Baikal Csi

[Baikal Bimmer]

Hello everyone, roughly a year ago we purchased a 1972 Bmw 3.0 csi. It has often been our wish to post a build thread here on the forum, but we haven’t had the chance. Now that time is permitting, we’re going to start. They say better late than never!

Anyway, I’ll take you up to where we are now.



The car on the trailer ready to come home.


From that distance it looks pretty clean and complete, while it was pretty complete, like most e9’s it is littered with rust.



Rusty rockers— this is a preview for coming attractions



Originally the plan was to make it run and drive it, but our curious and thorough nature made us take a look under the head. To our dismay, it was filled with coolant. A pressure test revealed it was cracked.



First time on our lift





Side view showing off the car lowered. All thanks to fully adjustable racing coil overs.


We also put on a front spoiler And changed out the wheels and tires. Meanwhile the engine is out and ready for a replacement.



First day under the car cover



Rust repair begins



We used a bead roller and made all of the pieces ourselves



Taking a break from rust repairs to do something cool, rear brace !



Time for the rockers



Inside the beast



Replacements from Germany



Passenger side almost finished

 

[Baikal Bimmer]

The rear quarter panel was hit in a collision with the previous owner. This is a replacement sourced from a wrecked e9, a lot of work but necessary.



Primer and blocking sanding, lots of block sanding.



We covered the sides of the pop up cover and made a paint booth. It can great for a backyard paint job



After block sanding and polishing reassembly begins



You can see the blue tow hook for a 2002, it fits great and is totally functional!
We also added aluminum spoiler supports

 

[Baikal Bimmer]

Working on the engine bay,
Coupeking heat shield installed



Rebuilt 1992 3.5 with custom JE forged aluminum pistons. It’s going to be paired with a five speed and limited slip differential



Engine, tranny, and differential are finally in the car as of two days ago


Ceramic coated tubular headers


We placed dynomat like stuff down yesterday



Previous owner ruined the side panels messing with the ac. A lot of stuff is missing, so I recovered the sides and am goin to use e3 side vents, looks like it’s going to workout just fine.

 

[Baikal Bimmer]

That is where we are now, there’s still a lot to be done. Up next is to finish up the engine and wire it to the motronic box.

 

[HB Chris]

Almost looks like you have non A/C console side panels as they look very vertical?

 

[Baikal Bimmer]

Almost looks like you have non A/C console side panels as they look very vertical?

They could be, our car did come with ac from the factory, and these were attached when we got the car.

 

[TravL350]

This is very cool to see, especially impressed with the wide spectrum of work you’re taking on yourself. Subscribed to the thread, looking forward to seeing more!

 

[Baikal Bimmer]

This is very cool to see, especially impressed with the wide spectrum of work you’re taking on yourself. Subscribed to the thread, looking forward to seeing more!

Thanks glad to hear it

 

[tmh]

Very impressive as to the work you are doing. The learning curve is always very steep in hindsight. On virtually any repair I perform for the first time, it takes me 3 times longer than it should have taken me. Ten years later when I have to make the same repair I have forgotten what I learned the first time. My effective hourly rate is in essence minimum wage when it is all complete.

 

[Baikal Bimmer]

Hi all, as many of you know, we are wiring up the coupe. We have done everything on the car ourselves so we had up to this point hoped to continue in that direction. We may be in over our heads with this though. I posted some questions on the general discussion board, but wiring this thing up is not for the faint of heart. Is there anyone in the Rancho SANTA FE San Diego area that would be willing to help wire up the motronic, or possibly even megasquirt ecu?

 

[Baikal Bimmer]

Big news, we’ve scrapped the plans to run motronic and after a chat with Don we are going with megasquirt and custom fuel injectors! I’ve been trying to balance projects and the old Ford keeps me busy,



but I’m back on the e9 now so hopefully we can finish her up now.

 

[Baikal Bimmer]

Have not posted for a while, but I’m back at it again. The coupe now runs and drives!
Here is a picture of its current condition taken on 1951 Zeiss super ikonta!