[Paul-Bracq-BMW]

Since there is a limitation of pics in one thread, I'll post the restoration timeline in 2 parts.

Here's part one:

Restoration Timeline

Saturday, February 25, 2006 — The soon to be perfect M1 will be shipped this weekend. It will take 5 to 7 days for the “Donor” to arrive from Fort Lauderdale (FL) in the Chicago land area.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006— The Eagle has landed. The for now NameLess M1 that is the subject of this website has arrived. She was delivered to the WerkShop last Sunday. I posted some pictures of this joyous event.





Saturday, March 18, 2006— Nothing much has happened after the initial excitement of the purchase and the delivery of the Nameless M1 that is the subject of this website. A lot of parts were ordered and I’ve been sending out emails in an effort to find out about previous owners and who was responsible for the current, custom paintjob.

Sunday, May 7, 2006— Anyone who has ever seen an episode of Overhaulin’ or Monster Garage knows that the first step in any project is the “Teardown”. ProjectM1 is no exception. The “Teardown” is also the only stage in the process that I could have done myself (without any hope of ever putting her back together of course).

The poor Nameless One is receiving some tough love, WerkShop style. No more wheels or suspension and the rusted out fuel tanks are sitting underneath her on the floor.


The suspension settings can be changed by using the different mounting points in these brackets.


The gigantic M88 engine, for now still mounted in the frame.


The ZF transaxle gearbox, mounted upside down to enhance the weight distribution. The frame is dirty but seems structurally sound.


The Nameless One is showing a strange mix of building styles. The hinge for the headlight (the silvery piece of metal with the three holes in it) is hefty enough to hoist an small elephant up and down...


...but the corner of the frame is patched with a strip of metal flimsy enough to be used as a wrapper for a piece of gum.


The front, prepped and ready for ‘media’ (not sand, media) blasting.


No place to sit, unless you like to sit on some hoses and wiring.



Saturday, May 27, 2006— The Teardown phase on Monster Garage usually only takes a few hours. In real life it can take a couple of weeks. The NameLess One is now very close to completely disassembled. Check out these pictures. The engine came out of the frame and the NameLess One has been reduced to a shell.

M88-489, clearly still in the frame. This is a nice illustration of how close the driver is to the engine (literally inches).


Engine 489 and chassis 435 are separated for the first time in more than 25 years.


I wonder what percentage of the mass of a M1 is taken up by the engine and transmission.


One of only about 600 ever made, the 3.5 liter straight 6 is pure BMW.


There is a lot of material that will push forward like a freight train in case of a high speed frontal crash. (Note to self : don’t crash the M1)


Header looks like a bowl of spaghetti.


The rig had to be reengineered to pry the engine out of its shell.



This is the place where the engine used to be….


...but now the mighty M88 (number 489) is sitting on the WerkShop floor.



Sunday, June 25, 2006— The M1 that is the subject of this site (the NameLess One) was probably never happier that she was taken out of the barn where she spend the Nineties and the first part of the current millennium. In fact I am sure she is having a blast….

This was the last opportunity to see the ProjectM1 (aka the NameLess One) in her candy apple red color. The tape is there in preparation for the next painful step….

Maybe this isn’t such a bad color after all….


Too late! Candy apple red no more. Resistance is futile; prepare to be assimilated. The poor NameLess One is mercilessly bombarded with tiny pieces of plastic.


Both the glass fiber body and the tubular frame are completely stripped.


It is very painful to see, the paintjob could not be in worse shape.


This is as bad as it is going to be, from this day forth the NameLess One will be climbing out of the abyss she was disrespectfully thrown into.




Friday, August 18, 2006— It’s been quite a while since the last update and a lot of things happened in the mean time. The engine has been completely disassembled, all individual parts have been either cleaned and revitalized or replaced with NOS parts. Apart from some gaskets (most notably the head-gasket) everything is ready to be put together again. The body of the NameLess One is in Milwaukee. The shop works a lot on hotrods so there is a lot of experience with glass fiber. I had the opportunity to visit them last Monday (August 14th) and I took some pictures...

A glimpse of things to come… M88-489 was entirely disassembled, anything that consists of more than one single piece of metal was taken apart. The individual parts were all inspected and subsequently cleaned and revitalized or replaced. All the big pieces were bead-blasted down to bare metal and refinished. This is just the shell of the engine, no pistons, connecting rods or crankshaft yet, but it gives a nice picture of what the engine will look like after Tom Kelly at the WerkShop is done with it.


This is a nice illustration of why I like the restorations by the WerkShop so much. This is one of the mounts that at some point will be used to put the engine back in the frame. When the NameLess One is done it will be impossible to actually see this motor mount. The part is still bead blasted and refinished, despite this lack of visibility. All parts receive the same treatment and R.E.S.P.E.C.T.


The headers are ready to be used. They are finished with some space-age paint, not chrome. This backed-on varnish is guaranteed to keep its color, even after it is heated over and over again.


I am not sure if it should be mounted on the engine or mounted on a wall…


All the original bolds, screws, washers etc where cleaned and replated.


