1971 3.0CS Euro Model Restoration by drewbaker

6 minute(s) of a 67 minute read

Hi Guys,

So it's been a few months. We finally got the car back to Australia in December 2009 using a company called called Montana Exports (www.montanaexports.com) and I have to say the guy was a pro. We were pretty nervous giving the car to a stranger, but Al Montana knows his stuff. Didn't charge us any money till we had the car in our hands in Melbourne. 

We ended up shipping the car on a truck from it's former home in Oregon to Montana's warehouse in Los Angeles. This cost us about $600 but was really the only option as we didn't trust the engine to last the long drive on its own.

Montana offers a few options for shipping, with the cheapest being for us to wait until he had another 2 cars to put in a container with ours. It was about 4 weeks or so until he found the other cars, which worked out well as it gave us some time to track down spare parts to put in the trunk and save on shipping.

If we did it again, we'd be much more relaxed about it. We were constantly called Al Montana and asking about the progress, but in the end we should have just left it in his capable hands.

We had the car shipped to Williamstown near Melbourne, and strangely Montana never charged us any money until the car had landed in Melbourne which was nice. It worked out to be about $5000 for shipping, tax, duty after all was said and done.

Sorry for the bad photos, I forgot my camera so I had to use my phone.

The car sitting in the Williamstown warehouse. Service was terrible, they made us put on high-vis jackets and just stand around for 30mins. We eventually got sick of this and asked a forklift driver if we could just take the car. He said we could, so we did.

Some unknown had imported this sweet Laverda motorbike. How nice is the orange cowling!

As you can see, the car was running a bit rough. We took it to the local mechanic the next week for an engine tune up. It was there for all of 3 hours before it came out running like a dream.

Here is a site you don't see everyday. A 3.0CS stuffed to the gills with spare parts going over the Westgate Bridge.

We took it straight to Sasha at Deluxe for an inspection. Unfortunately he couldn't take the car right away because he was working on this...

Sasha's own Alfa Romero GTV. The car was absolutely perfect. I think this might be next on the list.

So the 3.0 has had to wait in our driveway for the last couple of months until last week when Sasha was ready for it. The car is at Deluxe right now getting pulled apart, so drop by and check it out if you're in the area.

While we were waiting for Sasha, we used the time to hunt for spare parts and make various aesthetic decisions. We have decided to keep it the original Polaris with Navy interior (or course!). 

As for the rims, I think we are going to for for an early 90's BMW 5-series wheel like the one pictured here: 

We really like the BBS rims shown here, but wanted something a little more classy and BMW branded.

Other than the rims, we are going to keep it stock. My Dad is in love with Sean Penn's old 3.0, so if it's on Sean, he wants it. We will be removing the Alpina front air dam, so if anyone is interested let me know. We will probably repair it and repaint it with the car just in case.

Thanks to some fellow board members, we tracked down a nice wood Nardi steering wheel to replace the Formel wheel that is in there now. I'm just waiting on him to make a decision about these gear knob and brake handles now.

Mechanically the engine seems to run perfect, we were both surprised at how powerful the car is. It's hard to believe that it was made in the same factory in the same year as the Karmann Ghia. The Ghia is as basic as they come, and the BMW is a true sports car.

There are some issues with the brakes, and the electric windows don't work. The wiring is all good, but it's something to do with the switch's and fuse setup.

Otherwise, we are anxious to see what Sasha comes up with once he starts pulling the car apart. As I live in Los Angeles, I'm relying on Dad to send photos of the car's progress, I'll do my best.

-Drew