Let’s Have A E28 / E30 / E24 Thread
 

My sig has said “looking for a E28” for years. It won’t anymore. Brought this home.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1635660387.jpg

I think there’s a couple other E28s here, and might as well invite the similar era E30 and E24 (and any ‘80s-ish Beemer) to the thread as well. Who’s got one, had one, thinking about one, have stories about one?

Very cool... what's your story on how this E28 found its way to you?





(Happy E39 owner here)

I think an E21 would be a better fit here, the E30 body style is a bit different than the E28/24.

I have a E21 bone stock and a E30 with a 99 M5028 swapped in, mated to a E46 6 speed. Fun little car.

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...5mWhQr7-XL.jpg

I had a 528 up until the spring of 2012. That was a great car to drive ! It was also one of my wifes favorites.

More details about the car?
What things are you going to sort out first?

What made you want an 80s 5-series?

This fell into my lap a few months ago.
84 533i, 5 speed.
The car needs quite a bit of sorting but the body is solid and straight for the most part and I'm digging the Bronzit color. I'll replace these off-brand wheels with some BMW style 5's...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1635683160.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1635688993.jpg

Agreed to buy last winter but due to border issues, arrived late this summer. Japanese (but LHD?) 518i, auto, no sunroof car brought to British Columbia by original owner. I'm supposedly the 3rd owner. Picked up Alpina wheels and stiff, lowered suspension somewhere along the line. Manual windows, no A/C. Failing polaris silver paint, blue cloth interior. No rust. Needs a BMW 6, manual trans and LSD (or torsen). Getting the DMV to issue plates has taken over a month now but am hopeful they show before it goes into hibernation for winter.

A speed shop opened up in town near our barber. Took my 13 yo to get a haircut and said let’s go see what’s in the parking lot.

There’s a race prepped Cayman, a few 911s including a pair of GT3s from 100 yards away he spots the E23 745i (grey market) that he wants to look at.

Same kid that I took the NY Auto show and he identified the Lambo Miura from across the floor.

So, how many LHD E28's built for the Japanese market with a sunroof delete do you think are rolling around in the US right now?

Lol! Not many, of course. Seems like all non-M early cars were driven extensively and if the roads were salted, their countdown clocks went into overdrive. Being rust free and euro-market were my primary considerations. Everything else was "bonus".

I dig the modded E30 sedan Jims5543 posted! Are you going to modify your 533 much?

I recently brought this rare bird...an early M635 (1984), currently going through it.

http://bigcoupe.com/phpBB2/download/file.php?id=32452

I also own this '86 635CSi (Manual, Recaros, LSD, custom exhaust, lots of trick parts):
http://bigcoupe.com/phpBB2/download/file.php?id=32800

And I recently sold this on BaT:
https://bringatrailer.com/wp-content...?fit=940%2C627

That is a connoisseur’s car! Rarer on US roads than a black/black E28 M5.

What I6 are you going to transplant?

I don't think so. It came with H&R lowering springs, it has the M30 motor, and LSD with the 5 speed. Seems to have enough oomph to get out of its own way, without being obnoxious. My plan for it is to be a competent luxury liner, a road tripper that I can take on a 3 or 4 day drive and be entertained and comfortable; with enough patina that I don't have to worry about leaving it out in a parking lot or driving through an all-day rainstorm.

Currently, a reeaally patient connoisseur...it's so, so slow. I'm leaning heavily toward an M30 based 6...possibly turbo'd because although I love the way a hot NA M30 can sound with ITBs, I don't want to be disappointed by low levels of fun (torque).

slow&rusty's 6 series look like great stuff too and IIRC, he has or had a great 8 series as well!

I’ll give you the short-ish version.

Started looking for an E28 at least 6 years ago. The cars were dirt cheap then, I found decent-ish examples for $4-5K. I went to some 5’er meets, got to know a restoration wizard who took me for a ride in his E28 with coilovers, it cornered flatter than my 911 and burned rubber for 100 feet.

A little old lady who worked in my building had a perfect one. Blue 535is, one owner, driven by a UBS financial advisor since her younger years (when she was a pistol, I reckon), now did the 1 mile daily commute from her expensive condo’s garage to her downtown office building’s garage. She promised to sell it to me when she retired, and as she was then in her late 70s I figured all I needed was to be patient and keep in touch with her.

Fast forward a few years to early 2021, I do my annual check-in with Patty, and learn that she had had an accident and totalled her car. My car. After freaking out, I re-started my search. Now really clean E28s were $15-20K cars, I’d cost myself a pretty penny by sitting on my hands. Found a car, 1986 535i, one owner since new, who’d taken it to Dubai during his expat decades (it still has the Emirates windows decals) and back to the US, then delivered it to a restoration shop in 2019, gotten it back in late 2020, promptly put it up for sale, and eventually sold it to me for less than he’d spent on the bare metal respray etc.

Sounds weird. So as we’re getting to know each other, all long distance, I dig and research, hunt down info on him, and figure out what happened. He had restored his baby as a present for his youngest boy, who was in his 40s or 50s by then. In December 2020 his son died of cancer. So he was saying goodbye to his son and his car.

I was hooked. A car with that much love in it, not common. I got a PPI, had a call with the shop about what they found, and a long call with the restorer about what was done. Reports all came back A-OK. Hook set. Bought it sight unseen, it’s taken months to find a transporter and get it from VA to here. I’ve had it for all of 18 hours, preliminary verdict is not 100% perfect but close enough. Have a few things to iron out but the E28 guys online tell me they are trivial ones.

More pics later.

Most important thing is I took my wife for a ride last night and even in the dark, with the interior lights and locks flakey, she really likes it. I gave her my speech about how I buy cars at the bottom of their depreciation curve that go up in value blah blah. All she cares about is the car’s story, that it is more comfortable than the Porsche or Vanagon, and that we can take it on roadtrips (I hope). That’s good, because I bought it without telling her (ahem, vash).

