California coupe history ?

J

John Buchtenkirch

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I bought my coupe from John (Woody) Woodmansee in Plano Texas. It wasn’t actually the car I flew down to buy but the backup or second car I looked at so it paid off (at least in my case) to take a 4 hour bus ride to look at car #2 !! When I registered the car in New York I noticed on the Texas title that the former owner was Marianne Angelo from Los Angeles, CA. Woody gave me the 4 photos shown (which I vaguely remember being used on a eBay auction about 3 or 4 years ago) which in the 2 left side photos you can see the Capital Records building in the background. Just curious if anyone remembers this California coupe or Marianne Angelo for a bit more of it’s history. By the way the plate frames said “world famous Beverly Hills BMW”. THANKS in advance ~ John Buchtenkirch
P.S. You can see the car's progress in the photos plus it now has a 5 speed.
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Like I always say, they get better with time!
Find the seven differences game:
You changed the rims, the side mirror and placement, Hellas, the kidney grill, deleted US reflectors, interior, black windshield wipers, the license plate, and repainted.
Looking great, if Marianne sees the car now she may want to marry you.
 
Look at the link below, contact and see if they respond. This is how I found the original owner of my car, searching the name on the internet. I actually found his daughter on Facebook, sent her a message which she forwarded to her father and he got in touch with me.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/marianneangelo
 
I remember the coupe when it was for sale six or seven years ago from the rooftop parking photos. It had the original interior and I was trying to get some good photos of Malaga paint. Glad it went to such a good home.

Chris
 
Thanks for all the compliments on my coupe. I thought I remembered my coupe from that eBay auction but when you look for a coupe for 30 years it gets to the point that you’re just not sure what you’ve seen. I’m not looking to hook up or correspond with Marianne, I just thought it was an unusual older car for a women to have and that alone might jog someone’s memory on the car. Maybe it was her husband’s car and he had a bad driving record so she got better insurance rates.

I did re-dye the seats the factory color but didn’t repaint the car except for spotting in to eliminate the front side markers, automatic emblem and moving the mirrors. Very observant to pick up on the switch to Hellas but you missed 3 easier to spot changes from the Texas photo #2 to photo #3. Changes I’m happy with that I wouldn’t expect anyone to notice is getting the wipers to land correctly (look at lower right in photo #1) and getting the deck lid to fit the car correctly (look at the top right in #1), when I got the car it was crowned up ¾” from someone using the wrong gasket. Being that my reputation as a heavy collision man was based on me making panels fit perfectly the deck lid alignment absolutely hurt my eyes, it’s not perfect now but good enough that I can live with it. Believe me having the so called “body-man’s eye” isn’t always a blessing. After welding up the marker holes in the fender and some other stuff I drove the car over the RR tracks while going to my friend’s shop and realized it wasn’t nearly as rattle free as my old Bavaria (not that a hard-top can ever be as tight as a sedan) so I ended up spending bunches of $$$ on new gaskets and window channel as well as many hours getting other stuff tightened up. Considering the car I started with it took me more time & money than expected but that’s the way restoration always goes, why was I expecting a pass on that point. ~ John Buchtenkirch
 
I found a previous owner's name on an insurance card under the carpet - she was the 2nd owner before the person I bought from - I emailed her and have since learned a lot of history - might be worth a shot to contact Ms. Angelo and get the story of your car. If she is like my previous lady owner, she will be glad to hear from you.
 
John Buchtenkirch said:
Thanks for all the I’m not looking to hook up or correspond with Marianne, I just thought it was an unusual older car for a women to have and that alone might jog someone’s memory on the car. Maybe it was her husband’s car and he had a bad driving record so she got better insurance rates.

I did re-dye the seats the factory color but didn’t repaint the car except for spotting in to eliminate the front side markers, automatic emblem and moving the mirrors. Very observant to pick up on the switch to Hellas but you missed 3 easier to spot changes from the Texas photo #2 to photo #3. Changes I’m happy with that I wouldn’t expect anyone to notice is getting the wipers to land correctly (look at lower right in photo #1) and getting the deck lid to fit the car correctly (look at the top right in #1), when I got the car it was crowned up ¾” from someone using the wrong gasket. Being that my reputation as a heavy collision man was based on me making panels fit perfectly the deck lid alignment absolutely hurt my eyes, it’s not perfect now but good enough that I can live with it. ...
Click to expand...

The car looks might lighter and brighter, you must have done some polishing to bring the color back to life. If you are that good make panels fit some day I will have you look at my hood and why it stay a bit high on the left side towards the driver...

Maybe Marianne had the car since new, the proof that it was hers and not the husbands is that the car was automatic.
 
Arde said:
The car looks might lighter and brighter, you must have done some polishing to bring the color back to life. If you are that good make panels fit some day I will have you look at my hood and why it stay a bit high on the left side towards the driver...

Maybe Marianne had the car since new, the proof that it was hers and not the husbands is that the car was automatic.
Click to expand...

You are correct, we wet sanded the orange peel flat on the so so re-paint and polished it but we cheated, we only did it from the side moldings and up, below the moldings we just polished. I think the paint has more shine now but believe the color change you’re seeing is mostly from being shot with different cameras. Judging from the original paint on the fender skirts I do believe the color used in the re-spray is a shade or two browner than the stock color, I kind of like the paint color / tone but the paint job is pretty poor. Depending how my health holds out someday I may repaint it but I have other, more important projects on my list.

Not to brag but I am that good at aligning panels (doing heavy work for other body shops was my bread & butter for a bunch of years) but I’m on the right coast and you’re on the left. The other problem is sometimes repaint is necessary to make panels fit correctly, they have to be bent or even pulled with a frame puller, depending on the problem at times there is just no way around it. I’ve got the hood fit on my own coupe decent, if I want it any better I have to do 2 pulls :( on the nose to make it near perfect. ~ John Buchtenkirch
 
One round-trip ticket to,SFO

Arde said:
The car looks might lighter and brighter, you must have done some polishing to bring the color back to life. If you are that good make panels fit some day I will have you look at my hood and why it stay a bit high on the left side towards the driver...

Maybe Marianne had the car since new, the proof that it was hers and not the husbands is that the car was automatic.
Click to expand...

Bring in the expert"
!
 
Great Story. But why is it the tiny flaws hit us between the eyes when we are admiring our most beautiful cars? We have a hard time seeing past them.
 
oneills said:
Great Story. But why is it the tiny flaws hit us between the eyes when we are admiring our most beautiful cars? We have a hard time seeing past them.
Click to expand...

After you spend too many hours blocking out (sanding) panels and a bunch of coffee breaks talking shop with other body men you develop “the body man’s eye”, or at least that’s the way it happened to me. After that you only seem to notice the flaws on a car, hardly ever anything good. Some people outside the body trade have also developed “the eye” but many times you find out they have some background or a friend in the business. I walk thru the local cruise night with my dentist (who buys the worst cars) and try to teach him how to look at cars but I also warn him, once he has “the eye” he can never go back to thinking every car is wonderful :cry:. ~ John Buchtenkirch
 
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