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1981 528i

Modifications

Shocks/Springs
Like I had said, the shocks on the car were SHOT. Probably original to the car, springs, everything. So I have replaced them with Bilstein HD's and Korman (really made by Suspension Techniques) springs. New front shock mounts were done at the same time. The top picture is a before picture, the bottom after. The springs dropped the car about an inch and a half, but since the stock springs were already so saggy, there is only a slight difference.

Swaybars
The stock sways on the car were o.k., but E12's have a tendency to have A LOT of body roll. I bought an old set of Korman swaybars from a guy parting his E12. The front bar is a whopping 30mm. The rear, I believe is 18 or 20mm, but it is adjustable. The other option that most E12 owners take is the Suspension Techniques bars which are 28, and 22 respectively. I wanted the largest front bar I could get, however. Installation involved dropping the front subframe to access the brackets since the bar is so big. It BARELY clears the oil pan. Installation was handled by Ben Thongsai here in Chicago, a veteran older Bimmer mechanic. The car is FLAT in turns, very, very flat. Especially for an E12.

Steering Wheel
I removed the stock, wagon-wheel steering wheel in favor of an authentic, BMW M1 wheel. It came off of a junked E12 M535i (the only other car besides the M1 to have this wheel). I purchased it for $50 from ebay, but the leather is in awful shape (hence the cheap Pep Boys cover in the picture). I plan to have it redone at some point in the future, but for now I'm just enjoying it as it is. When I have the leather redone, I think I'll have them do the stitching in the BMW Motorsport colors. The center emblem is the old style, BMW Motorsport emblem. That little cap took 3 weeks to come from Germany when I had it special ordered from Maximillion Importing. The cap it came with was trashed from the wheel sitting out in a junk yard.

Auxiliary Gauges
With the great help of a friend, we took on a project to build an auxiliary gauge cluster for my car. I did not like the look of the E12 gauge pod sold by BMP and used by Alpina in their cars, which is designed to go in the small cargo tray on the passenger side of the dashboard. Plus, to mount this one requires drilling into the dashboard (not that my dashboard is perfect). You can see what I mean in the picture of a car with the Alpina gauges. So, we decided to make a panel to fit below the radio. It holds three gauges: oil temperature, oil pressure, and battery volts. The gauges were purchased from BMP Design and are VDO. The panel was made by hand from particle board, bondo, glue, and lots of sanding. The surface is a black vinyl we bought from a fabric store. The senders for oil temp and pressure are also VDO from BMP Design.

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Modifications
Shocks/Springs Like I had said, the shocks on the car were SHOT. Probably original to the car, springs, everything. So I have replaced them with Bilstein HD's and Korman (really made by Suspension Techniques) springs. New front shock mounts were done at the same time. The top picture is a before picture, the bottom after. The springs dropped the car about an inch and a half, but since the stock springs were already so saggy, there is only a slight difference.
Swaybars The stock sways on the car were o.k., but E12's have a tendency to have A LOT of body roll. I bought an old set of Korman swaybars from a guy parting his E12. The front bar is a whopping 30mm. The rear, I believe is 18 or 20mm, but it is adjustable. The other option that most E12 owners take is the Suspension Techniques bars which are 28, and 22 respectively. I wanted the largest front bar I could get, however. Installation involved dropping the front subframe to access the brackets since the bar is so big. It BARELY clears the oil pan. Installation was handled by Ben Thongsai here in Chicago, a veteran older Bimmer mechanic. The car is FLAT in turns, very, very flat. Especially for an E12.
Steering Wheel I removed the stock, wagon-wheel steering wheel in favor of an authentic, BMW M1 wheel. It came off of a junked E12 M535i (the only other car besides the M1 to have this wheel). I purchased it for $50 from ebay, but the leather is in awful shape (hence the cheap Pep Boys cover in the picture). I plan to have it redone at some point in the future, but for now I'm just enjoying it as it is. When I have the leather redone, I think I'll have them do the stitching in the BMW Motorsport colors. The center emblem is the old style, BMW Motorsport emblem. That little cap took 3 weeks to come from Germany when I had it special ordered from Maximillion Importing. The cap it came with was trashed from the wheel sitting out in a junk yard.
Auxiliary Gauges With the great help of a friend, we took on a project to build an auxiliary gauge cluster for my car. I did not like the look of the E12 gauge pod sold by BMP and used by Alpina in their cars, which is designed to go in the small cargo tray on the passenger side of the dashboard. Plus, to mount this one requires drilling into the dashboard (not that my dashboard is perfect). You can see what I mean in the picture of a car with the Alpina gauges. So, we decided to make a panel to fit below the radio. It holds three gauges: oil temperature, oil pressure, and battery volts. The gauges were purchased from BMP Design and are VDO. The panel was made by hand from particle board, bondo, glue, and lots of sanding. The surface is a black vinyl we bought from a fabric store. The senders for oil temp and pressure are also VDO from BMP Design.