Touring Project

[gtopaul]

still coming along. Got the M5 rear bumper painted Cashmere Beige and bolted on this afternoon and also had a pair of 95 rear view mirrors painted to match too. Like the later style better than my 92 mirrors. Will mount the side panels as soon as I get the templates I ordered and repair the surface rust under the lower door trim. The cars just a pleasure to drive since the engine swap and stops better too with the M3 front brake calipers.

Paul
http://members.aol.com/gtopaul/private/bimmer001.jpg

http://members.aol.com/gtopaul/private/bimmer002.jpg

[Itsnotme1988]

Looking awesome!

[attack eagle]

very nice.

[Rory525]

Looks very nice !

[jbraswell]

Nice.. Looks great Paul. did the color match?

[gtopaul]

Nice.. Looks great Paul. did the color match?

The color of the wheel caps is just slightly darker than the factory color of the bottom of the rear bumper and side panels. I haven't decided if it's worth the trouble to respray the bumpers to match at this time. I've been thinking the lower portion might look better painted a lighter silver, like on red M5's, and then putting the factory light silver color back on the wheel centers.

Wheels. Sounds like you would like the old school Borbet's I have on my 540 if you like the staggered look. 10x17" in the back and 8x17" in the front. There's only about 1/4" of clearance between the back tires and the control arm but it doesn't rub. It took me a while to find the Borbet's (C-type) since they haven't been made in quite some time. Even have a couple extra wheels just in case. I'll probably put the extra set of staggered T-Stars I have on ebay pretty soon. Just hoping the box with the center caps comes before then.

Here's the plan for the front bumper cover. Can't find a good used M5 one so maybe I can modify the original a bit to pass at first glance. I just added the M5 front license plate cover and cut the original 525 filler piece to just retain the lower grill portion. I plan to paint the area around and between the fog lights body color so the only dark portion will be the lower 2 inches. As you can see there was one little glitch. When I removed the original license plate holder I found there are a couple of holes underneath and now visible. I think filling them with some epoxy flexible filler before painting will take care of that. I should probably pony up and buy a new front M5 piece but can use that $1k on something else (like paint). ;-)

http://members.aol.com/gtopaul/private/ebay040.jpg

Paul

[Elekta]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/DSCN3308.jpg
Nice! Gotta like the 2 tone T-Stars. My contrasting color is the diamont schwarz metallic, and my colors on parade guy was off on the match too (collars and cuffs-tstars and side skirts and lower valences) They all have to be repainted at the same time I'm afraid, but I dropped off my bumpers when I was able to snag front and rears from Zaraska for $1250, but forgot to drop off the stars at the same time.

There are used M5 bumps out there, you just have to hunt for them.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/DSCN3299.jpg
One of these days I will detail my car and take some newer pics. I am way over due.

That is a sweet tourer! Love the 750il exhaust and that little rubber piece on the back deck. Custom, I can see, but made from what?

Is that an S52 conversion? If so, congratulations. Sooner or later, somebody is going to make a living converting those and reselling them. I'd say a fresh and upgraded S52 Touring is worth close to $20k to someone. ?is, does that make enough profit for someone to make a couple? That's 1/2 the price of an M5T when all is said and done.

What do you have in it so far if I may ask?

[Denton]

OMGM! That 540 with the Borbets is GORGEOUS! More pics of that, please!

Hell, I'd trade my M-Systems for those! :)

[gtopaul]

OMGM! That 540 with the Borbets is GORGEOUS! More pics of that, please!

Hell, I'd trade my M-Systems for those! :)

Here's another pic of the 540. I have two extra Borbet Type C 8X17" and can't find any more. Should have bought a Candian set I saw on Ebay last year but didn't. I've never even seen the 10" wide ones available anywhere. Old school I guess but then so am I. ;-)

Paul

http://members.aol.com/paul3130/private/540005.jpg

[Denton]

Thanks for that pic. Beautiful.

[gtopaul]

That is a sweet tourer! Love the 750il exhaust and that little rubber piece on the back deck. Custom, I can see, but made from what?

Is that an S52 conversion? If so, congratulations. Sooner or later, somebody is going to make a living converting those and reselling them. I'd say a fresh and upgraded S52 Touring is worth close to $20k to someone. ?is, does that make enough profit for someone to make a couple? That's 1/2 the price of an M5T when all is said and done.

What do you have in it so far if I may ask?

The exhaust is just an AC Schnitzer extension I bought off Ebay.de a few years ago for my E30. The E30's gone and the extension fit, so.... The rubber piece is a $18 generic piece I bought off Ebay and mounts with double sided tape. Looks ok but don't know if it'll make the cut after the car gets the paint freshened.

Yep, S52 conversion. Installed a 50k mile 96 engine (3.2), converted it to OBDI, used the original 92 exhaust and intake (same part numbers as 95 M3 would you believe?), engine harness from a later Vanos 525, 95 M3 DME w/Turner chip w/EWS delete. I had to buy some used pieces like the MAS, flywheel, etc to make it work but I also bought all new sensors for knock and reference. It was a relatively straight forward swap and I installed a fresh stock GM automatic to make it even simpler. Total into the engine trans swap was around $6k. The car cost me $3k and then there's miscleaneous stuff like wheels, reman driveshaft, M5 bumper and side panels ($700), later mirrors, M3 steering wheel and front brakes, M5 cluster, well the list just keeps growing. Probably have about $14k into it for everything but it would be certainly cheaper starting the engine swap with a Vanos car in great shape to begin with and then not getting carried away with add ons. But I get 33mpg on the interstate with that M3 engine just loafing along at 3k rpm at 80mph. Original Touring 4:10 diff too!

Paul

http://members.aol.com/gtopaul/private/525m3001.jpg

[cooljules]

I like the colours and wheels etc on these tourings, if mine wasnt this colour i would have liked to have kept it and modded it and made it a better handling car....

[Elekta]

ok, so you have $14k all in at this point. What profit would you think would make the effort worth while? $3k? $4k? more? I think there's a market because the styling is so irreplaceable. This touring has it hands down on the avant, the allroad, the lil merc, volvo, even the 3er touring. I can't think of a comparable car, and with an M3 motor, it really brings the car a decade forward.