I'm not really one for making a true build thread, to keep posting updates week after week, so I thought i'd just take you through a lil trip of my E39 at one time (kinda lengthy, but hope you feel it's worth it). At one point in time, I thought my car's motor was toast from overheating, but instead, things are looking bright for her future. Here's a look at her journey..
March 2006: Here's what the car looked like when I got her back in 2006 (photo borrowed from Wikipedia).
Right when I got the car, the seller threw in some Depo Celis looking tail lights, so those got swapped out in place of the ambers
June 2006: Swapped out the crusty old halogens for OEM Hella Euro Angel Eye projectors and installed some M5 kidney grills.
Also threw on some 18" Style 32s
January 2007: Bought a Eibach Pro Kit Spring/Koni FSD shock package
April 2008: Driving on the 10 FWY coming home from work, started to smell something burning. Looked down at the temp gauge, and it was full red I was about 3 exits away from home, so I limped her home.. BAD idea. Pulled into the garage and my car was leaking coolant like crazy and my motor sounded like rattling aluminum cans in a trash bag. Got some quotes for repair and almost everyone I talked to said, "The Headgasket's blown" or "You just need a new motor.. it'll be anywhere from $2k - $5 to fix". Well, couldn't afford that.. so the car sat in my driveway.. for 3 years.
Went to driving the E34 for a while, and in 2010, got my E36 and worked on that. You guys might have seen it here and there..
July 2011: So fast forward to last month, got sad and tired of seeing the E39 becoming nothing more than a nice little home for spiders and dust. I kept setting aside money here and there in hopes of one day reviving her and saved up a decent amount of chee$e. Finally decided it was time to pull the trigger, but instead of taking her to an random mechanic, I had a good buddy of mine who was a tech at a BMW dealership look at the car. So, towed it to his house and off she went
After numerous compression tests and looking at everything, maybe be sheer luck or an act of God, he found that the motor was miraculously healthy. He just needed to change the cooling system hoses, replace the thermostat that was sticking, and had the AC compressor re-built! So $900 later she was ALIVE again
(Her first drive home)
Well, had some left over money that was specifically for the E39, so why not give her a little bit of a face lift right?
Black kidney grills
M Front Bumper installed
Shadow lined the super ugly chrome window trim
Almost didn't buy the rear M-bumper, but thought, DDM is always out of stuff, so i'll buy it just in case and have it when I'm ready to put it on.. yah.. that didn't last long. It went on a week later
Blacked out my badges
Swapped out the Depo eBay looking lights for something a little more classy, and OE looking
Before:
After:
Got me some M-Pars to change up the look and some yellow fog bulbs
My original thought was to have a nice little daily comfortable daily driver to troll back and forth to work and give my E36 a break.. that also didn't last long. So hit up Tonys18T for some fender shaving/rolling. Dude is a MASTER at fenders, hands down!
Got some ST Suspension coil overs from EAS (European Auto Source) and my buddy Edgar Ferman from VMR Wheels help me install those
He also asked me for a favor. SoCal Euro was that same week and 2 of their show cars dropped out super last minute, so he asked me if I could show my car with some VMRs, and I said sure! So got some VMR V710s.
Front: 19x9.5 +22, +20mm hub conversion spacer, 235/30
Rear: 19x11 +25, +15mm hub conversion spacer, 245/35
Test fit
So this is how she looks today...
Oh, forgot to mention.. before I got my VMRs, I had put in an order from Phase2 Motorsports for these bad boys.. Work Brombachers. They should be here in 6-12 weeks from Work
Update: 8/12/11
-----------------------------
Work Brombacher's came in.. and they're on Specs are as follows:
Front: 19x9.5 -9 (15mm spacer), 225/35
Rear: 19x11 +12, 245/35/
Suspension: ST Coil Overs
Fenders: Rolled (front), Shaved (Rear)... pause
Thanks to my dude Eric Tubig for snapping some shots. Check out his site for more foe toes at www.etubigphotography.com
March 2006: Here's what the car looked like when I got her back in 2006 (photo borrowed from Wikipedia).
Right when I got the car, the seller threw in some Depo Celis looking tail lights, so those got swapped out in place of the ambers
June 2006: Swapped out the crusty old halogens for OEM Hella Euro Angel Eye projectors and installed some M5 kidney grills.
Also threw on some 18" Style 32s
January 2007: Bought a Eibach Pro Kit Spring/Koni FSD shock package
April 2008: Driving on the 10 FWY coming home from work, started to smell something burning. Looked down at the temp gauge, and it was full red I was about 3 exits away from home, so I limped her home.. BAD idea. Pulled into the garage and my car was leaking coolant like crazy and my motor sounded like rattling aluminum cans in a trash bag. Got some quotes for repair and almost everyone I talked to said, "The Headgasket's blown" or "You just need a new motor.. it'll be anywhere from $2k - $5 to fix". Well, couldn't afford that.. so the car sat in my driveway.. for 3 years.
Went to driving the E34 for a while, and in 2010, got my E36 and worked on that. You guys might have seen it here and there..
July 2011: So fast forward to last month, got sad and tired of seeing the E39 becoming nothing more than a nice little home for spiders and dust. I kept setting aside money here and there in hopes of one day reviving her and saved up a decent amount of chee$e. Finally decided it was time to pull the trigger, but instead of taking her to an random mechanic, I had a good buddy of mine who was a tech at a BMW dealership look at the car. So, towed it to his house and off she went
After numerous compression tests and looking at everything, maybe be sheer luck or an act of God, he found that the motor was miraculously healthy. He just needed to change the cooling system hoses, replace the thermostat that was sticking, and had the AC compressor re-built! So $900 later she was ALIVE again
(Her first drive home)
Well, had some left over money that was specifically for the E39, so why not give her a little bit of a face lift right?
Black kidney grills
M Front Bumper installed
Shadow lined the super ugly chrome window trim
Almost didn't buy the rear M-bumper, but thought, DDM is always out of stuff, so i'll buy it just in case and have it when I'm ready to put it on.. yah.. that didn't last long. It went on a week later
Blacked out my badges
Swapped out the Depo eBay looking lights for something a little more classy, and OE looking
Before:
After:
Got me some M-Pars to change up the look and some yellow fog bulbs
My original thought was to have a nice little daily comfortable daily driver to troll back and forth to work and give my E36 a break.. that also didn't last long. So hit up Tonys18T for some fender shaving/rolling. Dude is a MASTER at fenders, hands down!
Got some ST Suspension coil overs from EAS (European Auto Source) and my buddy Edgar Ferman from VMR Wheels help me install those
He also asked me for a favor. SoCal Euro was that same week and 2 of their show cars dropped out super last minute, so he asked me if I could show my car with some VMRs, and I said sure! So got some VMR V710s.
Front: 19x9.5 +22, +20mm hub conversion spacer, 235/30
Rear: 19x11 +25, +15mm hub conversion spacer, 245/35
Test fit
So this is how she looks today...
Oh, forgot to mention.. before I got my VMRs, I had put in an order from Phase2 Motorsports for these bad boys.. Work Brombachers. They should be here in 6-12 weeks from Work
Update: 8/12/11
-----------------------------
Work Brombacher's came in.. and they're on Specs are as follows:
Front: 19x9.5 -9 (15mm spacer), 225/35
Rear: 19x11 +12, 245/35/
Suspension: ST Coil Overs
Fenders: Rolled (front), Shaved (Rear)... pause
Thanks to my dude Eric Tubig for snapping some shots. Check out his site for more foe toes at www.etubigphotography.com
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