engine and drivetrain 1966 BMW 1800 TI Alpina

[69coronet440]

Hi, I am brand new to the forum and new to BMW’s in general. I’ve been into classic American muscle cars for years but have recently been given an opportunity to own a classic BMW. My wife’s grandfather was stationed in Germany in the 60’s and purchased a 1966 BMW 1800TI in 1965. As soon as the car was purchased it was taken to Burkard Bovensiepen of Alpina where it was disassembled and given all the parts the TISA would have came with and “badged” with the Alpina logo. The car was raced in Germany by my wife’s grandfather for a few years then brought back to the US. The car had blown a head gasket before coming to the US. He had a BMW specialist mill the head but this made to much compression and the problem was never resolved.

His plan was to race the car in the US but couldn’t get it class certified because of the low production numbers. At this point (Late 70’s, early 80’s) the car was stored in an open sided covered shed at my mother-in- law’s house where it still sits today. The motor and transmission were never put back in the car after the head work was done. They are stored in a crate in the garage. The car had around 35K miles when stored.

I saw the car about a year ago, there is a lot of surface rust but the entire car is intact, other than the engine being in the garage. My mother-in-law has all the documentation for the car, her father was very good about keeping records. He has been visiting for the past few days. All this information was him telling about the history of the car. My mother-in-law had been keeping the car because she knew it meant a lot to her father but he recently told her to sell it/get rid of it so she has offered to sign the title over to my wife and I.

I know it would be a huge undertaking to restore this car so I guess my question is, is it worth doing? The car has a good history and good documentation but is it worth putting the large amount of time & money into it for restoration?

[alpinaguy]

Pictures, pictures, pictures!!! There worth a thousand words as they saying goes. A proper assessment will require pictures! Sorry, but soooo many posters come on the site and ask for evaluations without pictures.

[markmac]

If it is everything you say it is (not assuming it isn't) and has the paperwork to substantiate AND the core (shell) isn't a total basket case - easy answer is yes (pictures or no pictures).

www.alpinabmw2002.com

[MikeD]

Short answer is yes but would still love to see pictures.

[markmac]

If it is everything you say it is (not assuming it isn't) and has the paperwork to substantiate AND the core (shell) isn't a total basket case - easy answer is yes (pictures or no pictures).

www.alpinabmw2002.com

Forgot to mention, cool story and sounds like a cool car - also sound like potentially a good story for my blog at some point if interested. Would love to see some images. Amazing how many cars recently have come out of the woodwork (literally) barns, fields, stoarge....etc., is really cool.

www.alpinabmw2002.com

[williamggruff]

Short answer is no, it's total crap, and should not be restored, but rather gifted to someone in the Prince George's County region, specifically someone who goes by the alias "williamggruff" on the FAQ. You can contact me via the email button in my signature to arrange shipping, at your cost of course.

Sounds like an interesting project that's worth investigating. Some replacement parts for this car are not available in great abundance, especially the Alpina bits, so your investigation might start with photographs of the body in its current state (mentioned ad nauseum above), followed by an inventory of the crated parts and their current condition. As marcmac has documented in incredible detail with his Alpina restoration project, while the market value for the rarer parts of these cars is quite high, the cost of restoration may far exceed any near term market value for the finished restoration project. Even if you choose not to pursue a restoration of your own, you may find a market of folks eager to learn more about, and likely acquire some or all of the parts that have been stored all these years.

Best of luck, and I, too am looking forward to seeing the photos, if for no other purpose than to recommend how you'll package them for delivery to my house, at your expense of course ;-)

[69coronet440]

Thanks for the quick replies. I should have some pictures in the next few days. My wife is going to her moms this weekend to see her grandfather off. I asked he to take a bunch of pictures and have her grandfather point out the unique features of the car.

[BillyRay]

Ooooohhh, Pavlovian response, I am wiping my chin.

I hope you aren't one of those guys that likes to make up stories just to get us all worked up!

Maybe Esty will link us to other such stories of dreamed up barn/garage finds.

"Z"

[NickVyse]

Any car modified and documented as such by Alpina that early has historical as well as monetary value. They're also pretty solid cars, so the surface rust may be just that.

Sounds very interesting. The NK forum is here:

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,50/page,viewforum/f,19/

and for a European perspective:

http://www.02forum.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=13

and per the others - pics please!!

[Slavs]

The head is the least of your worries. If the body is not a heap of rust, restoring the car, Alpina or not, is definitaly worth it. I do most of the restoration work myself, and it still costs plenty money. So, if you're not keen on turning a wrench, and you don't want to spend the cash on labor and parts, I suggest you pass the car on to one of us, preferably to those of us who will restore the car back to its one time glory and not bastardize a nice classic such as this by throwing in some monster "M" motor and mounting 20" wheels etc. If you're on the West coast. I would be interested in that car.

Alpina sold kits for those early cars which included carbs, intake manifolds and air filters. What is the color of the car ? Bristol, Derby, Chamonix, Turf, Granada are the most commom early colors.

Slavs

[69coronet440]

(nt)

[bob02]

Man, that is seriously cool! Good luck and really hope to see that on the road someday!!

bob

[designpunk]

thanks for the pics......get the engine, brakes, and suspension dialed....clean the exterior and drive it !!

great car / great story.

the interior looks frozen in time for the most part.

i hope to hear about this one making it on the road in the not too distant future.

good luck with it....and as Nick mentioned above.....great resources here

under the NK section as well as the UK board he linked to.

take care, jim h

[jp02ti]

I have a workshop manual for this car which i have been trying to sell for a while now. Here is the link to the f/s post:

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,57/page,viewtopic/t,367598/highlight,/

The price will come down...

If you are interested then let me know and we can discuss.

jon

[roadhog0]

Save it, Save it! That car is very restorable especially with the history and Alpina parts, the rust will be on the bottom though. Parking on dirt kills the undersides... But it shouldn't be all too bad. Get the motor and all the driveline sorted out then pull it all apart and do your resto. Best of luck to you sir!