My '74 came with the following stock bars:
Front: 22mm (measures about 23mm due to paint thickness)
Rear 17mm (measurems 18mm due to paint thickness)
The sportier setup (to be installed in pairs)
Front: 28.5mm
Rear: 22mm
Paint curing: everyone is correct when they warn you that due to the way BMW E9 side trim is designed, it is likely to tear your brand new paint if you install it too soon or don't use those spacers that Benny sais are not needed. Unless your guy Benny has done a bunch of E9's before, he probably doesn't know this. Back in the day, lots of people shot lacquer, which off gases and cures quickly and dries pretty hard. Modern urethanes are different. Some will argue that there's a way to install the trim to avoid this. In point of fact, a LONG LONG time ago I painted both an E3 and a 2002 myself in Dupont Urethane Enample (glass/trim off, near bare metal). I didn't have any problems with the side trim tearing the new paint. But I believe I got lucky in that
(a) I tried to orient each piece of trim to be centered in the mount holds so when I tightened the nut on the back side the trim would not move up or down. On an E9, this requires 2 people. And you can't really crank down on the nut too hard.
(b) I 'waited' at least 2 weeks before reinstalling the trim. It really wasn't waiting because I needed time wet sand and polished, install glass, and was only working on the cars during weekends. A production shop might paint and try to assembly within a couple days.
(b) BTW, E3 trim is totally different than E9 trim in that it has a rubber back piece so the metal part of the trim doesn't touch the paint.
You are spending enough money that there's no harm to be careful. It's not like you are signed up for Peking/Paris and have to put the car on a plane to hit some tight deadline. Just take it easy and don't rush it.
As long as the shop has the floor space, just wait as long as possible before installing the belt-line trim, and don't go gorilla on the nuts.
