2240310 1972 BMW 3.0cs

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Air, Fuel, Spark...Repeat
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I decided after several years of work on the coupe to put together a consolidated post to share the history of this vehicle and track the work already completed along with the many tasks left to complete on this vehicle.

Manufactured July 13, 1972

Delivered to Hoffman Motors Corp. NYC: August 7, 1972

Leased by George May: January 31, 1973

The car was leased for George May by his company, Potter Instrument Company, Inc in New York where he was the president.

As the lease end date approached George kept a close eye on the value and eventually purchased the vehicle and it remained in his family until 2019 when it was offered for sale on consignment through a dealer.

In 1992 George and his wife obtained quotes from several firms to perform sheet metal restoration work. The car was, by then, a little worse for wear given its life as a daily driver in the northeast. That work was performed by Integrated Automotive Services in Easton Pennsylvania.

The work performed at that time was extensive with substantial sheet metal purchase and installation followed by painting the affected areas. This work totaled ~$22,000.

Documentation:

A full binder of documentation from the original purchase order and lease agreement through to the end of the May family ownership exists, regrettably only a few photocopies of pictures of the vehicle exist for this period of ownership.

My wife and I had both loved the 3.0cs body style after seeing one parked in front of the San Francisco city hall when we both worked in the area in the 1980’s. Fast forward to 2020 and we decided that the 3.0cs was a car that we both would like to own.

In 2020 we acquired 2240310 the vehicle and began a rolling refurbishment process to bring the vehicle back to a better state. The interior pigskin leather was in rough shape with the leather splitting anytime weight was applied. The headliner had a small rip and the dashboard wood was in rough shape. The documentation for this work is shown in following link describing the full removal of the interior and subsequent work to bring it back to like new condition.

Upholstery project link

While the interior work was underway I was planning for the refurbishment of the engine compartment and front axle and suspension, as well as the installation of a 5 speed transmission to replace the original 4 speed.

While I had the engine out of the car I decided that it was time to have it rebuilt as there was substantial variation in compression between cylinders. The engine rebuilding process is also described in detail as a part of the link above.

Transmission swap & Engine Compartment refresh link

Next steps are to drop the rear axle to refresh the bushings and limited slip differential (that it was born with.

Thanks to all of you who have provided such a great information about the work you have done. Your journey inspires us to keep pushing forward!


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It was a good day in the garage today.

I replaced my old drive-on lift with a Max Jax lift that would fit in my low ceiling garage. Our house was built in 1960 and the garage pad was not thick enough to support the lift so I had to saw cut the floor, excavate and add steel rebar and insert dowels in the old pad to secure the new footing. After curing for a month this was the first use of the lift. What a nice improvement.

I adjusted the parking brake following the information that @Ohmess and the blue books provided. Also made adjustments to the parking brake ground switch.

I pulled the steering wheel and removed the turn signal cancellation tab which was not in the correct position, and also set the distance to the turn signal lever. Fingers crossed this will enable cancellation from both directions!

With those tasks out of the way I took the top of the 123 Distributor apart to check for oil infiltration and found the assembly under the electron boards to be dry.

I still have a few tasks to do to prepare for the BMWCCCA 20th anniversary drive at the end of October.

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That’s lovely and a nice garage setup!

Any idea what color they painted it? It’s really nice color combo. What color are the carpets?

Keep at it.., always lots of small things to fix… it never ends… but that’s the fun!
 
You are now living in Garage Heaven. Love the shot above at the Mill in Stockton(NJ not CA). Windows down, ready to roll.
 
That’s lovely and a nice garage setup!

Any idea what color they painted it? It’s really nice color combo. What color are the carpets?

Keep at it.., always lots of small things to fix… it never ends… but that’s the fun!
Thanks. The garage seems to be a continuous work in progress.

The original color was chamonix, the color they painted it after the body work was almost chamonix...but not a perfect match. Every time we do some body work they need to custom mix the paint to get a match.
 
Working on a few projects over the past few days.

  • The seat recline on the driver's side was "walking out" of it's position so I removed the seat and installed a circlip to hold it in place.
  • I finally installed the motor mount retainer plates. This coupe had never had them installed at the factory (perhaps a later model only item of purely aftermarket).
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  • Changed the oil and filter for the third time post engine build.
  • Pulled the plugs and was very happy with the condition and color. I had to do a bit of adjusting early on to get the carbs adjusted (linkage and jets) and the plugs show that it is running well.
  • Adjusted the turn signals as they were not cancelling. I found the signal cancellation collar was out of position and the turn signal stalk also needed to be adjusted (feeler gauge) to factory recommended setting.
I did find a problem today as I was lifting the car. One of the K-Mac camber plates had failed and the strut fell forward. I think I was lucky that it didn't drop to the side and dent the fender.

I purchased the camber plates in January of 2022 and had them on the shelf until I installed them in 2024. The one failed within 2,500 miles. I have reached out to K-mac to ask for warranty consideration. I am not looking forward to pulling the struts apart again and meanwhile I am stuck until I have a new part installed. I will post here when I hear back from them.

The other thing I noticed this week was the shop that installed my tires and balanced the wheels put the wheel weights on the outside of the wheel. Frustrating as there was absolutely no reason for this. I went back to them on Friday and spoke with the shop owner and he had no idea why they would do that. It was one of his senior technicians that worked on the car and naturally he was on vacation. The wheels will go back to them on Thursday for correction, hopefully without damaging the wheels as that wheel weight adhesive is very strong. I suspect some goo gone or similar will loosen it up enough to clean up.
 
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My AC has leaked down and the location of the leak was at the evaporator and expansion valve connections, so this week I pulled the console.

I did find oil in the bottom of the evaporator case and the black light did show that there was a leak around the suspected connections.

I cleaned up the unit and replaced the copper sealing cones with new (never used) ones and tightened everything up and pressurized the assembly with nitrogen from my mig welding tank. Surprise, still leaking at the connections.

I am still seeing evidence of leaks at the connections. I decided to walk away for the afternoon, but will come back to it tomorrow and break down the assembly again and use some skotch-bright to clean the copper sealing cones and then anneal them with a propane torch.

I plan to keep at this until I get a very tight connection there as I really don't want to pull apart the dashboard again, it's a heck of a job. Open to all suggestions!

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Checked this morning and the pressure held overnight so no further dis-assemblyl or annealing to be done. Assembly will begin after a wash down and drying of the unit.

Also thinking that I should look at the ac blower assembly to see if there are any bits that need to be lubricated.
 
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I like the white color.

As to the Kmacs, you may want to reach out to Andrew Wilson (@adawil2002). Mario at VSR installed those on his car to address a side-to-side camber adjustment issue.
 
Thanks @Ohmess, I have been happy with the Kmacs, but one failed on me. I got in touch with them and have a set on the way at a nominal cost as a "gift."

They indicated that the e9 product is low use so it took them about 3-4 days to make up another set for me. I have tracking and they are stuck in NYC for the past few days.

Meanwhile, I put one of the old strut top bearings in place and drove it this past weekend with no ill effects (that I can see).
 
The replacement Kmac's arrived today, within the week that they were shipped. Installation will happen after the AC & interior is back together.

I installed the evaporator today and spent the better part of two hours getting that last cable attached...the defrost cable behind the floor vent. I just noticed that the bottom of the vent housing is cracked, so I will patch it up tomorrow before it grows or breaks.

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I just want the orange ones to be black so they look more "stock' just the dust cap would be an improvement. Up here in the Perpetual Winterlands we have nothing better to do than
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