Has anyone had experience with the BMW Classic Restoration Service?

[Mal CSL 3.0]

I wonder if anyone here has sent their BM to BMW Classic for a full restoration, which they apparently offer: "Whether your recent classic requires an expert overhaul, or you need a rare barn find restored to its original glory, or individual components of your classic are in need of repair – our experts are there to help"

https://www.bmwgroup-classic.com/en/offers-and-services/classic-center.html.

Personally if I ever did a full restoration on any classic BMW I would consider to ship my car to BMW Classic Centre in Munich for them to do the full project. Sure, no doubt would be expensive and costs would escalate with shipping there and back but I suspect you would get what you pay for ie a high level of professionalism and quality workmanship from the BMW experts in Germany. Possibly also more piece of mind than with a local independant restoration workshop.

Thoughts?

 

[HB Chris]

Someone should use them and maybe then BMW would know how many of their parts don’t fit or aren’t available.

 

[craterface]

I think I saw a 507 at Pebble Beach a few years ago that they had done. Owned by Jeff Lotman.
But, if you are looking for a full restoration on an e9, VSR in New Hampshire USA would be as good or better than BMW Classic and certainly cheaper. I am not a paid spokesperson, just a satisfied customer.

 

[aearch]

if your rich the only way togo

 

[craterface]

if your rich the only way togo

Jeff Lotman's father invented Chicken McNuggets, IIRC, so you are correct!

 

[Markos]

Honestly I wonder about the service. Rhetorical question... Do the best restorers have their own shops or do they go work for a salary at a large corporation?

What I do know is that folks here have pointed out restoration discrepancies in the Turkis car at the BMW museum in Munich. I also noticed that another CS at the museum has a black five bar grille, as seen in my “five bar grille”expedition thread.

I’m sure they do a great job, but I’m guessing that some of the veterans in Germany could do an equal
or better job for equal or less money. If your goal is to sell the car at a premium, a restoration by BMW will probably command a higher resale than an equal or better job from a comparable independent BMW expert.

 

[bert35csi]

No matter how beautifully restored, a private restorer can never hand over a freshly done coupe that looks like it’s on stilts to a customer who probably spent over 6 figures on the restoration. Was this the original stance that came off the factory production line back in the day? Must be a new remanufactured CSx model.

 

[autokunst]

No matter how beautifully restored, a private restorer can never hand over a freshly done coupe that looks like it’s on stilts to a customer who probably spent over 6 figures on the restoration.

Ha ha - great observation. That photo is cropped pretty tightly. Let's hope that coupe is on a lift that we can't see in this view, partially dangling in the air...

 

[dang]

Ha ha - great observation. That photo is cropped pretty tightly. Let's hope that coupe is on a lift that we can't see in this view, partially dangling in the air...

Yeah, looks like it's up in the air to me. A lift or jack stands..

 

[HB Chris]

BMW lost their way, no experts, no drawings, no tooling, no secret sauce. Ask Kara about when she was restoring her 503 Cab at the Werkshoppe, they told her to use 507 tail lights. Wrong contour, they didn’t fit.

 

[m5bb]

Insiders have a number of stories about the 2002 they supposedly restored from parts off the shelves. Ha!
You don't see them running ads for their services like you do with Mercedes and Porsche.

 

[Stan]

I think I saw a 507 at Pebble Beach a few years ago that they had done. Owned by Jeff Lotman.
But, if you are looking for a full restoration on an e9, VSR in New Hampshire USA would be as good or better than BMW Classic and certainly cheaper. I am not a paid spokesperson, just a satisfied customer.

+1

 

[inovermyhead]

Like many forum members I suspect, one of the joys of old car ownership is the hands on approach and being able to work on things yourself, restoring bits as you go learning what works and what doesn’t.
I can understand the need to keep things stock especially if you have a csl, but if like my car it started life as a csa before a colour change and a gearbox change by the time I got it, it had been moved far from stock and gave me the opportunity to put my own stamp on it, which I well and truly have. The vast majority of people just comment on what a beautiful car it is, they don’t know the finer ins and outs of the model range and it gives me a great deal of satisfaction knowing that I put many many hours of work into getting it where it is today. I think if I farmed all of that out to a third party it would definitely take some of that self satisfaction away and at the end of the day that matters to me.

Cheers. John

 

[Bmachine]

I wonder if anyone here has sent their BM to BMW Classic for a full restoration, which they apparently offer: "Whether your recent classic requires an expert overhaul, or you need a rare barn find restored to its original glory, or individual components of your classic are in need of repair – our experts are there to help"

https://www.bmwgroup-classic.com/en/offers-and-services/classic-center.html.

Out of curiosity, I wonder if they only do strict restorations to original specs or if they would do some personal mods. Something like what they offer on some of their current high end models. Custom colors, interiors, suspension, maybe engine, etc... I remember reading a while back that they restored a coupe for an older guy in Germany and they converted it to Automatic. So they must be open to *some* customization.

 

[dp]

with 1600 members here, we could do a 100 dollar a head lottery, that'd about cover it eh?

Who's up for letting BMW restore their coupe?

 

[zinz]

My only "experience" with BMW Classic came last year when I was trying to buy some fairly-difficult-to-find NK hubcaps for the 2000CS. There was a very good set on Kleinanzeigen and as I was sorting out payment/shipment details with the seller, he emails to tell me BMW Classic swooped in and got them.... likely to be hoarded away in the archives, never to be seen again. I have since sourced another set (thanks to Chris for the tip) for more money, but at least I have them. Maybe it wouldn't rub me the wrong way, but BMW Classic won't part with those unobtanium pieces.



Ed

 

[pat cooks]

BMW lost almost their entire classic department in the Paris concord crash, it was a BMW charter flight, long while ago but once the knowledge is lost it's lost forever, I once flew in concord and got to sit up front for 1/2 an hour after flashing my pilots licence, you could not do that today,

 

[zinz]

Oh, wow.... how horrible.

 

[CSteve]

Oh, wow.... how horrible.

You can see the video of the crash on youtube. Two airplane buffs from Hungary, I think, were traveling around taping planes and happened to be shooting that fateful day.

 

[aearch]

if bmw gets your car
it absolutely has to be to the original specs and proportions
how else could they keep there pride and reputation.
i did know a person i met at a dead show and saw his coupe that was indeed
done there when i was in germany a multimillionare kid whose family owned a tile company
and it was absolutely perfect and i do know "perfect"
so if u have the money!!!!