1985 528e

[peko]

Picked this beauty up a week ago. Not sure what route I am going with it as of yet, except to get the interior together and comfortable.

Interior is currently stripped (will add pics of the empty interior) and getting a very detailed bath tomorrow to see if I can salvage the carpet. Have found a set of front seats, rear seat and door cards that are in really good condition to fix up the interior. Also going to tuck the front bumper ASAP.

Very near future plans:
upgraded shocks/struts/springs
new rims and tires (not a big fan of the 14's)
cat back over haul (previous owner added a crappy muffler and resonator to it)
front/rear valances
side skirts
replace passenger fender

[duggi]

Congrats! Condition looks very similar to mine when I got it, lol. The good news is that the carpet is super-high-quality and will respond VERY WELL to a shampooing (or two), so try that first before ripping it out =) Good luck!

[peko]

Cleaning "update" lol:
So after a good 2 1/2 hours or more of scrubbing the hell outta the carpet, most of the stains came out. Going to hit it one more time, (especially under the seats even though you won't be able to see it, I'll know it's there either way) before I install the interior.

Before cleaning:






After:

[Ordnator]

Try taking the carpet out completely and let the jet washer do the work.

Regards,

Mick

[peko]

Interior update:

Got some scrap pieces of material from my father in laws buddy who's an upholsterer. Got all four door cards redone and the rear deck lid. Pretty happy with the turn out, especially for my first go at it. Next is the front and rear seats. Was going to get seats from a member but had to go a cheaper route with some local e39 seats that I am going to modify to work. Seats are the next project these next couple of days.

[peko]

Update:

Gideon is now up and running, passed emissions with flying colors. Interior is about 95% done, rear seat needs to go to the upholster to get stitched up but is usable till then.

Next (hopefully tomorrow if the parts come in) is new shocks all around, new upper control arms on both sides, new upper strut mounts and a new front windshield moulding. Also have little things coming in like new front and rear emblems, control panel light bar and replacement fog light lenses. I also have a set of 15" BMW BBS rims that I am going to put on once the front end work is done. Debating on painting them white to match...

Near future: euro bumpers and valences (going to tuck the bumpers in a week or so till I get the euros), new passenger fender.








Going to remove the red circles from the cards. They are the holes for the manual window crank.


Ended up going with a pair of Cipher beige seats. Made seat frames out of metal stock and kept the original 6 way seat slider on the driver side.




Definitely need a new shift knob. The original one is held on with electrical tape...

[peko]

New emblems on
Both upper control arms done
New shocks all around done
Window trim in
15" BBS rims going on today
Alignment hopefully tomorrow

[tig]

Hey, really nice work. Keep posting.

[peko]

Added these 15" style 29's a few days ago wrapped in 215/60/15 tires. Plasti dipped them white to see if I liked it, kinda growing on me. Going to plate dip the whole car matte white once the exterior is complete.



Picked up an e36 front and rear bumper off CL for $60 for the pair. Front bumper is going to need very little modifying to work, the rear (not pictured yet) is going to need to cutting, fitting, then trimming, fitting, more trimming and so forth. But in the end they will look great. Here are a couple pics of the front bumper mocked up.




New OEM style fog lights will be here Thursday and will have the bumpers fitted and on tomorrow...hopefully. Going to mount the turn signals in the impact trim area, centered above the fog lights. All they will need after that is impact trim and paint.

[peko]

Been working on getting the e36 bumpers to fit. So far the front bumper needs a little more love, mainly sanding and painting just as the rear will need. Both front and back will need a filler piece between the bumper cover and the wheel well. But so far so good. The front bumper is a really nice mod, almost fits directly on. The rear however is not as wide as the e28 body, so I will have to set it out about 3" so that it will mount correctly.

If anyone has ideas for what I can do to fill in the open sections like the one pictured below, then please comment. Thanks in advance.

[byf_42]

I saw a currently inactive member's e28 recently, it was a black on black 87 535i with an S38 swap, lowered, with a lug stud conversion and 'naked throwing stars' (I think) on it. Point being, he had an E34 bumper cover on the front end. It looked pretty good, from the side, the profile looked right. From the front, it really looked 'right'. He had a fiberglass rear end, maybe a bmp design?

My advice to you is to acquire an e34 front end/bumper cover. It would look a lot better, and require a lot less work, to achieve the look you are going for. No weird gap in the front either with the e34 bumper cover. The e36 bumper cover just doesn't look right at all, in my opinion.