Pre production BMW E39 M5 Oxford green

[GolfDuck]

You do like your early ones
Great work saving it from the damage of time.

 

[M5william]

Wow. How cool? Your posts are geeky, encyclopaedic and bloody amazing!

Says you…haha


P.s subscribed. Love it.

 

[BMR]

Thanks for all the comments guys!

I'm itching to get the car back from the bodyshop as I have a bit of a dead line with it and as it has overrun by a couple of weeks so its going to be tight! Fingers crossed, I should have it back in the next few days!

 

[Steve B]

Always had a soft sport for an E39 M5, Uber cool..!!!

 

[ontheway]

Absolutely love this, my favourite colour. When I was a kid my friends Dad had a Le Mans blue E39 M5 and I remember thinking it was so fast. Obviously not so slow but interesting how much the M car formula has changed since then. Great to see somebody taking real ownership and investing heavily in preserving the car, I hope you end up putting KM/H clocks back in it at some point.

 

[BMR]

This thread is long overdue an update and the first part of it is part of the reason for the length of time passed.....

With 003 taking a lot longer at the the bodyshop than initially anticipated it meant plans I had for the car in the summer had shifted somewhat, the main one being a holiday I had coming up in August to visit family in Southern Bavaria which I wanted to take the M5 with the wife and our two sons. I literally had 3 spare weekends to attempt to piece the 003 back together from its underside strip out, replace any other parts I deemed necessary or prudent to minimise the risk of a break down in Europe then put some miles on it here in the UK to make sure all would be well for the trip.

Needless to say that didn't happen so what was I to do? Erm.... buy another E39 M5!

I have Chris who bought my last E39 M5T build to thank/blame for what I ended up buying, as on the day he collected the M5T, he showed me the ad for #162.

E39 M5 #162, built on 7th June 1999 finished in Glacier green with complete English green heritage leather, it was the very first UK RHD E39 M5 ordered with individual paint and the only E39 M5 in the world in glacier green. Despite glacier being a colour from the standard E39 colour palette and often found on pre facelift 523's, 528's 540's etc, to get you M5 painted in this hue it needed to be ordered through BMW individual as the M5 had a much more limited colour palette.

A unicorn in E39 terms.

My initial thoughts were to buy the car, use it for my holiday then remove the plate, swap the interiors over then sell the car on but I could not bring myself to pull such a unique car apart.

As the car had covered barely more than a 1000 miles in the last ten years with its last owner I went through it to make sure it would be ok for the trip. Despite the minimal mileage covered, the car had always been serviced and had parts replaced such as the brakes, a clutch, some cosmetic stuff but I still carried out an inspection 2 service, all fluids, a fresh set of Michelin PS4's plus a few other bits and bobs to make sure it was tip top before loading the family and luggage up and heading down the Calais for the Le Shuttle for the start of out ten day trip during August.

A Ring regular myself for the last 15 years, my wife had already experienced it 6 years prior on a previous European road trip so to break the journey down to Bavaria, we had an overnight stop in Adenau and a solitary relatively sedate lap four up to show my sons what all the fuss is about followed by the obligatory steak on a stone at the Pistenklause restaurant.

The following day we headed down via the M5's natural habitat on the autobahn to a town called Burghausen in the Southeast of Bavaria right on the border with Austria, (the river is the border with Austria) to visit family and show my sons this stunning part of Germany. We also visited the Chiemgau Alps and the Chiemsee, a large lake which has an island with a palace once belonging to King Ludwig II.

After 5 days we headed to Munich where we stayed for a few days doing the usual tourist stuff but also made a visit to BMW Welt and the Museum, a first for me and a chance to get a shot of the M5 by the BMW four cylinder tower.

Approximately 2000 miles covered in 9 days, four up with all our luggage the car didn't miss a beat and covered it all in enjoyable comfort and driver enjoyment, just what these cars were designed to do!

The following month I took the M5 to a BMW car club event we were involved in which was pretty much the last time it was out and about before, after a LOT of deliberation, selling it on to a mate of mine a week ago. It was a difficult decision as in some ways as #162 is the better car and I had formed a bit of a bond with it on my holiday but I set out to rescue #003 so that I was decided to stick with.

This thread has become more of a tale of two green M5's lol!

 

[Avi]

Stumbling on this thread has been fantastic. I happen to be friends with the previous owner of M5 0XFG, and he very kindly let me drive it when it belonged to him in May of this year.

On a Friday morning I'd collected my new to me M3 coupe and on the Saturday evening I'd taken it to show said friend. I offered him a go in my car and in return, he let me drive his Oxford Green M5. To date it's the only other BMW M car I've driven.

He took me out for a little drive and we switched seats, I stalled it instantly which was rather embarrassing, but I loved the noise it made and at the time I was told it had an exhaust on it. If I recall correctly, M5 0XFG also has a rear blind which I was rather envious of. I was told that it wasn't the most pristine example, but I loved the history behind it and it's been awesome to learn more about this car in this thread. Annoyingly, it was pitch black by the time I left so we didn't get any photos of the two together. I was hoping to see the car again but just a few weeks later it was sold!

