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1993 BMW Touring Project updates

2008

I haven't done any updates to this in so long since we moved from Chicago but now that we are finally getting more settled in our new house, here's a recap of what I can remember in the last year or so.
One of the biggest thing was scoring a set of pretty rare 18" E39 Style 32's from craigslist for a good price. I ended up swapping those to use as my summer rubber with Yokohama S-drive's in a 235/40/18 front and 265/35/18 rear. Even running the metal hubcentric rings from Tirerack I still get a really annoying vibration. I'm told by Yokohama to try getting the car aligned to be sure before blaming the tires. One wheel was bent as I found out later so that was $150 to repair, but it still didn't fix the vibration. Anyway, see pics below.
Also I finally found a set of the H1 E34 foglights and fitted them with brand new, BMW OEM yellow lenses ordered from Europe. Again, as with the Hella headlights, I protect them with Lamin-X clear in a 40 mil thickness.
I took the car to a track event in May at Brainerd with the BMW CCA. That was fun and it did quite well, for a big heavy bitch. Still it is no track car.
I've been tackling lots of other misc crap on it as well and have fixed a few of the items that weren't working. I bought two new microswitches for the tail gate to get the hatch and glass buttons working finally. I put in a new Interstate battery for preventative maintenance. I also had a big project to work on the Touring hatch wiring which wasn't fun, taking it apart and resoldering wires that were broken. That was early in the year, but it fixed in-op reverse lights, the rear wiper wouldn't return to the park position, and I think a tail light. It was a mess. I also finally put in a new cabin air filter which hadn't been done in who knows how many years judging by the old filter I pulled out of there.
I am nearing the two year mark on the original 535i 5spd donor's rusty, oem exhaust that Ben told me would only make it a year or two. So I have a new/used E34 M5 exhaust complete with high flow cats and an x-pipe that I got for a great price, less than half of what a new exhaust would cost (and I got cats with it as well, as there's no telling how old the cats are on the car now). I hope to get that exhaust put on in the next few weeks.
There's a lot to remember so here's some more info. I have the Brett Anderson/ Koala Motorsport E34 door brake reinforcements but I just haven't put them in yet. I broke one of the rear door handles by kicking it in the winter (brittle plastic) so I had to take the door apart to replace that. Also as preventative maintenance I put POR-15 on the bottoms of all four doors and replaced the rubber molding at the bottoms. The doors were all nearly perfect from being in CA with only one or two surface rust spots starting to appear so I think I caught it in time. THe POR-15 should do the job (see pics below with the black POR-15 just peeking from behind the new rubber molding strips).
Oh, and the strut brace was added some time ago as well for engine bay eye candy!

Hatch microswitch picture

Winter tires and wheels pic 1 Winter tires and wheels pic 2

2008 I haven't done any updates to this in so long since we moved from Chicago but now that we are finally getting more settled in our new house, here's a recap of what I can remember in the last year or so. One of the biggest thing was scoring a set of pretty rare 18" E39 Style 32's from craigslist for a good price. I ended up swapping those to use as my summer rubber with Yokohama S-drive's in a 235/40/18 front and 265/35/18 rear. Even running the metal hubcentric rings from Tirerack I still get a really annoying vibration. I'm told by Yokohama to try getting the car aligned to be sure before blaming the tires. One wheel was bent as I found out later so that was $150 to repair, but it still didn't fix the vibration. Anyway, see pics below. Also I finally found a set of the H1 E34 foglights and fitted them with brand new, BMW OEM yellow lenses ordered from Europe. Again, as with the Hella headlights, I protect them with Lamin-X clear in a 40 mil thickness. I took the car to a track event in May at Brainerd with the BMW CCA. That was fun and it did quite well, for a big heavy bitch. Still it is no track car. I've been tackling lots of other misc crap on it as well and have fixed a few of the items that weren't working. I bought two new microswitches for the tail gate to get the hatch and glass buttons working finally. I put in a new Interstate battery for preventative maintenance. I also had a big project to work on the Touring hatch wiring which wasn't fun, taking it apart and resoldering wires that were broken. That was early in the year, but it fixed in-op reverse lights, the rear wiper wouldn't return to the park position, and I think a tail light. It was a mess. I also finally put in a new cabin air filter which hadn't been done in who knows how many years judging by the old filter I pulled out of there. I am nearing the two year mark on the original 535i 5spd donor's rusty, oem exhaust that Ben told me would only make it a year or two. So I have a new/used E34 M5 exhaust complete with high flow cats and an x-pipe that I got for a great price, less than half of what a new exhaust would cost (and I got cats with it as well, as there's no telling how old the cats are on the car now). I hope to get that exhaust put on in the next few weeks. There's a lot to remember so here's some more info. I have the Brett Anderson/ Koala Motorsport E34 door brake reinforcements but I just haven't put them in yet. I broke one of the rear door handles by kicking it in the winter (brittle plastic) so I had to take the door apart to replace that. Also as preventative maintenance I put POR-15 on the bottoms of all four doors and replaced the rubber molding at the bottoms. The doors were all nearly perfect from being in CA with only one or two surface rust spots starting to appear so I think I caught it in time. THe POR-15 should do the job (see pics below with the black POR-15 just peeking from behind the new rubber molding strips). Oh, and the strut brace was added some time ago as well for engine bay eye candy!


	Hatch microswitch picture



Winter tires and wheels pic 1	Winter tires and wheels pic 2