The Hidden Problems I Unearthed in my 1974 BMW E12: Rust and More Damage 

Thank you. Can’t wait to go for a proper drive in it… its been 18 years! Yes, never seen it either, but was common on BMWs of this period. Begin that gap, I found dried mud and the skeleton remains of a rat!

Thanks you. Nice one, it’s a great feeling getting a car fired up for the first time. Are you doing the carbs yourself?

@@GentilsGarage I’m getting the carbs rebuilt by someone else and will be tuning it myself at home once it’s on , if anything goes wrong I can go back to him to tweak it

@@nozzyfilms7469 good plan!

Yes, odd. That tyre was in that wheel well for 48 years and my friend who got it out while the car was still in portugal, said it was quite stuck and totally deflated, so maybe the compound got deformed once inflated. The Sachs shocks (blue) on the RH side look like a period replacement judging by the stickers, but as you say, should have been replaced as a pair. The rear shocks might be still the original ones, but I’ll wait a few more weeks to replace them. About that water leak, it was there when I had the car over 20 years ago, but I’ll be doing a couple of tests this weekend.

Thank you. I’m so glad to have finished the front suspension… it was a real pain!

Thank you very much, I hope you can get one too

That was probably a Verona red

Me too. Once I get this car on the road we need to arrange a date between these two

Thank. Initially I though it was a random colour selected by the local BMW assemblers but after much investigation, I found that the colour is a orange brown called Castan and was specific to the SA market. There is only one car in this colour as it’s a BMW 2004SA that is on display at the PS Speicher museum in Germany. Only way to get a match is to have it scanned and mixed. There is a company in Brighton that does that service. Not cheap though!

Thank you very much

Thank you. Only surface rust luckily and nothing structural. I did have a good poke around and it was all solid

Yes, certainly makes a difference. The wheels looks rubbish now 😂

Thanks. Yes, they are in good shape as well as the brake lines. The rust seems to be on areas that were hit by gravel/chip stone/rocks such as the bottom of the arches. Also couple of other bits that were water has accumulated such as the bottom of windscreen, which is a notorious place to get rusty on these cars.

It is indeed, but because the car was only imported to the UK last year and many components were in a precarious condition, I thought of taking it to an MOT centre as an extra pair of eyes in case I miss something. I finished a few other bits since I made this video and I hope to get the car driveable next week or so.

@@GentilsGarage Nice one mate!