I've always wanted an m535i. About 15 years ago I had an e28 520i and lusted after an m535i. I've been wanting to get one for the last few years but everytime I've had the money there's not been one for sale or they've been to expensive so I've always bought something else instead.
When I was selling my e21 I got offered a deal on this M535i so I went for it. First off it's an auto and I wanted a manual but I can live with that. It's misssing it's m-tec body kit but I prefer that look anyway.
It's not exactly in great condition. Sure it look okay from about 20 feet away but it's a bitsa car. I'm pretty sure every panel that's not welded on is from a different car as nothing really lines up.
The bonnet is a mess of dents and scratches and the boots not much better. There's flaky laquer and a few rusty bits.
Shut lines consitant with a barn door.
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The good bit is the engine's sweet and it's really quick. It feels quicker than my old e34 535i sport and there's no funny chain rattles or tapping. It says 94k on the clock and that could be genuine.
The interiors a love it or hate it deal but is in great condition.
So far I've just been dealing with all the bits so I can drive it.
It kept blowing fuses so the wipers and indicators would cut out. I found the problem but not before it left me 10 miles from home without wipers and indicators in the pouring rain (twice).
I replaced the bonnet cable and as usual with this thing the 2nd hand cable didn;t fit. You really shouldn;t have to take an angle grinder to a bonnet cable. A 20 minute job turned into 2 hours.
The front speakers where half the size of the original holes so they fell out. I bought an original set of speaker from ebay but the u-bolts that hold them onto the car where missing.
Stuff like this really annoys me as where the hell am I going to get them from? I ended up gluegunning the speaker holders to the metal so at least have some tunes until I can source some u-bolts that fit.
The heater blower was squeeking and driving me crazy. I took it out and cleaned it up. It was working great until today when it stopped working for no good reason.
There's dents a plenty. The driverside wing really needs replaced as does the bonnet. I've straighened the front of the bonnet but there'll be a lot of work in getting it straight for paint.
There's a few rusty bits including a hole under the rear window. I had about an hour when it wasn't raining so scooted around the car and ground all the rust off. I then ku-rusted it and bodged a lump of filler into the hole and painted over all the previous rusty bits with rust proof paint. This is just to stop it getting worse before I figure out what the hell I'm going to do with it.
It looks bad and it is. I had to splodge enough filler into it to fill the hole before it started raining.
To cheer myself up I bought a cone filter from ebay and went to fit it but obviously it didn't fit onto the current pipe. Because the side that that goes into the air mass box is 8cm and the side the goes into the airbox is 7cm the pipes not easy to replace.
After much scratch of heads and looking through adaptors in the local autofactors the solution turned out to be a £2.49 bit of pipe for fitting house guttering from homebase.
Sawing
Assembled
Finally in the car. I left the bottom of the airbox in to act as a bit of a heat shield so it doesn't pull in the hot air from the engine.
There's plenty to do. I'd rather get it driving good first then tackle the bodywork. It's got a bit of that classic 5 series shimmy so new suspension arms could be on the cards. There's a clunk from the rear when I lift off, which is hopefully just a bush.
That's it for now.
When I was selling my e21 I got offered a deal on this M535i so I went for it. First off it's an auto and I wanted a manual but I can live with that. It's misssing it's m-tec body kit but I prefer that look anyway.
It's not exactly in great condition. Sure it look okay from about 20 feet away but it's a bitsa car. I'm pretty sure every panel that's not welded on is from a different car as nothing really lines up.
The bonnet is a mess of dents and scratches and the boots not much better. There's flaky laquer and a few rusty bits.
Shut lines consitant with a barn door.
[/img]The good bit is the engine's sweet and it's really quick. It feels quicker than my old e34 535i sport and there's no funny chain rattles or tapping. It says 94k on the clock and that could be genuine.
The interiors a love it or hate it deal but is in great condition.
So far I've just been dealing with all the bits so I can drive it.
It kept blowing fuses so the wipers and indicators would cut out. I found the problem but not before it left me 10 miles from home without wipers and indicators in the pouring rain (twice).
I replaced the bonnet cable and as usual with this thing the 2nd hand cable didn;t fit. You really shouldn;t have to take an angle grinder to a bonnet cable. A 20 minute job turned into 2 hours.
The front speakers where half the size of the original holes so they fell out. I bought an original set of speaker from ebay but the u-bolts that hold them onto the car where missing.
Stuff like this really annoys me as where the hell am I going to get them from? I ended up gluegunning the speaker holders to the metal so at least have some tunes until I can source some u-bolts that fit.
The heater blower was squeeking and driving me crazy. I took it out and cleaned it up. It was working great until today when it stopped working for no good reason.
There's dents a plenty. The driverside wing really needs replaced as does the bonnet. I've straighened the front of the bonnet but there'll be a lot of work in getting it straight for paint.
There's a few rusty bits including a hole under the rear window. I had about an hour when it wasn't raining so scooted around the car and ground all the rust off. I then ku-rusted it and bodged a lump of filler into the hole and painted over all the previous rusty bits with rust proof paint. This is just to stop it getting worse before I figure out what the hell I'm going to do with it.
It looks bad and it is. I had to splodge enough filler into it to fill the hole before it started raining.
To cheer myself up I bought a cone filter from ebay and went to fit it but obviously it didn't fit onto the current pipe. Because the side that that goes into the air mass box is 8cm and the side the goes into the airbox is 7cm the pipes not easy to replace.
After much scratch of heads and looking through adaptors in the local autofactors the solution turned out to be a £2.49 bit of pipe for fitting house guttering from homebase.
Sawing
Assembled
Finally in the car. I left the bottom of the airbox in to act as a bit of a heat shield so it doesn't pull in the hot air from the engine.
There's plenty to do. I'd rather get it driving good first then tackle the bodywork. It's got a bit of that classic 5 series shimmy so new suspension arms could be on the cards. There's a clunk from the rear when I lift off, which is hopefully just a bush.
That's it for now.
subframe mounts!