Just Bought A Run Down BMW (1977 525)

[sam726 29]

Hey guys,

I've just joined this forum after buying a run down bmw. In terms of BMW's I've owned an e36 320i Coupe but have also had a 7th Gen Galant VR4 and my current daily driver, a 1989 Toyota Chaser.

So anyway down to the main subject, I have just bought an extremely run down 1977 BMW 525 for $260. I'm aware these dont have the best resale value so over the coming weeks and months im going to be slowly bring it back up to scratch to get it back on the road on the cheap (as im a student aswell), as at the moment its on hold and hasn't been used for more than two years, has been sitting in a field. The car is a manual, has tan leather interior and there is definitely rust repair to be had. The engine runs, but not 100% well and the engine bay is covered in spiders etc. The interior is extremely dirty and filled with cobwebs and spiders, as is the boot. The body is in ok shape, the paints quite dull, wheel trims are screwed and there is surface rust to be done on the bonnet and around the sunroof.

I've stuck a few pictures below of it coming off the trailer and just after the first quick clean, in the pictures the cars still wet so while it looks nice and shiny it will go back to dull once it dries off, hopefully something a darn good cut and polish can fix it im lucky.

I'd love to know what you guys think and whether it has any potential haha.

Edited June 22, 2010 by Sam G

[bimmer boy 21]

The best part of this thread is the look on your face.

Nah but really looks like a cool as project man, the paint looks half decenish for its age, it would be a lot of fun polishing it up and getting the bitch to shine again. Let me know if you need some polishing tips.. but maybe tend to those spiders first...

[sam726 29]

The best part of this thread is the look on your face.

Nah but really looks like a cool as project man, the paint looks half decenish for its age, it would be a lot of fun polishing it up and getting the bitch to shine again. Let me know if you need some polishing tips.. but maybe tend to those spiders first...

The look on my face was after my dad mentioned whether i knew if it had brakes, i pulled the handbrake to find there was no handbrake cable haha so was edging my way down the ramp hoping it had brakes....it did

Edited June 22, 2010 by Sam G

[Forrest 35]

That car has some serious potential. Welcome to the forum mate.

[Cale 36]

^ Definitely. So awesome.

Welcome dude.

[kerry 10]

welcome i have a e12 i would love to part with if you want spares

[bellicose 9]

Welcome, you bought that off Nick aye? His username here on bimmersport is R90S

I was the one (attitudedesignz) that told you on the tardme MB that if the doors are too bad to fix you can just swap them with E28 doors.

See this http://www.tonybmw.co.uk/pages/project_b/e28doors.html

There's a sh*t load of E12 info' at http://www.tonybmw.co.uk/index.html and http://www.firstfives.org/

Good luck mate.

[sam726 29]

Welcome, you bought that off Nick aye? His username here on bimmersport is R90S

I was the one (attitudedesignz) that told you on the tardme MB that if the doors are too bad to fix you can just swap them with E28 doors.

See this http://www.tonybmw.co.uk/pages/project_b/e28doors.html

There's a sh*t load of E12 info' at http://www.tonybmw.co.uk/index.html and http://www.firstfives.org/

Good luck mate.

Sure did, thanks heaps for the help im sure i will need it at some stage, probably be a good week before i start getting into it. Am planning to first strip out the interior and get the thing jacked up to check for rust and then plan my rust repair, although it doesnt seem as though there is tooo much of it.

[R90S 2]

Damn. I should have washed it before advertising it on TradeMe . . . . oh well.

Hey, welcome to the forum, Sam! Looking forward to your progress. My family preferred the 525 on the lawn compared to the latest arrival from Inglewood . . .

[bellicose 9]

Damn. I should have washed it before advertising it on TradeMe . . . . oh well.

Hey, welcome to the forum, Sam! Looking forward to your progress. My family preferred the 525 on the lawn compared to the latest arrival from Inglewood . . .

Yeah the E12 actually looks pretty clean now.

As for the E3 on ya lawn Nick, just give it a wee while and it will just disintergrate INTO the lawn

[sam726 29]

Damn. I should have washed it before advertising it on TradeMe . . . . oh well.

Hey, welcome to the forum, Sam! Looking forward to your progress. My family preferred the 525 on the lawn compared to the latest arrival from Inglewood . . .

Atleast you've already got a nicely placed dirt patch to park the new arrival on haha, only a couple of years for it to go back to normal. Im looking forward to see what i can do aswell, should be a bit of fun with hopefully a good result. No doubt ill try and keep this forum up to date with any semi major progress.

[hotwire 352]

Welcome & another E12 resurfaced.

