E28 Alpina B7 Turbo/1 #0083
I guess I should give an update.
I got all four doors in Polaris from a local yard a couple miles from my house. They delivered them so I wouldn't have to put them in the touring (BTW, four doors, a trunklid and a tail panel will fit in an E34 touring - did that for the E12). I was happy they let me have everything in the doors too, as they'd usually pull the regulators, glass and latch mechanism, etc. Anyway, they showed up and I saw they didn't unplug the wiring and pull it through. Instead they just cut the harness.
So, I spent a couple hours and completely stripped the doors:
Things were a go for Wednesday, November 7th. Tuesday night, I was ready to just let the car sit in my garage for another five years or whatever, but I had already paid $2,000, so I guess I had to go through with it.
Mike's friend Mike came to pick the car up. We got it loaded on the trailer.
This sucks also because now I have to strip out the innards from the doors on the car once they come off, then run the wiring into the "new" doors before they can go onto the car. On top of that my nearly-endless searching and emails back and forth with people all over the world has netted absolutely nothing in the way of replacement rubber conduit for the wiring.
No shot of the car on it's way up as I was pushing helping the winch to put as little stress as possible on the front of the car.
I followed in the touring.
And we arrived at Flores Performance. Sorta.
The car came off the trailer and I pushed it into the bay on the far end of the shop. It was dicey for a moment since I pulled the fuel tanks, but I got him settled down once he realized how much more room he has at his new shop (an inoperable car would have been a nightmare at his old shop).
Here's the '55 Chevy he had just finished for a customer:
And here's a '64 Nova that he painted a while back that was there getting something done before the Good Guy's car show:
So, I made sure Mike had all of the parts, we went over a couple more things and then I left. He told me I was welcome to come by whenever I like - open door. He's not exactly close, but it's not a bad drive.
I got all four doors in Polaris from a local yard a couple miles from my house. They delivered them so I wouldn't have to put them in the touring (BTW, four doors, a trunklid and a tail panel will fit in an E34 touring - did that for the E12). I was happy they let me have everything in the doors too, as they'd usually pull the regulators, glass and latch mechanism, etc. Anyway, they showed up and I saw they didn't unplug the wiring and pull it through. Instead they just cut the harness.
So, I spent a couple hours and completely stripped the doors:Things were a go for Wednesday, November 7th. Tuesday night, I was ready to just let the car sit in my garage for another five years or whatever, but I had already paid $2,000, so I guess I had to go through with it.
Mike's friend Mike came to pick the car up. We got it loaded on the trailer.This sucks also because now I have to strip out the innards from the doors on the car once they come off, then run the wiring into the "new" doors before they can go onto the car. On top of that my nearly-endless searching and emails back and forth with people all over the world has netted absolutely nothing in the way of replacement rubber conduit for the wiring.
No shot of the car on it's way up as I was pushing helping the winch to put as little stress as possible on the front of the car.
I followed in the touring.
And we arrived at Flores Performance. Sorta.
The car came off the trailer and I pushed it into the bay on the far end of the shop. It was dicey for a moment since I pulled the fuel tanks, but I got him settled down once he realized how much more room he has at his new shop (an inoperable car would have been a nightmare at his old shop).
Here's the '55 Chevy he had just finished for a customer:
And here's a '64 Nova that he painted a while back that was there getting something done before the Good Guy's car show:
So, I made sure Mike had all of the parts, we went over a couple more things and then I left. He told me I was welcome to come by whenever I like - open door. He's not exactly close, but it's not a bad drive.
The following Thursday, I was working in Chandler and was able to break away from that to go to my guitar lesson in Gilbert, so I swung over to Mesa on the way to bring him the shims from the doors I brought as I left them in my cupholder when we delivered the car. To my surprise, work had already started:
This door had a couple spots of rust behind the seal, but lacked the hole that is in the door currently mounted to the car.