This sad sack lives near me, slowly rotting away at the curb. Hasn't moved one inch since I've lived here, at least 6 or 7 years... I walk or cycle by it frequently. I'm sure at this point it's just a parts car; lots of visible rust so I can just imagine the hidden horrors that it hides....

It does have the little wipers for the headlights - does any option from Germany make you chuckle as much as these do?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1635697498.jpg

I think headlight wipers are kewl! Seriously.

From back when BMW was something special.

Hey look, entire forums !

BMW Forums - Pelican Parts Forums

This is the cutest parthttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1635709409.jpg

My stock 87, auto at the moment but have a 5 speed ready to install.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1635710024.jpg

Beauty!!! SmileWavy

Big special Thank You to 908/930 for putting eyes on my car in BC!!

Love my E30. Unfortunately pricing is going up dramatically making it a bit more difficult to find parts.

ahttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1635711805.jpg

No prob Pavulon, glad I could help. Your euro e28 is quite a cool looking car.

S52 is supposed to be fairly easy.

lol

Lots of options. LS, almost any BMW 6, turbo...but the trans has to fit too.

If this has a black interior, I owned the exact car 20 years ago. It was bone stock and in fantastic mechanical condition, one of the strongest cars I’ve ever had, including Porsches.

I have very fond memories of driving it to MN from CA for Christmas one year at triple digit speeds and then drifting like crazy on the snow packed roads while I was there. Hall of Fame car. +++

I have over 30 years of wrenching on and owning E21s, E30s, E24s and E28.
Currently own my “dream versions” of 2 of them.
After having many Porsches over the years (mostly 911, 914 and 944), all the Porsches are gone, highly likely to never be replaced.
But my 80s BMWs are forever cars. No plan to ever sell.
I’ve pretty much done every possible repair and maintenance job on E21s and E24/28 (the Gen 2 E24 the E28 share the same chassis and mechanicals), most of them multiple times.
Great cars, IMO there’s nothing quite like them.

It is Rammsteins old car, when he bought it he emailed me about it, I told him if he ever wanted to get rid of it to give me 1st dibs.

He did and I bought it. It is nicknamed the panty dropper. The two guys before me who owned it knocked their wife's up twice forcing the sale of the car.

It has a cam / chip / intake in it and the reason for the 2.8 M50 is because it was always intended to have FI added to it, I am really close to adding a super charger to it.

My problem is, it is already hard to keep planted with approx 250HP I cannot imagine what a handful it will be with more than that.

The guy that restored it, cleaned up the engine bay nicely. I added the Mason strut bar.

If I were swapping in an engine on an older 5 series I would look into a S52 or S54. No need for valve adjustments and some nice HP.

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...KZvMgTb-XL.jpg

Say more! What kind, what’s involved?

Ahh, the keepers of the old school Bimmers! My first was a 528e, then I had a slew of E24s, a couple of E30s. My 2.3 liter E30 was so-so. I really liked my E34s.

Someone help doxdodo !

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1635722523.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1635741427.JPG
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1635741427.JPG

One with the wheels that were on it when I bought it and one with the wheels I chose to replace them (8x17 style 42).
The cool...
5 speed,
M3 sized brake upgrade,
MTech springs
Dinan sized swaybars
Adjustable Sport Konis, switching back to Bilsteins
Limited slip from E30 (3.73)
Recaro LS driver seat (love it, wish I had about 9 more)
E30 passenger sport seat
I have had it on the track once. It handled well but I thought it needed more power. Skip "Crash" Carlson drove it and liked it a lot.

The not so cool.....
Interior in very poor condition, seat rips, door panels disintegrating
Water leaks into interior
Paint peeling even worse now than in pictures, surface rust on hood
Rear ended in driver rear, pushed in bumper a bit
May repaint but cannot decide between respray in original color or battleship grey with diagonal M stripes across it similar to my $2000 challenge E36.

There are a few kits out there, ECS has one, and a few other venders.

My 2.8 was set up to be supercharged, IIRC, it has a cam in it selected just fro FI.

2 owners back is the guy that built up this car. He picked the 2.8 over a 3.0 because he wanted the thicker cylinder walls and sturdier engine to handle the boost.

Most places claim 6 psi will add 100HP with their tune.

Had this for a while. Factory manual M535I

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1635762693.jpg

My '88 M5. 5 year restoration, full bare metal repaint, euro leather dash, swapped the S38 for a M88 euro, which was fully rebuilt at VSR in NH. Basically, replaced whatever was needed. Sad part is I'm pretty sure I'll be selling her at some point.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1635765970.jpg

Had two E30s (one cabrio, one sedan) and an E24. Loved those cars. Always wanted a nice E28 but never got the chance to pull the trigger. I owned an E39 too. Brother-in-law drives it now and loves it almost as much as I did.

Can I play in your group too.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1635780448.jpg

Hey, this thread has gotten me thinking. I know that during my 911 ownership I watched as replacement parts became scarcer, more expensive and chintzier. So I put it to you ’80’s BMW owners; where are you buying your replacement parts and pieces? I’m thinking of things like brand new replacement body rubber and seals, mechanical wear items like alternators and water pumps, and the little jewel things like replacement tools for trunk mounted tool kits. I’m already seeing stuff that was available from Pelican just a couple of months ago listed as NLA…
Is there a good source that you go to for used NLA stuff like interior bits and bobs and electrical components like taillights or switches?

And, lastly, are there items that as a good steward I should be sort of squirreling away for future use - items that might not need replacement yet, but will be needed down the road that you are seeing getting scarcer?