1978 BMW 5-Series

528i Sedan

6 - Cyl.

Manual

000000000

Other

Gasoline

For your consideration, one Italian delivered, Italian-modified Bay-Emmay-Vu Cinque-Venti-Otto eee (aka BMW 528i) likely born in early 1979, but as the VIN numbers can never be confirmed, registered and advertised as a 1978, purchased as my graduation present to myself in 1983, five years after the fact. Driven three years in Italy, and then shipped and DOT coverted in 1986. Terminally rusted, but still sang when last driven five years ago. Blaupunkt aftermarket cassette stereo and amps, unknown condition, but best available in 1988 ($1200). Zender aero is in good shape, do not recall any cracks or breaks. Tool kit is crap, a few pieces. Everything interior worked well when put to bed, for what that is worth, obligatory crack in center of dash top. -This car Cannot presently run-. -This car Cannot presently ROLL-. This car looks at least as bad as the pictures show, and the cancer is absolutely throughout the sheet metal. Do NOT buy this car expecting to return it to its unique original glory, it cannot be done. period. It shows under 200K miles, but I can no longer remember exactly, so that is what I put. The car was Expertly serviced at Simpson Motorsports in Iowa City Iowa, until it was relegated to its current dilapidation. Last repair was the throw-out on the 4sp tranny which was otherwise great. Given proper octane, the engine is a dream, noticeably stronger that the US Spec, though it has not -turned over- in five years. It went to bed with a thorough check-up and fresh oil, but that doesn't matter now. Fun stuff, if you're good with electrics, you can salvage the turn signals. In advanced countries, government morons aren't allowed to do much of Anything, let alone require an auto mfg to put a facial cyst on their vehicles. Incidentally, the turn sigs on the side alternate with the bumper sigs and slightly reflect on your rear view mirror housing, so no left-turn-until-california signal when the tunes might be a bit loud. Don't forget the fog lamp tail-light (see reflection) or on demand parking lights (when vehicle is off, you push the turn signal lever and the light in that direction remains on at 1/4 power to alert less than sober drivers you are parked there). If I can ever find the replacements that I finally found in Australia, I will send them along later (the nice lady that mowed for my parents did everything but mow the roof of the car), -if- you are even interested. You WILL need a trailer and a Very good winch to take possession of this vehicle, it Will Not Roll. Please no stories, be prepared to remove it within SEVEN DAYS of auction COMPLETION, or my neighbors will have the friendly folks at county salvage do it for you. --This is Not a joke--. The neighborhood has moved Well upscale, and they have no use for the likes of me. Car must be paid in full prior to your arrival, and I cannot do refunds, you would hafta' go and bail it out of county if you are unable to get it immediately. Sorry if this sounds cruel, but you wouldn't be seeing this listing if I had any choice in the matter. Lastly, to the relief of fellow eBayers, 0-feedback-bidder or member-less-than-a-month bids will be canceled, no exceptions -- in my narrow-minded view, if you are in fact a BMW-isti that appreciates what you are looking at, you simply Must have purchased something on eBay by now. Low feedback bidders will be researched and if feedback is found to be 99¢ feedback-filler items, cancel. Thanx for your understanding, sorry it has come to this, but all eBayers need to be aware that the feedback you see is Not necessarily due to actual purchases. EDITS: questions: yes a cloth/corduroy blue interior, vinyl is likely cracked, I remeber one under left leg that pinched. (grips like a bastard under 8/10ths turns, even in shorts - no fan of leather, me) Glove box -was- fine, no flashlight, ever. Glass original excepting one rear that was busted by the expletives that stole the Kenwood system installed by Kenwood, Inc people in Italy (dbx, 1KW power, etc.) I cannot remember which side was broken out. driver mirror is Gone, long ago, sorry. No parts, nothing NOT electric windows, NOT sunroof.. the car was a lightweight, NO option, but those required in 78/79 (power locks) the history, for the few that like this stuff: Car was purchased in 1983 from a lawyer in Vicenza Italy. He had mashed a front fender on a guard pylon in a 360+ spin leading to the main straight at 7 hours into the rally and had it repaired and put up for sale (supposedly his wife had a coronary when he 'wrecked'). He drove it everywhere, and raced 3 times a year, plus the baby-LeMans. I bought it with 86K km and drove it in Italy for three years while stationed at Caserma Ederle, HQ SETAF, Vicenza Italy. I had to appear before the post CSM for the privilege of buying it. In a surly manner, exclusive to top-rank, he reluctantly let me buy it, since it Wasn't a coupe (another 'KH-ID,have-you-rehaBILitated-yerself?' young buck had just wrecked his 3.0CS to the embarrasment of the brass). I drove rather fast in those days, and my most-told anecdote was about the classic porche-sunglassed trophy-blonde accompanied Ferrari-Dino driver's expression as he failed for the third time to pass my mom&pop-mobile on the autostrada returning from Milan (240-252kph.. yeah, I was almost certainly floating it, but it was safer before overdrive). The car was so unique that the trattoria owners in Firenze remembered it from the lawyer and welcomed me with open arms, even though my Italian left a Lot to be desired (though my blonde first wife may have helped). The car was originally modified at the Bay-Emmay-Vu