3 week challenge build (we failed!)

[indycar89]

While I'm busy getting Oskar back together, Mike, who is building a M535i and then after, a 528e auto to manual conversion to br transformed into a Real Bad Boy 535i - decides that the M535 is going to be a long project, and he'd like to have a running E28 to drive this Spring and Summer. And so he declares a 3 week challenge to put the 528e shell together as a 528e (for now). And so it begins.






First the grill and bumper needs to come off, front fender needs to get some attention, and the engine bay needs cleaned up for painting.







Getting closer. . .

[indycar89]

Now to remove some donor car parts for Donor A for the 528e.

Slated for extraction are a pair nice new axles, a limited slip and Ireland rear sway bar. The jokers who monkeyed on this donor ran SAE bolts into the diff, so those will need to be retreaded . They also have E34 H&N springs - note the clamps on the front spring. These don't seat properly.









We still need to pull the tranny out of the mega rusted Ohio donor car. This tranny I was planning to keep as a backup for my E34 M5 that I did a 260 conversion on, but hey .... "a friend in need is a thing to heed", so we'll hope the rust bucket doesn't collapse under its own weight when we put it in the air to remove the 260.

[muleskinner]

[indycar89]

Work progressing the White Sleeper. While for the meantime, this will be a 528e, once the Blue Beast is built, this will be endowed with a beefy 3.5 build.



More prep work on the engine, and still more to do:





A look under her skirt:








The transplant motor that needs removed, tweaked and installed.



3 weeks!? What were we thinking?!? Mike, whose car this is, does have a day job!

[SteveKerwin]

"Work progressing the White Sleeper. While for the meantime, this will be a 528e, once the Blue Beast is built, this will be endowed with a beefy 3.5 build."

Impressive! I'm keeping an eye on this build. The alias "White Sleeper" definitely gives it a mysterious identity.

[indycar89]

"The Plan" was to have this 528 turned into a sleeper Hot Rod. Technically, I guess that was also the plan the previous owner had as well - with their sights on a V8 or other such transplant. Mike's plan at first was to use this as a parts car, but he couldn't bring himself to do it! This car just has too much to offer to let it die and be dismembered. So the plan is to trick this one out. HOWEVER, when Mike's M535i replica build was going to be delayed for what he thought was 5 or 6 weeks . . . and it's going to be a long haul in and of itself.... he got the wild hair to just get the White Sleeper on the road so he had a E28 to drive this summer . . . so.... we're (mostly Mike) going to dump a donor 2.8 in for the short term. Once the M535 is complete, the 2.8 will be swapped out.

Apparently the previous owner's engine plans didn't need the various under hood brackets - but we do! so Mike cut the pieces from a donor car so he could make templates, and will weld in the missing brackets. He also spent some time removing some cosmoline from under the hood (80 grit sand paper worked best). Has anyone ever found the magic bullet to removing this stuff? In as much as this area is going to be painted, sanding it down is one thing, but removing it from painted and engine surfaces seems to be near impossible . He's getting closer to painting.









This car came with the Euro bumpers and looking closely at the rear valance, it bows slightly in the middle



Mike welded the Euro valance on the M535, but took the time to make it fit correctly.



In the meantime, Mike's been working on his sport seat rebuilds.









One is almost ready:


I think he does pretty good work!

[Bonsaibacker]

Following for the 3 week challenge but love the eye candy from the M535i project. Good luck!

[indycar89]

Following for the 3 week challenge but love the eye candy from the M535i project. Good luck!

Yes, that's the real story. Here's some more eye candy . .



SO there we were last night, MINDING OUR OWN BUSINESS . . . Mike at work prepping the engine bay for paint . . .Neutralizer . .




And Yours Truly working on the heater box doors . . .





When...we take a break to compare notes, and Mike wants to review a few of his projects waiting in the wings . . .







Of course we have to fire up the 944, which comes right to life! That's one SMOOTH 4!

That Karmann Ghia in the background is a true barn find - all matching numbers. More photos next time, they're on the camera at the shop.

.... All of this led to deciding to call another audible at 7pm ...and . . .dropping the donor 2.8 with the seized Auto tranny. This 2.8 will go into the White Sleeper for the Summer, mated to the manual tranny out of my rust bucket donor car.









Mike's in the Witness Protection program, so I snapped this while he wasn't looking . . . Shhhhh!


So we get this wrapped up about 1am, and it's now 30 degrees 'Merican outside, and Yours Truly rode his bike to the shop - which is across town from Gods County where I reside.



While it was sunny and warm (for March in Indiana) when I arrived - things are much different outside now and I didn't have my stay warm gear with me. And because also drunks..... I had to take one for the team and lower myself to rocketing home in the 540i M Sport. Talk about some eye candy dressing up me casa . . .

What will the neighbors think!







All I can say is, it's a good thing my peaky E34 M5 is not here to see its younger brother, 'cuz junior is hung! And the Mrs. has noticed Junior's..... enhancements..... as well - and she hasn't even sampled the goods yet.

[Bonsaibacker]

Well... did you make the challenge???

[indycar89]

Well... did you make the challenge???

It's a fair question. No.

It's not that the spirit wasn't willing - it's that the spirit wasn't willing to do it half assed Call it Scope Creep or While you're in there** syndrome.

