My Alpina B2 powered 3.0CS

[JamesE30]

I really want to know more about your bunker garage (seriously!). Concrete walls and ceiling with folding steel doors. May I hang with you during the next zombie apocalypse?!!!

Haha yes it’s really like a bunker! Actually we refer to it as the bunker all the time.
It’s part of a very large building complex which was abandoned about 10-15 years ago, in the last 3 years the state has started to refurbish parts of the grounds and rented out some areas to make some money from it. There are about 5 garages there and we happened to know the person in charge of renting them so we got one. It’s all a big coincidence really, but very lucky because finding a place like this to work in Stuttgart is not easy!

We have power and water, but no heat so it gets fucking cold in winter.
Here are some rare photos of it in a somewhat organised state:

 

[JamesE30]

Front subframe dropped in preparation for overhaul.

The plan was to drop the rear subframe next, but when trying to figure out how to support the car (without using any of the subframe or mounting points obviously) I realised the extent of the rust in the right rocker. In the rear it was flakey and soft, the factory jackpoint could not support the weight of the car, it was just crumpling... the more I looked around under the car, the more patches I found and the more I was suspicious of what was under the layers of undercoat, and more stressed I became about how much time and money I’d already spent on the car..

I had a bit of a crisis moment, contemplating what the hell i’d got myself into, and after considering many options and consulting many people, I decided fuck it, let’s strip the whole body and have it redone properly.

So front this point on the task was to remove every single part of the car in prep for dipping and blasting.

 

[Wes]

Reckon a complete tear down is the way to go looking at this, especially if you plan on keeping the car for a bit.
Mine is in the shop at present. Our plan was to just keep tearing down until we stopped finding rust and then plan a way back to the road from there.
Luckily my car spent the bulk of its life in South Africa and Australia where the dry climate and lack of salted roads has essentially meant it had minimal rust in the body and has only needed some fairly simple panel repairs to the sills, doors and fenders.

 

[Gransin]

The project turned out to be bigger than anticipated, we've all been there You did the right decision to strip the body, it will be worth it in the end.
Taiga and Alpina, lovely! Thanks for sharing the progress.

 

[JamesE30]

 

[mr bump]

WOW.......dream car!! If you need a wife, 3 children, and any of my vital organs in a swap, please do not hesitate to contact me!!

 

[mr bump]

I would be interested in photos of the exhaust manifold...

John

Yes me too. Especially the manifolds. I take it there of a tubular design?

 

[JamesE30]

Yes me too. Especially the manifolds. I take it there of a tubular design?

Sadly I do not have the alpina tubular manifolds I’ve read about. Does anyone have a picture of one?

Mine are just standard looking log manifolds

 

[Stan]

great work and attention to detail

 

[JamesE30]

great work and attention to detail

Thanks !

So I got lucky and found a clean non sunroof car I culould cut the roof off, I also managed to grab an unmolested parcel shelf to use as a patch for mine. My car was originally non sunroof, but someone cut in an aftermarket one typical 80’style..

New roof for me!

Not much of the car left !

With the interior out, we got the first proper look at the floors. I know now that the “restoration”and respray was done already in the mid 80’s (more info on that later) so I imagine there weren’t many sheet metal parts available.. so there are some ugly fab jobs, but looks like the tears were replaced with some kind of replacement metal.

Bottom of the A-pillars are a mess, but luckily I was able to find some new sheet metal for these areas.

 

[JamesE30]

Speaking of sheet metal, Wallothnesh had a sale on last month so I ordered a stack metal for the car.
I’m trying to not get too carried away blowing money, but it’s hard when there are so many great parts available..

The large box below is my new windscreen. All my glass looks pretty good but my windscreen was starting to delaminate in one corner, so I took advantage of another w+n sale an ordered a new one.

 

[JamesE30]

Got some parts back from the blasters/powdercoaters and got to start some of the fun jobs.

Starting to reassemble the front axle:

Question: how tight should these sway bar links be? There is heaps of thread but the busings start to deform if you tighten it all the way.. can’t imagine you can put an accurate torque setting on them, is there a measurement you can take for these? Thanks in advance

 

[JFENG]

There’s no value in trying to substantially compress those poly bushings. You are just trying to get them firmly into contact with the arm so there’s no slip when the bar’s action comes into play. I tighten until the bushings are somewhat firmly in contact with the control arm. By my elbow-meter maybe 20ftlbs?

