E28 Restoration?

[legendary]

Hey guys! I picked up an E28 528e yesterday. It is soley a restoration project that I am putting together for a friend of mine. She does not know anything about my intentions of doing this, so its pretty special.

Does anyone know of the following:
- other than car-part.com, where can one find specialty parts? i.e. are there updated lamps like the E34 5 series?
- are there any resources that sell the E28 M-style kit?
- has anyone done any motor swaps - i.e. a newer version of the motor (maybe one from an e39 or e36)?

Thanks for your help!

Now....be easy....just want to pump some life into this section. If anyone knows the kind of work I do, you will see it comes out pretty hot. So, please do not say "search", I have been doing that. Just want to compare notes and hear what is really going on with those who know or know someone that does.

Thanks everyone!

[VenomRS4]

Hey, nice to see another person that likes e28s! Well, let me first say that I have a 1984 533i. I looked for parts everywhere. A lot of my specialty parts that I get though are off of eBay. There's a lot of cool stuff on there for e28s. Also, your prob familiar with it but if you not...Bavarian Autosport has a lot of replacement parts and maintenance stuff. The only problem is that they can sometimes be expensive.

As far as motor swaps go, an easy one to do is the M30. It’s pretty much a direct bolt in. As another option, you can take the turbo engine from an e23 Euro 745i turbo and that is a good bolt in. Or you can just do the M30 and take the turbo, manifold, plumbing, etc from the 745i and put it on the M30. I have not done it but from what I have heard….M30s LOVE turbos…and are no slouch when it comes to performance. You could do a newer engine but it will be more complicated and expensive.

As far as exterior mods go, I’m not sure where you could pick up some e28 M style aerodynamics. Maybe eBay or looking around at some of the bmw forums under the classifieds. When I went to work on the visual appearance of my 533, I had wanted to make it look like the e28 M5. Body parts form e28 M5s are not uncommon, but are usually expensive…unless they are crap. I bought a nice front spoiler off of ebay. Very aggressive looking….especially from the front. I think its made by Zender. When your driving and I come flying up behind you it looks intimidating. Especially since my car is lowered. For the sides, I didn’t get any side skirts; I just painted the bottom to match the body color. And for the back, I managed to find a rear apron by zender. Then I added some Mille Miglia MMII-2 Sport rims and tinted the windows……def looks bad ass.

For lighting, I have Hella head lamps with PIAA Extreme White bulbs….very bright. And for the rear I kept the stock e28 lights but I smoked them so it looks very nice. I also custom made some side lenses out of plexi glass. I kind of traced the outline if that what you want to call it then cut them out and fitted them. Then I put a light smoke tint on them to complete the look.

These are just some of my ideas and some examples of what I did. There are many more options. Hope this helps.

Tony

[legendary]

Tony - this was great information! I do appreciate it...I have been keeping my eye on eBay, and trying to soak up all the info I can on all the different forums. I do appreciate your input - that is good to know. Can you post some pictures of your car? It sounds like it is pretty hot indeed!

[bmwsparkle]

hey bro, definatly go onto mye28.com - best resource for e28s. ever.

[legendary]

thanks - will do!

[hammerfang]

e28s r sick, if i were ever gonna make a bmw into a low rider(don't worry im not going to) that would be the one i'd use

[e28_J]

http://www.algonet.se/~kinnby/shop/shop_us.htm

[Jeppe]

Good luck with your restoration!

Pics?