1969 E9 BMW 2800CS Pillarless Coupe - Update!

lovely car there. glad your going for the bigger m30! be rude not to!

you are a very lucky man, i LOVE the E9's wont touch anything but BMW, and the E9 is by far the most beautiful car BMW have ever made, ( in my opinion)

Wow, what a stunner, I bet it be a show stopper once it's all completed, and i totally understand your rust issues as i have learned with my 1602, They just seem to appear over night!.

Pictures of Rot and bodgery coming soon - We found bits of road sign used as repair panels fixed into place with seam sealer and nothing else!!! Pretty horrific.

I'm still looking for an E12 5 series gearbox. Can anyone help me find one? I need a Getrag 265 which have the overdrive 5th gear rather than the dogleg 1st and close ratios. The E12 box's have a cable driven speedo in case you're not sure.

I was going through the car's extensive history a few weeks back - Actually if you include the stamps in the service book then it has full service history and has only had 2 previous owners for its 86,000 miles from new which is nice.

I bought this car from a dealer so never got to meet the chap that had it before me though, which I thought was a shame seeing as he'd had it so long (over 20 years at least) and had obviously been an enthusiast and hands-on mechanic - the car came with an overflowing ring binder file with everything neatly filed in it, and from all the bills for parts (but not so much for garage labour) from his time with the car, it was clear he had lavished so much love on it. Anyway during my rummaging I came across a bill addressed to him with his phone number on it. This bill was dated 1988 so the chances of it still being correct were pretty small but I thought as it was a Saturday morning and I was feeling chirpy, why not just try the number? Here goes nothing.....

(ring ring)

"Hello?"

"Hi, is that Mr. Warburton?"

"Yes?"

"Frank Warburton?"

"Yes??"

"I'm sorry to call you up out of the blue like this (such a British thing to say), My name is David, I own a BMW 2800CS which I can see from it's history that you owned for 20 years - Is this a good time to talk about it if you don't mind?"

(Silence......)

"Hello??"

The poor old boy was so surprised he was speechless! We were on the phone for over an hour, I wrote 2 A4 pages of notes and gained an incredible amount of information in that hour - It turns out this car was made as a left-hooker in the very first month of production in Dec 1968 (which is why it has this date on the Karmann build plate on the passenger A pillar / door shut despite being registered in April '69) - It was brought over here privately and converted to RHD by a BMW Dealer before being sold to 2 brothers as a new car - Frank actually met the first owners in the early 80's at Silverstone during a car or club event of some sort.

It turns out this is effectively a pre-production car, which nicely explains why the interior has lots of detail differences even from cars made a few months later, and also explains why hundreds of bits and pieces (including most of the parts I bought for the steering / braking system) didn't fit or need a lot of modifying to fit!!! This is the second earliest E9 coupe in the country to his / the BMW car club's knowledge at the time (he met a guy at a show once who had one a few chassis numbers earlier in the late 80's, who knows if that car is still alive now though so this could very well be the earliest one left).

I also learn in that hour that the engine, gearbox and back axle have all been rebuilt, and Frank sold the car to a "Restoration Specialist" needing new sills and various other repairs. HA! So this is how the car ended up 6 months later being sold to me full of filler and with that blasted road sign doing duty as part of the floor with lashings of sealant and underseal (only) to hold it in place?!

Talking of gearboxes, I quizzed Frank as to why there were there was a large sheet of paper in the car's history folder with lots of notes about a 5 speed conversion, yet the car still has a 4 speed? His reply: "I researched which 5 speed gearbox with the overdrive fifth gear would be needed and then bought a good used one ..." (yes that's the one I've been looking for over the last 2 years without success folks...) "... plus I bought most of the parts needed to fit it but I never got round to it - Hang on, there's a chance it still might be in my shed at the bottom of the garden - Let me put you on the cordless while I put my shoes on and I'll go and have a look".

