BMW E39 523iA Touring LPG

[Vermilion]

Glad to hear you survived the accident; driving tired is never fun!
I'm looking to buy a 523i touring at the end of the month - have you got any tips or things to look out for? What are they like to drive?

[Dr.AK]

Engines are basically bullet proof apart from the cooling system. I wouldn't go smaller than a 523i... it's not a racecar by any means, but it's reasonably quick and more than enough for a daily.

The E39s are generelly not that problematic. Watch out for suspension bearings and such and the early years tend to have some rust.

[P_e_a_R]

Hi mister,

The interior of the donnor is very nice, expecially the M-tech 3 steering wheel and, to my taste, the vintage BMW car phone. The swap whould add more class to your touring.

Now a question: Wouldn't 17'' be so small for the e39 arches? Or you plan to run bags?

Cheers!

[Dr.AK]

Most people seem to think 17s are too small. However, most people run... I would call it a modern kind of fitment, with big-ish wheels that sit flush or poke just a few mm. I'm aiming for an oldschool-ish look with smaller wheels that poke quite a bit. Kind of like this.





I did some basic measuring and the E34 arches are not really smaller than the E39. Both cars share the same stock tire sizes as well. I'm confident that it will look good.

Or a friends Skyline for reference of the general poking style I'm refering to.

[Dr.AK]

So, yesterday and today it was time for some DIY on the cheap.

It bugged me that the headline kind of didn't fit into the black and grey theme of the interior and it was in bad shape anyways with lots of small stains etc.

So I did some googling and stumbled upon a cheapo method, which I tryed out...

I used shoe polish, I kid you not. Bought 15 cans and ended up using 11 and 1/2. Bought 2 spray cans of flat black for the plastic parts like handles. All in all, it set me back ~25€. Let it dry over night and installed it today. Smells a bit like show polish as expected, but that should go away in the next few days. But it's dry and doesn't rub off.

[SanderZ]

haha insane!

[MattHatCat]

that is great!

[FunfGang]

Looking good!

[loekaaz]

Yeah shoe polish... I'm gonna try that!

Subscribed!

[P78]

lol at the shoe polish bas

but if it works...

for some fabric parts, rattle can also works very good

[Anonymoose]

Does the shoe polish rub off when you touch it?

[Dr.AK]

Not when it's fully dried out, which is why it's important to let the parts sit AT LEAST over night, better would be 1-2 days.

Results may vary with different shoe polishes tho.

[hinrichs]

whats the millage like with the lpg conversion? wish we had stuff like that in the states....totally unfair lol. can't wait to see the wheels mounted up, i know it'll look killer.

[jkh]

so you bought one more touring.. hehe

good work..!!

when you get those wheels under the car..??

[Spawn613]

Nice trick with the shoe polish.