Butler's E34 M5 Barn Find Restoration

[Bmwdayz]

If you want to sell those turbine cover let me know :) I would tune it up and drive it just like you found it!

[Reubenjd]

Just saw a clean black m5 yesterday, reminded me of how much I want one. Have fun with this one!

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

[Butler]

Clean up phase 2: Washing


M5_wash up-1 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

M5_wash up-2 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

The paint looks a teeny bit decent here. Not actually the case

M5_wash up-3 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

M5_wash up-4 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

M5_wash up-5 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

M5_wash up-7 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

M5_wash up-8 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

M5_wash up-10 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


OK, now time to move on the wheels! Damn, these wheels are really annoying to clean.

Before shots here -


M5_barnfind-20 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


And cleaned up!

M5_wash up-12 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

M5_wash up-11 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


From here, I moved on to the interior. I gave it a hefty vacuuming and wipe down but that barely made a difference. Its freakin nasty in here. Why u live in filth previous owner? :hitler:


M5_wash up-14 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


M5_wash up-15 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


M5_wash up-16 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


Beat down shift knob. Its illuminated though, I'll go out tonight and see if it still lights up. doubt it though lol :roll:
M5_wash up-17 by Nick Butler, on Flickr




What the hell is all this weird orange stuff in the center console!? Ughhh

M5_wash up-18 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

M5_wash up-20 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


Pulled all the pieces out to scrub individually.

M5_wash up-21 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


How do I re-glue this part of the center console? Any advice?
Untitled by Nick Butler, on Flickr




More nasty!

M5_wash up-22 by Nick Butler, on Flickr



I moved on to the trunk. There I found the new car binder. Had the owners manual, accessories brochure (which is ridiculous and 90s), the radio and CD changer operating manual as well as some random bits from the dealer it came from. The one and only thing it doesn't have is the radio code! Am I SOL? What other options do I have to reset the factory radio?

original spare tire!

M5_wash up-26 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


All cleaned up. I replaced a burned out brake light while I was back there. I took the tails out and cleaned them up the best I could. No pics of that. Trunk net is pretty handy. I should get one for our other cars.

M5_wash up-27 by Nick Butler, on Flickr



Time to get the center console back together! Its better but not passable by my standards. I'll come back and figure out how to make it look really nice and factory fresh again.

M5_wash up-30 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

M5_wash up-25 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


M5_wash up-29 by Nick Butler, on Flickr


Lots of elbow grease to get to this point.

M5_wash up-28 by Nick Butler, on Flickr




Here are 2 random S38 pics for fun. I hosed it off a little just to get the dust off of everything.

Untitled by Nick Butler, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Butler, on Flickr



Continuing today's madness, I clay bar'd, polished and waxed a small section of the hood just to see what it would look like. Sadly I was really disappointed. Im an amateur detailer so I thought I was going to make it look amazing again... hahah! shit I was far from it. The paint is smooth but there are millions of tiny cracks in the clear. It looks ok from 10 feet - just dull old silver.

Untitled by Nick Butler, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Butler, on Flickr




And that was my first 24 hours of ownership! Time to go drink and relax a bit.
Cheers!

M5_wash up-31 by Nick Butler, on Flickr

[F34R]

VERY nice! the e34 M5 is one of the best M cars for daily use.

[TimeMachinE30]

Very wonderful.

The orange looks like headliner adhesive...

[pandaboo911]

To reglue that leather you best bet is to try and use spray headliner adhesive. The 3m stuff is good.

http://www.amazon.com/3M-38808-Headliner-Fabric-Adhesive/dp/B004MEBENM

I would pull the whole leather piece off and spray it with the adhesive though, kinda hard to get an even coat in that little space. Just wait till the adhesive is tacky and it'll stick without creating wrinkles.

[Porthos]

Bro I feel you on the interior. I had a 525i Touring a couple of years ago and the interior was just horrible. About as bad as yours and it took me 4 full days of cleaning the exterior and interior to get it clean. There was baby formula that had been spilled on the carpet in the back and I think there might have been vomit too. There were Fruit Loops everywhere(fuck that cereal I will no longer eat it because of that) and broken toys and cigarette ash in everything. This slime/spooge took me shampooing and vacuuming the car out to get it done. Though damn it was clean when I got done.

TL;DR
Care was filled with body excrement and I cleaned it.

OP you got a sweet ride and I am looking forward to your restore.

[Kershaw]

Pressure washing your paint does irreparable damage to it. Good job. If you don't care about the car, sure, pressure wash and drive through car wash it. If you do care about the car, you should be hand washing only.

[dishwab]

Nicely done! It's amazing what a little hard work will do to make a car look presentable again

[Eric]

Well done man! Some days I miss my old M5, it was a great car

[dude8383]

Love the story behind this... kinda motivates me to talk to a few locals around with some cool cars in their driveways.

Car still has a way to go but it looks like its on the right path! Congrats on the purchase man :up:

[bostonvert]

Lovely writeup! I always enjoy reading stories like that here.

Glad to see this car is getting some much needed attention, e34 m's just look so right!

I should really pay a visit to a local old guy with a neglected e24 in his yard..

[jhaurimn]

Man, that m5 just got more love in 24 hours than it has in years. Its probably so happy :)

[KIRIEIW]

This thing's awesome man, loving the detailed pics of the condition it's in now. Once it's cleaned up those pic's will be a constant reminder on how much work you've actually done.

[ThatOneEuroE30]

so lucky... cant wait to see where this goes