1969 E9 BMW 2800CS Pillarless Coupe - Update!

[djefk]

Thanks guys,

skoda_norman asked me about getting previous owner's details and contacting them - This was my reply:

"DVLA in a way encourage you to get in touch with previous owners - They operate a service where, for a small fee (It used to be a fiver), they will send you the details of all registered keepers! Send a letter to previous registered owners' addresses asking for info on the car and putting your phone number and return address - I've done this several times and I've always had at least one "hit".

No excuse - Do it! As has been proved in this case, you might just get lucky.

mcnultycop - One of my friends also is adament he prefers the wheels that came with it - He thinks they'd look the nuts chromed up although I'm not sure about that!

[tonybmw]

Very Smart, you do need to paint the centres of the Alpina Alloys though, and you can get centre caps here

cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220631628644&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT#ht_500wt_956

I have some E12 electric window motors, they might be the same, if you send me a photo of 1 I'll see if they are

Walloth and Nesch are a good source of new parts, but your right, you do have to pay for them

Tony

[surprisingskoda]

Oct 10, 2010 10:40:52 GMT djefk said:

I was going through the car's history a few weeks back - It's had 2 previous owners and 86,000 miles from new which is nice. I came across a bill addressed to the previous owner with his phone number on it. It was dated 1988 so the chances of it still being correct were pretty small - Anyway I thought here goes nothing.....

(ring ring)

"Hello?"

"Hi is that Mr. Warburton?"

"Yes?"

"Frank Warburton?"

"Yes??"

"My name's David and I own a BMW 2800CS which you owned for 20 years - Is this a good time?"

(Silence......)

"Hello?"

The poor old boy was so surprised he was speechless! We were on the phone for over an hour, I wrote 2 A4 pages of notes and gained an incredible amount of information in that hour - It turns out this car was made as a left-hooker in the very first month of production in Dec 1968 (which is why it has this date on the Karmann build plate on the passenger A pillar / door shut despite being registered in April '69) - It was brought over here privately and converted to RHD by a BMW Dealer before being sold to 2 brothers as a new car - Frank actually met the first owners in the early 80's at Silverstone

It turns out this is effectively a pre-production car, which nicely explains why the interior has lots of detail differences even from cars made a few months later, and also explains why hundreds of bits and pieces (including most of the parts I bought for the steering / braking system) didn't fit or need a lot of modifying to fit!!! This is THE earliest E9 coupe in the frickin country and maybe even the world?!!

I also learn in that hour that the engine, gearbox and back axle have all been rebuilt, and Frank sold the car to a "Restoration Specialist" needing new sills and various other repairs. HA! So this is how the car ended up 6 months later being sold to me full of filler and with that blasted road sign doing duty as part of the floor with lashings of sealant and underseal (only) to hold it in place?!

Talking of gearboxes, I quizzed Frank as to why there were there was a large sheet of paper in the car's history folder with lots of notes about a 5 speed conversion, yet the car still has a 4 speed? "I researched which 5 speed gearbox will fit and bought one ..." (yes that's the one I've been looking for over the last 2 years without success folks...) "... and I bought all the parts needed to fit it but I never got round to it - Hang on, there's a chance it still might be in my shed at the bottom of the garden - Let me put you on the cordless while I put my shoes on and I'll go and have a look".

10 minutes later, I can scarcely believe my luck - the man did indeed still have the 5 speed and all the bits to fit it under his workbench in his shed, but the best bit was hearing this: "I tell you what, if you bring the car down to see me when it's finished you can take the box and parts away for nothing"

So that's a complete 5 speed gearbox conversion kit.... FOR FREE?? Oh yes!

Guys, if you take nothing else away from this thread - Find out the history of your cars, write to the DVLA, do some internet research, whatever - SPEAK TO YOUR CAR'S PREVIOUS OWNERS!

That's just astonishing. It always happens with a well loved car though. The most I ever got was the promise of a spare key (not received!).
I bet you have been dancing since you heard that though!

[johnrh]

Stick at it. Beautiful car with an interesting history.

It would be rude not to fit an e34 M5 engine and box tho

John

[Siert]

Very nice and a great story contacting the previous owner.

When I bought a towing hook for my GS at a Finnish Citroen club meeting I used the same bicycle rack defense you use, but adding also "because I'm Dutch, so I need that"... so far I've towed several trailers but not fitted any bicycle racks Cars need towing hooks, it's a fact.

[hoopsontoast]

That is lovely just lovely!

