SCHLEPN | The E39 540itA Story

DrLeadFoot

The car didn't come with rear shades but I found some shade door cards but had to new new OEM shades as the ones with the doors were ripped.

Started switching all the chrome window trim, inside & out to the black sport trim. With new interior & exterior weather stripping as well.

Air suspension troubleshooting headaches engaged. Had to get a new pump. New pump was leaking so got a new, new pump.

New, used, front drives window regulator.

Replaces some old hose clamps with the crimp style. Got the winter tires/wheels ready to go.

DrLeadFoot

New headlight lenses.

Tailgate is rough. Might try to buy a new one.

Scraped, primed and painted a bunch of rust.

New taillight seals.

DrLeadFoot

Crank case vent was making a horn noise. Dug into it and found a bunch of sketchy stuff from a PO. They tried to bypass the CCV and run it through the weird catch can I posted about earlier. One hose for that catch can was being pinched by the intake manifold. So weird.

Glad I was able to get into the top of the motor to replace all the brittle things.

YoungCR

Glad you replaced the torx bolts on the intake manifolds, I've had a few of those strip and they suck to cut out.

Man what is up with the tailgates on these cars, yours looked perfect. Is there just no primer inside them?

suspenceful

Awesome job bringing it back up to par. Looks like an awesome car now!

Jdesign

Nice Updates! Looks like you spent some time going through this thing. What the hell is that blue condom looking thing in a few of the last pictures?

Also, I want to see more "final" photos. Lets see the interior all put together and shinned up after that intense deep cleaning! Looks like you did a great job!

DrLeadFoot

Jdesign said:

Nice Updates! Looks like you spent some time going through this thing. What the hell is that blue condom looking thing in a few of the last pictures?

Also, I want to see more "final" photos. Lets see the interior all put together and shinned up after that intense deep cleaning! Looks like you did a great job!

It was under the knife for about 3-4 months of hitting it hard. Now just working out the smaller bugs from daily driving it but I think I'm almost to being 100%. Sunroof rattle is next up. That condom thing was ziptied on there to block that hole. So weird. I'll get more final pics. Thanks!!

suspenceful said:

Awesome job bringing it back up to par. Looks like an awesome car now!

Thank you!

YoungCR said:

Glad you replaced the torx bolts on the intake manifolds, I've had a few of those strip and they suck to cut out.

Man what is up with the tailgates on these cars, yours looked perfect. Is there just no primer inside them?

Thanks! I wish they did a fiberglass tailgate like the XJ Jeeps did. Lighter and it doesn't rust! Blunttech just quoted me $1650ish for a new tailgate. It might be worth it!

straight6pwr

DrLeadFoot said:

Thanks! I wish they did a fiberglass tailgate like the XJ Jeeps did. Lighter and it doesn't rust! Blunttech just quoted me $1650ish for a new tailgate. It might be worth it!

BMW's first attempt at a tailgate on the e34 is an abomination. it seems their 2nd attempt isn't much better. why do i feel like those silly germans tried to engineer it from square one instead of studying some proven designs and learning a thing or two?

ChrisO

damn you got a lot done in 10 days, lookin good with the 19” arc8’s

edit: I see you brought it home in June now, still lookin good!

DrLeadFoot

ChrisO said:

damn you got a lot done in 10 days, lookin good with the 19” arc8’s

edit: I see you brought it home in June now, still lookin good!

Thanks!! With real estate being busy I am delegating work to a friend/Master BMW Tech so I can't take all the credit but I am back seat driving the process as much as I can.