)been lurking here for a while and decided to sign up around Christmas to get in touch with you guys a bit more as this seems to be a nice community with a lot of knowledge (compared to most German speaking BMW forums (most of them are dead Anyway) - they seem to have a lot of knowledge too, but typical of Germans, they are less interested in sharing and more interested in getting toxic if you dare to not know your shit)
So, to begin with myself - I'm Thomas, living in southern germany, I'm in my 30's and last summer I finally decided to fulfill my Dream of getting another old and stylish BMW.
For years I had the dream of getting an E30 again, because my first car back in 2010 was a 2-door E30 316i sedan with a fabulous 101hp on paper, in reality it was probably more like 80, but it took a good 16L per 100km to at least do justice to the “16” in the name...
After a good year and a half, after the car had eaten up my monthly apprenticeship plus all my savings, I had to get rid of it to avoid slipping into insolvency before I hit my 20s... Some nice Czech Guy picked it up and turned it into a turbo charged drift car, if I ever find some of the Pics he sent me on my old Drives I'll gladly share
Atleast he paid around twice of what I spent on the car when buying it, so I was back in the Game from a financial point of view.
With the few bucks I had, I treated myself with a VW Lupo (If you wanna do yourself a favor, better not look up on what this looks like).
Been driving that Shitbox for quite a few years just to end up surrendering to my inner desire of getting another BMW again.
Since I was now out of my apprenticeship and had a proper job with a decent salary, it had to be a 6-cylinder, of course, so I got myself an E36 320i Touring (Technoviolett if I recall correctly, still loving that color) until I lost my drivers license due to some "conflicts with the law"
Since the car was already pretty fucked up before my driver's license was revoked, I repaired it as best I could, got it through the "TÜV" and sold it ASAP.
As I had around a year time to not worry about car repairs and other expenses, I of course saved up some money and instantly got me another BMW which was a 118i 2-Door with ±143HP. That was one hella fun with the RWD in a go-kart-sized body
Back then, which must've been around 2013/14, I decided that at some point in time I had to get another E30 as 2nd Car just to cruise around in Summer... but time passed by and the opportunity never really came up
Like 9 Years ago from today, I then had to sell the 118i due to fuel efficieny (got a Girlfriend which I plan on marrying this Year (in the USA btw
), but she was going to university quite a distance away, atleast by german standards) and got me another, more efficient Car (Seat Leon Diesel).FFW to 2021 - after I changed Jobs (from Car Mechanic to IT) and worked myself quite a bit up in the career ladder, it was about time to get a "company car" which I of course could choose myself, so I got me a nice G21 320e Touring Hybrid.
Damn, deep in my Heart I really love the old-fashioned Cars, but that one was really really nice... the only catch was, that our company does not lease the cars in a regular manner (like 3-4 years), but rather gets them as 1-year Rental Cars. So Beginning of '22 I had to give back my loved 320e and took the step to electrical cars, so it became a Polestar 2 with ±408HP (exchanged that one a few Weeks ago for a '25 Ioniq 5N which is alot better in means of Charging, Driving and overall Quality compared to the fucking boring and shitty Polestar. Its an incredible vehicle, but more like a rocket and less then a real car
)After I returned the BMW last year, I came up with the old idea of buying an E30 as a 2nd cruiser for summer, but I quickly realized that not only had I grown up since, but I was also falling in love with the look of the E28 5 Series.
So the search began, which ended much quicker than I had expected.
In June '24 I came across one for the first time on the internet that was just around the corner - I had actually seen the car on the road over the years and this exact car was ultimately responsible for changing my dream from the E30 to the E28.
To cut it short - It's a 02/87 502i Edition, Pacific Blue Velours Interiors, and I bought it for a really good price for the condition:
(with his "big brother" - the E34 535i of one of my buddies)
Even if the condition was generally really good (hasn't seen a salted road in Winter since early 2000s, also had been completly "cavity-preserved" (Is this what you call it in english? idk)), there was and still is of course a lot to do.
Things I've done so far:
- New E39 Styling 5 Wheels
- Polished and coated
- Welded the few rust spots i've discovered so far
- New racy suspension with 45/40 lowering (K.A.W)
- "Big" Service, Valves adjusted, engine seals replaced, cooling circuit flushed, thermostat and other sensors replaced, etc.
- Got myself a new Chip for the ECU (Adjustment from 91 octane to 95, has at least brought a little more power into the lame 6cyl)
Also had still the original Fuel Filter in place, lol
Things I plan on doing this year:
- change out the left fender which is pretty rotten
- get on going with the interiors (already got myself some original matching E28 Sport Seats, but upholstery is pretty fucked up as I've gotten them out of a Car that was sitting in Rain behind a Barn with passenger side window opened a bit for about 18years. Waiting for new Leather Upholstery from Latvia (restaauto) right now, also triyng to lower the seat base a bit (see open Thread in Tech Talk i got if you have any ideas on how to)
- whatever else I disover meantime
So, that's it for now - thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed the story
Feel free to ask anything!And to finish off, a few current pictures in freshly washed condition with the E39 Rims on:
TLDR; Thomas from southern Germany, BMW enthusiast who started his car journey with an E30 316i back in 2010. After a few upgrades, sacrifices (hello VW Lupo), and career changes from mechanic to IT, Im now living the dream with a 1987 E28 520i as my summer cruiser. It’s a WIP with a few rust repairs, upholstery upgrades underway. Along the journey, I was driving everything from Volkswagen to some Electric Rocketships —but my heart has always been with the classic BMWs
.
Leather or vinyl - hard to tell? 
