Lucky Number Seven: My 7th E28

[M.Burroughs]

Well, after Rusty went up in flames, I knew I needed a new project... so here she is:

1982 BMW 525i


I picked it up late last night and have had it for about 24 hours now. I gave $1500 for it.

She's a gray-market import, brought over in the early '80s. When the car was federalized, it was swapped to an M30 for reasons unknown, but either way, it is awesome to have the 535 powerplant.

It's got some awesome euro-only bits...
It's a 525i, which was never offered in the US.
She's Kastanienrot (Chestnut Red) which is a euro-only color.
Manual windows, which aren't an option in the US
All of the interior bits are in German, which is pretty slick.
Euro bumpers
Euro headlights/grilles
And it may have a euro M30, which has higher compression and more power.

But she's also got lots of issues. It's definitely a project.

Right now, the issues are:
Flaking clear coat, awful paint in areas.
Rust in several places
Needs new rear end bushings
Needs a new interior carpet ASAP
Mismatched seats, needs a new pass. seat
Door cards need some love.
Needs a brake booster

But overall it's a really cool car. This will be a long build, but I plan on doing it right.

[Charlie.S]

First.

Can't wait to see where it goes buddy.

[Pat]

excited. in my pants.

[bwe45]

this will be hellerdope. in4updates

[Bronzit]

Yessssss.

[Demmett_]

gonna be dope

[M.Burroughs]

I figured I'd start by highlighting the issues of the car. I feel dumb instantly jumping out and saying "look at tall of the things wrong with my car" but this is what build threads are for!



I guess first is the paint flaws.... Here's the crows-footing that old BMW paint does:


And the familiar clearcoat deterioration:




It also carries down the driver's side body line. You can see one of the car's rust spots here:


Rust spot on the fender:


And lastly, one in the engine bay:


(back side of hood:


Here's the interior of the car (note the mismatched pass. seat:


And the awful carpet:



But in due time it'll all come together/get replaced. This car is my DD so I can't take it out of commission.

[K-Soup]

The mismatched seats look dope as they are i reckon

[dvsmethodz]

awesome! can't wait to see the progress

[Moose]

yeah buddy

[cabezzz]

Build it right plz, congrats on the purchase

[7elephant]

permission to subscribe, Sir !!

[M.Burroughs]

The first project was to check fluids. Well that was boring, so after that, I decided to do some tidying.



Since I lost all of my tools in the fire, first things first, I had to go shopping.

What's this?


It's a bag with every metric socket set Husky carried at the store.


So first I pulled the washer tank. Only losers need that shit.


Next you'll see there's the coil trigger wire. It's ran around the strut tower, and that's unsightly. You'll also notice I've run a coat hanger through the frame rail, in the front and out the back. I used that to grab the trigger wire and pull it through.



Ta da!


I ran it through a hole in the side of the frame rail, it works rather nicely.


Some day I will relocate the coil entirely.... but that's for another time.
I also tucked the wiring for the washer pump and such.

I did lots of wiping and such, cleaning up, and a bit more tidying. You can see before and after (keep in mind the intake isn't on, but I'll be cleaning it up too.









And that was it for today. Over time I'll be cleaning the bay up and really making it look good. A cleaned valve cover and intake manifold will really help. I am also thinking about relocating my AFM.

[runningpanda]

Gorgeous car. Can't wait to see the progress.

[Topazkd]

car looks amazing, but lolll 7 e28s all I need is 1 haha