Hello everyone
My name is Ed. I live in Boston and New Hampshire.
I've been regularly using the E9 forum since 2019 and have found it very helpful in sorting out my 1971 Bavaria restoration.
I have 2 rust free Bavaria's, a 1971 and a 1974. The 1971 has been completely rebuilt and will be painted next spring and I'll start restoration of the 1974 next spring.
I'll send some before and after pics once the '71 is painted.
Here's little background on these projects with pics.
In 2014 a Bavaria 4 speed that's been in my family since new in 1971 was given to be (see orange car below). It had been sitting in a barn for about 10 years and had over 200K on it. It's a New England car that was Zebart'ed when new. It was ordered from the factory in Colorado Orange which was a 2002 color at the time . Anyway - when I jacked it up it collapsed through the frame rail. The interior was almost perfect and everything was there except the body was unrepairable.
I took a shot and found a picked over Bavaria automatic in San Bernadino CA took a leap of faith, bought it site unseen, then had it shipped to New Hampshire. See Blue Car below. This car is completely rust free. I have not come across even one bolt that didn't come off easily.
From there I did Body Work on the blue Bav. took the body off the subframes, swapped the 4 speed and all component parts and the interior from the orange car to the blue one.
Tested the engine outside the car.
Put everything back together and have been driving it and debugging it for the last 3 years. Now it's ready for paint- Found a local guy who works from his barn with 42 years painting experience. He's taking it next spring/summer.
It needs a new windshield (small crack in passenger corner) which proved to be difficult to find so I ended up purchasing another Bavaria from Florida to get spare parts and a windshield. This one turned out to be so solid that I'll be restoring it as well. (see the black bavaria photo). As a surprise bonus this one has a 5 speed.
I loved working on VW's and SAAB's in the when I was a kid in the 70's and this has been a wonderful project getting reacquainted these cars with all of their idiosyncrasies.
