The excerpts below have been copied with permission from www.tonybmw.co.uk.

BMW's have always interested Thomas, mainly due to the (German) build quality, and more importantly the perfect balance between a luxury and sporty character. After lots of research he decided that his first BMW should be a special and fast classic. As the emphasis of most classic BMW's is not on performance, he decided it should be one with a powerful letter in it's name: the M(otorsport). It was June 2006 and someone told him about just such a rare and special car, the BMW M535i E12, which was for sale. Of course he was interested so he decided to take a look..

Thomas discovered many interesting details during the strip down of the car. E.g. that the spare wheel was from '82 (the car was produced in '80 and delivered a year later) and that a BMW worker had placed a signature under the rear Seat. Also some less pleasant details appeared: more concealed rust for instance.

Despite the car looking very tidy at first, rust had started to take a hold in the panels, I think that a full restoration at this stage, before things got out of hand, was definitely the right decision

The idea is to make the car waterproof a.s.a.p. and I already had some work done on the doors. However, before any of the windows can be installed, I need to give the doors (including the nooks and crannies) a thorough anti-rust and wax treatment with Caprotech RX5 and RX7. After applying either of these products, 24H drying time is advisable. Therefore, a garage is almost essential (or at least very helpful) for such a job. As luck would have it, my ex-neighbour was going on holiday for a few days and was kind enough to lend me his excellent garage to work on the M535i. An offer too good to refuse of course.

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This Example Uses RX 5 & RX 7