Project E39 Revival

[Nitrojan]

A few more updates:

Good as new! Minus the bumpers and side mouldings.. oh and mirrors lol. Should have those at the weekend needs a good clean now!

 

[Nitrojan]

Installing the bumper.. looking more like a car now! Excuse the garage door it's knackered

 

[Nitrojan]

Oh, by the way, the wood goes with your light interior far better than the fake carbon DiNOC

Keep the wood tbh.

It's not cheap vinyl dinoc, it's material I bought from NeffyWrap wood is old skool!

"It is made of a superthin 0.4mm composite fiber and is extraordinarily elastic, perfect for wrapping around corners and edges. We feature the thinnest dry carbon fiber fabric available."

Looks nothing like a 15 year old car now

I know, I was pretty amazed myself lol! Looks quite modern now

 

[Nitrojan]

Drove to Edinburgh from Plymouth in a single day.

Enjoyed it so much that I'm driving to Inverness in 6 weeks and spending my entire summer holiday later in the year doing 3000 miles around Europe. They are fantastic for long trips like that.

Bloody hell that'll be some fuel usage! What mpg do you get? lol

 

[Nitrojan]

On a long Motorway trip like that 35-38 depending on traffic etc etc. I stick to the speed limit on Motorways though.

Hmm.. I struggled to get 30mpg out of my 523i and that was really trying too.. Something must be wrong. Hopefully a good service will sort it out (hasn't been done for ages whilst it wasn't in my hands).

 

[Nitrojan]

I wouldn't wax or polish that for a few weeks, let the paint settle and harden

Funny you say this, I was just googling this exact thing lol

What is the best way to wash/polish/wax a freshly painted car to keep it looking new?

You have the early M52 engine without dual VANOS which I'd imagine is a bit less economical.

Hmm yeah I guess so! Ah well!

 

[Nitrojan]

Use polishes marked as bodyshop safe, and do not use any LSP for a few weeks. Ideally avoid leaving it in direct sunlight too directly after painting, it can cause solvent pop.

Thanks mate

 

[Nitrojan]

Looking very nice, i like the carbon with that interior colour, breaks it up nicely. Are you planning on dechroming the windows at all, I think they look much more modern without it.

Thanks - I am awaiting delivery of some PlastiDip for dechroming the external chrome trim. They are having stock issues at the moment which is a pain, I want rid of the chrome already! lol

Looking good. It's amazing what facelift lights, sports bumpers, decent wheels and a de-chrome do to the E39 looks. I'd probably go so far as to say timeless. Has your opinion of the Ebay-special bumper remained high through fitting, etc?

The front bumper is 'ok'.. it's obviously not going to be an OEM quality fit but on the whole the fitment isn't too bad, only a very small shortage either side of the wing but I feel that a heat gun can sort this out I had best not talk too soon, as I still need to fit the rear bumper!

I can't help noticing the passengers side wing and bonnet do not line up properly. But apart from that it does like it just rolled out of the factory, amazing for a design that is a few years old.

I haven't installed the bonnet catches yet so that could be why - the bonnet isn't fully closed. Either that or it'll be due to the fact that the front end was knocked when I crashed ever so slightly. But not enough (in my opinion) to write the car off. If it happens to be something other than the bonnet catches not being fitted, I'm still happy with the final result and I don't think you'd notice unless you were really looking

 

[Nitrojan]

looks like its coming along nicely.

Looking forward to some pictures of the finished article.

Thank you mate. I plan on installing an android galaxy tablet in place of the stock head unit and routing that to a nice ICE install. Another good thing with the tablet is that you can connect it to your OBD2 EMS port via bluetooth and display real-time data such as MPG/Speed/Various temps/0-60 times etc. Navigation, Skype, films and all that jazz I shall keep this thread updated, but this won't be for a while yet lol

 

[Nitrojan]

Quite, a 97 won't have a diagnostic port in the car like the facelift ones do.

Ahh that's a shame - guess I won't be able to have that functionality then

 

[Nitrojan]

OBD and OBD2 are international standards - 2 is newer than 1. I think what you mean is that with one of the ports you can access BMW's properiety diagnostic system with the required tools which will as you say give you far, far more information than the basic stuff required by OBD standards.

Thing is, with a 97 car its all under the bonnet and not inside the cabin which makes integrating it with incar stuff that bit more tricky. From about 2000 onwards BMW moved to the familiarly shaped OBD2 socket fitted inside the car itself. This gives basic information out to generic readers and far more detailed access with the right kit

So if I was to somehow get to the OBD1 port under the bonnet, I would still be able to access the same data as I would if I had an OBD2 port? What are the limitations and differences between OBD1 and OBD2?

 

[Nitrojan]

Presumably, yes. Not sure on the differences.

An Android Tablet in the dash is going to look craptastic though as it's not the right size to fill it properly and will just look blatantly aftermarket not to mention the fact its designed as a tablet not as a car audio device will be annoying as a result. Once the novelty of a cool new multifunction device wears off you want it to just work - ie, turn key drive off and instantly your radio is playing whatever it was last time without any user intervention at all.

I spent ages and ages working out what the best solution was for indash media/navigation in the E39 and 6 weeks after installing I'm still convinced I made the right choice:

Looks good.. what unit is that? I just really like the functionality of the android tablet - you can buy adapters that allow you to control the tablet from your steering wheel. Would this not allow you to turn on the radio on ignition? Even as a last resort, code an app in Java to run on boot..

 

[Nitrojan]

Small update for now.. Went to London today to pick up some new alloys. I decided on some Style 71's (mainly because I bagged a bloody good bargain!) and 17" as I am running stock non-sport suspension and didn't want the 4x4 look. I may consider suspension overhaul later on down the line, but for now, my suspension is just fine.

Here she is so far.. excuse the missing trim. (Apologies for the bad image quality - I took it on my phone, and I am no photographic genius either )

Next job is to de-chrome the window trim and finish off the interior wrapping.