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Malaga Red E12 for Sale on Bringatrailer......

Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2021 1:05 pm
by canada karl
It's in Portland Oregon. I thought you guys might want to have a look. It's in great condition. No affiliation

Re: Malaga Red E12 for Sale on Bringatrailer......

Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2021 12:51 pm
by tlake
canada karl wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 1:05 pm It's in Portland Oregon. I thought you guys might want to have a look. It's in great condition. No affiliation
Thanks for the heads up Canada Karl. It sold for $15,500. A solid result for these economic times. 8) I think I saw the very same car advertised on Craigs List for 20k earlier, but it had a cracked left tailight back then. Must have been the same car, same spec, color inside and out and location, i.e. Portland.

Re: Malaga Red E12 for Sale on Bringatrailer......

Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2021 12:53 am
by maybeillbuyit
Just for the record here, that was the same car that was advertised for $20K. The Bat seller bought the Malaga from the original CL seller for approx $10K. He then did a bunch of work to it and then sold it on BAT for $15K. Just thought I'd mention this in case anyone was interested. I followed the buyer ( then seller) on FB

Re: Malaga Red E12 for Sale on Bringatrailer......

Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2021 12:34 pm
by tlake
maybeillbuyit wrote: Sat Mar 20, 2021 12:53 am Just for the record here, that was the same car that was advertised for $20K. The Bat seller bought the Malaga from the original CL seller for approx $10K. He then did a bunch of work to it and then sold it on BAT for $15K. Just thought I'd mention this in case anyone was interested. I followed the buyer ( then seller) on FB
Thanks, yes it was too much of a coincidence. :)

I am wondering if the car was sold new somewhere warmer, because it had a/c :?: Must be an early 1976 car though, because if you see other 1976 530i cars with a/c, they have a box vent in the middle of the dash that directs the air down and back towards you, rather than towards the rear view mirror.

Re: Malaga Red E12 for Sale on Bringatrailer......

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2021 8:29 pm
by gmonsen
I bought this on BaT a few weeks ago and have driven it a bit. I managed to find some original horsehair padding for both seat squabs and one backrest. Looking for the other. Will probably buy replacement seat covers from World Upholstery. They sent me samples of the vinyl and it matches perfectly. Found a complete OEM European front and rear bumper set in Belgium. (Will be selling the very nice US bumper set that came with it as well ss a used European bumper set.)

Have pretty much decided to keep it completely stock, but have always ended up adding some power and better shocks and brakes. Will try not to do that here, because this one is a bit of a time capsule. The paint is all original and the trim inside and outside is in terrific shape. Same with the wood inside. And no dash cracks or cracks anywhere in the plastics. Driver's window mechanism needs a little work, but like the manual crank windows. So little power anything. It will sit next to my E30 M3.

Would love any advice or suggestions. I have had 14 BMW's from 2002's to CS coupes and 733 and 735's and so on. Never owned an E12 and both I and my wife, who is sorely missing her 2002, love this.

Gordon

Re: Malaga Red E12 for Sale on Bringatrailer......

Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2021 1:49 pm
by tlake
Hello Gordon, and welcome. It's a beautiful car indeed, and such a rare find. Yes, Euro bumpers would look great, although the car already looks super with the impact bumpers. Somehow the impact bumpers always seem to look better on red cars. But yes, Euro bumpers are always king. 8)

The e12 sold alongside the full 02 range in Europe for 3 years, and the 520/520i was like a larger, more refined 2002/2002tii. The injected model even shared the same Kugelfischer engine. :)

On such an original car I would assume all the a/c hardware is still there :?: A regas with R12 if you have access to it. This is the dash vent I mentioned, blows air towards you, was a later '76 MY fix.

Re: Malaga Red E12 for Sale on Bringatrailer......

Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2021 3:11 am
by gmonsen
Thanks, tlake. It's funny, but I do agree that the tea trays look pretty good on the car. Probably should keep them when I swap in the European bumpers, which were vastly expensive new OEM at just over $3000. :( The front seats need work. I am going to try to clean the vinyl when I pull the covers off rather than going with replacement covers. The interior vinyl's in good shape, but has faded enough that you notice the difference between the replacement covers and the rest of the interior. Found some OEM horsehair pads, but still need one squab (bottom). The last issue I have cosmetically is that the early car's hood didn't have the crease lines going down to the kidneys and it looks a bit odd to me. Normally, I would probably retrofit one of the later hoods, but need to keep this original. There are very few early 530's in this kind of shape.

I think you're right about the a/c just needing an R12 recharge. I have a few cans somewhere. I see the difference in the vents. Probably much more efficient, but looks a bit like it was an afterthought.

With the thermal reactors replaced by headers, the power's up a bit, but I might do cams. Probably add some Bilsteins. I might try some Alpina wheels. Probably 16 inch? And keep the stock wheels. I actually love the bottle cap stock design. Any suggestions welcome.

At some point my friend the bodyshop/painter may touchup the few little paint imperfections, but no biggie. Looks great as is though. Original paint like this is so unusual.

Re: Malaga Red E12 for Sale on Bringatrailer......

Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2021 8:00 am
by PatinaBeforePolish
Congratulations on joining the e12 club Gordon and welcome to firstfives! Every forum, magazine, car club and event are littered with conversations about a cars monetary value. Instead, I like discussing the value of the driving experience and what you bought is the experience of driving a very nice, original e12. A non-metallic, no sunroof, unmodified car that never had rust is very, very rare.

Unless you can uncover a hidden stash of bottom seat cushions (they're not really horsehair btw, more like a rubberized birds nest that crumbles over time and use) finding an upholstry shop that can carve the cushions out of foam will be a quicker fix.

Don't waste your time trying to salvage original AC lines, they'll leak and the end result will be releasing more R12 into the atmosphere. If it just needed a recharge, the car would have been presented with working AC.

Enjoy your new car and keep the posts coming!

Re: Malaga Red E12 for Sale on Bringatrailer......

Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2021 9:44 am
by gmonsen
Thanks, PBP. Being as old as I am, I knew this was a survivor that hardly even had patina, much less wear. Looks and drives more like a 10,000 mile car. I don't believe there is an issue with a single piece of trim inside or out and the paint's still thick. Interesting about the horsehair or lack thereof. I was fairly sure the original pads were horsehair sprayed with something like a latex variant. World Upholstery sells pads made of cocoa fiber and sprayed, but they want $625 a side, I believe.

Having owned 733 and 735 e23's, I've always seen the e12 as an important transitional car that defined what the brand would be for decades. And, its a pleasure to drive! :)

Anyway, nice to be here.

Re: Malaga Red E12 for Sale on Bringatrailer......

Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2021 1:20 pm
by tlake
gmonsen wrote: Tue Apr 06, 2021 9:44 am Thanks, PBP. Being as old as I am, I knew this was a survivor that hardly even had patina, much less wear. Looks and drives more like a 10,000 mile car. I don't believe there is an issue with a single piece of trim inside or out and the paint's still thick. Interesting about the horsehair or lack thereof. I was fairly sure the original pads were horsehair sprayed with something like a latex variant. World Upholstery sells pads made of cocoa fiber and sprayed, but they want $625 a side, I believe.

Having owned 733 and 735 e23's, I've always seen the e12 as an important transitional car that defined what the brand would be for decades. And, its a pleasure to drive! :)

Anyway, nice to be here.
Concerning the dash vents, you could just use the 1977-81 style. That also gives you direction control, even for the outer vents. Easy to find and cheap, quick to fit. There is a plate under the central vent (1977-81) that goes with the later vent, and you need that. So that equals two outer vents, one center vent and underplate = 4 items.

Yeah, the hood you have was for the air filter box of dual carb M30 Euro cars, M10 cars had a completely flat hood. Then, kinda like the dash vents, BMW standardized the hood for all 1977-81 cars Euro and US, 4 and 6 cyl.

The Coupe King has Alpina copies at a much lower price, that also happen to be stronger than the genuine Alpinas, or so I have heard. Can go 16 in, although back in the day the Alpina e12s ran 15s. Yes, do stash the original wheels, they are getting super rare in mint condition and NLA partswise.

With this 530i being so original I am thinking the main hardware of the a/c system should be fine. But would need to change the drier flask, and new refrigerant lines are inexpensive to replace. It's common to just use originals as templates to cut new lines. But yes, stay R12 with original compressor, evap core, condenser and fan for sure.

Must say, it seems to me the a/c is the first thing to stop working on any car. Once over just 5 years old, seems to be the first problem. On older cars they take off the compressor and junk it, that seems a shame.

Re: Malaga Red E12 for Sale on Bringatrailer......

Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2021 2:07 pm
by gmonsen
PatinaBeforePolish wrote: Tue Apr 06, 2021 8:00 am Unless you can uncover a hidden stash of bottom seat cushions (they're not really horsehair btw, more like a rubberized birds nest that crumbles over time and use) finding an upholstry shop that can carve the cushions out of foam will be a quicker fix.
Just a note on seat cushions. The original OEM padding, which they say are horsehair, are available through World Upholstery. Just the seat bottom cushions. They cost $625 and it takes 8 weeks to get them out of Germany.

Gordon

Re: Malaga Red E12 for Sale on Bringatrailer......

Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2021 2:15 pm
by gmonsen
tlake wrote: Tue Apr 06, 2021 1:20 pm Yeah, the hood you have was for the air filter box of dual carb M30 Euro cars, M10 cars had a completely flat hood. Then, kinda like the dash vents, BMW standardized the hood for all 1977-81 cars Euro and US, 4 and 6 cyl.

The Coupe King has Alpina copies at a much lower price, that also happen to be stronger than the genuine Alpinas, or so I have heard. Can go 16 in, although back in the day the Alpina e12s ran 15s. Yes, do stash the original wheels, they are getting super rare in mint condition and NLA partswise.

With this 530i being so original I am thinking the main hardware of the a/c system should be fine. But would need to change the drier flask, and new refrigerant lines are inexpensive to replace. It's common to just use originals as templates to cut new lines. But yes, stay R12 with original compressor, evap core, condenser and fan for sure.

