BMW E39 M5 Touring build
Discussion
Incredible attention to detail and skills - all credit to you. Would love more updates.
It's such a shame that BMW haven't ever properly committed to the performance estate - imagine if they'd sold a few E39 M5 Tourings back in the day, they'd be an absolute stone cold classic £100k+ car now.
It's such a shame that BMW haven't ever properly committed to the performance estate - imagine if they'd sold a few E39 M5 Tourings back in the day, they'd be an absolute stone cold classic £100k+ car now.
sutts said:
Although I loved my B7 RS4 Avant, this is what I would have bought had BMW seen fit to make them. The E61 version didn’t interest me as much.
Exactly. If they'd have sold one new I'd definitely be in a used one now.
I've been tempted by Audi RS's but they don't have the draw of a E39 M5 but I can't live with a saloon.
Top work OP, very jealous.
Everything about this is perfect apart from how quickly it ended.
It's like one of those badly written novels that tries to tie up too many loose ends in the final chapter!
Love to see some more pics of the interior and hear about any challenges with the refit.
Great work & beautiful car I hope you keep for ever!
It's like one of those badly written novels that tries to tie up too many loose ends in the final chapter!
Love to see some more pics of the interior and hear about any challenges with the refit.
Great work & beautiful car I hope you keep for ever!
Thanks for all of the kind words from everyone!. You're too kind!
As for the thread ending, its far from over!
I set myself a dead line of July the 4th to try and have it up and running so I could make the E39 M5 meet at Caffeine and Machine and as you can see from the pics posted by peetee I made it...... just in time but more on that later.
As for the thread ending, its far from over!
I set myself a dead line of July the 4th to try and have it up and running so I could make the E39 M5 meet at Caffeine and Machine and as you can see from the pics posted by peetee I made it...... just in time but more on that later.
peetee7 said:
Privileged to see this stunning E39 M5 Touring yesterday at Caffeine & Machine - thank you for building it. Absolutely stunning. Sorry Barry don't think I managed to speak to you - we'll need to round up some E39 M5's again soon.
Cheers,
Peetee (Aegean E39 M5)
Outstanding work from the OP. Cheers,
Peetee (Aegean E39 M5)
Time was very limited for covering absolutely everything to "finish" the car so to stand a chance of making the meet I had to prioritise what to do so it could be driven and so it looked complete. Pressing on last week after hours at work and all the way up to 11.30PM on Saturday I just managed to achieve this.
Keeping the self levelling rear air suspension meant some rerouting of the pneumatic lines, wiring and removal of the compressor from its "tortoise shell" housing that locates it in under the spare wheel and putting it in the forward compartment of the M5's battery tray that normally houses a tyre inflation kit.
One of the plastic trims (left one which covers the BM54 radio unit) was already cracked and the ones on the right needed some cutting to allow routing of the some wiring so this is an area that requires some finessing so another set of plastic covers will be sourced and adapted to tidy this area up.
More of that gold plated plastic fitted up, the centre under tray specific to the sport front bumper is often missing or damaged from speed bumps etc and in my case, it still has an SE one fitted along with ebay copies of the "pork chop" side pieces.
I was initially told the centre piece was on back order with no delivery date (so no stock in the UK or Germany) but then one turned up a couple of days later. Happy days I thought but on closer inspection it had clearly been knocking about in a warehouse for some time as it was covered in dust and had (as can been seen in the pics) lots of scratches to the underside. Annoying but I wasn't going to be too choosy on something I would have to wait a long time for another if they even make another batch!
The M5/M3 Oval interior mirror suffering from the usual bleeding of its auto dimming glass plus mine was missing its "clown nose" alarm LED lens so it was an order from cutters forum sponsor www.mirrorjohn.co.uk for a replacement glass and lens.
Fitted up and working. I ordered a set of covers for the back of the mirror and rain sensor but they don't seem to fit so thats on the snag list to look into whats going on if there are different size rain sensors.
When I bought the 540i the previous owner had fitted a set of birch anthracite interior trims which was quite sought after and I do like them but I wanted the interior to have as much M5 feel as possible so I swapped the birch for a very good set of M5 specific titan shadow trim set.
Another couple of options already retro fitted to the touring were the built in child booster seats and rear door blinds. Having owned several E39's over the years I always wanted the booster seats in them for my kids to use but now they are old enough not to need them any more. typical! M5 rear outer head rests added to match the fronts.
Switch panel with the M5's specific sport button to adjust throttle map and steering assistance.
Another retro fit carried over from the touring is the wide screen MK4 nav (very antiquated now) and DSP audio system which although not great, its a step up from the very poor base spec audio most E39's have to put up with.
The donor M5 still had its original early black face instrument cluster so that was swapped over but as you can see its suffering from the usual dead pixels in the display. What isn't noticeable in the pics are some other issues with it such as the fuel gauge incorrectly reading and the warm up lights on occasion doing an impression of a crappy disco.
I have tried another cluster to confirm its my cluster at fault and not a dodgy sender or wiring issue so I need to send mine away and see if it can be repaired.
During the week I had driven the car to and from work a couple of times to give it a short shake down so with no issues it was time for a longer run and at speed so a 40 mile round trip up the M23 then one junction of the M25 and back with no issues I was confident it would be ok for the 250 mile round trip on Sunday.
A fresh set of side mouldings with M5 badges plus clear side repeaters to replace the body colour painted ones and ambers.
Continuing with the amber to clear theme a set of mint condition facelift rear outer lamps with clear indicators and new facelift inner lamps to replace the faded ones fitted plus a pair of new outer bumper mouldings.
