[davoxx]

Hi all,

I'm doing a full restore on my 1979 635CSi and thought I really should document some of what I do.

So car has been stripped and all the rust cut out of it.
Now at the stage of buying panels.

I need the front wings (of course) and rear side panels as well as the tail panel.

Pricing them in Dublin was around €4000.

What are my options?

 

[irish_chris]

definitely want to see pictures of this i love these cars

replacement panels cost a bomb, id sooner look for a solid donor car then break the rest if you have time/room/patience

 

[Andy]

Well done for taking on such a project. BMW Car Club GB would be worth a try as they were doing something on more affordable E24 panels at one stage. Those front wings cost a fortune.

Also here

http://www.wallothnesch.com/karosserie-blechteile.html

 

[bmwe21]

Love these, cant wait to see pics. Good luck with it.

 

[davoxx]

Cheers guys. I will upload the pics that I have but bear in mind that I am terrible at taking pics and that I lost most of the (early) before ones (bad thumb drive).

It is a a 1979 manual with dogleg and LSD in gold. There was a lot more rust that I thought, so I'm over budget on the restoration work. I need to get those parts as cheap as possible and second hand parts / donor cars seem to be rusty despite the seller claiming them to be 'perfect'.

 

[DaveG]

I think I have a pair of wings here

 

[LEINS]

Fair play and best of luck with the restoration. Looking forward to this one!

 

[ian-909]

Davoxx, any update on this? Did you get sorted with the panels?

If you haven't already seen it, wheeler dealers did a 1985 635csi a few years back and it turned out really well.

 

[davoxx]

Sorry for the delay in keeping this up to date (and not uploading the pics).

I've bought new panels for this car (over 6k worth) so I was a bit depressed and broke for a good while.

New parts bought were front wings/sills/rear inner wings and other bits.
Bought rear trailing arms second hand, they had rusted badly.

The rear brakes have seized, so will either get another set or try to redo them myself.

Here are some links to the work being done.

http://www.retrocars-services.com/blog/bmw-635csi-restoration-243
http://www.retrocars-services.com/b...es.com/blog/bmw-635csi-restoration-genuine-replacement-panels-trial-fitting-409
http://www.retrocars-services.com/blog/bmw-635csi-restoration-genuine-panels-now-fitted-465

 

[dergside]

Hadn't spotted this thread before but well done to OP on taking on a restoration of this scale and quality.

Early e12 based 6's are rare as rocking horse poo now. Lovely to see one being rescued. :thumb:

 

[thetangerine]

Fair play on that restoration,best of luck wit the work

 

[Bart]

This is savage fair play

 

[gn3dr]

Nice. The price of those panels is eye watering
Have you still got the old wings. With the price of new ones I'd nearly chance repairing the old ones as a business venture

 

[coupe323i]

Great to see this been saved!
Pics please

 

[davoxx]

I'm getting the engine taken out for spraying the inside of engine bay, what should I replace check when since I'll have the engine out?

I'll be getting new engine mounts, are there any recommended after-market ones or should I stick to oem?

 

[Smulkman]

If you can find aftermarket parts - I don't see any reason why you should buy OEM bits. Of course all depends on your budget available for the project. In my own opinion I do save in some areas where possible I really don't think it is a problem to replace parts if they're aftermarket supplier made. Some restorers might disagree but I guess everyone has a right to have an opinion I'm not sure what brands to look out for but I'm guessing it might be Lemforder, Febi or something similar which is OK for quality.