The BMW 507 Ultimate Build Thread!!!

[A12pilot]

Some major steps forward! I built a frame to hold the front end off of the body buck. This allowed me to weld the fenders to the fascia. Now I can finish the gutters and fender edges.

Rear quarters are all primed along with some install bodywork on the front end. I spent an hour staring at the front not liking one turn signal. It was facing down along with being canted to the side a bit. So I hacked that out, recessed it, then rewelded it up. I'm very happy with the syma...symmetric...simetric.....same sidededness between left and right now.

The front and side grilles head to the chrome plate guy tomorrow in Massachusetts. Can't wait to get them back! I welded up a frame with studs for mounting, then sat that in epoxy followed by epoxy putty on top of that. It bolts right up and won't cause any issues once it's all fastened in place.

So what's next? Frame time!! I can't finished the edges of the rear until it's all mounted on the frame.

More to come...

Cheers
Dave

[A12pilot]

More of the grilles.




One day!!



Cheers
Dave

[njsteve]

Technical question Dave: was the body buck you made, the exact size of the original car or slightly undersized to accomodate the thickness of the metal panels you're overlaying on top of it? Just curious.

Hell, just your woodworking skills alone, amaze me.

[TimG]

I agree, this is fun to watch. Thank you for posting and keeping us up to date, Dave.

[A12pilot]

Thanks guys! I hope you’re enjoying the progress. If it ever gets boring I’ll stop.

Steve, the buck is true to size. I didn’t reduce anything and with the metal being 20ga, the thickness of that is probably pretty insignificant when compared to a real one side by side. All my measurements off the real thing are pretty close, so I think it’s going to be accurate enough.

I have to redo the steering on my Father-in-Law’s 29 T-bucket next week, so between that and the 62 Vette I’m doing for that friend’s coworker’s widow, I’m short on time for running to the metal supply place to get the steel for the frame! Oh, and then there’s the job thing….

Cheers
Dave

[RPOLS3]

Saw this come through the interweb and thought it was interesting, looking at the sales history I was surprised to see how many have sold.

https://www.goodingco.com/lot/1959-bmw-507-series-ii-1/

[cook_dw]

Your abilities never cease to amaze me. Happy birthday btw.

[A12pilot]

I know that car, Jake. The sister to it is the one I visited in Philly to get measurements. Same owner, sold at Hershey, now the new owner wants to flip it.

Thanks, Darrell! Good to see you here!

Cheers
Dave

[A12pilot]

Greetings my fellow Yenkonians!! Well, let’s see. It’s been a little while with updates so I figure I better check in before I get banned! The 62 Vette is back with the owner and now I’ve got my parent’s in-law suite being built in the unused RV space so they can reside with us yet keep their independence. But that’s sort of like the grandfather’s paradox. If they’re my parents then how can it be called an in-law suite? It’s things like this that keep me up at night.



I’ve made some progress on the 507 and will continue to do so with more parts comin’ in HOT over the next few weeks. I was thinking of calling a Zoom meeting to esplain’ all this but then I realized that nobody would attend and I really don’t know how to use that thing anyway. So here we are!

Up next is the frame and how, who, when was this going to be made were questions that were keeping me awake in addition to the aforementione “my parent’s in-law suite” paradox. Anywho, I chatted with Shaun Price last year about building my own frame since he’s a pretty knowledgeable guy and wanted a professional opinion. The conversation went down something like this:

Shaun: [rrrring…rrrring…rrr} “Hello”
Me: “Hey Shaun, this is Dave, A12Pilot off Yenko.net, Phil Woj’s friend, Met you several times at MCACN, I unveiled a Super Bee a few years ago, We chatted about my 507 build, I’m building a 507 and…”
Shaun: “Yeah, I know Dave. You don’t have to explain who you are every time we chat. How are you?”
Me: “Great! Listen, I want to build my frame for the 507. Is this a good idea?”
Shaun: “Do you own a militudinal frame table, triangulated engineering calipers, laser levels, gravity compensator and refractericator along with indigimous protractors that measure in bajillionmeters? Because that’s the precision you’ll need otherwise you’re going to go down the road looking like you were broadsided by a Freightliner. Actually fairly easy to do.”
Me: “I see. Nice talking with you Shaun!”
Shaun: “You too Dan. And by the way, please know there’s a time zone difference between Texas and Arizona. It’s 5:30 in the morning!!!!” [click}

So with that I contacted Art Morrison to discuss the frame. I’m not sure what happened during the chat since I woke up in the hospital after collapsing due to severe heart palpitations. I’ve befriended several people due to this car and two of them are coachbuilders from way back. One has restored several and one has scanned every part to the 507. Both said it’s an easy frame and to just go for it. And Shaun was very supportive too. That whole dialog was just to poke fun at myself since it’s so easy to do. Well, there was some truth to that. The conversation with Art Morrison while very educational, was eye opening!

So what’s one to do when building a car from nothing? Why, build the frame too, that’s what! Why not? The biggest consideration with this was the fact that if something got goofed up on their end on my end with measurements, then I’m stuck with what I bought. Not so if I do it myself. I can modify as I go along and I figured this would be the best option.

My goal was to mimic the real 507’s frame with a few tweaks over original. The main rails on the side are 3”x6” followed by 2”x4” rails up front and in the rear. There are three 4” round crossmembers along with a 2”x4” frame that composes the door jambs and firewall/dash support. The frame will be very stout. I have almost 500 photos of a 507 in bare metal and after hours/day/months/years studying I can say I’m ultimately familiar with how the original is designed. Mine is eerily similar and will be just as rigid. It’s a pretty basic box frame from the factory with a bunch of straight pieces welded up. Crude but effective. Just like me!!!!

So here we are all laid out. Everything is cut to shape right now and nothing is welded yet. When I do start to weld it will be from the front backwards. The rear suspension is a Ford 9” sporting a triangulated 4-Bar with coil overs. The front will be a Mustang II with a modified steering set up since I really don’t like that steering rack and pinion look. But we’ll see how that all goes.







That’s the long awaited update! See? You thought this thread was dead but it’s only getting a much awaited update instead! Next up, we’ll discuss things like “How did you figure track width?”, and “What time is the recycle guy coming to haul this colossal mistake away?”

Cheers
Dave

[RPOLS3]

Wow