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Well with a wife recovering from a major surgery and two small children I haven't had a lot of time to get down to the car, but I did manage to grab a couple of hours today while the smaller of the tiny humans napped. The sports seats were out in no time (surprisingly easier to manhandle out than various forum posts had led me to believe, they're not THAT heavy and unwieldy), and sadly plainly showing how long it is since I properly cleaned the interior 🙈 This finally gave me the opportunity to get the wet vac out and finally clean up the coffee that had presumably been spilt by a previous owner of the car. It looks like it must have spilt on the passenger seat and dripped through to the carpet. (underside of the seat did not show signs of coffee however so 🤷‍♂️). I did a vacuum and wet vac on the bits that needed it. Just did a fairly quick clean, as still intend to pull everything out and do a deep clean at some point in the future (I was running on limited time today). That's better! Then it was time to get the bucket seats into the car. Being significantly lighter this was fairly easy, I used towels etc. round the door to make sure I didn't scratch the seats, but it wasn't really needed as it was easy to fit them through the door and into place. After connecting the wiring it was on to getting the seat placed properly and torqued down. I followed the advice that M3_Power had given me to make sure you keep sliding the seat back and forwards on the sliders as you tighten it down, to make sure its sliding freely and locking into place correctly with all 4 locking pins when you select a position. That was all pretty straightforward and in short order I had the passenger seat installed. Then it was on to the driver's side, and again just a case of repeating the process. More straightforward and quicker to do than I was expecting, and THEY LOOK AWESOME! I haven't had a chance to take the car for a drive yet, but will try to take it for a drive tomorrow. These photos also highlight that I really need to get the new steering wheel installed, as the old one is looking pretty bad now. Might try to get that done tomorrow as well, will see how I go. In terms of the seats I'm super happy with them, they're exactly what I was wanting and it's so satisfying having bucket seats that are genuine, period correct, look awesome, and are in amazing condition. They were of course $$$, so I wasn't completely sure I wouldn't experience some form of buyer's regret, but I have not so far 😂 Very happy 😍

I'd say I'm fairly committed now 😁 Removed the sunroof cassette (let me know if you need one !!) and got prepped for making a mess ... don't forget to tape off around the window trims to prevent future rust nuggets getting lodged in there !! Next up it was time to start separating the many many spot welds around the perimeter. I started off using my little spot weld cutter (sprung pin in the middle, like a mini hole saw) but this proved pretty average ... pin rounded off and cuter tries to walk all over the place. In the end the ideal method for the front and rear seams was to: Use die grinder to cut a small track around the edge of the spot Generally thin out the material around the weld Split the skin using a chisel, it basically just shears at the spot weld If not fully separated use the chisel ... like a chisel It goes through the thinned sheet metal easily For the sides I might opt for a better drill, have seen some which look like a brad point wood drill which I might use. Must wait until Tuesday to get a hold of one though

Croc powered e90

Well it's an exciting week in the life of this project. Around 18 months ago I decided that I wanted to take a bit of a deviation from keeping the car stock, and look into options around bucket seats. Although I want to ensure that I can always revert the car exactly to stock, I felt that bucket seats would provide a significant improvement to the driving experience of the car. I find I move around a fair bit in the standard sports seats, so wanted something that would hold me better. I looked into many options for seats, and fairly quickly zeroed in on the Cobra Nogaros. I was keen though to keep the look of the seats as in keeping and period correct as possible so I reached out early last year to Cobra to enquire about custom upholstery with Alcantara and laser fabric to replicate the genuine CSL seats. I was pretty excited to hear that they were working on the Munich Edition Nogaros (which were released later that year). Unfortunately the other key requirement I had is that I didn't want to have to go through the process of getting a cert. I spent quite a bit of time trying to work out whether there was a path to that using OE sliders, Brey-Krauss (or similar) mounts and Cobra Nogaros. Slid all the way forward you get very close to a 300mm gap, but the other key requirement that the sliding mechanism be accessible to the rear passenger was going to be hard to achieve (and pretty much impossible without going down the cert path). As a result, when the Munich Edition Nogaros were released I ultimately didn't pull the trigger (although I still think they're a cool option) There was of course one other possible option which met all of my exacting requirements... I'm now the proud owner of a pair of genuine CSL seats 😍 These particular seats came out of a low mileage car and have sat in storage for the last 10 years, so as a result are in amazing condition considering they are 20 years old. I only picked them up last night, and probably won't have time until the weekend to get them into the car, but I'll certainly be updating here when I do!

Accidentally got another after being less masochistic for yonks. Cleaned it, made the wife clean it. Will probably clean it some more. And then count all the fun issues that come with E61 life. Does fit the car seat better than the TT did...

Cool colour combo! Anyone know this car - 2006 e60 M5?

The interior isn't Black! By gawd, man, now can that be! It's a beauty. (Tip: I am no fan of black interiors)

Today I did this ... just have not been able to find where the dang sunroof was leaking, pretty sure I've located it now though !! Should have it siliconed up and back on the road in no time 👍 ...

Looking great! This is a very cool project and certainly no mean feat! I am very much enjoying following this! Keep up the great work!

oh, my beating heart!!! They are spectacular. And if they are the seats recently on TradeMe, then NOT a cheap addition to the car. One wonders why and how a set of these became separated from the csl they came in?? But great score for you, for sure!

Have not seen it in the flesh yet but its out of the mold and looking good

The coolant leak was sorted, seems to have had a touch too much fluid in it and held pressure as expected, thanks @Eagle for testing at short notice. Last Thursday, 18th May, I returned from a 3600 KM round trip from Hamilton to Aarow town and surrounding locations as part of the BMW Car Club NZ South Island tour. it was fantastic and the car ran flawlessly the whole way. With 21 cars and nearly 40 people it was a trip to remember I even did 3 laps of highlands park with no issues except some hot, smelly brakes afterwards. Needless to say, even the longer drives 8 or 9 hours stretches were no trouble given the refreshed seat base and brilliant ergonomics of the E39 platform. Kaikoura E39 Park up just outside Fairlie Arrowtown morning briefing, Club Touring day 1 Classic little general store Ida Valley-Omakau Road, Otago E39 trio, Oamaru.from left to right; M5, Alpina B10 V8, 530i MSport Ohau Church of the Good Shepherd, Sunrise, Lake Tekapo, 3 degrees and dropping. Temp hit -4.5 between Tekapo and Fairlie