Getting this 3.0CSi back on the road

Gransin

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Hi!

Thought I could share some pictures with you of my 3.0CSi project.

Before anything else, I've got zero experience of e9's. This is basically the first one I've seen IRL. Second is that I've never done a resto-mod/rebuild of this extent, on any car before. And this will be a DIY project mostly.

With that said, the goal is to get a nice, reliable and rust-free e9 that I can enjoy driving, alot.
I have absolutely no ambition or even the skills to get this into a 100% original concours car.

Some corners will probably be cut, and somethings will probably be left half-assed, but hopefully I'll learn from those things and know what to look out for in the future with new car-restos.

Let's move on to the pictures. I bought the car about a year ago, and this is how far I've come.


3.0CSi, was running and driveable when I bought it, but had not been in traffic for 15years, here on the trailer on the way home from the PO.

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And home at my parents house:

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The interior, seats are in good condition, but I don't like the velour, so I'm currently searching for a new leather interior.

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Teardown started:

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Engine out:

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Looking sorry for itself

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Needed something to move the chassis on:

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Rear axle out:

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Then took out the front subframe and suspension, put the chassis on the cart and started to take out all the sound-deadening. Lots of surface rust.

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With the sound-deadening gone, I was able to mediablast the trunk, engine compartment, inside and underside of the chassis.

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Like new, but no, not really. Easier to see what needed to be done at least.

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Put on a coat of wash-primer to prevent surface rust.

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Started to mediablast some of the pieces that were not too far gone.

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Rear subframe blasted and with wash-primer on.

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Front subframe and shocktowers:

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Like new again after some work and paint

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Refurbished brake calipers, new pistons and seals.

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Dismantled powersteering box, replacing old worn seals.

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Parts beeing prepped for paint

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Epoxy primed

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Alot of parts beeing searched for and bought, here is a small sight of that.

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New sheetmetal:

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Stainless exhaustsystem:

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Blasted and heat-painted manifolds

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The gearbox looked a bit sad, so I washed it.

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Mediablasted intake and misc. Really bad pictures.

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Black topcoat and new freeze-plugs

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More painting

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Everything will be new in the front and rear subframes, bushings, bolts, brakelines, hand-brake wires and so on.

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Ready to be put back on the car:

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Engine pretty much done to put back in the car:

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Heaterbox opened and refurbished:

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The heater core was leaking a bit, but got it welded and painted:

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Gransin

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Okay, so back to the chassis, I knew when I bought it that it had some rust, but as always there are (much) more than meets the eye.

Of to the other garage where my buddy helps me with the welding.

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The worst so far, getting rid of all the rubbery underseal..

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And done for now, notice the cracked diffbushing mount.

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Now I'm gonna show you the worst spots that obviously needed attention.

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Yuck.

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Some PO really did a great job here...

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Ugly speaker holes.

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Thats about it, much of all these spots were very well hidden with lots of bondo and crap put over it, but it really didn't bother me that much, I was expecting this.

So, time to start the weld!

New rear panel.

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The whole floor of the trunk new.

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Managed to remove the front fenders. Some work has been done here a long time ago, but everything here under is pretty solid, huge relief!

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As I mentioned, the rear diffbushing-mount was cracked, so we replaced the whole thing with 4mm material. Now it's looking better!

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Some cracks were found in the chassis, really weak things these e9 chassis.
Welded from both sides.

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The area/corner around the rear window fixed.

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Small spot on the trunk frame repaired.

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Cut out the old speaker holes and made new plates.

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Driver and passenger seat brackets out. Found alot of rust, but the floor is beeing replaced, so no worry.

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Will need some fixing before they go back in the car.

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New shock tower:

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And then repeat on the other side:

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After realizing that me and my buddy weren't up to the task of replacing the rockers and everything else that needed attention, I contacted a more skilled welder that mostly repairs american cars, but he wanted to help out, so up on the trailer again.

