Two time E9 owner, first time forum member

coupedegrace

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I previously had a Polaris '72 CSi, which wasn't quite as expensive as this one. When I mentioned this to the person I bought this car from, he asked if the earlier one was bought with Bush dollars. I thought about it for a minute and said, "nope, Clinton dollars." I've also had 3 2002s over the years ('71, '74 & '76).

Here are the details of the car on delivery, "the BMW 3.0 CSi VIN 2263791 was manufactured on November 18th, 1972 and delivered on November 22nd, 1972 to the BMW dealer Antes & Hofmann in Mannheim. The original colour was Fjord metallic, paint code 037."

It has since been repainted to what I think is Baikal Metallic, but I'm not entirely certain about that. I'd have to see it next to an actual Baikal car to know for sure. I welcome member input as to the "colour" of my car...

As you can probably tell from one of the photos, some fiend took a can opener to the roof in the 80s and installed an aftermarket sun roof. It at least seems to be well manufactured and well installed. I'd obviously prefer it not to be there, but in some ways it's liberating in that the car will never be a pristine $100k BAT car. This relieves me from worrying about making things perfect and makes it easier for me to enjoy.

The previous owner had installed an extravagant "Phoenix Gold" stereo system. This included cutting holes in the door cards and the hat rack for speakers; a voltage regulator JUST for the stereo with a machined aluminum cover that could have passed for a Mallory electronic ignition; and a concealed radar detector. The rear antenna for the radar detector was installed behind the rear fog light lens. The light housing itself was sacrificed in the name of avoiding bogeys. It turns out all of this audio excellence and it's attendant voltage requirements made the car run like crap. The dealer/mechanic I bought it from gleefully removed most of it prior to my purchase. There are still countless mystery wires to be accounted for and removed though.

It isn't rust-free by any means, but the places to really watch out for are in good shape. It has a strong replacement motor that is hardly even broken in, and a Metric Mechanics 4 speed. Oh yeah, and Recaro seats. I've got the originals too.

I have learned so much from this forum and its members already. I wish it had been around when I had my first E9! I'm especially appreciative of the way members who also make money from working on and restoring these beauties are so free with their knowledge. I'm thinking specifically of SFDon and Mo Brighta, but I'm sure there are others that I'll come to know.

Finally, I felt a great compulsion to come up with a really snazzy user name. I'm not sure that I succeeded, but I was striving for a double entendre. Our E9s are indeed graceful, but if one's not careful they can also easily deal a coup de grace to the old bank account.

Looking forward to more interactions and (gasp) meeting some of you in person one of these days,

Dan

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Arde

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Nice car! What happened to your first coupe?
That user name coupedegrace is cool, much better than coupedisgrace...
 

coupedegrace

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Thanks, Arde. I'd rather not revisit the details of my parting from the first coupe, but coupedisgrace might actually be kind of accurate. Fell on hard times, couldn't support the habit, etc.

It's great to be back in the owner's fold now!
 

Markos

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Welcome Dan!

Thanks for sharing your story and some of the challenges that you are tackling.

Now show us a pic of the italvolanti BMW motorsport steering wheel! ;)
 

Blinkling

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As you can probably tell from one of the photos, some fiend took a can opener to the roof in the 80s and installed an aftermarket sun roof. It at least seems to be well manufactured and well installed.

Hi! I wonder if your aftermarket sunroof is the same kind as mine. I have no regrets either; it opens fast, is bigger than the factory design, and wasn’t particularly hard to disassemble and reseal.

Hope to meet you at some west coast show one of these times.
 

coupedegrace

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Welcome Dan!

Thanks for sharing your story and some of the challenges that you are tackling.

Now show us a pic of the italvolanti BMW motorsport steering wheel! ;)
I was going to ask the Washingtonians if they knew the car, and apparently you do! Yes indeed, it has an Italvolanti wheel. It was out of the car and cleaned up a bit while I was getting the turn signals to work again. I'd love to hear anything you know about the car.

The previous owner had the car brought down to Munich Motorworks here in PDX to try and get it working better. Joseph, the shop owner, dug into it and came up with a long list of things that needed to be done. When Joseph got back to the owner with the list, he balked and offered to sell the car to Joseph instead. I happened to drive by his shop one day and there it sat out front. It had a piece of paper torn out of a notebook with some writing from a ball point pen on it, and I thought "holy cow, it must be for sale! But wait, is that an aftermarket sunroof I see on top?" As noted, I got over the addition of the sunroof.

I hope I didn't sound too negative earlier. It seems the addition of a "bitchin' stereo" is a right of passage for many of these cars. Come to think of it, I've been guilty of the same in the past. It really is pretty well sorted as it stands. Many of the rubbery bits in the suspension were replaced and some other things were attended to when I bought it. It's a much happier car without the stereo (and with a new, later-model alternator with internal voltage regulator).
 

coupedegrace

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Hi! I wonder if your aftermarket sunroof is the same kind as mine. I have no regrets either; it opens fast, is bigger than the factory design, and wasn’t particularly hard to disassemble and reseal.

