body and interior Would You Believe

[mikesmith]

that this:

 

 

is a picture of this car?

 

[cj]

So they welded up the sunroof?

[mikesmith]

Looks like some spot-welds on the inside and maybe quite a bit of filler around the top; I didn't want to pull the headliner all the way out, just work out why it was so saggy. Now I know, perhaps.

 

The bit that has me scratching my head is that BMW tell me the VIN was Inka, and that doesn't look like Inka to me.

Edited June 21, 2013 by mikesmith

[williamggruff]

Could be evidence of a full roof replacement.

[mikesmith]

If it was just the roof, but there's Malaga everywhere I look inside; under the dash, parcel shelf, etc.

[williamggruff]

Sounds like a VIN swap to me.

[NE02restorer]

All too common with collector cars but why go to all the bother with an 02?  Market value is just not there - but then again there is no explanation for a lot of what I have discovered in restoring old cars over the years - rust patched with fiberglass, rusted panels with patch panels on top of the rust (left there?), the restamped block in the 427 Vette, etc.

[02Les]

That car was for sale Jan '12 in NY and was Malaga with a sunroof then.

 

[thinksound_mike]

I remember that Malaga car. I wanted to go and look at it since it was close by but I had just bought mine about 6 months before. It's an inka now with a new vin? Can you sue the dealer?

[mikesmith]

The VIN stamped on the fender *looks* OK, and the hivemind believes that the ad that Les mentions above cited the same VIN that I see on the car now, so if there was a swap it may well have predated my PO.

 

Yes, it has a so-so inka paintjob (as far as I can tell, sprayed while the car was mostly together) now; looks great in photos or if you're not up close, but definitely not a bare-metal deal.

[Cris.MTL]

Hey MikeSmith.

Looks like you purchased your car from the same guy (i won't mention names) as I did two years ago based on the garage picture you provided.

 

Let me tell you, I've spent the last two years fixing some of the "restoration" this individual decided to do.

For EX of what he did was:

Installing a black carpetover the original beige carpet that was water soaked.

Or

Cutting the rear quarter panels to fit turbo flares but leaving pie cuts large enough for me to fit my hand through.

 

How long have you own the car? I fear you might find more of these "restorations".

[mikesmith]

Cris, you would be correct (that was actually why I chose that picture). I'm pondering the merits of posting a few choice images I have here to various forum threads in the hope of saving the next buyer the same experience.

 

I hope that I'm nearly out of new discoveries for a while; I can see sunlight through a couple of small holes around the wheel arch in the trunk, but nothing that severe. What passes for "carpet" in my case lacks backing; it's more like toy fur.

 

 

 

[AceAndrew]

Who did the pre-purchase inspection?

[mikesmith]

Larry; I totally agree. If someone had written up their experience with another of this sellers' cars previously, I would most certainly not have bought this one.

 

OTOH, I am leery of going off half-cocked. So I'm asking questions and taking things apart and making reasonably sure I understand what's going on first. I've also asked the seller to comment on what I've found, though based on their silence post-delivery I'm not expecting anything there.

Edited June 21, 2013 by mikesmith

[mikesmith]

Andrew; I was waiting for someone to ask that. The lesson I'm taking away here is regardless of what you think of a seller's reputation, don't trust their choice of workshop.

 

(To be clear - I understand that finding surprises like this was one of the risks I took buying a car I'd never seen in person, and that I made a serious mistake in trusting the seller to deal in good faith.)