BMW E39 M5 touring build #2
Discussion
jackcactii said:
Even if it's a bit of a shed, I would've at least put a rag down under the stuff 
You would have had kittens if you had seen it loaded up with Garden waste the other week!Seriously though, a quick vacuum and wipe down and all was good again.
I have been looking for an OEM rubber load liner.
Three months in and the wagon has covered a couple of thousand miles without missing a beat other than a leaky left rear air spring which was duly replaced. The previous owner had already replaced the right rear.
The bonnet had been letting the side down in terms of general tidiness as it was heavily chipped and had a high spot when the bonnet had been shut on something.
A stroke of luck (for me) was a customer deciding not to bother repairing their high mileage cat C 525iSE which happened to also be sterling grey with a very tidy bonnet!
Swapped over the paint match is pretty good considering it had been painted recently, a new badge finished it off nicely.
Looking a lot tidier from when first bought, the real let down now were the very tatty non staggered Style 66 17" wheels, something had to be done!
A pal of mine had a set of staggered genuine style 37 18" M parallels in need of a refurb so a deal was done and off to Lepsons they went for them to work their magic.
Shod in a set of Hankook Ventus S1 evo3 tyres along with new badges and bolts they have transformed the way the car looks.
Compared to the day i bought it.
The bonnet had been letting the side down in terms of general tidiness as it was heavily chipped and had a high spot when the bonnet had been shut on something.
A stroke of luck (for me) was a customer deciding not to bother repairing their high mileage cat C 525iSE which happened to also be sterling grey with a very tidy bonnet!
Swapped over the paint match is pretty good considering it had been painted recently, a new badge finished it off nicely.
Looking a lot tidier from when first bought, the real let down now were the very tatty non staggered Style 66 17" wheels, something had to be done!
A pal of mine had a set of staggered genuine style 37 18" M parallels in need of a refurb so a deal was done and off to Lepsons they went for them to work their magic.
Shod in a set of Hankook Ventus S1 evo3 tyres along with new badges and bolts they have transformed the way the car looks.
Compared to the day i bought it.
That’s looking lovely Barry.
Tugs at my heart strings, as I also had a Sterling Grey 530i Sport Touring, with black leather and silver trim (the one in fact that came with the OEM roof bars you collected from me for your M5 Touring!). It wasn’t quite so well optioned as yours, but was a fabulous drive with relatively low miles and if course I SHOULD NOT HAVE SOLD IT
Here it is/was
Somewhat off topic I need to come and visit you with my E28 to discuss a few bits.
Tugs at my heart strings, as I also had a Sterling Grey 530i Sport Touring, with black leather and silver trim (the one in fact that came with the OEM roof bars you collected from me for your M5 Touring!). It wasn’t quite so well optioned as yours, but was a fabulous drive with relatively low miles and if course I SHOULD NOT HAVE SOLD IT
Here it is/was
Somewhat off topic I need to come and visit you with my E28 to discuss a few bits.
sutts said:
That’s looking lovely Barry.
Tugs at my heart strings, as I also had a Sterling Grey 530i Sport Touring, with black leather and silver trim (the one in fact that came with the OEM roof bars you collected from me for your M5 Touring!). It wasn’t quite so well optioned as yours, but was a fabulous drive with relatively low miles and if course I SHOULD NOT HAVE SOLD IT
Somewhat off topic I need to come and visit you with my E28 to discuss a few bits.
Thanks!Tugs at my heart strings, as I also had a Sterling Grey 530i Sport Touring, with black leather and silver trim (the one in fact that came with the OEM roof bars you collected from me for your M5 Touring!). It wasn’t quite so well optioned as yours, but was a fabulous drive with relatively low miles and if course I SHOULD NOT HAVE SOLD IT
Somewhat off topic I need to come and visit you with my E28 to discuss a few bits.
You will be pleased to know I kept the roof bars along with the bike racks when I sold the M5 touring so they will be used again on a sterling 530i Sport touring!
Regret of selling is something often heard from E39 owners, yours looked a care for example.
Give the office a ring when you're ready and ask for me.
BSSBMW said:
Three months in and the wagon has covered a couple of thousand miles without missing a beat other than a leaky left rear air spring which was duly replaced. The previous owner had already replaced the right rear.
The bonnet had been letting the side down in terms of general tidiness as it was heavily chipped and had a high spot when the bonnet had been shut on something.
A stroke of luck (for me) was a customer deciding not to bother repairing their high mileage cat C 525iSE which happened to also be sterling grey with a very tidy bonnet!
Swapped over the paint match is pretty good considering it had been painted recently, a new badge finished it off nicely.
Looking a lot tidier from when first bought, the real let down now were the very tatty non staggered Style 66 17" wheels, something had to be done!
