Tweet
My name is Lucky, and this is my BMW E38 build.
I picked up my 97 740iL last winter because I wanted a big body German car that looks great stock and was easy to work on. I just wanted a daily driver that looked cool as-is.
The car was in rough shape mechanically, the engine ran good and the tranny shifted fine, but it had idle issues, a broken heater blower, all kinds of electric gremlins and a rumble coming from the cats. A few hours researching the issues, a few dollars on used parts, a few hours in the garage and an exhaust shop willing to do an illegal cat delete for cash and no reciept and I had a great running BMW.
Then, like every other car I have owned, I started having visions of lowered suspension and better wheels. After being a BMW guy for ten years, I switched to Mercedes for a few, and that happened to be when I also started collecting wheels. I didnt have the money for nice Bimmer wheels so I had some custom adaptors made and fit some Lorinser RSK-3 19x9's on the 740, that I had laying around.
I dont have any pics before suspension, but the wheels with stock springs looked like I was driving a german donk, so next came coilovers.
Still a bit high, but this was taken the day after C/O installation and I have a shitty driveway entrance, so I wanted the springs to settle before I started adjusting them.
I still wanted to keep cost down low, yet I was yearning to get more creative in some way, and made the mistake of trying to go french. Yep, I am a little embarrased of this plan.
At least I dropped the suspension a bit more.
Super cleaver french plate
The french look lasted less than 24 hours before I realized how clever I was not. But the fitment was looking better at least, I dropped it a bit more. And you will see the non-stretchy tires too, I wanted to be different still.
I then had a little mishap while driving and stripped the bolt that holds my strut onto my rear wheel carrier, oops. Accidental tucking at 40 mph.
Luckily I was only a few blocks from home and dragged the car safely while burnig the inside of my wheel well slightly.
From here, I put the car up on jack stands and awaited a new used wheel carrier. While the car was out of comission, I purchased an E39 touring and it came with some really cool 20's
irst thing I did was post up a for trade ad on Craigs and some dipshit had offered me some mint OEM M-pars with brand new tires AND cash for my twinkies. I felt really bad for accepting his offer, so bad that I didnt even take the extra cash and didnt tell him that the M-pars wouldnt fit the E39 either, but I gratiously accepted the straight trade.
So now my E38 is on stands, with "stand-by" wheels and no where to go. I started sanding it.
Fixed the wheel carrier situation and kept sanding.
shaved the hood emblem
And while thinking of what color and theme to go with, i had someone do a photoshop that won me over.
rear badge shaved
Getting ready for paint.
and today I sprayed Buick Cocoa Metallic.
I will finish up the front bumper, trim and such next week and get everything put back together and lower it back down again. Im not sure what to do about the wheels yet, but hopefully I'll come up with something in the next week.
C&C welcome, for good or ill.
I picked up my 97 740iL last winter because I wanted a big body German car that looks great stock and was easy to work on. I just wanted a daily driver that looked cool as-is.
The car was in rough shape mechanically, the engine ran good and the tranny shifted fine, but it had idle issues, a broken heater blower, all kinds of electric gremlins and a rumble coming from the cats. A few hours researching the issues, a few dollars on used parts, a few hours in the garage and an exhaust shop willing to do an illegal cat delete for cash and no reciept and I had a great running BMW.
Then, like every other car I have owned, I started having visions of lowered suspension and better wheels. After being a BMW guy for ten years, I switched to Mercedes for a few, and that happened to be when I also started collecting wheels. I didnt have the money for nice Bimmer wheels so I had some custom adaptors made and fit some Lorinser RSK-3 19x9's on the 740, that I had laying around.
I dont have any pics before suspension, but the wheels with stock springs looked like I was driving a german donk, so next came coilovers.
Still a bit high, but this was taken the day after C/O installation and I have a shitty driveway entrance, so I wanted the springs to settle before I started adjusting them.
I still wanted to keep cost down low, yet I was yearning to get more creative in some way, and made the mistake of trying to go french. Yep, I am a little embarrased of this plan.
At least I dropped the suspension a bit more.
Super cleaver french plate
The french look lasted less than 24 hours before I realized how clever I was not. But the fitment was looking better at least, I dropped it a bit more. And you will see the non-stretchy tires too, I wanted to be different still.
I then had a little mishap while driving and stripped the bolt that holds my strut onto my rear wheel carrier, oops. Accidental tucking at 40 mph.
Luckily I was only a few blocks from home and dragged the car safely while burnig the inside of my wheel well slightly.
From here, I put the car up on jack stands and awaited a new used wheel carrier. While the car was out of comission, I purchased an E39 touring and it came with some really cool 20's
irst thing I did was post up a for trade ad on Craigs and some dipshit had offered me some mint OEM M-pars with brand new tires AND cash for my twinkies. I felt really bad for accepting his offer, so bad that I didnt even take the extra cash and didnt tell him that the M-pars wouldnt fit the E39 either, but I gratiously accepted the straight trade.
So now my E38 is on stands, with "stand-by" wheels and no where to go. I started sanding it.
Fixed the wheel carrier situation and kept sanding.
shaved the hood emblem
And while thinking of what color and theme to go with, i had someone do a photoshop that won me over.
rear badge shaved
Getting ready for paint.
and today I sprayed Buick Cocoa Metallic.
I will finish up the front bumper, trim and such next week and get everything put back together and lower it back down again. Im not sure what to do about the wheels yet, but hopefully I'll come up with something in the next week.
C&C welcome, for good or ill.
Comment