Project e23 B9 build - update 11/25/19

[Corner Carver]

Very cool car!

It makes me very happy that this is with you Roy. Subscribed!

[mescko]

That last pic clinches it for me, I'd leave it the way it is, but such a decision will never be mine. Do what you like.

[RoyW]

A couple weeks ago my mechanic friend Steve and I met to thoroughly go over the e23 B9 to further assess its needs and start the “Project Plan” development, plus began building the parts list. Last week and then this past Saturday the restoration process began in earnest.

Last week I removed the original BBS wheels with bad tires, had the tires dismounted, and then put on a temporary set of e39 style wheels/tires that I had … this will suffice for rolling around purposes during the car’s restore. I’ll be taking the original BBS wheels to RimPro for refurbishing later this week, meanwhile the e39 set I put on will make it easier to strap the car down in the trailer when its later transported for body/paint work (and other work that requires the lift I don’t have , as the axle straps will fit thought those wheels, unlike the original BBS ones). Also, the plan is to get a set of staggered 16”open Alpina wheels, and then decide which to put on the finished car? I’m not sure which style were original to the car when it was built as a B9, as the paperwork references the staggered 16” wheels in place of the stock 14” wheels that came on the base 735i, but doesn’t fully specify whether BBS or Alpina wheels were installed at that time? Anyway, I’ll have both available to try to decide what to go with?

After the wheel swap, I was fortunate to have a good weather day (50+ degrees) on Saturday and spent 5 hours power washing the under-carriage, wheel wells, and engine bay… what a nasty job! Lots of degreaser, brushing, and sliding and crawling around and under the car with the power washer wand… It came out quite good and removed 36 years of oil, grease and road grime

On Sunday help arrive, as George (geordi) came for a visit and we started the teardown of the car and the grinding and scraping away of the surface rust in the wheel wells and under-carriage. George looked like a mad scientist with his goggles over his glasses and surgical mask as he tore into this tough task! Of course, as expected, more rust areas were discovered during this process (than first seen when I purchased the car) ARRG!… just more work for the body and paint guy

On Monday, even more helped arrived, as my good friend Steve the Brit-guy (the lead mechanic on this project) arrived and then, mostly George and Steve kicked the B9’s ass with major teardown work (I contributed a little here and there, but spent most of the day labeling, bagging, and boxing all the parts, screws, bolts, etc., that came flying off! The pictures below show some of the work, which included removal of rear bumper and valance, front bumper and valance, rear lights, front lights and grills, exhaust system, hood, windshield, trunk bits, door cards, rear seat, passenger front seat, center console, some outside trim, some inside trim. All-in-all, a pretty good day!!

Over the next couple of months, I’ll be cleaning up all those parts that were removed and seeing what needs to be replaced (adding to the 6 pages of parts that has already been built) or repaired or sourced used. In addition, I’ll be bring the car up to VSR in the next week or so to have the rear sub-frame dropped and cleaned up while they replace the upper bushings and hard brake lines (again a job for a lift ). Then back to the Bahn and await Steve’s return for the engine/tranny pull in January. From there the necessary engine and a transmission re-bulld will be completed in Feb/March. Meanwhile, I’ll tackle the engine bay re-fresh, and then sometime in April, we’ll re-install the engine and transmission and start in on all the other mechanicals, e.g., brakes, suspension, steering, etc., etc.

Meanwhile, decisions need to be made on suspension and brake components, and lots and lots of parts need to be ordered or sourced in the next couple of months. The long term schedule, which I’m sure, from past experience we’ll never meet, is to have the car in for body and paint work in the May/June timeframe (it is scheduled for then at VSR) and then a couple more months to put everything back together…. maybe by Fall it will be finished?… 2018 that is We shall see

-RoyW

P1060064 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060069 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060084 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060080 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060098 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060102 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060101 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060105 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060113 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060116 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060120 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060121 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060123 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060124 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr

[tig]

Great progress Roy (and George)! Keep posting progress.

[igotbank]

Cant wait to see the finished product. Roy if any parts turn up missing head over I'm using them for my e23 build. just want to save to the trouble of a mass parts search. Anyway I'm sure ill have a ton of questions and will reach out to you privately. again, i can't wait to see the results.

[adrian in florida]

Great build looking forward to more !

[Karl Grau]

Looking good!

[four2zerohero]

oh my!

[wkohler]

Wow, that's pretty amazing progress. Glad to see things are moving along!

[leadphut]

[vinceg101]

Great to see another RoyW Restoration Thread.
Life is good again.

Tuned in for hours of awe and entertainment with a healthy dose of respect.

[VW+bimmer=bliss]

very nice find. It really makes me want a 7 now.

[RoyW]

We finished up the tear-down last Wednesday by removing the remainder of the interior, including: the seats; the full carpet (rainbow in color ) and the padding on driver's side which was deteriorating due to moisture (all of which will need to be replaced); wheel arches (never saw ones like these before?); and removed the rear valance off the bumper assembly. I'll be taking the bumper assembles up to a shop, as the Federalization bars are tac welded in and need to be separated so the chrome bumpers can be sent out for re-chroming. Onward and upward

-RoyW

P1060131 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060138 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060132 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060130 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060143 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060139 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr

[Dale3783]

Where will you send the bumpers to be rechromed? I'm only about an hour south from you and was thinking about doing the same this winter.

