CSL Barn Find 2285251

Getting close a big milestone on the car in the coming days. We will have completed the final large rust repair, which is on the rear right guard, before we prepare to drop the sub-frame.
'Simon the Magician' and myself are actually amazed at the condition of the body of this car. For example the bottom of the A & B Pillars were better than on my CS.
None of the sills have needed replacement. We've cut inspection holes all over the place but they were dry and rust free. The shock towers are also as good as the day they were made. The main problem areas have been the fender boxes and the rear guards. I suspect both of these have rotted because water/salt could collect there when the car was driven in the UK prior to 1983 (the car has been off the road since then).

Here is a pic of the new fender boxes and associated metal work completed. Just needs some seam sealer and priming.

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There was some repair work done here as well, this is just forward of the RH guard.

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Left hand side wheel arch nearly done. This side of the car is as straight as an arrow with no filler/led anywhere to be seen.

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Here is our pile of rust we've cut from the car to date. Might list this on ebay as a CSL restoration project :)

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The next week or so will be spent finishing the wheel arches before turning our attention to some panel work on the back of the car.
After that we begin our next adventure in removing the sub-frame so we can rotate the car to do the underbody work.
 
“Here is our pile of rust we've cut from the car to date. Might list this on ebay as a CSL restoration project :)”

Oh crappity crap....
 
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Been a little while since I posted on here but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy.
The car is now in primer. Not sure I like Simon's roll cage though.
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All of the major rust and body work is now done. The car is nothing short of a unicorn. Simon found almost no filler in the car apart form some issues with the front guards that we already knew about from an old repair. You wouldn't think it's the same engine bay on a few months back.

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Today's job was to drop the subframes as they can then go for blasting and re-assembly.

Thanks to some wonderful threads on here the entire process was painless.

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Take a look at this though. You'd almost say this car has never seen a UK road, there is almost no rust under the car. I thought this may have been the case when I first inspected it but you never really know with these things until you tear them down. The stone guard finish has started to de-laminate and there's some surface scale here and there but that's it. My paperwork says this car has been in storage since 1983 and I guess this confirms it.

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Simon will keep on working his magic on the body work for a few more days before we rotate the car onto its side to start the fun process of removing the stone guard paint. Not sure the best way to get this off. Our thinking is either heat gun or wire wheel?
Either way today was a milestone. There's no longer anything to unbolt from the car. Once the underfloors are re-finished we start bolting in shiny things.
 
Well it's damm cold over here but we keep progressing.
The lower body work has now all been done and this morning we rotated the car to gain access to underneath so that can also be restored.

Before you all jump in the car is actually resting on the metal cage we installed to give some strength while did some structural work. The cage is resting on a series of truck tyres so none of the panel work in anywhere near contact with the ground. Only took 4 guys to pick her up and roll her over.

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We've now tied her off against the roof and wall to stop any movement.

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Front subframe back from the blasters and in primer, will be top coated soon.
I've a re-build kit from W&N so she gets new tie rods ends, bolts, control arms and bushes.

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This is Simon's CSL wind chime.
Our brake guy is doing a full rebuild on the whole front brake assemblies (front & back) along with installing new Bilsteins.
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I've been cracking on with restoring the dash. This took hours and hours, really happy with it as I managed to save all of the original veneer.

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Really happy with the gauge consul. This is all original. It was totally roached and de-laminating and missing some veneer. I managed to steam the veneer and get all of it glued back as it should be. The lower left was missing a chunk of veneer. This has been replaced with another donor piece of CSL veneer. You can see the angle of where it's spliced in but when it's in situ you don't notice it. I made the deliberate choice to repair/restore the original rather than replace as this car is basically unmolested having sat in a shed since 1983. I will use this approach with all of the interior and chrome as it's all original and I think given the car only has 32k original miles on it that I keep as much patina as possible. That said, the running gear and body work will be as new.

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Another week another bucket of cash thrown at the CSL.
This turned up the other day - told kids it was a new flatscreen. They were a little disappointed.
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Down at the shop there's been a load of progress. All of the underside of the car has been finished and now under new rubberised paint. This stuff is a dream to remove - not..

