Flirtin' With Disaster - 3/85 528i

[Das_Prachtstrasse]

You know, I prefer the 16s I must say. 17s don't do the ride height justice. Cars cleaned up well though Chris, you've done a spectacular job as usual.

[cddallara]

I absolutely love this car. It's s great seeing how beautiful it looks knowing it wasn't in pretty bad shape when you first got it. If this car ever goes for sale I call dibs...

Sorry man, head to the back of the line that I'm in the front of.

[Jelmer538i]

Looks awesome Chris! Love the rims!!

[Adam W in MN]

The guys really seemed to like the car. They were pretty surprised when I told them that this is the same platform Hartge used for the H5S.

Sorry, but I thought the Hartge H5S was based on the platform of a clapped out dented, painted faded salvage titled 528i.

Forgive my lack of quickness on responding to this one, but I had to go back and cross reference to the Cars FS section. Then I laughed pretty hard.

[wkohler]

Over the last couple months of nice weather, I've been driving this car relatively often and it's been a nice reprieve from the E34 touring. I have really come to appreciate the M30B28 in this car and it just wants to go go go. It's like a more-raw version of the 533i.

With all this excitement, I decided that it would be a great car to drive to San Diego for St Paddys since it's not about the cars. It's about the people. There were a few things I needed to attend to.

Untitled by whooshwagon, on Flickr

I didn't really have to do too much other than give it a good check, an oil change and finally install the axles I got from Todd to replace the ones that were making a mess of things.

https://flic.kr/p/qLbM69 by whooshwagon, on Flickr

They had "new bolts" which ended up being triple-square bolts. Fortunately, I had the tool for those, so I can work on getting a set of stock ones cleaned up for the next time I'm in there. These work fine though, but I don't like using non-standard hardware. The others were just so filthy.

https://flic.kr/p/rqAWL9 by whooshwagon, on Flickr

After it was done, I pulled it over with the other two and noticed that this wouldn't be a horrible photo.

Untitled by whooshwagon, on Flickr

It's not a good photo, but not a horrible one.

This is probably the best E28 I have owned to date. Love it. That differential is something else, too.

I didn't take it to San Diego, but it would have made the trip without issue!

[cddallara]

Nice update, and photo.

[JSmoove]

Damn those are nice looking cars. What car made the trip out to SD then?

[wkohler]

I ended up taking the '75 E12 after getting a couple of suggestions. It was actually a good trip for that car and it seemed pretty well-received.

[tig]

I ended up taking the '75 E12 after getting a couple of suggestions. It was actually a good trip for that car and it seemed pretty well-received.

Very well received.

[Karl Grau]

Thanks for bringing the e12, it looks even better in person. Have I ever seen the red car? I can't keep track of your fleet anymore.

With all this excitement, I decided that it would be a great car to drive to San Diego for St Paddys since it's not about the cars. It's about the people.

Next year we're thinking we should make it about the cars.

[ldsbeaker]

There's still Vintage... The far one.

[geordi]

I ended up taking the '75 E12 after getting a couple of suggestions. It was actually a good trip for that car and it seemed pretty well-received.

I'm glad you did too! It was Ramona's favorite and it will give me a good reason to justify my purchase in Phoenix on the trip home. But just in case, what is your fee for taking blame?

[wkohler]

Nothing really new to report on the car. I've been driving it a bit since the weather is nice and despite the ineptitude of some of the drivers around here, it still never fails to put a smile on my face. It's weird but this car just hauls ass. I guess that's one reason it's so fun. This M30B28 is a fantastic motor, so I'm glad I put the time into the car. I'm more of a handling person than a power person, so that helps too. It's almost disappointing that this car is so far down the list to make it nice, but I think it's really part of it's charm. I still get people that look at it and compliment it despite being the worst-looking car I own. It seems to attract the non-BMW owners more than the other cars, it seems.

This update wouldn't be complete without a photo and one of the interesting things to me about this car is that it looks terrible but it really is a low-mileage car. I got it with about 108k miles and the odometer worked. Of course, like most everything else failed on the car shortly after I moved it a few feet, I figured it would too, so I put a kph speedo in that had a new set of gears. I didn't like it so I put the new gears on the original speedo and added the few miles I put on the kph stuff. All it took was one school zone with a radar truck. I used to drive a lot with a kph speedo but I have to say in a car I plan to drive somewhat regularly, I have no problem with the mph speedo. That's why I haven't put the Euro cluster in the E34.

I have never been able to take this photo in any of the cars I've owned and it's kinda neat to me.

[Kyle in NO]

Nice!!!!!!!111111111

[86GT635]

Cool story. I really like those 17" Hartges.

[wkohler]

No new updates really, but I was looking for a guitar tab for Flirtin' With Disaster and stumbled upon this thread again. Haha. I have been driving the car recently though, so there's that.

[mottati]

enjoyable thread. Makes me want another one more....