The reason I searched out Polaris doors was so I could avoid painting the door jambs. I wanted to avoid painting the door jambs since they looked nice and I also had a perfect tire pressure sticker:
To my surprise, Mike had determined that he didn't think the paint on the doors was nice enough inside - not a wear thing, rather he didn't think they looked that great from the factory, so he decided to prep them to paint the entire door, something I wasn't expecting. I was a bit surprised, but am still glad I got the Polaris doors, as the last thing I want under my new paint is a blue or Bronzit door. I picked up everything they took out of the doors, and I guess I'm supposed to clean it up and bring back the parts I want to use from either set of doors. I still forgot to give him the shims.
This door had a couple spots of rust behind the seal, but lacked the hole that is in the door currently mounted to the car.
The reason I searched out Polaris doors was so I could avoid painting the door jambs. I wanted to avoid painting the door jambs since they looked nice and I also had a perfect tire pressure sticker:
To my surprise, Mike had determined that he didn't think the paint on the doors was nice enough inside - not a wear thing, rather he didn't think they looked that great from the factory, so he decided to prep them to paint the entire door, something I wasn't expecting. I was a bit surprised, but am still glad I got the Polaris doors, as the last thing I want under my new paint is a blue or Bronzit door. I picked up everything they took out of the doors, and I guess I'm supposed to clean it up and bring back the parts I want to use from either set of doors. I still forgot to give him the shims.
On the 21st, I stopped by again as I was again working in Chandler. I had to rebuild a shifter and reinstall a reman driveshaft for a friend in Tempe while he had lift access, before the shop next door closed for the long weekend, so I left work early. On my way, I swung by the shop to see my car and drop off a couple of critical pieces while I still had the touring.
He first showed me that they stripped the roof down to the sealer. He still needs to weld up the hole in the roof from the antenna that was mounted there. Obviously, this cannot be done until the windows are out and the headliner removed. They cut the seals back and the bit of bubbling under the left corner of the rear window was indeed a hole, as I had expected, so now we know that.
They had removed the front fenders. I wasn't expecting that.
He did it because we had to move the antenna back up front, where it was originally. When the car was painted last, they patched that hole and put one in the stock location in the rear. That's stupid since the spoiler would hit it if it was extended while opening the trunk. I had noticed a slight bit of dieback in a circle on top of the fender, so when I first pulled the inner fender liner while checking for rust, I saw the patch that was applied to the underside of the fender. He is going to remove the patch and put the hole right where it's supposed to be. Once I heard about all of this work, I was figuring I should have just gotten fenders too. Fortunately, they're not rusty. Tad bit of surface on the very bottom, but that's taken care of now.
Once I looked at the car, I was very happy he pulled the fenders.
Fortunately, right now, this is just surface. He's going to blast it and treat it. It's very common - something I've seen on lots of E12s, but unless the fenders are off, you can't see it until it's too late and this is pretty thick metal, too. Whew. Just one of those things I won't have to wonder about in the future!
Inner fenders look nice. All of this will be painted as well, which makes me feel better about not doing all the suspension and subframe work before paint.
Another shot of his M3 (please don't comment on the wheels - I only care about the quality of the paint):
Look what finally showed up (after I ordered it 16 months ago):
I showed it to Mike and I thought it looked pretty nice. He said he would make it straight.
Mike told me that he has been getting several people who ask what is so special about the car. They cannot believe it when he tells them what it is and how many are in the US. He appears to understand how special the car is and while he says he cares about every job, it's nice to see him take an interest in it. I had shown the car to people who made reference to it simply as "an import" or another guy who said, "all I see is metal - I don't care what the car is." Him and the "I ain't hangin' no doors" guy were real award winners in this process.
I also decided that I could get a reproduction of the tire sticker made, as a photo of my sticker was used to make reproductions already. I contacted my contact who contacted his contact and I've got three on the way. I decided to ask Mike about doing the door jambs on the car as it would make for a better finished product. I've found before that what looks great now will look not-as-great once everything else looks amazing. He told me that he's not charging me extra to do the doors themselves. I said I really appreciate that. How much extra to do the jambs on the car? He told me and I said, "do it."
