Bringing back an E9.

[mpower5266]

Got a couple of progress shots from the body shop. He is finessing the dents out of the front nose panel.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

I also sanded the factory wheels to prep them for paint.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

[mpower5266]

Very small update. My dad found a body guy locally that can work the panels rather than just replacing them so he buttoned the car enough to put it on the trailer.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

This morning he loaded it up and dropped it off at the body shop. The guy we are using is retired and did a bunch of hot rods and show cars. He really didnt want to take the job but my dad showed him the car and he thought it was cool and agreed to take it on if we agreed not to give out his info or even tell anyone he did the work. He made it clear that he does not want to start doing body work full time again. My dad talked to him and said they got along well so I am hoping he works out. The plan is to fix the front damage, pull dents, and paint what needs to be painted. Once its back I will try to save what paint I can with a detail. This is the first time its been out of the shop in a long time.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

[mpower5266]

We got the dash back and it looks amazing, I cant wait to get the interior but back together.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

[Slupie]

We also found some original wheels, so I went and picked them up Saturday.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

I am hoping that I will have some more updates soon. Its kinda crunch time for getting it to the vintage.

Nice progress and great find on the original wheels. I also see you hang out on E90 post, Tempted by an E91 #129. Just FYI, if you stand the wheels upright they will fit in the trunk of E91 without folding the seats, the only thing you have to remove is the retractable trunk cover. I fit 4 of my summers with 245-40/R18 tires that way.

[mpower5266]

We have kinda been in a holding pattern lately. The dash has been delayed since Thanksgiving and I think we have gotten in way over our heads when it comes to body work. The dash is supposed to be in today or tomorrow so I hope we can work on getting the rest of the interior buttoned up this week and then get the car to a body shop the beginning of Feb. The hood latch and mounting hardware was put together incorrectly and had some worn out parts, so we pulled all of it out to sand blast and repaint.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

We also found some original wheels, so I went and picked them up Saturday.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

I am hoping that I will have some more updates soon. Its kinda crunch time for getting it to the vintage.

[Miroteknik]

Really enjoy watching this. Excellent work. Love the real wood and leather.

[mpower5266]

We started on the body work a little this weekend. It looks like we might be able to save the nose with out cutting it off. It still needs a lot of hammer and dolly work, and some fill weld but I'm thinking is going to come out okay.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

[mpower5266]

Not a huge amount of progress as of late but another small update. We have pretty much buttoned up the headliner and realized that we forgot to locate the holes for the roof handles. So we measured the old headliner and broke out the borescope to be sure, and whew.... crisis averted.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Up next was install some more chrome bits inside and figure out what goes in this hole. I'm sure its with the rest of the rear door card parts..

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

The old map light lens didnt look worthy of living on this new headliner so we picked up a NOS lens.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Work continued on the front trim piece of the headliner. "Tools" had to be made to help the glue stick to the forms in this piece.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

And the final product.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

[mpower5266]

Did some more cleaning on the gauges this weekend. I love the faces on these, they remind me of a vintage watch.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Just waiting on some special solder to fix the fuse on the clock. After that we can start putting the dash back together.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

[mpower5266]

Cleaned up the speedo, tested the lighting with the stock 2w bulbs.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

And then swapped the bulbs for 4w ones.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Now we have to do the rest.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Test fit in the bezel.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Here are some gratuitous wood pics just because.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

[mpower5266]

That last shot makes me dream about how it would look assembled from the driver's POV.
Good work, very happy it's coming along nicely.

I cant wait to get it all buttoned back up and take it out for a drive.

I cleaned some more of the E9 interior parts up last night. It doesnt really show in the photos but they were pretty dirty. They are now clean and very soft, they don't make leather like this anymore, its so nice when its right.

Dirty.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Cleaned up.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Both sides. Its hard to see but they way the rear window switches are mounted in these are pretty cool. Bonus dog butt shot.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

And then I cleaned up the center piece that mounts between the rear buckets. Here is the dirty shot.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

And clean soft leather.. I think one of the panels on this has been replaced, the color seems off. I am going to order a colourlock (or similar) kit for this car when its gets to the final detailing stage.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

[gnmzl]

That last shot makes me dream about how it would look assembled from the driver's POV.
Good work, very happy it's coming along nicely.

[mpower5266]

The clock works now, as shown in the video below.


Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

We plan on going through all the instruments before putting them back in.

My dad also assembled a few more of the panels.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

I have to find some trim bits, and I didnt notice the door handles were wrong(the should be tan) but its really coming together.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

[mpower5266]

I had a busy weekend so I didn't work on the E9, but my dad got some work done. When we removed the carpet from the passenger side, we found this foam form in the footwell. It was in bad shape and of course its NLA so it needed repair.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

I grabbed some fiberglass cloth from work, and he laid it up. He also painted it, not sure why but its fixed.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

He also starting putting the door cards back together. The wood came out so nice.

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

He also started on the gauges. The bezel came out so nice, it was worth doing 5 times. Haha

Untitled by Nick Wood, on Flickr

[Allen.]

Always loved the older BMWs. This thing is seriously awesome.