Another BMW E28 - This Time From Australia

[epearce]

'83 E28 528i Build Thread

So the journey begins. I am looking for a cheap car to thrash on gravel roads and give no cares about. Having an obsession for BMWs due to being an apprentice BMW technician meant a BMW would be the ideal car. After scouring the internet for a few weeks i find a bloke wanting to get rid of 3 E28 528i BMWs. A mate an I go and look at them one Saturday afternoon. One had a conrod out the side of the block (white), one had a blown headgasket (brown) and the other (green) was manual, filthy dirty and had quite a bit of damage to the drivers side. We took the green one for a drive and after doing dirty skids along the gravel road outside the mans house, I knew i had to buy it.

28th of October 2012. My old man and I borrow a trailer and tow them all home. All up costing $650 for three, bargain.








From then I fell in love with the E28 model and the mod bug bit hard, read through my build thread to see how it progressed!

Modification List:

Engine/Drivetrain:
Rear Muffler Delete
Lightest Factory Flywheel
M30 B35 Cylinder Head
M30 B35 Intake Manifold
M30 B33 High Compression Block
Aftermarket Individual Runner Exhaust Manifolds
Ireland Engineering Coolant Hoses
Walbro GSS340 Intank Fuel Pump - External Pump Delete
BMW Z3 Thermofan
Medium Case 3.46 LSD - Rebuilt to 1.5way 40% Lock Up
M30 B35 Motronic 1.3 Wiring conversion

Suspension, Brakes & Wheels:

BC BR Shock Absorbers
Genuine BWM Z4 Shifter
Ireland Engineering Posi Lock Rear Camber & Toe Adjusters
Offset Rear Control Arm Inner Bushes
Powerflex Yellow Subframe Bushes
Custom Front Camber Top Adjusters
Powerflex Black Rear Sway Bar Bushes
Alloy Front Lower Control Arms
Powerflex Black Front Upper and Lower Control Arm Bushes
Powerflex Black Front Sway Bar Bushes
Adjustable Front Sway Bar Links
13mm AKG Bump Steer Spacers
Goodridge Braided Brake Lines
Genuine BBS RS 005 Wheels 16 x 9.5 ET -20 Front and Rear
Mirror Polished Full Height BBS Centre Hex's
Rear Tyres - 205/45 R16 Federal Rear Tyres
Front Tyres - 195/50 R16 Achilles ATR Sport 2
Bags by Only Charged Dubs (OCD) - Slim Double Below Bags - (Front & Rear)
Airlift 3H
Duel Viair 444C Compressors
3/8" Air Lines
5 Gallon Air Tank

Interior:

Innovate MXT-L Wideband Gauge
Innovate MXT-D Water Temp/Volts Gauge
Innovate MXT-D Oil Pressure/Oil Temp Gauge
Genuine M528i E28 Black Recaro Front Seats
Renown USA Dark 100 Genuine Leather Steering Wheel
Genuine BMW Period Correct Leather Gearknob
Genuine BMW Radio Delete

Exterior:

DIY Skid Plate
Genuine Pfeba Front Spoiler
Genuine Pfeba Side Skirts & Rear Bumper
Clear Front Turn Signal Lenses
Tinted Side Indicators
E12 Chrome Door Handles
Wiper And Antenna Delete

Thanks for reading!

Cheers
Eden

[Nick475]

nice dude. cleaned it up nicely so far

[Welfare]

Looking good. Such a huge influx of e28's of late. Want to get my build started and thrown up on here.

[Rob&co]

so far so good! LIKE IT!

[Itsahyundai]

Awesome! Lookin nice and clean, can't wait to see the progress.

I love watching builds like this, makes me wanna do one of my own.. if only I had money..

[bostongrnM3]

putting in work. nice to see you are fixing all the small issues before actually modding. too many people start modding before addressing reliability and maintanance

[WICKED WEISS]

Hi welcome here.

Willing to sell any of those parts? I need front and rear bumper?

[epearce]

nice dude. cleaned it up nicely so far

Looking good. Such a huge influx of e28's of late. Want to get my build started and thrown up on here.

so far so good! LIKE IT!

Awesome! Lookin nice and clean, can't wait to see the progress.

I love watching builds like this, makes me wanna do one of my own.. if only I had money..

Thanks a lot for the warm welcome guys!

Great to see others liking what i'm doing

putting in work. nice to see you are fixing all the small issues before actually modding. too many people start modding before addressing reliability and maintanance

Cheers mate. There has been so many issues its not funny. But luckily all they needed was time and patience to fix them and i didn't need to buy much. Also being an apprentice BMW technician came it handy. Its not easy fixing small annoying issues for months straight, but it will be worth it in the end.

