New Member -Calif. inherited barn find ‘70 2800 cs

[lilacocelot]

Hi, I joined this forum hoping to get some good ideas, feedback and interest on a bmw that my brother and I inherited from our late father. The house will be up for sale soon, so we need to sell and move the car. 1970 2800 cs. Probably hasn’t been started or running in over 25 years. Parked and covered in a carport. Rust and rodent damage (
Poor condition. Maybe a project car or parts?
Should I list it in the For Sale area on this forum or use the Bring a Trailor site?
The car is in Santa Cruz, CA and I can take lots of pics on request.
Thank you-

 

[jmackro]

Should I list it in the For Sale area on this forum or use the Bring a Trailor site?
The car is in Santa Cruz, CA and I can take lots of pics on request.

Well, it's your call whether to use this forum or BaT. BaT won't like it if you use both - once you list car with them, they don't like it if you sell outside of BaT. BaT typically accepts cars that are pretty nice; from your description, your e9 may be a little too rough for them. But the good thing about BaT is that it reaches a LOT of prospective buyers - this site doesn't have nearly as wide a reach. So if you do list it on this site (and not on BaT) you should probably also list on Hemmings, ebay or (God forbid) Craigslist.

 

[dang]

BaT will like your story and they'll like the fact that the car has a known history back half it's life. I don't know why they wouldn't like a "barn find" since there's so much attention around them these days but that does seem to be the case. You could post a bunch of photos here so we can help figure out an approximate value before you list it. BaT can't fault you for doing research first.

 

[teahead]

Is this a for sale ad?

Should list it with pictures, price, and location in the Classifieds...Cars section.

You looking for what price to sell it at? Again, needs lots of pictures and info for a rough estimate.

 

[dave v. in nc]

I agree with Dan, especially the part about posting some pictures here as a barometer of interest; as it is a captive, informed, and mostly honest group of judges, and prospective buyers...i.e. you came to the right forum. My guess is that soon you will have a few PM's (private messages/invites to "start a conversation") with requests for photos/history, etc. Were it not for the geography, I'd be one of them. Best of luck with the sale.
Dave V. in NC

 

[JayWltrs]

Here are the main places you want to get pics of. You can click through on each one to get an explanation. In the old days, you’d need an expensive boroscope to see inside the fender box. Now you can get a cheap one on Amazon that works on your phone, shoots clearer vids & stills, all for $40 delivered.

BMW E9 Coupe Rust Diagram

 

[Markos]

Warm welcome?

Is this a for sale ad?

Should list it with pictures, price, and location in the Classifieds...Cars section.

You looking for what price to sell it at? Again, needs lots of pictures and info for a rough estimate.

 

[Markos]

Welcome @lilacocelot,

You are probably overwhelmed with other stuff
at the moment. The car is either worth way more than you think or far less. You probably aren’t spot on. It isn’t junk. Every piece of the car is worth something to someone. If it isn’t worth restoring, advertise it as such. If it is a lost cause, identify the value of the sum of it’s parts to drive the baseline asking price.

If you want to dump it quick, post it here. There are a few e9 hoarders that will scoop it up at forum friendly prices. You can also sell it to Beverly Hills Car club and have cash in hand before the weekend. They will sell it for X times the purchase price after vacuuming the rodent droppings.

If you want to maximize your return, post the pics and get estimates from multiple members. You want data and market driven estimates, not numbers based on sentiment or biased opinion. What someone paid for a similar car last year doesn’t matter. Just like the housing market, coupe values fluctuate but have generally risen.

I am happy to throw in a public opinion on value as a restoration candidate, as well as a value based on parts. The 2800 CS is the least valuable parts car, but the items within can be very valuable depending on the configuration and condition. Sheet metal applies to all e9’s so condition is the only wildcard.

We all want to see these restored and it is a California car. Hopefully it is a good starting point for an enthusiastic buyer. One thing is for certain, it won’t be for sale long.

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

Well, it's your call whether to use this forum or BaT. BaT won't like it if you use both - once you list car with them, they don't like it if you sell outside of BaT. BaT typically accepts cars that are pretty nice; from your description, your e9 may be a little too rough for them. But the good thing about BaT is that it reaches a LOT of prospective buyers - this site doesn't have nearly as wide a reach. So if you do list it on this site (and not on BaT) you should probably also list on Hemmings, ebay or (God forbid) Craigslist.

Hey Jay, I resemble that remark!

 

[Ohmess]

Hi, I joined this forum hoping to get some good ideas, feedback and interest on a bmw that my brother and I inherited from our late father. The house will be up for sale soon, so we need to sell and move the car. 1970 2800 cs. Probably hasn’t been started or running in over 25 years. Parked and covered in a carport. Rust and rodent damage (
Poor condition. Maybe a project car or parts?
Should I list it in the For Sale area on this forum or use the Bring a Trailor site?
The car is in Santa Cruz, CA and I can take lots of pics on request.
Thank you-

lilacocelot - My suggestion would be the same as dang's - post some pictures here and we can help you sort out what you have - but also to act promptly so as to get the car sold before you have to move it as part of the process of selling the house.