If you're like me, and I know I am, you heard "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well" ad nauseam while growing up. Turns out Big D likes to take that saying... and modify it a step further: If it's worth doing, it's worth OVERDOING! Originally, the 3 week challenge was born out of Big D's desire to have a E28 to drive this summer while he is working on his M535 build. So the inspiration for the 3 Week Project was to toss the 2.8l into Alice (The White Car) all jiffy-like, and then - once The Blue Car (M535) was done, revisit Alice and pull the 2.8l and drop in a go fast B35 and get all jiggy with it. But on second thought, that sure seemed like the long way around! Why go to all of that extra work?!

This called for a discussion over some killer carne asada tacos. One issue of concern was the nice coil over suspension and neoprene bushings. Alice wasn't shy about showing off her wears to any Tommy TuTone who would sneak a peek up her fender wells or cop a look under her hood. There was no question that dressing up Alice in neoprene and coil overs firmed her up in all the right places. But if she was allowed to leave the house dressed like that - would she behave - or would she shed her sophisticated refinement and deliver a ride that was street smart and a lil rough for 528e pleasure driving? Some who gathered with tacos in hand weighed in with "Hell yes she will, so build the B thirty-five motor NOW.. and... pleaase pass the roasted red pepper sauce". While the Roasted Roasted Red Pepper sauce goes hand in hand with carne asada, it also doubles as an elixir - promoting crystal clear thinking (along with a sweaty brow). "Ahhh .... But building the B Thirty-Five motor would take a lot more time. Like Bigly so"! Which of course was the very thing we were looking to reduce!

So a compromise was reached. The 2.8l will be refreshed with new exterior parts all around and a new, tight and firm fitting timing belt (vs putting the engine back in more or less as it sat, as originally planned). And if Alice proves to be a little rough around the edges once she's out and about, we'll deal with that then.

So with that decided - the 3 week plan was scrapped! Now we have parts to remove, clean, acquire, replace and paint!

Here's where are . . .

Big D - The man with the plan(s)


Acquisition:





And clean



More Clean



Dynamat order is in!


The E34 & E46 ///M Brothers



One of Mikes ground up restorations. . .






We lost last weekend to a failed M535 acquisition, but we're back at it!

** "The While you're in there" syndrome - That's the damn notion that led to THIS



This will be the last update for this thread - I'm going to use a single thread for all 3 projects - Oskar, The White Car (Alice) and The Blue Car. This seems to make more sense and may prove to be more helpful to highlight differences each of the cars present for the same or similar issues.

[tig]

Would be helpful if you posted the link to the other "master thread" (because I'm not finding it).

[indycar89]

Thanks, I will. I just haven't created it yet. My hope with merging the threads, is that since the 2 of the builds are going on mostly simultaneously, that if we actually did something worth referencing that someone would want to come back to later, it would be easier to find if the builds were in one thread, vs trying to remember which car something happened on. Do you have any thoughts on that, Charlie?

[tig]

Thanks, I will. I just haven't created it yet. My hope with merging the threads, is that since the 2 of the builds are going on mostly simultaneously, that if we actually did something worth referencing that someone would want to come back to later, it would be easier to find if the builds were in one thread, vs trying to remember which car something happened on. Do you have any thoughts on that, Charlie?

No. It's all good, I think.

[indycar89]

Whaa?? Did someone say 3 WEEK CHALLENGE?! No, no no! What we meant was a 3 QUARTER CHALLENGE!

Well . . . We have been making progress - quite a lot actually! And while I'll post up photos of some of the challenges and details previous to now - I'd at least like to note that we're back among the living!

First start up:



And a rolling systems check:

[indycar89]

We're making progress . . . If you're going to do it . . . .













Woo Hoo!!

[vinceg101]

Whaa?? Did someone say 3 WEEK CHALLENGE?! No, no no! What we meant was a 3 QUARTER CHALLENGE!

Funny how that happens, huh?
No stranger to mission AND calendar creep myself.

Keep on fighting the good fight. Waiting for updates.

[indycar89]

Thanks for the encouragement!

[indycar89]

WE FAILED! Not for the first time. Must have been the evening cocktails that led to liquid courage and ambition!

Here we are today -













Nothing like a hard deadline to get things moving! Our working space is shrinking, and the White car is on the front burner, and Oskar will be back together one way or another by years end.

But ya, we've heard THAT before!

[muleskinner]

Maybe you FAILED to do it in 3 weeks, but what I see is anything but FAILED.

p.s.: awesome motorcycle videos

[indycar89]

Maybe you FAILED to do it in 3 weeks, but what I see is anything but FAILED.

p.s.: awesome motorcycle videos

Thanks - I can't get enough time on two wheels!

More progress on the White car - first time painting, so lots and lots to learn!

















Goodbye to the sturdy parts car . .




But not before it donates rear fender bits for Oskar . . .





parts we need to find a home for . . .









E90 M3 back seat

[indycar89]

Oskar getting some love and attention.

Brackets made and welded for the E90 ///M3 front seats and carpet fitted.

[sQuirly]

[quote=indycar89 post_id=1497773 time=1615139528 user_id=20437

And Yours Truly working on the heater box doors . . .





[/quote]
What did you use for the felt here? I was looking on McMaster for something but have no clue what to pick

[indycar89]

Well, it's all fun and games until you get all overambitious and then go even further and start telling others about your misguided ambitions.

But I digress . . .We're still alive and kicking and getting distracted by other short and long term projects . . . BUT . . . here we are with an "All in the 5 series" family holiday photo to counter the wild, rampant and viral internet conspiracy theories about our defecting to Yugo restorations.















Big hopes and plans for the New Year, and We're gonna . . . . Uhhh.... wait and see