Outside for the first time since 1989

The credit should go to Clayton and Louis at Louis Restoration and Repair in Salem MA. They've done a great job.
 
That's Bristol which is the original color. The Glasurit recipe for Bristol is wrong. It makes a brownish rather than a bluish grey. It took about two months of going back and forth with BASF, sending them pieces from the car for spectral analysis, and mixing up a dozen different recipes to test to get the color right.
 
Outstanding work. Please plan to come to the Vintage in NC in May. Lots of us would like to see your car, and you can be as geeky as you want about your love for it with us.
 
Fantastic work! I really enjoyed reading this thread thanks for the update.

Those guys Clayton and Louis are sheet metal artists - my hats off to them. I wonder how much it would cost to get a car shipped up there ;-) I'd imagine there are a few people on this forum thinking that right about now...

Cheers
James
 
Thank you all for the kind words. I'll pass them on to the guys at the shop. They've done a very thorough job even down to separating the nose from the radiator bulkhead and making each piece perfect. Everything was finished with a zinc loaded weld through primer and then seam sealed.

I'll get the car just in time to put away for the winter, then it will come back out probably in April. I'm not sure if I'll have enough shake down time before undertaking a long trip to the Vintage in May, but it would be really fun to do. It will probably depend on how long this winter lasts.

I think that shipping a car to Louis would be one of the smaller costs in the restoration. ;-)
 
lsquaredb said:
Hi Everyone,

Sunday the 2800CS was pulled out of my parent's garage where it was parked 23 years ago. It was trucked to my place and I cleaned it up a little. I haven't tried to start it yet, and it's suffering from the Karmann weight reduction process as you can see in the pictures.

From the pictures inside the garage, you can see that a rat has been busy. The pool of liquid on the floor is from the rat eating through a radiator hose.

I've been looking at this site quite a bit, and am both inspired and terrified.

Leonard
Click to expand...
Hi there,

Thats the same situation I found myself in. My father purchased the e9 in the 1990s and after he passed away it sat in the garage for 13 years. It was offered to me a few years ago. It's in its original state and in good condition. I got SFDON to get it road worthy and now it sits in my garage where I drive it on the weekends. Stay the course, they are beautiful cars.

Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk
 
Thank you for the beautiful restoration pictures and the earlier 'condition' and progress pictures as well. Hope I can also come to the Vintage this year, and we'll be able to meet. Thanks also for saving another e9 for posterity.

Gary
 
Really nice work Leonard! I can't wait until I'm in the same position and be able to just enjoy and drive the car, did you restore the interior also?

Cheers,
 
Gransin said:
Really nice work Leonard! I can't wait until I'm in the same position and be able to just enjoy and drive the car, did you restore the interior also?

Cheers,
Click to expand...
The interior is mostly original and in good shape. The car had cloth covers over the vinyl seats for most of it's life, so the seats are fine. I used to clean the interior on Christmas visits for about 20 years to keep mold from being a problem. The top of the gauge cluster was recovered recently and the rear center armrest recovered in Holland about 30 years ago. It had split from years if the California sun. The carpet is original except for the driver's floor mat which was also replaced 40 years ago. The carpet underlayment is new.

Today they were getting ready to put the seats back in the car. It's been days from being finished for the last three weeks. I hope I get a chance to drive it before the snow comes.
 
The car is done. Louis brought the car over this morning. The only problem is that I can't drive it! I insured it last week over the internet, and attempted to register it on Friday. The the Registry of Motor Vehicles wouldn't register the car because the RMV-1 form was not an original stamped by the insurance company. The paperwork from the internet doesn't count, so I have to wait for Haggerty to reopen from their holiday shutdown and send me the stamped form. I've waited four yeas for the restoration to finish, I suppose I can wait another couple of days for plates.

I did get to drive the car a few miles on mechanics plates. It was a little weird driving it for the first time in almost 30 years. It looks better than new, feels very solid, and has no rattles. They did a great job. Even the door for the hood release is aligned properly. It was crooked from the factory. I'll post some pictures once I can drive it (assuming it's not snowing).
 
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