Restoration of '70 2800CS 2270407

[Philippe db]

All good points Ian and my hat off to you.

Looking forward to seeing the end result and wish you lots of fun during your journey.

 

[mulberryworks]

Well, well. It's been 4 years, 5 months, and 16 days since I posted in my restoration thread. Oy.

In between, I've sold my house in Austin, driven around the eastern US for 6 months, and bought a house in Jacksonville, Florida.

And I've done virtually nothing on my E9 in all that time. Bought a few parts & done a lot of mental planning. Other than getting it safely from Austin to here that is.

But that will change after I build a dedicated garage for the car and its refurbishment. I've got it planned out and have HOA permission, so once I get stamped engineering drawings, I'll get to move forward with permits and ground breaking.
I won't be putting a blow by blow of that here, but will add some of the highlights.

I took a little time in photoshop while I'm musing on next steps to make a snappy little thumbnail of my car. She looks eager, wanting to push forward through the air, to go and go.

 

[Krzysztof]

The good thing is I have appeared on the Forum late enough, not to be forced to wait so long for your restoration project to be started (I know if it not completely but it is OK) as the Other Members have.

But seriously...

I'm with you in the approach with time consuming (but necessary) preparation prior the start of restoration process. I'm pretty sure, being on the Forum across these years you were able to change the approach to some restoration steps in regards to E9 models specifics. We're not doing that for living to meet the due dates and obey schedules but for hobby, for fun.

It is interesting each of E9s is rusty differently. I know there are several reasons but it is fascinating to see these differences.

To the next "episode"!

 

[mulberryworks]

It is interesting each of E9s is rusty differently. I know there are several reasons but it is fascinating to see these differences.

To the next "episode"!

It seems the sheet metal at the nose of my car was replaced after an accident sometime in the past, so, fortunately, there is little rust in front of the firewall. The right floor and rocker need typical repairs. The trunk gasket lip rust seems a bit unusual but not unheard of. All of which I believe I can handle.

I wish I knew where the car lived before ending up in Hawaii where I bought it, but all I know is that it was delivered in Frankfurt as a US model car. While there are sites that will search for registrations via VINs, that's not valid for us because of our short VINs and I doubt they go back decades anyway.

 

[Ohmess]

I like the thumbnail a lot. And its nice to see another coupe person here in the SE. Some events to consider:

-- I hear the Amelia Island Concourse is nice, and it is not far from you. Hagerty has recently taken over management of this event and plans to make it grow.
-- BMW CCA has run Ofest East in conjunction with the Hilton Head Concourse for the past two years. First time, we had a dozen coupes there. This year, turnout was more modest, but I'm hoping this becomes popular with BMW people.
-- Sharkfest is a great event that moves around in the S.E., although this often ends up in NC and may be a bit of a haul for you. Every few years, it is held at Spartanburg near the BMW factory. Last year it was in Chattanooga.
-- I'm told, although I haven't been that there is a big BMW presence at the Daytona endurance races through the BMWCCA chapter in that area. You are not far from there.
-- There is a very active social group in Atlanta run by Gary Beck (m5bb). Not sure what he has planned this year, but you might contact him and ask to get on his mailing list.

As to your garage, I have some suggestions. I will skip the obvious "go bigger" comment; most people would if they could.

Instead, I suggest looking at Stephen's "Raven's Nest" thread. I am retrofitting my garage to steal his lighting ideas, but there is other good stuff there too.

I know this is not cheap, but consider a mini-split unit for air conditioning. It is a crappy feeling when you have time and are into a portion of your work and you feel like you can't continue because the temp inside the garage is too high. I had this experience in Virginia many times because my garage faced south and was not shielded from the sun.

Another suggestion - Buy a lift and install it now. Not cheap but a game changer in terms of working on your car. In particular, it saves on your body and none of us are getting any younger.

 

[Krzysztof]

It seems the sheet metal at the nose of my car was replaced after an accident sometime in the past, so, fortunately, there is little rust in front of the firewall. The right floor and rocker need typical repairs. The trunk gasket lip rust seems a bit unusual but not unheard of. All of which I believe I can handle.

I wish I knew where the car lived before ending up in Hawaii where I bought it, but all I know is that it was delivered in Frankfurt as a US model car. While there are sites that will search for registrations via VINs, that's not valid for us because of our short VINs and I doubt they go back decades anyway.