I was in a hurry and again forgot to give him the shims.
He first showed me that they stripped the roof down to the sealer. He still needs to weld up the hole in the roof from the antenna that was mounted there. Obviously, this cannot be done until the windows are out and the headliner removed. They cut the seals back and the bit of bubbling under the left corner of the rear window was indeed a hole, as I had expected, so now we know that.
They had removed the front fenders. I wasn't expecting that.
He did it because we had to move the antenna back up front, where it was originally. When the car was painted last, they patched that hole and put one in the stock location in the rear. That's stupid since the spoiler would hit it if it was extended while opening the trunk. I had noticed a slight bit of dieback in a circle on top of the fender, so when I first pulled the inner fender liner while checking for rust, I saw the patch that was applied to the underside of the fender. He is going to remove the patch and put the hole right where it's supposed to be. Once I heard about all of this work, I was figuring I should have just gotten fenders too. Fortunately, they're not rusty. Tad bit of surface on the very bottom, but that's taken care of now.
Once I looked at the car, I was very happy he pulled the fenders.
Fortunately, right now, this is just surface. He's going to blast it and treat it. It's very common - something I've seen on lots of E12s, but unless the fenders are off, you can't see it until it's too late and this is pretty thick metal, too. Whew. Just one of those things I won't have to wonder about in the future!
Inner fenders look nice. All of this will be painted as well, which makes me feel better about not doing all the suspension and subframe work before paint.
Another shot of his M3 (please don't comment on the wheels - I only care about the quality of the paint):
Look what finally showed up (after I ordered it 16 months ago):
I showed it to Mike and I thought it looked pretty nice. He said he would make it straight.
Mike told me that he has been getting several people who ask what is so special about the car. They cannot believe it when he tells them what it is and how many are in the US. He appears to understand how special the car is and while he says he cares about every job, it's nice to see him take an interest in it. I had shown the car to people who made reference to it simply as "an import" or another guy who said, "all I see is metal - I don't care what the car is." Him and the "I ain't hangin' no doors" guy were real award winners in this process.
I also decided that I could get a reproduction of the tire sticker made, as a photo of my sticker was used to make reproductions already. I contacted my contact who contacted his contact and I've got three on the way. I decided to ask Mike about doing the door jambs on the car as it would make for a better finished product. I've found before that what looks great now will look not-as-great once everything else looks amazing. He told me that he's not charging me extra to do the doors themselves. I said I really appreciate that. How much extra to do the jambs on the car? He told me and I said, "do it."
I was in a hurry and again forgot to give him the shims.
Thursday, I stopped by since I was out that way and I wanted to see what was going on.
When I showed up, I saw my front valance. Sweet.
It looked like this when I got the car:
Used Jon's picture as I think I had already pulled it out with my hand some as it looked like shit.
Anyway, now that Mike had the airdam, he straightened the valance out. You might be wondering..."a new valance is something like $270. Why didn't you just go with a new one?"
That's a super question. The reason is that Alpina modified the valance so that a charge pipe to the intercooler could run through it, in addition to the holes for the airdam (shown on the left side of the photo, right side of the valance). I figured since this one really isn't that bad, maybe it could be saved. I told him what a new one would cost and what we'd have to do to it and he said not to bother.
Now that he had the spoiler, he was able to make sure everything fit properly.
The hood and fender in the background go to the '67 Impala sitting there. They were a righteous mess when I saw them last week. Now they're practically perfectly straight. No reproduction sheetmetal for those cars, so Mike straightened that stuff out. Quite amazing.
Then I saw the car. Hmmm. Looks lighter.
He says he's blocked out the quarter on the left side, and much of the one on the right except for the damage, which still has to be fixed. Of course, I can't remember what numbers he told me for the paper, so I need to make sure as to the steps followed on the blocking of said quarters and what is still to be done. Most of the jambs have been prepped except for the drivers as he doesn't want to do anything until I have the sticker in my hand. I told him it's coming from the UK. Hope it gets here soon.
