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Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 upda
Posted: Mar 17, 2020 11:05 PM
by stuartinmn
I like the color. It's reminiscent of Mike Scudder's Green Hornet.

Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 upda
Posted: Mar 17, 2020 11:14 PM
by austin8753
stuartinmn wrote:I like the color. It's reminiscent of Mike Scudder's Green Hornet.

I like it. Reiterates how much I like E28s with euro bumpers. Wish I could bring myself to install a set on this car.
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 upda
Posted: Mar 18, 2020 10:05 AM
by stuartinmn
Another very cool car was Roy Wicklund's old agate green Alpina B7.
It was featured in a Hemmings article:
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/article/b ... b7-alpina/
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 upda
Posted: Apr 01, 2020 8:18 PM
by mescko
Stop it! Stop it with (other people's) green e28's! I can't take it!!
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 upda
Posted: Apr 01, 2020 11:20 PM
by vandiesel
I'm amazed at how far this has come. I saw that car years ago under tarp at JJ motorworks and asked about it then. You did a sweet job on it so far. I'd like to see it in person. I think you put your card on my M5 at the autoshow this year in Portland. So long ago it seems in this pandemic craziness....
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 upda
Posted: Apr 02, 2020 5:25 PM
by austin8753
I always really liked that car a lot, despite not being a fan of green!
vandiesel wrote:I'm amazed at how far this has come. I saw that car years ago under tarp at JJ motorworks and asked about it then. You did a sweet job on it so far. I'd like to see it in person. I think you put your card on my M5 at the autoshow this year in Portland. So long ago it seems in this pandemic craziness....
Thank you, sir. I'm happy to have saved this one from a sad, disappointing death. JJ motors had zero business working on this poor car...so much hackery, everywhere.
I did put a card on your car - I remember yours, when Ed still owned it (I looked at buying it, at one point); it's cool to see it come back from the dead! You are more than welcome to stop by the shop and have a look around!
-----------
Found some old pictures of the car and thought it was neat to see progress of how far the car has come since my purchase. These pics are roughly from ten years ago...
Wow...it's still hard for me to accept that this is what the car became, for what I had to start with.
And, on a similar note, I have decided to part ways with the left over Dinan turbo parts and left over short engine, that came out of the car. Listing is here, no reserve!
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/bmw-s ... ter-turbo/
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Jun 27, 2020 11:28 AM
by austin8753
23 June, 2020 - decided i would take the car for it's longest (consistent) road trip, as i needed to travel to Eugene, OR, to pick up some parts, for a car i'm working on. did the ~250 mile round trip journey without a single issue.
however...i got back to town, popped the hood (i always give the car a once over, after a long drive) and i notice a bit of dried coolant on the side of the radiator. found that the braise job, where the lower radiator hose neck meets the tank, had failed and was slowly weeping. as soon as i wiggled the hose, the minor pinhole turned into a crack... i cannot believe that it didn't leave me stranded along I-5 somewhere. i replaced the radiator when i had the engine out, last year, with a new, OE, brass/copper unit. so much for quality these days. should have spent the extra $100 for the Wizard Cooling unit.
anyway, called the dealer and made my case, and i had a replacement unit on my doorstep within 24 hours. shout out to Jered at Kuni BMW, for always taking care of me. i'll shove the new one in, probably this morning.
other than that, the car did excellent, and i would now trust it to drive anywhere. pretty good feeling, i'd say. oh, and when you don't drive like a complete prick, the car actually returns halfway decent fuel mileage - who would have guessed?!