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The new home for a time forward

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Work started:

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And after a couple of weeks:
The reinforcment-piece behind the sill is also replaced.

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And thats where I am now! :)
 
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Ohmess

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Wow, that post covered a lot of ground. Good work. Keep us up to date.
 

Sven

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Yes, very nicely documented. This will be helpful for others considering such an extensive restoration. Thanks for taking the time to layout all the pieces and photograph them. Best of luck finishing up.
 

tmason

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Holy Moly another DYI project that is amazing!!Not only the craftmanship but also a computer wizz to load all these photo's! Look forward to the rest of the story.Thanks for sharing,Tim.
 

Gransin

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Thank you all!

Alot has been done this last year, but I'm not doing it all alone. I'm getting lots of help from my father who is also a car enthusiast. And from friends.

Without them I would not have been able to neither start nor complete this project. :)

But yeah, it's pretty much a DIY project, how we usually do it over here in Northen Europe ;)
 
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m73

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Rocker Panels

Is that Original BMW sheet metal? How hard was it to find?

Your project looks very good, look forward to updates.

MF
 

Gransin

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Is that Original BMW sheet metal? How hard was it to find?

Your project looks very good, look forward to updates.

MF

The sheet metal is bought from Walloth & Nesh, really good quality and fitment!

I'm sorry that the pictures don't work, it seems my photobucket library has crashed and I can't access it. I'm in contact with photobucket and trying to solve the problem.
 

Gransin

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Thank you all!

Are you staying with Verona?

No, I'm not staying with Verona, the car was originally Atlantik Blue and I really like that color, but right now I'm thinking Polaris.

I don't know, but I think the Polaris silver gives the e9 the most "classic" look, and also helps showing off the gorgeous lines of the car.
 

Gransin

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Here is a couple of pictures of the refurbished Blaupunkt stereo that is going in the car.

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gary bellamy

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Well it is easy to see what decision you made. Great job Sir, keep updating.

That looks like a very nice Black Touring in pic#4



Gary

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Ed G

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Over the top restoration!

Great documentation and work! I hope rising values will enable you catch up on your costs and hard work, much sooner than later. You should be commended for rescuing this somewhat needy coupe into what looks like- a soon to be, jewel.
........Congratulations!
 

Brian D

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Wow, this is truly inspiring-thank you so much for posting and all of the detailed pictures! I need to get the spark back to get my project moving again.
 

Gransin

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Well it is easy to see what decision you made. Great job Sir, keep updating.
That looks like a very nice Black Touring in pic#4

Great documentation and work! I hope rising values will enable you catch up on your costs and hard work, much sooner than later. You should be commended for rescuing this somewhat needy coupe into what looks like- a soon to be, jewel.
........Congratulations!

Wow, this is truly inspiring-thank you so much for posting and all of the detailed pictures! I need to get the spark back to get my project moving again.

I appreciate all the kind words! Thank you!

The black touring is an 530i M-sport imported from Germany, had all the extras and in really great shape, but it´s now sold.

BMW E9 and E39.jpg


The cost of this project is still very manageable in comparison to what many others pay for their restorations. Doing (almost) everything myself and with the help of others keeps the cost down. But sure, I won't get it all back if I were to sell it directly after it´s completed.

Luckily, I´m not planning on selling it. So even if I could have found a nice coupe out there for less than the cost of this resto, I´m not really crying over that because now I know that I´ve got a really nice, solid and reliable coupe that will last a lifetime with the right maintenance, without the constant itch of beeing afraid of finding really expensive surprises. :wink:

So, I went checking on it the last week,

New inner and outer wheel-arch fitted, the old ones was "ok" but I felt that it was only right to replace them now when everything is stripped down.

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Really hard to get a good picture of the inner arch, but here you can see a glimpse of it:

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The left sill is now almost completed, everything inside the sill is now totally rustfree! :p

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Front corner:

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Side shots:

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