e28 535is Auto to Manual

NewSixCoupe

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So I'm really tempted by an excellent very low mileage example with an auto trans; am I better off sourcing everything separately or just looking for a donor car? What can I expect to spend for a proper conversion? Finally, I really am a purist at heart so tell me I'm saving this car rather than destroying its originality... Thanks.
 
You would be INCREASING its value by updating it to a stick shift.

Especially with a 5-speed.

Nab it and buy my Getrag 265 bellhousing. ;)

For everything to convert, probably looking at $3-4k (for a 5-speed), depending upon what you can do yourself.
 
SFDon has the tranny's available, worth the extra money because they are checked out by the man himself. Besides myE28.com, firstfives.org was invaluable for my parts sourcing. Start looking for the pedal box.
 
To answer your question, buy a donor car. You can find plenty of donors for $800 and work on the price from that point. There are far too many e28's on the road to worry about originality. They aren't quite "there" yet.
 
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My $.02.

As an owner of an E28 5 series (I'm on my third) and one who has invested waaay too much money in them, I'm not sure I'd pay $5K to upgrade one from auto to manual. You are probably better off to keep looking. There have been some good candidates with a manual tranny that also have a B35 motor selling for < $10K. That's what I'd look for and it will probably be cheaper in the long run also.

Opinion #2 - Non E28 M5s/Alpinas will probably not increase in value very much or if they do will probably only be attractive to a small group of folks. I may eat my words on this one :).

That all said, they are wonderful cars and the motors are bullet proof. I've had one for my daily for 20 years and I am not very nice to it but it never complains. I think there are a few of us on this board who have some E28 variant, have a B32/B34/B35 motor in our coupe or both.
 
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