Brilliant red E34 M5 mini restoration thread

Benji

Well-known member
I thought the day would never come, but belief, resilience, determination and sheer stubbornness have brought us to this point; the brilliant red E34 M5 is complete and sold! Thank heavens.

This car is singlehandedly responsible for 95% of the problems in my life. Wide eyed and wet behind the ears, myself and Mark bought this as a little track toy project; our first BMW as people who didnt like BMWs and made fun of BMW drivers with their apparent misunderstanding of indicator usage. How times have changed - we both now have too many cars and they are exclusively old and mostly broken BMWs! Not a moments regret, we have learnt so much, achieved some things, had a lot of fun and drank many a cold and late beer.

There is however, a fly in the ointment. The car has been sold to a family "friend", a central African businessman who has zero interest in cars and is the exact opposite of a fanatic. A drunken deal was made many years ago with the new owner buying the car site unseen and is getting it driven back to Zambia. I have full confidence that this will be a poorly running, swirlmark riddled and unmaintained car within a year. Sad, maybe, but money in the bank is money in the bank and a car is just a collection of parts. There is much confusion around why the buyer wants this car. Many questions are left unanswered.

Anyway, onto the important bits - the pictures. Kiran (ImaginativeAuto on this forum) detailed the car and did a fantastic job. I know this was a very challenging detail - I had given up trying to polish this car, I am actually not sure how he got it looking so good. He will be detailing all my cars in the future.
IMG-20231213-WA0004.jpgIMG-20231213-WA0005.jpgIMG-20231213-WA0007.jpgIMG-20231213-WA0008.jpgIMG-20231213-WA0009.jpgIMG-20231213-WA0011.jpgIMG-20231213-WA0017.jpgIMG-20231213-WA0018.jpgIMG-20231213-WA0010.jpgIMG-20231213-WA0002.jpg

So there we have it; fully restored, no oil leaks, everything works, full service history, completely original (except for the radio) BMW legend, headed for the toilet as it were. Tear inducing stuff. Anyway, onwards and forwards. We have learnt a lot, made many friends, become better friends, had awesome experiences and made a decent profit at the end. These are all good things
 

gavsadler

///Member
It's been great to see this car evolve over the past few years, as well as going more and more sideways at each skid pan event :)

I can relate to your feelings of uneasiness, sending a good car off into the unknown. Hopefully hindsight doesn't come knocking too soon, bat as you say, onwards and upwards....
 

Benji

Well-known member
Like a good quality rash this car is. It keeps coming back!
WhatsApp Image 2024-05-27 at 07.23.48_6640981a.jpg
This was what we thought would be the last we see of this car, finally being collected over the weekend. Good riddance!

But no, an hour later, the buyer calls me saying the car wont start. We drive out to JHB with our tools only to find that the car starts perfectly, no problem. Perplexed, we say our goodbyes again only to have the buyer call back saying the car generally wont start when hot. This is weird, we have had this car at the skid pan where hot starting is the order of the day. Seems the starter solenoid isnt kicking in. New owner also isnt happy with a known gearbox issue where the car sometimes wont go into 4th if you were babying it. He unsuccessfully took the car to some suitably dodgy gearbox places before getting me on the phone in desperation. The call was made to rather find another used gearbox and install that instead. Cue frantic calling and running around to find a used starter motor and gearbox and the car is back at my place exactly a week later. :cautious:

WhatsApp Image 2024-05-27 at 07.23.47_90d95526.jpg
WhatsApp Image 2024-05-27 at 07.23.47_c4a10093.jpg

Quickly throw in the gearbox and starter and bob's your uncle. Me and Mark are now worryingly good at this, we had this all buttoned up in about 6 hours in between the necessary cold lubricants. A quick test drive, all seems ok, we say our goodbyes again, hopefully for the last time!

