I just couldn't stop myself opening Pandora's Box!

Dan, if you're serious about doing this, I hope that you start a project thread and document it!
It might hurt a little bit in the beginning of the process, but it's so rewarding at the end, but looking around in your shop I guess you already know that;)
Your car looks to be in very good condition overall so hopefully not too many surprices.
 
Gransin said:
Dan, if you're serious about doing this, I hope that you start a project thread and document it!
It might hurt a little bit in the beginning of the process, but it's so rewarding at the end, but looking around in your shop I guess you already know that;)
Your car looks to be in very good condition overall so hopefully not too many surprices.
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Hi Robert.

I am definitely serious about it. Not sure how a Project Thread works? I guess I could just keep adding to this particular "Pandora's Box" thread, moving forward. Would that work?
Cheers!
Dan
 
Unfortunately, removing the outer sill covers revealed extensive rust in the outer sills and lower edges of the rear quarter panels. I am now fully committed to a full and thorough body restoration and a bare metal repaint.

The good news is that I absolutely love this car, so I am going to really enjoy the restoration process.

Several gory photos follow!

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Outer sill covers removed

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Sadly the covers were concealing significant rust in the outer sills

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This panel will be replaced together with the lower edge of the quarter panel

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Thankfully we found no rust beneath the sound and heat insulation on the cabin floor

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Removing all the glass and trim

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Removing the elephant skin in order to strip all the textured coating from the boot compartment

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The boot compartment and wheel well look to be pretty solid


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Oscar dropping the fuel lines before starting to cut away the corroded sheet metal

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A sad sight, but it will be pristine under here very soon!
 
The more I look at the construction of these coupes, I really don't see any way that I can truly eliminate every grain of rust without cutting the front wings off. Anything less would seem to me to be 'lip service' to a thorough and proper body restoration.

I guess the front wings are coming off :rolleyes:
 
True. At least for piece of mind even if there's nothing rotten under those front fenders, it'll at least have a bunch of surface rust, which can be blasted, treated, and POR-15'd (or similar) to prevent rust for another 50 years.
 
Updated plan!

This afternoon I have sent a note about my rusty old Coupe to Maestro Miklos in Hungary. From a purely business standpoint, it makes more sense for me to send the body to Miklos and have him work his magic than to tie up one of my own body guys for several months, taking him away from the customer cars he should be working on! Throwing one of my personal cars into an already crowded schedule just doesn't make sense.

Assuming Miklos will take my project on, I will probably still do the final paintwork and assembly in-house, but ask Miklos to do a full body restoration and send the car back to me in primer, ready for paint. That way I wouldn't be so worried about new paintwork being damaged during transportation.

I could still be working on various other aspects of the restoration while the body is with Miklos.

The more I think about it, the more I like this idea :D
 
I can't stop smiling :D That escalated!
I have no doubt you and your guys will be able to match Miklos work on all the rest of the parts, and that will leave you with one of the nicest e9s in the world.
It's the right choice if the aim is high, let's just hope that Miklos has the time needed. Otherwise I'm sure, as Andrew already pointed out, that VSR would do an extremely nice job with the body too.
 
Gransin said:
I can't stop smiling :D That escalated!
I have no doubt you and your guys will be able to match Miklos work on all the rest of the parts, and that will leave you with one of the nicest e9s in the world.
It's the right choice if the aim is high, let's just hope that Miklos has the time needed. Otherwise I'm sure, as Andrew already pointed out, that VSR would do an extremely nice job with the body too.
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Yes, all because my headlamp stalk was a bit too close to my steering wheel rim:rolleyes:
 
Earlier today we removed the dash and interior wood trim which is being sent to Bela for restoration. I think I am going to go with a fairly bold Zebrano veneer. We also removed the KMPH speedo which will be exchanged for a MPH unit, with odometer miles matched to the 64,150 kms traveled, which we believe to be the original miles.

I have heard back from Miklos and it does look like he might be able to take the CSi on, which is very exciting.

Finally, I have decided to rebuild the engine while Miklos has the body. The engine runs great now, but I think I would like to warm it up just a tad. I am fortunate enough to have some very talented engine builders on my team and I would really like to see what they can do with my BMW engine.

If anyone has any recommendations for an uprated cam that will work well with the factory fuel injection, I would appreciate any input and advice. Nothing too radical, just a mild upgrade. I will also have some forged pistons made by the good folk at Ross who make all my Jaguar, Ferrari and Aston pistons, and I imagine some larger valves would help the performance a fair bit. As I say, I am not looking to reinvent the wheel, so if anyone has been through this and has recommendations, I would love to hear from you.

I will document the engine rebuild in detail, and share all our methodology and components used. I am also going to put the car on the Dyno before I pull the engine. It will be interesting to get some before and after horsepower and torque readings.

That's about it for today. I need to get back to my day job :rolleyes:


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Carlos helped me out removing the dash and all the trim wood this morning


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Wood will be sent to Bela for restoration using a bold Zebrano veneer

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64,150 kms is believed to be genuine, so we are going to match the replacement MPH speedo (39,861 miles)

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Bought my car with 66,000km, on the odo. I have put 100,000km on my car since 2011.

Bet your odo has been around at least once if not more.
 
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