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Hi guys:<O
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<O</O
I live in Mexico and down here, e9's are not very common. Either they got imported from new by very wealthy or influential guys, or in the past number of years when our borders opened for 'collector' cars (paying a huge amount of taxes regularly). I have always liked e9's and considered them the most beautiful BMW ever (asides from the gorgeous 507 roadster). Back some 30 years ago, I wanted my father to purchase one, out of a guy that had two, a cream colored one with tan interior, and the one I wanted, a baikal blue one with tan interior, but the owner backed out of the deal, once we were at his place and with the money in hand.<O</O
<O</O
Anyhow, fast forward 30 years later, and after having gotten some other old toys and restored a few, I bought a 1974 BMW 3.0CS, sunroof, air conditioning, and standard transmission... all of those options add up to what I call an excellent option for a daily driver. That is the intention with the car, to become a very nice and driveable car, done as close to original as posible and to be used once or twice a week.
<O</OOf course, it has a couple of defects for which it is not perfect: 1974 US version, so it has the ugly bumpers, and also the color combo is not my favorite, the very light blue (fjord metallic, if I recall correctly) with tan leather (plastic nowadays). Luckily, I believe both things could be corrected easily when I want to.
<O</OAbout the car's condition, it is far from great, but not bad either. The car shows very little signs of rust, so I am sure it will be no problem at all to restore. We did repair the roof already which was rusted in parts due to blocked sunroof drains and I believe that is the worst part the car had. It is mostly complete, missing a few pieces of trim or bits. It shows a sort of bad paint, in an incorrect tone of blue, a 10 footer, so a new paint job will be needed in the medium term.
<O</OMechanically, after some work, the car is very dependable and drives very nicely, solid and smooth, but it smokes a bit, and after compression checks and several tests, my mechanic determined it was valve seals, most probably. We already dismantled the engine bay area a bit and took the head off and yes, valve seals are urgently needed.
<O</OCarbs are not original, and the fuel pump is Italian and appears to be very small, but works fine except after stopping the car on a very hot day, so I installed an electric unit in line, near the tank, to help with startups.
<O</OAbout the car's future, I already said it will become a daily driver, shared with some other old toys in the stable, mainly a '67 Porsche 912, a '60 MB 190SL and a '64 Buick Riviera.
<O</OAt first, I thought only about changing the interior to navy blue, but now that I have the engine out, I have to decide if I want to go to a color I like... and as you probalby correctly sensed, I would kill for Baikal blue. So, in these few weeks, with the engine partially disassembled, we will prepare the engine bay area for paint... and I probably have around 3 weeks to decide if I go ahead with the baikal change or return it to Fjord, but with a properly painted engine bay area.
<O</OIntention then is to use the car with the same 10 footer exterior job for a while till I finish some other projects and then do the full cosmetics, the exterior paint job, the new leather interior, new rubber, etc.
<O</OAnyhow... probably enough for a small introduction. I should better leave you with a few pics... in case I find out how to do it in my next post.
<O</OLooking forward to getting help from the list to restore the car correctly.
<O</OVictor<O</O
</O<O
</OI live in Mexico and down here, e9's are not very common. Either they got imported from new by very wealthy or influential guys, or in the past number of years when our borders opened for 'collector' cars (paying a huge amount of taxes regularly). I have always liked e9's and considered them the most beautiful BMW ever (asides from the gorgeous 507 roadster). Back some 30 years ago, I wanted my father to purchase one, out of a guy that had two, a cream colored one with tan interior, and the one I wanted, a baikal blue one with tan interior, but the owner backed out of the deal, once we were at his place and with the money in hand.<O
</O<O
</OAnyhow, fast forward 30 years later, and after having gotten some other old toys and restored a few, I bought a 1974 BMW 3.0CS, sunroof, air conditioning, and standard transmission... all of those options add up to what I call an excellent option for a daily driver. That is the intention with the car, to become a very nice and driveable car, done as close to original as posible and to be used once or twice a week.
<O
</OOf course, it has a couple of defects for which it is not perfect: 1974 US version, so it has the ugly bumpers, and also the color combo is not my favorite, the very light blue (fjord metallic, if I recall correctly) with tan leather (plastic nowadays). Luckily, I believe both things could be corrected easily when I want to.<O
</OAbout the car's condition, it is far from great, but not bad either. The car shows very little signs of rust, so I am sure it will be no problem at all to restore. We did repair the roof already which was rusted in parts due to blocked sunroof drains and I believe that is the worst part the car had. It is mostly complete, missing a few pieces of trim or bits. It shows a sort of bad paint, in an incorrect tone of blue, a 10 footer, so a new paint job will be needed in the medium term.<O
</OMechanically, after some work, the car is very dependable and drives very nicely, solid and smooth, but it smokes a bit, and after compression checks and several tests, my mechanic determined it was valve seals, most probably. We already dismantled the engine bay area a bit and took the head off and yes, valve seals are urgently needed. <O
</OCarbs are not original, and the fuel pump is Italian and appears to be very small, but works fine except after stopping the car on a very hot day, so I installed an electric unit in line, near the tank, to help with startups. <O
</OAbout the car's future, I already said it will become a daily driver, shared with some other old toys in the stable, mainly a '67 Porsche 912, a '60 MB 190SL and a '64 Buick Riviera.<O
</OAt first, I thought only about changing the interior to navy blue, but now that I have the engine out, I have to decide if I want to go to a color I like... and as you probalby correctly sensed, I would kill for Baikal blue. So, in these few weeks, with the engine partially disassembled, we will prepare the engine bay area for paint... and I probably have around 3 weeks to decide if I go ahead with the baikal change or return it to Fjord, but with a properly painted engine bay area.<O
</OIntention then is to use the car with the same 10 footer exterior job for a while till I finish some other projects and then do the full cosmetics, the exterior paint job, the new leather interior, new rubber, etc.<O
</OAnyhow... probably enough for a small introduction. I should better leave you with a few pics... in case I find out how to do it in my next post.<O
</OLooking forward to getting help from the list to restore the car correctly.<O
</OVictor<O</O