Hi welcome here.

Willing to sell any of those parts? I need front and rear bumper?

Thanks

I'm willing to send anything if you don't mind paying postage.


My first BMW, a 1983 manual E28 528i. My first plan was to clean up the green one and swap straight parts from the other two onto it. It hadn't been cleaned in years, moss was growing all over the panels.

How it started:










The fun part began, pulling the front end apart:




I swapped basically the whole front end using the neatest parts out of all three cars. Also swapped the damaged drivers door with the white e28.

I then replaced engine oil and filter, coolant, bled brakes, bled clutch, replaced gearbox and diff oils, replaced air filter and replaced the fuel filter. The thermostat, a few vacuum hoses and coolant hoses were also replaced.

Fast forward a few months; i cleaned it up, polished it. Swapped the steelies for alloys off the brown e28, fitted the boot spoiler off the white e28 and got it registered. I was also stoked when i recieved the number plates, couldn't get any better.






Next i cleaned out the interior, steam cleaned all the seats and carpets and basically scrubbed everything that i could. For a thirty year old car i was pleased with the results:
3InteriorFrontside_zps11af83aa by Eden Pearce, on Flickr

3InteriorRear_zps67168186 by Eden Pearce, on Flickr

3InteriorFront_zps6c1c5ea9 by Eden Pearce, on Flickr

From hear i worked on the car nearly every weekend and spare moment i had. Some days motivation dropped off, but reading articles on SW soon fixed that.

I removed all air conditioner components from the firewall forwards, removed the charcoal canister, removed the tow bar. Everything not need or emissions related was removed. Fitted a new headunit and re-wired the speakers. In 4 months i put less than a 500 kms on the car, as things were constantly getting done.

The original plans for a cheap thasher had gone out the window, stanceworks had changed my opinions on these cars completely. I now wanted it as neat and as low as possible.

13 April 2013: I decide to buy another E28 so i can get mine all one colour. This ones a green 528i auto for $600, with a blown headgasket which seems to be the norm.

The process begins again of removing the whole front end:












The boot and rear bumper were also swapped for parts in better condition:
Before:






After:


Fixing instrument cluster:


Second hand genuine leather shift boot:


Then the annoying part came; swapping doors. I first had to swap window regulators as the donor car had electric windows and mine only has manual. Work still has to be down to line some panels up better, but for the time being it will do.









And to think all this work and i still have a standard looking car....

My backyard a few weeks ago, before purchasing the 4th e28:




Please stay tuned for more updates.
Eden

[epearce]

I didn't plan to spend money on aesthetics until i had everything working properly. But last week i managed to win a 1989 MOMO Indy steering wheel off an E9 CSL at a price too low to let go. It feels good to get rid of the standard "bus like" wheel.





And a photo of my three E28 parts cars:

[jinksy]

great work so far man. keep it up
but please line up your door bonnet and guard up properly... it really annoys me

[epearce]

great work so far man. keep it up
but please line up your door bonnet and guard up properly... it really annoys me

You and me both. Unfortunately i'm having trouble getting it to line up properly.

[jinksy]

Start with the front door, get it sitting level and flush with the rear door, then the back of the fender flush with the front door and lastly the top of the fender to the bonnet. Shouldnt be too difficult as I doubt your A post or hinges are bent from the old damage

Sent from my GT-I9305 using Tapatalk 2

[lolwtfomgbbq]

I'm so jealous of the euro style fronts on every single one of those cars. They're like gold in the states.

[epearce]

Start with the front door, get it sitting level and flush with the rear door, then the back of the fender flush with the front door and lastly the top of the fender to the bonnet. Shouldnt be too difficult as I doubt your A post or hinges are bent from the old damage

Sent from my GT-I9305 using Tapatalk 2

The door is what i am having problems with. For some reason I cant get the front of it any higher. The fender is in the correct spot, as they can really only go in one spot. Then yes the bonnet needs pushing back closer to the firewall.

I'll have to give it a go this weekend.

I'm so jealous of the euro style fronts on every single one of those cars. They're like gold in the states.

Haha you americans love the euro style fronts! Come to australia and its the norm.

[lolwtfomgbbq]

Haha you americans love the euro style fronts! Come to australia and its the norm.

If I had the money I'd love to pick up a bunch of euro parts from the source, but ebay will have to do. Excited to see where the car goes man, it seems like a good start.