drive through the night to arrive in Cressing when the guys were setting up the show and drive straight to Wales to get the ferry back to Dublin and another just under 2 hour drive back home. Only done that approach once, and it does tire you out!  |
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Apr 28, 2020 12:26:59 GMT
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Apr 28, 2020 12:35:50 GMT
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This is how it sat on the Sunday before the show. It was meant to be on the ferry the Friday morning after.  I'd managed to find AC Schnitzer mirrors and put on an AC Schnitzer boot spoiler too with an E30 M3 gurney added. Annnnddd this is how it went on the ferry:  Clutch hydraulics defeated us, a brand new master cylinder was garbage, and then wrecked 2 slave cylinders do to a slight mistake putting the new clutch in. Regardless, we got there. At the time of arriving at the hotel on Friday night around 9, I had been awake since the Thursday morning. Got all parked up at Players Classic in a space I never expected which I was over the moon at:  And came home with a top 10 Meguiars Paddock trophy on the Sunday!  Bit of background to the bulkhead panel, that was made a few days before the show, had been satin black until my painter saw it when leaving parts to me and insisted that he painted it. It was firmly version one here. |
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urbanaw
Part of things
Posts: 249
Club RR Member Number: 17
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1995 BMW E34 525i Sporturbanaw
@urbanaw
Club Retro Rides Member 17
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Apr 28, 2020 13:32:02 GMT
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You cannot beat a face lift e34 when it comes to looks within the 5 series family.
Stunning. Retro.
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Apr 28, 2020 16:11:42 GMT
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Beautiful !!
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BMW E39 525i Sport
BMW E46 320d Sport Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 325 Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 320 Cabriolet (Project car - currently for sale.)
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Apr 28, 2020 20:17:21 GMT
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Oh my word.... If you ever decide you're tired with the wheels..... Can you tell us more about the air suspension install. I want to lower my E34. Hah, I cannot think of another set of wheels I would want for it, so I'm afraid they will be prisoners for life! Er, the air was really no more difficult than fitting coilovers to one of these. So there's a bit of welding needed to fit the struts. we ran the airlines inside as far as could be done, and put the air tank and compressor in between the rear turrets in the boot with a wall to hide it. Most times I use the car it'll be taking it away from home for a weekend at least, so need to have a functional boot. Unfortunately, as the air install was a bit of a last minute job we didn't take any pictures during the install. If I recall correctly Stanceworks did a blog feature years back on installing the same struts to Mike's E28, it was pretty much the guide we worked off. The Airlift stuff was properly nice to work with, and would happily put it in most cars I have now! It drives very nicely on it too! |
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May 15, 2020 20:12:04 GMT
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Back again after a few weeks to try and get this thread totally up to date! As a little background, this is what the E34 shares the garage with, unfortunately they are all projects. The 205 is a pukka French import Rallye, so twin 40s from the factory. I've had it since I was in first year of uni 10 years ago (frightening!), and it's now a bare shell waiting for a weld in cage and engine bay and floor paint. The Subaru is a 1995 WRX RA that I was offered at money that was far, far too cheap to refuse. It needs shocks at present, so perfect opportunity to re-bush everything and upgrade the suspension generally. Never thought I would like them, but it's brilliant.  Anyway, back to the E34. I bought 135i 6 pot front brakes, got them refurbed (and still have to fit them).  A few months down the line I bought a pair of Cobra Nogaros, wanted the right mix of comfort and subtly different enough quality seats without paying period correct Recaro money.  Went to Cleanfest in Scotland and got talking to Del at Optimus Trimming about my options for an interior re-trim.... Then went to Ultimate Stance 2018, on the Rollhard stand in good company  Then pulled it apart again.  Got some front end bits powder coated   |
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May 15, 2020 20:24:50 GMT