The oil tank –with dipstick– is as good as new.


Intake muffler is as good as new.


6*4=24 valves. Two clean, 22 to go. All valves were –eventually– cleaned and machined for an optimal fit in their respective slots in the head.


The cylinder head, ready to be rebuild. Extensive notes were taken to keep track of the length of the valves with the corresponding shims.


The engine is old in years but has seen very little miles. All cylinders were perfectly round again after some mild honing. With 6 new pistons, slightly bigger than the previous ones, it will be as close as one can get to a new M88 power plant without a time-traveling device.


6 NOS pistons, ready to be installed. What a beautiful sight.


6 connecting rods, not new but close enough.


The heart of the M88 engine; the crankshaft. No refinishing was necessary, this is what it looked like when it first came out of the engine.


Material was taken from the journal offsets in the factory to perfectly balance the crankshaft, this was done manually; no two offsets are the same. The journals themselves are hollow, undoubtedly to save weight.


Assembly of the engine is going forward with great strides; everything still fits...


I honestly think I will be too intimidated to actually drive the NameLess One when everything is done...


Sunday, September 10, 2006— No great update this time; I posted some additional pictures of the assembly of the motor and added a background story on the birth of the M1. More to follow….

After the frame was stripped, the metal was almost eerily gray.


The gray metal was quickly covered with a two component polymer paint to keep rust at bay.


This is what she looked like on Monday August 14th, 2006. I had the opportunity to visit the body shop in Milwaukee (WI). Their extensive experience with hotrods ensures a lot of expertise when it comes to working with glass fiber. Over the next 4 months (or so) they will correct all imperfections and give the NameLess One a jaw-dropping, killer paintjob.


From left to right : My dad (on a visit and interested in the proceedings), Tom Franecki (who will be spearheading the efforts related to the NameLess One at the body shop), Bob Bennett and Don Dethlefsen (the proprietor of the WerkShop).



Saturday, October 14, 2006 — These are, as Tom Kelly -the master BMW mechanic- put it, the dog-days of the project. Nothing much seems to be happening and it will stay this way until the body comes back from Milwaukee. ‘Seems’ is the operative word in the previous sentence because a lot of work is being done. All parts of the Nameless One are blasted and refinished with a special two-component veneer that will keep the underlying metal solid until the end of time. The VF gearbox will be serviced by RBT Transmissions in California while the Kugelfischer pump is being rebuild locally. The idea is that there will be a big pile of parts and sub-assemblies that are ready to be mounted on the NameLess One as soon as the body is back in the WerkShop.

Here is another picture of the engine, with Tom Kelly standing next to it to give a sense of proportion. This is a massive motor. Tom is over 7 feet tall.


Sway bars, brake booster, cross members, everything is cleaned, bead blasted and refinished with the magic two-component veneer. Not even the Germans had this stuff back in 1980. The NameLess One will be better than new.


A new clutch for the NameLess One. The M1 clutch works with two plates that grab both sides of the ‘Intermediate Ring’. All these parts are still available from BMW. There are two part numbers for the two plates even though they look identical.


Some nasty stuff is being used to clean the calipers. ‘Acido Muriatico’, 31.45%. The fumes gave me the black lung but the calipers look like new again.


These are the finished calipers, ready to be used.


The brakes themselves were cleaned, bead blasted and refinished with two component veneer. The areas where the pads will actually touch the brakes were machined back down to bare metal.


Anything can be bead blasted into a ‘like new’ condition, even these rubbers that, like the pictured mounts, are part of the transmission suspension.


There it is, the ZF-Synchroma Gearbox 5 DS 25/2, ready to be shipped to RBT Transmissions.


Shocks and suspension parts, better than new...



The yellow is the correct, original color. All parts are incredibly beefy.



Saturday, December 30, 2006— The waiting is not yet over; the body is still in Milwaukee. In the light of 20/20 hindsight the blasting doesn’t appear to be such a great idea anymore. The process of stripping the old paint using the media blaster also destroyed a lot of the lines that visually define the car. Tom Franecki had to spend a lot of time recreating these lines. The key to a great paintjob is much more in the preparation than in the painting itself and the preparation is almost over. I visited Bob Bennett in Milwaukee last Thursday to see the progress they are making and to show them the Old Lady so they could see where the color is supposed to end and where the black trim begins…

Much of the lines that visually define the shape of the M1, like the ones that can be seen running down the hood on either side of the louvers and the line that runs up the A-pillar and along the edge of the roof, disappeared when blasting was used to strip the old paint. A lot of time had to be spend to bring those lines back.


The glass fiber surrounding the ventilation slats was cracked in many places as a result of numerous heating/cooling cycles due to the use of the engine below. It was all painstakingly repaired.


The sculpting, brushing and sanding in preparation of the actual painting of the car is close to done; the painted body is due back in “The WerkShop” at the end of January.


Here we can see Bob Bennett going the extra mile; on the street during a Wisconsin December studying The Old Lady to see where the body color ends and the black trim begins.


The Nameless M1 that is the subject of this web site is not my first. This honor goes to the Old Lady.