Firstfives.org

[ArtJohnson]

In response to comments from some members of this board, here is a summary of the changes and a link to new pictures of what was posted here for about a year as the ‘Carolina M535i’ (1980, 4145252).

http://s1263.photobucket.com/albums/ii623/grecoalley/

It now resides in my barn in Schoeneck PA where I have been poking at it for a couple of months and replacing stuff. At this point I/it could benefit from suggestions from those of you reading this. The car appears to have been through at least one comprehensive fix-up attempt and has been subjected to a couple of follow-up cosmetic repairs. There are at least 2 areas of post-‘restoration’ panel painting, and the front panel/radiator support, air dam were replaced recently. Fortunately most of the paintwork was reasonably well done, and even more fortunately, the car is black which is pretty easy to match. I added a Motorsport stripe kit that I got through Maximillian. I was expecting the broader stripes and spoiler apron that are on many of the cars pictured online, but the ones I got were pictured on the Real OEM diagram so I suppose they are correct and could have been added as an option. Do any of you know about the 2 different kinds of striping? The rust is not terminal and that which I have found and fixed was confined to the vicinity of the previously patched places in the floor and in a couple of the inner fenders. At this point, I don’t think a complete strip-down and restoration to make it a garage queen is financially wise, so I decided to tidy it up as much as possible, drive it on nice days, and keep it dry. The suspension and steering are fine, and rebuilding the front wheel bearings reduced the noise considerably. I have been astonished at how much fun this car is to drive, and to me, that outweighs all of the negatives. It truly must have been one of the best driving sedans of its era.

I have looked pretty hard online to learn about the original equipment that came on these cars, but there are still a few things unresolved. The original steering wheel, shift knob, tools, first aid kit and warning triangle have made it this far. The seats were redone really well at some point, and were in very good condition except for the outer driver’s thigh bolster which I replaced. I replaced the transmission with a rebuilt 265/5 dogleg tranny from Paul LaDue, as there was what I think is a bearing noise in first-3rd gears. At any rate, the transplant is quiet and shifts perfectly. I replaced the rear bumper and tail lights to clean up the look of the rear. I replaced the window squeegies and windshield and rear window lock strips with new ones, and revived the windshield washing system (even though I don’t expect to ever use it). I also replaced some of the wood trim on the doors, but there is some minor cracking that will have to wait until I have time to remove the coating of whatever that clear stuff is. I have a late 70’s Becker Europa radio/tape player in the car now. There is a huge Porsche swap meet just down the road soon, and there will be dozens if not hundreds of vintage German radios for sale. There’s a good chance I might find the right one……..if someone knows what BMW put in these cars.

I can also benefit from your suggestions regarding wheels and tires. I had a set of BBS Mahle 7 x 14’s that are now on the car with Michelin 205 70 14 passenger car tires. I read somewhere that the original wheels were 6.5 x 14 with 185 VR 14 tires. I think that on the correct wheels, the housing that holds the wheel emblem is integrated with the wheel (the spare tire is on one of these). If anyone knows of a set of correct wheels that can be had, please let me know. I have been looking around for 185 70 14 tires, and there seems to be no good high performance tires in this size. Any suggestions? Coker has some 185 VR 14 tires for $600 ea. (laughter). For temporary use, I fabricated vintage Motorsport emblems for the wheel caps from a photo on the E28 board. I read somewhere that the South African versions of the M535i had this wheel cap design and 7 x 14 wheels—can anyone confirm this? The steering-wheel-center Motorsport badges pictured online seem to all be black and white. Did they come this way, or were they colored when new?

As some of you know, the headliner was a PITA. The professionally-done installation job is less than average quality, in part because of the not-correctly-placed after market sunroof dictated modifying the non-sunroof version of the headliner kit I got from World Up. The plastic pieces that line the trunk are shot, and I would replace them if anyone had decent ones to sell. It seems to me that they are made of remarkably flimsy material for a BMW. Lastly (on the current list anyway), in the spirit of trying to get everything to work, I have been trying to figure out the lighting in the temperature and heat distribution dials. I had the heater/AC control assembly out far enough, to look for where the bulbs might go but never did figure it out. The instrument cluster lighting has been hacked, and that might be involved. While I know that this is trivial, the demons will continue to bug me until that problem is solved--

Next up is the A/C (which I haven’t yet looked at), then it’ll be ready to drive anywhere. All of your comments and suggestions are welcome.
_________________
Live Boldly.
1977 530i (72k), 1980 M535i (rescue in progress), 1985 M635CSi, 1986 525e Euro (Alpina-ized), 1986 M5 Euro, 1988 535is,
1990 M3, 1991 M5, 1991 325iX, 1995 M3, 2007 Z4 M coupe, >40 other BMW's down the road

[Luke]

Your car has had me salivating since circa 1998 when I first saw it for sale. It was the sole reason behind me now owning an M535i of my own. I hope you join our e12 m535i group http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/E12_M535i/

I love the look of the stripes, except the front, where I don't think it's factory, they should just slim out instead of turning out big. I know the original striping is NLA and someone from the m535i group is trying to have a new set printed.

The steering-wheel-center Motorsport badges were grayscale originally, and the last I checked were still available.

