After 10 years in a glasshouse BMW e3 restoration begins

[croyde]

davepoth said:

Five coats of clear lacquer and drive it around like that, I reckon.

Excellent work getting this far - that was a hell of a lot of rust to get sorted.

Beat me to it I do like that look.

[oobster]

Love reading project threads like this, looking forward to more updates. Well done so far though!

[BMW250L]

Great progress Andrew!

Keep it up.

Best,

Martin.

[*Al*]

Awesome commitment, well done.

[beaunes]

Finally found some other Bavaristi that know how to treat these cars. I just finished a 4 year resto modding of my 72.
I have lots of good parts if you need anything for your project...seats, front bumper, beltline trim etc

Edited by beaunes on Tuesday 22 May 19:53

Edited by beaunes on Tuesday 22 May 19:57

Edited by beaunes on Thursday 24th May 02:23

[Lost soul]

beaunes said:

Finally found some other Bavaristi that know how to treat these cars. I just finished a 4 year resto modding of my 72.
I have lots of good parts if you need anything for your project...seats, front bumper, beltline trim etc

Edited by beaunes on Tuesday 22 May 19:53

Edited by beaunes on Tuesday 22 May 19:57

That is lovely well done

[BMW250L]

beaunes said:

Finally found some other Bavaristi that know how to treat these cars. I just finished a 4 year resto modding of my 72.
I have lots of good parts if you need anything for your project...seats, front bumper, beltline trim etc

Edited by beaunes on Tuesday 22 May 19:53

Edited by beaunes on Tuesday 22 May 19:57

Edited by beaunes on Thursday 24th May 02:23

Where do you live? I have a black E3 which I did a 2 year resto on (there's a picture and link to my build thread earlier in this thread).

Cheers,

Martin.

[beaunes]

Martin,

I saw your car and your restoration thread, very nice. Don't think I've ever seen a black one. I've had mine since 1986. Rebuilt it in 1990 and then in 2008 started collecting parts for a total rebuild. Bare metal paint, Five-speed conversion, LSD, 3.5 liter Korman Autoworks Motor, upgraded brakes, suspension, custom exhaust, 17x8 Beyern Mesh wheels, AVIC-N3. I call her "UBERVARIA"

I see you live in the UK. I'm in Tampa Florida USA. Will be in London in September. Do you live near London? My goal is to bring my car to Europe for my 55th B-day in 2 years and drive it through France, England & Germany.

My other addiction is a 1975 Datsun 280Z that I bought new and have also resto rodded. As you can tell I like stock looking cars that go very fast.

Jim

[Gingernuts]

Great thread and great project, dont think im brave enough to tackle a "rusty" resto, but if there is ever inspiriation this is it.


Will be watching this!

[BMW250L]

beaunes said:

Martin,

I saw your car and your restoration thread, very nice. Don't think I've ever seen a black one. I've had mine since 1986. Rebuilt it in 1990 and then in 2008 started collecting parts for a total rebuild. Bare metal paint, Five-speed conversion, LSD, 3.5 liter Korman Autoworks Motor, upgraded brakes, suspension, custom exhaust, 17x8 Beyern Mesh wheels, AVIC-N3. I call her "UBERVARIA"

I see you live in the UK. I'm in Tampa Florida USA. Will be in London in September. Do you live near London? My goal is to bring my car to Europe for my 55th B-day in 2 years and drive it through France, England & Germany.

My other addiction is a 1975 Datsun 280Z that I bought new and have also resto rodded. As you can tell I like stock looking cars that go very fast.

Jim

Hey Jim,

You car sounds like a great OEM+ spec - good job!

I do live near London - about 30 miles west.

280Z is very cool too!

Keep in touch.

Cheers,

Martin.

[kellya4]

Sorry for the delayed update, things have been moving along nicely, still a lot to do but we're progressing. Much of the recent work has been furthering along towards getting the body ready for paint; usual process of reducing amounts of filler down to wet and dry, one panel at a time......

.......to here



Credit to project partner Arthur Hamilton for getting the car to this stage and saving us heaps of budget; it seems his paint shop prep skills from an early 1990s restoration of a 240 Jaguar he did had not completely disappeared, i'm really impressed (as was the body shop which is more important). They will put one of their guys on it for a week pre paint so it should be stunning when done.

We are hoping to get it into the paintshop at the end of next month, really looking forward to seeing it painted.

The underside has been wire brush cleaned for 2 weekends and coated with Dinitrol so we hopefully won't have to get the welding kit out again in 2020!!!