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We've blended in where the tow finishes meet as that's our understanding of how it was done in the factory and what we removed.

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Big thanks to @Markos for sending me a NOS tow hook :) Simon is still talking about the amazing condition it was in.

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Rear sub-frame all cleaned up and ready for reassembly once the diff and axels come back from their re-build.
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Next job is to send get the boosters sorted out. I've looked on W&N and cant seem to see a re-build kit. Curious to hear what others have done with this.

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Next steps are making running new brake and fuel lines ahead of the car coming back onto it's feet so to speak so we can look at the front guards as they need a load of work.
 
Been a while since I updated this but lots going on.
My re-conditioned boosters arrived from Jaymic, I'm really happy with them. Also received back my rebuilt brake master cylinder. We've also made all new brake lines that can go in after we've finished painting.
My captive BMW mechanic has nearly finished the rear sub-frame work. He was quite surprised when he cracked open the diff it looked like new inside, so less work than we though. Nice when you get a win.
Meanwhile I've been spending my evenings working on random parts, such as the glove box, which has the standard de-lamination. Our spare room looks like a CSL graveyard as all of my interior trim, seats and dash have been re-furbished and are stacked up in there.

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Bit of fancy clamp work and some seriously strong glue and it back in place. The trick was to clamp it up and leave it in place for a couple of weeks so the rubber would take the shape of the metal backing plate with a bit less force.

The heater box and blower is at the auto electrician as this will need to go back in the car before the dash as it's easier. Surprise surprise the blower motor is shot and the heater box is cracked. Due to the difficulty in sourcing a replacement box in Tasmania it's been repaired and I'm really happy with the job.

In terms of the actual car as you can see the fenders are now both back on and Simon managed to pull the nose back out as it was off by about 4mm due to light crash damage. This in turn had messed up the bonnet gaps.

Starting to look like a car now.

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Gaps as they should be. Note the bonnet is only sitting in place as we'd taken it back off the hinges.
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Hasn't the engine bay come a long way?
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Boot is ready for top coat.

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Next steps are to finish out the wheel wells, engine bay and boot. Then shoot the rest of the car and start putting some parts back in.
 
Stevehose said:
Great progress. How exactly do they "pull the nose" back out?
Click to expand...

You can see the ding in the belt trim in this old pic. There is a matching ding hiding behind the air dam. It also mangled the grill. We had to 'pull' out the area forward of the bonnet roundel as it had gone back 4mm and this had thrown off the gaps across about a 1ft section of the nose cone. You can actually see it in this pic as well. After looking at several options, such as jacking it out, block and chain, we ended up cutting out a piece of box section that the roundel sits on that had in effect been compressed slightly. This was beaten out to give us a correct alignment. It also provided access to the inside of that entire piece of box section so we could also inspect for rust. Hope I've explained this ok as I don't have any pics on my computer right now to show what we did.

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Wes said:
Another week another bucket of cash thrown at the CSL.
This turned up the other day - told kids it was a new flatscreen. They were a little disappointed.
View attachment 69244

Down at the shop there's been a load of progress. All of the underside of the car has been finished and now under new rubberised paint. This stuff is a dream to remove - not..

View attachment 69245

We've blended in where the tow finishes meet as that's our understanding of how it was done in the factory and what we removed.

View attachment 69246

Big thanks to @Markos for sending me a NOS tow hook :) Simon is still talking about the amazing condition it was in.

View attachment 69247


Rear sub-frame all cleaned up and ready for reassembly once the diff and axels come back from their re-build.
View attachment 69248


Next job is to send get the boosters sorted out. I've looked on W&N and cant seem to see a re-build kit. Curious to hear what others have done with this.

View attachment 69249

Next steps are making running new brake and fuel lines ahead of the car coming back onto it's feet so to speak so we can look at the front guards as they need a load of work.
Click to expand...
just got my booster and master back from White Post, have not installed it yet
Guarantied for life
 
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