Heritage

Autologic has complete facilities for the restoration of BMW Heritage vehicles.
In addition to catering for the enthusiast interested in any BMW model we are also recognized as being the Australian experts on the E9 3.0CS CSi CSL  coupes.

All Heritage projects performed at Autologic aspire to achieve a new car production appearance with methods employed to ensure that the final result meets these objectives.

Vehicles are disassembled and the component parts or sub assemblies catalogued and stored.

Body shells are then stripped of all external surface coatings and then evaluated in terms of developing a strategy for the restoration of the body work.

Once the strategy is determined then the required body panels that require replacement are ordered with BMW, panels which are not available are then either re-evaluated and repaired, or new panels are fabricated from top quality deep draw flat sheet.

The body shell  is mounted on a "Car Bench" jig system using only dedicated full size heavy weight  jigs to ensure accurate alignment of the body.

Any alignment abnormalities are then rectified prior to any panel removal.

Once the chassis is determined to be straight and bolt on panels refitted for checking of fit and gaps the restoration of the body can commence in earnest.

In the case of the E9 coupe this can be a very time consuming and expensive process due to the years of abuse, rust and the cost and raw state of new panels from BMW.

The most common result with E9 bodies is the reconditioning of the frame along with the complete replacement of the external panels.

Replacement components (often hand fabricated) are welded into the frame prior to the fitting up of the new external panels.

New panels are delivered in a raw state and much work must be done to ensure that they fit and are straight enough to be used.

Once the frame has been restored and the replacement structure and panels are ready then the components are phosphated and hidden faces primed with a combination of Glasurit two pack primers and weld through zinc rich primers along pinch weld seams.

The body is then welded back together using a combination of spot and inert gas welding.

The result of this intensively detailed work is a body shell which is as new.

Note the reflections in the sheet metal of the body below as an indication of the all metal straightness of the body.

The car is removed from the Car Bench Dedicated Jig and placed on the front and rear beams to a heavy duty roll over system for further priming, sealing and body deadners prior to the colour being applied


 

See also body Repair for further detail of Body Restoration

Home