Two lanes, both slow….
November 12, 2017
Around a month ago the engine-less shell was loaded on a trailer and taken to the body shop. About the same time I started delivering parts to the machine shop after deciding what to do with the engine (conclusion: squirrel away the genuine Alpina engine and build a bigger displacement, higher horsepower mill that retained the stock-looking K-Jet injection). The project was running on dual tracks, and neither has been rocketing along.
The post about loading up the engine-less shell on Stu’s trailer ended with some immediate progress: the front windshield was removed; because I couldn’t find a good used dash, the cracked one was sent off to be repaired; and a little rust was found under the rubber windshield gasket. Since the, Stu has been tearing the car apart and repairing it.
First, Stu had a bunch of holes to plug. The body had been drilled for USA sidemarker lights which had then been removed by a previous owner.
The shock towers had been drilled for a rear strut brace/battery holder that I removed (putting the battery back in the engine compartment).
And there were weird holes drilled in various places, including in the engine compartment near the VIN plate; what those holes were for is another mystery (I thought it might be for an Alpina VIN plate, but it didn’t fit the spacing of the holes).
Bits of rust – typical for a 1980s BMW, even one that spent it’s whole life in California – and other imperfections are taken care of.
The trunk lid and hood are taken off, prepped.
And painted.
And then the whole body is stripped and prepped. And someday, painted.
While all this was going on, I began delivering parts to the machine shop. The guy I’m using specializes in 4 and 6-cylinder air-cooled Porsche motors, but he is the shop used by one of the local vintage BMW specialty shops. I loaded much of the parts in my Porsche and brought both the forged M20 turbo-diesel crank and a bin of many other parts (custom pistons, clutch, forged rods, etc.), and the Schrick camshaft.
The block and head are already there, as is the intake manifold, which needs to be bored to match the bigger ports in the 325i “885” head.