10 minutes later, I can scarcely believe my luck - the man did indeed still have the 5 speed and the bits to fit it under his workbench in his shed, but the best bit was hearing this: "I tell you what, if you bring the car down to see me when it's finished you can take the box and parts away for nothing"

So that's a complete 5 speed gearbox conversion kit.... FOR FREE?? Oh yes!

Guys, if you take nothing else away from this thread - Find out the history of your cars, write to the DVLA, do some internet research, whatever - SPEAK TO YOUR CAR'S PREVIOUS OWNERS - I may well have been luckier here than most I grant you, but you just never know until you try - and I know my car much better as a result.

Always good to read about a car with some history behind it, Keep the pics coming!

OK, went up to Coventry to see the car yesterday - We're approaching the final straight run home - Bit of a shame it's now turning wet and horrible outside but hey, I'm not complaining now - Check these out:



Notice how just re-positioning the front number plate correctly has dramatically improved the look of the car from the front compared with the "before" pics. Also note the refinished 16" Alpina alloys - I really do need to find some centre caps so can anyone help with this? Also check out the side and bonnet grilles - These were over £300 brand new from Germany! It's amazing what's still available for these cars - If you have the money.




You can see just how much nicer the colour is now it's settled onto the car - I've never heard of paint doing this before? Anyway you will notice the addition of the towbar which I bought from the German ebay - It's from a BMW 2800 E3 saloon, modified and zinc plated - Like modern towbars the ball and arm is removable by pushing the red handled lever down and pulling it out sideways.

Before I get burnt at the stake for the towbar, I'd like to offer my defence - I'm planning to use this car on camping / touring holidays and I have a towbar mounted bike rack for it! Also note the electric aerial ready for the sound system, which will be installed as a stealth setup as I hate incongrous looking modern speakers in classics!


Interior pics:



I'm looking for some new or very good used chrome trim pieces that go around the sides and backs of the front seats - Anyone know where I can get some???



The entire interior including the wood was sent away to Hungary to be refurbished - I found the contact on the E9coupe.com website. This turned out to be between half and two thirds the price of equivalent quotes of British trimmers, even after shipping had been taken into account. Although some smaller jobs such as various bits of vinyl covered pieces had to be redone and the wrong screws being used on the seats which marred the overall standard of finish, overall the result is very good and I'm well pleased.

If anyone else is thinking of getting their interior re-done please let me know and I'll supply details of who did the work.

Flash on:



Note the seat belts (not yet finished but you get the idea) - Originally this car had front belts only of the fixed, "bolt these bits of belt to the car and watch them not get used" type. As there's no B piller to fix them to, these were mounted by BMW where you'd expect the REAR passenger belts to be! Yes that's right - the belts would pass over the rear passengers' shoulders when being used. Obviously in today's world that isn't at all satisfactory and frankly it looked very odd, so new mounts fabricated and seam welded for extra strength all round, for the modern intertia reel belts (from an E30 3 series) work very well. This was done for the fronts AND rears



Notice the 3 dials in the central console - Originally there would have been a cubby hole where they're mounted for odds n ends, however I thought a nice set of proper German black faced / chrome rimmed VDO gauges for Oil (Oel!) temp, Oil Pressure and Amps would be a much better use of the space! Also the clock on the dash was no longer interested in keeping correct time so this was swapped with another unit sourced again from Ebay.de, as was the tatty, splinter inducing wood gearknob with a period black leather BMW racing logo item from the 70's - If you own a German classic and haven't discovered it then I can highly recommend!

Also - A tiny clue that the car was originally LHD - Can anyone spot it?? HINT, look through the windscreen!

You will see the lack of kick plates also - This is because I'm having DS make up some fibreglass speaker mounts shich will then be covered in the same black vinyl as the dash top etc. to match the interior.

I've also converted the car to leccy windows all round rather than the bizarre electric rear, wind-up front setup it originally had! Only thing is the driver's rear window motor is frazzled - Anyone got a replacement?!

Oh my god, I love that. Adore the pillarless doors!

That's fantastic. It looks gorgeous and it looks to be finished to a very high level.

I bet you're happy with it!