E28: The Road to a Showstopper

[Tibooo_]

Beginners Build Thread + DIY

Hi everyone!

As I enjoy reading build threads I thought why not make one myself .. 😊 I have difficulties sometimes finding good explanations or write-ups about some things so I thought I’d make a thread for beginners like me.

This thread will show the progress of my car. I will include small write-ups from time to time from modifications I have done. I will include as many pictures as I can because I personally think it makes a build thread much clearer and more interesting!

This is my first car and the first car I have ever worked on as well. So it’s not (yet?) going to be a very intensive build but rather the basics. As I’m a student my budget is very tight so this will be a slow budget “build”.

What I have:
a 1985 cosmosblau metallic 518i with 168k KM on the clock – bone stock with I’m pretty sure 0 options other than a towbar.

What I am planning to do with it:
- Lose the towbar
- Fix all rust (obviously)
- Full interior swap to black leather
- New suspension  get Low
- New wheels
- Clear turn signal lenses
- Some sort of louvre
- Renown steering wheel
- Install electric windows
- Upgrade soundsystem
- Renew all fuel/brake/… lines, filters and pumps
- Swap rear drum brakes to discs & brake upgrade (prob e34)
- Maybe camber and/or toe correction kit with reinforced and refinished subframe
- (BBS) front lip
- Maybe some kind of sideskirts to hide the ugly work that has been done down there before..
- Paintjob/wrap
- Temporary M30 engine swap (V8 or turbo six in the future)
- Aftermarket exhaust
- …

How I got it: bone stock on 14” wheels with winter tires.

I'm having some trouble figuring out how to get the right size for my images, so for now they'll be like this. I resized them on my computer and now the quality is fxcked as well :/ And they are also too small if you ask me but what a mess to just put some pictures on here jeez..

[CSBolger]

Cool, man. If you're going through the trouble of an M30 swap, might as well just prep it for turbo and do that when you need more power. No need to pull the engine later on.

[Tibooo_]

Cool, man. If you're going through the trouble of an M30 swap, might as well just prep it for turbo and do that when you need more power. No need to pull the engine later on.

Hi! Well thing is i would swap in an m30 for now as it came in the e28 standard so it would be a relatively easy swap. And while that is sorted slowly build the engine i really want

[Tibooo_]

E28: The Road to a Showstopper

Januari 2017

Few days after I got the car I had made an appointment to get the car checked and on the road. Off course the day I scheduled the appointment for the examination, I got In the car, started it up, wanted to put it in gear.. and my clutch pedal stayed pushed in. I thought maybe the spring got detached. This wasn’t the case.. It was the slave cylinder that gave up life. Luckily inexpensive and easy fix. I ordered an aftermarket one right away.

Replacing clutch slave cylinder:
- Lift the car up at the front so you can reach under the transmission tunnel.
- Slave cylinder is located on the tunnel, driver’s side facing the engine.
- It is held on by 2 bolts. Loosen them and carefully take out the slave cylinder.
- Then disconnect the line. Be careful not to strip this thing, it can be very stuck so some wd40 is always a good friend to have. Let it soak if needed.
- After you get it lose, reconnect the line to the new slave cylinder and reattach it to the car.
- Then check the fluid and add some if needed.
- Bleed the system, because if air is trapped in the system your brakes can feel ‘squichy’ and not work properly.

Remarks: 1) make sure you don’t get brake fluid all over yourself as it is a dangerous liquid.
2) Make sure to check the brakes work properly before going on a drive!

The first upgrade I did was an aftermarket radio from Pioneer. The car didn’t have the original radio anymore but a broken aftermarket one. It also has aftermarket speakers in the back which luckily work fine because I am a total noob concerning electronics..


I also bought a new emblem for the hood and some black carpets.
 
Februari 2017

Not much happened in the mean time other than getting to know the car and learn to drive it properly 😊

March 2017

A month later, issues with cooling system began. Hoses would crack and start spraying coolant all over the engine bay. I thought the problem was just old hoses so I replaced them without looking further. The problem kept coming back though so I searched what the problem could be. I found that there was ‘mayonaise’ on the oil filler cap. It became clear my head gasket was blown.. The hoses would fail because off overpressure caused by the blown head gasket. (gasket is shot so pressure created in the cylinder’s would escape into cooling system; and the hoses aren’t meant to take such pressure)
I wanted to start on it myself but my dad strongly advised to take it to a shop. So that’s what I did. Probably was the best thing to do as I had never worked on a car before let alone taken an engine apart. Two weeks later she was done and it’s now been 11 months without any problems engine wise. It was very expensive but at least I knew the car was in good hands.

