CSL Barn Find 2285251

Wes

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That got everybody's attention.

Apologies to the couple of Forum members that know parts of this story but now that the deal has been closed I thought it only fair to update everybody.

A while back word of a chamonix 1972 'barn find' ' City Pack' CSL was doing the rounds here among parts of the E9 community in Australia. The car was subsequently advertised for sale essentially 'as is where is' in a couple of Australian classic car magazines and later online as well in the UK.

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1046247

What started out as a bit of a running joke at the body works while my CS was being finished got serious when I called the vendor one evening. Turns out he'd just got back from a long holiday and hadn't returned any previous calls about the car.

Yes - he was keen to sell the car but only for a fair price and only to somebody that appreciated E9s (CSL's in particular); and who would do something with it. After a lot of emails containing all manner of pictures of hard to reach parts of the car and some discussions about prices for recently sold CSL projects (distinct from asking prices) I broached the issue with my wife...

Unsurprisingly, she was open to the idea of buying another E9 given my previous predictions about the restored value of my CS had been borne out by an appraisal from Shannons Insurance. On an unrelated note I've committed to finishing our home renovations..

Next stop the bank to discuss bridging finance.

I should disclose my bank manager is a very nice fellow who just so happens to me a bit of a car tragic (mini minors) - I pointed out that technically speaking these were also now BMW's and we were basically brothers in arms.

Having organised that I then booked the flights to go an inspect the car - 4000km each way from Tasmania to Perth across three time zones. Finally D-Day arrived having left home at 4am local time arriving in Perth to inspect the car.

The vendor is a really nice guy who informed me he'd had the car since 2000 but that he had some oral history and paperwork showing the car had been in storage in the UK, Hong-Kong and Australia since 1984.

The car certainly presents like it's been in storage that long with literally decades of dust and grime on every surface. Internally the car presents well with all of the original interior present and in good restorable condition. The timber work has cracked up due to lack of care and years of living in a very warm and dry climate. This has an upside though the car has no fresh or active rust as it's literally bone dry.

The car does have its share of imported UK rust though. The outer sills look to be on the way out as do the fender boxes. Shock towers, firewall and floors are all solid though. I suspect the car was put off the road in 1983 on account the the fender box and sill rust as it wouldn't have passed a MoT.

The car still carries all the alloy CSL parts, seats, steering wheel, hood lining, cabin light etc.

Another upside is the issue of spare parts, it comes with the following (not on the car):

Stainless exhaust and muffler;
RHD dash assembly;
Spare gauge assembly and gauges;
Steering column;
Original Alpina wheels;
25+ rust repair panels;
Steel boot;
Fibre glass CSL boot lid;
Brake callipers;
2 x brake discs;
Bell housing;
Tail shaft;
Fibre glass CSL rear bumper;
2 x chrome rear bumpers;
2 x chrome front bumpers;
Heater assembly;
Injection manifold;
CSL front air dam;
CSL roof dam;
Plus a heap of smaller bits I'm yet to sort;

Following some haggling and discussions about freight costs, and cost of flights flights for the inspection a price was agreed and I bought the car. At the time of writing it's on the Indian Pacific railroad in a 2oft container destined for Melbourne where it then ships for Tasmania - due to arrive in 10 days.

Once it arrives I plan to do a partial tear down ahead of preparing to commence what I expect to be a long and significant restoration process.

Happy to post some pictures if anybody is interested.

Below is a potted history of the car. If anybody can tell me more please post on here.


UK MoT VIN search revealed car was first registered 01/03/1973 and last registered on 08/01/1983. Registration number was PYV906L.

At time of last registration car is shown as having had one previous owner – doesn’t detail who that was.


Car is also to be found in ‘CSL News’ from May 1985. The car was listed as owned by Mrs Rodwell and as for sale. It’s presumed she is the last owner to have registered the car in the UK in 1983. It's believed she was the second owner and owned it at the time of last UK registration.

A Mr Tony Martin is believed to have owned it in the mid 1980s - believed to have bought it from Mrs Rodwell.

Mr H.G Godfrey is recored as owning it in 1991 - believed he took it to Hong Kong.

Car imported to Perth, Australia in 1999 to a classic car dealership for restoration (never happened)

Vendor purchased from them in 2000 and owned ever since until now.
 

Keshav

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Congratulations Wes.
Having just completed a restoration, you’d be the perfect candidate to repeat it on your Csl.
Have fun :)

Keshav
 

Wes

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Here are some pics:

20181015_144754.jpg


20181015_144813.jpg


20181015_144938.jpg


20181015_132623.jpg


20181015_132702.jpg


20181015_144616.jpg
 

sandhu

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Well done Wes on your purchase !!!

Keep us all updated on the restoration plze
 

Dan Mooney

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That got everybody's attention.