 

[HB Chris]

And insert bolts from the bottom, no chance of getting bent that way.

 

[JamesE30]

There’s no value in trying to substantially compress those poly bushings. You are just trying to get them firmly into contact with the arm so there’s no slip when the bar’s action comes into play. I tighten until the bushings are somewhat firmly in contact with the control arm. By my elbow-meter maybe 20ftlbs?

Great, thanks for the advice.

And insert bolts from the bottom, no chance of getting bent that way.

RealOEM shows them inserted from the top, but I guess there’s no harm doing it either way.
My old ones were bent to hell so I might swap them over.

 

[JamesE30]

Here are some pictures of the Alpina 28mm vented front rotors, the wider spacers for the calipers and a comparison with the standard 22mm csi front rotors.

It was impossible to find any information on these brakes so if anyone knows anything about them please do tell. But I did read about another alpina owner searching for replacements 10years ago to no avail..
Obviously the rotors are NLA, so I don’t plan to try and use this brake set up, I just want to convert back to the standard vented rotors.

I’m at a loss what to do with these, I planned to just use the standard csi rotors but then I need to find the correct size spacer. Does anyone sell this?

My other options are, machine down the alpina spacers (sacreligious?)
Or make some new ones the correct width (hardened steel?)

Or buy some refurbished calipers somewhere.. which seems like a waste if I can just rebuild mine (I’m rebuilding the rears anyway)
Any advice apreciated!

 

[Markos]

You can use 25mm rotors from an e24. Figure 1.5mm if travel before a new pad touches the rotor. I’m not sure what would happen when you get down to the rivers though.

Also, check with alpina on the rotors. I’m guessing they will have them but will be extremely expensive. There are a lot of factory Alpina cars running around with 28mm brakes so they likely supply them.

Lastly, E32 rotors are 28mm thick. They are huge at 302mm though. If the rotor hats match an e9, you could have a machine shop put them on a lathe and turn them down to the 270mm or so you have in your pics. E32 calipers are a lot different so I wouldn't be surprised if the rotor hats don't match. You can usually see the specs on any old parts chain website. I used the specs on napa parts website when I was doing a big brake upgrade on my jeep. They usually have the height of the rotor hats.

 

[JamesE30]

You can use 25mm rotors from an e24. Figure 1.5mm if travel before a new pad touches the rotor. I’m not sure what would happen when you get down to the rivers though.

Also, check with alpina on the rotors. I’m guessing they will have them but will be extremely expensive. There are a lot of factory Alpina cars running around with 28mm brakes so they likely supply them.

Lastly, E32 rotors are 28mm thick. They are huge at 302mm though. If the rotor hats match an e9, you could have a machine shop put them on a lathe and turn them down to the 270mm or so you have in your pics. E32 calipers are a lot different so I wouldn't be surprised if the rotor hats don't match. You can usually see the specs on any old parts chain website. I used the specs on napa parts website when I was doing a big brake upgrade on my jeep. They usually have the height of the rotor hats.

Thanks for the info.

I’ll email alpina directly, but I did search and they can’t be found anywhere online.
As for using another rotor, e24 sounded good but the diameter is too large at 282mm, and I don’t really want to have to modify rotors everytime they are replaced. (I already have that struggle with the John cooper works rotors on my e30)

The other problem I have is that the RiBE m9 bolts needed to rebuild the calipers in that size don’t exist, where as you can order the csi bolts on Wallothnesh (which I’ve already done)
Just not sure about the spacers.

 

[JamesE30]

Picked up the engine from the workshop last week.
They checked over and measured everything to make sure it was in spec.
Cylinder head was cleaned and machined flat, valves all checked seals/guides all replaced.
Block was washed and painted, cylinders measured and fine honed, con rods were rehoned and all bearings and rings are new.
Just put the new core plugs in, waiting on some assembly lube to arrive so I can start bolting the rest back together.

Before:

After

The Solex 40DDH carburettors were diassassembled, ultrasonicly cleaned and rebuild with all new seals and jets,
I opted not to have them bead blasted because I quite like the aged look of the clean alumium against the brass fittings. Can’t wait to see them in the car!
Tuning will be done on the rolling road when the car is back together.

Before:

 

[Stevehose]

Good move on the carbs they look great with nice clean patina