Stuart Appleby's BMW M5 UTE conversion

[Gaza_R]

Aussie Golfer Stuart 'Apples' Appleby is posting updated pictures on the M5 Board of his M5 UTE Project.

over 600 man hours so far!

M5 UTE

And here

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E39 M5 Ute conversion

I grew up in Australia for my first 20 years of my life and the "ute" had always been an Aussie icon to a boy from the bush, a way of life for many Australians.

I've been lucky enough to have owed in the US one of the best sedans the automotive industry has ever produced in the BMW E39 M5.

I wanted to create a special combination of a cross over M5 ute concept not long after I purchased my M5 in Florida in 2000.

This ute idea came to me many years ago when I looked at a picture I took of my M5 and thought that it would make a great ute....what was I thinking?

Years pass by, and I decide I needed to follow through with this concept a bit more.

Five years pass and I find a very suitable donor car from a friend in Queeensland that probably had the finest 2003 M5 in Australia.

He was happy to have his pride and joy "chopped up" for an undertaking of this magnitude.

The car had many mods that I was going to put on a lesser car but he had done all the hard yards for me.

Trying to find a shop that had the skills for this sort of work was going to be difficult and time consuming, but in a flash I bumped in to Shane from Southern Rod and Custom in southern New South Wales Australia.

His reputation in the hot rod game is held very highly.

A quick visit to his work shop that was only one hour from my home as a boy. I could see in the 3 hours I spent with him that he was very capable to create my vision.

Ryan from Stylemasters created the sketches you see here, that look great.

The time line for a job like this is about 9 - 12 months

I'm looking forward to watching this world first get started and one day a finished product

Edited March 9, 2007 by Gaza_R

[grima88]

Thats gonna b awesome

[MR22ZZ]

some people have too much money :P

[Brad!]

On the foum, have a look at his sig with the cars that he owns...

LOL

way to much money, but good on him for trying to be different