[Seth]

Looks like some really great attention to detail there. And what an amazing story about that long term owner. The car had obviously meant quite a lot to him to keep it for that long and then be able to reminisce about it so many years later.

[mcnultycop]

Oct 10, 2010 15:00:53 GMT djefk said:

MCNULTYCOP - One of my friends also is adament he prefers the wheels that came with it - He thinks they'd look the nuts chromed up although I'm not sure about that!

Not sure about chromed, they reminded me a little of Remotecs - I'd have black and polished them.

[ChasR]

A nice bit of history to that car indeed.

Lovely bit of kit. I preferred it with the brown interior but we're all different. The end result I am sure was worth the wait for you .

[djefk]

Right, I've just packed off an Email to the BMW museum archive to see what history they hold on this beasty - Should be interesting IF they can find the correct record. I say if because every time I get a BMW dealer to look up the chassis number they keep asking if I'm sure it isn't an E30 3 series saloon - Er...... no it's definately not

Interesting idea on the wheels mcnultycop - Let's track down some correct centre caps and see what it looks like...

[djefk]

Ok I've been woefully neglectful of this thread, as the car is being done at DS Motorsport I'm never there when things happen so I can't take pictures!

Briefly, the car is finished and ready for collection tomorrow, so expect lots of pics of the restoration (DS have taken a LOT of pics), plus of the car as it is now. It's been ***over two and a half years*** since I last drove it and many thousands of pounds so I can't wait!!

I'll update ASAP, watch this space....

[tonybmw]

Looking forward to a photo full update

[Mark]

Oct 10, 2010 10:40:52 GMT djefk said:

I was going through the car's history a few weeks back - It's had 2 previous owners and 86,000 miles from new which is nice. I came across a bill addressed to the previous owner with his phone number on it. It was dated 1988 so the chances of it still being correct were pretty small - Anyway I thought here goes nothing.....

(ring ring)

"Hello?"

"Hi is that Mr. Warburton?"

"Yes?"

"Frank Warburton?"

"Yes??"

"My name's David and I own a BMW 2800CS which you owned for 20 years - Is this a good time?"

(Silence......)

"Hello?"

The poor old boy was so surprised he was speechless! We were on the phone for over an hour, I wrote 2 A4 pages of notes and gained an incredible amount of information in that hour - It turns out this car was made as a left-hooker in the very first month of production in Dec 1968 (which is why it has this date on the Karmann build plate on the passenger A pillar / door shut despite being registered in April '69) - It was brought over here privately and converted to RHD by a BMW Dealer before being sold to 2 brothers as a new car - Frank actually met the first owners in the early 80's at Silverstone

It turns out this is effectively a pre-production car, which nicely explains why the interior has lots of detail differences even from cars made a few months later, and also explains why hundreds of bits and pieces (including most of the parts I bought for the steering / braking system) didn't fit or need a lot of modifying to fit!!! This is THE earliest E9 coupe in the frickin country and maybe even the world?!!

I also learn in that hour that the engine, gearbox and back axle have all been rebuilt, and Frank sold the car to a "Restoration Specialist" needing new sills and various other repairs. HA! So this is how the car ended up 6 months later being sold to me full of filler and with that blasted road sign doing duty as part of the floor with lashings of sealant and underseal (only) to hold it in place?!

Talking of gearboxes, I quizzed Frank as to why there were there was a large sheet of paper in the car's history folder with lots of notes about a 5 speed conversion, yet the car still has a 4 speed? "I researched which 5 speed gearbox will fit and bought one ..." (yes that's the one I've been looking for over the last 2 years without success folks...) "... and I bought all the parts needed to fit it but I never got round to it - Hang on, there's a chance it still might be in my shed at the bottom of the garden - Let me put you on the cordless while I put my shoes on and I'll go and have a look".

10 minutes later, I can scarcely believe my luck - the man did indeed still have the 5 speed and all the bits to fit it under his workbench in his shed, but the best bit was hearing this: "I tell you what, if you bring the car down to see me when it's finished you can take the box and parts away for nothing"

So that's a complete 5 speed gearbox conversion kit.... FOR FREE?? Oh yes!

Guys, if you take nothing else away from this thread - Find out the history of your cars, write to the DVLA, do some internet research, whatever - SPEAK TO YOUR CAR'S PREVIOUS OWNERS!

I did the same thing with my orange e21 and managed to speak with every previous owner.
The second to last owner, who I traced in his new home in Australia, asked if there was still some nail varnish by the gearlever? When I said yes, he went on to tell me about the journey, row with girlfriend (now wife) and subsequent spillage. I had planned to try and remove it but now that I know how it got there, it'll be left as it is.
It also turned out that for the majority of it's life my car hadn't left Essex and it was the chap who bought it new, that fitted the LSD after a spin. All the owners were happy to know their old beemer still existed!
I'd advise everyone to spend a fiver and get their cars history. You just never know what you might find out?