It is valuable you know car's history.

Even one-user, dry climate cars are rusty in strange places (e.g. A-pillars), so in the end the more you will open the more you will be sure of ... looks like a rule of thumb in E9s ... but also other cars from pre 80's era.

That's why I'm shocked with restorations with opening bottom of the front fenders only, not complete multi-sheet junctions it was mentioned many times about on the forum.

I wish your journey will find a peaceful place to find out time, money and energy to ignite the project.... Subscribed

 

[mulberryworks]

I like the thumbnail a lot. And its nice to see another coupe person here in the SE. Some events to consider:

-- I hear the Amelia Island Concourse is nice, and it is not far from you. Hagerty has recently taken over management of this event and plans to make it grow.
-- BMW CCA has run Ofest East in conjunction with the Hilton Head Concourse for the past two years. First time, we had a dozen coupes there. This year, turnout was more modest, but I'm hoping this becomes popular with BMW people.
-- Sharkfest is a great event that moves around in the S.E., although this often ends up in NC and may be a bit of a haul for you. Every few years, it is held at Spartanburg near the BMW factory. Last year it was in Chattanooga.
-- I'm told, although I haven't been that there is a big BMW presence at the Daytona endurance races through the BMWCCA chapter in that area. You are not far from there.
-- There is a very active social group in Atlanta run by Gary Beck (m5bb). Not sure what he has planned this year, but you might contact him and ask to get on his mailing list.

As to your garage, I have some suggestions. I will skip the obvious "go bigger" comment; most people would if they could.

Instead, I suggest looking at Stephen's "Raven's Nest" thread. I am retrofitting my garage to steal his lighting ideas, but there is other good stuff there too.

I know this is not cheap, but consider a mini-split unit for air conditioning. It is a crappy feeling when you have time and are into a portion of your work and you feel like you can't continue because the temp inside the garage is too high. I had this experience in Virginia many times because my garage faced south and was not shielded from the sun.

Another suggestion - Buy a lift and install it now. Not cheap but a game changer in terms of working on your car. In particular, it saves on your body and none of us are getting any younger.

I'm looking forward to attending events. We've been keeping our heads down due to the various infectious agents circulating recently...

I've maxed out the size of the garage for what's allowable by the Mrs. re backyard space and the setback from the property line on our wedge-shaped lot. Looking at the cost of permitting, I've actually taken a few inches off the length and width to reduce the square footage from 506 square feet to 499 since the city construction permits are charged in increments of 100 square feet. I've got 11-foot ceilings planned to get more vertical space though my Max Jax lift won't need all of that. I used it successfully in Austin with a 9-foot ceiling but it was tight.

A split AC unit is in the plans, it does get hot and humid here for a moment or two. Fortunately, the new garage will be on the north side of the house with an east-facing door that will be insulated. My Austin garage had a west-facing door and the previous owners put in a glass and aluminum garage door.
Can you say "Greenhouse"? Sure, I knew you could. And sunlight reflecting off the driveway into the house added to the load. This resulted in afternoon temps 25+ degrees above ambient and on 110° days, that's not a good environment for working or storage. I erected a large Galvalume-coated steel carport that shaded the west side of the house and most of the garage door which brought down the temps significantly. It was a lot of work (There are 10 massive footings through the driveway to keep it from sailing away in a storm. Each one of those white bags holds a ton of soil, yet to be moved behind the fence in the backyard.) and a $12K investment, but we got that back in spades when we sold.
I'm not sure Jacksonville would allow such a large surface area in a hurricane zone. Certainly, the insurance company would charge a premium for it. We get a discount for having an all-hip roof here.

 

[Markos]

I've actually taken a few inches off the length and width to reduce the square footage from 506 square feet to 499 since the city construction permits are charged in increments of 100 square feet. I've got 11-foot ceilings planned to get more vertical space though my Max Jax lift won't need all of that.

Garage is likely going to feel huge! My new e9 garage is only about 275sf. It’s enough to restore the car, but will be tight. All that garage length will allow you to easily toy with the motor and stage parts while the car is on the lift.

Another option for the ceiling would be to use raised tie trusses (if you aren’t stick framing the roof).

