Zero Cool

that's god to hear. i will be getting it soon then.

ok. that's what i have been doing to get all my RWD conversion bits, mostly eBay.
if you see an inner M5 door pull with the padding on it, grey in color, let me know. i don't know if M5's even came with grey interior.

ucsbwsr

I have never seen any colored M5 door handles, only black. You can confirm this, along with all other parts on RealOEM.com

ucsbwsr

Time to upgrade the brakes


M5 brakes + RWD hubs assemblies


Rotor comparison (rears)


Dust shields get the boot to aid cooling


You will need an M5 specific rotor bolt. 535xi left, M5 right


You can sneeze and the fronts will install themselves, I wish I could say the same for the rears....


Annie knows...


For whatever reason these axles are a real paint to remove. On my white wagon both rears required penetrating oil, a 12 ton hydraulic puller, and some "love taps" with a 10 lb sledge hammer. I got the right rear to release with this method and when I say release I mean an ultra violent *BANG*. The left rear was not as cooperative.


I played around with some heat, got it up to about 300F (which I know isn't that hot) and then decided to let the professional handle it.


I removed the spindle and took it to a local BMW indy, unfortunately they didn't find any success with their 20 ton press and lots of oil. Took it to another custom fabricator who was able to get a saw between the bearing and spindle to cut the axle tip in 1/2. Fine by me since all I cared about was the spindle.


While the axle was making it's rounds at the shops I took the opportunity to execute some other upgrades and maintenance.
Replaced passenger engine mount


Flushed TC fluid


Replaced TC mount




New CSB



In the spirit of a clean OEM+ build the Vossens will be retired for some style 167 (M6) wheels which are coming off my E39, E39 has a set of M Parallels which are being refinished.


Personally I think these wheels look great on the E6X chassis, heck I think they look great on pretty much everything



As a bonus we will be saving about 10lbs each corner or unsprung and rotational mass!

ucsbwsr

For fun I threw the Vossens on the E39, excuse how horrendously filthy it is.


HHHNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!! Looks perfect but would rub like crazy


New control arms, upper guide arms, and (not pictured) ball joints


M5 integral links


Used my laser level to help with the control arm positioning.


Here is the difference between AWD and RWD hubs



Cleaned up the spindles a bit


Cleaned all threads and mounting surfaces before assembly, fresh locktite


Original ball joints coming out


Surface prepped prior to install


New ball joints and M5 links installed


One axle died in the m5 brake upgrade and the other had ~130k on it. Luckily I had an extra set of axles with about 70k on them.


Bleeding brakes



I need to adjust the parking brake and rebleed the brakes but here is how she currently sits

ucsbwsr

Garage Dog ready for some wrenching and sniffing


Cleaned and installed black seat backs, this completes the custom 2 tone interior!



Looking sharp!


On my white E61 I needed a RWD specific driver side engine mount so I transferred this mount over to the grey wagon, it only has a few hundred miles on it so it now both engine mounts are essentially new, the old ones were past their prime.


For the life of me I couldn't find one of the parking brake springs when reassembling everything after the M5 brake upgrade (the long one on left) so I was forded to buy the repair kit.


With the spring installed and parking brakes adjusted (stupid process, can't believe it isn't easier) it was time to re-bleed the brakes. BMW Dot 4 fluid, Motiv bleeder, the juggernaut Schumacher battery charger, and INPA software which bleeds the DSC pump as well.



Buttoned up, engine bay is very stock but very clean


The Grigio Telesto hides dirt incredibly well, better than any color I have seen, with all the wrenching on the wagons a wash was long over due, this was the 2nd time I have washed it in my ownership. lol



Got all the wagons together for a quick family photo

Azar

Had to register just to say how awesome your wagons are.

Really enjoying the build!

Robsco

Any chance youve got a sound clip of exhaust? Love the sound of white car but dont want to spend that much on a 9 year old car. Also could you show a pic of muffler delete and which tips you used

ucsbwsr

Thanks, happy to hear it!

I will get some sound clips a little later. I have been very happy with the muffler delete on this wagon, sounds better that it did on my white one for whatever reason. The tip is a Vibrant 1333 and the piping is just your standard crush bent piping via a muffler shop.

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An overdue update but a lot of progress has been made. Really happy with how it's coming together.

Here are a couple pics showing the interior.


Inspecting the rear glass release button which doesn't actuate, hopefully it's only the button and not the wiring harness, no other tailgate related issues.


1 dog 3 wagons


The E39 got it's Style 37s which means the Style 167s are ready to go on Das Grau



Style 167 + E60 M5 brakes = WIN


Straightened the window trim which was bent by a careless body shop during disassembly, not perfect but much better.


Personalized plates arrived.


Rear bump stops needed replacing



Cleaned up the rear struts too


Windshield cowl was in rough shape so I installed the lightly used cowl from my white E61 (the white one got a new cowl

ucsbwsr

Pano roof had some issues, there was water ingress that warped one of the partitions and damaged the track, there were also some parts missing so instead of going down the deep rabbit hole of repairing the unit I simply replaced it. Thankfully I was able to find a local dismantler who had the cassette with the grey interior panels I needed.
Headliner and cassette removed.


New OEM weather stripping


Big difference


With the old stripping removed there was a nice amount of residual foam and adhesive to remove. Preferred technique: heat gun and a strong thumb.


All clean, you can see the OEM paint


Installing the new strippig was easy since the cassette was out but very tedious since if it wasn't installed just right you would be able to see the OEM paint at the seam which is a no-no, this made the install pretty challenging but the results are great.


Amateur hack: You can use the electric seats to hold and move the pano roof (headliner also) into position during install. This made the install reasonably easy considering I was doing it solo.
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San Diego coming through with some timely rain for testing purposes! This thing operates as it should, no longer rattles from broken/missing pieces, and has hardly any wind noise!


Looking good

4Doors

Beautiful and detailed build log! Because of this, I am looking to replace my E90 335xi with an E61 535xi.