Bones of that car look pretty from the pics, should come up nicely. Keep us updated.

[dirtydoogle 383]

Great score mate! I had an E12, I know a chap down the road with four of them. I absolutely love them! Looks like it has heaps of potential, I have some rear lovvels springs if you want them?

[Dr. M 10]

Welcome! Good looking E12 mate looks very straight for the money! Good luck

[sam726 29]

Hi guys, first progress on the bimmer today. Bought a refurbished battery clinic battery as the old one was screwed and got it going a bit, but the dash lights, interior lights and radio were all acting funny and cutting out, turning on etc... plus it took ages to start the car. Had a look under the bonnet and found the ground from battery to body had literally snapped in half, so for the mean time ive stuck in some spare 0 gauge wire i had lying around, works a dream. The car starts first pop straight away and all the lights seem to work well and electrics are all functioning. And thanks Nick, according to the gauge it has 1/4 tank of gas , not that i want to use that though. Might stick a video on later.

[sam726 29]

Starting to think this is going to turn out quite well after starting the cut and polish process. Only quickly done the boot so far but i think the results speak for themselves.

[bellicose 9]

Starting to look good mate. Try to take off as many things as you can when you cut/polish, like the boot spoiler. Nothing worse than the panels lookin' good but then when you look under things like the spoiler it looks dull.

[sam726 29]

Starting to look good mate. Try to take off as many things as you can when you cut/polish, like the boot spoiler. Nothing worse than the panels lookin' good but then when you look under things like the spoiler it looks dull.

Thanks for the advice, i do plan to do that when i do the actual strip down and give it a really good cut and polish but at the moment im just trying to make sure that the paint is going to be ok to keep as is and not need to do a respray at this stage.

I also had a good check and can happily say the sunroof works forward back and tilt which is a nice bonus.

I've taken a video of the engine running also, not the best quality as it was only done on my phone but gives an idea of what its like. Shes blowing a bit of smoke at the moment so that will need to be looked at. Near the end of the video you can see me flooring it, i was trying to demonstrate the flat spot in the engine which i discovered the other day but of course when i try to demonstrate it in the video it doesnt hit the flat spot like it used to haha. You can also see where i've half cut and polish the car, and sorry about taking so long to find the bloody key

let me know what you think

Edited June 27, 2010 by Sam G

[sam726 29]

Finished the first cut and polish now, and what you notice by doing a cut and polish is all the blemishes and imperfections. The roof and bonnet both have a good amount of surface rust and imperfections so will need a respray. It also seems the front panels of the car are a slightly different colour from the doors and back panels, not sure if this is because of different fading but seems quite severe if it was different fading so ill assume they have been resprayed at some stage so ill need to look into this aswell.

Below are a few of the better pictures of the car as it is now.

Also ill need to do something about that pinstripe as it has small bits missing around the car so whether i remove it completely or get a new one im not yet sure.

The hubcaps ive taken off to polish up and the chrome rings have gone to the dump, im going to try and source some more to replace them. The 525 badge had surface rust below it pushing it out and i think its beyond being polished anyway so might get a new 525 badge to replace it.

Edited June 28, 2010 by Sam G

[bimmer boy 21]

Dude its looking damn good!

I see your using a orbital buffer, how good are they you reckon?

[sam726 29]

Dude its looking damn good!

I see your using a orbital buffer, how good are they you reckon?

Cheers man, i used that for mainly roof and bonnet and boot, they seem good for flat surfaces, sure saves the arm, but when you get all curvey with lines and stuff it gets a bit annoying at times. Plus the cloth on it got real clogged and after doing boot, bonnet and roof it was doing a sh*t job on the doors and side panels so reverted back to the trusty bag of rags from bunnings . Also the dam buffer gets my hands all tingly and sh*t, not sure if its just me but can get really uncomfortable if i dont have gloves on.

[in the pic you can see the difference on the bonnet between polished and not]

[bimmer boy 21]

Huge difference man! I always do mine by hand which is a pain in the ass most the time and to get polish to work properly you need lots of friction, so the pad and paint gets hot. So buffer comes in handy there!

Its often overlooked what a bit of polish can do to a car... Can deffinatly save you money on resprays. Which is what I always used to do when my paint looked yuck.

Im looking forward to seeing the final result mate

[39KiwiTouring 2]

Well done Sam some inspiration

[dirtydoogle 383]

Kieran- SBC?

Looking awesome dude! Very jealous.

[sam726 29]

Well done Sam some inspiration

I think it would take one hell of a lot of work to get my car looking anything near as good as that thing, i mean look at the engine! that thing must've cost him a fortune. Awesome car though