My first M car. E39 M5

My first M car. E39 M5

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PowerslideSWE

Original Poster:

1,116 posts

137 months

Sunday 2nd April 2017
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Copying my text for the barge thread.

Barge purchase and a substantial bit of man maths involved. A while back I was bidding on a very tidy 540i M-Sport, deal fell through due to the fact that the seller was being a dishonest prick.

Figured that I only live once, so I did one better, got myself a BMW M5, an early 2000 E39 to be precise at 3 times the cost....which will be delivered in may..if I'm lucky. Bear with me, long read.

Thing is, that the car is on the home stretch of being "restored" if you will by a guy I know, I was good friends in my younger years with his brother, who now sadly is dead. Anyway, the owner has the hobby and passion of buying older interesting cars and pretty much rebuilding them to a very high standard, and that is all that he does with them, he doesn't drive them, this one he got in october in 2014, and drove it 100 miles home from Stockholm where he bought it, and a week or so later a 550 mile round trip to Malmö in the south to get the dead pixels fixed. Since then the car has been in his garage.

It has since been treated to a full overhaul of pretty much everything, the engine has every seal and gasket bar the head gaskets replaced, it has also been "washed" internally in the lack of better wordage 5 times or so, he showed me the oil filter canister and that was clean enough to eat soup from... Every line or hose has been replaced by brand new OEM items, brand new CCV etc. Smoke and leakdown tested, checked for carbon build up etc.

Clutch and flywheel are brand new OEM, all the driveshaft bearings are brand new OEM. The gearbox has had every seal replaced and the oil changed, same with the rear differential. Pretty much every suspension component aswell are brand new.

Body wise it's in really good absolutely rust free nick, every emblem is brand new, a few bits of window trim had very small imperfections on them, so they were replaced with brand new OEM items aswell. All the lights, all of them on the car are brand new, bought over the counter in the same way as all the other bits were, at our local BMW dealership.

Interior is in great shape, center console was in really bad shape, so that's painted in body color, I can live with it for now, but an OEM item will be sourced at a later date. Brand new steering wheel and gear knob and handbrake handle, all bought brand new over the counter at the dealership.

When I was there on wednesday he was in the process of fitting a brand new Bilstein B14 fully adjustable coil over set.

All the original bits will be supplied with the car, head and tail lights, complete stock suspension, 2 complete sets of 19" allows of which one are brand new Dotz Mugello Black I think they are called with brand new Michelin pilot super sports, the other set are BBS challenge in ok shape, sadly the car is missing it's original set of Style 65's. I'm not a fan of 19's so both sets will be sold and the car will be fitted with a set of Style 37's that I know are half of an inch to narrow in the rear, I can live with that while I source a set of 65's.

it also has a Borla catback exhaust, don't yet know it that is something that I might like, but as long as there is no drone in the car and it's quiet while not driving under load it can stay.

Current owner has saved every reciept for every nut and bolt in a 3 ring binders, over £10000 in parts alone, everything is OEM, from the dealership, so if there is one 15 year old M car that is relatively safe to buy it will be this one.

The car itself as a rather poorly specced one, I guess the guy that ordered it had scraped together the dosh to get an all singing all dancing 540 or a bare bones M5, and chose the latter.

It's Imola red with the F2AT part leather part M-textur Alcantara interior, if it's rare of not I don't know, but I have never seen it before tbh. It's in great shape however. It has the small screen nav unit, electric rear blind and electric heated memory seats, but no sunroof, and I prefer a car w/o if I'm honest so thats just a plus, neither does it have the fold down rear seats, also a plus, since it makes for a much more comfy rear seat. Vin number is GJ19384

Going to be a long time before picking it up, delivery is set to May the 25:th, and the owner can't be rushed, - the car will be delivered when it's prefect- is what I was told..

I have no problem disclosing the price, it's 175.000 Swedish, which in todays exchange rate is £14700. Amd quite frankly a steal concidering the time and expence poured into it.

Got a few snaps today of the WIP, and he's housed in a very small garage, so the angles are a bit..well odd. Those of you of the "OEM only" disposition will be warned wink

Engine bay: All the red bits are powdercoated, and hell, I kinda like it, so it will remain like that, seller told me that he can put it back to stock again for me, but it will take some additional time, a long time aswell, so the red stays. And you'll get the idea of the work done..









Interior:







Misc: Car is not on the ground, nor on it's correct wheels yet. It's not being cut and polished either, mirrors are oem, but in primer, will be painted in body colour again.














Edited by PowerslideSWE on Sunday 2nd April 20:44


Edited by PowerslideSWE on Sunday 2nd April 20:45


Edited by PowerslideSWE on Sunday 2nd April 21:29


Edited by PowerslideSWE on Monday 3rd April 07:26


Edited by PowerslideSWE on Monday 3rd April 07:28


Edited by PowerslideSWE on Monday 3rd April 07:28

The Nur

9,168 posts

184 months

Sunday 2nd April 2017
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Christ alive, that looks fantastic from what I can see thumbup

chris116

1,104 posts

167 months

Sunday 2nd April 2017
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I don't think I've ever seen so much red on a car!