And to finish off the clear indicator theme (all UK M5's had clear indicators) the amber shod halogens that had a cheap HID kit and broken adjusters were replaced with a set of OEM facelift xenon headlights that had been refurbished with all new adjusters, polished lenses and new bulbs.
Also in the pic you can see the M sport front bumper T bar in the centre grill has been swapped out for the M5 mesh grill and the standard mirror have been replaced with the M5 specific ones. A new motor and glass was required the drivers mirror as they had been damaged when the donor M5 was crashed.
The engine bay received a bit of a wipe down, new headlight gaskets and some of the bolts that hold on the headlights, rad supports and front panel were replaced with new to get rid of some rusty old ones to help tidy it up a bit.
Quick wash the evening before the meet then the last piece to go on at 11.30 pm was the M5 rear badge.
Keeping the self levelling rear air suspension meant some rerouting of the pneumatic lines, wiring and removal of the compressor from its "tortoise shell" housing that locates it in under the spare wheel and putting it in the forward compartment of the M5's battery tray that normally houses a tyre inflation kit.
One of the plastic trims (left one which covers the BM54 radio unit) was already cracked and the ones on the right needed some cutting to allow routing of the some wiring so this is an area that requires some finessing so another set of plastic covers will be sourced and adapted to tidy this area up.
More of that gold plated plastic fitted up, the centre under tray specific to the sport front bumper is often missing or damaged from speed bumps etc and in my case, it still has an SE one fitted along with ebay copies of the "pork chop" side pieces.
I was initially told the centre piece was on back order with no delivery date (so no stock in the UK or Germany) but then one turned up a couple of days later. Happy days I thought but on closer inspection it had clearly been knocking about in a warehouse for some time as it was covered in dust and had (as can been seen in the pics) lots of scratches to the underside. Annoying but I wasn't going to be too choosy on something I would have to wait a long time for another if they even make another batch!
The M5/M3 Oval interior mirror suffering from the usual bleeding of its auto dimming glass plus mine was missing its "clown nose" alarm LED lens so it was an order from cutters forum sponsor www.mirrorjohn.co.uk for a replacement glass and lens.
Fitted up and working. I ordered a set of covers for the back of the mirror and rain sensor but they don't seem to fit so thats on the snag list to look into whats going on if there are different size rain sensors.
When I bought the 540i the previous owner had fitted a set of birch anthracite interior trims which was quite sought after and I do like them but I wanted the interior to have as much M5 feel as possible so I swapped the birch for a very good set of M5 specific titan shadow trim set.
Another couple of options already retro fitted to the touring were the built in child booster seats and rear door blinds. Having owned several E39's over the years I always wanted the booster seats in them for my kids to use but now they are old enough not to need them any more. typical! M5 rear outer head rests added to match the fronts.
Switch panel with the M5's specific sport button to adjust throttle map and steering assistance.
Another retro fit carried over from the touring is the wide screen MK4 nav (very antiquated now) and DSP audio system which although not great, its a step up from the very poor base spec audio most E39's have to put up with.
The donor M5 still had its original early black face instrument cluster so that was swapped over but as you can see its suffering from the usual dead pixels in the display. What isn't noticeable in the pics are some other issues with it such as the fuel gauge incorrectly reading and the warm up lights on occasion doing an impression of a crappy disco.
I have tried another cluster to confirm its my cluster at fault and not a dodgy sender or wiring issue so I need to send mine away and see if it can be repaired.
During the week I had driven the car to and from work a couple of times to give it a short shake down so with no issues it was time for a longer run and at speed so a 40 mile round trip up the M23 then one junction of the M25 and back with no issues I was confident it would be ok for the 250 mile round trip on Sunday.
A fresh set of side mouldings with M5 badges plus clear side repeaters to replace the body colour painted ones and ambers.
Continuing with the amber to clear theme a set of mint condition facelift rear outer lamps with clear indicators and new facelift inner lamps to replace the faded ones fitted plus a pair of new outer bumper mouldings.
And to finish off the clear indicator theme (all UK M5's had clear indicators) the amber shod halogens that had a cheap HID kit and broken adjusters were replaced with a set of OEM facelift xenon headlights that had been refurbished with all new adjusters, polished lenses and new bulbs.
Also in the pic you can see the M sport front bumper T bar in the centre grill has been swapped out for the M5 mesh grill and the standard mirror have been replaced with the M5 specific ones. A new motor and glass was required the drivers mirror as they had been damaged when the donor M5 was crashed.
The engine bay received a bit of a wipe down, new headlight gaskets and some of the bolts that hold on the headlights, rad supports and front panel were replaced with new to get rid of some rusty old ones to help tidy it up a bit.
Quick wash the evening before the meet then the last piece to go on at 11.30 pm was the M5 rear badge.
5.45am V power fill up before heading round the M25.......
.... before meeting up with a load of E39 M5 owners at Beaconsfield services......
..... to head up the M40 to the meet at C&M.
An enjoyable morning out with some nice M5s including plenty in some rare individual colours.
So impressions... it goes and stops just like an M5, it handles pretty much like an M5 with the Eibach rear ARB helping to keep the body roll with the extra weight in check. Ride is nice and compliant compared to my M4 despite the Bilstein B8 shock absorbers and with every bush, ball joint, mount, suspension arm and steering rod being new its a tight as can be.
Only down side is 3rd gear syncro has had it so a quick change up or down into 3rd will mean a crunch. Annoying as it means a box rebuild and I had no way of knowing this as i couldn't drive the crash damaged M5.
Very happy with how it has turned out so far and despite there being a snag list plus a few other changes i would like to make, I am looking forward to doing those as and when.
Edited by BSSBMW on Monday 5th July 21:44
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