9/28/2014 UPDATE
-----------------------
Got lots done over the past few days:
1. New heater core/pipes/O-rings are in and done to replace the defective new BMW core that was previously placed
2. Dash/Console is back together
3. Had the car trucked to the BMW dealer and had a 4 wheel alignment done.
--Drove the car back home...26 miles without a hitch...but I listened to every little sound.
4. Started to detail out the car to get it ready for shipping to the Zentrum. First coat of Zaino was put on and removed. The second coat is sitting on the car overnight to be removed tomorrow evening.
I still have to put the front spoiler back on as I have not done that yet. There are a few small gremlins that have popped up, and I will try to sort them out, but nothing that will stop the timeline for shipping.
More to do..............
CSi #18 - Car & Driver Magazine 1994 actual test car
-- Hellrot/Black-Gray (1 of 1 NA CSi color combination)
BMWCCA E31 Chapter International Clubs Liaison
North America Representative, 8er.or Board of Directors
Great to hear. Less than 3 weeks, can't wait to see it.
Ditto, looking forward to seeing your work. I have a rebuilt driveshaft on order and lots of work ("new" LSD) before I get my car running again. Hope I can get it running before the event in SC.
As an aside detail, I have those new black "foils" mentioned in post #365. I ordered them as part of my front end work and I did not know what they were for! Now I do!
1991 BMW 850i
2007 Honda Odyssey
2017 Hyundai Elantra
2013 Honda CRV
2003 MotoGuzzi 850 Jackal
Here are a couple of pictures I took on Saturday. As I said, I did not put the front spoiler on as it was going to get the alignment and I did not want anything to happen when it was put on the flat-bed truck.
More to do......as they are scheduled to pick up the car on Sunday.
CSi #18 - Car & Driver Magazine 1994 actual test car
-- Hellrot/Black-Gray (1 of 1 NA CSi color combination)
BMWCCA E31 Chapter International Clubs Liaison
North America Representative, 8er.or Board of Directors
The car is looking fantastic, Roger. I can't wait to see it in person ..... in the Zentrum
================
1985 M635 (gone but not forgotten)
1994 850CSi (also gone but not forgotten)
1985 M635 (current obsession)
+1
an example to follow, very very nice work!
Looks good. Now tell us how the ride was!!!
- - - Updated - - -
9/30/2014
Duhhhh moment....
As I posted above, I have 3 gremlins to work through on the car. One was that the rear trunk latch was not working, and I could only open the trunk with the key. After speaking with Steffen yesterday, he asked me if the plug in on the glove box lock was attached. Now remember I have had to replace the new heater core with another new one as the original new core I put in during the restoration leaked, and I have had the glove box out and of course, the plug for the lock was not attached. Plus, I had not opened the trunk since re-replacing everything this weekend. Since I had reassembled everything on Sunday, but had not tried to open the trunk since reassembly, I just went out and attempted to open the trunk with the handle. WALLA...it worked. I had totally forgotten that the trunk will not unlock if the glove box is locked (or in my case, unhooked).
Thanks Steffen.
CSi #18 - Car & Driver Magazine 1994 actual test car
-- Hellrot/Black-Gray (1 of 1 NA CSi color combination)
BMWCCA E31 Chapter International Clubs Liaison
North America Representative, 8er.or Board of Directors
Roger,
No problem, it really can't be a "duhhh moment" seeing as how much stuff you had to do and re-do to get this car put back together.
I also checked, no extra 413 relay at the house - you could always "borrow" one from an extra 850, if you had one...
As for the door, have you gotten to look at that also?
'93 850Ci - Mineralweiß Metallic
2001 740iL - Titansilber
ALPINA B7 -Alpinweiß III
...the price of cool ain't cheap!
Car is looking great. I had my trunk Duh!! moment a while back when I took the 8 grocery shopping. Normally I take the 740. Anyway I had been driving the 8 and when parked with the windows down (black on black car gets awfully hot with the windows up) I lock the glove box. Never realized the trunk doesn't open if the glove box is locked. Here I am standing in the parking lot with a cart full of groceries and can't figure out why the trunk won't open. Figured it out a few days later. Duh!
10/3/2014 -- Crunch Time
-----------------------
36 hours before the truck comes to pick up the car.
Front spoiler is in the family room - finished the stripes and stickers this evening. Plus, the second coat of Zaino Bros wax is sitting on it overnight.
This afternoon I finished the trunk trim, Shampooed the carpets where the coolant leak was 2 weeks ago...
Lots of little stuff to do tomorrow plus mount the spoiler....
Got to get this done.........