[RoyW]

Where will you send the bumpers to be rechromed? I'm only about an hour south from you and was thinking about doing the same this winter.

Don't know... was going to check out a few places and get some recommendations from a few good sources. I'll let you know what I learn.

-RoyW

[m-racer]

Try Royal Silver in Norfolk...VA, not MA. When I used them for 02 bumpers, there were lots of bumpers from many concours level cars of all descriptions there from all over the country. They are expensive, but worth it. It's been a while, but probably worth checking out. www.rschrome.com
Nice project, by the way.

[John in VA]

Don't know... was going to check out a few places and get some recommendations from a few good sources. I'll let you know what I learn.

Paul's (in western PA) has a good reputation - http://www.paulschrome.com/

[Hffvdbl]

That looks like a great car! You've made a lot of progress. Excited to see the progress.

[Pavel]

This guy comes with such great reputation on E23, so he is hired this weekend at my house too (745i)



All this progress, made me get out there and wrap up on mine, sort of.

[ElGuappo]

Jeez he gets around...

[RoyW]

...and he's cheap (labor that is)

-RoyW

[a]

Did you remove the windshield? I have yet to successfully harvest a windshield. I sure could use some schooling on that subject. I used wall paper scrapers to R+R the rears.

[RoyW]

Did you remove the windshield? I have yet to successfully harvest a windshield. I sure could use some schooling on that subject. I used wall paper scrapers to R+R the rears.

We cut the seal all around and the windshield comes right out very easily... this is the way to go, as you can still get a new front windshield seal. Not the case with the rear, as they appear to be NLA. So, we will have to remove that glass carefully, so as to save the old seal/gasket. Not looking forward to that task.

-RoyW

[wkohler]

Hopefully the E23 seals are better than the new E12/E28 ones. No more cutting seals for me. With the aluminum locking strips, I imagine it's much more difficult to remove those without damaging them.

[RoyW]

Today was the scheduled day for the drive-line pull and the removal of the front and rear sub-frames up at VSR in Bedford, New Hampshire. Fortunately, the weather was going to co-operated as far as no snow or freezing rain was concerned… so, yesterday I loaded the B9 into my trailer, packed up a four large storage bins and lots of plastic baggie and Sharpies, and this morning I headed out bright and early for the hour and a half drive up to VSR

After unloading the car, Mario and the boys made short work of the task at hand and had it all out and on the floor in half a day (I filled up the bins and bagged and tagged small stuff and associated fasteners). Steve came by with his truck in the afternoon and we loaded the engine and transmission into it… he’ll be working on the engine and tranny re-fresh over the next few months (while I’m in FL ). Meanwhile, over the next few weeks, VSR will clean-up the sub-frames, put in some new rear mounts, bushings, etc., and I’ll take (and now have) the chassis back home to continue work on under-carriage and engine bay clean-up, etc.

To accomplish this last part, i.e., bringing the chassis back home, they attached the B9’s body to a large dolly, strapped it down to the dolly thru the doors, and we rolled it out and winched it into the trailer… it barely cleared the top of the trailer door going in…. then I strapped it down to the D rings in the trailer floor and homeward bound. Tomorrow I hope to get some help rolling it out of the trailer and into the Barn… stay tuned!!

Then in later January, I’ll bring the chassis back up to VSR where the front and rear sub-frame will be re-installed… probably the replacement springs and shocks (which I don't have yet) will also be installed, hard fuel lines replaced, maybe fresh re-man calipers with new rotors and pads (don't have yet) , etc., will be installed. And, she’ll be put back to a “roller”(with wheels/tires, etc.) for the journey back to the AutoBahn for the remainder of Winter hibernation. Then in late April or early May, Steve will lead the charge to re-install the engine and transmission and all associated sub-sytems, etc., etc.... BIG JOB! Then, back to VSR for a couple months of body, prep, and paint work. After that, exterior trim, bumpers, lights, grills, etc., interior, trim, and that last 10% that takes forever to finish... At least that’s the current plan

Here’s a few pictures of today’s action.

-RoyW

P1060151 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060159 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060195 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060198 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060200 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060202 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060219 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060227 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060230 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060233 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060234 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060236 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060238 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P1060237 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr

[tig]

Nice.

I find the dolly interesting. That straps are used to hold it down. Where, precisely, are the legs of the dolly connecting to on the chassis?

I'm going to be building a dolly for Minerva in the next month or so and have been considering different designs...

Enjoy FL, Roy!

[1st 5er]

Enjoy FL, Roy!

Merry Christmas.

[Tammer in Philly]

Aren't those headers a work of art?

Looking good.

[Tiit]

Good progress. It would take me years to get as much done.
Those headers look lovely! Too bad nothing like that will ever fit in my car. My car has steering box right there.

[Blue Shadow]

After that, exterior trim, bumpers, lights, grills, etc., interior, trim, and that last 10% that takes forever to finish... At least that’s the current plan

That plan seems completely correct, 10% of the work taking most of the time. Let's hope the parts you need are still available.