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Hi, I'm new here, but I've been around. Actually I've been trying to register here for like 3 years and it kept saying I was spam...and magically today it let me through...woohoo...
Anyways...
Bought myself a '03 540i Sport Touring in early December. The car was in great mechanical shape, interior was flawless, but the exterior needed some loving. The car was used by the previous owner to travel up and down the highway for work and the nose of the car had taken a severe beating from road rash. Probably one of the worst I've ever seen.
Here it is the day I went to go look at it for the first time.
The very next day I returned and bought it.
This is how it looked once I got it home and cleaned it up a little bit...
The wheels that came on the car had tires that were toast, so I swapped some Style32's off my e28 on to it to get me by...
This look had me complacent for probably a few days, then I got tired of looking at it and started devising my plan. I knew I couldn't take looking at the front all rock chipped any longer and I need to lower it and decide on what wheel/tire combo to go with. So, the brainstorming started.
In the meantime I put LEDs in the entire car....cause you know thats super important and all, but it actually is something I'm glad I did...
I also knew that part of my "restoration" of this Touring meant I needed to have headlights that actually output light. These headlights were BAD and I was already shopping for new lights and getting discouraged by all the complete SHIT aftermarket headlights available for e39's. I was convinced I had to suck it up and spend $$$ on OEM replacements, but I spent an hour with some sandpaper, rubbing compound, and polish and saved myself about $700...
Before I started the process...
About halfway through my sanding. I went from 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, and 2000 grits before using a cutting compound, and then Plastix polish...
Here is the before and after, and the after actually got a little better after even more polishing...
So let that be a lesson to you all...you can absolutely save these lights. Don't buy cheap, shitty aftermarket lights! Just spend an hour with some elbow grease and bring them back to life. I used all sand paper by hand, no machines, no buffers, nothing.
So...after driving it around for a little while saving up some money I finally decided to pull the trigger and get the hood, nose, and rear bumpers repainted. The thought of doing paintwork to a car scares the hell out of me because I'm pretty much OCD or at least extremely picky when it comes to that kind of stuff. I've seen lots of bad paint jobs in my line of work, but a good friend of mine who has been doing paint and body for years convinced me to give him a shot and I'm extremely glad I let him do the work.
The shop is Joe's Garage in Floyd, Va. You can visit his facebook page here: www.facebook.com/joesgarageva
This is how the car's nose looked after driving 4hrs to my friends body shop in snow/rain/crap. The headlights are just covered in road grime here but you can see how rough the overall front of the car looked. It made the rest of the car look crappy enough tho it was in great shape.
The TO DO list consisted of:
- Fix/paint hood as needed - left that decision up to him
- Fill/smooth/paint front bumper - no more front tag holes!
- Fill/smooth/paint rear bumper - had carnage from parallel parking
- Touch up misc. areas
- Install new foglights - the old ones were busted and replaced with blanks by the previous owner
- Install "M5" lower grill
- Install black kidney grills
- Install new front thrust arms
- Install all new brakes front rear - pads/rotors/sensors
- State Inspection
So obviously this is a full service type shop. They don't just do one thing. I actually don't think there is anything I could think of that they can't handle. This is why I knew I was in good hands....even though I'm a prick about details. I trust Joey @ Joe's Garage.
I want to say I wasn't even home from the 4hr drive back and I had already gotten my first update via text message...
No turning back now...more progress shots came rolling in on my phone throughout the next few days building the excitement!
The front bumper with holes shaved and filled...
This one really got me excited...
A few delayed weeks later (on my part due to weather and work schedule) I finally made the trip back out there to pick it up and MAN was I happy with the results...
Since I still had a 4hr trip home via the highway which was covered with sand and salt from a previous snow storm, I went apeshit with blue painters tape to make sure nothing happened to my precious new bumper and hood...
Yea...I went crazy with it. Didn't care. I wanted it to stay pristine until I had time to get a clear bra put on it...