CSi #18 - Car & Driver Magazine 1994 actual test car
-- Hellrot/Black-Gray (1 of 1 NA CSi color combination)
BMWCCA E31 Chapter International Clubs Liaison
North America Representative, 8er.or Board of Directors
Tell me about it.......I'm waaay behind you Roger.....
92 Dinan Stage III 850 Twin Turbo (1 of 4)
625 Hp on 93 pump gas @ 14 psi 660 ft lbs torque
Rodger,
Great progress.
Quick question: The rear Alpina wheels looks like they stick too much out. Have you used any type of spacers ?
Are they 10.5J and what offset ?
I am worry that with this soft stock suspension the tire will rub in the fender at the small freeway deep with hi speed that's for sure.
Regards
Anri
- E24 M6 88' Schwartz/Sparco Race Track Toy
- E24 M6 88' Schwartz/Nature. daily driver
- E24 M6 88' Royal Blue/Lotus White- Restoration project.
- E24 M6 88' Zinnoberrot/Natur. daily S38 B35 special engine project...
- E30 M3 Diamand Schwartz build S14-B2X.
- E28 M5 Black/Nature M-Technic project
- E31 '97 840Ci Black/Black CSI complete futures my cruiser soon S62-B50 6spd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTV4asC3Bp0&t=14s
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyh...yUW-Q/featured
https://www.instagram.com/euroclassicmotors/
Anri,
There are no spacers. The wheels are the original 10.5 inch width. What you don't see is that Alpina actually takes the inner lip on the B12 Coupes, and rolls the inner fender. Those tire are the correct 285/35 size. They are Toyo Proxy T1 Sports, and they have a chunky sidewall, but the tops are within the lip. I think the silver color on the car accentuates the look, as there is the contrast between the color of the car and tire.
CSi #18 - Car & Driver Magazine 1994 actual test car
-- Hellrot/Black-Gray (1 of 1 NA CSi color combination)
BMWCCA E31 Chapter International Clubs Liaison
North America Representative, 8er.or Board of Directors
10/6/2014 UPDATE
---------------------
WOW!! What a journey! I started this process with my first post in this thread on 12/18/2011. The term "mission creep" does not even come close as I had no intention of going this far, and it has been a long...long...long process.
First, let me go through what was accomplished over the past 72 hours to finish the car:
1. Front spoiler installed. This took almost 5 hours - never thought it would take this long but.... with all the connections underneath, lining up everything, having my neighbor come over and help me attach screws from below while I held fasteners in place with LOOOOOOONG extensions from above, everything went into place. This did not include the 3 hours of applying the lettering, stripes, and Zaino Bros wax. But - its on!!!
2. Fixed the passenger side headlight, which I somehow had working opposite of the driver's side - I would turn on the lights, and the driver's side pod would come up and the lights would come on, but the passenger side the lights would come on, but the pod stay down. Then, when I would turn off the lights, they would go out on both sides, the driver's pod go down, and the passenger side go up! I figured out that when I reassembled the motor arm assembly on the passenger side, I had the arm on the left motor 180 degrees off. There is no indexing on the shaft. Out came the assembly, moved the arm 180 degrees, reassembled everything - it worked. Then just had to realign the assembly again.
3. My passenger door lock did not engage. Everything worked as I could hear it. The window would go down when the door was opened, then go up when it was closed, so all the electrical connections were working, so off came the interior panel, and after looking around, I spotted what I did wrong. Evidently when I reassembled the door handle back onto the door, I did not line up the lever on the handle with the arm up inside the door - the lever arm was below the groove, not in it, so out came the door handle, moved the arm into position (this was about 1/4 of an inch), then reassembled everything - walla - it worked. Then after putting everything back together everything was fine. I had purchased some extra clips that go on the back of the door panel, and they were great to have as some always snap.
4. Adjusted the sunroof for proper fit on the back end.
5. Shampooed the interior carpet where the antifreeze had spilt when the new radiator core had leaked. Re-detailed the interior.
6. Programmed the MID and radio. Those CD43 radios really do sound good, even with the stock speakers.
7. Installed the battery tender wiring onto the driver's side battery for the battery tender.
8. Removed all the wheels, cleaned everything, set tires to the proper pressure, detailed the wheel wells, replaced and torqued the wheels back to place.
9. Assembled the wheel center caps with new Alpina emblems, new wheel locks, and new O-rings for the seals on the caps and lock covers.
10. Finished the custom license plate frame. It is not on in the pictures below, but I took an M license plate frame, removed the M emblem, used filler to fill in the indentation where the M emblem was, primed, painted the frame, and applied an Alpina logo.
11. Applied the E31 Chapter and 8@20 stickers
12. Did a final wipe-down on the car.
One thing I will need to replace is the small rubber gromit where the windshield wiper pump fits into the bottle. When I went to fill up the bottle, it leaked at the seal. No big thing as the car is going into the Zentrum, but I will order one to replace the original. It looked fine, but leaked.
