Help appreciated - body sheet panels, Zeniths and manual conversion

[Zibsnis]

Hi!

A while ago I introduced myself as a newbe to E9 owners club and took that promise to get my E9 in a petfect shape. I have started restoration process now and getting close to bare metal where I will start off. Thanks God, I''ve found one guy I can trust on this process as well so my family life is also preserved

Now on the topic -
1) as almost allways, there are rust spots despite you cant see them with fresh color on top, so I will need typical body panels to be replaced or being weld (rear archs, top / bottom of door panels, bottom of rear side panels etc.). Can anyone assist on good sellers for those parts in Europe?
2) the next topic arising is conversion from automatic to manual gearbox. Is still 265 getrag the most appropriate choice as mostly found in threads or there are some other choices recently appearing as alternative?
3) Zenith - should I stay with these ones or consider Webers or even FI instead?
I would like to use funds reasonably so I could more spend on quality body work, transmission and other parts, like new rubber seals, trims etc., therefore your sugestions would really help me. Tnx in advance!

P.S. Some pics attached of how it all started and where we are now...

 

[adawil2002]

1) Walloth-Nesch, there is a link to them under the LINKS tab.
2) Getrag 265 with a mechanichal speedometer drive gear is the best solution.
3) I do not know about carbs, seems Webers are the popular choice.

Best to spend money on rust repair, paint and making the car mechanically safe. If your budget is limited, as all ours are, hold off on the 5-speed conversion, converting an automatic to a 5-speed is fairly expensive.

 

[w. chen]

hi, in response to your choices, if the auto trans is still working well, use it until it dies. that way, funds can be channeled to the body and paint costs. if zenith carbs are working well and if you have a good carb mechanic that knows the zeniths, stick with it. if not then, go to webers. that is how i did mine. the auto box died and then i had it converted to the 5-spd 265 getrag. the webers has less adjustments and i didn't know of any good carb guy to work on the zeniths. wishing your work the best

w. chen
74cs

 

[aearch]

AE

I HAVE THE OEM ZENITH MANUAL IF YOU NEED A COPY
IM AT [email protected]

 

[Zibsnis]

hi, in response to your choices, if the auto trans is still working well, use it until it dies. that way, funds can be channeled to the body and paint costs. if zenith carbs are working well and if you have a good carb mechanic that knows the zeniths, stick with it. if not then, go to webers. that is how i did mine. the auto box died and then i had it converted to the 5-spd 265 getrag. the webers has less adjustments and i didn't know of any good carb guy to work on the zeniths. wishing your work the best

w. chen
74cs

The reality is that auto trans will need attention and I really dislike RPMs it kept quite high despite power would let go for the next gear. The same applies for Zeniths - adjustments will be required and there are no specialists around having dealt with them. If those would be simple built, no probz, but they are quite sophisticated, as I understand. So, I tend to move for manual trans and try use Zeniths, but may switch to Webers later as well if I see that carbs are not working well.

 

[Zibsnis]

I HAVE THE OEM ZENITH MANUAL IF YOU NEED A COPY
IM AT [email protected]

Tnx, that would help, indeed. I have seen one at http://www.e9coupe.com/tech/zeniths/bmw1/bmw1.html as well. Would it be the same or more detailed one?