Even though this is my first post on this forum I'm not new to it. I've been using all the info within to educate myself on the 1M coupe and also as an aid at times to assist in repairs. I own an autobody repair facility in Queens, New York. I've been involved in repairing BMW's since 1987, first as painter and then as a shop owner. As with all the rest of you on this forum I am a car enthusiast and have owned many different BMW's over the years. Besides the usual repairs on customers vehicles that I preform at my shop, I sometimes buy damaged vehicles from various auctions and repair them. This brings me to the reason for my post.
1st - Valencia Orange 1M
A few months ago I bought a damaged 1M coupe from an auction. It was a fully loaded Valencia Orange 1M. I bought it because I heard about the rarity of the 1M coupe and loved the color. It was love at first site. A lot of the parts needed to repair the coupe were not even in the USA yet so I had to patiently wait till they shipped from Germany. After repairing the coupe and driving it I've become totally hooked on the little 1M . I've owned and driven a lot of BMW's but nothing like this car. Needless to say I promised myself that if any other 1Ms popped up for sale again at auction I would try to buy them. I usually like to check the auctions on a weekly basis.
2nd - Alpine White 1M
One Monday while scrolling through various wrecked cars I came across another 1M coupe for sale at a Connecticut auction. It was an Alpine White one that had suffered right front damage. I wanted the car no matter what so I told myself when it sells I have to have to win it.
3rd - Alpine White 1M
A few days later another AW coupe comes up for sale in a California auction. This one looked like some was tracking it and rolled it. I figured I'd try to win that also. Well..long story short I won both of them. Both have since been repaired and are back on the road to go along with the first VO I fixed.
4th - Valencia Orange 1M
This past Monday when I was checking the auctions again I found another one for sale!!! It was being sold yesterday (6/21). well.....I won that one also......It's a VO coupe fully loaded with left side damage.....parts are already on order.....
Which brings me to the reason for my post.....the vin number on one of the aw coupes I have is vp75925...after doing a little research I think this might be the first AW coupe sold in the usa. The VO coupe that I bought yesterday has the vin vt47835.....I searched the vin on this forum and found a post saying that it might be the last VO coupe for the USA ?.....any input or help would be appreciated.....oh...and the other 2 vin numbers were vp76303 which is a fully loaded VO coupe that was european delivery and vp76122 which was an aw coupe owned in upstate New York... Again, i love this forum and thanks for any help in advance concerning the vin #s....
EDIT: the VO coupe purchased yesterday with VIN VT47835 has been confirmed to be the last 1M coupe delivered to the US!
SOME PHOTOS:
These 3 pictures were taken with my phone.......these are before and after photos of vp76303 and the after photo of vp76122......what do you guys think of the stripes.......?
heres what 2 of the coupes looked like on the auction's website.....vp75925 was the rollover and vp76122 had the right front damage.....
I know it's going to bother alot of people to see #740 in this conditon. This is one of the pictures that I had to bid off of.......if you try to look past all the obvious bent sheetmetal, it doesnt look as though there are any major issues......then again.....i wont be sure until its in my shop and on a lift....being that this is a special car i might start a thread and document all the repairs on a daily basis...
Here's a picture of vp75925 during the last stages of assembly.......and some pictures from a few weeks ago before repairs began and then during repairs
some more pictures of vp75925.....the rollover.....the below pics were taken before work began.....
the center section of the roof is cut off to expose cross supports and headliner....
after the glass and the headliner are removed the car is put on the frame machine....
after a couple of quick pulls the damaged sheet metal is cut off.......
here are some more pics......
the new sheetmetal including the roof panel are fitted and adjusted.....during this process alot of measuring and trial fitting happens....a tramm gauge is the tool of choice.....it allows cross measuring and other types of comparitive measurements that are crucial for proper alignment....
after everything is aligned , all the welding is done using both a mig welder and an inverted spot welder.....a little grinding on the seams and now your ready for a little body filler and then some glasurit primer....
everything is masked up for primer then after some wetsanding it gets retaped and put in the booth for final topcoat application....
all the rest of the damaged sheetmetal parts were replaced with new oem pieces..... hood, left side fender, and both doors...... the right side fender,both quarters and the trunk lid were repaired.....
vp76122 before any work is carried out....damage is accessed and disassembly begins.....
most of the damage was caused by whatever the coupe ran into on the lower right front....the crossmber broke and the right front lower control arms were damaged......luckily the rail didn't seem to suffer any deformation...the right rear tire blew and caused some damage inside the wheel opening....the exhaust probably got damaged by the transporters during the recovery process....the hood and fenders had some damage and scratches....it looked like it ran threw a chain link fence.....
decided to take the motor out to make it easier to swap the crossmember and also to allow measuring of the unibody on the cellette bench....
after measuring , the new crossmember is bolted in to double check proper alignment.... assembly can begin.....
at this point the new crossmember and suspension are swapped in place of the damaged parts....everything is checked on the engine especially the turbos.....the last thing you need to find out is that you have a problem after you install the motor....
as promised, i'm going to start posting pictures of #740.....
the 2 pictures below is how it all begins.....santa's sled pulls up to my shop...