72 3.0 CS Restoration Finally Underway

[ScottAndrews]

I bought my coupe in 2006. 3.0 CS with dual Webers. Good straight body, no sunroof, so relatively little rust. The only serious rust I have found is in the aft part of the right rocker, where water from the rear window dripped down inside. I bought OEM parts (inner rocker) and a quarter panel repair piece years ago, so that should be a fairly easy fix. Have not seen any other perforations. Fortunately the rocker repair wil be under the rocker side trim pieces (didn't even know about this rust until I removed those crusty rusted trim bits.

Original clor was Fjord, but someone painted it black along the way. It will go back to Fjord.

Started the project by buying a set of staggered Maxilite Alpina replica wheels to serve as inspiration. My wife loves them, so that's a good sign!. These will run Michelins Ultra Perormance All Season 4 tires, 205/50/16 on the front, and 225/55/16 on the rear. The old 14 inch wheels are pretty shabby, although I'll probably put cheap tires on them and use them for working wheels in the shop. Somone may be intereasted in them, since they seem to be period correct.

I also bought the full suspension upgrade system from Carl. I will be visiting San Diego in March, so he agreed to put it on a shelf for me until then, so I don't have to ship all that big heavy stuff.

My plan is to cryoblast the under side of the car to remove 50 years of grime. Then remove the engine, suspension, and subframes. I'll repaint or powder coat the subframes and struts, re-coat the underside (after any repairs, which I am pretty confident will not be much), and then re-install the suspension. I may replace the seals on the diff, and I'll inspect, and re-pack the CV joints, replace the boots, replace the wheel bearings, and rebuild the brakes, probably with all new hard lines. I'm sure there will be numerous other small projects under the car (fuel line, filter, and pump, for example).

I plan to totally gut the interior. It is the worst part of the car. All the wood needs to be redone, all of the upholsery is original, and it shows, etc. I did this with my 80 Euro 635 about 15 years ago, and it was a fun and easy job. Hoping to find some Scheel-Mann seats along the way.

With glass out, and the interior out, I can then address any body issues, and do the repaint. Unlike my 635, I am NOT painting this one myself!!! That car came out great, but my wife came ohme one day and said "do you know there is a large blue cloud outside our garage?" Yikes!! So, I'll leave that to the pros.

The engine runs strong, and there is no noise from the trans. I do have a spare Getrag 265, so I may swap that in. We'll see how involved that is.

I'll probably do a full leak-down test on the engine, and then decide if anything needs doing in there. If anything it is probably a valve job. My experience is thatthe bottom end of these M30 based engines is really bulletproof, so unless it was seriously mistreated, I expect the engine will be fine. I drove it 250 miles hom back in 2006 witout any issues. From there it is just a lot of cleaning painting and renewing things in the engine bay. I plan to do a full custom stainless exhaust (found a guy out in the Sna Joaquin Valley that builds these for Porsches and other exotics)

I do have a question: What do folks use to replace the heavy cracked sound deadening on the inner wheel wells (around the front shock towers)? Mine is a mess, and definitely needs to be replaced.

I'm estimating this will take about 2 years (I have a 72 Bronco engine swap and freshening to do for my son this summer, so that is sure to slow things a bit!).

I have been super busy for the past 10 years or so, and the car has been stored in a garage...out of sight, out of mind.... I had forgotten what a gorgeous car the coupe is...

Pics from 2006.

 

[Breiti]

Hope you do e writing error due to the tyres.
225 50 and 205 55 is the right combination.

Tui remove the stonechip use Hot air and a scrape.

I recommend you to remove the tarboards in the foot area front and rear to check for rust, especial the right and left front floor corner over the lift support.

Good luck.
Breiti

 

[sfdon]

The bitumen is available from CsWerk or at my shop in Alameda

 

[rsporsche]

if you want to make your own, i put drawings up for these in the FAQ - e9 parts dimensions drawings - see link below. these drawings are in post #3.

E9 Parts dimensions, drawings, technical info and models

Okay everyone, this thread is the new place to post drawing information, parts dimensions, data, etc. Any of the drawings on this post are only to be used for individual usage and not to be used for commercial profit unless approved to by the individual who created them.

e9coupe.com

 

[ScottAndrews]

Hope you do e writing error due to the tyres.
225 50 and 205 55 is the right combination.