Once I made it home I ungift-wrapped my E39 to reveal that my tape job had worked! Even though I was cringing at the sound of sand spraying the nose on the way home stuck behind some trucks it was absolutely perfect underneath! Roundel was left out for clear bra'ing as well...and the kidney grills were removed as well.
Here is the clear bra paint protection going on. The ONLY person who will ever touch my cars when it comes to clear bras is Joe DeRoche of Capital Autobahnd. He does absolutely flawless work and I couldn't be happier with the job done on my car.
Since he's a pro at laying down film I also had him install my Lamin-x onto the freshly polished headlights giving it a look I absolutely love. And since he was done with the bra I re-installed the kidney grills and the brand new roundel for the first time. This photo also shows how invisible the clear bra is as well...
In the meantime while the car was getting paint done I contacted Fortune Auto to see what suspension options they had available. They had literally just put together a set of coilovers for RVAE34 and his new soon to be LS-powered Touring, so after a conversation about what I needed out of the shocks I placed an order with them. They arrived very quickly and just by handling them you could tell they were very nice and high quality. I was impressed and looking forward to getting them on the car. See more about what Fortune Auto has to offer for BMWs here: www.fortune-auto.com or www.facebook.com/FortuneAuto
The coilovers were taking care of the front, but I still needed to decide what to do with the rear since my Touring still had the stock SLS/airbag rear suspension. My immediate idea was to do the $0 lowering mod by bending the rear links. Well, as luck would have it, for some reason my rear suspension didn't have the metal dogbone style links that Audio18's DIY showed, but instead I had rubbery/plastic links that could not be altered. But...I have a shop, so we easily fab'd up my very own "lowered link".
As for wheels/tires I had a certain look in mind when I looked at this car back in December. I already knew how I wanted it to look and that meant I needed to find some Style 95's. And I did! The best part is that I found a set of 4 19x10's which is exactly what I wanted to put on the car. I know most people do 9's and 10's, but I was pretty determined to go as big as possible and have the deepest concave look front and rear. Tire sizes are 225/40/19's up front and 265/30/19's out back.
For the record I opened up the hub centers myself at my shop so that I wouldn't have to run adapter spacers.
Time to install the goodies!
Anyways...
Bought myself a '03 540i Sport Touring in early December. The car was in great mechanical shape, interior was flawless, but the exterior needed some loving. The car was used by the previous owner to travel up and down the highway for work and the nose of the car had taken a severe beating from road rash. Probably one of the worst I've ever seen.
Here it is the day I went to go look at it for the first time.
The very next day I returned and bought it.
This is how it looked once I got it home and cleaned it up a little bit...
The wheels that came on the car had tires that were toast, so I swapped some Style32's off my e28 on to it to get me by...
This look had me complacent for probably a few days, then I got tired of looking at it and started devising my plan. I knew I couldn't take looking at the front all rock chipped any longer and I need to lower it and decide on what wheel/tire combo to go with. So, the brainstorming started.
In the meantime I put LEDs in the entire car....cause you know thats super important and all, but it actually is something I'm glad I did...
I also knew that part of my "restoration" of this Touring meant I needed to have headlights that actually output light. These headlights were BAD and I was already shopping for new lights and getting discouraged by all the complete SHIT aftermarket headlights available for e39's. I was convinced I had to suck it up and spend $$$ on OEM replacements, but I spent an hour with some sandpaper, rubbing compound, and polish and saved myself about $700...
Before I started the process...
About halfway through my sanding. I went from 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, and 2000 grits before using a cutting compound, and then Plastix polish...
Here is the before and after, and the after actually got a little better after even more polishing...
So let that be a lesson to you all...you can absolutely save these lights. Don't buy cheap, shitty aftermarket lights! Just spend an hour with some elbow grease and bring them back to life. I used all sand paper by hand, no machines, no buffers, nothing.
So...after driving it around for a little while saving up some money I finally decided to pull the trigger and get the hood, nose, and rear bumpers repainted. The thought of doing paintwork to a car scares the hell out of me because I'm pretty much OCD or at least extremely picky when it comes to that kind of stuff. I've seen lots of bad paint jobs in my line of work, but a good friend of mine who has been doing paint and body for years convinced me to give him a shot and I'm extremely glad I let him do the work.
