I was presented with a deal I couldn't pass up and added another wagon to the collection. This is my second E61 and 3rd wagon.

1st E61: https://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=908702
E39 Touring: https://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sh....php?t=1245562

I have known of this wagon for a while, back when my E61 was stock I used this wagon as inspiration for the M5 front end conversion and as a reference when calculating my wheel offsets and fitment. Funny how it ended up in my possession. I am the 4th owner, California car all it's life, from 60,000 to current 127,000 it was the daily driver for the owner of an automotive shop in Orange County. The wagon presents well, the body is very clean, and mechanically it's solid. There are some small issues to address which will make it a very polished example.

06/2008 Build
127,000
Grey Interior
Comfort Seats
DSP HiFi
Grigio Telesto Paint + Gloss Black Roof
OEM M5 Front End Conversion
Vossen CV3 20x9F 20x10.5R Hankook V12s
Dinan Muffler
COBB Accessport


THE PLAN:
- Address all necessary repairs, maintenance, and preventative maintenance
- Refine fitment
- Downpipes, FMIC, intake. Nothing crazy just letting the motor work more efficiently.
- If the wagon stays AT the I will retrofit a wheel with paddles and run the XHP trans tune.

- If I find a great deal on a manual 535xi donor car then I will execute a manual swap and hopefully a custom grey on black interior (similar to my white E61's interior).


Should be a fun project, here are some pictures,
Evan

 

Nice.

Did you forget a crazy retrofit?

 

Not sure if I will crack these headlights open. There are no arguing the benefits of the upgraded lighting but this will be a short term project so investing the time/labor/money probably won't be realized during the eventual sale so the current plan is to install some fresh, high quality OEM bulbs. Custom headlights isn't probable but not 100% off the table.

 

That is a seriously cool wagon. All the body mods.are really great choices. You already have a beast. Keep this one auto, and you have variety in your stable.

Jose

 

I don't plan on keeping this grey one long term (same with my E39), I will be keeping my white E61 since it is just stupid fun to drive and I will acquire a diesel E70 X5 which will serve as the daily, road trip, tow/haul weapon. I was considering a MT swap since the market for those is pretty strong but to keep the project moving I will probably retrofit a SMG M5 wheel with paddles and flash the trans with a Stage 3 xhp tune. XHP sounds promising.

 

The wagon has received various little upgrades and repairs, nothing major but it all adds up!

A dog's dilema ...which wagon?


Reconditioned and straightened Dinan muffler


Updated firmware on the Cobb Accessport, tune was previously set at Stage 1 and I adjusted that to Stage 1 with linear throttle, boost was coming on too hard and was making it unnecessarily hard to drive smoothly.


Phone cradle delete in center console


After


Front Bumper, side mirrors, top of reach bumper and the forward edge of the hood and fenders are all wrapped in clear bra, UV light took it's tool on the hood and fenders so it was removed.



Following clear bra removal the fenders and hood received a clay bar and some Chemical Guys V36.



Continued with restoring the window trim and roof rails
Before


After


Before


After


Before


After


Also cleaned up the engine bay, here is a before and after


Stud conversion and wheel spacers arrived. 10mmF 5mmR


I took this opportunity to open up the M5 brake ducts




Front Before


Front After


Rear Before


Rear After


Now time for some coilovers...

 

Looks great, what's your trick to restore the trim and roof rails?

 

what is entailed with the phone cradle delete? its something i want to do very bad.

how much do you plan on lowering it with the coilovers? will you be keeping those wheels?
i am in the process of doing a RWD conversion of my wagon, and have read all of your threads on your white wagon a few times now. trying to get as much info on what i will need.

FYI, i found these. https://www.bimmerworld.com/Suspensi...SABEgLEZvD_BwE
i know it won't work for this car, but might be an option for your white car. not sure if you saw these before.

 

I tore my phone cradle out and covered the hole with 2 part epoxy putty. My son said it looks like I put a chunk of gum there.

What are your feelings about the hood liner? I think by you taking it off I have my answer, but still would like to here your thoughts.
Mine has the shrinking sag where the notches no longer line up.

I am also interested in what your choices of trim restore products.

Spacers look good.

 

Chemical Guys V36 and a DA polisher.
With the phone cradle I flip the phone compartment up and remove the 4 small screws and the top comes off, then you are able to unseat one hinge and the other one is securely mounted into the console, I simply use a large screwdriver and some elbow grease to rip it out (breaking the plastic), I then use some pliers to clean up the remaining damaged plastic that is still on the hinge and what you see if the end result. Works for me and breaking/destroying that silly BMW design is oddly satisfying, stupid phone cradle.

I plan to lower it just enough to remove the tire-to-fender gap, I can't stand it especially with thinner tires. The front axles don't like being lowered so I plan to keep it as high as possible while saciating my aesthetic needs. Yes, I will be keeping these wheels.

I found those coilover recently, I don't think they were listed as an option when I was looking for coilovers previously. The odd part is they are listed as RWD only and no E61 in the US is RWD so they are offering a presumably European market focused product to the USA where there are no RWD E61s, of course I am not complaining, this is great timing for my RWD conversion project, I have the complete M5 subframe ready to go in and only need struts.
See above for the trim restoration. I like the idea of the hood liner as sound deadening sinc I don't really care for the DI injector ticking BMWs have but when they get older and heat warped they look like crap and more importantly I just see it has a huge blanket making the N54 hotter than it needs to be. The contrast between the engine bay heat my tuned/modded N54 makes vs a stock motor is SHOCKING. I can drive spiritedly and do a bunch of pulls extracting all 550whp and the motor is hot but nothing compared to a stock N54 motor which is ticking from the heat cycles and I feel like the cooling system is going to explode at any moment. With the hood liner removed I assume there is more airflow over the top of the motor which helps extract heat. I haven't noticed any danger to the hood/paint with it removed.