Andrew Wilson's '73 CSi

[adawil2002]

I can finally call Athena the 'perfect' 3.0CSi, for me that is.


After considerable research, consultation and being old enough to know better, we bought Athena an Italian delivery 1973 3.0 CSi from Ayer European Auto Sales in Gardiner Maine. Compared to Vern, the trip home was not a grand adventure, it was just the drive home from Gardiner on 201. The adventure was making her into a showable, reliable driver on par with Vern.


Engine & bay:
Replace head, with 1986 head rebuilt by Memphis Motorworks. With new valve guides, valves 5 point
precision ground, used camshaft and rockers from original head.
New oil pump chain and shims.
Oil pan cleaned.
Front cover cleaned.
New timing chain rail.
All new gaskets.
Replace NLA coolant return pipe, restored.
New water pump.
New T-stat
All new cooling hoses.
Fuel filter
Expansion tank cap
Triple cored radiator
Repaired broken injector boss.
New engine mounts.
New late model fan clutch
New fan
New retard cannister on distributor
New distributor cap
New dist. rotor
Replace Crane XR700 with Pertronix 1868 replaced with points and condenser.
New hood insulation, old insulation cleaned off.
New fuel pump relay.
Suspect D-Jet wires soldered and heat shrunk.
New E28 fuel pump, in tank screen, pick up gasket.
Adjust hood latches and lubricate cables.


Suspension & Steering
Wheel bearings repacked and torqued to spec
New Bilstein HDs front and rear
CN front springs
Computerized wheel alignment
New CN/Suspension Techniques anti-sway bars, F-28mm, R- 22mm, greased urethane bushings.
IE strut brace, catastrophic failure in install, returned to IE. Going without so car can flex.


Brakes, Driveline etc.
New guibo
New tranny output seal
New shifter seal
New shift linkage
New center link
Rebuild right rear caliper, bleed brakes.


Wipers
Wiper motor cleaned and re-greased.
Linkage oiled.
Trico 33-162 wiper blades & holders


Lighting
Hella fog lights, Xenon H3 bulbs, new relayed wiring harness from Susquehanna Motorsports.
Modified, yellow button hazard switch as fog light switch, connected to P.O. accessory lamp mounted in left
wood dash as fog on indicator.
LED 3rd brake, 'invisible' light strip fabricated and installed.
All lenses, reflectors and sockets cleaned.
Italian turn signal lenses.


Electric windows
Cleaned and greased all rails
Replaced stripped left rear winding transmission.
Replace window up/down stops and adjust.
Correct 3-way window switch wiring.


Interior
Adjust glove compartment catch, to catch.
New old headrest chrome escutcheons, still need one.
Replace 'HAZARD' button with correct triple ∆
Steering wheel, refinished.
New door handle plastic inserts.
New driver side upper arm rest handle bracket.
New passenger side upper arm rest chrome insert
Blaupunkt Frankfurt, with correct E9 faceplate and mounting bracket, iPod cable.
4x6 Rockford-Fosgate speakers replaced blown cheap speakers in back parcel shelf
4x4 Rockford-Fosgate speakers replaced blown cheap speakers in kick panels
Install 'hidden' accessory power in glove box to run iPod dock.
Front of front seats shimmed up 1/2 inch.
Detail interior, polish all chrome, clean & treat leather, clean headliner.
Tighten sun visors.
Leather shift knob from Murray Fowler


Exterior
Installed rear raised letter Roundel, replacing curved plastic one, front was correct.
BMW CCA grill badge added to left rear panel.
Touch up paint.
Poorly detailed paint, cleaned swirls lessened, repeatedly with polishing compound & Zymöl HD Cleanse.
Wax, Zymöl Creame.
Bumper removed and cleaned, rusted hardware replaced with stainless steel.
New bumper bushings and welting.
CSL street air dam, painted, stainless screws, washers and rubber grommets.


Misc.
Spare tire well, cleaned.
Clean trunk panels.
Remove rocker covers, clean, clean rocker panels. Reinstall with stainless screws.
General undercarriage cleaning.
Rust abatement with POR-15, fiberglass tape and epoxy, as stop gap temporary fix.


Best thing so far?
Replacing the electronic ignition with traditional points and condenser. Solved several problems that had eluded the past 2 P.O.s, me and very talented mechanics. I'm done with electronic ignition on her. The suspension is pretty damned good too as a close 2nd, after the engine rebuild of course,...oh yeah and the air dam.

 

[HB Chris]

Very well done and nice to see a coupe on original alloys.

Chris

 

[Stevehose]

Very impressive - where in Maine are you? I'll be in good ole' Fairlee VT this summer - maybe a road trip to Maine...

 

[Stan]

Your coupe is beautiful! A labor of love.
I want to see how you connected your third brake light.
Maybe we can converge at my cottage in Gilmanton NH?

 

[Jellobmw]

Did Voit Ritch help with any of the restoration? He was a wizard when I restored my 73.

 

[Stevehose]

Maybe your Pertronix is faulty? Haven't heard of one misbehaving like this before.

 

[Stan]

The "easy upgrade"

Maybe your Pertronix is faulty? Haven't heard of one misbehaving like this before.

When I first bought my CS, the first think I did was to replace the stock parts with a Pertronix.
Since I am not the most mechanically inclined, I was encouraged by everyone who said this is a very fast and easy to do upgrade. I installed and...nothing. Re read the instructions, removed re-installe,d nothing. After weeks of this I doubted my ability so I had Mario at Vintage Sports look at it. His diagnosis, the rare DOA Pertronix. I sent it back, got a new one and it has been fine ever since 2003.

