BMW E39 523iA Touring LPG

[Dr.AK]

Thanks guys!

Today, a box arrived. There was a cat inside amongst some other boring stuff.




Santa likes this.

[DER E30]

Shiny! Me likey shiny!

[Dr.AK]

Went over to my shop and just laid them on the wheels... oh my, I'M SO EXCITED!







Quite a difference to the 3.25 inch lips on the 10x17s for the front!



Let's not even talk about the puny 1.25 inch lips on the 8x17 set I have sitting around

[Frode D]

Great thread!

Put them on already!!

[DER E30]

great thread!

Put them on already!!

yes

[Dr.AK]

Thanks! And putting them on will have to wait a bit haha


Started cleaning up the hardware today. Some genius had painted some of the wheels before without taking them apart, so some of the bolts had old paint on them which was already flaking off. Some passes with the wire wheel and then some polishing and they look like new.

Nonetheless, I also did a black and white one, to see how I'd like either.

Really dislike the black, but I quite like the white bolt. But I tried to fasten it when it had dried for a few hours and even with two layers of tissue paper placed betwen the bolt and the nut, quite a bit of paint rubbed off. Will try again in a few days to see if a few days of drying / hardening will make a difference. If not, I'll just go with polished bolts. Kinda more fun to create, anyways.

[MattHatCat]

awesome i love the white but i cant see it holding up long once chipped or damaged in the process of fitting them. cool idea though.

[Dr.AK]

I decided to go with polished bolts in the end...

Or to be more precise, I discovered that I had actually 3 different bolts. 35 stainless steel bolts, 23 chrome bolts with a more square-ish head and 86 chrome bolts with a more rounded head.

The stainless bolts would give the nicest finish, but as I had 86 of the chrome bolts and since they were in decent condition with just fugly paint slapped on them, I figured it would be cheapest to re-use these. I ordered 58 new but identic bolts to make up for the other different bolts.

I thought about how to best get the paint off the bolts and get them looking new again and in the end decided on this method... I know, not really something worth a lot of pictures, but I was in a photo taking mood and had my camera in the car, so you'll have to deal, heh.

I let them soak over night in a bucket with some kind of solution which I believe is called MEK... not entirely sure since I got this in an unlabeled canister from a co-workers of my dad with a bunch of other stuff, but this is what I was told it was. Might be some other kind of paint stripping chemical, though. But it worked. Tried it out on a bolt of the set of 8x17 RHs I have sitting around first and here's the result:



This is the bucket with the MEK and the bolts:



Used a magnet to get the bolts out, here you can also see the old paint bubbling up after having soaked over night:



Then just rub it off with a old rag...



And it's already loads better, but could still be shinier.



So out came the trusty drill and some polish...







Aaaand.... ta-da, like new.




Now just have to wait for the rest of the bolts to get here, then I can finally assemble them.

[DUTCHswift]

^ Awesome idea.

[zuze91]

Does 2.3 on heavy e39 body feels like 1.6 in e36 ?

[electricalbox]

What suspension will you be running? SLS rear?

[mikey G]

How I've never seen or thought about using a drill to hold and rotate the bolts is beyond me. FUCK

[GTOguy]

I love this so far! For some reason I never thought about polishing hardware that way

[Dr.AK]

Thanks guys!

Does 2.3 on heavy e39 body feels like 1.6 in e36 ?

It is not a 2.3 liter engine, even though it is called a 523i. It is a 2.5l with 170hp and it is fast enough... faster than a 316, that's for sure.

What suspension will you be running? SLS rear?

Nope, no SLS on this one. Will probably go with Lowtec coils... the reviews on these are so-so, but they fall into my price range and they have a 2 years warranty so I'm not too worried.

[P78]

maybe i should visit near cologne again

and bring my lips and dirty bolts

i'll bring some beer