E9 Individual Colors...

CadillacGreen

CadillacGreen

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I have an interesting question for the experts. According to BMW's Archive Group, customers in the 1970's were able to special order unique or custom paint for their cars, including the E9's.

I have come across an E9 that is being claimed to be one of these special order colors (it's a non BMW color for those that are interested).

Have any of you heard or seen of this before?

The owner claims that the car was sold to a West German couple and the wife wanted it to be a particular color that BMW didn't offer at the time, so they paid extra for BMW to paint it the color she wanted.

He swears that the car's color matches in the spare tire well, jambs, firewall, etc. The car has less than 100K on the clock and is presented in original, unrestored condition.

It would seem that if someone wanted to repaint the car after factory that a glass out, engine out, interior out paint job would be the only way to achieve a respray that could come close to how the factory did it when new. Why go to all that trouble and then not restore everything else at the same time?

I have not seen the car yet in person, but plan on doing so. All the inner fender stickers and such appear to be intact. In fact, the color code and name is Polaris neu, which, of course, would indicate a Polaris car, but BMW cannot confirm for me that they didn't take a car scheduled for Polaris and paint it custom at a customer's request.

Any input on this from knowledgeable forum members would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
 
Interesting story, did BMW Archive actually confirm that the factory could do this or is this just from the owner? Why haven't other custom colors surfaced? It would have been pretty expensive for BMW to paint a car in a non BMW color. The old CS Registry had Art Wegweiser's coupe pictured which was two-toned and claimed to come from the factory but painting just the top half would have been pretty easy back then. I am a skeptic but would love to see your report after viewing this coupe.
 
HB Chris said:
Interesting story, did BMW Archive actually confirm that the factory could do this or is this just from the owner?
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BMW confirmed that it was an option, but they were pretty vague...

*******************

Thank you for your reply.

As far as we know, customers could order special or individual paint in the 1970s. However, we do not have any documents about which colours could be ordered. In your case, unfortunately we do not have any further information about the delivery state and how the car left the factory in Munich as mentioned below. We hope for your understanding that we are not able to tell more.

Yours sincerely,

Julia Oberndörfer
BMW Group Archiv

*******************

I am going to be doing a lot of diligence with this PPI. The seller is the third owner and is a good friend of the second, who casually knows the first. He is trying to get me in touch with the original owners so I can get the story from them directly. He also is going to look for a copy of the original title that he has to see if the color is listed.
 
HB Chris said:
... Why haven't other custom colors surfaced? It would have been pretty expensive for BMW to paint a car in a non BMW color.
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Precisely, it was normally cheaper to divorce that wife than paint the car her color.

The sticker BMW used for such custom colors reads: UnmöglichBefriedigenFrauFarbe
 
It's true-
I have worked on several cars from the 70's and 80's that were ordered with special colors.

The label under the hood will say "Speziallakierung" = "Special Paint"
 
The paint stickers read "Sonderlackierung" at least in the 1980 and 1990s.

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The text underneath would indicate to check the service booklet for the proper color name. Seen quite a few cars over the years with this. Was usually a BMW color that wasn't standard on the line - like Hennarot on an M635CSi or Lachssilber on a Euro M5 produced before 9/86 when Lachssilber became a standard color. Even seen it on a 1993 E34 M5 that was painted Schwarz (single stage) instead of Schwarz II (base/clear).

I've seen Guards Red E28s - even a Minervablau E28 M5. There's an E28 Hartge H5S in Michigan painted Betrolblau with a white leather interior. All of those were Porsche colors. Pretty neat. Some wild interiors too.

I wouldn't be surprised that BMW would have provided something like this in the 1970s, particularly on a car as exclusive as the E9, but I'd certainly have thought it might have documented.
 
johanaxelson said:
soooo, what is the color!!!

don't leave us hanging
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Well, it is not likely to be a color that most here find exciting, lol!

It is supposed to be a light mint green metallic. It definitely is metallic and not a mint grun repaint.

I will know more in a couple of weeks. I guess the next step is to ask BMW Archive when those special color stickers first appeared and hope they don't say "sometime in the 1970's"

SFDon, have you seen this color sticker on an E9 or E9 before?

Everyone, thanks for all the info. so far!
 