Tui remove the stonechip use Hot air and a scrape.

I recommend you to remove the tarboards in the foot area front and rear to check for rust, especial the right and left front floor corner over the lift support.

Good luck.
Breiti

Yes. Typo!! 205/55 up front, and 255/50 in back.

I'll pull up the floor mats and such up front, but I have spent a lot of time poking around this car looking for rust. The front lift supports are solid, as are the inner fenders, and the upper rear of the inner fenders. Floors look OK from below. There was a bit of orange surface rust in the spare tire well, but no serious metal degradation. Looked like the metal had been exposed by the spare rubbing the paint off. Having no sunroof means no drains to clog, so the only water that could get into the rockers was seepage down the side glass. I removed the rear interior panels and looked into the inside of the rockers. The rust in the pic abopve starts at the back of the rocker and goes forward about 5 inches or so. There is similar, but much lighter, rust in the same place on the left side. I have an OEM replacement inner rocker (bought in 2006) that I will use to repair the inside portion of this (probably not the entire rocker though, as there was no visible rust forward of this one spot.

I recall looking at one coupe that was sitting in someone's back yard in San Jose. It had been resprayed that lime green color, and there was some overspray on the dirt in the rear wheel well. I poked at it with my car key and the key went right through the "metal"!. Looking further I discovered shock towers that looked like they had been repaired by a blind welder, literally, multiple welding wires sticking out from ugly blobs.. What a mess! I ran the other way!

I noticed Stevehose mentioned some sort of wax treatment. What's up with that?

 

[rsporsche]

@Stevehose puts waxoil on his coupe to prevent water infiltration into crevices and fight rust. he has lived in very humid climates that often stir up rain showers ... and if that happens while he is out + about, he keeps driving

 

[Breiti]

My Lift Support was solid as well.
I strongly recommend you to remove the tar board s cause between the lift support and the floor pan is a open space where dirt and water have a nice warm housing....

Also the water in the car runs under the tar board thru the big round holes (4 inch) in the floor pan and rotted them away nicely covered by tar on top and stone ship protection underneath.

See pics. Rust eas almost not visible.

Breiti

 

[Krzysztof]

Keeping for the project to move on without problems!

The 14" rims are from E12/E24 models. Not very valuable even today and not giving the E9 the best look in my humble opinion.



Have you also looked in there:

Good luck with Your challenge!

 

[Bert Poliakoff]

The bitumen is available from CsWerk or at my shop in Alameda

On my 635 I bought bitumen roofing tar paper I cut to to size, warmed it up with a torch and glued it on using very hi grade contacts cement

 

[ScottAndrews]

Keeping for the project to move on without problems!

The 14" rims are from E12/E24 models. Not very valuable even today and not giving the E9 the best look in my humble opinion.

I agree. The Alpina spoke stye looks much better in 16". I have 17" BBS 3 piece style 5's on my E24. Very pretty.

 

[bavbob]

Many of us use "Fluid Film" for car cavity protection.

As Breiti suggests, you probably should remove all the tar based insulation from the floors, inside the doors and behind the back seats and up the firewall. There are posts on how people did this. Quite labor intensive. I did this, then removed any surface rust, replaced any rusted panels then did the entire bare interior with 2K Epoxy Primer. Followed this with X-mat heat and sound insulation then Dynamat 1/2 inch insulation, then new carpet and then Coco mats............yes, a lot of work.

 

[lip277]

On my 635 I bought bitumen roofing tar paper I cut to to size, warmed it up with a torch and glued it on using very hi grade contacts cement

The stock (original) bitumen has a geometric hex pattern impressed on the surface that is visible (shows through after it is painted even) - you will loose that feature if you use anything else.

 

[ScottAndrews]

Many of us use "Fluid Film" for car cavity protection.

As Breiti suggests, you probably should remove all the tar based insulation from the floors, inside the doors and behind the back seats and up the firewall. There are posts on how people did this. Quite labor intensive. I did this, then removed any surface rust, replaced any rusted panels then did the entire bare interior with 2K Epoxy Primer. Followed this with X-mat heat and sound insulation then Dynamat 1/2 inch insulation, then new carpet and then Coco mats............yes, a lot of work.