Some members of the m535i group will be able to tell you the exact details of every item, especially Adam Wilson and Tony Chamberlain.

Everyone has the same situation with the plastic in the trunk, it cracks anytime you try to move it.

Where did you get those motorsport wheel hubs? They're not original but I want 'em!

EDIT: Now that I look at it it kind of looks like the stripes are on backwards.
_________________
May '80 E12 M535i Saphire Blau Metallic
VIN WBA47010004145056
undergoing full restoration

Retired and Crushed:
1981 E12 528i Gold Metallic

[ArtJohnson]

Thanks Luke. I do like the wider stripe kit better, and would definitely be in for a set if someone does make them up. Here's the link to the "M-Technik" set that I got. They are noted as NLA so maybe I got the last set? The wheel caps are my one-off creation, and I am hoping to go back to the original wheels.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=DC11&mospid=47220&btnr=51_0881&hg=51&fg=25
_________________
Live Boldly.
1977 530i (72k), 1980 M535i (rescue in progress), 1985 M635CSi, 1986 525e Euro (Alpina-ized), 1986 M5 Euro, 1988 535is,
1990 M3, 1991 M5, 1991 325iX, 1995 M3, 2007 Z4 M coupe, >40 other BMW's down the road

[Eddie in TO]

Great job!!!

It's nice to see these older M's coming back strong.

BTW...you can order the grayscale early Motorsport wheel center badges (emblem) from BMW. They were available on the E21 basketweave wheel.
The Hub cap is a black plastic version.

Hub cap MOTORSPORT part no. 36 13 2 200 628
Badge MOTORPSORT part no. 36 13 2 202 971



_________________
Eddie Ribeiro
5erholic
1980 528i with a BMW Motorsport heart

[wkohler]

Art, the car is looking great!

The wide stripes are NLA, but the stripes you have are correct. I found remnants of these on my Polaris car (inside the door jambs, etc), so I can only assume that is what it came with. The rear spoiler shouldn't have a stripe on it, though. That was for the trunklid and the gap is for the ///M badge. You did not install them backwards.

As far as radios, there were some different options. The "BMW Bavaria" radios, made by Becker were optioned, The Bavaria is just a tuner, the Bavaria II is the cassette. The Bavaria III Electronic hadn't come out yet. There were also Becker Mexicos optioned for these cars as well. RealOEM lists the options.

I'm looking for a couple of radios that might show up at the swap meet, so let me know and I'll send you a list of what I'm looking for with a picture.

The original wheels are 14x6.5 and came with 195/70r14s. 185s are too short - that's an E30 size. There still aren't any tires that do the car justice, most are S or T rated for Hyundais and Kias. I think the 14x7 BBS RA wheels are a perfectly suitable addition to the car, but definitely do the caps like Eddie suggests, as those are correct for the wheels. I need a set of those myself. I've got a set of 14, 15, and 16" RAs for my cars. The 15s are on my white one, and the 16s will go on the silver one. I was going to run the 14s, but the lack of tires caused a problem. The original wheels are very easy to source as every 1982 528e came with them, so often times, people will throw them away or sell them for dirt cheap. My white car came to me with two trashed wheels, so I traded a friend those for two that were in his scrap pile.

The trunk pieces are very flimsy and something that says not to keep anything in the trunk while driving. Unfortunately, none of the Euro panels are still available aside from the rear wheelhousing covers. The others suggest they are available, but are on "backorder." I've been sitting on a backorder list for those since May, 2010.

If you have any interest in selling the rear bumper that came off the car, I would be interested. The one on my white car is in pretty bad shape and I thought about going body color on the rear bumper for that car if I ever get around to it.

The steering wheel emblems are still available new. I bought seven of them recently.
_________________
Christopher Kohler
christopher.kohler@gmail.com
07/80 M535i 5-Speed Polaris/Marineblau

[Luke]

[ArtJohnson]

Thanks to Eddie and to Chris for your helpful comments and information. Chris: There are some Becker Bavaria's on ebay, but nothing that looks like a Bavaria II, but I will keep looking. If you send me pictures or the models of the radios you are looking for, I'll look carefully for them. The swap meet is at Hershey on April 20. I would gladly give you the rear bumper that was on the car, but all the pieces were rusted, sanded and painted black so I tossed them. The ones I got from Maximillian seemed reasonably priced though. If you have pictures of your cars I would love to see them-- ahj@sas.upenn.edu Cheers.
_________________
Live Boldly.
1977 530i (72k), 1980 M535i (rescue in progress), 1985 M635CSi, 1986 525e Euro (Alpina-ized), 1986 M5 Euro, 1988 535is,
1990 M3, 1991 M5, 1991 325iX, 1995 M3, 2007 Z4 M coupe, >40 other BMW's down the road

[Luke]

I think they were Becker Mexico's and Blaupunkt Bavaria and Bavaria S.
_________________
May '80 E12 M535i Saphire Blau Metallic
VIN WBA47010004145056
undergoing full restoration

Retired and Crushed:
1981 E12 528i Gold Metallic

[wkohler]

None of the radios listed on RealOEM were actually being made when the E12 was out.
_________________
Christopher Kohler
christopher.kohler@gmail.com
07/80 M535i 5-Speed Polaris/Marineblau

[Luke]