My Alpina respray colour, please VOTE!

[Meister_Munch]

In retrospect, it is a bare metal re-spray, the car started life not as an Alpina but as a Diamond Black 325iSE and when the Alpina conversion was done the original owner could quite have easily spec'd a colour change too.

So the Blue may not be so easy to dismiss after all - I expect the car will never again see another owner anyway - pass on to the kids type of deal.

Having said that, when lying awake at night after a long day at work, you can look forward to many more hours of sleeplessness as you ponder the undeniable fact that on your dream car's V5, it says 'Black' and not Blue.

And for this reason - it must stay Black.























With Gold decals!

[Jhonno]

Instead of having a rather ordinary diamond black 325 with a few alpina bits you will now have a hero chariot ! I personally think a documented colour change to alpina blue will not affect and may even enhance your cars resale prospects.

the man in the know has spoken, and makes alot of sense

[Jhonno]

In retrospect, it is a bare metal re-spray, the car started life not as an Alpina but as a Diamond Black 325iSE and when the Alpina conversion was done the original owner could quite have easily spec'd a colour change too.

So the Blue may not be so easy to dismiss after all - I expect the car will never again see another owner anyway - pass on to the kids type of deal.

Having said that, when lying awake at night after a long day at work, you can look forward to many more hours of sleeplessness as you ponder the undeniable fact that on your dream car's V5, it says 'Black' and not Blue.

And for this reason - it must stay Black.























With Gold decals!

That can be changed Ratch?

[SPADGE]

Simon , this turd , i am guessing is going to owe you 15 bags by the time it next sports a tax disc . No matter how minty it is it will always be a leggy , multi owner C2 so its value is finite, maybe £7500 on a good day. To hell with the money, you are buried anyway, why not build the car you want. Instead of having a rather ordinary diamond black 325 with a few alpina bits you will now have a hero chariot ! I personally think a documented colour change to alpina blue will not affect and may even enhance your cars resale prospects.

Based on this info i would paint it Blue
I didn't realise it had more miles than the Space Shuttle and a multitude of owners.

[e30mtech]

i would be a bit different and go for brittish racing green that would look well nice not often u see an e30 in that colour if at all.

[march109]

Having said that, when lying awake at night after a long day at work, you can look forward to many more hours of sleeplessness as you ponder the undeniable fact that on your dream car's V5, it says 'Black' and not Blue.

You know you send the V5 back with the colour change clearly noted in the box which allows you to notify the DVLA of a colour change and they send you a new V5 back ith the new colour on! In fact this is a legal requirement! So that is just pure crap.

Only difference is any 'new' potential owner that runs a check will see the note on DVLA's system that the vehicle will have had "1 colour change". But a new Alpina from the factory may also have this if the owner specced another colour during the conversion.

So all this crap about resale is just that crap, Simon will never sell this car if he can help it. And in the remote possibility he did an Alpina Blue Alpina that has had a FULL and COMPREHENSIVE restoration despite colour changes will stand head and shoulders above any other Alpina, end of.

I love diamond black, but it is too common, its not a colour for a car so rare and desirable as this. I was sooo against a colour change before but I've been swayed by the argument for Blue.

I voted Blue too, but at the end of the day Simon is building this car for himself. If he likes blue alls well if not go with the devil you know.

[topspark]

Taking the car for what it will be , when you have finished ( a minty alpina ) Only serious enthusiasts will be looking at paying that type of wonga for it anyway when you come to sell. ( if you ever do!!!) A colour change to Blue will not change the value as long as you have photographic evidence. I reckon it would be worth more in fact.

simon :- Paint it blue , . You will only be doing this once anyway.

[pacerpete]

To change the colour on the reg document is as simple as filling the new details in and sending to swansea, so my mates in birmingham tell me !
Hence the multitude of facelift cabs that started life as doom blue 4 door chromies !

[SPADGE]

It really is a no brainer to paint it black

Says who? This isn't a 2 day respray with everything masked up but a complete bare shell repaint including the interior metalwork, engine bay, boot, the inner arches etc. Once assembled there would be no way to tell it was ever black. So it says Diamond black on the build sheet when it left Munich as a basic 325i. So what? A certain B6 3.5 left the factory as an Alpine white 325i but was converted to a B6 3.5 and painted a different colour. Does that make it less valuable?
What Simon is considering is not like taking a 1973 CSL and painting it Dakar yellow, it's a fully photographed restoration where the owner (i.e the one paying the bills) is changing the colour to one of two unique and period Alpina colour schemes. Alpina blue - apart from being a stunning colour - is authentic and absolutely correct for the year of the car. As someone who has the balls to do this myself if I were in this position, I think it would increase the value of the car. Given that most C2 2.7's are rusty patched up shitheaps with most of the correct bits missing anyway, the C2 buyer in 5-10 years time won't be in a position to moan about the colour.
4-5 years ago I owned the ex Francis Rossi (Status Quo) Mini Cooper S which was originally green/white roof, The first thing Rossi did in 1969 was to paint it Ford Tawny bronze and tint the windows. Against my advice it was painted green/white. It would have been worth more painted bronze again so it looked like it did when owned by a famous rock star and not like every other green/white Mini. Oh well.

