'72 Restomod

[Layne]

I learned about the E12 exhaust heat shield here, and Pelican Parts happened to have one in stock. Barring that, it probably has to come from Germany. Had to re-remove the rear header to get it in there, but it works well. I just drilled a couple holes and used button head screws from the inside to mount it. With the IE headers, the rear pipe touches the shield. Probably still better than not having a shield. I banged the shield in a little, but it won't not touch.



It looks a little crooked from the front, but that's where it fit the best.



This side part seemed like it would catch rocks and dirt, so I glued some rubber to it and bent it up against the body.



Then I got started on building a custom SS exhaust system. I don't know of any exhausts for sale the connect to the IE headers, so the downpipes had to be custom anyway. Might as well do the whole thing. The front IE header comes out at a crazy angle, not parallel to the rear header, so not so easy to connect to. I didn't want to ruin the ceramic coating by welding to the headers, so I'm using slip connectors. Then another set of slip connectors are required for assembly at the merge collector, on account of the two headers not being parallel. From there it becomes 2.5" tube and goes to a 4"x24" magnaflow front muffler, then on to a 6"x18" rear magnaflow. Still need to create the final part that circumnavigates the spare tire.





The ground clearance is not bad at all, considering the lack of space allotted for the exhaust. I honestly think BMW forgot to include it in the original design of the car.

 

[Layne]

I made a little heat shield to protect the driveshaft center bearing. I mounted the bearing with longer bolts, one set of nuts to install the bearing, then a second set of nuts to hold the heatshield and exhaust hangers.

I'd almost forgotten to install a fuel filter... so all the empty spaces were almost gone. I found some room on the frame rail just below the steering gearbox. I couldn't find a factory bracket that looked any good, so I just made this one. The filter fits an E30, among other things. Cheap and easy to find.

 

[Bmachine]

Any progress on this, Layne? I am curious to hear how your electrical box is working out.

 

[Layne]

Any progress on this, Layne? I am curious to hear how your electrical box is working out.

Wow long time since I posted... Yes there's been a lot of progress. My phone camera continues to go to crap, so I haven't been taking many photos. The engine now runs, but I haven't driven it yet. The electrical box has been completely flawless, kinda like right before something explodes. I expected to have to repair mistakes and oversights, but so far it has worked perfectly.

Since last posting, I've mostly worked on the windows and interior. All 4 window mechanisms cleaned and lubed and installed. I did window relays as you saw earlier, but I think the old grease is the #1 cause of window slowness. I cleaned out a lot of it. Each window is now about 3 seconds up or down, as fast as any modern car. I've installed the headliner, carpet, dash, gauge cluster, door panels, and a million pieces of trim. Every single one 1000x more difficult than it reasonably seems it should be. The only things that remain are bending the AC pipes and installing a compressor, installing the front and rear glass, and installing the center console and seats. Should be driving outside in a week or two, and have everything finished by the end of the month. I'm very excited to get some real pictures of it.

 

[grnder95]

Hi Layne
That is a lot of progress since we talked, congrats on finishing your fist project, hope everything goes well.
Cheers
Victor

 

[Bmachine]

Layne, since all your photos have been taken down by photobucket, could you repost a few of of the engine using the "upload a file" option here at the bottom of the message box? There were many interesting things in there.
Thank you.

 

[stphers]

Nice work, The center bearing shield was used on the 74-76 2002's from the factory, one of those would bolt right on. Here is what some of the guys on the Fiat forum are using to get photobucket pictures to show

If you are blocked from viewing the photobucket images, use the Chrome browser and add the extension:

Photobucket Hotlink Fix 1.3.14


I never used it so I don't know how well it works

Thanks, Rick

 

[Bmachine]

If you are blocked from viewing the photobucket images, use the Chrome browser and add the extension:

Photobucket Hotlink Fix 1.3.14


I never used it so I don't know how well it works

Thanks, Rick

Wow! That worked! Excellent, thank you. Although, to be fair, I believe someone else had already brought this up a while ago but I never had a chance to try it until now.

