sympathetic restoration on a 73 CSi

davekillen

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Hi all, I'm digging into this car so figured it was time to start a thread. It fell into my lap last year thanks to a friend who works at a local BMW shop. It appears to have been a west coast car (has a California college sticker in the window, and Oregon tags from 2007) but despite that the rockers and floors (with the odd exception of the driver's rear floor, which is nearly perfect) are pretty well shot. The sills are full of sand so maybe it was driven on the beach? I'm sure there'll be other areas of rust to address but for the most part the rest of the car seems reasonably solid.

I'm going to try to preserve as much originality as possible, which will include repainting in its original Taiga. I think I can save much of the interior... hoping to extend this even to the headliner, but we'll see. It came to me sans carpet, center console and a few other bits, though. The dash is very rough as is the rest of the wood. I'll try my hand at repairing all that (I can handle the vinyl but the wood will be new to me) but will seek professional help if need be.

One odd thing is the rocker trim. The car had decorative strips like what 2002s have, but I've never seen them on an e9 before. I think they were just a bodge by whoever did some pretty awful rocker work in the past, but am curious if anyone has seen them before.

So far I've got the interior and glass stripped out, the chassis braced, and am well into the driver's side sill. The sills will need pretty much everything with the exception of the b-pillar supports. The inner rocker is solid starting about 2 inches up from the pinchweld, so I'll probably graft a new one on at that point. I had thought about fabbing that part of things but I think it's not worth it given the time it'd take vs. the cost of a new one, and it's gonna be a massive WN order regardless.

One question I have for those who have done this... would it be wise to hold off on tearing down the passenger side rocker until I have the driver's side built back up a bit? Or is the bracing likely enough to maintain structural integrity? I welded the bracing in with the car on its tires, drivetrain still installed etc, and the doors shut nicely after that either on the ground or on the lift (supported on the frame rails up front, and subrframe mounting points in back). So I'm confident it's in good shape dimensionally as of now, but would like to keep it that way!

I'll try to be diligent about making updates here, and also will put together some videos. My background is in film and photography so sometimes videos are easier for me than putting together posts for a build thread.
 

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I think itʻs safer do one side at a time. Itʻs going to be much harder to get things aligned if the car does sag after opening the second rocker. That said, if you are going to leave most of the middle rocker, it should remain stiff enough. If you plan to take that out fully, definitely do one side at a time. Full disclosure: I havenʻt done this work to my E9 yet, but did similar work on a VW convertible years ago that did warp because it wasnʻt fully braced.
 
IMG_2448.jpeg

You added some steel to prevent bending.
I can advise you to use some steel to prevent torsion of the chassis. See e.g. the yellow lines. It makes it stiff in more directions.
 
I was thinking I'd put some cross bracing in after finishing the sills and floors before I put it on a rotisserie so I'll have more room to work inside? But maybe best to do it now. And yeah, I can't think of any good reason to tear down both sills other than keeping busy while the parts are on order. I'll stick with doing one at a time
 
Holy Moses… that’s quite the rust bomb. I’m getting ready to take out my outer rockers… mine looks like a cake walk compared to that.

Just echo what everyone else said. One at a time.
 
As @Fritzie showed, I too build 3 crosses inside the car when I needed to fix my rockers. 2 crosses from A-pillar top/bottom to the harness mounting points on the rear parcel shelf/ wheelarch. And another cross from left to right in the car, as the yellow lines in the above drawing. This prevents warping.

Then I cut out the rocker, one side, leaving the thick vertical inner rockers that connects to the floor. Usually that only has some rust at the ends and lower edge, allowing for it to be patched locally rather then replaced entirely. Leaving that sill in place keeps the A pillar and C-pillar at a constant distance and guarantees that the car doesn't sag.
Once one side was done and welded shut, I opened up the other sill.

Proof of the pudding; when mounted on a jig afterwards, all major frame dimensions were still wihtin spec.

I fully recommend this approach. It's quite a bit of work though...
 
Chugging along. I welded in some cross bracing as suggested and continued to tear down the driver's sill. I've got the inner rocker completely exposed now, so I think I'm on hold now until I get the new sheet metal.

