Restoration Wednesday, BMW Bavaria To The Rescue

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Who rescued who is the question. My first car was a 1974 BMW 2002. As such, I’ll always have a soft spot for BMWs. But my last experience trying to reincarnate my love for the marque left me relenting and I sold my 2001 3-series wagon winter of 2017. That maintenance experience soiled me for “modern” BMWs. First it was the front crankshaft sensor a 10 minute fix. But then it was the rear. I couldn’t even lay hands on the rear sensor after 1.5 hours of trying so I took it to my local shop for the fix. It took them four.

The rear spring broke which apparently is a common problem. Uh huh. It needed new ball joints and control arms, oil sender, a fuel pump, window winder mechanism and front rotors all within 15,000 miles. I read Consumers Report last month, this was one of the least reliable eras for BMW 3-series. Great. Well it’s gone now. To be fair it was fun to drive but a consistent thorn.

The Bavaria was never on my radar yet was always on my friend Roy’s in Ohio. So a long time ago I turned him onto one for sale on Craigslist that he bought. I think an old professor owned it. It was quite nice. Roy’s family owned one long ago and it reminded him of old times. Consequently he bought two more as part cars but junked one. This fairly crusty, missing rear window example was saved because it had paperwork of a rebuild in 1987. He figured the motor was worth saving even if the car maybe wasn’t. Then, along came Pauly. Let’s save it.

 

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