Apologies to the couple of Forum members that know parts of this story but now that the deal has been closed I thought it only fair to update everybody.

A while back word of a chamonix 1972 'barn find' ' City Pack' CSL was doing the rounds here among parts of the E9 community in Australia. The car was subsequently advertised for sale essentially 'as is where is' in a couple of Australian classic car magazines and later online as well in the UK.

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1046247

What started out as a bit of a running joke at the body works while my CS was being finished got serious when I called the vendor one evening. Turns out he'd just got back from a long holiday and hadn't returned any previous calls about the car.

Yes - he was keen to sell the car but only for a fair price and only to somebody that appreciated E9s (CSL's in particular); and who would do something with it. After a lot of emails containing all manner of pictures of hard to reach parts of the car and some discussions about prices for recently sold CSL projects (distinct from asking prices) I broached the issue with my wife...

Unsurprisingly, she was open to the idea of buying another E9 given my previous predictions about the restored value of my CS had been borne out by an appraisal from Shannons Insurance. On an unrelated note I've committed to finishing our home renovations..

Next stop the bank to discuss bridging finance.

I should disclose my bank manager is a very nice fellow who just so happens to me a bit of a car tragic (mini minors) - I pointed out that technically speaking these were also now BMW's and we were basically brothers in arms.

Having organised that I then booked the flights to go an inspect the car - 4000km each way from Tasmania to Perth across three time zones. Finally D-Day arrived having left home at 4am local time arriving in Perth to inspect the car.

The vendor is a really nice guy who informed me he'd had the car since 2000 but that he had some oral history and paperwork showing the car had been in storage in the UK, Hong-Kong and Australia since 1984.

The car certainly presents like it's been in storage that long with literally decades of dust and grime on every surface. Internally the car presents well with all of the original interior present and in good restorable condition. The timber work has cracked up due to lack of care and years of living in a very warm and dry climate. This has an upside though the car has no fresh or active rust as it's literally bone dry.

The car does have its share of imported UK rust though. The outer sills look to be on the way out as do the fender boxes. Shock towers, firewall and floors are all solid though. I suspect the car was put off the road in 1983 on account the the fender box and sill rust as it wouldn't have passed a MoT.

The car still carries all the alloy CSL parts, seats, steering wheel, hood lining, cabin light etc.

Another upside is the issue of spare parts, it comes with the following (not on the car):

Stainless exhaust and muffler;
RHD dash assembly;
Spare gauge assembly and gauges;
Steering column;
Original Alpina wheels;
25+ rust repair panels;
Steel boot;
Fibre glass CSL boot lid;
Brake callipers;
2 x brake discs;
Bell housing;
Tail shaft;
Fibre glass CSL rear bumper;
2 x chrome rear bumpers;
2 x chrome front bumpers;
Heater assembly;
Injection manifold;
CSL front air dam;
CSL roof dam;
Plus a heap of smaller bits I'm yet to sort;

Following some haggling and discussions about freight costs, and cost of flights flights for the inspection a price was agreed and I bought the car. At the time of writing it's on the Indian Pacific railroad in a 2oft container destined for Melbourne where it then ships for Tasmania - due to arrive in 10 days.

Once it arrives I plan to do a partial tear down ahead of preparing to commence what I expect to be a long and significant restoration process.

Happy to post some pictures if anybody is interested.

Below is a potted history of the car. If anybody can tell me more please post on here.


UK MoT VIN search revealed car was first registered 01/03/1973 and last registered on 08/01/1983. Registration number was PYV906L.

At time of last registration car is shown as having had one previous owner – doesn’t detail who that was.


Car is also to be found in ‘CSL News’ from May 1985. The car was listed as owned by Mrs Rodwell and as for sale. It’s presumed she is the last owner to have registered the car in the UK in 1983. It's believed she was the second owner and owned it at the time of last UK registration.

A Mr Tony Martin is believed to have owned it in the mid 1980s - believed to have bought it from Mrs Rodwell.

Mr H.G Godfrey is recored as owning it in 1991 - believed he took it to Hong Kong.

Car imported to Perth, Australia in 1999 to a classic car dealership for restoration (never happened)

Vendor purchased from them in 2000 and owned ever since until now.
Many, many congratulations, Wes! This is the stuff of dreams. Truly a fantastic project!
PS. I can't help being a little envious, not only of the car but also your wife and bank manager :D
 

Belgiumbarry

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yeah , cool find ! congrats.
But i see a lot of work & parts needed…… and i assume you don't restore a "CSL" to a drivers car but more …. to a concours condition ?
Good luck and have fun …. i admire your courage ! :)
 

Gransin

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I already said it in the other thread, but congrats Wes! What a nice find, hope you'll share the journey, in detail, with us:)
 

Wes

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Well after what seemed like an eternity of waiting the car arrived today.
Exception work from the previous owner on packing the shipping container as the car hadn't moved an inch from the photos they sent me of it leaving Western Australia.
The car is now safely in my workshop where I'll start gutting it this weekend.
Plan is to take it down to a rolling shell to start with and do all the rust repairs before we pull her down further.
The thinking here is we don't want to place additional stress on the chassis until the sills are fixed.