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Got the engine looking prettier  Got my friend to beadroll the bulkhead panel for me to make it look a bit more OEM (in my opinion).  Got updates from Optimus on the re-trim - leather dash, doorcards, centre console, Harris tweed centres and new Bridge of Weir leather on the seats and then alcantara pillar trim and parcel shelf.  Back together for the home show, Dubshed   Went for a fishing / car show / camping weekend with my mates in the middle of Ireland (my buddies Mk2 golf is a Fire and Ice on air, with a R32 engine)  Players Classic 2019, and another genuinely unexpected top 10 Meguiars Paddock award on the Sunday  Also, whilst at Ultimate Stance 2018, Ade did a shoot of the car, and I got a Perfomance BMW feature. I Never thought I would have a 'show car' never mind a mag feature car, so was well chuffed!   |
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May 15, 2020 20:53:49 GMT
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Stopped off at Caffeine and Machine on the way to Rollhard in Bicester Heritage (2 things I fully recommend when things get back to normal) and got some nice photos taken.    After that in August I got home, had a few weekends off, and then went to Cleanfest in Edinburgh and then Players in North Weald the week after. Safe to say that one of the shortest trips I had was to Edinburgh for Cleanfest!   Then a small local show held in the area where the Titanic was built.  Hard to believe that was the last thing I had the car at. Bought some more bits in the meantime and done some more work to it. Nice new intake manifold and massive throttle body (for future things, but couldn't resist test fitting it).  Freshly powdercoated and polybushed back suspension.  Got the wheels refinished, frozen silver centres and satin black barrels just to change it a bit, still to get the tyres back on.  Front end got Moosehead Upper Control Arm spherical bearings.  and E31 lower control arms  and I also fitted VAC Engineering Billet pullies  |
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May 15, 2020 20:57:57 GMT
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That very quickly gets us up to speed, I am now waiting for a new Holset HX35 turbo to arrive, and a turbo manifold before I spend more on bits to build the engine to take forced induction. Exciting times ahead. It was always meant to be a daily! Some more (unfortunately slightly grainy) interior shots   |
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Mark
Posted a lot
Posts: 3,825
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Lovely. I never liked e34 interiors but yours is beautifully done.
What's that intake please?
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E36 BMW 318is saloon (rare as a hens false tooth)
VW Caddy Maxi 2010 (usually full of Labradors)
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May 31, 2020 18:50:04 GMT
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Lovely. I never liked e34 interiors but yours is beautifully done. What's that intake please? Thanks! Yea, overall I still prefer E28s truth be told, but this has just spiraled in the past few years! The intake is the 'budget' one that Pure Performance Factory sell, it comes with the throttle body and a nice fuel rail and fittings etc. Really is a nicely put together bit of kit, and at the minute is way OTT for the car, so has been put away again after the test fit. I have been using my lockdown productively by starting buying more bits for the next part of this - turbo! I have bought a FTWL Motorsport Log Manifold from Poland and a Holset HX35. Test fitted those and thankfully seem to be ok fit wise. Downpipe will be fun but a friend of mine has offered to make it when the time comes for that. An intercooler is going to be an issue as I refuse to cut into the bumper and there isnt much room behind it without doing that, so looking into charge coolers. Given the nature of the bay it's going to be doubly hard as I want everything to still be neat and tidy.  Air intake is also going to be tight, I also want to run an oil cooler so have to magic somewhere for that too! Thankfully another friend who was a big help when doing the engine bay is quite handy with CAD so we are looking into drawing something up to have made as a neater package for the radiator, chargecooler rad and chargecooler. |
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Well, it's been a while. Unfortunately no further on with the turbo. For 2 reasons. Firstly I invested in a 2nd set of wheels. Work Meister S1 3 piece.   After what felt like a lifetime I went to the Rollhard show at Bicester Heritage, it was excellent as usual. And, erm, I got stuck into another long term project which has spiralled rapidly out of hand....   The golf probably merits its own build thread but essentially it will be 3.2 24v vr6 on itbs, shaved bay, static low with standard interior aside from CAE shifter. Plan is to do the golf, then have something for shows while finishing the bmw. The work wheels were just a right place right time thing. |
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