These Wheels on a Bavaria?

Mike Goble

Mike Goble

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You can find the RC090 style 5's quite frequently in the boneyard. Pick and Pull takes the wheels off most of the cars before they put them out, as they recycle them. I put in a Row52 search for 1995-2005 5-series BMW's, and when I get a notification I run the VIN through bmwvin.com. It will tell you if the car had the optional wheels by listing "S291A BMW LA wheel, cross spoke, 2-section" in the options section. I know the manager out here, and I contact him and buy them. You also find them in the trunk occasionally. A wheel with an unusable tire runs about $30.
 
dang

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Mike Goble said:
You can find the RC090 style 5's quite frequently in the boneyard. Pick and Pull takes the wheels off most of the cars before they put them out, as they recycle them. I put in a Row52 search for 1995-2005 5-series BMW's, and when I get a notification I run the VIN through bmwvin.com. It will tell you if the car had the optional wheels by listing "S291A BMW LA wheel, cross spoke, 2-section" in the options section. I know the manager out here, and I contact him and buy them. You also find them in the trunk occasionally. A wheel with an unusable tire runs about $30.
Click to expand...

And row52 has one photo that usually shows a wheel good enough to identify the style...
 
duct-tape

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StephenZ said:
I love those! unfortunately, they're half the current value of my car....lol...For $1600 I could almost get triple webers! :) Or maybe some higher compression JE pistons and cam...:)
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keep an eye out. I saw a set on offerup for 500.
 
dang

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This scrap car was $100. The owner drove it to our place... 207k miles, bad paint, bad interior, needs cats. I'm buying the wheels for $100 and they'll get around $200 for the car in scrap. We don't try to buy scrap since we don't have a good process for it so we usually offer $50 picked up or $100 delivered. Pick n Pull (self serve yard) can pay more because they're a scrap metal company and specialize in it. That means if they offer $125 for cars like that e39 (or nicer) they usually get them. Weird market right now.

IMG_0449.JPG
 
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zinz

zinz

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dang said:
This scrap car was $100. The owner drove it to our place...
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This is where/how all the 320iS cars went...for one example. All those Recaros, 5 speeds, and 3.90 LSDs crushed and made into new cars. (this applies to most all of the old cars) In hindsight, we'd have pulled all the good bits and hoarded them decades ago... I see 320 LSDs now at $1000 on the open market. Crazy money for a used/used-up diff.

but I digress...

Ed
 
dang

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zinz said:
This is where/how all the 320iS cars went...for one example. All those Recaros, 5 speeds, and 3.90 LSDs crushed and made into new cars. (this applies to most all of the old cars) In hindsight, we'd have pulled all the good bits and hoarded them decades ago... I see 320 LSDs now at $1000 on the open market. Crazy money for a used/used-up diff.

but I digress...

Ed
Click to expand...

The one good thing is that typically the self-serve yards can pay a little more so most of those cars end up being picked over before getting crushed. The Recaros in my coupe are from a PnP 320is, along with the other sport parts in storage from years of hoarding. Markos is not the only parts hoarder even though they've put up a statue of him in the local square.
 
Markos

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Baikallackierung said:
Would e34 style 5 / ET 20 / 7.5x16 work on a 1972 E3 Bavaria without spacers?
Thanks
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Definitely on the back, non-issue. It is possible that the tire may hit the strut up front, but I am *guessing not. As far as the fender goes, a 7.5" ET20 has about 2.5mm more fender clearance than a 7" ET11 (factory CSL wheel size). So no rubbing concerns there IMO.

* guessing as in a 17" ET20 wheel fits, but some tires rub the strut. The strut is on an angle. When you go down to 16", the angled strut gets closer to the wheel. You are reducing the wheel diameter by .5" (down to 16" diameter) and reducing the wheel width by .25" width (down to 7.5"). The size difference more or less makes a 60 degree angle. So as long as the strut angle is greater than 60 degrees, it should work. I was hesitant to post this because it is ridiculous, but I wanted to quantify my guess. If course the next time I have my wheel off I'm going to measure the angle of the strut. :D
 
duct-tape

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you need spacers on the front for the 16x7.5 style 5 wheels. but, if your tires are vertical or stretched a little, you only need like 3mm spacers.
 
teahead

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dang said:
This scrap car was $100. The owner drove it to our place... 207k miles, bad paint, bad interior, needs cats. I'm buying the wheels for $100 and they'll get around $200 for the car in scrap. We don't try to buy scrap since we don't have a good process for it so we usually offer $50 picked up or $100 delivered. Pick n Pull (self serve yard) can pay more because they're a scrap metal company and specialize in it. That means if they offer $125 for cars like that e39 (or nicer) they usually get them. Weird market right now.

View attachment 46909
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Wow, $100? If the car ran decently, I'd put on some cats (can you put cheap universals on???) and just drive the sucker until the wheels fell off.
 
bluecoupe30!

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I have those RC090s on my DD E39Touring and have picked up used ones from time to time. Of course they are rebuildable, but you have to know if a wheel has been "turned" before. The nice polished lip gets turned and recoated. Price varies. But if it has already been done once, some places will not do it again. Some are bent, and this is fixable too, but adds to your cost. So, choose carefully, as these have a lot of mileage on them by now, but I cannot stop looking for another pair, or that rare and special find, the unused trunk spare! Mike
 
duct-tape

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I said twice that they would require 3mm spacers. lol.
buy em, get a bag of washers and test it out. dont drive on washers, but you can stack them on your studs to see how much you need.
 
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