Hope to meet you at some west coast show one of these times.
I like your attitude! I haven't removed mine yet, but it doesn't seem hard to do. Does yours have a little plexiglass wind deflector? There was one in the trunk of my car. Couldn't figure out what it was at first, and finally realized you attach it at the front hinge points when you remove the panel It acts like the pop-up wind deflectors in cars with retractable roofs.
 

Markos

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I don’t actually know the car. I just posted the craigslist ad here when it listed in 2020. ;)
 

Markos

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Interesting. How did that come about?

Users of this forum generally publish all known US e9 listings, and any interesting international listings (CSL’s, etc.)

I generally don’t link back to FS listings in wecome threads. With that said, here it is.

 

coupedegrace

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Users of this forum generally publish all known US e9 listings, and any interesting international listings (CSL’s, etc.)

I generally don’t link back to FS listings in wecome threads. With that said, here it is.

Ahh, I see. I misunderstood you previously.
 

vince

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Hi Dan,

Please bring your coupe to our next Classic BMW Cars and Coffee in Lake O. We do them every month in the spring, summer, and fall. Looking forward meeting you and seeing your car.

Vince


 

coupedegrace

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Hi Dan,

Please bring your coupe to our next Classic BMW Cars and Coffee in Lake O. We do them every month in the spring, summer, and fall. Looking forward meeting you and seeing your car.

Vince


Thanks, sounds like fun! Your car is a real stunner, btw.
 

Java Man

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Hey Dan. Welcome to the Forum. Looks like you found a terrific coupe & have some good company -- E9 & Bimmer-wise -- up in the Portland area. Enloy in good health!

Tom
 

Alejandro Giraldo

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Hello Dan
Lovely car you have there
Congrats and indeed enjoy it in good health
I love those wheels a lot ! Are those 14 inch, they look like mahle wheels

Best
 

coupedegrace

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I love those wheels a lot ! Are those 14 inch, they look like mahle wheels
Hola Alejandro,

Thank you for your kind words.

You are right on both accounts - 14" and Mahles. I really like them too! At first I thought I'd put something lower profile on, but now I'm not so sure. The Mahles are in pretty good shape, although they've obviously been refinished. You can tell by some runny paint in places on the basketweave, but you have to look pretty close to see it.

Right now the main thing that would encourage me to go with a larger wheel is the fact that there aren't that many choices in 14" tires. There are the beautiful Pirelli CN36 of course, but so expensive. I really should replace my tires I think. The ones that came on the car look almost brand new - Sumitomo summer performance tires. When I checked the date codes I saw that they were from 2005 though!

(At first I said something about how your replacement trunk panels look nice, but now I realize that's alprada70 that makes the reproduction parts. Unless maybe both of you do? Anyway, who would have guessed their would be two forum members from Columbia with user names that start with "a".)

Again, thanks for the welcome! This community is really great.

-Dan
 
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Alejandro Giraldo

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Hola Alejandro,

Thank you for your kind words.

You are right on both accounts - 14" and Mahles. I really like them too! At first I thought I'd put something lower profile on, but now I'm not so sure. The Mahles are in pretty good shape, although they've obviously been refinished. You can tell by some runny paint in places on the basketweave, but you have to look pretty close to see it.

Right now the main thing that would encourage me to go with a larger wheel is the fact that there aren't that many choices in 14" tires. There are the beautiful Pirelli CN36 of course, but so expensive. I really should replace my tires I think. The ones that came on the car look almost brand new - Sumitomo summer performance tires. When I checked the date codes I saw that they were from 2005 though!

(At first I said something about how your replacement trunk panels look nice, but now I realize that's alprada70 that makes the reproduction parts. Unless maybe both of you do? Anyway, who would have guessed their would be two forum members from Columbia with user names that start with "a".)

Again, thanks for the welcome! This community is really great.

-Dan
Dear Dan
Thank you for your mesaage
I would love to see if you can of course What is the offset on those wheels
Most probably is et11 or perhaps et9.3 which could be also possible although the 9.3 were used on csl and 11 is the most common one
I have to say that the Michelin xwx 205 70 r14 also is a gorgeous tire but also a bit expensive and pretty much the same as the pirelli cn 36 which is a beautiful tire

Dan the I e who makes the trunk panel is Alprada and his name is Alvaro and yes he is also from Colombia and a friend of mine
Nonetheless your coupe is gorgeous and check out the offset on the wheels when you got a chance

Thank you
 

Stan

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Pirelli from Longstone are not so bad.
 
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