My First BMW Has Arrived - E39 525i

[Gelo]

Nice going Jeff (now also known as Gran dad) :thumb: I had blast yesterday.

The N1 never seemed like such a short stretch of road till then.:shocked:

 

[zaleonardz]

+1000.825 on not modifying this car at all.. Its a piece of heratidge, protect it

 

[jeff_denning]

+1000.825 on not modifying this car at all.. Its a piece of heratidge, protect it

The more I drive the car, the more I think the wood needs to stay! So pretty much done deal

What about a decat on the exhaust?

 

[Karthik]

dAmn nice car there !!! Yikes u one lucky guy , with that m sport pack its to die for . Mods , I dunno , you the owner , each to their own and its your car . :thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[zaleonardz]

Well, I have the brushed alloy finish in my E39, and much prefer it over the wood. However I have to say that the wood in general suits the 5,

 

[moranor@axis]

i would say piano black of wood trim are the best trims for this car...

 

[XMAX]

The Piano Black would also look super on this car.

A decat would definitely free up one or two horses. Just also make sure that you put in some silencers as you dont want this car to sound like a rice rocket.

You must be able to sneak up on unsuspecting cars and pass them by.... Vrooooooomm....

 

[P1000]

Anthracite Birch is much better than piano black IMO, and I like the natural poplar, but I doubt you'll find them in SA.

http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e39-m5-e52-z8-discussion/131646-e39-interior-trims.html

 

[bmw325i]

Congrats bud. Many happy km. :thumbsup:

 

[moranor@axis]

i quite like that

now im wondering what effect tinting my wood trim will have on to colour...

 

[XMAX]

@ Moranor - Thats a very very interesting though. Never crossed my mind, but now I wonder how the normal wood trim on the E46's would look with a dark tint.


Maybe Second Skynz can do a trial for us, cos if it looks cool, Ill definitely do it.

 

[P1000]

What are you thinking? putting black laminX over the trim?

 

[SecondSkynz]

can be done, looks cool.

laminx wouldnt work lol

to be honest i dont like the standard wood at all. never have , never will. each to their own tho lol

---

needs dial rings badly :thumbsup:

 

[XMAX]

@P1000 - I was thinking LaminX as well, but if Skynz says it wont work with laminX but that it can be done, Maybe we can give it a try.

I dont mind using my car as the guinea pig for this project.

 

[moranor@axis]

SecondSkynz why wont laminx work? i was thinking of using tamiya paint because then i can control the darkness... but i was also thinking this could be a good thing to practice wrapping on...

 

[SecondSkynz]

it is far too thick

tamiya is the way to go:grin:

 

[P1000]

Hmmm, the tamiya paint is a bit soft IME. Best would be automotive clearcoat with some black tint in. That said, experiment with the tamiya, because I don't know if you would get the desired effect. I saw a post somewhere where the guy sanded it down to wood (this takes VERY long - very thick clear) and went through a serious process of tinting with a mixture of tea and some other stuff to get the correct effect of the wood, and then proceeded to re-clear. But as I said, it is VERY time consuming to get the same finish as OEM.

 

[moranor@axis]

it is far too thick

tamiya is the way to go:grin:

do you know what micron it is?
ill try the tamiya rather then :grin:

Hmmm, the tamiya paint is a bit soft IME. Best would be automotive clearcoat with some black tint in. That said, experiment with the tamiya, because I don't know if you would get the desired effect. I saw a post somewhere where the guy sanded it down to wood (this takes VERY long - very thick clear) and went through a serious process of tinting with a mixture of tea and some other stuff to get the correct effect of the wood, and then proceeded to re-clear. But as I said, it is VERY time consuming to get the same finish as OEM.

if the tamiya bonds to the clear on the trim its almost impossible to get off unless you sand it... if the clear on the wood is epoxy based it should bond...

im not sure how it will look thou because the brown will still be there and will show threw this could ether look good or bad :disappearing:

 

[jeff_denning]

Finally gave the 525 a wash last weekend after a week of driving around. These are the results Only managed to do the outside, interior will be happening at the end of the month.

Before

After

 

[Sankekur]

That is looking damn fine :dizzy:


I think the next thing you should do remove the tow-bar, will really clean up the look of the back end of hte car