Rob Edwards

Lots of trim work in the past day, I hate trim work. Nerve-wracking, all of it.

Metal window trim- responds well to hitting the hell out of it with a hammer. William has a video.



Windshield trim:



Continued interior panel prepping. The dry rotted speaker grille material under the vinyl was bugging William, so the quarter and door panels got partially stripped again, and replaced:





Steering wheel came back from refurb- Re-dyed and re-stitched the original leather cover:






Minerva sat on tires again, after clutch and brake bleeding:







Condenser fin straightening- 12 fpi:

VanD

Rob - where did you send that wheel for the restitch and redye? Looks brand new! Any close up pics of how bad the wheel was? Approximate cost? I'm just wondering as I have a couple wheels that may be savable and I'm debating between replacement cover vs redye/restitch.

Rob Edwards

William's upholstery guy did it- I think it was $250, all in.

I don't have a good starting point pic, here's a partial one. The stitching was trashed and the leather filthy, but it was clearly in good enough shape to be saved.

granprixweiss928

An amazing resource for us all, once this is done, would be a list of all the 3rd party companies that you utilized to refurb parts/pieces.

Mark

William A

Rob is right, the most nerve wracking jobs are the finish work, both Rob and I are equally maniacal which is why we are going to have a 3rd go at the rear quarter windows. If we can avoid cracking those then window corners, my prayers will have been answered, lol!




Thanks to some BMW restoration friends, I found a second generation upholstery pro who is a one man shop. His niche is German cars, but does many Euros. The picture of Minerva's steering wheel doesn't do it justice, it literally looks brand new and I joked with Juan that he replaced my old wheel with a new, old stock he dug up somewhere. He also did a fabulous job of recovering with front seats with new Kork vinyl but used the original Kork pinstripe fabric from the seats. Again, stunning results using the original fabric.


Juan Ortiz is a master.


When Minerva is completed, there will be one post with all the credits to those who contributed to the finished product.

The Deputy

Before using the fin straightening tool on that condensor, I'd first, straighten as many as possible with a small jack knife. Get the fin(s) standing back up, as best as you can, with the knife...and then...use the tool. I know, it seems wonderful to think you can run that tool through there and straighten eight rows at once, but some of those cracked/super-30 year old-fragile fins will only snag and rip while trying to do eight rows at a time. Also, if you spray the area and tool with Pam cooking spray...it will help lubricate the fins to allow them to move back into position.

EDIT: Also, start in an area that has good fins and work your way into the damaged area. Example: 7 good fins -1 bad fin = slide tool through area...then move into the repair area one more bad fin at a time, etc, etc.

Car looks so good with the wheels back on.

Brian.

linderpat

finally had a chance to snap a couple of pictures of the upper condenser. This is US #834.

Jadz928

Brian, great advice on the condenser fins, thanks.

A small but important bit about the '78 vs. '79 condenser...
79 is stamped "BEHR" on the top plate, 78 is not marked.

dr bob

Some tool hints to avoid the paint scuffing in the wheel-nut recesses: Find a thin-wall 6pt 19mm socket, or even one of the plastic-sleeve specialty sockets, and add a sleeve of heat-shrink sleeve that goes around both ends of the socket. The thick-wall "impact" sockets are often too large OD to allow the shrink-tube "sleeve" to fit inside the recesses, especially on the manhole-cover wheels.

Can help avoid damage on show-quality wheels especially.

VanD

Are the lugs re-anodized, painted, or new? I re-anodized a couple sets (hard anodized) and the came out pretty nice, but your look better.

Rob Edwards

Powder coated. Same stuff as the crossmembers, window trims, etc. They did a nice job of taping off the threads and mounting surfaces on each nut.

BC

How do you even get this on and off?

Rob Edwards

Off is easy- Scissors. On is easy- take your scissors and cut the new one up the middle, and ziptie it on. Or move to San Diego, where protection from the elements is a moot point.

BC

Lol. The red car has been on the road and the unmoletesed cover needs to be removed to check on that universal joint.

Rob Edwards

If it shifts the way it's supposed to, I wouldn't mess with it- That boot is a PITA, the coupler grub screw can be a PITA, it's all a PITA.

Grab the boot over the coupler and rotate them axially- If the coupler isn't moving more than the tiny bit of normal play in the coupler bushings, relative to the tranny shift rod, quietly slink away without letting it see you.