New Member B6 - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

builtwrightbmw · 27th October 2009, 03:34

I just joined today and wanted to introduce myself. My Name is Andy Gardner and I am from Asheville,it I recently purchased a 1980 Alpina B6 2.8 #201 from southern California. There were 2 e21 Alpina's in my town when I was in high school and I fell in love. I have been looking for this car for about 14 years now and finally found it. It was imported in 1985 and has been in southern California ever since.

The former owner of the car purchased it in 1985 when was when it was imported into the USA. I have the original import documents along with reciepts dating into the eighties. This car is currently a numbers matching car however the engine is in need of a total rebuild. Another thing about the car is that it isn't the original color which was Polaris. I believe that the car was repainted prior to entering the USA because all the service records indicate that the car was black. Fortunately the paint job is very thorough and you can only tell by a few scratches and by looking under the front or rear dashes.

I joined this forum because I feel that it is probably the most knowledgeable group of people regarding these specific vehicles. My car isn't perfect but maybe with some good advice from you I will be able to get it as close as possible.

You can find the picture's of it here, This is how I received it. Don't worry the fog lights are going to come off and I have already acquired an original steering wheel and shift knob to put into the car.

Alpina B6 Arrival pictures by builtwrightbmw - Photobucket

schlumpf-nu · 27th October 2009, 07:51

Hay,

the ALPINA looks actually tasty. My congratulation.

What would be still absent, the stripes, this would be still the hit.

Pay attention nicely to him, it is a quite moving cultural asset.

And if you liked to sell him sometimes, a PN sends me

.

135ti · 27th October 2009, 09:16

Nice B6, Andy! Great to see the ALPINA heritage being taken care of!

How come she didn't get a nose-job after being imported?

builtwrightbmw · 27th October 2009, 13:23

I am very happy with the overall condition of the car. It doesn't have the reinforcement bars in the doors, gauges are still alpina, the additional fuel tank is in it, all original ignition components, and it has that really rare tinted glass with the scheel interior

Did these cars have headers on them? This one has manifolds.

Would it be wrong to have custom stainless headers made? Are there headers that will work available? Also the exhaust is shot and needs to be replaced. I could use some help with what path to take in that regard.

Also can anybody help me reconfigure the original throttle cable set up? I cant believe that the way it is now is original. I want the notorious BMW stiff pedal back.

Any help in greatly appreciated!

StraightSixer · 27th October 2009, 15:31

Wow an Alpina in my back yard! Good luck on your restoration of a really nice B6, im sure you cant wait to take her on the parkway. Sorry not a techie at all, but I have heard that those exhausts are hard to find and $$$.
Are you going to be doing the work yourself on the car? I seem to remember a shop near the center of town that had a nice collection of cars being worked on ranging from E9 coupes to E34 M5 to more sedate machines.

Mike323i · 27th October 2009, 16:30

Hmm, I would have thought headers were standard, but looking through the pictures/literature I have I don't see any. Perhaps some other owners can chime in here.

Regarding exhaust, those have been nla for a long time. Fabricating one is really your best option, as a stock 323 exhaust won't clear the diff cover in the back anyway. I think I have some pictures of an alpina system here if you want to try to model it after that, or maybe someone can shoot some pics of their car or offer some measurements/details.

Gustav · 27th October 2009, 18:36

Thanks for the pics!