Lottery win.

[Gazz]

I'm very quickly moving up several grades from the newbie threads to expert restoration grade.
Three weeks ago I bought the Henna red CS auto shown below. Yesterday I bought the CSi manual shown in the second pic as a shell and parts. This is the "No rust" car that was for sale in the cars section recently with parts for a "museum standard restoration". A lot of the hard work has been done, the nasty stuff - stripping down, the increasing dismay and horror as you realize that your car doesn't have just a little rust, grinding, cutting out, NVH material removal, degreasing, blasting, painting and refinishing the thousand bits and pieces, etc etc and the shell has been primed and partially painted in Chamonix.
The seller has refurbished to new standard all of the subframes, polished the alloy, replated just about everything, has a kit that has new nuts, bolts, washers, screws etc for nearly everything on the car - it goes on and on. The engine is partially rebuilt with all new studs, balanced rods and pistons, ported fully refurbed head. I feel like I've won the lottery.
The really big thing for me is that I have jumped forward in time to the point where I would be if I had done all of this myself. A huge saving in time not to mention $$$$$$. Okay okay I know that I haven't been to school and paid my dues but hey, what would you do?

One challenge is that everything is in bits and if I didn't have the other CS, ( which though fairly clean is no where near the CSi ), as a reference it would be like a huge jigsaw puzzle without the picture on the front of the box. Another major challenge is moving all this stuff, there must be 100 tins, boxes and packets plus loose items to be packed and moved 150 klms.

So, there are a few minor mods I want to make including some chassis strengthening via gusseting in the engine bay, similar to what the racing CSL's have. A rear brace / battery box frame in the trunk ( we call it a boot in Australia ) and a few other minor fixes.

The seller has been a joy to deal with and is a real original thinker who also races his own built Bavaria. Thanks Dave.

Wish me luck but I don't think I'll need it.

Gazz

 

[Gazz]

Calling all experts.

Calling all experts.

While the car is in its bare shell state state does anyone have recommendations for the body? Where should I be reinforcing? I seem to recall something about diff mount reinforcement? Stitch and / or seam welding areas? Do I blank off the hole in the upper front wheel well, which seems purposefully designed to allow the tire to throw muck and water into the body?
Any other suggestions?

Where can I get the sound deadening material for the under bonnet areas and the interior? Or is there an alternative? One suggestion I heard was to simply have loose Pirelli rubber matting under the interior carpet.

Gazz

 

[Stan]

Calling all experts.

While the car is in its bare shell state state does anyone have recommendations for the body? Where should I be reinforcing? I seem to recall something about diff mount reinforcement? Stitch and / or seam welding areas? Do I blank off the hole in the upper front wheel well, which seems purposefully designed to allow the tire to throw muck and water into the body?
Any other suggestions?

Where can I get the sound deadening material for the under bonnet areas and the interior? Or is there an alternative? One suggestion I heard was to simply have loose Pirelli rubber matting under the interior carpet.

Gazz

go to www.coupeking.com he has a few reinforcing tips with parts you can buy to stiffen it up.

 

[rodspock]

Gary,

This looks to be a great purchase - well done.

Attached is a picture of my CS diff strengthening plate. The diff mount pulls down, so a spreader plate is all that is required. My strengthening plate has some high strength bolts that have nuts clamping up immediately below the plate, and another set of nuts clamping the diff mount at the next flange down. I do not think that cross bracing the rear achieves much, as the shock and spring are separate.

I have a CAD drawing and another file that laser cutting programs understand if you need it.

You may be able to achieve as much with cross bracing the front as you will with seam welding...

Cheers,

Rod

 

[Gazz]

Thanks Rod. I thought that since I'm rear mounting the battery and I need to make a sturdy tray for it I may as well look at some type of bracing incorporated into the structure. The seam, or stitch, welding not only adds strength it also closes a lot of the gaps on overlapping panels that let moisture in. It's an opportunity to remedy the poor quality of the initial Karmann welding. There's some info from various sites about the methods used by the E9 CSL racing teams to increase body rigidity. I know I'll never make it race car type stiffness because the roll cage provides so much of that but since I'm at bare shell stage it's now or never to do anything I can for extra strength. It can't hurt to do it and it may just make a difference. I will be using a front strut bar as well. Coupe King has some great info about diff area reinforcement welding as well as providing shaped bolt on plates, though they attack the problem from below whereas your solution is from above as a different approach which solves the problem of access. Again, since I am at bare shell I may as well get up in there and weld away.

Have you filled in the hole in the upper front wheel well? I noticed you pointing something out to Matthew at Lakeside re this.

 

[rodspock]

Gary,

Yes I have filled in the triangular holes in the box section which supports the front guard (up behind the front wheel).

I got some heavy duty plastic (some of the kid's plastic plates) and cut an appropriate shape that fit inside the triangular hole. I then sealed it in place, and then rubber undersealed it on the outside once the sealant had gone off.

Cheers,

Rod

 

[Nicad]

I was wondring why this one took long to sell. Looks like a great purchase to me. Interested in seeing what you end up strengthening,

 

[Gazz]

Gary,

Yes I have filled in the triangular holes in the box section which supports the front guard (up behind the front wheel).

I got some heavy duty plastic (some of the kid's plastic plates) and cut an appropriate shape that fit inside the triangular hole. I then sealed it in place, and then rubber undersealed it on the outside once the sealant had gone off.

Cheers,

Rod

Not the kid's plastic plates!!!

 

[Gazz]

I was wondring why this one took long to sell. Looks like a great purchase to me. Interested in seeing what you end up strengthening,

It didn't take long for me - I only saw the post two days before I went to see it and bought it on the spot.
I'll post pics. Most of what I'll be doing I've found by researching on the net plus some info from a couple of guys here who are building a couple of very serious replica group 4 CSLs. These cars will be something when they are done, hopefully sometime around September this year. One will be a copy of the Gitanes car and the other will be in the BMW racing livery.