They cleaned out the channel where the trunk seal goes, so that's looking good now. Still haven't done the rear panel. The carpet is getting dirty. It will clean up fine, but really wish I could have removed it but the wastegate control valve prevented that.
And my hood showed up! Had to come from Germany, but it's here safe and looks great.
I made sure to hand him the stack of shims.
I'm still stressed out.
When I showed up, I saw my front valance. Sweet.
It looked like this when I got the car:
Used Jon's picture as I think I had already pulled it out with my hand some as it looked like shit.
Anyway, now that Mike had the airdam, he straightened the valance out. You might be wondering..."a new valance is something like $270. Why didn't you just go with a new one?"
That's a super question. The reason is that Alpina modified the valance so that a charge pipe to the intercooler could run through it, in addition to the holes for the airdam (shown on the left side of the photo, right side of the valance). I figured since this one really isn't that bad, maybe it could be saved. I told him what a new one would cost and what we'd have to do to it and he said not to bother.
Now that he had the spoiler, he was able to make sure everything fit properly.
The hood and fender in the background go to the '67 Impala sitting there. They were a righteous mess when I saw them last week. Now they're practically perfectly straight. No reproduction sheetmetal for those cars, so Mike straightened that stuff out. Quite amazing.
Then I saw the car. Hmmm. Looks lighter.
He says he's blocked out the quarter on the left side, and much of the one on the right except for the damage, which still has to be fixed. Of course, I can't remember what numbers he told me for the paper, so I need to make sure as to the steps followed on the blocking of said quarters and what is still to be done. Most of the jambs have been prepped except for the drivers as he doesn't want to do anything until I have the sticker in my hand. I told him it's coming from the UK. Hope it gets here soon.
They cleaned out the channel where the trunk seal goes, so that's looking good now. Still haven't done the rear panel. The carpet is getting dirty. It will clean up fine, but really wish I could have removed it but the wastegate control valve prevented that.
And my hood showed up! Had to come from Germany, but it's here safe and looks great.
I made sure to hand him the stack of shims.
I'm still stressed out.
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austin8753
- Posts: 1491
- Joined: May 16, 2010 1:37 AM
- Location: Portland, Oregon, USA
You are lucky with the painters attitude. I wish Norwegian painters could have the same "good workmanship" attitude, but it is a long way between those guys here...
I assume you are gonna pull the front/rear windshield (only there due to transportation issues I guess).
But why did you not pull the engine, so that you could have a full respray?
Regarding the floor carpet, it is no problem to take the boost-adjuster knot off. The rest (read: the valve) remains in the tunnel, and you could pull the carpet out. I guess you have more problemos with the internal heat radiator box obove the carpet.
I am looking forward to see this car back in business.
I assume you are gonna pull the front/rear windshield (only there due to transportation issues I guess).
But why did you not pull the engine, so that you could have a full respray?
Regarding the floor carpet, it is no problem to take the boost-adjuster knot off. The rest (read: the valve) remains in the tunnel, and you could pull the carpet out. I guess you have more problemos with the internal heat radiator box obove the carpet.
I am looking forward to see this car back in business.
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hubble1953
- Posts: 857
- Joined: Dec 25, 2007 1:15 PM
- Location: Boise, Idaho
nice progess!
Chris: You have a great painter, wish I could find someone here that was that interested in 'import' cars:). Going to look so good. Did I miss what you are going to do with the suspension?
john
john
The windscreens are coming out of course. Right now, they're still in though the seals are cut back. They should be coming out sometime soon as there's some rust to fix.
I'm not pulling the engine. Easy for some people to spend my money. I don't have the facilities to do it all and don't want to open up another can of worms. This is an original car and I'm not doing a complete restoration. The paint is nice under the hood and there's no rust.