Not pictured but while the A-pillar support is shot, he B-pillar support is in great shape and i'll re-use it with a few small repairs. Most of the various layers at the rear should be repairable too, and while I'm ordering new inner rockers I'll preserve most of the originals, with basically the new ends being grafted on as I've seen others do here.

I also found an old candy wrapper hiding in the sill. it seems to have held up well, perhaps worth studying for its rust resistance haha.

My best guess is that this car's rockers filled up with sand, which then got saturated with water from the rear drain, and maybe it was parked on a hill with the nose facing down? The rust is far worse up front on both sides. You can also see that at some point someone jacked up the front driver's corner after things were already way too rusty for that. It's collapsed in on itself up there.
 

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All looks very familiar - rust wise - to those of us in Northern Europe!

I had similar rot to deal with, though the innermost panel nearest the floor wasn't as bad on mine and bizarrely while the right hand intermediate/perforated panels on mine was shot, the left hand one was practically perfect. As I wasn't cutting so much out, I didn't use any bracing, but did refit the door to keep tabs on the door gaps, as i reckon those are the acid test so to speak.

I didn't find sweet wrappers in mine but this instead!

SDC13636.JPG
 
All looks very familiar - rust wise - to those of us in Northern Europe!

I had similar rot to deal with, though the innermost panel nearest the floor wasn't as bad on mine and bizarrely while the right hand intermediate/perforated panels on mine was shot, the left hand one was practically perfect. As I wasn't cutting so much out, I didn't use any bracing, but did refit the door to keep tabs on the door gaps, as i reckon those are the acid test so to speak.

I didn't find sweet wrappers in mine but this instead!

View attachment 203891
Obviously an owner of good taste!
 
After I had cut open the sill, I found the restoration creations of the previous owner. Will have to come out unfortunately! too bad about the new sheet metal that has been used
 

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One odd thing is the rocker trim. The car had decorative strips like what 2002s have, but I've never seen them on an e9 before. I think they were just a bodge by whoever did some pretty awful rocker work in the past, but am curious if anyone has seen them before.


E9's did have decorative, non-structural rocker covers. But, they didn't look like the one shown in this photo. The correct covers are black and have a more complex profile. Most likely after the PO "fixed" the rockers, the stock covers wouldn't fit anymore, so he slapped on these generic ones.
 
I've never seen your rocker trims before. Agree that they look like PO inventions.
I do think early 2800 cs, or was it perhaps the 3200 cs or 2000CS, did have smooth chrome shiny rocker trims, so perhaps he was after that look?

Walloth&Nesch sell the black metal outer (decorative) sill and also a generic (L=R identical) reproduction of the rubber/chrome strip.
 
Walloth&Nesch sell the black metal outer (decorative) sill and also a generic (L=R identical) reproduction of the rubber/chrome strip.

Check out this page: https://www.wallothnesch.com/en/veh...-2-5-cs-3-0-csl-e9/catalog-picture-51-06.html

€126.44 each isn't too terrible for the L & R rocker covers. But €453.74 for a pair of trim pieces is going to sting. And shipping these from Germany to Portland won't be cheap. Cheapskate that I am, I'd investigate used parts.
 
Yeah, that trim price is hard to swallow, but I'll probably be ponying up for it along with the rest of the rocker stuff I'll be ordering from WN
 
Yeah, that trim price is hard to swallow, but I'll probably be ponying up for it along with the rest of the rocker stuff I'll be ordering from WN
just a small to these parts: they are reproductions, and although better then nothing and kuddo's for W&N to make em, be aware that they are quite different vs the originals.
Walloth's parts are left and right identical, whereas the originals are different Left vs Tight. It is noticable when comparing the ends, and how they are 'cut off' ; how they follow (original) or not (W&N) the shape of the wheel arches.
 
I'll hold off for now. I just placed my sheet metal order with WN but deleted the trim pieces from my cart; it'll be a while before I need the trim, and maybe I can find something else in the meantime. If anyone has them for sale, let me know!
 
Indeed! The beauty of these trim parts is that you can slap them on AFTER you finish the build... If there is budget left, if there is time left, if there is energy left... etc.
I drove my car for 4 years without them; I didn't smile less about it. Better fuel consumption also :-)

originals surface once a year or so, not always perfect but usually less then 400 USD also.
 
My WN order came in and I got started putting new metal (and a little bit of old metal) back in on the driver's side today
 

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