Here is my new project street car! It is a 1989 E34 535is. Here is a bit of back story about why I got the car, the good, the bad and my plans for it.
As some of you may know I have another BMW. An E30 318is with a M3 S14 trackcar. Ever since I took it off the road I miss driving a nice car around. I love going for a Sunday drive, quick strap around the block or just driving a nice car to work. I kind of lost motivation on the track car as it feels like I constantly poor money into but never getting to drive it! Hopefully this car will give me my driving fix and I can get my focus back for the trackcar.
The back story.
I have had my eye on this car for awhile. It was a friends car and it has been sitting at his house with a blown auto for over a year and a half. I have been bugging him for about 3 months to sell it to me. It just so happens that I have a set of BBS wheels that he has always wanted so we made a deal and I went and picked it up. After a year and a half of not starting the battery is dead (no surprise) so we hooked up a jump pack and it started after about 2 cranks! It then hunted for about 10 seconds then idled beautifully. Unfortunately I don't get to keep the wheels so I am over to ideas for a nice set of 17s.
The good.
Well it's a BMW, so what's not to like? It has a bunch of rare (in Australia) parts. It is a factory 535is which means it has black leather sports seats, sports body kit and LSD. It has a new fuel pump and new front shocks and springs. He has also given me a manual pedal box/steering column and flywheel for later on.
The bad.
Well the auto is blown, sort of. My friend seems to think it could be as simple as a new auto computer as it isn't slipping. I drove it into my car trailer. Apparently it holds gears and shifts harsh. So I will swap computers and change the fluid (hopefully that fixes it). As you can see from the photos and paint isn't great. It will need a re-spray but that isn't high on the list of things to do. Also the interior could do with a good tidy up. A few bits of trim are cracked and the hood lining is a little sagged.
The plan.
Well as I stated before this is a street car. So there will be no super wide wheels or slammed ride height. I have done that to a few nice cars and it seems to ruin them! I really want to restore this car to a period correct specification. Here is my basic to-do in order of importance.
New battery
Fix auto
Major service, all fluids and filters.
Registration
Have fun driving it and sort of the bugs
Upgrade suspension and brakes
Manual conversion
Engine work, exhaust and ECU chip.
Re-spray
Stayed tuned for some updates! Here are some pics.
As some of you may know I have another BMW. An E30 318is with a M3 S14 trackcar. Ever since I took it off the road I miss driving a nice car around. I love going for a Sunday drive, quick strap around the block or just driving a nice car to work. I kind of lost motivation on the track car as it feels like I constantly poor money into but never getting to drive it! Hopefully this car will give me my driving fix and I can get my focus back for the trackcar.
The back story.
I have had my eye on this car for awhile. It was a friends car and it has been sitting at his house with a blown auto for over a year and a half. I have been bugging him for about 3 months to sell it to me. It just so happens that I have a set of BBS wheels that he has always wanted so we made a deal and I went and picked it up. After a year and a half of not starting the battery is dead (no surprise) so we hooked up a jump pack and it started after about 2 cranks! It then hunted for about 10 seconds then idled beautifully. Unfortunately I don't get to keep the wheels so I am over to ideas for a nice set of 17s.
The good.
Well it's a BMW, so what's not to like? It has a bunch of rare (in Australia) parts. It is a factory 535is which means it has black leather sports seats, sports body kit and LSD. It has a new fuel pump and new front shocks and springs. He has also given me a manual pedal box/steering column and flywheel for later on.
The bad.
Well the auto is blown, sort of. My friend seems to think it could be as simple as a new auto computer as it isn't slipping. I drove it into my car trailer. Apparently it holds gears and shifts harsh. So I will swap computers and change the fluid (hopefully that fixes it). As you can see from the photos and paint isn't great. It will need a re-spray but that isn't high on the list of things to do. Also the interior could do with a good tidy up. A few bits of trim are cracked and the hood lining is a little sagged.
The plan.
Well as I stated before this is a street car. So there will be no super wide wheels or slammed ride height. I have done that to a few nice cars and it seems to ruin them! I really want to restore this car to a period correct specification. Here is my basic to-do in order of importance.
New battery
Fix auto
Major service, all fluids and filters.
Registration
Have fun driving it and sort of the bugs
Upgrade suspension and brakes
Manual conversion
Engine work, exhaust and ECU chip.
Re-spray
Stayed tuned for some updates! Here are some pics.
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