A pal of mine had a set of staggered genuine style 37 18" M parallels in need of a refurb so a deal was done and off to Lepsons they went for them to work their magic.
Shod in a set of Hankook Ventus S1 evo3 tyres along with new badges and bolts they have transformed the way the car looks.
Compared to the day i bought it.
That looks absolutely spanking Barry The bonnet had been letting the side down in terms of general tidiness as it was heavily chipped and had a high spot when the bonnet had been shut on something.
A stroke of luck (for me) was a customer deciding not to bother repairing their high mileage cat C 525iSE which happened to also be sterling grey with a very tidy bonnet!
Swapped over the paint match is pretty good considering it had been painted recently, a new badge finished it off nicely.
Looking a lot tidier from when first bought, the real let down now were the very tatty non staggered Style 66 17" wheels, something had to be done!
A pal of mine had a set of staggered genuine style 37 18" M parallels in need of a refurb so a deal was done and off to Lepsons they went for them to work their magic.
Shod in a set of Hankook Ventus S1 evo3 tyres along with new badges and bolts they have transformed the way the car looks.
Compared to the day i bought it.
The Style 37s are stunning wheels, more so when fully refurbished. But for me, they suit some E39 colours better than others and yours is absolutely the right colour E39 for them
Quite a transformation, Barry, and sterling grey looks really smart on it. There was a B10 V8 in sterling grey that was either stolen and damaged or needed an engine and complete reupholster… can only remember that it looked fantastic, yours is too after all of that work. The wheels really make it.
A long overdue update for the wagon!
Daily use of the old bus over the last few months has proven to be relatively reliable with only a couple of hiccups along the way.
The nearside rear of the car decided to drop to the deck which was the usual air spring split and leaking so an Arnott replacement was duly fitted. The offside had recently been replaced by the previous owner.
A front end knocking over bumps was traced to very worn original front anti roll bar bushes allowing the bar to move laterally. New genuine bushes replaced the 20 year old originals.
The rear end of the car was feeling a bit loose and crashy over bumps so a closer look at the rear subframe bushes revealed them to be the originals and that they were toast! All four replaced with febi items.
I had leant my dad the touring while I had his Z4 in for some work and he had the misfortune of a rapid deflation and subsequent blow out whilst traveling at 80'ish on the M2. Luckily he maintained control of the car and got over to the hard shoulder without incident.
The culprit!
I would love to know how this came to be on the tarmac of the M2 before destroying a virtually new 18" Hankook! A replacement was fitted when he returned the car back to me.
Suffering from the typical E38/E39/E53 instrument cluster dead pixels, these were not too bad when I bought the car but have gradually got worse.
The cluster was removed and sent off to www.akspeedo.com for them to test and repair any issues with it.
Back in the car and now able to read the mileage correctly!
That rounds up the the maintenance over the last few months. I have mulled over a manual conversion but as its just a daily work horse it's a bit pointless so will prob just do some maintenance to the automatic box instead.
Daily use of the old bus over the last few months has proven to be relatively reliable with only a couple of hiccups along the way.
The nearside rear of the car decided to drop to the deck which was the usual air spring split and leaking so an Arnott replacement was duly fitted. The offside had recently been replaced by the previous owner.
A front end knocking over bumps was traced to very worn original front anti roll bar bushes allowing the bar to move laterally. New genuine bushes replaced the 20 year old originals.
The rear end of the car was feeling a bit loose and crashy over bumps so a closer look at the rear subframe bushes revealed them to be the originals and that they were toast! All four replaced with febi items.
I had leant my dad the touring while I had his Z4 in for some work and he had the misfortune of a rapid deflation and subsequent blow out whilst traveling at 80'ish on the M2. Luckily he maintained control of the car and got over to the hard shoulder without incident.
The culprit!
I would love to know how this came to be on the tarmac of the M2 before destroying a virtually new 18" Hankook! A replacement was fitted when he returned the car back to me.
Suffering from the typical E38/E39/E53 instrument cluster dead pixels, these were not too bad when I bought the car but have gradually got worse.
The cluster was removed and sent off to www.akspeedo.com for them to test and repair any issues with it.
Back in the car and now able to read the mileage correctly!
That rounds up the the maintenance over the last few months. I have mulled over a manual conversion but as its just a daily work horse it's a bit pointless so will prob just do some maintenance to the automatic box instead.
BSSBMW on 26th August said:
I have mulled over a manual conversion but as its just a daily work horse it's a bit pointless so will prob just do some maintenance to the automatic box instead
BSSBMW on 14th November said:
Erm....... here we go again!
Love your threads, cannot wait to watch this develop
Mezzanine said:
Love your threads, cannot wait to watch this develop
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