Once I've got it pulled down then I can get my body guy to come and take a look



Here are a few more pictures.

Boot needs a bit of a clean out..

20181015_144721.jpg


Spare parts anybody?
Really happy to have the original Alpina wheels.

20181220_123047.jpg


Original hood lining, looks like new - probably only thing that does.

20181015_144854.jpg


Spare brakes and pedal assembly (RHD).

20181220_122918.jpg


And more rust repair panels than you can poke a stick at.
20181220_123021.jpg
 

Marco 54

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Well done, Wes - a treasure trove.
Preserve the headlining at all costs. The pattern is unique and complex, and I understand from those who know more than I do that accurate replicas are not available.
 

Wes

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Totally agree Marco.
Apart from parts of the veneer the rest of the original interior is in what I consider to be remarkable condition.
Where possible I plan to sympathetically restore it and re-install, as opposed to re-trimming the car.
After all it's nearly a 50 year old car. If I wanted a new BMW interior I'd of bought a new BMW.
Probably would be cheaper as well :)
 

sandhu

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Let the fun start with the strip down and then restoration ...

Wes you have 5 Alpina Alloys with your car , bonus !!!
 
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Wes

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It's been a long weekend over here, so guess what I've been doing?

The tear down is now well advanced. All four window mechanisms are now out of the car. They fought me the whole way as all of them were seized up.
The rear ones in the 'up' position and the front ones in the 'down' position. This of course meant it was virtually impossible to gain access to the fasteners in order t remove them in the normal way. The rear ones I got out via inserting a 10mm open ender into the door cavity and backing off the bolts that lock the glass into the arm that allows it to rotate.
The front ones I eventually gout out using a universal attachment on a socket extender bar and losing a lot of skin off my knuckles.

Still cant't get the LH front window bracket out. There is a large bolt that locks it in place that screws into a welded nut located inside the door. I suspect the welds have failed as the whole thing just spins.

Here is a pic of the RH one.

IMG_4232.jpg


Here it is with the bracket in place just to give you some perspective.

IMG_4233.jpg


I think the only way around this will be to slide a hacksaw blade down the back and cut the bolt off at the base and then drill out what's left.
Open to other ideas?

The site foreman suggested hitting it with a hammer but I don't think she knows what she's on about.

IMG_4238.jpg


Had my metal/paint guy come and spend two hours looking over the rust and working out a scope of works.
The good news is we didn't find any new major problems.
He's spoilt for choice on repair panels that came with the car.

IMG_4227.jpg


The interior is also nearly gutted now.

IMG_4231.jpg



Think I need to get a better iphone, or perhaps I have the shakes :(

The next big job on the list is the dash removal, which thanks to @Markos I now have an idea how to do.
Will be interesting to see if it differs at all for a RHD or a CSL.
 

Wes

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Another big day on the CSL with the master mechanic.
Today's main task was getting the dash out. This is an interesting exercise to say the least.
Reckon it took me about 2 hrs to knock it over. The good news is it's out, the better news is I didn't break it.
As you can see the steering column is still kicking around in the foot well as I cant crack the top nut holding the wheel hub in place.

IMG_4252.jpg


Didn't discover any new rust areas no the dash is out, so that's something.
Now have better access to the rust forward of the A pillars on both sides. As you can see we'll need to take the fenders off and do some panel repairs.
I know this particular issue extend through into the fender boxes, so fun times ahead.

IMG_4253.jpg


Also pulled the fuel tank and rear lights as well. The tank looks ok with no gunk or anything much in it but does have some light rust scale in the upper areas near where the filler cap attaches. Any ideas on treatments?

The other big job I've started on is removing the heater. At present it's winning the battle. I've removed the four obvious nuts under the dash holding it in place but it still wont move.
Will post in the help thread.

IMG_4250.jpg


Not sure what's going on here with the fuel lines. Looks like some after market modifications?
Really like how the old filter is just left hanging there, obviously concerned about weight. Not..

IMG_4248.jpg




Also stated removing the exhaust as it's actually held on with tape and wire are all the rubber hanging mounts are gone.
Not sure of the best way to get it off the car. Looks like there are two joins near where it passes the gear box where I could cut the bolts holding the flanges together.
Only other option looks like taking it off at the manifold?




Finally, here's some rust.
IMG_4257.jpg


And some more.

IMG_4255.jpg
 
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