My 1974 Inka S38B35 project

[xjan99]

A few more process photos.

The additional rigs for front and rear were assembled and attached to the car.

We also found out the previous owner's work attaching the inner sill and inner-outer wheel well were done incorrectly, so had to reopen the wheel well parts and repair them.

But it seems, now finally some parts are ready to go back in. They all need repairs, cleaning etc before.

 

[xjan99]

Moving forward, literally. We are tackling the driver's side first so here are some update photos.

 

[xjan99]

More progress in January. It is somewhat beginning to look like a car already. Although just for testing the panel gaps. They came uneven from factory, the OEM replacement panels copy the same unevenness, but we will mend that. Going all in, we might as well make it better than from factory.

Firewall out:

Cleaned for inspection:

Repairs made:

Testing body panels, nice tri-color

Deciding on panel gaps:

Now moving over to tackle the passenger side:

B-pillar removed for repair:

C-pillar area repaired

Looks better now:

Test fitting the repaired parts:

As you noticed, everything will be fixed temporarily with screws only, to see they all fit together nicely before we start welding it all up and adding strenghtening too

Some previous patching was done here:

More work here:

 

[day66]

Just - wow!

 

[xjan99]

A few more photos from end of January. Total hours spent including the time spent on frame and rigs is ~300h. I am feeling progress compared to hours spent is quite good.

No more A-pillar, lower end:

Being repaired:

Testfit of rear right side panel:

Deconstructing the door, previous repairs visible (red primer)

Test-fit of door shell and rear side panel:

 

[xjan99]

The fight continues.

A pillar getting fixed

Done here

Not much of the old front right side left here:

Every part needs to be dismantled, cleaned and repaired

Dead metal and other crap inside:

Reattached after repairs

These all getting overhauled too:

And then going back in slowly:

Sharky getting a nose job:

Progress:

Some more parts from WN:

Cleaning and repairing the nose sections:

With the S38 the air intake hole is not needed on this side:

Done, no hole left

And new parts from WN meet the old parts here:

 

[xjan99]

Forgot to mention with last update - total hours spent so far: ~370h

 

[xjan99]

Update for March. All outer body panels now test fitted and we have started to weld together the body into a final shape and also adding strengthening. Summer will be slow progress months due to my coach builder's foreseeable health issues, so to keep myself happy I bought another E9 - A 1973 Polaris on black leather CSA with retrofitted injected engine. Initially it was meant to be a donor for misc. small parts, but it looks a bit too good to not just add a few patches here and there and get it running for the time being. Will make another thread about it if this happens.

Here are some photos from progress in March, total hours spent so far ~520h:

Right side inner front fender cleaned and repaired:

And in place:

Nose section refitted:

Window frame lower corners too:

Test fitting the right side body lines:

And also now with the complete front end and bonnet and windscreen, all looks good! Almost a car again , almost

Finishing the rear end too, new boot floor and tail panel fitted:

Behold! A complete car, sort of at least:

So now we start to re-engineer the E9 weak spots:

The above were welded in to strengthen the body here

And we also added some more metal as seen here:

Parts that will be inaccessible after installation are rustproofed/painted as needed. Notice the extra strenghtening also on the rear end of the sill:

More welding on the left side

And now the front wheelarch/A-pillar puzzle will have to be put together:

Coming along nicely:

Almost there:

What Karmann did not do, we will do better:

Right side sill welded back and strengthened like the other side

Rear section of it too:

Wheelwell area complete:

Front inner fender back in place:

Seams protected like they should be:

And done for March:

 

[xjan99]

So the "donor" car I bought has left my premises - was too good to use as parts donor and actually most of the stuff I have too. Kept the BBS RS wheels, misc small items and WN stainless steel exhaust that came with it and sold the car on to a friend.

With that one gone, we can focus better on the existing restoration . Update for work done in April.

The front left side firewall area with misc. brackets etc was finalized. New floors are in, seat brackets too and one of the wheel wells almost done too.
Total hours spent so far 621h


We start with cleaning the front firewall bits:

And putting it back into the car

All the small parts will need to be made pretty again

Cleaned, repaired and now back in

Done

There was quite a bit of struggle with the CZ floor replacments, a lot of measuring and cutting to make them fit perfect. Right side done here:

Seat bracket also in:

We also need to fill this gap here on the right side

Boom, gone is the Flinstone car

And left side seat brackets in too

Moving over to the rear wheel wells area

Cleaning and welding

And almost there

 

[Fritzie]

The rear rig was assembled and welded up to make it really sturdy.