I also met the owner of your old E39 M5 Touring at Caffeine and Machine on a Sunday at the beginning of October, it was absolutely the highlight car at the venue for me and he told me how much he's loving it. I spent a long time drooling over all the really beautiful details.

It's a very small world out there, but I'm most looking forward to hearing how M5 0XFG progresses. It has a special place in my heart as the first M5 I was lucky enough to drive.

 

[rrfierce]

Nice thread, well done for saving it - can't be cheap to do something like that. A friend of mine at work had a beautiful M5

 

[BMR]

With 003 back from the bodyshop in July it was time to start reassembly. At the time I still thought there was a chance I would have it back together to take on holiday but proved to be not the case.

All internal section of the chassis and rear wheel arches were filled with Tectyl ML cavity wax till it flowed out of the various holes with any excess wiped off afterwards. With all the corrosion repairs carried out, the complete underside primed, 3M undersealed, painted then cavity waxed it should stand a better chance of resisting corrosion than it did when it was new.

All the brake and fuel pipes that run under the car were replaced with new genuine BMW parts, bent to shape where required then 3M clear cavity waxed. Fuel tank cleaned and refitted with new tank straps.

New rear shocks and bump stops fitted with the original springs cleaned and refitted. In the cars history it had new front shocks, bump stops and top mounts approx 10k miles ago.

One of the parts replaced at the time to reduce the risk of a European break down was a new fuel pump fitted to the tank.

One of the piles of new parts ordered to be fitted.

A refresh of the gear linkage joints and bushes to tighten things up and some new sound insulation with the original rubber part torn and the foam part missing meaning lots of transmission noise entering the cabin.

I sold the Miltek system that was on the car when I bought it and found a complete uncut OEM system to replace it but have lost the pic I took of it. All new hardware and O2 sensors were ordered to mount it.

New exhaust heat shields to replace the damaged or missing ones.

All four brake callipers were sent away to Biggred to be refurbished.

 

[BMR]

Stumbling on this thread has been fantastic. I happen to be friends with the previous owner of M5 0XFG, and he very kindly let me drive it when it belonged to him in May of this year.

On a Friday morning I'd collected my new to me M3 coupe and on the Saturday evening I'd taken it to show said friend. I offered him a go in my car and in return, he let me drive his Oxford Green M5. To date it's the only other BMW M car I've driven.

He took me out for a little drive and we switched seats, I stalled it instantly which was rather embarrassing, but I loved the noise it made and at the time I was told it had an exhaust on it. If I recall correctly, M5 0XFG also has a rear blind which I was rather envious of. I was told that it wasn't the most pristine example, but I loved the history behind it and it's been awesome to learn more about this car in this thread. Annoyingly, it was pitch black by the time I left so we didn't get any photos of the two together. I was hoping to see the car again but just a few weeks later it was sold!

I also met the owner of your old E39 M5 Touring at Caffeine and Machine on a Sunday at the beginning of October, it was absolutely the highlight car at the venue for me and he told me how much he's loving it. I spent a long time drooling over all the really beautiful details.

It's a very small world out there, but I'm most looking forward to hearing how M5 0XFG progresses. It has a special place in my heart as the first M5 I was lucky enough to drive.

Very small world indeed!

Yep, it has an electric rear blind and door blinds and did have a Miltek exhaust but that has since been replaced with an OEM one.

M50XFG is no longer M50XFG but more on that later!

 

[justjon]

Amazing work. Lovely to see and follow.

Well done and Keep it coming!

 

[BMR]

Anyone familiar with E39's will know that this picture represents some of the most expensive plastic.... in the world!

No seriously, its ridiculous how expensive all this is from BMW and unfortunately all of it was either broken or missing as is often the case with E39's these days.

As i have been putting 003 back together on an off since July, it has been done in dribs and drabs squeezing it in where possible so I haven't taken as many pics as I usually would.

With 003 I had not set out to fully restore the car, it was more a case of tidying the car up to something more presentable and going through the mechanicals to make it reliable and a nice driving car so I have not gone to the lengths of nut an bolting the underside like I have done on the M5 touring builds, rather replacing what was needed and reusing what was still serviceable as despite being quite crusty and decrepit underneath, it has been regularly maintained with plenty of replacement parts in the last 10k miles.

I also managed to find a complete uncut standard exhaust system including the cats which meant I could sack off the very tired looking Miltek system which I wasn't keen on how it sounded or looked.

The rear axle had a few bushes and arms replaced before being refitted along with new chassis brace bars and a new rear anti roll bar, bushes and drop links.

All four brake callipers were sent to www.biggred.co.uk for refurbishment as they were not in the best shape so once back they were fitted with new pads, HEL braided brake hoses and the system bled up.

