This coupe was a sad find. The woman in Santa Cruz was clearing out her father’s belongings. He was a long time BMW owner. She had stories of him giving her a 1600 when she was in high school and even back then it was primer and various shades of gray and black.
This coupe is an early euro and had no headrests from factory. At the time I saw the car the seats were in very impressive condition. Unfortunately it didn’t last long as the rats decided to make it their home.
This car was being stored under a roof cover that allowed all sorts of weather and Santa Cruz salt air to have its way with the body.
Unfortunately the exposure to weather left this coupe in a rusty state.
This is a matching numbers car and was mostly if not completely original. I was so excited to go see it and had envisioned my new and next coupe project! I can’t describe my disappointment when I finally laid my eyes on it. If the rust didn’t scare me, (it did), the decayed rat carcass in the glove box did the job. I have a phobia of rats dead or alive. It’s more of a germ/disease phobia.
The woman was all over the place on her price. She really didn’t know what she was doing or what the true value was. I recall that BHCC had offered her nearly $10,000.00 site unseen and she refused because they were going to flip it. Well a local friend bought it after I chewed him out for even thinking of buying it. He is a hoarder and already had a coupe disaster in his shipping container. Eric, if you are reading this, I am not sorry. Just calling a spade a spade. Eric bought it, got it running, not driving. After another phone call telling me about this coupe that his buddy has that he wants to sell to him and that it is a really nice car Eric finally listened to my advice and bought his buddy’s car.
Eric recently told me that he sold both projects, I didn’t realize they ended up with BHCC.
.............. smart girl that Jennifer