In addition to the boost controller, there are other brackets in the floor that go through the carpet and prevent it's removal. It's a nice carpet and it doesn't need replacing. I'd have preferred to remove it. I tried and it was apparent I was going to damage it, so I stopped.
The suspension is simply going to be refreshed. The subframes will be refinished and all new bushings and rubber bits installed.
I'm not pulling the engine. Easy for some people to spend my money. I don't have the facilities to do it all and don't want to open up another can of worms. This is an original car and I'm not doing a complete restoration. The paint is nice under the hood and there's no rust.
In addition to the boost controller, there are other brackets in the floor that go through the carpet and prevent it's removal. It's a nice carpet and it doesn't need replacing. I'd have preferred to remove it. I tried and it was apparent I was going to damage it, so I stopped.
The suspension is simply going to be refreshed. The subframes will be refinished and all new bushings and rubber bits installed.
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mooseheadm5
- Beamter
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Chris:
This is very exciting. I know it's a lot of work but you'll be happy when it's finished and you can actually ENJOY the car.
This car certainly found the right home and I'm glad you finally bought one that was deserving of your time and talents - unlike those old strays you usually take in!
Regards,
Mike
This is very exciting. I know it's a lot of work but you'll be happy when it's finished and you can actually ENJOY the car.
This car certainly found the right home and I'm glad you finally bought one that was deserving of your time and talents - unlike those old strays you usually take in!
Regards,
Mike
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Eddie in TO
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unt0uchable
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Chris, this is awesome progress! Your painter really sounds like a through and through car guy, not just a body guy. I was glad to see when you decided to move forward with this and with everyone else, I'm enjoying all of the photo updates! Keep it coming. This is the kind of stuff that keeps ya comin back.
Thanks. I'm stressed out.
Small update, no photos. Car doesn't look any different.
I picked up the four original doors on Saturday morning. I have to strip them down to get the wiring out to transfer to the new ones. Fortunately, I don't have to do it immediately since he's decided not to paint the jambs separate from the rest of the car. All removable panels will be painted off the car. When they're ready to go on, I'll run the wiring then.
Also received my reproduction tire pressure decal. It matches the original perfectly in size, shape and color. The text is sharper than the original. I'm disappointed we have to destroy the original decal, but it's the only way to do it right.
Right now, he's been working on other stuff, but he's just about ready to start the body repairs.
Small update, no photos. Car doesn't look any different.
I picked up the four original doors on Saturday morning. I have to strip them down to get the wiring out to transfer to the new ones. Fortunately, I don't have to do it immediately since he's decided not to paint the jambs separate from the rest of the car. All removable panels will be painted off the car. When they're ready to go on, I'll run the wiring then.
Also received my reproduction tire pressure decal. It matches the original perfectly in size, shape and color. The text is sharper than the original. I'm disappointed we have to destroy the original decal, but it's the only way to do it right.
Right now, he's been working on other stuff, but he's just about ready to start the body repairs.
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FREExSPIRIT
- Posts: 182
- Joined: Dec 02, 2012 9:33 PM
- Location: Denver, Colorado
Not much was done to the car for a couple weeks. Last Thursday (December 20), I went to the shop to get the front and rear glass and to pull the headliner. I didn't care about the rear window as there is nothing special about it, but I've got three other E28s with cracked windshields, so I wanted the windshield. Sadly, it didn't make it between the E28 and the touring without cracking, so I was a bit upset about that. I didn't share my disdain over the windshield with the painter, but instead just pulled the headliner and photographed what was a couple of tiny bubbles below the rear window seal on the left side.
That will be repaired. I gave Mike the part number for the correct windscreen and left. He called me yesterday (Wednesday) and said his cost is $350 on it and he'll have it Tuesday. Great. He also said my car was his focus this week for bodywork and he was starting the doors as soon as he hangs up. Great. Hopefully I'll see something tomorrow (Thursday).
So, today, I came by the shop to give him the $350 for the glass and to check out the progress. He has completed all of the bodywork on the doors and the front fenders. He also cleaned the insides of the front fenders, revealing the original undercoating.
