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7 minute(s) of a 67 minute read
3-18-2010
PART 3/3
There was this little scratch on the back corner. Easy for Sasha. The fender looks kinked in this photo for some reason, but that's how it is supposed to be.
The elephant skin in the trunk was OK, other than this one cut with a bad repair job. We are not sure what to do about this. Any ideas? Is it possible to get a good repair or is replacement the only option?
The spare-tire well. As far as I could tell, this rust was mostly from the jack. I could scrape it off with my fingernail.
I wasn't too concerned with the interior, as long as all the parts where there. We are going to completely restore every part. All the wood needs replacing, but we found a guy who will make us new ones. Surprising the door panels were still real nice (except for any plastic chrome bits) minus one puncture. I love the cross-hatched leather mid-sections. The dash need repairing, we found a guy who is supposed to be good. What do you guys think? Is it possible to get a good dash repair or replace the best way to go?
Is there a way to re-chrome the plastic bits in a better way than originally done? They seem to be a silver sticker, rather than a good chrome paint treatment like nowadays. I imagine it would be hard to replace every bit, so I was thinking about some top quality model paint or something. It would have to be better than the ****ty sticker option.
The original factory windshield break in sticker! Haven't seen this many times before.
This is apparently an original option steering wheel that the the guy had tracked down for it (it didn't come with this specific car originally, but was offered). I think it looks terrible. We are going to track down something like this one. Any ideas where? The aftermarket gear stick should be classified as a war-crime. So bad! Any ideas on a replacement? Also, what does an original ignition look like? Am I missing any parts or was it this basic?
Nice place for a test drive! She idled terribly, but drove great. Maybe a carburetor problem? Steering was tight (thanks Alpina sway bar!). Breaking was excellent (and so it should be thanks to the recent brake rebuild).
I have never liked the stock rims on this car (even the Alpina turbines - too eighties), and I think this is one of the few places we will deviate away from stock. I really like some of the rims from BBS, particularly these ones here. Any ideas on where I might track those bad boys down?
Talk about a paper trail! He had everything back to the booklet the car shipped to the dealer with! The car's back story goes that it was purchased by a US Air Force officer in '71 (spying on the Russian's much?) and then shipped back to America after his tour ended. To avoid emissions trouble, the engine was swapped out for a US spec one and driven for 70K miles before the original euro model was put back in (which is the one currently in it). The car was sold for $1 to the Air Force pilots son in 1998, who then in 2008 sold it to the guy I brought it off.
Bonus parts. He had all the parts required to convert this CS into a CSi. These came with the car! Not sure exactly what we are going to do here. We would like to turn this into a CSi, but is that cheating? What do you guys think? Is it wrong to try and pass a CS off as a CSi? Would you care if you brought this off us one day in the future (not that we ever plan to sell this beauty)?
Final price? What do you think it's worth? We paid $8,000. The seller had a 5-speed dogleg transmission for it too, but Dad felt it would be too complicated for Mum to drive, so we passed on it. Thanks Mum...
So the car is on it's way back to Australia now. It's probably sitting in a warehouse somewhere in Longbeach right now, as I'm still waiting on the title from the Oregon DMV before we can export it. We are shipping it with Al Montana's company (Phone: 310-965-9788). He seems like a great guy and if it arrives safely I'd recommend him.
Anything I left out?
I'll post back once my Dad takes over back in Australia.
-Drew
P.S: My twin brother is restoring a 1977 (he thinks) Honda CB-400-4 and is documenting his nightmare over at caferacer.net (see his thread here) if you're interested.