Must say, it seems to me the a/c is the first thing to stop working on any car. Once over just 5 years old, seems to be the first problem. On older cars they take off the compressor and junk it, that seems a shame.
What's your advice. I feel like I should keep the existing hood rather than try to retrofit the newer hood to keep it as original as possible?

I have Alpina 16's on my e30 M3 and wouldn't mind the extra dollars. Peter at Coupe King is a good guy. Didn't know he was making or importing better functioning look-a-likes. Haven't talked to him in a decade.

Again, I keep coming back to keeping it nearly totally stock, because it is just such a nice original example.

Re: Malaga Red E12 for Sale on Bringatrailer......

Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2021 11:57 pm
by tlake
gmonsen wrote: Tue Apr 06, 2021 2:15 pm
tlake wrote: Tue Apr 06, 2021 1:20 pm Yeah, the hood you have was for the air filter box of dual carb M30 Euro cars, M10 cars had a completely flat hood. Then, kinda like the dash vents, BMW standardized the hood for all 1977-81 cars Euro and US, 4 and 6 cyl.

The Coupe King has Alpina copies at a much lower price, that also happen to be stronger than the genuine Alpinas, or so I have heard. Can go 16 in, although back in the day the Alpina e12s ran 15s. Yes, do stash the original wheels, they are getting super rare in mint condition and NLA partswise.

With this 530i being so original I am thinking the main hardware of the a/c system should be fine. But would need to change the drier flask, and new refrigerant lines are inexpensive to replace. It's common to just use originals as templates to cut new lines. But yes, stay R12 with original compressor, evap core, condenser and fan for sure.

Must say, it seems to me the a/c is the first thing to stop working on any car. Once over just 5 years old, seems to be the first problem. On older cars they take off the compressor and junk it, that seems a shame.
What's your advice. I feel like I should keep the existing hood rather than try to retrofit the newer hood to keep it as original as possible?

I have Alpina 16's on my e30 M3 and wouldn't mind the extra dollars. Peter at Coupe King is a good guy. Didn't know he was making or importing better functioning look-a-likes. Haven't talked to him in a decade.

Again, I keep coming back to keeping it nearly totally stock, because it is just such a nice original example.
I would keep the original hood. Although this shape of 5 series was on sale in Europe for longer, it was quite shortlived in North America. Many have commented they have never seen the pre 1977 5 series with the small taillights.

Here are the Coupe King Alpina look rims:

Coupe King 16 in Alpina look rims

Parts for the e12 are getting more NLA by the day, and they are getting pretty rare cars, especially the early ones. 20 years ago I got a new set of 1972-76 style steel rims and trim rings from BMW. I had to find a good used set of hubcaps and fit new roundel stickers, because even then the hubcaps were NLA, they had the one year only 1977 style though. I also got a new M90 motor from BMW, with a 1993 date stamp on the cylinder head, that's also NLA too.

Changing things like the cam, shocks to Bilsteins etc. can be done without changing the look of the car. It will still be numbers matching, and I think that will be increasingly important over time, for a time capsule car like yours, like it is for the e30 M3 today. And that 4 speed is also worth it's weight in gold collector car wise. A strong M30 with headers, and 4 speed is a desirable combination. In California they won't even let you fit headers on anything :!:

Re: Malaga Red E12 for Sale on Bringatrailer......

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 2:43 pm
by gmonsen
I think I prefer the Alpina's and would put some on, if I can bring myself to switch from the stock steel wheels and bottle caps. It is sitting next to my e30 m3 with Alpina's. :)

As I said, the car has headers and Bilsteins on the rear anyway. There is a small amount of valve clatter, although Eurocar in Portland had replaced 3 eccentric valve adjusters and they then adjusted the valves. Spoke to them and they said the valve clatter was much louder when they got it and that their replacement of some of the adjusters and adjusting it had really almost eliminated it. Still more than I remember from any of my other M30 motors. So, I'm having some guys I know here take a look. (I've had 3 e9's, a 1979 323is with a Frankenstein M30, a 733 and a 735 and none had this valve clatter at all.) Maybe the cams are worn and I need more duration? :)

Re: Malaga Red E12 for Sale on Bringatrailer......

Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2021 11:23 am
by tlake
gmonsen wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 2:43 pm I think I prefer the Alpina's and would put some on, if I can bring myself to switch from the stock steel wheels and bottle caps. It is sitting next to my e30 m3 with Alpina's. :)

As I said, the car has headers and Bilsteins on the rear anyway. There is a small amount of valve clatter, although Eurocar in Portland had replaced 3 eccentric valve adjusters and they then adjusted the valves. Spoke to them and they said the valve clatter was much louder when they got it and that their replacement of some of the adjusters and adjusting it had really almost eliminated it. Still more than I remember from any of my other M30 motors. So, I'm having some guys I know here take a look. (I've had 3 e9's, a 1979 323is with a Frankenstein M30, a 733 and a 735 and none had this valve clatter at all.) Maybe the cams are worn and I need more duration? :)
Usually valve clatter indicates that the valve clearances need adjustment. I can only think they left too much gap when adjusting them. :?