Subject: Chip Upgrade Next Part...the Euroization of a 535i Author: kff (moderator) : member since February, 2004 : 4035 posts Posted on: 2005-03-23 11:50:17

Well Chip came over with a pile of parts and his fater-in-law, Roy. We started early, stopped for lunch and worked til dark.

Chip has a list as long as your arm for the 86 535i 5-speed he bought about 18 months ago with 129,000 on the clock. We did stuff to it. Well now he wants more stuff done to it. Zender side skirts, rear valence, euro bumpers, euro valence aftermarket Hartge front spoiler, euro headlights, one-touch windows, keyless entry, headlamp bulbs, brake rotors and such were the parts dropped off. The list is longer.

Well we started by posting Roy on the keyless entry project. Chip is concerned as he wants all the 'drippage' put on the car in a day. Well he and I start with building the bumpers from the pieces he had apart to clean work through those problems and have a front and rear bumper ready. Move on to the spoiler/valence with fogs and turn signal lights.

Well as with many aftermarket parts the fit is not very good. Eventually we get the fogs/turns to mount into the spoiler and since Roy is done with the keyless entry and it works great, he does the drilling and bolting of the lights in the spoiler. Now to get the valence to mount to the spoiler, well no way. Lots of banging on the valence and sorta wedged with a spoiler we go to working on the euro headlights. This is sorta a plug and play if you can live with the low beams going off when the high beams are used. Fine in this case. So this was a quick install.

While the boys finish that, I am grinding away on the valence to get the spoiler to fit. This aftermarket Hartge copy is about 3 times as thick as a real Hartge spoiler so the inside of it does not fit the rehammered used valence Chip got for mounting the spoiler to the car. I get one side to fit fairly well and we all start working on the rear bumper mounting and the rear skirt. This proves a bit difficult getting the used parts to line up just right, but the skirt is plastic so we massage it in place and then mount the bumper where we had made the mounting bracket fit to the car. The US car has bumper shock mounting locations which the Euro cars do not have. This causes trouble front and rear, the rear being less trouble. The rear skirt covers these holes nicely in the finished project.

That done it is getting cool as the sun gets low in the sky. Chip not thinking it was a fully productive day pulls out the side skirts. On to that job. Finding mounting hardware, fitting the skirt to the car, drilling the mounting holes, inserting the screws and the side skirts are on the car. Clean-up of the tools and Chip and Roy are on the road. Still have parts laying all over the house, but fewer parts.

Chip has some pictures of the skirt install and I'll let him share them.

• Chip Upgrade Next Part...the Euroization of a 535i - kff 2005-03-23 11:50:17 (2235 views)
  • You guys do nice work - looking good!! (nt) - drmcwilliams 2005-03-31 17:42:37 (1053 views)
  • Showing the drippage (pic) - kff 2005-03-24 21:02:36 (1454 views)
    • That looks good. (nt) - DavidC 2005-03-24 22:28:59 (1043 views)
  • more pics to come (pic) - Chip in PA 2005-03-24 20:37:12 (1568 views)
    • 2nd try (nt) - Chip in PA 2005-03-24 20:38:31 (887 views)
      • last try (pic) - Chip in PA 2005-03-24 20:39:29 (1408 views)
        • Damn! She looks beautiful. Nice work all. (nt) - blakjak20 2005-03-28 03:42:30 (810 views)
        • Drool !! Looks GREAT !! (nt) - the Tanned One in Fla. 2005-03-26 15:19:16 (829 views)
  • all i have to say is wow. - Andrew Elmore 2005-03-23 15:19:56 (820 views)
  • Sounds like a full day. Interested in seeing those photos! (nt) - DavidC 2005-03-23 15:15:04 (837 views)