Edit: Yes, as I thought, Markos (who else?) mentioned this, albeit a bit more cryptically, on November 7 in another thread...

 

[Layne]

I started attempting to repair the photos, for anyone not using the Chrome plugin, or if it stops working later. It's pretty tedious. Many of them are over the 2.0MB limit for the forum. I'll keep trying.

So I finished the car back in early August and it went home to its owner. I'm still waiting on some finished photos a friend took (you know how friends do), but here are a few near finished ones. Not much visually changed after this point, except that I installed gas struts to hold the hood open, and later after the springs finished settling, the owner wasn't happy with the rake, so we cut the rear springs and lowered it about 1.5" so that it sits about level. He mentioned wanting to lower the front some more now. (these are Korman springs BTW)

Not too much went wrong once it drove for the first time. The brake booster shown early on in this thread was a 7" single diaphragm, and it was not powerful enough. I never did figure out where it came from or what it goes on, it was something the previous mechanic picked out. So I ended up modifying a Smart car booster to work. It's about a 7" dual diaphragm. That ended up working great, has a nice feel and locks up the wheels if needed.

Also when I rebuilt the power steering pump, I didn't mess with the relief valve. It ended up getting stuck and causing no power, but that was an easy fix.

Turns out the original 4 speed transmission is kind of noisy. The owner wants to do something about that soon.

Not much else went wrong, and I don't think it leaks anything at all. All of the electrics and the heat and A/C are great.

The car is amazing to drive! I think I expected it to be not as good as an 80's BMW, but really it's better. And if you've ever driven an American car from 1972, well the E9 must have seemed like a space ship at the time.

 

[afishe]

I started attempting to repair the photos, for anyone not using the Chrome plugin, or if it stops working later. It's pretty tedious. Many of them are over the 2.0MB limit for the forum. I'll keep trying.

So I finished the car back in early August and it went home to its owner. I'm still waiting on some finished photos a friend took (you know how friends do), but here are a few near finished ones. Not much visually changed after this point, except that I installed gas struts to hold the hood open, and later after the springs finished settling, the owner wasn't happy with the rake, so we cut the rear springs and lowered it about 1.5" so that it sits about level. He mentioned wanting to lower the front some more now. (these are Korman springs BTW)

Not too much went wrong once it drove for the first time. The brake booster shown early on in this thread was a 7" single diaphragm, and it was not powerful enough. I never did figure out where it came from or what it goes on, it was something the previous mechanic picked out. So I ended up modifying a Smart car booster to work. It's about a 7" dual diaphragm. That ended up working great, has a nice feel and locks up the wheels if needed.

Also when I rebuilt the power steering pump, I didn't mess with the relief valve. It ended up getting stuck and causing no power, but that was an easy fix.

Turns out the original 4 speed transmission is kind of noisy. The owner wants to do something about that soon.

Not much else went wrong, and I don't think it leaks anything at all. All of the electrics and the heat and A/C are great.

The car is amazing to drive! I think I expected it to be not as good as an 80's BMW, but really it's better. And if you've ever driven an American car from 1972, well the E9 must have seemed like a space ship at the time.

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hi. those (GTSClassic?) seats - what slider and tilt mechanism did you use for them? Any issues? I am considering them for my car but being in New Zealand I want to get the right parts first time! Also - what model are those seats in their range? Cheers Alan

 

[Layne]

hi. those (GTSClassic?) seats - what slider and tilt mechanism did you use for them? Any issues? I am considering them for my car but being in New Zealand I want to get the right parts first time! Also - what model are those seats in their range? Cheers Alan

The seats are Cobra brand. I think they came from England. I don't know much other than that. The sliders come with the seats, but the brackets to mount them had to be made. It's just a big aluminum plate with some holes. But there's a flange on the E9 that had to be hammered over to fit the plate. You might not be willing to do that. Not sure what you would need to mount them in that case.

 

[Dave G]

Fabulous workmanship! Thanks for sharing the thread with us