'Mock 5' E28 ///M5 Build

[Thatguy087]

Hi All,

My name is Jamie and I'm from Perth, Western Australia. I've always had a soft spot for E28s which kicked into overdrive when I bought my first one 4 years ago. I've always wanted an M5 because it is such a key model for bmw and really kicked off the M cars. I decided relatively early on (after toying with bringing the 528i back to showroom condition) that I wanted one.

The problem is, here in Australia we never got the E28 M5, and there are only 4 or 5 examples imported here. A while ago one was on sale for $80,000, which is obviously way outside my budget. Also with our import taxes here, buying one overseas and importing it would easily cost that much, if not more. So I decided i'd start off with a standard E28 5 series and build my own one. Just to be clear, I'm not claiming it's a genuine M5 and nor do I plan to try to sell it as one (or sell it at all), this build is just for me - to drive, to enjoy, and to keep for a long long time.

So lets start at the beginning. I bought my first E28 for $1600, a 1984 bronzit beige auto 528i (yes, not e, we got the euro spec model). It had a faded bonnet, a muffler that wasn't hooked up at all and it had cloth seats with all the padding worn out, but I loved it! I got my $1600 worth, but eventually it sat for a long time undriven due to an intermittent fuelling issue.


Then I decided I was going to do this project and started looking for parts cars, and came across a white 1985 528i in great condition for $3500, so I got $300 knocked off and brought it home.


This one was mint - a perfect (well, sort of) base for my build as well as a daily driver until I got everything in order to start this build, so I got the bronzit one running again and flogged it off for $1000.