You can say I've always had a fascination with cars. I remember being five or six years old at a local Dodge dealership with my father and seeing a Viper for the first time. It was sitting in the middle of the showroom, it was red, and it was awesome. That was the car that got me hooked. To this day, I can remember every detail about that experience. As I grew up, I started to notice other cars that stuck out to me. The E46 M3 was a car that I lusted after in high school. I was amazed by the specs, the styling, and everything else about that car. At this point I felt that for me to have a cool car I would need to buy something that was already hooked up from the factory. Little did I know, a few years later I would start to modify my own car and start an obsession that still continues to this day.
The car I'm writing about is my 2000 BMW 528i. This car first belonged to my aunt. She leased it for three years. After those three years the car became mine. I was 17 and was learning how to drive with a car that was relatively new. I’m not going to lie, I felt pretty boss driving it around town and to school. As I got older and so did the car, I started to look at ways to make it more unique. In July of 2007, I bought my first set of wheels. They were a set of 17x8 ASA AR1’s wrapped in Pirelli tires. At the time, I thought these wheels were really cool. Looking back at this first mod, I now think otherwise. The wheels were way too small for the size of the car and the wheel gap was unsightly.
Fast forward another year where I managed to save up quite a bit of money to finally make some real changes to my car. I ordered a full set of Bilstein Sports and H&R lowering springs. I was absolutely convinced that this suspension was going to be killer and the car would no longer have the unsightly wheel gap. Along with the lowering, I also bought a full Genuine BMW M-Tech body kit along with many other BMW parts for my 5 series. To complement the M-Tech body kit I ordered new lighting and M5 mirrors. When I had the body work completed I asked to have all the black impact strips painted to match the rest of the body as 01+ E39’s did from the factory. The final result was a dramatic change and overall I was pretty happy with the car
As time went on I started to look at the “stance” of the car and the 17x8’s just weren’t cutting it anymore. After several sleepless nights after looking at wheel websites and photos of E39’s with aftermarket wheels I decided to upgrade to a staggered set of 18x8.5/18x9.5’ Beyern Mesh Type wheels in the spring of 2009. This change in wheel size added a new dimension to the car. From this point forward few things changed with the car and I also let maintenance items lapse. The primary reason for this was I graduated school and moved out of my parents’ house to live on my own.
Once I managed to settle into my life a bit, I started to look at my beloved E39 again. It felt stale again and it needed some serious maintenance. At this point, I was living in a house that had a two car garage and I had also just picked up a 1997 Honda Civic DX as a daily driver. This situation allowed me to garage the car during the winter and really get some work done. During the winter of 2012, I ended up making some serious changes. For one, I managed to get up to date on all the maintenance I had neglected and saved up enough money to buy a new set of Varrstoen 1.1.2 wheels in 19x9.5”/19x11” fitment.
This wheel size is super aggressive and completely filled the wheel wells. However, I still had some wheel gap in the rear and I was no longer impressed with the Bilstein/H&R combo. After some research and help from a solid tax return, I bought a set of BC Racing BR series coilovers. I managed to lower the car over what the lowering springs would allow and the final result looked amazing. Also, the car handles much better than I thought it could with these coilovers. I later ended up adding a set of Eibach sway bars to further improve the suspension.
The positives of modifying a car are endless, as long as it’s something you enjoy and you don’t strain yourself financially. To me, the most important part of this journey is having made countless friends and created memorable moments wrenching on the car with some of my best friends. I have also learned a lot about cars by undertaking this kind of work. During the process, I have learned how suspensions work along with how vehicle electrical systems work. I've made mistakes along the way, but was able to learn from those mistakes and to do the work even better. There is satisfaction to be had in knowing that my car looks different than a similar car on the road. Occasionally, I’ll even get a thumbs up from fellow motorists on the highway.
What are some of your stories with car modifications?