I did this on my E24 (full interior/dash out restoration). There was some surface rust on the floor pans when I took up the padding, but nothng critical.

So this is insulation on the interior of the firewall? I have ordered the replacement padding for the engine side. 1/2" dynamat plus X-Mat seems pretty thick (5/8+).

 

[bavbob]

When you look at what you removed to get to the bare metal floor pan, it's a wash. The insulation, rubberized foam mat are just replaced with butyl-based heat/sound shield and then the dynamat. I went as far up the firewall as I could, ie up to and behind the glovebox for example.

 

[ScottAndrews]

Transmission swap questions.

I have a spare Getrag 265 wide ratio box. It has no bell housing, and no shifter platform. I will probably dive in and use this when I put my coupe back together.

Carl's article says to use a "late style bel housing, throw out bearing, throw out fork and pivot (Plus retainers)", but is this a "late style" coupe bell housing, or is ot a bell housing for the 3.5 liter engine (e.g. a 5 series)? The throw out pivot he lists is a part from a 5 series car, so I am wondering if his "late style bel housing" is 5-series bell housing.

 

[sfdon]

In 1974 BMW produced coupes with the new version of bell housing. That’s the late style bell housing that continued on until the 260 getrag arrived.

 

[Stevehose]

I used an early 5 series bellhousing. The shift platforms are getting hard to find, @halboyles is making repops if you need one.

 

[ScottAndrews]

Well, my Maxlite Alpina wheels arrived a month ago, and the tires arrived from Tire Rack the other day, so yesterday I got them installed. VERY nice.

I went over to the car today (I store it in a nice dry garage out of town). It's been quite a while since I took a good look at her. Bone dry, even after all this CA rain. Overall, not in bad shape. No significant body damage anywhere; paint is a crappy black re-spray over Fjord. Missing a couple of trim bits which I bought way back in 2008 or so, so they are there,just not onthe car, the left rear tail lamp lens is cracked, but I have a replacement set, and the front right side marker is cracked (sitting in the front passgener seat).

I had been obsessing over the whereabouts of my cloisonne roundels for the C pillars. We have moved twice in the last few years, and I was afraid they had been lost to time.. But, there they were in an egg carton on the passenger seat. Whew!

I also had a chance to get a look at the floors. There seems to be some sort of formed hard foam up aganst the firewall (right hand side of the car). It has what appears to be a wood or other composite back that the carpet would lay on, and it is formed to fit the front floor and the lower firewall. Maybe some sort of thermal insulation? Certainly looked original, but not completely sure.

Anyway, it was cracked and I was able to lift the outer side off to see the floor. No evidence of rust there. Just solid painted metal. I can see a bit of surface rust on the inside surface of the A pillar where the kick panel would go, but it its just a few small blemishes, as if the kick panel got damp at some point. Nothing structural.

I got a borescope, so when I go to change the wheels (all 4 tires are flat) I'll check the shelf areas. And I still have the replacement OEM inner rocker sheet metal I bought from BMW about 15 years ago, just waiting to be used to fix the one rusty spot in the right rear I am aware of,

It's kind of odd that I searched around back in 2006, found this car, and bought it. Then life got more complicated with kids in college and work and moves, so she ended up in this nice dry ex chicken barn about 5 mies away. The floor is new concrete, the roof is new, and other than some cobwebs, it is a nice clean dry place. I have three garage bays there, and for many years stored the 1972 Bronco, my 1980 Euro 635, and the E9. So going back there today, it is sort of like my own personal barn find!!

I cut a deal with the guy I rent the barn from to be able to use it more actively to restore the E9. So, as soon as the Bronco is gone*, I'll be able to start work onthe E9.

Looking hopeful!

Scott

* I did a full body-off restoration and upgrade of the Bronco for my son back in about 2005. He drove it through highschool and part way through college, until we bought him a more practical car. I had no idea that the values of these had skyrocketed. We're going to replace the crappy old 302 with an EFI crate motor, and he is going to ship it to the midwest to use as his summer fun car (one of his in-laws has a friend who offered up a bay in his heated garage to store it over winters.. So it's a win win.