Here are pictures taken from the day she was brought home, still completely devoid of trim.
With the car back in my possession I was now ready to get to work. I'd lost interest in the project during the long two years the car had been gone. The boxes of parts stacked in the garage were a nuisance rather than a promise of long evenings spent building a car. With my CS Coupe once again sitting in my garage, freshly painted and nearly devoid of any trim, interior or drivetrain, I certainly had my work cut out for me. Thankfully my wife is a patient and supportive partner in this project. There were few evenings in the winter of 2001/2002 where she saw me before midnight. Every evening after dinner I would go out to the garage and get to work. I'd work until I was too tired to do any more, and then I'd clean up, tuck in to bed and read old issues of The Roundel or BMW books until I fell asleep. Such was my mania. I'm lucky that California winters are mild by comparison as it was rarely too cold to work. Night by night, week by week, she began to resemble a car more and more. The stacks of boxes of parts became smaller as their contents made their way on and in the CS.
One cold January Saturday my father came over and together we installed the engine.
The next day I installed the 5 speed gearbox and driveshaft along with the limited-slip differential that I'd found. LSDs are hard to find for these cars and I spent a lot of time looking for one. They were standard on CSIs and CSLs but not on CSs. I was very fortunate to find a rebuilt unit at a reasonable price.
Sometime in January I'd taken my seats, doorpanels and several other interior pieces to Generations Auto Upholstery in San Jose. There we'd picked out a nice color of Mercedes Benz leather and left a deposit for him to begin work on finishing the interior. My goal was to have the car running by Spring of 2002 and completed by summer time. I was especially hoping to drive it to the Concorso Italiano and Monterey Historic Races in August.
Also in January I'd placed massive orders with many of the well-known CS parts purveyors. Maximillian Imports, La Jolla Independent, and CSI all proved valuable sources for parts for the project. CS parts are neither plentiful nor inexpensive but if you're restoring one and you want to do it right, you're just happy to have them available. I even bought a junkyard 2800CS to have for spares. I couldn't bear to see the thing go to the crusher when it still had valuable parts on it. It became affectionately known as "The Hulk" and it has proven to be valuable in many ways, including being a reference of sorts when I could not figure out how something was supposed to be installed.
With the engine, driveline and other components installed the car was getting close to running. I still needed to finish the exhaust, and I was waiting on some brake components, but there was no reason I could not fill the engine with coolant, the tank with gas and start her up. With the sparkplugs out and 6 fresh quarts of oil turned the engine over with the starter until I saw pressure build on the in cockpit oil pressure gauge. Now she was ready. Plugs back in, a few shots of gasoline in to the carbs, recheck the timing, and give her a whirl. VROOM VROOM! It runs! Not that I ever doubted it, but anyone who's ever built an engine before knows the feeling. It's always nailbite time when running a newly built engine for the first few minutes. Oil pressure was strong, she came up to temperature nicely and did not leak any vital fluids. With only the header pipes on her she sounded like a race car though. Cute, but nothing you'd want to drive. Gee, all I need is an exhaust system and I'm even closer to having a driveable car.
Getting the exhaust done was a minor challenge. Original exhaust components are still available but one of the original parts (intermediate muffler) have been eliminated. These cars had no less than three mufflers when new. I had a new center and new rear, but I'd have to have a pipe made to connect the two, not a big deal. Should be a piece of cake for any muffler shop. Getting the car to the muffler shop was a bit of a challenge though. She was not driveable in her windowless, interior-less, and muffler-less state so I rented a trailer and we rolled her on to it. Getting her off the trailer at the muffler shop was easy. Getting it back on was not so easy and my brother and I nearly killed ourselves trying to do so. I'd not been able to finish the hydraulics at that point and since the brakes and clutch were both fed by the same reservoir I had no clutch. This prevented my from just driving it on to the trailer. After a lot of frustration and a lot of hard work she was finally back in my garage, with her exhaust system complete, and very close to being driveable.
Over the next few days I was able to finish the brakes which then allowed me to bleed the entire hydraulic system including the clutch. She still had no windows and I was using the original driver's side seat while the Recaros were at the upholsterer's, but I saw no reason why I couldn't take her for a drive. Well actually I could see one good reason, it was damn cold out! I wouldn't ride my motorcycle in this weather what makes you think I'd want to drive a car with no windows in this weather!? But this was no ordinary car, this was a project I'd dreamt about for over two years! Damn the weather, I'll just bundle up! On March 17th of 2002 I drove my 1973 CS Coupe for the first time in over two years. I only drove it up and down the street, less than a mile each way, but it was great! Here's what I had to say about that momentous occasion in my post to the CS Registry Mailing List.
Today at approximately 5:15 PM I drove my 1973 BMW 3.0 CS out of the garage under its own power. Out on to Summit Road for about 50 yds I drove, hung a U-Turn and came back to check a few things. I put little weight in to the accelerator but the combination of tires that are very green after not being used for over two years, very cold weather, and the still damp roads from this weekend's storm did not add up to much in the way of traction. It was a glorious thing.
Here is a picture of me turning back on to Summit Road on that fateful afternoon. Can you see the smile on my face? Can you see the tears in my eyes from driving a car without windows in 40 degree weather?
Here she is after her first drive, peeking out at the cold winter weather, perhaps dreaming of warmer days to come.