Don, which models? I have another theory, the e12 debuted in 1972, the e21, e23 and e24 in 1977 and BMWNA was formed and took over Hoffman's distributorship in 1975. Hoffman never allowed anything other than what he considered appropriate for the coupes he imported and you had to go through him. It would seem to make sense that when BMW took over in the mid 70's more options and colors might be available. I couldn't find when BMW's Individual Program was first announced however. But if the Archive says 70's I would bet it was the late 70's. I guess we will know more when Cadillac sees this coupe, is it euro or US spec, does it have a color sticker, etc? Fun stuff!

Edit: Florida is a light mint green but not metallic
 
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I've worked on 3 Euro cars with factory special colors. Baby Doc Duvalier from Haiti had a nasty green 745i that I worked on, Jens [an old acquaintance] had an indescribable colored 745i and a 633 euro car in the boneyard. All had a special paint tag in the engine bay.
I believe 940 is the code for a special request?
and 0490 is special paint.
not to be confused with paint code 490 which is Blue/Black
 
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I was aware of special color offerings on the 8 Series and newer <'90s models, but I have no specific knowledge about the early '70s and E9s. Limited exceptions are bound to exist - even as "prototypes" with questionable documentation.

Chris is likely correct regarding Max Hoffman's imported cars, but it is hard to say that Hoffman never permitted exceptions for friends and celebrities. I am fairly confident that limited exceptions existed for Jaguars and Mercedes imported under Hoffman's aegis and have heard similar stories regarding Porsches. Equally hard to say that a dealer couldn't create various exceptions that many consumers might easily assume were either from the factory or factory sanctioned. (Full body paint is highly unlikely but I have heard of customized interiors.) As food for thought I recall seeing a two-tone E3 at Vasek's. A salesman swore it was ordered that way. The suggestion that one of the colors was marine damage motivated, seemed equally plausible.:roll:


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The car in question sounds like it wasn't destined for the North American market so it could still be possible that BMW painted the car a non-standard coupe color and also out of the purview of Max Hoffman.
 
wkohler said:
The car in question sounds like it wasn't destined for the North American market so it could still be possible that BMW painted the car a non-standard coupe color and also out of the purview of Max Hoffman.
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Yeah, What I am wondering on this is a bit about how the Hoffman thing worked. If I was a German couple that ordered a car through BMW in West Germany, would BMW ship the car to Hoffman for entry into the US or would it just come across on a boat and I would be be responsible for the pickup and delivery and DOT certification?

The story I have been told so far is that the couple consisted of a man who was coming to the US to work for Harvard University in an administrative capacity and his wife wanted a CS coupe but wanted this light green metallic color that BMW didn't offer so she ordered it through BMW before they made the move to the US. He apparently has a penchant for unusual ones as supposedly he has or had an individual BMW recently as well.

The DOT markers are in an odd place on the car and not in the standard location on the front fenders. It does have the DOT bumpers though, so I assume someone had to have those put on.

I am curious to know the language used inside the car.

The seller is a bit old fashioned so I don't have digital photos of to examine in minute detail.

Anyhow, I am scheduled to go out the weekend after Labor Day and then, obviously, I can share my findings with the group with a lot of documentation of things.
 
If it has big bumpers then it is a North American spec coupe, I doubt they could be retrofitted as euro 74s didn't have the reinforcing in the trunk, and it should have a US/NA VIN too. Funny about side marker placement though. I wonder if it could be a Reseda Green which is light green metallic found on the e21 and e24?

You could order through Hoffman for euro delivery and then ship it here. If ordered in Germany from BMW I think you arranged your own shipping. Grey market import rules hadn't been imposed yet, I think you could drive it over there 1000 miles or something and then import here, I don't recall specifics.
 
That is my question too. Reseda came out on the e24s in late 1975 as I recall. One of my favorite BMW colors. That's why I am excited to see this one in person.
 
Karmann

I know for certain that some cars were painted odd ball colors.
I've seen a 76 vw beetle convertible painted a porshe color... viper green i believe, it even had the correct color code sticker, headlight washer/ wipers, real leatehr seats from a later rabbit? Porsche? Now this particular car was for the daughter of Mr. Karmann himself, but I know that this did happen.
 
mario1017 said:
... Now this particular car was for the daughter of Mr. Karmann himself, but I know that this did happen.
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The information that surfaces on this board on any topic is fascinating. All we need is a question and answers bubble up.

Question: Did Mr. Karmann's daughter also rust in the usual places?
 
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