I'm happy we were able to save the original fenders as they have had the arches rolled and are actually quite clean.
They have been primed and blocked to 180. Still has to do 320, then a final 600. He removed the edge buildup from both the factory and the last paint job, as well as all of the rock chips, many of which were painted over previously. He still has to reveal the hole in the left fender for the antenna. I brought it up just to be sure, but he said he knew about it, so I felt kinda dumb.
The bodywork has been completed on the doors as well. Couple of dents here and there and the left doors had some hail damage. Better than rust. You'd never know it now. Still glad I was able to get Polaris doors. No surprises there, but he says they had been painted before and weren't prepped well underneath, so they removed all of that down to the original sealer (I believe that was shown previously). The doors have also been blocked with 180 grit and will get 320, then 600, then will be essentially ready for the color.
The car in the background is a '67 Camaro RS/SS with a 396 that is a "barn find." Belongs to the guy who runs the transmission shop in Mike's complex. It needs every body panel replaced aside from the windshield support. Owner didn't want to go with a re-pop body, to retain as much originality as possible so Mike is buying all of the panels and will weld it together himself. I looked inside the car and there are virtually no floors. Should be fun. Will give me a chance to recover before sending the E12.
So, no more updates until after the new year. He's ready to work on the actual car itself. He's had several people who couldn't believe what they were looking at when they saw the project. Looking forward to seeing it done, but I'm not really looking forward to putting it back together. Kinda burnt out I guess, been thinking about a different project. I'm going to work on stripping my old doors this weekend hopefully, then figuring out which latch parts and such are the best and go from there. From what I can see in these doors, I'll be sticking with the stuff from the "new" doors.
That will be repaired. I gave Mike the part number for the correct windscreen and left. He called me yesterday (Wednesday) and said his cost is $350 on it and he'll have it Tuesday. Great. He also said my car was his focus this week for bodywork and he was starting the doors as soon as he hangs up. Great. Hopefully I'll see something tomorrow (Thursday).
So, today, I came by the shop to give him the $350 for the glass and to check out the progress. He has completed all of the bodywork on the doors and the front fenders. He also cleaned the insides of the front fenders, revealing the original undercoating.
I'm happy we were able to save the original fenders as they have had the arches rolled and are actually quite clean.
They have been primed and blocked to 180. Still has to do 320, then a final 600. He removed the edge buildup from both the factory and the last paint job, as well as all of the rock chips, many of which were painted over previously. He still has to reveal the hole in the left fender for the antenna. I brought it up just to be sure, but he said he knew about it, so I felt kinda dumb.
The bodywork has been completed on the doors as well. Couple of dents here and there and the left doors had some hail damage. Better than rust. You'd never know it now. Still glad I was able to get Polaris doors. No surprises there, but he says they had been painted before and weren't prepped well underneath, so they removed all of that down to the original sealer (I believe that was shown previously). The doors have also been blocked with 180 grit and will get 320, then 600, then will be essentially ready for the color.
The car in the background is a '67 Camaro RS/SS with a 396 that is a "barn find." Belongs to the guy who runs the transmission shop in Mike's complex. It needs every body panel replaced aside from the windshield support. Owner didn't want to go with a re-pop body, to retain as much originality as possible so Mike is buying all of the panels and will weld it together himself. I looked inside the car and there are virtually no floors. Should be fun. Will give me a chance to recover before sending the E12.
So, no more updates until after the new year. He's ready to work on the actual car itself. He's had several people who couldn't believe what they were looking at when they saw the project. Looking forward to seeing it done, but I'm not really looking forward to putting it back together. Kinda burnt out I guess, been thinking about a different project. I'm going to work on stripping my old doors this weekend hopefully, then figuring out which latch parts and such are the best and go from there. From what I can see in these doors, I'll be sticking with the stuff from the "new" doors.
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Kyle in NO
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Mark 88/M5 Houston
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