72 3.0 CS 2240344 Restoration

I thought so too until I actually saw them inthe sun

Funny you should mention Sapele. I was pondering the Mahogany Nardi wheel, and thought of that too. My front door, staircase, bedroom floors, office floor, and a lot of interior trim in my house are sapele.. My work with Sapele (I used a lot of it on my antique boat too) is that it may not make a very good veneer because of the interlocking grain You can only plane it in one direction or it tears.... I have some Wenge veneer that I got for a different project but never used. That might be a bit severe. When I first got the coupe I got some Bubinga veneer, but seeing that today, it is way too red, and awfully curly. I'm actually really liking your Etimoe! Interesting without being overwhelming. What did you use for that satin finish? Very classy!

And yes, I am leaning toward a grey or blue grey square weave carpet. Need something darker to ground the interior.

Door panels will match the seats.

Wayback when Paul did that 3.8 I found and bought a Euro front spoiler like his. So that's part of the "look" (it is the same basic style as my Euro 635.
the 6er air dam was made by Coupeguy. somebody else may also have made them, but he was the only person that advertised them for sale. i have one as well.

i love Etimoe - i first used it in a bar that i designed for the Ritz-Carlton in San Juan, the bar no longer exists. i have also used it in the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne and a resort in Singer Island ... so i had to do my coupe wood in it. i have used sapele in several hotels as well. the good news is that if you want to use sapele, you can - no planes are required to reveneer the wood - all that you have to do after bonding it to the substrate is to shape the edges and sand the veneer to refinish it. as far as the clear finish, i don't remember the actual project that Gary used, but it was a semi-gloss / satin finish ... and it does have nice depth. you are right, Bubinga is very curly and very red. Wenge is too dark brown - darker than American Walnut

carpet - since you can't buy the original blue carpet, the current materials are either a very bright blue or a very gray blue ... the gray blue 2 tone material might work very well.
 
Paul Cain can jump in here but I think his front spoiler is actually from a euro e24. I remember reading about how long it took him to get the fit right. Pretty sure Paul's car, inspired Coupeguy to design the one he sold for years. I've have the Coupeguy's version on my coupe, it too was a ton of work to get the fit correct but I love the look. I mounted in a way that I could always remove it but it's staying on the car.

Paul's car was my inspiration while I was restoring my coupe 20 plus years ago, it was and still is kind of the ultimate modified e9.
 
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could be, well before my time that Paul created that car. i will need to work to get mine installed properly ... i think it will need some fender washers between the apron + air dam to pull it forward a bit.
 
I know this is step 4001 in the restoration, but I am wondering what techniques the forumites have used to renovate the original aluminum roundels. Mine are the aluminum ones with raised lettering. I am pretty sure I can polish the aluminum to a high shine. So what is best to fill the colored areas?

On my Bronco I renovated the FORD letters in front using carefully matched and carefully applied nail polish. Several layers of polish did a good job of creating a shiny fill. I was thinking of doing the same on the roundels. I am hoping that I can get the layers of polish thick enough that they at least partially fill the places that are not raised, although I'm a bit concerned about the curve of the roundel causing the polish to be thicker around the outer edges of each recessed area.

Thoughts or suggestions?
Some members have reported success with using Testors paint on the roundels. Not the enameled ones of course. Here are some links.




 
Some members have reported success with using Testors paint on the roundels. Not the enameled ones of course. Here are some links.




Given this. I think I may research some nail polish options. I redid the letters of my Bronco using nail polish and it worked great. Better than enamel (e.g. Testor's), since being a lacquer you can layer it and get a high build without wrinkles or cracks...
 
Can you post it here or PM me with it?

You bet! Here you go...

 
New question. I was in my shop today sorting through parts and putting things on shelves. I had the E9 doors open and noticed that they have a small padded leather/vinyl section just above the wood trim.

Do folks do this in black, the seat color, or what? Seems like the console, those pads and the knee bolsters should all be the same. Also what about the glove box and fuse box covers? Is the dash always black?

My wife was asking about the arm rests too. If we do the seats and door cards in white, then it seems logical to do the arm rests in white too, but she pointed out that they get handled a lot, and they will discolor faster than the rest of the interior. My current arm rests and ashtray inserts are black over a sort of mauve leather (not really sure what color it was, since it is seriously dried out and perished). That seems pretty severe against white. Wondering if a light brownish grey, or a medium grey might go well for the other interior bits.

Getting ready to strip the interior out of the car and plan to send out the various interior parts for re-upholstery and reskinning...
 
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traditionally all 4 of those panels are black. yes, all panels on glove boxes and dash panels are black. my thought is to keep colors to a minimum - arm rests / door pulls come off pretty easy, i would paint them to match the door panels. i have always thought high contrast arm rests to door panels look odd ... when the color is off slightly, it looks like poor attention to detail.

here is an old interior pic of deQuincey's car - i believe its a nachtblau car and has dk. blue carpet + door panels and the light seats. always thought it looked good.
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i have always thought high contrast arm rests to door panels look odd ... when the color is off slightly, it looks like poor attention to detail.
Yeah this was my thought too. Wondering if maybe going for an entire other color for the dash, door panels, pulls, etc might work. Here is the car on BAT right now that has a sort of grey-brown dash, console, etc.. Might just extend that to the door cards and kick panels as well...

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ugh ... i like the black dash, but maybe that's why i like black carpet with red interior ... or black + blue together ... i know i like tan seats with a black dash + black carpet. i know i don't like high gloss wood dash in the coupe
 
Yeah, definitely with you on the non-high gloss. Just wondering about mixing too many colors. Black dash, dash pads and console/shifter, white seats... Certainly don't want to have black armrests and white door cards.. But not really keen on black door cards...Maybe I just stick with white arm rests and plan to clean them frequently or have them redone every few years... REALLY don't like the white kick panels inbthe coupe above..

I suppose a black dash a grey console and gray carpet might work. Sort of a slow transition between white and black.
 
You have a lot to consider but if you want your coupe to look somewhat close to stock, @mkekiddoc's coupe would be a great template if you do go with white leather. In that case, the seats, door panels, armrests, and front kick panels are white - everything else is black. Not sure about his carpet, it might be salt and pepper - which might be a good choice.
 
one other option, well two ...
1. you could slightly darken the seat / door panel color
2. you could depart from tradition and use a non-standard door panel color - like a fjord color with the off-white seats, with blue / gray carpet

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