Alpina Restoration

Here are some more pictures I took yesterday. I decided to take more off the nose of the car, including the bumper and the front air boxes (those air boxes are HUGE!). Also included is a picture of Gary at his shop when I dropped off the car.

Here is a picture of Gary and the Car:









Some assembly required!!!

Thanks for the interest. Something else I ended up doing for to get the car ready for Gary was I just first removed the sunroof panel as it will be replaced. But, after removing the panel, I decided to remove the entire sunroof casette, so all he has is the lip. Upon removal, I found out that one of my two pieces that actually attach and hold the sunroof was cracked, so it will be replaced when I reassemble everything. I guess it is called mission creep!

Work finally started on the painting this week. Gary (the painter) ended up having some extra work on the car in front of mine (remember - he is an excellent painter, and a one man shop).

The wheels have been refinished - all 5. The were stripped, trued, and silver and clear powder coated. This included the wheels and center caps.

The rear glass came in via Gault from Germany. My original has a small spot of delamination in the lower left corner, and wanted it to be perfect. The glass does not have the blackout stripe for the 3rd brake light, as a custom LED one is being fabricated into the rear deck.

Several Alpinas which were sent to Japan had the front piece of the wood console removed and replaced with the black one when placing the Japanese radio (I have seen this on several Japanese cars) while leaving the center piece with the ash tray and rear piece in wood. I sourced a shop in California which would reproduce the front section to match the other pieces. So everything would match perfectly, I ended up having them strip off the original wood and match it when redoing all 3 pieces. In the photo you can see a strip of the original wood, and the newly refinished pieces matching the original. Due to differences in light, they may look a little different in the photographs, but they are all the same color. I will update this as I get more photos....

Zitat von sandwich;99313

Fascinating Rog. What would you estimate the cost of the resto is going to be?

Not for sure yet....but my wife has changed the name of the car from "ALPINA" to "ALEXPENSIVE"

But it is interesting, as I have been following both B12 5.0 and B12 5.7 prices, and they seem to be continuing to go up, especially for low mileage nice cars. Mine only has 37,000Km, and was the only Silver B12 5.0 produced so its worth doing as good as I can.

Zitat von sandwich;99316

Agree totally. What would they know anyway?!!

I have to say I have a special one (wife) as she has been putting up with my BMW habit since 1984! Plus, she pays the bills, so I keep her informed as to not blindside her. She is a sweetheart, as many of those in the US know that have met her at car meets. I' a lucky guy!!

Update 5-26-12

Had the opportunity to go up to Jacksonville, and see the progress on the car. Gary has painted the bumpers and some of the small pieces. He is working on the hood and trunk. Today when I was there he was hand sanding the hood with 3000 wet paper. The underside of the hood is finished, and he was working the topside. He had started stripping the main shell - the hood, front fenders and trunk are off the car, and the door will be coming off shortly. He said that the seam on the C pillar was one of the best factory seams he has ever seen on a production car. There is a photo attached. I also picked up the refinished 5 Alpina wheels, and have attache a couple of photos. The painting should be finished the later part of June. Here are some pictures I took today:

These pictures are after two coats of stripper. The body will then be totally taken down by hand to metal. Gary saved me a bucket of the initial scrapings to show me the paint. Evidently the car had been repainted once before, so taking everything off was the correct way to do everything. I have total trust in Gary, and his work. Remember - he is a one man show, and does everything himself.





Here is the factory seam on the C pillar - something most of us never get to see. Gary said it was the best factory seam on a C Pillar that he had seen on a production car.






Here are the 5 wheels. They were stripped, spun and trued, then powder coated.

Zitat von 8Harry8;99871

Roger

Is Gary a friend or are you his best filled cashwallet customer?!?

I think I am helping his wallet out but before I decided to have him do the Alpina, I just knew of him by his reputation, which is outstanding. But, on my car he is just doing paint. He actually can do entire car restorations - his specialty originally was doing high end hot rod projects, but word is out about how well he paints and restores, which is the only way he will do a project. You should see the possible car which is in line after mine - a one off special project done by Buick in 1946. Gary and I understand each other perfectly - I am very picky, and that is the only way he works. While planning the project, we were both very up front with each other about our expectations. I have seen the quality of his work before. He restored a M1 for the Director of the Amelia Island Concours, who also happens to be a BMW nut like us, and the car was fantastic. He painted a friends antique bantam cars, of which 2 ended up with the AACA Best of Show awards, and were retired from competition because they always won. I waited almost 9 months for my place in line for him to get to our car, and from what I have seen so far, I am very pleased. I can't wait for the paint work to be done, then I get to get started!

Zitat von reinhard;99876

...let´s face it, Gary will need to eat & drink and have fun when working on Roger´s car for weeks and not doing anything else.

Cheers
Reinhard

Reinhard - thanks for the note. You are spot-on with your assessment of Gary. He is passionate and dedicated. He takes hundreds of pictures during dissassembly of the car, plus has the printed shop manual. I did not take pictures, but on the left side of the car he had written measurements of the Alpina stripping just in case I wanted him to put the new ones back on.

No - his rates are not cheap, but actually were in line with most other good shops. The main difference between him and other shops I "interviewed" and looked at was that he is a one man show, and only works on one car at a time. He charges his hourly rate for however long he works on the car. He does not use the newer water based paints, but the older style paints. Lots of hand work involved. Plus - and this is a big factor - he knows exactly what I want, and I know how he works, and we are in total agreement. I keep reminding him I am very picky, and he just looks at me and smiles

Zitat von wokke;99918

Sorry to say but for a perfect paint job the windows should be removed IMO. Is this still going to happen?

Wolf - yes they will all be coming out. The back glass is actually "off" the car, but just sitting there in the picture. All the rest of the glass will be out before all the stripping is completed. Doors will be coming off this week and glass out of them, as well as the rear side windows. But, no yellow paint will be going on , just plain silver!