April 2017

It annoyed me that the window trims were faded so I ordered a set of chrome window trim from e28goodies. After adjusting them a bit (they have an edge that needs cutting in order to fit) I swapped them out. Looks 10x better! I didn’t see though that 1 roll is only enough for 1 window so I still have to do the back window at some point.

Replacing window trims:
- The oem trim is pushed in between the rubber and the ends inserted in the chrome (or shadowline) hard parts of the trim.
- Pry them out with a screwdriver. You can then pull them out with your hands, they will probably break (30y old plastic..). You do NOT have to take out the lower part of the ‘hard’ trim unless you replace it too.
- Now is a good time to check the condition of the rubber trim and maybe clean it out. Also check under the rubber for hidden rust.
- Mentioned above I used e28goodies trim. It is not a straight up plug and play. Small adjustments have to be made but they fit pretty good. (go check out the write up on their website)
- Then measure and cut the trim the desired length. Be sure not to cut it too short!
- For installation you have to push the trim in the rubber and make sure it is seated well. For the corners you should curve trim before install it makes it a bit easier. Make sure not to forget to insert the ends of the trim inside the hard trim parts.

Excuse me for the lack of pictures, at this point I wasn’t planning on making a build thread

By this time I was still driving on winter tires. So it was time to go and find some wheels for the summer. At that time I was really into multispoke wheels. After searching I came across the bmw style 32 and I knew that were the wheels I wanted. I decided I would go for 17” because I think it looks great on an e28. I found a set that was 17x8 square painted black. The tires on it were 235/45 which were too big so I got some 215/45’s which are perfect.



This was the first meeting I have done with the car, a small bmw oldtimer meeting in Gent (BE).

[Beemernut]

Awesome to see another Shark owner! Hoping to turbo my e28 m30 this winter and do some low and wide things ;}

[Tibooo_]

June 2017

I ordered new muffler mounting bracket and rubber ring that attaches the bracket to the car.

August 2017

With the work I have done during the summer break I had saved up enough for suspension. After long consideration I decided to go for BC Racing Coilovers. BR-series with 7k/6k springs.
Here’s a pic of the first time I wanted to install them, after about half an hour I realized that I didn’t have the necessary tools unfortunately so the install was postponed again..



Little comparison between stock rear suspension and the bc's.


I installed the rears first but the fronts had to wait few more days.

Took some pics with a friend of mine’s Opel Kadett B 72’ 😊





Picture with a random e30 touring on a parking somewhere 😊


I wanted my car to be ready for Rollhard The Belgian Chapter but unfortunately my car didn’t make it, here are some nice e28’s I spotted there:



A couple weeks later and with the right tools I eventually got the front coilovers installed. Together with new upper control arms (MOOG), swaybar endlinks (Lemförder), front axles (FAG) and dust caps (OEM).


Here are some pics of how she sat for a while:

[fackinsteve]

Steady progress, always had a soft spot for these

[Tibooo_]

On the style 32s:



September 2017

School started again so I havenÂ’t done any major change at this time. I just drove the car around as it was until December. I did get a pixel art made of my car:

 
December 2017

In December I got a good deal on a set of Rondell 0067 wheels. They are 17x8 et35 which fits with 15mm spacers. They were painted purple when I got them which looked like shit, I was going to rebuild them anyway. It was the first set of two-piece wheels I bought so I was very excited to get them ready.
I test fitted them before refinishing them, came out like this.. ughh


Lips off



Sandblasted



 
January 2018

In January I got my hands on a set of black leather door cards. They are not easy to find but as luck would have it I found them with only 5 minutes away!
They make a huge difference in appearance.



I attended a meeting in Brussels with a mate of mine and his E28.




February 2018

It was time to get rid of the rest of the blue interior, I really didnÂ’t like it. As black leather seats, especially sport seats are hard to find and very expensive I went for E34 comfort seats.
How it looked before:


Interior removed, cleaned and spray painted:





I then started with the E34 front seats. It only took about an hour and a half to adjust them and put them in, looks so much better! I was missing one backplate but that didnÂ’t bother me at all.

So now I had black door cards and black front seats. But the backseats, consoles, glove box and carpet were all still blue. It was time to change that. Since I didnÂ’t want to remove/change out the carpet I decided to paint it black with vinyl spray paint. So I removed the whole interior except for the dash and headliner. Cleaned it thoroughly and spray painted the carpet. It took several layers and multiple cans but it was totally worth it. I also sprayed the consoles black and replaced the glove box with a black one. The only thing remaining blue is the backseat as I have not yet found a replacement for it. I am thinking about painting the headliner black as well at some point.