There is no way I could have completed this almost 3 year project without the help of many people. What started with the purchase in the fall of 2009 really evolved into something with a life of its own.
First - thanks to Marcia - my ultimate BMW wife! To be honest, she has fully supported me, but was really ready for it to be done. She has said that recently she has become a BMW widow due to the time I was spending in the garage. We celebrated our 35th Anniversary this summer, I love her, and owe her big time...
Thanks to Bill Fox, aka Max Lumens. Bill runs 101 Innovations - the Registered Importer who imported the car, petitioned the government to have the B12 Coupes added to the importable list, and performed the conformance package. It was a long process to make sure all the steps were done correctly and legally, and Bill did a great job.
Thanks to Charlie at Gault BMW for all his help with all those numerous orders -everything from small clips to the rear windshield glass and everything inbetween. He liaisoned between me, BMW in Europe, and even with Alpina when needed to obtain hard to find parts. I used several other parts suppliers too for smaller orders, but I think Charlie had me on speed dial.
Thanks to Steffen, Greg, and Wuffer - whose numerous phone calls were a godsend when I was stumped or could not figure out something. My last call to Steffen was just yesterday afternoon - when he answered the Phone: "SPM 24 Hour Hotline"! Thanks guys for your long distance assistance.
Thanks go Gary Brown in Jacksonville for his beautiful paint work. He runs a small one man custom paint shop, and he took the car down to the bare shell and brought it back up to what you see now. I am now convienced that Silver is one of the hardest colors to work with. I have owned Red, Black, Gray and White cars - but I now think that Silver cars are the most difficult to achieve that finish with.
Thanks also go out to all of those too numerous to name who have offered advice, words of wisdom, encouragement and everything else here on the forum. As a "Band of Brothers, and Sisters" you all keep the drive alive.
So, here are some final pictures. The floor mats are not in, and the custom license plate frame is not on. I finished these up shortly before the car left for the Zentrum last night.
Enjoy!
Last edited by rogbmw; 10-06-2014 at 03:07 PM. Reason: spelling
CSi #18 - Car & Driver Magazine 1994 actual test car
-- Hellrot/Black-Gray (1 of 1 NA CSi color combination)
BMWCCA E31 Chapter International Clubs Liaison
North America Representative, 8er.or Board of Directors
Car looks great! I've been very inspired by your rebuild. Thank you for the extra effort in keeping us updated with its progress from start to finish. Enjoy and drive safe.
Incredible. That car brings tears to your eyes.
OVER THE TOP PERFECTION!! Roger, it's amazing what you have produced with tremendous time, effort and above all, attention to detail. This restoration has been both educational and enjoyable to witness. Can't wait to see your work in person, and shake the artist's hand.
My Addications - Updated 3/17 all registered and driven
1996 740iL 120k miles of great driving, The BMW "habit" takes root(sold)
1995 840Ci Cosmos/Silver. A 14 yr. relationship begins.
2001 740i Sport Oriential Blue/Oyster, 150k going strong.
2000 528i Silver/Black, wife's ride, let's me clean it.
2003 530 Cosmos/Saddle, daughter's car, recently returned,needs detailing
1994 850CSI #130 Individual, Hellrot/Pergament to be "pried from my cold dead hands"
2015 X5 50i MSport, A muscle car at heart, memories of my 454" Chevelle SS.
Roger,
As I told you yesterday on the phone, this is simply an amazing piece of rolling art. Your dedication to the smallest detail should be an inspiration to all of us (even the uber-anal-retentive). I saw many ALPINA's up close and personal while I was in Munich this past May, and have to tell you and everyone here that yours is by far the BEST example I have seen, bar none!! While the "Euro-ALPINAs" looked pretty nice from the outside, their mechanicals left me shocked at their appearance of non-maintenance.
Now that you have finished your ALPINA, you gonna go to Disneyworld??
Looking forward to your next "adventure", whatever it might be...
'93 850Ci - Mineralweiß Metallic
2001 740iL - Titansilber
ALPINA B7 -Alpinweiß III
...the price of cool ain't cheap!
Awesome ...... just AWESOME, Roger !! Thank you so much for taking us along with you on your journey by your posts and pictures
Congratulations ...... and well done. You "da man"
================
1985 M635 (gone but not forgotten)
1994 850CSi (also gone but not forgotten)
1985 M635 (current obsession)
Car looks absolutely amazing Roger. This is one of the most impressive projects I have ever been witness to. It is going to look fantastic in the museum! I wish I could be there to see your car in person. How long will it be in the Zentrum?
I wish I could check it out! Very nice...been following this since it was stuck in customs.
Bookmarks