The car is now driving after a full week of renewing pipework, flushing and renewing fluids, replacing many non-major components and re-attaching the fallen back-box. It even has a handbrake now where it didn't have one in its last year on the road!!

The seats are off getting re-trimmed, the apparently usual BMW fraying has occurred and the seats deteriorate with every touch; I am expecting them back next week and will begin to rebuild the interior.

As I have a weeks holidays next week I will also clean up all chromework and the wheels so they will be ready when the car is painted.

And, I will also update this topic with further pics...

1 question: The windscreen rubber in the car is quite perished and we would like to replace it with a good one from a donor vehicle. I believe these are not available new and are a nightmare to get? Is swapping out a windscreen rubber possible or do they get destroyed on removal?

Thanks in advance,

I'm enjoying seeing all the other restored E3's so keep posting, it makes for great motivation.

Andrew

[beaunes]

The window gaskets are still available from BMW I replaced all my rubber on the whole car. Not cheap but available

[beaunes]

I forgot to mention that bad window gaskets are a mojor reason water gets into the car and rots them from the inside out. So this is a good investment considering all the work you have done

[kellya4]

Does anyone know what model front and/or rear seats from other BMW's will fit my E-3? Two upholsterers have been unable to remove the headrests as they are ceased solid and cannot apply heat due to the fabric nearby. I have heard E38 seats bolt straight in the front but E34 and 32 have different width rails? My car is a 1976 therefore bolts directly to the floor and not onto perched rails like earlier models.

Many thanks for any info, promise to update by the end of the week with pics- interior (bar seats) is in, wheels looking brighter and booked into the panel shop today for ~2 week prep and a new overcoat.

[kellya4]

Update on progress as promised. But first, does anyone know where there are a set of good velour or leather seats available? I have searched in all the usual locations but have found nothing. It seems other E model seats will fit with some adjustment but I would prefer not to go down this road. Original colour is light; beige/cream but I think black would also suit. Let me know whats out there anyway, appreciate it.

Ok, so the custom made right hand drive carpets arrived......for an E3 long wheel base no explanation why or recompensense as this was clearly their mistake. The carpets were ordered and delivered 8 weeks before fitting so that didn't help my case. So, in the end, I had to cut, measure, cut again. At times, I think it would have been better to just buy carpet and cut from scratch as some pieces were so wrong. We put down sound deadening and glued the carpets to this, will look perfect with seats in (I hope).



Note the joining sections just behind the handbrake lever this is the worst part, rest looks good!!



Hours and hours totted up bringing the chromework back to life, I am not finished but here is a sample of the wheels....

Before:



After:



I have ordered a windscreen rubber direct from my local BMW dealer - 140 euros, not bad. I was recommended this website: http://bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/E3/Sedan/Europe/2500-M30/RHD/M/ it is a database of all parts with original BMW part numbers, I rang my dealer with the number and it went into his system, then ordered. Easy!! It also states which parts are still available.

The car is currently getting prepped by the panel shop before they spray it. That will include cleaning up the welds around the doors, boot, wings and ensuring every panel is going to end up wih a mirror finish.

Let me know if there are any seats around, appreciate the help. Will upadate in a few weeks when the painting is complete!!

[ManOpener]

German Ebay might be the best bet for the seats. If you've got Chrome or another browser they should have in-built translation.

[vsonix]

E3 2500 was the first BMW I ever rode in aged about four or five, I think it's what gave me the bug.

[beaunes]

One of the best sources for parts of all kinds for your Bav is Walloth & Necsh at http://www.wallothnesch.com. They are in Germany You will be blown away by what they have. They even have new trunk tool kits! Also, I have a set of original seats covered in Blue vinyl from my 72 in excellent condition. But they would have to shipped from the states. I also have 2 sets of wheels, 14 x 6.5 original 20 spoke turbines and 15 x 7 Borbets with brand new Sumitomo tires. I would sell all of these cheap, but shipping is the issue

One other option. I just put a set of Corbeau seats in my Bavaria. They look like old recaros model GTS 11. The mounting brackets are still made for Bavarias! I bought mine at http://treperformance.com/c-184-interior-corbeau-s... but there may be a dealer in the UK.

I see you got a carpet kit that you were not happy with. If you need any more interior stuff like headliner or trunk carpet go to World Upolstery at http://worlduph.com/bmw/. I used them and quality was great as was fit

Edited by beaunes on Sunday 30th September 10:40

[kickapony]

Early E24 6 Series will fit and are readily available second hand as a stop gap

[E38Ross]

you could also try giving these guys a call

http://www.fritzsbits.co.uk/shop/

mention Ross who had a green E21 recommended them, i'm sure they'll be happy to help