 

[Tibooo_]

March 2018

As it is a 518i it has drum brakes in the back. So I searched for a rear subframe with trailing arms to swap to discs. Apparently the E24 and E28 share the same suspension etc. so I got myself an E24 635csi subframe with trailing arms. I will rebuild it completely but install is for later.




I also got some E34 525tds brakes, not sure if I will use them but they are an upgrade over what I have now for sure.



Me and my girlfriend went on a weekend out to Genk and visited the mines which also led to some cool pictures!




The weather was starting to get warmer and so it was time to put back on the summer wheels. One of the wheels of the style 32 set was bent so I couldn’t use that set until I got it fixed so I looked for something else. I came across E36 style 17 wheels. They are a classic design and not too expensive so I picked them up in Holland.
They are 15x7 with 205/55 tires I believe.







Also went to an oldtimer meeting with a buddy of mine with the 72’ Opel Kadett.





May 2018

In may I decided it was time for some more changes. To start of I got another 4.10 differential as I thought mine was broken and made a lot of noise. I changed them out and the noise remained.. With closer inspection I found out that the diff did leak some oil from the front seal so replacing it didn’t hurt.



The noise came almost certainly from the rear hub bearings. But I don’t have the right tools to replace it so I brought the car to a shop to get it done because it needed to be fixed before I took the car to England for Players Classic at Goodwood.
Unfortunately and to my surprise the garage didn’t have the tools either, so they couldn’t help me..

Few days later my car was suddenly loud as hell. Apparently I had ripped my exhaust almost completely through at the downpipe where they go from to two to one. Not pleasant to drive like that :p Luckily a mate could weld it back together for me.



The second weekend I went on a rally where we visited Doel. It is a deserted city in Belgium where nuclear powerplants were used. Took some nice pictures:





I had seen clear indicators on e28 from time to time and I really like the look so I bought a set from E28goodies. I installed them right away and really love the look! I didn’t like the contrast of the blueish paint and the orange so for me it is much better now 😊
You basically have to smash in the oem orange indicator lens and glue the other ones in place.







Swapped out the fronts as well.




To make the side indicators sort of match with the now clear indicators I decided to just paint them black. Looks clean and simple.




Other than that I ordered a complete new oem exhaust because mine is toast. I didn’t get around to installing it though because some fabrication is still required.




At the end of the month I had my eye on a parts car. I changed out the set of style 17’s + some cash for the car. It was an 1985 Alpinweiss 520i auto; nice thing was I could just drive it home!






My e28 had rust at the left rear arch, I had started fixing it before but kind off forgot about it midway through. So this time I decided to take it on the best possible way without welding and as far as my skills would let me as I have never done this before.

[E36Sean]

You’re one up on options from mine... mine wasn’t even spec’d with a Radio from factory! God knows how he previous owner drove it for 33 years with no music!

Looking good though

[Powell_e90]

Hierse een e28 van België. Mooie updates al. Vanwaar ben je ergens?

[Tibooo_]

Awesome to see another Shark owner! Hoping to turbo my e28 m30 this winter and do some low and wide things ;}

I'm happy to see the results of that!

[Tibooo_]

You’re one up on options from mine... mine wasn’t even spec’d with a Radio from factory! God knows how he previous owner drove it for 33 years with no music!

Looking good though

Yeah a radio is an absolute minimum haah, especially with the noisy m10

[Tibooo_]

Hierse een e28 van België. Mooie updates al. Vanwaar ben je ergens?

Kampenhout, Vlaams-Brabant

[Tibooo_]

There was an event at my dad’s work (he works in the military airport) and I arranged that my car could be on the tarmac, which let to some very cool pictures with the mighty C-130 Hercules.









Also just before the trip to England my Rondell wheels got finished at my dad’s work. I chose a Ssangyong color, SSANG.8001M. A dark gray with a little bit of flake in it. I decided I wanted a matt finish, so this is how they came out:









I am satisfied! I also chose neochrome valves as a finishing touch. I could finally put them on the car. Very pleased with the result





Nothing changed between then and the end of August because I had exams in June and went on some vacations with my family and friends.
I attended another meeting/rally close to where I live. But on the way there I had some issues with my alternator. One of the bolts that keeps it in place came loose causing the circuit to be open and not charging my battery. Luckily some straps made it work for the time being.