I had managed to source a complete Bruyere club wood trim set for 003 which is the correct E39 M5 wood trim set rather than the Vavona it has ended up with which is normally fitted to lesser SE models. Some of the pieces are not perfect but to find a complete set with the gear lever and hand brake grip trim is almost impossible!

A new half leather lever was purchased to take the wood trim so I could replace the random silver hand brake lever that someone had fitted I suspect with a complete silver trim set at some point.

The M50 XFG plate was removed and sold to make way for its original S reg plate (one of only three S reg E39 M5's) with a set of period correct plates from www.retroplates.co.uk

 

[beanie]

With 003 I had not set out to fully restore the car…

…then, by most people’s standards, swiftly proceeds to replace and restore half the vehicle!!

Even if it isn’t a true nut and bolt resto, the snowballing logic of ‘whilst you’re in there’ inevitably turns a quick job into a comprehensive refresh!

 

[BMR]

…then, by most people’s standards, swiftly proceeds to replace and restore half the vehicle!!

Even if it isn’t a true nut and bolt resto, the snowballing logic of ‘whilst you’re in there’ inevitably turns a quick job into a comprehensive refresh!

Indeed! As is the way with many a project. My E30 M3 nut and bolt concours resto started out as a windscreen replacement lol!

 

[BMR]

As the interior was in bits, one option this car was lacking was S677 HiFi system Professional DSP and while not being the last word in car audio, its a marked improvement over the woeful base sound system in an E39 and as I had a full set up left over from the last M5T builds donor car, it was always going to go in 003.

The DSP system is made up of a separate amplifier, additional tweeters in the rear doors, rear shelf mounted sub woofer, upgraded front and rear speakers plus equaliser control.

To retro fit the system the main audio sub wiring loom needs to be swapped, the front door looms swapped and the rear door looms swapped although oddly 003 rear door looms were pre wired for it, possibly due to it having the heated rear seat switch wiring so maybe one fully populated loom was made. The amp then needs bolting in with its brackets and the shelf mounted sub fitted in place.

While swapping the door looms, new membranes were fitted, a common E39 water ingress point and almost certainly had contributed to the corrosion it had suffered from.

003 has electric rear blind and door blinds as part of its original spec but when I bought the car, three out of four of the door binds were missing so another set were sourced and fitted.

The parcel shelf sub mounted and all boot trim back in place along with the M5 luggage net, lesser E39's had a pair of rubber straps. All of the boot trim was replaced with a better set from the same car which donated the DSP system as when I bought the car, the boot area was in a dire state more akin to the back of a
a builders van!

Those familiar with the changes made during the E39's production will know that a pre 2001 car would have had the smaller screen rather than the wide screen pictured above so 003 would have originally had a small screen monitor when new. When I bought 003 it had a wide screen along with the later round air bag steering wheel as well as grey dials to facelift it inside so as per a previous post, the dials were changed to the earlier black ones, the steering wheel back to the earlier type but i've kept the wide screen for a couple of reasons.
The earlier narrow screen monitors have a trim surround to match the rest of the cars interior trim, silver, wood etc and unfortunately I don't have a Bruyere wood trim for the monitor and also I couldn't do the touch screen apple car play upgrade to the narrow screen monitor.

The monitor along with the other parts were sent to Baris at www.carphonics.co.uk for the upgrades to be carried out and along with the upgraded BM54 radio module and DSP retro fit, 003 now has a reasonable sound system with modern functionality of apple car play all being pretty much factory looking and operating.

The seats were in a bit of a state so Frank at https://www.barkersrestorations.co.uk/ worked his magic and tidied them up.

The original black headlining in 003 wasn't in great shape with some sagging at the back, the sunroof liner split and hanging down and the A pillar trim cloth coming adrift so it was an ideal time to carry out another nice retro fit, S403 Glass roof electrical and alcantara head lining, a full set i managed to find on ebay for a reasonable price.

The end result is an interior which has gone from tired seats, mismatched trim, missing or broken parts, a crap audio system barely working later parts fitted to an earlier car and a general air of being rather down beat to a much nicer place to be!

All in time for a morning out in the car.....

 

[BMR]

Yesterday 003 turned 25 years old as it was built on 19/11/98 so to mark the occasion and now that the car was finally back in one piece, an early Sunday morning drive out was on the cards.

I was seriously tempted to drive back to the factory in Dingolfing where it was built 25 years ago to the day but other commitments put a scupper to that idea so the next best thing was a trip to BMW UK's new home in Farnborough for a snap at the gates then onto the old site......

The old BMW GB site at Ellesfield Avenue, Bracknell with its distinctive building has long since gone to be replaced with a large warehouse but a visit for a shot was also made.

2023 also marks 25 years since the E39 M5 was launched at the Geneva motorshow.

A lucky find on ebay was an original press pack from that motorshow which joins some other literature I have amassed for 003.

First edition M5 brochure

Original technical training manual for technicians

Various in period magazine road tests.

 

[Lloydquinn]

absolutely brilliant !

 

[mike 325]

Awesome build and love the attention to detail