Federalizing!! The curse to a magnificiant automobile!! We call them euro cars or grey market cars. They are models sold in Europe and imported to the U.S.. But, alas, they don't meet spec. as far as the U.S. government is concerned, so they must be modified to meet the proper standards. There seems to be no specific way to do this other than certain things had to be done.
Here is a list that I know of, feel free to add to it:
1. Headlights. At least on the early cars, they had to go. We can't have a wonderful, efficient set of lights mainly because they have a replaceable bulb. We must have a sealed unit:nono . The other thing is somewhat complex. The euro lights have what is called a 'city light' in them. This is a small white light that comes on with the switch in 'park' position. This is a no-no in the U.S.. As I understand it (please correct me if I'm wrong), amber/orange lights facing foward are a no-no in Europe.
2. Side markers. U.S. cars, after a certain date had to have a front and rear side marker, not needed in Europe. These were added by drilling and mounting on the beautiful sides of these cars:mad . Location and method was up to the importer.
3. Exhaust. Early cars may or may not have had cats hogged in to the system:eyecrazy .
4, Instruments. I am sure that speedometers were changed to mph or mph/kph styles. Other pieces such as the check control panel and heat/ac panel might have been changed.
5. Saving you from yourself stuff:confused . This is mainly the seat belt warning light and buzzer. Lights were installed in various locations, the buzzer was left to hang under the dash.
As far as I know, this is the main part of federalizing. Additions requested:help .

O.K., I'll start. I have two 1980 635csi's, one is a total wreck. Both were federalized in somewhat the same way.
1. Headlights. Wonderfully inefficient sealed beams installed. The problem is, the low beam has three wires just like U.S. cars but with different functions. One is ground, one is main bulb and one is city light. When you would turn on the park lights, the low beam plus the hogged in side marker wuold come on. Turning the lights to full on, would give you the outside high beam plus the low beam wuold still be on. This does wonderfull things to your wiring.
2. Side markers. Both of mine were done similarily. The front turn siginal housing was modified to accept a second bulb. The rear had lights hogged in to the fenders.
3. On the bronze car, the speedo was changed to mph, the check panel and heat were left untouched. The grey car(wreck), the speedo was changed to mph/kph, the check panel, heat and fuse box were all changed to english (and a butcher job it was).
4. Puhleeze, save me!! The seat belt crap was done differently on both. The buzzer was there, but the placement of lights was different. The bronze car had a light added to the check panel. The grey car had one added to the instrument panel. This was done by taking the cluster apart and putting a piece in the unused window above the tach.
5. I know I skipped it, but I was fortunate. Neither car has a cat.

Most cars that were federalized also had the bumpers re-inforced (I've actually seen federalized cars where they put a US 635 bumper on!!!!) and had bars put in the doors.

Seems like I've heard windshields were another area, but I'm not sure if that applied to the Six.

My car was done by Frank Fahey, so it has a Cat that swaps out for a track pipe.

:)

Oh yea - one other thing I found under the hood. A bit of an odd choice for the charcoal canister...
http://members.roadfly.com/iam4ecu/Strange.jpg

They did not have the charcoal canisters on the euro cars? I would think that would be soemthing on all their cars. I go rid of mine because all of the lines were either cracked or just broken. So instead of spending the money i just plugged all the neccessary holes and threw out the can and stuff.

-Jeff

Euro cars vented their gas tanks to the atmosphere via breather tanks located in the trunk. In the event that you want a truly unmodified shark, do what I did and import a car that is 25 years old. This makes it untouchable by EPA, and DOT. They just charged me a 60$ import fee. Another way is the old vin swap method, but it's usually frowned upon...

We had a thread going on before about the taillights. The sections that illuminate for the brake are different, third brake light was added also (hideous), US cars had a 63 liter gas tank versus the 70 liter tank for Euro cars.

So far on the 88 US SPEC, I have changed to blackout smileys with city lights and removed the dual filament in my turn signals to compliment the Euro lenses, and changed the tail lights out for Euros and removed the third brake light, changed the check panel and heater panel for German ones. I would really like the Euro tank, maybe Ill get one shipped... Also looking at a Euro instrument setup with the indiglo gauges. A little bling can't hurt once in a while...

I did my 80 back in 82. I also had to put a restricter in the fuel filler in addition to all of what has been previously stated. The good thing about a DIY is that return to stock was very easy except for the Euro speedometer that got trashed somehow in the garage. I was always going to remove the steel bars I had to weld behind the bumper, but in over 20 years, just never got around to doing the job.

I just got my 1st 6er, an '85 635csi, and as far as federalization went, it turned into a wiring nightmare. At least, that's who I'm blaming it on. It was imported in '85 by the original owner, and while trying to fix the instrument cluster (which is mostly inoperative), I found several wires that look like they need to be hooked up to something. I've also found ground wires that are attached to nothing except for the frame.
Is the city light that first, dim light from the low beams that comes on when I pull out the ligt switch by one position?
It did have cats put on it, and I must say, they are the largest cats that I've ever seen. It has rear side marker lights mounted in the fender, but nothing up front. At some point, the right corner blinker lens was cracked and some crazy put in a US spec lens, making it one of each, which looks very goofy.
The only thing inside the car that was changed to english was the speedometer/odometer. OBC, heat/defrost/AC/warning buttons are still in German, and no one thought to change the economy gauge to mpg. Are the interior lights supposed to come on when the doors open, or was this a step that was skipped in the fed process?

I just got my 1st 6er, an '85 635csi, and as far as federalization went, it turned into a wiring nightmare. At least, that's who I'm blaming it on. It was imported in '85 by the original owner, and while trying to fix the instrument cluster (which is mostly inoperative), I found several wires that look like they need to be hooked up to something. I've also found ground wires that are attached to nothing except for the frame.
Is the city light that first, dim light from the low beams that comes on when I pull out the ligt switch by one position?
It did have cats put on it, and I must say, they are the largest cats that I've ever seen. It has rear side marker lights mounted in the fender, but nothing up front. At some point, the right corner blinker lens was cracked and some crazy put in a US spec lens, making it one of each, which looks very goofy.
The only thing inside the car that was changed to english was the speedometer/odometer. OBC, heat/defrost/AC/warning buttons are still in German, and no one thought to change the economy gage to mpg. Are the interior lights supposed to come on when the doors open, or was this a step that was skipped in the fed process?
Yes the City Lights are small bulbs that reside at the bottom of the low beam lens and come on with the parking lights. On my Euro the parking lights also come on the appropriate side with the key off and the turn signal placed in the turn position. The only labels required to be changed when I did my car was the speedometer and that required an American version of the instrument to be installed. All other signs and labels were left in German. Each model year has differing criteria both at the time and as a reflection of changing requirements by DOT. BTW BMW does have a lot of ground wires that connect at the chassis, especially under the dash. Not too familer with the 85, but I believe that fuel mileage if on the OBC can be changed to MPG, but if yours has the one in the instrument cluster under the speedo, I think you would have to change out the gage.