(don't mind my speed, the speedometer is ~30% off, need to send in for repair)

Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Jun 27, 2020 8:18 PM
by muleskinner
Time for euro bumpers. Oh wait. It's always time for euro bumpers.
Car is looking great.
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Jul 21, 2020 11:27 AM
by austin8753
muleskinner wrote: Jun 27, 2020 8:18 PM
Time for euro bumpers. Oh wait. It's
always time for euro bumpers.
Car is looking great.
haha - maybe some day. the shadowline bumpers would look excellent with the green. just will take a lot to do it correctly, so in my messed up mind, i would have to repaint the whole car - and that would defeat the purpose of owning it, for me

thanks for the compliment!
21 July, 2020 - had a friend shoot the car, last week. never had any "real" pictures of this car taken before. sure looks great in the photos. i'll let you all be the judge...
(danielpouch and i on the Glen Jackson bridge)
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Oct 12, 2020 12:42 AM
by sixseries
Is that mt hood in the background there?
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Dec 25, 2020 3:14 AM
by austin8753
not much of an M5 update here. i replaced the clutch master cylinder, slave cylinder, feed and pressure hoses and bled all the brakes. the fluid had very little miles on it, but since the car had been off the road so long, it absorbed a lot of moisture and definitely was not great looking. brakes and clutch feel much better now. still haven't replaced the blower motor, so i won't be driving it much through the winter until i get that handled. unfortunately, i r lazy and really not thrilled about doing that job anytime soon.
also, thanks to "derrith", back in October, i was able to use his subframe bushing tool to r/r the rear subframe bushings on both my M5, and Daniel's 535is. mine were "96" stamp replacements and were wasted. his were the 260k mile, original units and the left side bushing sleeve fell out, once we removed the 22mm nut. eek.
-----
last night, a car that i wasn't expecting to buy, fell in my lap. it makes a for a good stablemate for the M5.
12/88 M3
DS over partial cardinal/black
CR 265/5 transmission (that alone sold me on the car) and M-coupe 3.23 LSD
175k, tons of maintenance
solid driver quality M3
drove it all afternoon. i love it.
---
6 Jan, did a few things to the M3 (but this isn't its thread, so i won't make a separate post for it)
installed 17" BBS RS212, H&R Gruppe G Race springs, NOS smoked Hella smileys, Startec taillamps, sold the bright red interior and installed Recaro Confetti SR seats and a black M3 rear seat, Italvolanti Super Formel wheel, Sport Evolution shift knob and dead pedal, among a bunch of other little stuff. bought a Supersprint exhaust for it earlier in the week and hopefully, i will see it sometime in the next month. really enjoying this car, a lot.

Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Dec 25, 2020 2:13 PM
by tig
Marry Christmas to you! That's a great gift to yourself.
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Jan 06, 2021 10:28 AM
by leadphut
Hey Austin -
I saw you drive through Portland last summer, NW area, and knew instantly who it was. The car looked great and congrats on saving a worthy car.
Cheers!
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Jan 06, 2021 12:15 PM
by austin8753
leadphut wrote: Jan 06, 2021 10:28 AM
Hey Austin -
I saw you drive through Portland last summer, NW area, and knew instantly who it was. The car looked great and congrats on saving a worthy car.
Cheers!
thanks, Troy - i appreciate it. i made it a point to drive it as much as i could, over the summer. if it had a working heater motor (grrrrr), i'd probably be out driving it today!
(lazy owners suck sometimes)
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Jan 06, 2021 12:41 PM
by Philo
Yes, a great read. When I purchased my M5, which was a total basket case, after rebuilding the suspension and some engine maintenance items I drove it 100 miles to and from work each day for the next 12 years and it only left me stranded twice. Once for the throttle cable snapping, my fault for not heeding the stiff pedal warning signs, and another time after an oil change when the mechanic didn't tighten the drain spout on the canister.
The S38 has been a very dependable engine for me. Great job, bring it to the "cancelled" St. Patrick's Day meet in San Diego so we can all see that spectacular green in living color

Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Jul 23, 2021 10:55 PM
by douglasM5
Hey Philo:
You have a great memory:
"By the way, in 1998 aprox (I think) I found a wrecked Dinan M6 turbo in a salvage yard and posted pics of everything except for its location. A member, I can't recall who it was, kept emailing me for the location but I refused because I was trying to buy the turbo Dinan parts from the yard. The Roadfly member knew the yard was in Cali so he called every yard he could get a phone number on (pre businesses having web sites). After finding the yard, I think he worked on this for months, he then flew from the east coast to Harout's Salvage in the San Fernando Valley (I hate this yard, will sell his mother for $50.00) and bought the parts. Then he emailed me..., with pictures. I laughed and said enjoy. I think he was doing a Dinan conversion on his M6."
I am that guy and yes, it took me many, many months to track down that car. Living on the East Coast, I had never been to California so upon arrival, to enjoy your awesome weather I paid extra to rent a convertible at the airport, put the top down and drove to Harout's. It started raining before I got there. It rained that night. It rained the following day. It rained so much that the fire department came around and told everyone to evacuate the area. The nice Harout's employee that was helping me remove the Dinan turbo parts told me we could continue working on the M6 if I wanted to so we did. He put hoods from other cars around us so we wouldn't be easily seen (we weren't supposed to be there) and it helped to keep the rain off of us. It rained the entire time I was in California until I was on my way back to the airport when the sun came out. I probably had the top down on that convertible for all of 20 miles. I haven't been back to California since but would like to.
I had never seen a salvage yard like Harout's before. All of the cars were neatly stacked in racks unlike in Maryland at that time where the cars were in weeds waist high and finding rats and snakes living in the cars was common.
Roadfly. I'd forgotten all about that forum. Your memory is amazing.
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Sep 28, 2021 4:28 PM
by austin8753
not a whole lot new to report with the old girl. i still don't have functioning HVAC (lol), and we had an abnormally hot summer, so it limited my driving, somewhat. replaced the upper and lower control arms, back in August, which made the car drive a whole hell of a lot better.
ended up daily driving it for a couple weeks in June and broke 110k miles, which was kind of a milestone. it did great for those two weeks; it's the most i've ever driven it, consistently. my back was not such a fan.
did some detailing before the last local show of the year, at the end of August. my dog couldn't resist getting in the photos (she tends to do that, an abnormally needy deutscher schaferhund, but i wouldn't want it any other way).
here's one @danielpouch took of the two beaters.
oh, and i begun collecting parts for the Euro bumper conversion. scored a set of decent bumpers, a NOS M5 chin spoiler, a Euro spec tail panel, really nice lights and grills, and a pair of NOS fog lights and housings. casually keeping my eyes peeled for a late model, Euro front panel. who knows when those parts will go on the car, but at least i'll have them, for when the time comes. the M3 needs an engine regasket, before i even consider going through with that project. time will tell, i suppose!
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Sep 29, 2021 7:55 AM
by muleskinner
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Sep 29, 2021 10:31 PM
by Adam W in MN
Even though it's a repaint that is a good looking car.
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Nov 08, 2021 7:48 PM
by S14
austin8753 wrote: Sep 28, 2021 4:28 PM
oh, and i begun collecting parts for the Euro bumper conversion. scored a set of decent bumpers, a NOS M5 chin spoiler, a Euro spec tail panel, really nice lights and grills, and a pair of NOS fog lights and housings. casually keeping my eyes peeled for a late model, Euro front panel. who knows when those parts will go on the car, but at least i'll have them, for when the time comes. the M3 needs an engine regasket, before i even consider going through with that project. time will tell, i suppose!
I have a euro front panel (metal part) that has some damage when I hit a deer on my way to O-fest in 2013. I think it's repairable, but at the time a new one from BMW was not expensive so I just replaced it. It's yours to have if you pay shipping.
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Dec 26, 2021 3:44 PM
by austin8753
^sent you a PM, thanks!
the most festive vehicle i own. drove it all day yesterday. when i don't drive it for extended periods of time, and get in to go have some fun, it's like starting the love affair all over again. really do enjoy this car.

Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Dec 26, 2021 5:17 PM
by Spen
I love that green color. I'd keep it like that. A very good color for sure.
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: May 27, 2022 6:11 PM
by austin8753
yesterday marked year five with my beloved. i wish i had something cool to update, but aside from the occasional drive here and there, i haven't done much to it. i did get in touch with the previous owner and he expressed interest in seeing the car (now that it lives again), so i'm going to do that tomorrow morning.
here's the M5 with @danielpouch's 535is and Dinan e28's former '88 euro converted 535i, now owned by a good friend of mine:
replaced all the 8mm fuel hoses with genuine BMW hose, about a month ago. it's pretty well known that the CRP/Contitech fuel hose is absolute trash, but just in case it wasn't clear enough... for reference, these were all replaced in June of 2019, they had less than 4500 miles on them and saw approximately 3 tanks (or less) of ethanol fuel; i try to make it a point to run ethanol-free in all my old cars. hard to tell from this picture, but the hose is completely dried out and was severely cracked. the '86 stamped fuel hoses, i removed from the car originally, were in better shape, than the CRP hose........
i also removed the oil cooler thermostat, cleaned and reinstalled it, and was hopeful that would fix my issue of the oil temp being slow to rise, but it made no difference. starting to think my temp sender is a piece of crap. i will find out next oil change... still need to replace the blower motor. don't know if i'll ever get around to that. not looking good, at this point.

Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Jun 05, 2022 10:35 AM
by Seeker
That is one sweet ride, how can you not love that color… euro bumpers would be the cherry on the top!
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Jun 13, 2022 10:09 PM
by austin8753
Seeker wrote: Jun 05, 2022 10:35 AM
That is one sweet ride, how can you not love that color… euro bumpers would be the cherry on the top!
thanks! the bumpers are hanging on my garage wall. someday, the car will get a proper conversion... hopefully sometime this decade.
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Dec 07, 2022 9:27 PM
by austin8753
got bored, over the weekend, and decided to install a set of wheels i've had for a while. i sold a good friend's '95 540i/6, Dinan stage 3 equipped vehicle, for him, back in July, and as payment, he dropped a set of Dinan/Fikse FM5s off at my house. they were equipped on the aforementioned 540i, when new, but he removed them, in favor of a different setup.
the wheels are 17x9, et30, with 235/45/17 Bridgestone Potenza tires. i was concerned about fitment issues, up front, but oddly enough, the back seems to be the problem. under any type of acceleration, it lightly scrubs the sidewall on the rear fender lips. i'm now on the quest for a different set of rear springs, since the Spax springs, really aren't meant for a 210mm differential equipped e28. the ride height, is more the issue to me, not the size of the wheels or tires.
either way, i liked the BBS RS on here, the best, but these are an interesting wheel, too. they are a little more square looking, which brings out the boxiness of the car, but it's different.

Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Dec 07, 2022 9:47 PM
by wkohler
Those look nice on the car. Tires are too tall so maybe if you fix that issue the rubbing won’t be that big of a deal.
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Dec 09, 2022 10:01 AM
by slownrusty
Incredible story and thread.
Pity about the turbo motor.
So can the 059 ECU run the S38 without issue , or can it only be used to start the engine and maybe only idle it?
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Dec 09, 2022 5:59 PM
by austin8753
slownrusty wrote: Dec 09, 2022 10:01 AM
Incredible story and thread.
Pity about the turbo motor.
So can the 059 ECU run the S38 without issue , or can it only be used to start the engine and maybe only idle it?
the injector impedance is completely different, from the m30b34 (059) and s38b35 (079). it wouldn't be advised for anything more than to make sure the engine runs.
Re: "An Emerald in the Rough" - 12/1986 Dinan M5 - 2020 update
Posted: Dec 09, 2022 6:01 PM
by austin8753
wkohler wrote: Dec 07, 2022 9:47 PM
Those look nice on the car. Tires are too tall so maybe if you fix that issue the rubbing won’t be that big of a deal.
yeah, these were what came with the wheels, so i figured i'd burn them up first. either way, not super impressed with the ride height of the rear Spax springs, so hopefully, i'll be able to change out both.