1986 BMW 528e

[Robitussin]

Small update.

Finally got the car put into the garage, it had to be done due to single digit weather coming up.



And we got started working on the brakes, as you can see they had gotten pretty nasty from the car sitting when the PO had it.



And after we got the rotors off, we found that the hub bearings were dry and making a ton of noise when spun. We took the driver's side bearing off and took it apart, packed it with grease etc. and it seemed fine. But when we removed the passenger side hub the bearing would not come out of the hub, and according to the Haynes manual i have the inner race of the bearing often gets stuck on the spindle shaft, but the inner race would not even come off the hub no matter how hard we tried to get it off. And after looking at it we found that the two bearings were different brands, one being made in france, the other germany. then my dad looked it up on the internet and some places were selling hubs and bearings as complete assemblies, so we had no idea whether one bearing needed replacing, if so which one, or if both needed replacing. So it just ended up being a massive amount of confusion and we decided to stop for the night until we had all this figured out. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

And this is how the car is sitting now



And lastly, there is a guy that works at my local O'reily auto parts that has a black e21 on cut springs that inspired me and when i get the style 5s together i will just cut the springs to get it sitting right, then save for coilovers. As far as i know, as long as the ends of the coils are tapered, and no heat is used to cut the springs it should be okay. Oh yeah and i still don't have an adapter hub for the steering wheel but i will hopefully get one soon

[Robitussin]

Merry Christmas guys!!!

I got something else i don't need for my car




Can't install it yet cause i have no hub but it will happen soon will look great on dat blue interior!!!

EDIT
Also got some other stuff i actually need. Gonna be away for a while to see family for Christmas, but when i get back i should have some time to get the brakes on. After that all i need to get the car road-worthy is some tires for the bottlecaps and whatever i need to get the gauge cluster working.

[fackinsteve]

I think you're off to a good start. Being 16 and trying to win the Internet with a crazy build just isn't going to happen so just take your time and focus on maintenance and maybe a few small mods. Definitely keep the progress going there's tons of potential here

[Robitussin]

Good progress so far and such a flawless starting point. Great find.

Thanks, but the car is faaaaaaaaaar from perfect. A combination of a white paint job and a crappy camera goes a loooong way as far as hiding things. Just to list a couple things, the rear right door is pushed in and was attempted to be repaired from an accident 2 owners ago according to the guy I bought it from. The front valence is all bent up from a number of things. But I will hopefully get it all fixed after the car is actually working right.

[99sil-teg]

Good progress so far and such a flawless starting point. Great find.

[Robitussin]

They look like my first set of Style 19 lips, you need to go back over them a second time. Start with 320 and go against the grain of the machining marks for this step, this will make the next steps much faster. Work your way up to 2000, after the 320 I started sanding at a diagonal across the lip In both directions and for the last few grits I sand around the lip not across it. This made such a big difference. It will look WAYYYY better when you polish them please trust me.

When i did it, i just used 400 up to 2000 sanding around the lip only. I suppose that's why i didin't get any of the machining out. How long did it take you per lip?

[meech]

They look like my first set of Style 19 lips, you need to go back over them a second time. Start with 320 and go against the grain of the machining marks for this step, this will make the next steps much faster. Work your way up to 2000, after the 320 I started sanding at a diagonal across the lip In both directions and for the last few grits I sand around the lip not across it. This made such a big difference. It will look WAYYYY better when you polish them please trust me.

[Robitussin]

You got all winter man. Its too cold to paint anyways. Unless you have a heated garage.

Yeah that's probably my only option unless i got them professionally painted.

[oprahhwinfreyy]

So i wet sanded and polished all the lips



Sorry for the crappy android pics I don't have a good camera. Now I am not sure if I should just wait until I can get the centers painted straight afterwards to get them sandblasted. I don't think I am quite ready to worry about that yet.

You got all winter man. Its too cold to paint anyways. Unless you have a heated garage.

[Robitussin]

So i wet sanded and polished all the lips



Sorry for the crappy android pics I don't have a good camera. Now I am not sure if I should just wait until I can get the centers painted straight afterwards to get them sandblasted. I don't think I am quite ready to worry about that yet.

[Robitussin]

Car looks nice for an '86, it's cool that you're doing this as a project with your dad. If the engine starts giving you problems (just thinking ahead because the thermostat/radiator sounds like an old problem,) you should gear up for a 24v swap.

Yeah an engine swap would for sure eventually be in order considering the thing has almost 190k on it it may not last a whole lot longer.

[hi its me alec]

Car looks nice for an '86, it's cool that you're doing this as a project with your dad. If the engine starts giving you problems (just thinking ahead because the thermostat/radiator sounds like an old problem,) you should gear up for a 24v swap.

[Robitussin]

This makes me wanna get going with my style 5s, I'm at the same stage as you, split and stripped haha. Nice looking car too man I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with it, I'd love an old BMW myself

Are you planning to put the 5s on your seat? That would be a very unique combination.

[Pandy]

This makes me wanna get going with my style 5s, I'm at the same stage as you, split and stripped haha. Nice looking car too man I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with it, I'd love an old BMW myself

[Robitussin]

looking good man

thanks!