Every once in a while, facebook marketplace delivers. Scrolling about one day, those iconic Azev wheels stood out, and at a handsome price. I saved the listing and went on about my day until a friend reached out and asked if I was interested in it, as he was there with eyes on it already. We organized a deal remotely, and with that, my 50th car is a 1991 BMW 750iL with 159k miles, bought from a storage unit forfeiture and seamlessly delivered from Topeka KS to here via Wright Way hauling and transportation.

It did not come with a key, so starting it was a bit of a challenge; so naturally I reverted to my usual first step of washing it and polishing a section to see where the paint is at.

Then disassembled the steering column and it fired right up although I couldn't steer it yet, so later that day, I swapped out the steering lock assembly from a parts car, got it running/steering. Not perfect yet, though… the engine had a miss: illustrated by a visible spark not going into cylinder 2, but instead arcing to the engine itself from the distributor. I took the cap off to inspect it and it looked brand new, but clearly had a manufacturing defect causing it to short out, so I put a new unit on. In doing that, there's a sensor that pulls signal from one of the wires and sends to the ECU, called the CIS; Apparently that was frail and got damaged so I replaced it with an extra I had around the garage. After this, the car runs better but only on 6 cylinders, still. Lets try swapping MAFs from a running car? No change. Went to replace coil pack and the wire terminals were loose - tightened them, and the car idles buttery smooth on all 12 now!

Put some power steering fluid in it and went for a drive, it's got plenty of power and handles very well around corners with the exception of the control arms *badly* needing replaced. Despite that and its failing clear on the hood and trunk, this car is a looker.

Solution Finish bringing this iconic front end back to where its supposed to be. Its one of the first products I use when I get one of these, then I top it with IGL Coatings USA trim coating and forget about it

I finally began bodywork on the trunk & hood for respraying, as well as dusted and cleared the fenders. Then I carefully restored the front bumper with tedious polishing and paintwork on the trim.

All of that cosmetic (and some other) work was captured here:

With it looking proper, it was only appropriate to visit my favorite photo spot for these cars, as well as a new one:

Even took it to Kansas City for a European show. Naturally, I stopped at one of my favorite photo spots…

After receiving a fair bit of interest in the car, an agreement has been reached for it to be sold, pending a few changes. One of which is swapping the interior from LightSilberGrau to Scwharz — basically, light grey to black, so I went as far as purchasing yet another 750iL from, you guessed it, facebook marketplace.