Firstfives.org

Hi,

my 80 e12 is fighting a battle with rust I think I'd rather resolve with a transplant of the powertrain and suspension++ into a cleaner chassis.

I live in California so all the dmv fun applies.

I think I've located a German 1975 525 that's already been DOT approved, which is very appealing to me.

Optimally, I'd swap the bits straight across from the 80 which has already had swapped In a dirty m30 with 265, HR and billies.

Is this as easy (relatively) as i am thinking ? Plug and play essentially - okay -'lots of plugging and playing or are there significant challenges going pre facelift I need to address?

Thx

The only thing I can think of is the fuel lines and sending unit, going form carb to Injection requires more line pressure ... unless I'm wrong, never had a carb E12..

Yeah, I think it would be pretty straightforward. Realoem is a resource like usual with those sorts of things.

Should be an easy swap. What part of California?

Thanks for the input. I'm expecting a challenge here or there. Good call on the fuel system- - Thank you!

Ron
I'm in NorCal. I came by and looked at your wheels a few Sunday's back.

I gotcha! I sold them last week, then I scrapped the steelies. Same for the rear doors. Cut them up with the Sawzall and now they're gone. Are you going to drop the subframe to do the swap?

That's pretty much the plan.

I want to believe l'll be stripping repairing and repainting the 525 before I do anything.

Why not leave it original?

I will (most likely) be restoring it to the original mintgrun. The car was painted something similar to agave by the original owners son.

There will be a little body body work required as well, like de-DOT the car.

So sad they had to butcher it up to get it in the states.

You have the good early hood and small tail lights, that's all that matters.

and no CA smog laws apply

So -- I've seen CabbageFumes mention of the Bilstein HD's - #34-000243, HD(B6) - being required for the pre-76 e12.

I assume I need to add this to my list or is there some magic bean with my suspension swap that will supersede this requirement?

Thanks all...

You can make it a little easier on yourself if you swap out your front strut housings with later ones. 75-76 models had a lot of revisions and a lot of one or two year only parts for the front suspension and brakes. I took everything up front from an '80 because parts are much easier to come by, plus more choices for struts, including Bilstein Sport struts.

Thank you