Hi Everyone!
As introduced under the I'm New thread, my name is Brian and I am from Nairobi, Kenya.
I recently bought back my dads 1986 525i which has been sitting under a tree for the past 6 years.
I figured i'd join a UK forum as 525i were only made for the European Market plus it would be easier for me to buy parts from the UK and ship them to Kenya as opposed to any other market. So yeah, happy to be here and I know this will be a long and slow project being that I do not have too much money to blow on the car but I look forward to working on it and all the advice I can get from you guys.
The car was parked in an upcountry farm in 2012 due to a faulty ignition system.I think the owner just wasn't keen on fixing it up so it was just left there to gather dust and moss. It's not a terribly humid area so luckily there isn't too much rust on the car. However, nature has done its best to grow around it as so there is grass and leaves everywhere, even the fuel tank has some. There are lots of insects and rodents that have made their homes in there and the seats have a lot of stains on them. I expect there to be a lot of electrical damage as the wiring has most likely been eaten up by said animals or deteriorated due to rain and sun. The tires have good tread on them but since they have been in the sun so long, they will most likely blow once inflated. The fan is rusty, the front bumper is damaged, the interior and center console is in bad shape and the right rear tail light is broken. A lot of little stuff like handles, seams, levers etc are also missing.
This is my first restoration job and I am not a grease monkey so I will need all the help/advice I can get. My plan is to restore the car to an Alpina look:
Mechanical:
Tires - just to get it running
Engine fix to get it running first
Engine rebuild, clean and polish
Shocks and Springs
Exhaust
Aesthetics:
Bumpers and Side Skirts
Strip down and repaint to Astoril Blue
Redo interior to a cream color (How hard is this given that some of the trimming has the green color to match the car?)
Alpina Rims and low profile tires
Let me know what you think and I will be updating the progress in the coming weeks/(years? haha).
