I bought a "nice from 15 feet" 73 Baikal Blue USA Automatic coupe off eBay back in 2015. My wife and I drove it home
from NorCal but the secondaries were stuck closed in the Webers and the trans wouldn't kick down. I spent a few
years fixing little things and driving it. It was fine but there was some rust (spare tire, right rear floor, rocker
rear corners) and it smoked a bit on deceleration so I decided to embark on a motor upgrade and undercarriage
cleanup, without messing with paintwork yet. I'd save that for a full resto at a later date.
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| Difficult to admit, but this is the "before" photo |
At least that was the original plan. I started assembling all the bits for a M30B35 swap. I got most all the
parts together and took the car to the SoCal Vintage meet in November 2018 before driving it home and beginning
disassembly for the heart transplant. I was thinking I'd get it done over the holiday break. One thing led to
another (unexpected rust, a "while I'm in there" attitude, and a desire to "do it right") and before you knew it I
had built a chassis dolly and sent it off for media blasting.
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| Ready for media blasting |
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| After media blasting outside panels |
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| Factory undercoat was tough to blast off |
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| Note rust in spare tire well and cut outs in floor |
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| Body is straight, just a bit rusty here and there, as all
e9s are |
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| Black epoxy primer to keep it from rusting inside
and out |
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| Clean shock towers show how solid this car is |
