I recently picked up a 1976 3.0 Si, automatic (ZF 3HP22) in the crazy cool period color of Taiga. Built 7/76, last month of US 3.0 Si production. Many thanks to Chris Macha and Ron Perry who were invaluable in assisting me with this purchase.
Car is a one-owner, 84K mile car with the service book fully stamped up until 76k miles in 1992. The owner was a very successful Culligan Water franchise holder in San Diego in the 70's. As attested by the service book stamps, they took delivery of the car in Munich, with subsequent service stamps in Vienna (1,000 km) and Brentford, England at 7,600 km before shipping it home and registering in California early '77. License plate was CUL H2O... Owner passed away in February of this year at the age of 90. His wife had passed away in 2007, the year of the last registration stickers visible on the plates. The car was donated to charity after the man died and had gone through two wholesale auctions until I found it on Ebay being offered by a corner used car lot/quickie oil change outfit.
The car passed California smog in June and thus has all the strangling pollution control devices, which I plan on removing and saving for posterity. Not surprisingly, since it has run with thermal reactors for all these years, the head has been replaced in the past by one of the more reliable Spanish heads stamped "AMC". Read all bout M30 heads here: http://www.firstfives.org/faq/cylinder_head/cylinder_head_faq.htm
While I was in LA for the Socal Vintage show my plan was to take it to the show and then ship it home. Well... I almost made it. About 52 miles into the 53 mile trip to Van Nuys, the car --which was running great and the tranny was shifting crisply with zero slippage, decide to expire in a *huge* cloud of white smoke. Turns out one of the radiator-tranny hoses ruptured.
They are available from BMW but I plan on getting a local hydraulic hose maker to whip them up for me, rather than waiting for 3 weeks and paying top dollar from BMW.
Second order of business is to get the hood support fixed. The torsion springs are good but the hood was not being supported. The reason is that end caps where the short end of the spring is captured have essentially turned to play-doh after all these years and the twisted themselves out of shape:
...but also the spring end gouged itself into the bracket in a way that lessened its effectiveness, as seen below.
...When it should really sit this way:
The end caps are available so I'll be getting those and trying to have a welder somehow repair the support tube and leg since those parts are not available, unless someone here an supply me with a good one.
The leather is in very nice condition and must have been treated over the years. The horsehair padding is a different story so I'll be having the seats properly re-stuffed.
Surprisingly, this car has points ignition. I would have thought BMW had electronic ignition at this point in time.
I hope to continue to update as I continue to give the car the TLC that it deserves so it's ready for the driving season next spring.
Car is a one-owner, 84K mile car with the service book fully stamped up until 76k miles in 1992. The owner was a very successful Culligan Water franchise holder in San Diego in the 70's. As attested by the service book stamps, they took delivery of the car in Munich, with subsequent service stamps in Vienna (1,000 km) and Brentford, England at 7,600 km before shipping it home and registering in California early '77. License plate was CUL H2O... Owner passed away in February of this year at the age of 90. His wife had passed away in 2007, the year of the last registration stickers visible on the plates. The car was donated to charity after the man died and had gone through two wholesale auctions until I found it on Ebay being offered by a corner used car lot/quickie oil change outfit.
The car passed California smog in June and thus has all the strangling pollution control devices, which I plan on removing and saving for posterity. Not surprisingly, since it has run with thermal reactors for all these years, the head has been replaced in the past by one of the more reliable Spanish heads stamped "AMC". Read all bout M30 heads here: http://www.firstfives.org/faq/cylinder_head/cylinder_head_faq.htm
While I was in LA for the Socal Vintage show my plan was to take it to the show and then ship it home. Well... I almost made it. About 52 miles into the 53 mile trip to Van Nuys, the car --which was running great and the tranny was shifting crisply with zero slippage, decide to expire in a *huge* cloud of white smoke. Turns out one of the radiator-tranny hoses ruptured.
They are available from BMW but I plan on getting a local hydraulic hose maker to whip them up for me, rather than waiting for 3 weeks and paying top dollar from BMW.
Second order of business is to get the hood support fixed. The torsion springs are good but the hood was not being supported. The reason is that end caps where the short end of the spring is captured have essentially turned to play-doh after all these years and the twisted themselves out of shape:
...but also the spring end gouged itself into the bracket in a way that lessened its effectiveness, as seen below.
...When it should really sit this way:
The end caps are available so I'll be getting those and trying to have a welder somehow repair the support tube and leg since those parts are not available, unless someone here an supply me with a good one.
The leather is in very nice condition and must have been treated over the years. The horsehair padding is a different story so I'll be having the seats properly re-stuffed.
Surprisingly, this car has points ignition. I would have thought BMW had electronic ignition at this point in time.
I hope to continue to update as I continue to give the car the TLC that it deserves so it's ready for the driving season next spring.
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