Finally finished off my latest project. Have yearned to get back into an E28 after owning several of the oldskool E12's and E28's back in SA, so when a wrecked genuine M535i manual came up for sale, I couldn't resist. Bought the wreck and then bought a very clean 528i auto to use for the transplant.
Began by stripping the M535i to check that it was still mechanically ok, luckily it was all good in that department except for a very second-hand driver's side trailing arm and a torn centre hanger bearing mounting for the propshaft. The hanger bearing was easily replaced from our friendly Euro-Italian sponsor.. thanks Gavin, good price too..
Below are some pics of the M535i, there wasn't a straight panel on it!! How it survived without any major mechanical damage is suprising!!!
Also a pic of the damaged trailing arm, had no luck in sourcing another one with the ABS sensor mounting, so had to resort to my best fabrication skills and fabricate a mounting for the sensor on the arm off the 528i. Came out very well, ABS is functioning perfectly, have tried it out in several different situations just to make sure and it passed with flying colours..
The M535i was a high spec with OBC, aircon,LSD, Bilstein sport suspension, ABS, leather recaros etc, the 528i was a basic model so I had to strip the 528i back to a shell and transfer EVERYTHING across including wiring looms. What fun!!
When I stripped the 528i to a shell, I had a good look for rust and found none in the main body, and only a little in one of the doors, so was quite happy with that.
The M535i was a low mileage car, 174000 on the clock, and the interior reflected it, with no marks on the seats, door cards or the carpet. The 528i had 320000+ k's on it so the carpet was showing its age a bit but the seats etc were still good (suprisingly), but not leather sports so out everything came. The M535i wreck had dark blue trim including carpet, which I intend to recolour black, but for now I just put it in. Suprisingly, it doesn't look bad in the 528i shell despite the colour clash. So it will remain until I am bored and decide to do the colour change.
Below is the 528i before I stripped it, and another with the motor/gearbox removed, with me doing my best Gus impersonation...
Then began to reassemble the whole thing, starting with fitting the ABS, aircon and wiring looms, and installing all the little brackets that go with all those bits, cutting them from the wreck and tig welding them to the 528i body. Painful fiddly job... Has to be done before installing the engine/gearbox though.
Below is a pic of the interior midway through the reassembly, engine etc is now in and I am just tidying up. The old door card still on the passenger door here but new dash in as the old one was badly cracked, as is the OBC and aircon, AND the third pedal.. and I changed the steering column to one with an E30 spline so I could use a Mtech2 steering wheel I happened to have in my possession..
Now for the finished product.... I will be putting other wheels on it sometime as the standard 14" wheels just can't cope with the power and LSD, does quite spectacular drifts and smoking donuts.. . I have the standard metric M535i rims but two tyres are quite smooth so don't want to use them. Metric tyres are also hellishingly expensive, so will rather channel my funds into more conventional wheels. Looking for a set of 16" BBS 3piece wheels preferably, but others are also under consideration as long as they are not chrome!!
Am also looking for an Mtech kit as the one on the car is beyond repair..!!! But that will all come later, for now the car is a sleeper.... . Will fit a cruise control too as I don't want to lose my licence... it is suprising how quickly it accelerates compared to any of my 325's, is doing a miserly 1800rpm at 110kmh, so is VERY easy to exceed the legal limit before you realise it!!
I have also painted the hedliner black, that came out extremely well and changes the interior completely. Also done the centre console black but have left the carpet, door cards and seats blue for now.
Have fitted a 5 star Mongoose alarm too, mainly because I hate using a key to get in.. . Will gas up the aircon when I get round to getting a new compressor bracket as the existing one was cracked in the accident.
So still some way to go to the final product but for now it is running and much fun to drive. Pics of the "finished" product..
260kmh speedo.. hope to get there someday..
what next??
Will
