My BMW E39 528i touring

[PranK]

The new project has arrived. I have wanted one of these for such a long time, well before that meathead Clarkson drove one in Africa.

I really wanted an E34 but I have some medical issues that mean I *really* can't bump my head and the lack of airbags in the E34 made it just too big of a risk. 

I don't know why I've always liked these older touring BMW's to be honest, but man I love this car.

She's been pretty well maintained for her 243k's with what appears to be only a single oil leak at the oil filter housing gasket. It has a bunch of updates including later model bumper and headlights, 7 series billion-way adjustable seats and it came with a few spares and another set of wheels with legal tyres.

I got a unregistered car permit from the RTA and drove it back from Canberra on Saturday.

                 

First cab off the rank is cleaning it up for blue slip. I dont know how picky they'll be but I figured I'd clean the headlights, fix the oil filter housing gasket, replace the speed sensors (throwing errors) and swap the OE wheels (the M Sport wheels have a big chunk out of one of the tyres.)

I also need to replace all 6 gas struts - 2 for bonnet, 2 for hatch and 2 for hatch glass. The car tries to eat me whenever i open any of these.

My plan for this car;

Ultimately, this is a budget car. I can't afford to throw lots at it and its because I have another car that I got this, if something breaks its no big deal. I will just maintain and repair it really. But eventually I want to do a manual conversion. It actually looks pretty straight forward for E39's and the trickiest part will be sourcing the parts. 

I do need to replace some suspension arms or bushes because wow, she's a floaty old girl.

She's also fantastically slow. Like really, really slow. When pulling back out on to the freeway on Sat after a quick pull over I needed to wait until no cars were visible before going. 

Oh, and the guy I bought it from had a gorgeous R31 GTS-X in the garage. 

[Duncan]

Like a Stagea, but not as cool!

Hope you have enough garage space for this, or is something going to leave to make way for it?

[Milkmun]

Can't go wrong with tourings/estates/wagons.