I like the look of the seats, 50/50 like that must be ideal, warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer than full leather.


Bungleaio

6,324 posts

201 months

Sunday 2nd April 2017
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I think you've got a bargain!

r129sl

9,518 posts

202 months

Sunday 2nd April 2017
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It looks quite, er, clean. I think you've bought the right one. I too like the upholstery.

TheAngryDog

12,394 posts

208 months

Sunday 2nd April 2017
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Congrats. Looking good, red suits these a lot. What is going on with the gear gaiter though?

Edited by TheAngryDog on Sunday 2nd April 22:59

SebringMan

1,773 posts

185 months

Sunday 2nd April 2017
quotequote all
TheAngryDog said:
Congrats. Looking good, red suits these a lot. What is going on with the gear gaiter though?

Edited by TheAngryDog on Sunday 2nd April 22:59
It's been pulled up, probably to clean it thoroughly.

Anyway,

That car looks great! It is surprisingly clean! Some of the details are in your face but it's been done very well! I bet you are chuffed to bits.

PowerslideSWE

Original Poster:

1,116 posts

137 months

Monday 3rd April 2017
quotequote all
SebringMan said:
It's been pulled up, probably to clean it thoroughly.

Anyway,

That car looks great! It is surprisingly clean! Some of the details are in your face but it's been done very well! I bet you are chuffed to bits.
He's been working on it since october 2014 so it should be clean wink "only" 84000 miles aswell and never in the winter according to Swedish DVLA.

The gaiter is OEM, and as you said, probably just pulled up. Engine bay will stay as it is, the interior will be put back to stock, items are supplied with the car and I can do that job myself I reckon. Exterior will be completely stock looking apart from the wheels, until I can source a set of the correct style 65's.


Edited by PowerslideSWE on Monday 3rd April 05:56

PowerslideSWE

Original Poster:

1,116 posts

137 months

Monday 3rd April 2017
quotequote all
r129sl said:
It looks quite, er, clean. I think you've bought the right one. I too like the upholstery.
I think I got the right one aswell, everything mechanical on the car has been done, and done correctly biggrin

Upholstery was indeed rather rare, 312 supplied in total. I like it alot, sure full black heritage leather would have been better, but can't have it all biggrin


Edited by PowerslideSWE on Monday 3rd April 07:32


Edited by PowerslideSWE on Monday 3rd April 09:25

Veeayt

3,139 posts

204 months

Monday 3rd April 2017
quotequote all
Fantastic! Red isn't my cup of tea when it comes to performance saloons or estates, but I could live with that, considering the cars's condition. Interested to see what comes up about this car. Good luck.

Dannbodge

2,160 posts

120 months

Monday 3rd April 2017
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Looks awesome.

The seats are actually nicer than most of the silly colours the M5 seats come in (silver and blue for example)

TheAngryDog

12,394 posts

208 months

Monday 3rd April 2017
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Dannbodge said:
Looks awesome.

The seats are actually nicer than most of the silly colours the M5 seats come in (silver and blue for example)
You could get the red inserts as well.

SuperVM

1,098 posts

160 months

Monday 3rd April 2017
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That's it, I'm going to have to buy my third E39 M5. I actually love Imola on E39 M5s.

Budleigh

128 posts

162 months

Monday 3rd April 2017
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That is all kinds of glorious.

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 3rd April 2017
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Love it.

Think that is money well spent, although I don't like the red centre console!

Bdevo3

478 posts

88 months

Monday 3rd April 2017
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well worth the money. cracking colour

PowerslideSWE

Original Poster:

1,116 posts

137 months

Monday 3rd April 2017
quotequote all
SuperVM said:
That's it, I'm going to have to buy my third E39 M5. I actually love Imola on E39 M5s.
among the ones sold new in Sweden Imola is the rarest standard color, 17 out of just 166 sold new here.

Have had a few imola ones before, not M5's tho, I find it a rather easy to live with colour aswell, doesn't get dirty in a flash like my now Oxford green 530 which is absolutely hopeless to keep clean, but oh so pretty when it is.

PowerslideSWE

Original Poster:

1,116 posts

137 months

Monday 3rd April 2017
quotequote all
Trexthedinosaur said:
Love it.

Think that is money well spent, although I don't like the red centre console!
I like it, but it will go back to standard at some point.


Edited by PowerslideSWE on Monday 3rd April 20:29

PowerslideSWE

Original Poster:

1,116 posts

137 months

Monday 3rd April 2017
quotequote all
Veeayt said:
Fantastic! Red isn't my cup of tea when it comes to performance saloons or estates, but I could live with that, considering the cars's condition. Interested to see what comes up about this car. Good luck.
I will continue to post pics of the "developement" as it goes on, car is situated just 10 miles from where I live.

RS Grant

1,416 posts

232 months

Monday 3rd April 2017
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I love a good E39 M5 thread and this has potential. smile

There are certain parts of this that aren't to my taste, but it looks immaculate and I really like the interior... must be super rare!! Look forward to seeing it develop and don't be shy with pictures, more the better. thumbup


Cheers,
Grant