In addition, this weekend is Monterey car week, and a large number of the folks who own and love these cars will be about an hour away from you. I can't make it this year, but perhaps someone who is in the area will want to stop in and see the car.

 

[dang]

In addition, this weekend is Monterey car week, and a large number of the folks who own and love these cars will be about an hour away from you. I can't make it this year, but perhaps someone who is in the area will want to stop in and see the car.

This is a very good point. If the word can be put out soon enough you might be able to get several potential buyers to look at it in person.

 

[teahead]

Warm welcome?

Hopefully.

I was just making sure he was in the right section; otherwise a potential buyer may overlook the NOOB section entirely.

 

[lilacocelot]

Thank you all so much. Very helpful and encouraging comments. I have some pics of the exterior and interior and will go take some pics today of the engine if I can get the hood open.
I think it has cloth synthetic fabric seats, which when researching 2800 cs ads, looked like most 2800s posted had the leather seats. Also, a fellow who looked at it a couple of years ago for parts, told me the orig. paint color was Chaminox(?) not the bluish silver color that it is now. I am thinking my dad was the 2nd owner and it was repainted before he bought it.

 

[HB Chris]

Give us the VIN and we can tell if it’s a US or Euro coupe. Stamped on firewall and on plate on right fender.

 

[lilacocelot]

Will get the VIN soon. Here are some pics-

 

[Markos]

@lilacocelot,

I think the car looks wonderful. Next steps would be to have a bay area expert PPI the body. Check to see if the block matches the body. The car looks very original and I think that it is respectively valuable. The floors, rockers, and firewall could be a hot mess, which only cuts the value by no more
than half IMO. Much of what is listed below is directed towards those that will say it is worth $5K. I believe otherwise.

I suspected that it was a euro given the mention of cloth seats. It is an early euro 2800 CS with a KM/H speedo, manual windows, no AC, etc. Very euro-like, and the VIN will likely start with 220.
It has the earliest e9 seat construction and a Talbot mirror. Paint code is 85 so it was indeed Chamonix.

IMO The car is worth around $15K - 17K if the body checks out. If that seems out of line to other members, ask how much more a clean and assembled starting point is worth compared to the sum of it’s parts (see parts example below)?

I see surface rust and lustworthy panel gaps. I *personally place a high value on early 2800 CS and I think that like the 1600, you will see values continue rise. Speculators chime in! I have no data to back up my own bias but if it was a MY ‘68/69 I would value at $20K.

As a parts car, I would say about $10k in parts. More if you price to profit and sell all of the eleventy-billion little parts that I didn’t mention here.

If a forum skeptic can’t fathom it, let’s see how we conservatively get to $10K:

Bumpers: $2K
Dash (All) & Wood (All) $1,500
Side Console: $200
Shift Console: $100
Core Early Seats: $500 (demand low)
Steering Wheel: $200
Trunk: $400
Hood: $400
Front Fenders: $300
Rear Fenders: $300
Tail Lights: $300
Roof: $300
Wheels: $200
Glass: $100
Nose: $800
Tank: $100
Headlights: $100
Belt line: $200
Door Handles: $100
Gauges: $200
Booster: $100
Manual Regulators: $200
Rear Power Regulators: $200
Door Panels: $300
Brass Tank: $100
Torsion Bar Front: $300
Torsion Bar read: $100
Heater Box: $100
Heater Controls: $100
Battery Tray: $100
Trunk liners: $100
Strut Housings: $200

The three BMW Santa Cruz frames add another $250-$300. West Coast Folks know more about that...

 

[Wes]

Looks like the car has only done 76k miles if original.
The interior and dash looks to be in very good condition.
The key will be condition of the sills, shock towers and pillar bases.
I suspect from looking at the rest of the car the condition may surprise you (in a good way).
Definitely not a parts car.

 

[Ohmess]

lilacocelet -- You have some of the best people on the planet to help sell a coupe in this thread.

Please reply promptly to HBChris' request for your VIN. Chris is a huge asset to this community, knows everyone who is anyone, and has helped me out on numerous occasions.

 

[lilacocelot]

Again, thanks so much for your comments about the car! Here are more pics that I took of under the hood yesterday. ( I propped the hood with a tube since I could not see how to keep the hood up)
Q

 

[dang]

Nothing scares me about that car. If it didn't have a crappy paint job put on it years ago it would "look" a lot nicer than it does, but the paint means nothing. That's a good car... with an undercarriage inspection of course.