2007 BMW 550i
The BMW E60 my absolute favorite BMW sedan of all time. I'm also a big V8 fan growing up as a muscle car and hot rod enthusiast. Some favorite features of the E60 is the perfect 50:50 weight distribution achieved by a completely aluminium front end. From the firewall forward, frame rails, subframe, engine, strut towers, inner fender supports, radiator support, hood and fenders, EVERYTHING is aluminium. This of course makes for challenging repairs as was the case with this vehicle. Some unadvertised hidden damage was lurking beneath the front bumper of this car when I purchased it used from a private seller. The intention of this car was to be a "buy cheap, fix and sell" but I ended up keeping this as my primary vehicle for awhile.
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Low front 3/4 shot. Can really get a good view of the terrible hood to bumper gap fitment. This was as best as this bumper would fit this wreck.
Mid height front shot straight on. Paint Color: Titan Sillbur (no not misspelled, must be a german thing)
This Front bumper is the WRONG bumper cover for this vehicle, I broke BMW purist rules by installing this. Its a hybrid 1 Series M Style made in china for the E60. IMHO i think it looks very aggressive, however the fitment was poor, but i suspect that was due to the wrecked front end of this particular car and not a defect of the product.
I love the BIG Mouth Lower Lip of this Bumper cover scooping up the pavement. It also sits MUCH lower then the original cover or the MSport cover.
Extremely common issue with older headlamps regardless of manufacturer / brand. Headlamp lenses Oxidation. Cerakote makes the best kit for this restoration imho.
A little elbow grease, some fine sandpaper and Cerakote.
The reason these cars can be had so cheaply is they are plagued with defects. Oil Leaks from gaskets, valve cover, oil pan, oil cooler block. Coolant leaks from, rear engine cover, valley pan cover, cross over pipe. Oil burning from the valve guide seals. ALL Major Labor intensive repairs that this car needed.
The main reason I had to learn TIG welding. The crash bar support brackets were completely broken off the end of the frame rails. This was hidden damage under the bumper cover I couldn't see when purchasing the vehicle. Its all aluminium construction.
Comparing the Factory headers to the DrLAVR long tube headers. This is a VERY restrictive area of airflow for the BMW N62 engine. These headers can be purchased directly from the manufacturer in china, but they were out of stock at the time. So i purchased them from DrLAVR in Russia right when the conflict began.
The final exhaust assembly with X pipe and E92 M3 Muffler. The sound ended up being very quiet under cruising conditions and obnoxiously loud and aggressive under full throttle. Amaizing sound imho. Between this full exhaust and the tune from Randy at EpicMotorSports this E60 became a BEAST.
One thing BMW missed on the 550 was dual exhaust. the 3 series at this time as a 335 got dual pipes. But how could a big V8 not have dual rear exit tail pipes? I had the brainstorm of correcting this oversight by utilizing an E92 M3 V8 muffler, fabricating my own pipes and installing DrLAVR long tube headers.
I love to weld and this was a great opportunity to get to TIG weld stainless. I used turbo inlet/outlet flanges to create a leak free seal between the headers and exhaust pipes, welded and held together by V-Band Clamps.
This was the replacement slotted rotors after burning up the drilled/slotted rotors at a track day event. The BBK Big Brake Kit was sources from my favorite place of manufacturing, China. This is the TEIRacing MonoBlock 6 Piston Front, 4 Piston Rear. Find them on WhatsApp or Alibaba.
MRR Wheels makes some nice wheels as well as a bunch of BMW specific replica wheels. The lower end wheels like this one are just cast construction. But all their wheels are make to the client's own center bore, bolt pattern and offset specs. This is the VP5 from MRRWheels 18" diameter staggered fitment. A classic clean 5 Spoke imho. MRR operates out of California, buys containers of these from china and does the final machining at their warehouse to customer specs.
Being a 2006 production vehicle its a pre-lci model. The later LCI models got this taillamp with the red led bars that look light wings when illuminated.
The illuminated LCI tail lights and the cutouts on the rear bumper to accommodate the dual exhaust exits. The plan was to replace the rear bumper cover with an MSport version, but that never happened before selling the car.
The E60 550i differential on the bench for the "drop in" Limited Slip conversion from "Racing Diffs"
The Spider Gear center pin is removed, a clutch pack inserted and a replacement center pin is installed.
Custom Flat Bottom Carbon Weave M-Sport wheel with M Color 12'oclock stripes and perforated black napa leather. From a Chinese supplier.
Mr. 12Volt Apple Car play interface. Leverages the MOST bus audio system connection, for lossless audio. The module is a video switch, when cd changer is selected in the BMW menu Mr.12volt turns off the factory video feed and provides its own signal.