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Michael.

Back into a BMW, 540i E34

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It's been sometime since I've had a BMW,  the last time was when I sold my E36 coupe with its 1UZ-FE V8 conversion, seven years ago in 2014.

The desire for an old project BMW has remained, the only model that tickled my fancy were E34s so meant slim pickings. A particularly nice 540i came up this month so I had to drop everything and make a move on it.

It's exactly what I was after, wasn't going to bother with any old thing. This one is exceptionally straight and has only had 2 owners since NZ new, I'm now the third. It's just about to tick over 86,000km

I've placed a huge order of service items so that will allow me to get the car back up to scratch, I'm probably going over and beyond but I tend to be like that if I deem the car as being worth it. This one is no exception. 

Eventually I'll sort some nicer wheels and fit an Eisenmann rear muffler, but those additions can wait. DSC_7683.thumb.JPG.d7bdf1c87261147a0cb6dde437419164.JPGDSC_7686.thumb.JPG.a544cf1ee2938eb982e2c1588b2218e9.JPGDSC_7688.thumb.JPG.d86f7e1cd5c93860bdb88c0b3401ee6d.JPGDSC_7681.thumb.JPG.fcdc94127c5745e9c67abdf5ac806331.JPGDSC_7682.thumb.JPG.434f3bf7f990d5d660b0639a5e913cb5.JPGDSC_7671.thumb.JPG.607c8bfcba70f7e7c4afeb60c5679a24.JPGDSC_7668.thumb.JPG.5934e3fdd216384f153ead9ddd3ba627.JPGDSC_7675.thumb.JPG.d31f30b07fdcee631314ab9d31c2e1d8.JPG

 

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Having a soft spot for the e34 this one sounds like a great example. Look forward to the updates

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Nice car. 
Surprised at the final figure. These are generally under valued and under appreciated. 
Hope there was no shill bidding to reach that figure. 

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Absolute stunner - a true Gentleman's express.

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3 hours ago, coop said:

Nice car. 
Surprised at the final figure. These are generally under valued and under appreciated. 
Hope there was no shill bidding to reach that figure. 

Yeah the values are quite inconsistent, I talked to quite a few people and found listings for various listings of 540i E34s in recent months to get an idea of what it was worth. 

I made two offers to the seller but they wanted to let the auction run, so I just had to bid it up to where I was comfortable, in the end no one else bidded and I got it for less than one of my offers, so ended up being a win. 

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Lol I was watching you on that listing, wondered what you were up to. Looks nice, should be a very good base for a nice solid cruiser. Very jealous, love a good E34!

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Welcome back to the family!

 

You will have to add a 420g and a black interior to your christmas list?

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Seen a couple of neglected\abused E34 540i's recently, both well over 300,000+ which is a testament to their stoutness under garbage owners.  

Edited by Eagle
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2 hours ago, zero said:

Welcome back to the family!

 

You will have to add a 420g and a black interior to your christmas list?

Haha I'm not really that interested in manuals so not so too bothered there, I did once come into the possession of a manual 5 speed M60 kit that I sold for $3000 a number of years ago but I didnt have an E34 then. Black interior? Haha definitely not, black interiors are generally quite awful imo, just look a bit too generic and show up dust easily, the reason I bought the car was the very clean white / grey interior. My favorite colour combo (Soarer is also grey interior ❤️ )

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4 minutes ago, Michael. said:

Black interior? Haha definitely not, black interiors are generally quite awful imo, just look a bit too generic and show up dust easily, the reason I bought the car was the very clean white / grey interior. My favorite colour combo (Soarer is also grey interior ❤️ )

I could hug you.

#nohomo

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5 minutes ago, KwS said:

I could hug you.

#nohomo

Haha yay. I have the same thing in the Soarer community, people fawn over the black interiors, even spray paint their grey or tan ones black (terrible results to the purist) or pay a fortune for black cloth interiors... I've just never seen the appeal myself. 

Also imagine taking out the grey/white interior in this E34, the seats and trim are in perfect shape only having 86,000km, if I hunted for the rare e34 parts scattered in NZ the best I could probably find would be a manky old set of 275,000km sad leather seats with broken electric motors, haha, yuck 😂

Edited by Michael.
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Could be the pics hiding the fine detail, but it certainly looks mint!

Great colour combo.

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24 minutes ago, GorGasm said:

Could be the pics hiding the fine detail, but it certainly looks mint!

Great colour combo.

Yeah pics are good at doing that. It's definitely the cleanest e34 I've had the privilege to see. If it was average I wouldn't have bothered buying it haha. 

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24 minutes ago, leichtbau said:

Wow that's stunning!

Cheers! Spent the weekend cleaning up some interior parts (Removed and scrubbed individually) and doing some minor repairs, looking even better. My goal was to find a really clean example and then get it even cleaner. Will take time but it's going to be pure TLC 

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Also a fan of the light coloured interior.
What wheels are you planning for it? 
Sorry to say, but those base model pre facelift E39 wheels just look wrong. Haha. 
I do like them on the 528i though (probably because I’m use to it, and Gone In 60 Seconds).  
There is quite an active NZ E34 FB community if you haven’t discovered it already. 

Edited by coop

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32 minutes ago, coop said:

Also a fan of the light coloured interior.
What wheels are you planning for it? 
Sorry to say, but those base model pre facelift E39 wheels just look wrong. Haha. 
I do like them on the 528i though (probably because I’m use to it, and Gone In 60 Seconds).  
There is quite an active NZ E34 FB community if you haven’t discovered it already. 

Yeah it's probably my favorite. Particularly because this wasn't abused or worn yet, just needs a good clean here and there.

I was going to ditch them asap but they have Mich PS3 tyres with good tread so may as well get some use out of them. 

Not too sure yet, some kind of BBS / BMW style 17" will do the trick.

Yeah I found that before I bought the car, few familiar faces on there haha! 

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Ive still got a manual rear sunshade with the parcel tray for template if you want for free. Missing one of the hooks though it looks like they are still ebay etc.

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