BimmerFest BMW Forum banner

E34 restoration and update to ALPINA

196K views 216 replies 77 participants last post by  E34 520i 
#1 ·
Few months before summer i bought a black 95 E34 with 2.0 litre VANOS engine to be my family car (twins......:eek:uch:). I wanted to find a good and clean car with no crash history and no rust at the chassi. I didn't care for the body condition or the interior because i was going to restore the car from the begining. And then the idea..... ALPINA!!!!! why not. More unique than M5, even faster and much more rare......

This is who looks the car when i bought it:


It has the M-technic package and rims.The rear bumper has a hole in the centre for the Towing hitch, some scratches and a direct hit to the bumper carrier:


I decide to keep the M bumpers because they were better looking from the simple ones even from the alpinas, but with a little trick...... i was going to make the rear bumper a 4 pipe:
To do that, had to make an exact copy from the one side to the othere:


After the drilling:


Then i had to close the wholes with polyester and fiberglass for the smooth look of the bumper:


I put the polyester putty an the bumper:


And 2 hours later.......


Some more scratches.....










Before:

After:


The M spoiler at the trunk has gone........




 
See less See more
17
#32 ·
4 Litre V8 S/c

Actualy in one year from now, a 4.0 litre V8 with supercharger is going to be the hurt of the car......;)

First of all, congratulations on a fantastic project-you are putting in a lot of effort, and when you are done it WILL BE WORTH IT because E34s rule!!!!!

My question: which supercharger are you considering? Dinan (Powerdyne)? ESS(Vortech)? RMS? When I was researching this a few years ago there were some local aftermarket tuners here in northern California putting twin screw roots style blowers into Mercedes. One of the issues you will be challenged with is the diminishing market for e34 parts/accessories-after all, our cars are 13 years old!!!! I have an e34 540 Sport model and I have considered s/c and forced induction, but by the time you do the big brakes, pipes and everything else, the cost of the upgrades are 3X the value of the car you started with, which means you can't insure it!!!!

Anyway, best of luck with your project-I have no doubts it will be one of the best e34s on the planet-JTSAO (jtsao@tsaodesign.com)

PS: your license plate should be "AMALETITA"
 
#6 ·
Tomorow the car is going to be at the garage for bodywork and paintwork so i took the chance to clean the car really good since i'm going to put my baby's in to.

First thing is to get out all the interior. That is the seats (the dash not now because i'm going to change it later.) The centre console, the floor covering front and back, the rear window shelf and all the coverings column:




Just look what i find beneath:

:eek::eek::eek::eek:
This is the dirty rear covering:


Some soap powder and water and a lot of brush later:


And the clean covering:


I did the same work at the front. This is the bottom of the electric vacuumcleaner. It has a half inch of water and dirt........
 
#10 · (Edited)
Thank you cavie. But its all right know.:thumbup:

Last week's progress:
















My god!!!!! it have about 73 bumps on it........

This week's progress:










It starts to look like a car........

Sorry for the picture quality, it's from my cell phone.

Tomorrow the car will be re-spray'd at original BMW diamond black.:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :thumbup:
 
#11 ·
Wow!! This is a fantastic blog! My kids are getting a big kick out of seeing a BMW come back to life.

They are arguing on what color it is going to be. My oldest has a thing for green like in the Fast and the Furious. My youngest is saying it is going to be blue...

They are glued to monitor, asking if our car looked like this when it was a baby :bling:

Keep up the great work!
 
#14 ·
And finally its ready (.....well at list the paintwork):






Here is the rear bumper with the 2 cuts for the exhaust's:




Tommorow i'm going to put the xenon lights.

I all ready make the order to ALPINA for the hood-trunk badge's, the wooden shift gear knob and the gold deco set. I didn't order the wooden trim because is no longer available and the 18'' rim's because ther price are whey too much..... (3800 euros or 5600 USD)
 
#20 ·
Thank you 320what?.

A couple of days before i had an idea. Since i was going to restore all the interior, i was going to do it with leather and alcandara.

The things that i want to cover with alcandara is:
The dash, the steering wheel, the covering column-center-rear and front, the top of the door panel's and the rear window shelf.

I was thinking to cover and the center of the seats, but it was too much......

I start with the restore of door panels because they were made from wood and they were in bad shape.....



I glue the old cover.


And some clips.


And then i reinforced the 4 door panels with polyester. After that, it was like steel.


When it dry's, i "appeal" the old upholstery.




I cut the alcandara at the size i wanted, i glue it with special glue and then with a plastic spatula i give form.


You will have to wait a few days to see the result.

Next was the 6 covering column. I "appeal" the rear and the front only, because the center is glue with the plastic and it can't be "appeal'd".




I cut the alcandara again and glue it to the column (here is the rear).


Then i fold it and "iron" it with the plastic spatula.


And the result.


Same procedure with the center.


And the result.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top