AngryCorvair's 1979 BMW 528i (E12)

Finally, I get to start a build thread of my own!

I first saw this car about 2 years ago on Detroit CL, being sold by the guy who put it together. Something about the E12 styling and the funky green paint really caught my attention, so I called and got the scoop. Originally a 2.8L / automatic car, the seller had swapped in an '85-ish 3.5L bottom end and 5-speed manual trans. He also installed Bilstein dampers, H&R springs, a big front bar, a big 3-way adjustable rear bar, 16 x 7-1/2 BBS wheels, Momo steering wheel, E34 front seats, E28 rear seat, H1 / H4 headlights on the passenger side, and PIAA fogs on top of the front bumper.

I didn't buy it at the time, but every so often I'd search Detroit CL for "1979 BMW", and yearn for the day when I could make her mine.

That day came a couple days ago. So without further ado, moar pixors!

Love it, especially the funky color! Edit to add: those wheels are teh hotness!

Looks like a pretty nice one. Get the fuel thing figured out yet? What's the plan?

My goal is to develop this car into a fast, comfortable, fun-to-drive resto-mod on a Challenge budget, using junkyard parts from later BMWs whenever possible. Inspired by Tuna55 and Dusterbd13, I am going to document the build and the budget in this thread, starting right now:

Purchase Price: $1,550.00

Two years ago, it was a quick little car. Last Thursday, two "non car guy" owners later, it wouldn't run for more than a few seconds at a time. It was acting like fuel starvation, because it would restart immediately after losing revs and stalling, which it would do independent of gas pedal position.

These cars have a low-pressure in-tank "lift pump", and a high-pressure external pump and filter. I knew the high-pressure pump was working because the car ran pretty good for the few seconds it would run before falling on its face, so I figured I'd start by checking the condition of the in-tank components. As luck would have it, the in-tank pump did not respond to having 12v put to it, so I attempted to pull the pump module through the access panel in the trunk. No joy. So I dropped the tank (this is a good time to replace all the OE rubber fuel hoses, and boy are there a lot of 'em) and attempted to pull the pump module. Again, no joy. Turns out the float assembly has to be removed first, due to the curvature of the hard lines inside the tank. So, remove four nuts and washers, lift the float assembly out, then remove six screws and lift the pump assembly out of the tank. Removing the float assembly would've allowed removal of the pump assembly without dropping the tank but, like I said, I'm going to replace all the rubber fuel lines while I'm in there.

Once I had the pump assembly out, I found that the pump ran just fine when wired directly, so there was a discontinuity between the connector and the pump. Sure enough, the spot-welded ground tab had surrendered to 35 years of corrosion and vibration, and was no longer attached. Since I don't have spot-welding capability, I straightened and cleaned corrosion from the tab, then used a female spade terminal, a short length of 14 ga wire, and a ring terminal, to make a ground wire that will be connected to the pump assembly by one of the six screws that hold it to the tank. If you look closely, you can see non-grounding ground tab on the right side of the connector in the pic below (before being straightened and cleaned):

I forgot to take a pic of the ground wire, but it's really not too exciting to look at.

Cost of electrical repair: $0.00

Cost of new rubber fuel hoses: $ i don't know yet. that'll be in the next installment.

ECM, since you mentioned the wheels, this pic is for you:

In amongst the random crap in the trunk, I found the BBS Design wrench for the center caps!

Purdy! Too bad somebody gouged the lip there. Can't wait to see more!

Ah, grounds. IIRC I think a few e28 bits will fit. I may still have a few things laying around from my old challenge car - I'll have to go rummage the storage bin. Should be some good brake upgrade options with newer bmw if they fit the wheels.

In reply to oldtin:

i'll be selling these wheels for their recoup value and running something cheaper, probably in 17" for better tire selection. So junkyard brake packaging, if i go that route, won't be a problem.

With regard to fuel hose - the euro 8x13 stuff is very expensive ($7/ft IIRC) but you can use SAE high pressure fuel line in 5/16". It is not as snug a fit - but it's adequate to catch up on the pump nipples. Just make sure you use good clamps and not ones with worm drive holes (instead of "bumps"). They peel the rubber when you tighten them.

This is really close to a car my friend had in high school had, but his was an even more 70's hue of metallic green/gold. We called it the "Booger Green Bimmer". His was a weirdo imported one that had everything in German, a cloth interior, and a carbed engine. It was so rusty, but it didn't matter.

I'll be following this build.

Happy to have inspired you.

Ill be watching this.

Please remember to NOT let it snowball into a complete resto. Then the budget becomes depressing instead of inspiring.

I think I'm going to enjoy this one. I often dream about picking up another poor running 80's European car and just cleaning up all the electrical connections.

Aww I was hoping was it was a Corvair.

Pretty awesome though, looks good!

This is cool! There are very few e12s left anymore. I vote for 16" wheels for a closer to period correct look.

berkeleying webshots became something else in Dec 2012, and now that POS has been shut down. so all my linked photos are lost in space. woe is me.

Wow, what a E36 M3ty build thread! And now she's been sold. During the last 2 years, I:
- rebuilt cv joints but didn't torque the bolts, which caused a half shaft ejection with GRMJoeG in the car.
- rebuilt cv joints and loc-tited the berkeley out of the bolts, torqued them, and marked the heads for visual detection of loosening (which never happened, of course).
- adjusted valves, wrinkle-painted valve cover and MAF, and rigged a manual cold weather idle air bypass.
- replaced one front LCA.
- rebuilt one front caliper.
- installed two new and two good used tires.
- pressed her into DD usage for 2 months when a job change cost me my company car.

Look for a build thread for Ursula's replacement as early as tomorrow afternoon. I will try to make that one less sucky than this one.