Beautiful 72 on SD craigslist

Chic,

I enjoy hiking and backpacking, I took my youngest son and wife to the Sierras this summer for 4 days and had a great time (we caught some nice brook trout too). Try it some time, you might enjoy taking a hike.
 
To the experienced E9 owners out there...would it be a fair guess that any 37 year old E9 with 180K miles on it that has not had the body restored will have significant rust? I mean is it even possible to not have rust if it is all original considering the years and miles?

Not trying to diss the post but just trying to understand the vulnerabilities in the E9 body.

thanks for the help!
 
All E9s like any old BMW holds water due to poor drainage design. Restored or not most E9 cars are rust magnets. Thats why they are similar to Gremlins (the movie) They hate to get wet but unfortunately they dont multiply.
 
What's different about them is they rust from the inside out. To some degree that's true of a lot of cars, but E9's seem to be the worst.

You'll see cars with nice paint, no visible rust, then you pop the hood and can stick your hand through the front shock towers. The cosmetic rocker covers don't help either, as they look good, but pull them off and you expose rotted structural pieces. Too bad it's not the other way around.

I'm more familiar with older VW's and Porsche's and for the most part when those cars rust it's fairly obvious. Coupes seem to hide it better.
 
So when I'm looking at E9's to buy what is the best way to tell if the car suffers from rust damage? Thanks for the advice!



'69 2800cs said:
What's different about them is they rust from the inside out. To some degree that's true of a lot of cars, but E9's seem to be the worst.

You'll see cars with nice paint, no visible rust, then you pop the hood and can stick your hand through the front shock towers. The cosmetic rocker covers don't help either, as they look good, but pull them off and you expose rotted structural pieces. Too bad it's not the other way around.

I'm more familiar with older VW's and Porsche's and for the most part when those cars rust it's fairly obvious. Coupes seem to hide it better.
Click to expand...
 
dapopa9 said:
So when I'm looking at E9's to buy what is the best way to tell if the car suffers from rust damage? Thanks for the advice!
Click to expand...

There's a Rust Prone Area diagram in the Tech Info section of this website. That will give you an idea of where to look when inspecting a car. No one is 100% sure about rust on any car if you think about it, unless you've seen the car stripped down and restored from the chassis up, but you can feel better about it if you know where to look.
 
It is best to look at these cars flat on your back looking up for rust. Start at the rocker panels this is the worst area because it is closest to the ground and took in more water in the rain. Just look at the seems, be careful this is a main part of the sup-frame structure and some should not be on the road. Next upper front shock towers as suggested above. Then the forward upper wheel-well area for rotted structural damage.
It goes on and on floor bottom, lower door compartments, doorpost, hood & truck compartments any closed structural compartments most have plastic caps that can be removed to see in with a good light.
The real problem with these cars is BMW did not reseal or paint after spot welding parts together like in the rocker panels compartment area.
Good Luck
 
Boy I wish I had one of those over the years it would have saved me tens of thousands of $$$$ on 5-6 different BMW models even Tii’s, 635 CSI and a 320.i we pumped up once.
 
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Seems another visit to see Ray here in La Jolla is in order...If I can out of the snow this weekend I would certainly enjoy the drive south to visit this fine example, now that I am certain that's it's worth the trip, etc. Was a bit confusing given the photos, and the fact that Carl wasn't told it had been put on the market until days later...lol>!

Ray I look forward to meeting up with you soon if you are back from SF?

Ran
jranman at Charter.net
 
BarryG said:
I put the blame on... jranmann
He is the one that posted the pic of the motor bay from Carl's site..
That had nothing to do with the car that is on ebay.

Damm you
Click to expand...

Barry...threw me as well...check out where that picture is located (to this day) below the shot of Roy's CSi on the LJ Independent Website...at the very least misleading!

http://www.bimmerdoc.com/restorations/

Indeed Carl didn't even know Roy's car was for sale and it was sitting in his showroom...Imagine his chagrin!
 
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