dealership in Vicenza to include the not-yet-adopted aka stolen '82 grillwork (for the headlights) [this is aka e28 grillwork, the e28 was on the road in Europe for 3 years of dealer 'testing' prior to official introduction -- ya' gotta be Old to remember what a huge success the e12 was for BMW and how scared they were to change it -- I always did wonder why they didn't get the new kidney as well, but..] And the requisite bilsteins and (at the 1979 time) hot, hot Zender aero's for the Po Valley baby-24-hours-of-LeMans rally race held annually. The Unique-to-Italy Pirelli wheels and (if memory serves) 'pre-production', P600 tire combo was a Holey-shyt-expensive option that the lawyer decided to get to Eetalianize himself among the Alfas. I never saw another set in Europe, nor have I seen but one advertisement for them here (in a United Airlines sky-mall catalog actually, long since lost, on my return-states flight in '86). FYI, they suck out brake dust like nothing I have experienced since, and when the travel-season hit and you hadda' do Three 220kph to 80 kph's slowdowns in a row from cinquecentos pulling in front of you, you Really, Really appreciated them. Because of the attention that the car drew, wonderful for a 25yo metal-head (hell, the scorpion tail trailer pull aka hitch alone was a sure conversation starter, unique to Italy/ the Po Valley and the ralley- I once hauled a Vega from a ditch with it), I decided to transport the car home. It had a loan-value of $14k, and I used that to ship and convert it. The conversion included the absolute-minimum to get it DOT accepted. I think they reinforced the front bumper and put a bar in the driver's door. It did add weight, because with that and the lack of 95 octane gasoline, the car never ripped me the way it did in Italy. I once sprung for a -tank- of racing fuel, and durnned if that didn't do the trick, at only $3.80 when gas was a buck/gal. I was a BMWCCA member from 1986 (Phred, of the Iowa City chapter, headed by BMW-master Simpson of Simpson Motorsport, where all service was performed) to 1994 when a beautiful drunken woman managed to change lanes into the side of me and shred all the sheet metal and mirror down the driver's side. The car then found a home, waiting for my young kids to grow up and stop bankrupting me, at my parent's lake place. Straight out of 'Red Barchetta', I would visit it monthly and 'commit my weekly crime'. When the parents passed, the property became a family problem, and unfortunately the willing engine et al got caught up in it. Once that was straightened out, the fuel pump was gone again, and the fuel tank had rusted through to match the interior tub. So much for monthly crimes. Not registered since 1994, VIN is straight from Italy, clock still works. Not much more I will add, as I have already bored most. No mistake! This Car Cannot Even ROLL. The rears seized a Long time ago. Expect nothing and be pleasantly surprised, ok? da' pix (couple more available, all at hi-rez, but it don't improve the looks -- wish I could show you the pristine photos of my killuh with Venezia as the background, but first wife mentioned previously kept them all. The car has Never had a front plate since my ownership, sorry I didn't have the presence of mind to remove my friendly-neighbor-required addition-the additional photos have a 'shopped version with it removed.. damn, I shoulda' watered down the grill so it could match the kidney fins and at least show her 'get outa' my way' expression one more time.. that face and a closing speed of 40mph was amazing in its success rate in clearing left-lane bandits): On Nov-25-10 at 10:59:59 PST, seller added the following information: Thanx for the many messages of appreciation followed by WAF & neighborhood woe, I feel your pain more accurately than you do - I had a pristine donor car for this, it was also lost in the property quarrel. If it were possible for me to part-up the car, I would have done so, and made quite a lot more than my "$1 if you can winch it onto a trailer and remove it intact" offering. PLEASE read the section right before the history, I cannot be more clear than I was there - I have NO options in this matter, and as I am already giving her away, I cannot afford to put myself up in a hotel waiting to cherry-pick it and then still call county salvage.IT MUST BE REMOVED INTACT. If it goes to a junkyard, the aero will be destroyed and the parts that they don't destroy will cost a Lot.NO STORIES, do NOT bid if you do not have the means to remove the car intact. (Apologies that this is at the end of the listing, eBay will not allow me to modify the main body any longer and add it to the 'EDITS' section, therefore, I put it in bold in hopes that the readers that missed the section in question would be sure to look. If you need to cancel your bid due to not understanding that you may not -- in any way, shape or form -- part the vehicle at its present location, just shoot me a mail, I'll be happy to do it for you.)On Nov-25-10 at 15:29:02 PST, seller added the following information: Pick up needs to be completed by the weekend ending Sunday, 5 Dec 2010. If for some reason that is not possible, I will try to work with you, but I have scheduling conflicts, and it takes but one phone-call from people unknown for the car to be tagged for removal - unknown how many days I might have after that, so I am trying to beat the window by a week. I am 3 hours from the car, so I must plan my time pretty well just to arrive with daylight remaining. Wish this wasn't such a thorny, but I have my marching orders. I was hoping that someone from the orgs and clubs would have a place for it to live, for examination and tear-down.