My Granada red 2800

E3AV

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Norway
99% finished after 7 years of restoration.
All of the work done by me in my own garage.

A before picture:
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Now
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Even though it didn’t look too bad before I started the restoration it had a lot of hidden surprises. When I bought it in 2017 the previous owner stated it was recently restored. The quality of the work done was less than poor. Lots of hidden rust and tons of filler. I got fooled by the decent looking paint job. The color was a non bmw color and actually quite nice.
 
Wow…sincere congratulations on your own Hands ON restoration…looks very good indeed….makes me think very hard if i restore (re-paint included) my 74e3 bavaria or keep as is, unrestored patina that still shows well but does have surface blemishes but again sincere Congrats….wish i could drive with you from Oslo to Bergen or Aalesund (which i love !!)
 

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Absolutely stunning! Beautiful color (cinnabar?) too. The airdam and its blending into the front wheel arch openings is perfect. Are those 8x16 Rial wheels?
 
Wow, thanks for the inspiration pictures, I have a 1970 2800 project car in Granada too.

Tell us more about the story of the car, and the restoration...did you keep the original 2800 engine?
 
Wow…sincere congratulations on your own Hands ON restoration…looks very good indeed….makes me think very hard if i restore (re-paint included) my 74e3 bavaria or keep as is, unrestored patina that still shows well but does have surface blemishes but again sincere Congrats….wish i could drive with you from Oslo to Bergen or Aalesund (which i love !!)
I’m in to patina if the car is original and previously unrestored. Otherwise I’ve learned to hate rust..
When I bought my car in-17 I actually drove it from Oslo and home (near Aalesund). A 8 hour trip. If I then knew the actual state of the car I would never ever done that.
 
Absolutely stunning! Beautiful color (cinnabar?) too. The airdam and its blending into the front wheel arch openings is perfect. Are those 8x16 Rial wheels?
Thanks! The color is Granada.
Single stage paint, sanded, clear coated sanded again and polished.
I was thinking long about the airdam. When I bought it on ebay the seller stated it would fit the E3. Even though I asked specifically for an E3 direct fit airdam, I received one designed for an E9. I guess there is no such thing as a pre made E3 csl airdam..
So I just put put it in storage for a while.
Then a year later I decided to put it on. Some cutting and fiberglass work was required to make it look decent.

Yes Rial mesh 8x16 with 225/45 tires all around.
 
Wow, thanks for the inspiration pictures, I have a 1970 2800 project car in Granada too.

Tell us more about the story of the car, and the restoration...did you keep the original 2800 engine?
The engine is a US spec (I think) b30. So it’s not the original engine. It had a solex 4A1 4-barrel carburetor fitted when I bought the car.
Now it got 2 webers 38/38. The head got replaced with a refurbished later type. And I installed an electric fuel pump.
 
Thanks! The color is Granada.
Single stage paint, sanded, clear coated sanded again and polished.
I was thinking long about the airdam. When I bought it on ebay the seller stated it would fit the E3. Even though I asked specifically for an E3 direct fit airdam, I received one designed for an E9. I guess there is no such thing as a pre made E3 csl airdam..
So I just put put it in storage for a while.
Then a year later I decided to put it on. Some cutting and fiberglass work was required to make it look decent.

Yes Rial mesh 8x16 with 225/45 tires all around.

That was also the case over 40 years ago with airdams for an E3 here in the US. There was almost no market for them, and all the E9 examples I looked at just didn't fit right. I later found an ABS plastic one in the early 1980s from a place call Two Thousand and Two products but it wasn't designed well on the ends, so I added some black painted aluminum sections on each side. I later added a splitter to the bottom edge also. Anyway, yours looks fantastic! I would have loved to had one like that back in the day.

I thought those had to be 8x16 Rials! They were such a perfect fit for my E3 as the offset was just right with no clearance issues using 225/50-16 tires all around. They look wonderful on your car. If you turn back the clock to 1985, having 8" x 16" wheels all around on a Bavaria was something you never saw with most thinking it was not possible since BBS 16" rear 8" wheels had more offset and wouldn't clear the strut up front. Other makers like Epsilon and WEDS followed BBS' offset examples from what I recall. It was only Rial that had an 8" wheel that would fit up front and back.

Congrats on building such a gorgeous E3!
 
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