New Garage Mate - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

mottati · 27th June 2007, 06:50

Hello Gents,
Finally got myself an e34 to join the e39 in the garage. it's a 3/90 prod 91 3.6 US car, brought it home last night. 145k on the clock, no paint or body work, needing some detailing, suspension freshening etc. Never fear, it's going to my local shop tomorrow to get those chrome momo's removed (as you can see in the pic, my son does not approve of them) and get the turbines back where they belong. Currently, it has a fahey track pipe, the cats need to go on to get smogged and registered in California. Car spent most of it's life in southern california, maintained by fahey. His his suspension which eliminates the SLS, and a confortti chip. Have been searching the boards, and am sure to have a lot of reading to do over the next few months/years as i bring her back to the beauty hidden within...

(having trouble with the photos, will try that again later, it's white with silver gray interior, ugly chrome wheels so you get the idea)

Laidback · 27th June 2007, 08:23

Nice and congrats Mike

...I thought you got the red one...

de Witt · 27th June 2007, 08:24

Nice! Looking foward to the pics.

Seems to be a quicker buy than you thought.

Jahangeer · 27th June 2007, 11:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by mottati

Hello Gents,
Finally got myself an e34 to join the e39 in the garage. it's a 3/90 prod 91 3.6 US car, brought it home last night. 145k on the clock, no paint or body work, needing some detailing, suspension freshening etc. Never fear, it's going to my local shop tomorrow to get those chrome momo's removed (as you can see in the pic, my son does not approve of them) and get the turbines back where they belong. Currently, it has a fahey track pipe, the cats need to go on to get smogged and registered in California. Car spent most of it's life in southern california, maintained by fahey. His his suspension which eliminates the SLS, and a confortti chip. Have been searching the boards, and am sure to have a lot of reading to do over the next few months/years as i bring her back to the beauty hidden within...

(having trouble with the photos, will try that again later, it's white with silver gray interior, ugly chrome wheels so you get the idea)

Mike - Congrats on the new car.
What made you decide to get one?
Also what will you use it for - will the e39 be the daily or the e34?

farrell · 27th June 2007, 14:54

Well done & welcome

Faz

mottati · 27th June 2007, 18:53

thanks guys. The e34 M5 was the car that originally got me interested in bmw. I worked for a detailing shop back in high school and college, circa 1988-1992. We did the local dealership cars, and being the honorable clean cut student, who spoke english, the sales managers at the nicer dealers trusted me with the 'special' cars. I was into american muscle cars at the time, and had a 67 pontiac gto, one day had a 'run in' with a sinister looking, mean sounding 88 m5, and that made an impression on me. So, one day, summer of 90, the bmw sales manager pulls up to our shop in a silver 5, sounded quite good, and had these funky wheels, with brake dust, looked like white walls. I asked what it was, he asked if i'd ever heard of the M5, and that black e28 came back in my mind. He tossed me the keys and said 'lets go for a ride...' and the rest is history as they say.

So the e39 will be my daily, closing in on 100k, been a fabulous car, but as you guys can understand, it's a little too easy, i suppose. Plus, i've done all i want to do, car is perfect in my mind. I wanted a project, and the e34 is my all time favorite body style. I've been watching the market for a while, and prety seriously looking for a few months. This one popped up and just felt right, and was local enough to drive up and look at. One family owner, father, a psychaitrist bought it in 92, it was the dealers personal car from new to then. He drove it thru 2005, maintained by frank fahey. Car then was given to his son, who put another 10k or so on it since 05. Car currently has a fahey suspension, confortti chip and a fahey track pipe! Unfortunately, the track pipe is being removed as we speak so i can smog test the car for the registration. The tires are also being put back on the original turbines. I'll try to post some pics again tonight, had computer issues last night.

Car has all original body pannels with the vin tags, original paint, decent interior besides some drivers bolster wear and a droopy headliner. Needs a good detail and has plenty of projects for me and my boys (10 and 8). Noticed last night that someone bypassed the aux coolant pump (for the heater), so i assume it leaked. Will replace when i open up the cooling system for a new water pump and hoses (got a new rad last dec). I broke the cardinal rule and did not get a ppi. Having driven several over the past few months, this one just felt right, the history was good, and the price was right ($10k). Perhaps i'll get in trouble with that, but what's done is done. Have a list of "searches" that i'll do here, and look forward to e34 board participation!

JP 99300 · 28th June 2007, 08:47

Mike,

Congrats, looks clean! I love that body style too. Seems like a great price, with enough small projects to keep you entertained for at least a little while.....

Enjoy the second beast!

de Witt · 28th June 2007, 09:48

Def some areas for projects, but I recall seeing this car's ad and from what I see in the pictures, Id say you have a good buy. High mileage E34 M5s are the best buys IMHO, though the wheels are very sketchy haha.

It even has the breadbin rear seat.

safetywork · 28th June 2007, 09:53

Wow.... congrats. The paint looks like its in great condition from the pictures and the interior looks great as well. I've heard some good things about Frank Fahey.

mottati · 28th June 2007, 19:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by de Witt

Def some areas for projects, but I recall seeing this car's ad and from what I see in the pictures, Id say you have a good buy. High mileage E34 M5s are the best buys IMHO, though the wheels are very sketchy haha.

It even has the breadbin rear seat.

i had actually passed over the ad a for a while. Only one pic, poor quality pic, ugly wheels, some errors in the ad text ("new michellin power sport tires!"). After a few weeks, i thought i should just check it out.

The paint is really in quite amazing shape. As far as i can tell with a decent inspection, it's original. Tried polishing out a little square on the hood by hand, came out very nice. IIRC, this year/color is not a clearcoat paint, right? (3/90, alpinewhite 2). Car is at my local indep. shop, ghetto wheels are off, original turbines are on, fahey track pipe off, cats back on. Goes in for a smog today at 1030, having the gearbox and diff oils changed, and probably a coolant flush.

Interior is decent, drivers bolster has a hole worn in it, i asked my friend at the dealer parts dept, he can get oe leather covers still, though it depends on color. Headliner is a bit saggy, package shelf could use some help, all still available from the dealer though. So you can really get the headliner out and in thru the doors?

One thing i noticed, the aux coolant pump (drivers side (US) firewall) was bypassed, so i'm assuming it was leaking (did a search, not uncommon), though when i test drove it, seemed like heat worked. Could have just been because it was a warm day, and when i shut off the ac and cranked up the temp i was just feeling a lack of cold?

Also got the insurance set up thru hagerty (a collector car ins co) based on some good words on the yahoo list. I got a 16k agreed value policy for $394 per year!