Looking forward to seeing the finished result. I'm sure it'll be stunning! ;D

[djefk]

OK so a little update:

Yesterday (Sunday) I got up early to catch the train from London to Coventry to pick the car up after it's mammoth restoration that started in October 2007(!).

I got up early hoping to get there in good time and make full use of the sunshine so I could cruise along with all windows down. The reality consisted of tube closures, buses not turning up and the weather sh!tting it down. Ho hum.

Anyway, I picked it up from Dan at DS Motorsport and drove it down to meet mylittletony, who was lowering his Merc 280 coupe at HARDCORE's barn just south of Uckfield. The plan with this car is to put a few 100 miles on it as a shakedown and then return it for some final fettling.
















As you can see it's rather distinctive! I was actually thinking it would turn out more blue than green and TBH I'm not so sure about the colour - I think it really needs something doing with the wheels for me to be convince - I'm going to paint the centres black (being as I can't find any decent centre caps) but long term I'm thinking something black with polished rims, OR more "classic" looking Alpinas instead of these modern ones.

Anyway, I got there without much incident and met up with HARDCORE plus Phil and Tim (sorry I don't know your usernames but I'm sure you'll make yourselves known!) and got there just in time to witness mylittletony's home-made spring compressor being used to lower the back of this:

[djefk]

So, after checking out the facilities and cool projects, Hardcore kindly let me borrow a few tools for some fettling:

Firstly, when I brimmed the tank in Coventry I'd noticed a smell of petrol in the car. So inside the boot (ignore the water, that's just how much it was raining yesterday!):



Under one of the boot boards:





The sender just screws in with a rubber O ring. It was a little loose and the mounting faces were grubby, so hopefully all sorted now.





Also I wanted to back off the tickover on the carbs as it was idling at 1600 RPM. So, off with the air cleaner housing cover to reveal the two K&N filter elements (35 quid each!) which should hopefully give me slightly better MPG....




Found something alarming though - These nuts hold down the air cleaner housing to the carbs. There should be a locking washer under each one to stop them disappearing into the carb chokes below and making a dog's dinner out of pistons. Mine were missing.




Idle backed off, timing retarded by a few degrees to cure the pinking under acceleration and coughing on the over-run. Job done!


Also found this mullered hot air hose which was generally being useless at ducting warm air into the air cleaner for cold starts, so need a replacement - Anyone know where to get one from?

[djefk]

The car ran lovely on the way home, with most of the misfiring on the over-run sorted and some more poke available too – Actually had the back end slipping a little round some of the roundabouts in 2nd! Still doesn’t rev cleanly from low down though.

Things to do – not an exhaustive list as I bet there’s others to come:

- Proper tune-up, including sorting the rattly valve clearances and (by default) the leaky rocker cover gasket.

- Sort out the fuel gauge – plus the low fuel light is permanently on. Prob need a new sender and maybe a rheostat?

- Sort out charge light – It’s always on.

- Put the steering wheel on straight(!)

- Work out a way of stopping the seat belt giving me a sore shoulder – I ended up not wearing it on the way home!

- Establish why the oil temp gauge doesn’t read higher than 75 degrees, plus get its background light working.

- Sort the brakes – they pull to one side a little, have air in the system plus the brake warning light is permanently on.

- The boot floor boards need shaving – They’re too tight.

- The bonnet cantilever mechanism needs to be installed – currently I have to use a pole!

- The washer system seem to leak – It had some fluid at MOT time, now the tank is bone dry.

- Heater blower doesn’t.

- Mileometer seems to work very intermittently – Although I haven’t tried resetting the tripometer as that has been known to work with other cars with this fault.

- Paint the wheel centres?

- Decide whether the front could do with coming down another half an inch. I think it does and apparently there’s a space plate you can remove without harm to the suspension


Driver's eye view of the lights and dials in question:

[bryn]

Lovely. Really lovely ;D

[HARDCORE]

T'was a pleasure to have this beauty visit us at the barn - really very lovely indeed. Love the colour, the nose, the dash, the seats... the *all of it* - good luck sorting the niggles

[hairnet]

beetle heater hose should work if its the same dia (2 inch?)

insane car [raf vallone] preeeeeety caarrrrr[/raf]

;D

[christian1981]

Awsome car!