For those interested, you can go to the following Bring-A-Trailer link, to see the car as I bought it in December 2017:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1968-bmw-1600-6/

The story I got from the seller was that he was frustrated in trying to deal with getting the correct rear glass, and that's why he sold the car. 

This is chassis #1560629. It is a numbers matching car, but has had it's share of owner preference work. Someone put knee trim on the car years ago, and the seller did an upholstery job that suited his tastes. The steering wheel is wrong, and the gauge cluster is not period (but I've got a "silver dollar" cluster being restored now). Mechanical clutch replaced with hydraulic, and brake booster changed out for newer system, Libre wheels (but original spare). Bottom line is the car seems to represent a nice (thank goodness, nearly rust free) platform, but will never be an all original show winner.

The seller had owned the car for two years, and bought it from Craig's List in his home town of Santa Maria, CA. The seller owns an upholstery shop in Santa Maria. The story gets a little murkier prior to Craig's List, but it apparently sat for a number of years at Bavarian Auto Haus when that business was in Shell Beach, CA. The car came with original books and purchase records from when new--original sale from the Peter Pan dealership in South San Francisco. After I bought the car, Carl Nelson at La Jolla Independent BMW worked on the CV joints and replaced the axle boots, as well as put new window glass in the car, as needed. Then, the car was shipped to me from San Diego to Hilo, Hawaii.

After restoring the dealer-supplied A/C system (thanks, Ray), I have decided to build this car into a 1600ti tribute. I found NOS ti pistons in Greece, and carburetors/intakes/linkage, air can, and other engine bay bits from a BMW enthusiast in Washington State. Solex PHH rebuild parts are on the way from an eBay seller, alfa1750 (Rocky) in Italy. The NOS rear badge is from a parts house in Uruguay, and the front badge is a reproduction from the UK. And Trieu build me a Kienzle clock (see his recent blog)! Hoping for sway bars from another FAQ'er. Please see pictures in this first blog post. Time schedule for the project is to get started wrenching in January 2019. We will be doing a complete engine rebuild, in conjunction with fitting the new pistons, carburetor system, and SuperSprint exhaust (headers, center resonator, and tailpipe).

A number of FAQ'ers have helped me tremendously with the project and parts hunt thus far, including Ray, Slavs, Conserv, bimbill, Mark92131, halboyles, jgerock, zinz, Oldtimerfahrer, Tsingtao_1903, and others. I know I've left some out, apologies. Way out here in the Pacific Ocean, this project would not be possible for me without the help of folks at BMW 2002 FAQ.

I've got a great mechanic (in his 70's) who is also a dear friend, but this fellow does not use the Internet! He's got a wonderful, one bay shop at his home in Puna, Hawaii. One of the pictures below shows a black Sunbeam in his shop, so you can get a flavor for the place. One of my challenges is to get him all the latest information from you all, and thus translate that guidance to the end of his ancient tools! He does have lots of experience with a variety of BMW variants from back in the day.  I'll be posting pictures of the progress of the car in this shop, as time goes on. My intention is to keep this blog going with timely posts, until the car is completed.

This is my first blog of any kind, so your patience is appreciated. What I am hoping for is lots of feedback and advice on this upcoming project: to create a 1600ti tribute car from my current 1968 1600-2. Many of you have already helped, and I apologize if any of the pictures or information are repetitions from previous forum posts. Most importantly, I've only been gathering parts thus far, so I'm hoping you all can guide me and my mechanic along so as to avoid unnecessary mistakes, and otherwise do the work in the most trouble-free fashion possible. I am reminded of the old saying "Perfect is the enemy of the possible"--this car will never be a perfect representation of an original 1600ti, but I intend to do what is possible given the current platform, and what is practical to do out here in the Hawaiian Islands.

Thanks for following along and participating in this adventure! Robert 

PS. I've explained to my wife what I am doing, and she seems interested. That said, I've captured an image of the dog's face after carefully explaining the project to him. Milo is most definitely not interested, and won't be until maybe it's time to go for a fast, air conditioned ride! RPS