Quick Intro and Big Thank You

[ray_]

And, those look like deep bezel grilles to me!

 

 

Cheers,

[ArtProf]

1 hour ago, mike said:

Lucky you in California--no rust--the bane of '02 owners.  I spent six years on and off welding on just about every panel on my '69, after it endured 30 Ohio winters.  It's beautiful now, but there's a lot of MIG wire (but precious little bondo) in that car!

 

Wow! 

Yeah, I feel pretty lucky about the whole rust thing. At least I've yet to discover anything that seems too far gone. I'm not sure that I'm equipped for that type of extensive body work.

[Simeon]

I think the tan colour is a primer. When I stripped my Chamonix white car down to bare steel, it was a layer down. It's the colour that's visible at the VIN stamping.

[Jim_75Sahara]

It could be a cousin to my Sahara 73.... VIN:  2588760. If it's a true Sahara car, take it back to its original glory --- SAHARA.

[ArtProf]

6 hours ago, Simeon said:

I think the tan colour is a primer. When I stripped my Chamonix white car down to bare steel, it was a layer down. It's the colour that's visible at the VIN stamping.

Thanks Simeon, that makes sense. 

I went ahead and sent off a request to the info.grouparchiv@bmwgroup.com people to see what kind of info they can give.

 

2 hours ago, Jim_75Sahara said:

It could be a cousin to my Sahara 73.... VIN:  2588760. If it's a true Sahara car, take it back to its original glory --- SAHARA.

Wow Jim! Beautiful!

The Sahara color is winning me over...

 

Thanks for all of the input guys!

-Steve

[Mike Self]

Steve, I'm pretty sure your car was originally Sahara--that peeling white sure looks like it's revealing Sahara paint underneath, and those seats were originally caramel, the correct interior for a Sahara car.  A white (Chaminox) car would have had a black or dark blue interior.  An e-mail to BMW Classic with your car's VIN will trigger a response from them with your car's actual build date, where it was originally delivered (probably Hoffman Motors, the US importer at the time) and its original color.  And it's free!

 

cheers

mike

 

PS the other Sahara '73 in Jim's picture is mine--from our local antique car club's 4th of July show.

[Conserv]

Looks like a very solid example, Steve!  Congrats!

 

Email the VIN to BMW Archives and request their data on the car (info.grouparchiv@bmwgroup.com). It's not much data, but it will include the specific manufacturing date, the date ownership was delivered by BMW AG to Hoffman Motors Corp, and the original color, presumably Sahara.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

Edited July 19, 2017 by Conserv

[ArtProf]

10 hours ago, mike said:

 

PS the other Sahara '73 in Jim's picture is mine--from our local antique car club's 4th of July show.

Very Nice! I like those wheels.

 

[ArtProf]

I received the following email this morning from bmwgroup:

 

Quote

Dear Mr Dent,

Thank you for your email.

The BMW 2002 US VIN 2589444 was manufactured on March 23rd, 1973 and delivered on March 27th, 1973 to the BMW importer Hoffman Motors Corp. in New York City. The original colour was Sahara, paint code 006.

We hope this information is helpful for you.

Yours sincerely,

Julia Oberndörfer

 

Very cool that they got back to me so quickly, I did not expect that.