Mini split sounds like a great addition after you complete your final inspection. .D

 

[mulberryworks]

I know that when you take cars apart the space needed expands by about 3X so I'm sure the garage won't feel like it's big for long. I also hope to use the space as a photo shooting space after the dust settles on fixing the car. I have so many boxes of parts taking up space now.

I debated about the ceiling structure quite a bit. I thought of doing a vaulted ceiling, or maybe using trusses, but two things, well three things pointed away from that.
First, the current location for the main heat pump compressor for the house is right in the middle of the new garage bay wall so it will have to be relocated to the far side of the garage slab. Before the garage is built. I was thinking I could run the power and refrigerant lines under the slab, but an AC guy said that wasn't a good idea. So that leaves running them up the wall and then through the attic and down the other wall to the unit. So a raised ceiling would make that trickier. I'm thinking I'll have to build a boxed channel where the walls and ceiling will be, move the unit, and then pour the foundation and build the garage. Easy Peasy? Hmm, maybe.

Second, I was thinking of making the ceiling beefy enough to be able to handle pulling an engine with a hoist. I've got a nice section of I-Beam that a chain hoist could run on, but that adds further to the weight to be supported. Can trusses handle such a concentrated load? Five hundred pounds for a full dress motor with trans attached? I haven't had an appointment with a structural engineer yet to address that question.

Third, I've read different things about possible delays in getting trusses made and the possibility that they may actually cost more than stick building a roof. Now that timber costs have fallen to almost pre-pandemic levels and building demand has slowed somewhat, maybe that's not as big a concern. I wasn't going to store anything in the attic, so that's not a factor in the decision.

I've been thinking of installing a split unit after final inspections partially to avoid the required Manual J (heat load) calculations and making it one less thing to wrap my head around. I could simply run some conduit to a box on the wall from the breaker box, that might be a good way to avoid dealing with the insulation for a later installation.

I think I like that black and white image of my car well enough that I'll make it into a T-shirt. The master file is high enough resolution.

 

[Markos]

Lots of challenges. I needed to move my gas line and electrical service line prior to building my garage.

Personally, I wouldn’t engineer the roof structure around the engine hoist idea. You can get a hoist for $250. Plus I think a major benefit of a floor hoist is the ability to roll it as the motor is coming out.

 

[mulberryworks]

Lots of challenges. I needed to move my gas line and electrical service line prior to building my garage.

Personally, I wouldn’t engineer the roof structure around the engine hoist idea. You can get a hoist for $250. Plus I think a major benefit of a floor hoist is the ability to roll it as the motor is coming out.

I avoided moving the gas line for my Austin carport by having one footing post descend at an angle to clear the line and another had a stair-step form to go around the gas line because the post was directly above the line. That made the rebars fun to make.

Yeah, the ceiling hoist was an afterthought, not likely to be very useful.

 

[mulberryworks]

I thought I'd wake this tread up again. It's been, ahem, a while since I updated things here and there have been some changes.
Here's the short list:

•Decided Austin is better than Jacksonville when visiting our old neighbors in November of 2024. Was told of a house on our old street coming up for sale.
•Cleaned up the Florida house, finished the backyard shed project I was in the middle of and sold the house.
•Moved back to our old street, across from our previous house in March of 2025.
•Built three sheds to hold tools, parts and supplies that don't quite fit in our 'new' smaller house.
•While looking for affordable shop space to begin my restoration, I've been doing the routine maintenance that comes with owning a home. Yesterday the kitchen sink disposal died and soaked the cabinet and it's contents. A new one's on order and I'm replacing the soggy cabinet floor today.

In E9 news, I took a tour of my driver's fender with my endoscope camera through the radio antenna hole in the top of the fender. I was pleased to see that, as I'd expected, the fender seems to have been replaced at some point. The fender itself is in excellent shape, however, the body steel behind it has suffered a bit from the years and both fenders will have to come off to do a proper job of restoration.
And what's the red wire doing? It goes through the firewall, with no grommet, somewhere under the dash..
Ah, the mysteries of old cars. Now the fun begins.

 

[Krzysztof]

Thanks for the update!

It would make sense to track the wire. Such "solutions" might have bad effect over time.

Maybe it was on/off for electric antenna or marking/indicator wire "bridge"?

 

[autokunst]

Welcome home, Ian.