The shop is Joe's Garage in Floyd, Va. You can visit his facebook page here: www.facebook.com/joesgarageva
This is how the car's nose looked after driving 4hrs to my friends body shop in snow/rain/crap. The headlights are just covered in road grime here but you can see how rough the overall front of the car looked. It made the rest of the car look crappy enough tho it was in great shape.
The TO DO list consisted of:
- Fix/paint hood as needed - left that decision up to him
- Fill/smooth/paint front bumper - no more front tag holes!
- Fill/smooth/paint rear bumper - had carnage from parallel parking
- Touch up misc. areas
- Install new foglights - the old ones were busted and replaced with blanks by the previous owner
- Install "M5" lower grill
- Install black kidney grills
- Install new front thrust arms
- Install all new brakes front rear - pads/rotors/sensors
- State Inspection
So obviously this is a full service type shop. They don't just do one thing. I actually don't think there is anything I could think of that they can't handle. This is why I knew I was in good hands....even though I'm a prick about details. I trust Joey @ Joe's Garage.
I want to say I wasn't even home from the 4hr drive back and I had already gotten my first update via text message...
No turning back now...more progress shots came rolling in on my phone throughout the next few days building the excitement!
The front bumper with holes shaved and filled...
This one really got me excited...
A few delayed weeks later (on my part due to weather and work schedule) I finally made the trip back out there to pick it up and MAN was I happy with the results...
Since I still had a 4hr trip home via the highway which was covered with sand and salt from a previous snow storm, I went apeshit with blue painters tape to make sure nothing happened to my precious new bumper and hood...
Yea...I went crazy with it. Didn't care. I wanted it to stay pristine until I had time to get a clear bra put on it...
Once I made it home I ungift-wrapped my E39 to reveal that my tape job had worked! Even though I was cringing at the sound of sand spraying the nose on the way home stuck behind some trucks it was absolutely perfect underneath! Roundel was left out for clear bra'ing as well...and the kidney grills were removed as well.
Here is the clear bra paint protection going on. The ONLY person who will ever touch my cars when it comes to clear bras is Joe DeRoche of Capital Autobahnd. He does absolutely flawless work and I couldn't be happier with the job done on my car.
Since he's a pro at laying down film I also had him install my Lamin-x onto the freshly polished headlights giving it a look I absolutely love. And since he was done with the bra I re-installed the kidney grills and the brand new roundel for the first time. This photo also shows how invisible the clear bra is as well...
In the meantime while the car was getting paint done I contacted Fortune Auto to see what suspension options they had available. They had literally just put together a set of coilovers for RVAE34 and his new soon to be LS-powered Touring, so after a conversation about what I needed out of the shocks I placed an order with them. They arrived very quickly and just by handling them you could tell they were very nice and high quality. I was impressed and looking forward to getting them on the car. See more about what Fortune Auto has to offer for BMWs here: www.fortune-auto.com or www.facebook.com/FortuneAuto
The coilovers were taking care of the front, but I still needed to decide what to do with the rear since my Touring still had the stock SLS/airbag rear suspension. My immediate idea was to do the $0 lowering mod by bending the rear links. Well, as luck would have it, for some reason my rear suspension didn't have the metal dogbone style links that Audio18's DIY showed, but instead I had rubbery/plastic links that could not be altered. But...I have a shop, so we easily fab'd up my very own "lowered link".
As for wheels/tires I had a certain look in mind when I looked at this car back in December. I already knew how I wanted it to look and that meant I needed to find some Style 95's. And I did! The best part is that I found a set of 4 19x10's which is exactly what I wanted to put on the car. I know most people do 9's and 10's, but I was pretty determined to go as big as possible and have the deepest concave look front and rear. Tire sizes are 225/40/19's up front and 265/30/19's out back.
For the record I opened up the hub centers myself at my shop so that I wouldn't have to run adapter spacers.
Time to install the goodies!
stanceworks: I don't really fit in.
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