Restoring my 1999 E38 735i

[M-technik-3]

Nice, was not aware of a 3.5L variant of the M62 was expecting to see old M30B34 in it. NA never got a 3.5L.

[fuxxo]

really? :-O in europe there was a 3.5 M62 and i believe even 3.0L M60 in pre-facelift version
i think it was too small for NA market :-D so you guys only got the big ones

[fuxxo]

hello all
so, new episode is out, i started to tackle front axle :-)

[fuxxo]

front axle is done! and drives pretty awesome, have to say.. very happy with the result

[Chihuahua]

Originally Posted by fuxxo

really? :-O in europe there was a 3.5 M62 and i believe even 3.0L M60 in pre-facelift version
i think it was too small for NA market :-D so you guys only got the big ones

We had the small ones here in the US too for a short time in the E34 530i, never in the 7 series though.

[fuxxo]

Long time no post, since i was focusing more on the property, and the detailing jobs, but i am finally back in my E38 restoration, moving on with the underbody, and the rear axle/subframe. I want to have everything from the bottom done and ready, so i can finally drive it without much worrying :-)
Here is the latest episode, i removed the exhaust, all the heatshields, and all the parts around sills and underbody, refreshing everything i touched :-)

[murderspice]

Damn, thats like mechanic asmr.

[fuxxo]

Sooo another one is out now :-) after weeks of work i finally have the whole rear axle restored, so here it goes..

[Patrik]

Wow! Hats off to you, it is looking brand new piece by piece. My father and I are contemplating on doing the same to his -98 740i, but I’m personally worried we’d end up dumping at least 10 000€ in order to replace/fix the rusty bodywork, on top of which you’d have the mechanics, electronics and interior to sort out. We neither have the skills or time to perform most tasks which would further increase the cost. May I ask what your budget is? I assume you do the most of the work yourself?

[fuxxo]

Originally Posted by Patrik

Wow! Hats off to you, it is looking brand new piece by piece. My father and I are contemplating on doing the same to his -98 740i, but I’m personally worried we’d end up dumping at least 10 000€ in order to replace/fix the rusty bodywork, on top of which you’d have the mechanics, electronics and interior to sort out. We neither have the skills or time to perform most tasks which would further increase the cost. May I ask what your budget is? I assume you do the most of the work yourself?

thanks a lot! :-) well, you are right on the fact that like 99% of the stuff i did myself, so budget so far was quite low, for the fact that the car is basically mechanically restored at this point (at least as far as i can take it mechanically), but i dont really count the €€ spent on it, the most expensive part was the restored tank which was about 650€, but i am planning to sell the old one, and some other parts, so some of the cash should come back :-D
however, i am pretty lucky that there is no rust on the bodywork anywhere on the car, except bottom of the doors, but if you will need to do that fix, that is honestly the most expensive part of the project :-/ if you need to put 10k in the bodywork alone, dont know if its worth doing.. might be, in the long run, nice 740i is getting up there in 15k range nowadays :-)
also, i dont have a budget really, i always wanted to have a nice E38, so i am taking my time and spent as much as it needs, but so far its been way less than expected tbh.

[fuxxo]

finally some update! after few months of me not having time to work on this project, i finally managed to button up the underbody and rear axle, so its mechanically restored
here are some photos and more importantly the last suspension episode on my channel