So, they are not infallible.... But they work great when they work.

 

[Sven]

Andrew,

IE strut brace, catastrophic failure in install, returned to IE. Going without so car can flex.

What happened here?

 

[kwyjibo]

Looks great, Andrew! Athena looks like a Fjord version of my Spruce Moose - spoiler with bumpers and fog lights. I still have the original rims and was wondering what it would look like if I reinstalled them.

@Steve, definitely let me know when you make it to Fairlee since I'm just across the river. Is the coupe coming too? In fact, are you here July 14th? I'll be going to the Saratoga Auto Museum event (aka: NE coupefest?) and it sounds like Duane, Andrew and others will be also.

 

[adawil2002]

Did Voit Ritch help with any of the restoration? He was a wizard when I restored my 73.

Voit's a friend of mine. He has worked on the car in the past, one of the reasons I bought it. He loaned me some much needed tools and advice.

 

[duane_sword]

I am indeed planning on the cruise to Saratoga. Stan has a route planned for those of us out east (as far as the Pike goes).

 

[adawil2002]

Andrew,



What happened here?

Strut mount plates bent, welds broke, bar hit top of intake plenum so engine could not move, barely fit around coolant tank and pinched overflow/vent tube. See pics.

 

[Stevehose]

I'll be up the week of 4th July so I will miss Saratoga unfortunately but I'll drop you a line prior to visit to see when may be a good time to possibly meet you and the Spruce Moose. My coupe will stay behind, someday I would like to ship it up and drive the mountain roads-that would be great fun. My sister lives in Hanover so will be there and it's only 15 min from the lake and can hop down no prob.

@Steve, definitely let me know when you make it to Fairlee since I'm just across the river. Is the coupe coming too? In fact, are you here July 14th? I'll be going to the Saratoga Auto Museum event (aka: NE coupefest?) and it sounds like Duane, Andrew and others will be also.

 

[DaSurfa]

When I first bought my CS, the first think I did was to replace the stock parts with a Pertronix.
Since I am not the most mechanically inclined, I was encouraged by everyone who said this is a very fast and easy to do upgrade. I installed and...nothing. Re read the instructions, removed re-installe,d nothing. After weeks of this I doubted my ability so I had Mario at Vintage Sports look at it. His diagnosis, the rare DOA Pertronix. I sent it back, got a new one and it has been fine ever since 2003.

So, they are not infallible.... But they work great when they work.

Hey Stan,
I just installed a Pertronix into my 2800cs and for the last couple of days I can't get my car to start. I was thinking maybe it's because I'm not getting TDC setting on my distributor but I've tried over dozen times reinstalling the distributor and still my car won't start. I was wondering if you were experiencing similar problem with your doa unit?

Thanks,
David

 

[adawil2002]

Time to resurrect my build thread

Athena has gotten much better since the last post. All the below work is/was and has been done by the talented team at VSR in Bow NH. They have handled all the logistics and vendors. http://www.vsr1.com

Winter 2013/2014 Rebuilt the passenger side lower A pillar, floor and rockers and patched a hole in the rear wheel well found when media blasting. Most of the damage was from improper jacking and subsequent water and sand infiltration.

Unfortunately I don't have access to the pictures as VSR has just launched their new website and all the progress shots have not been transferred to her project gallery yet.

Winter 2014/2015 Athena was converted to a 5-speed, sourced from Al taylor and purchased on this forum for $300. She has a short shift Z3 platform with a custom shift lever to maintain her original look and the shift knob I bought from Murray Fowler shortly before he passed away.

Her hood was stripped to bare metal and repainted. There were 13 coats of paint & clear stripped!

2015/2016 The most ambitious year to date. All wood trim removed and restored by Madera Concepts in CA to factory French Walnut.

Engine removed and cosmetically restored, aluminum media blasted and clear coated. Original cad parts cleaned and re-plated.

Engine bay media blasted and surface rust remediated around battery tray, perforated rust was found at the edges of the inner fenders and repaired with new metal. Nose and valence were also addressed sealed, primed and final paint January 14th 2016.

BBS RS 005 16x7s sent out for rebuilding due to an unfixable cracked barrel causing a slow leak. New barrel sourced here on the forum. The wheels will be/are dismantled, lips re-polished, centers re-powder coated silver and all hardware replaced with stainless hardware from Germany.

I do continually update the photo gallery attached to my CS Registry link in my signature. Have also been contributing progress on to the "What did you do to your E9 Today thread" http://www.e9coupe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17735

 

[Roger S]

Congratulations, Andrew. She looks great both in person and in photo. VSR did a great job dealing with the devil (cancer) and kudos to you for allowing them to do it the right way.

Quick question on the cluster bezels (black rings), what is the correct or most effective way to install them? I've read small tack (sp?) welds, some say glue? I've tried tension, ie, a little foam insulation around the wood and twist on but that didn't stay firm in my basement so I don't it will when driven.

I hope others take license and chime in. Athena looks clean. I look forward to joining the party this summer.

 

[adawil2002]

Quick question on the cluster bezels (black rings), what is the correct or most effective way to install them? I've read small tack (sp?) welds, some say glue? I've tried tension, ie, a little foam insulation around the wood and twist on but that didn't stay firm in my basement so I don't it will when driven.

I do not know the answer to this as VSR is doing all the work, may be best to call and ask Mario or Chris.

 

[adawil2002]

Visited VSR today to check out the progress. Athena is all painted and out of the body shop and is beginning to be put back together.

 

[rsporsche]

looking great Andrew ... nothing like Mario's work

 

[m73]

+1 looking good!