A bit of a heartbreaker...This is what the passenger seat looks like a week after delivery to the new owner :cry: It literally took us longer to find good OEM leather, swap it onto the seat frames, treat and redye it than it took for the seat to get f#$cked again :rolleyes:

WhatsApp Image 2024-05-26 at 21.40.47_9c711827.jpg
 

Alex/M5

Member
Like a good quality rash this car is. It keeps coming back!
View attachment 22380
This was what we thought would be the last we see of this car, finally being collected over the weekend. Good riddance!

But no, an hour later, the buyer calls me saying the car wont start. We drive out to JHB with our tools only to find that the car starts perfectly, no problem. Perplexed, we say our goodbyes again only to have the buyer call back saying the car generally wont start when hot. This is weird, we have had this car at the skid pan where hot starting is the order of the day. Seems the starter solenoid isnt kicking in. New owner also isnt happy with a known gearbox issue where the car sometimes wont go into 4th if you were babying it. He unsuccessfully took the car to some suitably dodgy gearbox places before getting me on the phone in desperation. The call was made to rather find another used gearbox and install that instead. Cue frantic calling and running around to find a used starter motor and gearbox and the car is back at my place exactly a week later. :cautious:

View attachment 22381
View attachment 22382

Quickly throw in the gearbox and starter and bob's your uncle. Me and Mark are now worryingly good at this, we had this all buttoned up in about 6 hours in between the necessary cold lubricants. A quick test drive, all seems ok, we say our goodbyes again, hopefully for the last time!

A bit of a heartbreaker...This is what the passenger seat looks like a week after delivery to the new owner :cry: It literally took us longer to find good OEM leather, swap it onto the seat frames, treat and redye it than it took for the seat to get f#$cked again :rolleyes:

View attachment 22383
Man, that's frustrating! Where on earth did you manage to find a gearbox?? Apparently that specific getrag unit is infamously hard to find.
 

Benji

Well-known member
Man, that's frustrating! Where on earth did you manage to find a gearbox?? Apparently that specific getrag unit is infamously hard to find.
Yeah Getrag 280 is impossible to find and also notoriously unreliable and impossible to get spares for... So I put in a Getrag 260 from a 535 which is a strong box and is identical in ratio except for a slightly shorter 1st and 2nd. I couldnt notice the difference.

I do know of a Getrag 280 somewhere, i could put you in touch...
 

ShaneE

New member
Like a good quality rash this car is. It keeps coming back!
View attachment 22380
This was what we thought would be the last we see of this car, finally being collected over the weekend. Good riddance!

But no, an hour later, the buyer calls me saying the car wont start. We drive out to JHB with our tools only to find that the car starts perfectly, no problem. Perplexed, we say our goodbyes again only to have the buyer call back saying the car generally wont start when hot. This is weird, we have had this car at the skid pan where hot starting is the order of the day. Seems the starter solenoid isnt kicking in. New owner also isnt happy with a known gearbox issue where the car sometimes wont go into 4th if you were babying it. He unsuccessfully took the car to some suitably dodgy gearbox places before getting me on the phone in desperation. The call was made to rather find another used gearbox and install that instead. Cue frantic calling and running around to find a used starter motor and gearbox and the car is back at my place exactly a week later. :cautious:

View attachment 22381
View attachment 22382

Quickly throw in the gearbox and starter and bob's your uncle. Me and Mark are now worryingly good at this, we had this all buttoned up in about 6 hours in between the necessary cold lubricants. A quick test drive, all seems ok, we say our goodbyes again, hopefully for the last time!

A bit of a heartbreaker...This is what the passenger seat looks like a week after delivery to the new owner :cry: It literally took us longer to find good OEM leather, swap it onto the seat frames, treat and redye it than it took for the seat to get f#$cked again :rolleyes:

View attachment 22383
I'm 100% sure I drove past this parked in this parking yesterday - JHB North?
It looked pretty good to me!
 

Benji

Well-known member
I'm 100% sure I drove past this parked in this parking yesterday - JHB North?
It looked pretty good to me!
Yes it was out in the sun waiting for the owner to come collect it Sunday morning

It is bloody good this car! Many hours of blood sweat and tears went into it đź‘€
 
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