View attachment 129234

View attachment 129243


After which it was time to see how it fits to the car's shell. For this, we cut out the misaligned wheel well

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First tests and further measurments done, the body shell is a bit crooked still, so we need to mend this

View attachment 129240

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And for this we had to dig a bit deeper, cutting out the rest of the trunk floor too and the partition wall below the rear seat.

View attachment 129235

View attachment 129236

Very impressive!!

 

[Oldbmwcoupes]

Great work!

 

[JamesE30]

Amazing progress, keep it up!
If you find a source or solution for the late model door card replacements (with perforated, not embossed upper sections), I'm interested to hear. Currently thinking to make something from scratch..

 

[xjan99]

Amazing progress, keep it up!
If you find a source or solution for the late model door card replacements (with perforated, not embossed upper sections), I'm interested to hear. Currently thinking to make something from scratch..

Thanks! There seems to be a vendor in Europe that by the looks of it has pretty good reproductions available:
See here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bmwe9/posts/2881958945282625

 

[erneland]

Very interesting build to follow . You don't happen to have the 3D-scans available anywhere? I'm looking at using a S54 in my E9, and the scan of the engine bay would help a lot . Good luck with the build!

 

[jc971]

really impressive
I want to see more
else, else!

 

[xjan99]

small update for May, we are approaching the slower summer months now - only 48h to report but still the following done:

First, the passenger side rear subframe mount had to come out

And here it is repaired with a new piece of metal

And here, all done

Partition wall under the rear seat back in

Now it is time to repair the lower rear windscreen area

Old piece out

Repairs made underneath

New part in

We will reuse the inner frame from the tail panel

Separated here

All cleaned up

And here it meets the new tail panel

Dashboard frame, cleaned and repaired, going in

Here it is, back in the car again

 

[Fritzie]

small update for May, we are approaching the slower summer months now - only 48h to report but still the following done:

First, the passenger side rear subframe mount had to come out
View attachment 142272

And here it is repaired with a new piece of metal
View attachment 142271

And here, all done
View attachment 142270

Partition wall under the rear seat back in
View attachment 142269

Now it is time to repair the lower rear windscreen area
View attachment 142268

Old piece out
View attachment 142267

Repairs made underneath
View attachment 142266

New part in
View attachment 142265

We will reuse the inner frame from the tail panel
View attachment 142264

Separated here
View attachment 142263

All cleaned up
View attachment 142262

And here it meets the new tail panel
View attachment 142261

Dashboard frame, cleaned and repaired, going in
View attachment 142260

Here it is, back in the car again
View attachment 142259

Very nice work!

 

[nosmonkey]

Looking fantastic!

 

[xjan99]

Some progress for June, slow month so only 39h spent on the car this time. But some eye-catching moments still:

Front windscreen corners and middle part being replaced here:

Ready to go back in

Done:

Focusing on the rear end again. Prep and clean

Primered here

Seams filled

And voila... first coats of new Inka paint. Don't you just love it after all those blue-black-silver-gray photos ?

Inner sides of quarter panels also painted already before welding them back:

Back on to the car

New paint vs some old paint still visible on parts not taken care of yet:

(yes, that is an E30 M3 being restored in the background)

Rear panel lined up and tack welded into place

PS! Officially it has now been a year since we started. Time sure flies.
Total hours spent so far has exceeded the 700h mark. I think in a year and after another 700h or so, we could be entering reassembly phase. Let's see

 

[xjan99]

Update for progress in July, ~100h spent on the car and most of the body is now welded and complete. Remaining items to restore/refit/replace are hood and doors and a few smaller bits here and there.

To start with, test fitting the taillights and correcting gaps:

Welding the rear panels:

C-pillar area too:

And wheel wells:

Trunk floor welded:

Spare wheel well etc on the other side too:

This too

As one was missing, we had to replicate the factory one (right side)

Here, fitted as they should be

More small brackets here and there

The floor pans got new holes cut into them to install the covers

Test fitting the nose and front fender parts, hood etc

Welded

Starting with the doors now:

Not much left, not much to be happy about

First bits blasted

to be continued...