Anyway, I voted blue!

Andy cheers for pointing out who 'Francis Rossi' is as i thought he was a motorcycle racer
Your argument for blue was a little weak until Pete revealed the cars multi-owner, multi-mile past.
Some people do things with their hearts and some with their heads, as i have said already, and i am the latter.
However with the new info i would do it whatever colour 'I' wanted.

[oakey]

People shouldnt give a crap about the resale value when they are spending this amount of dolla. Simon should be building the car for himself. By the time he comes to sell (which I doubt will be soon) there will be very few left and almost none in the condition of Simons one so I'm sure it will sell well anyway

[Meister_Munch]

Having said that, when lying awake at night after a long day at work, you can look forward to many more hours of sleeplessness as you ponder the undeniable fact that on your dream car's V5, it says 'Black' and not Blue.

You know you send the V5 back with the colour change clearly noted in the box which allows you to notify the DVLA of a colour change and they send you a new V5 back ith the new colour on! In fact this is a legal requirement! So that is just pure crap.

Only difference is any 'new' potential owner that runs a check will see the note on DVLA's system that the vehicle will have had "1 colour change". But a new Alpina from the factory may also have this if the owner specced another colour during the conversion.

So all this crap about resale is just that crap, Simon will never sell this car if he can help it. And in the remote possibility he did an Alpina Blue Alpina that has had a FULL and COMPREHENSIVE restoration despite colour changes will stand head and shoulders above any other Alpina, end of.

I love diamond black, but it is too common, its not a colour for a car so rare and desirable as this. I was sooo against a colour change before but I've been swayed by the argument for Blue.

I voted Blue too, but at the end of the day Simon is building this car for himself. If he likes blue alls well if not go with the devil you know.

But the fact remains, fate never intended that chassis to be Blue.

And that will burn in the back of the his mind forever.

Having said that, it is a much better looking colour.

But it must stay Black.

Poll is split RIGHT down the middle!

[Ian_M]

As others have said, you're doing this for yourself not to resell it once you've finished.

Paint it the colour you want to see it in, who gives a sh*t if it's worth less in the future, it sure isn't going to be worth what you've spent on it and as far as I can gather, you arn't doing it for monetary gain.

It's your car, your choice. Do whatever makes you happy to be honest.

P.S I voted blue, looks damn nice.

[march109]

If Simon paints it Blue fate did intend it to be Blue, thats what fate is 'an event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future'!

The beauty of fate or destiny is that it happens, it can't be stopped, if you believe in it of course!

I think you will find the poll now favours Blue also.

Also worth mentioning alot of lurkers must have voted because there arn't normally that many regular posters on the zone as have voted in this poll. Seems the debate has engaged everyone.

[Andyboy]

In retrospect, it is a bare metal re-spray, the car started life not as an Alpina but as a Diamond Black 325iSE and when the Alpina conversion was done the original owner could quite have easily spec'd a colour change too.

So the Blue may not be so easy to dismiss after all - I expect the car will never again see another owner anyway - pass on to the kids type of deal.

Having said that, when lying awake at night after a long day at work, you can look forward to many more hours of sleeplessness as you ponder the undeniable fact that on your dream car's V5, it says 'Black' and not Blue.

And for this reason - it must stay Black.























With Gold decals!

Not at all - it's 2 minutes work to amend the colour on the V5. Look at the blue B6 2.8 in the Chrome Section - that didn't leave the factory blue, Alpina in Buchloe stripped it and painted it before delivery to the first owner. It was only in the E34 Era where BMW supplied a ready painted rolling shell for the BiTurbos and B10's. Before that, Alpina were a BMW tuner who did their own thing.

So it's done a few miles? It's a 20 year old car. Look at all the E Types that have been restored, all the MGB Roadsters changed from a harvest gold rubber bumper turd to a BRG wire wheeler on chrome bumpers. Harvest gold with rubber and steels might appeal to the buftys but to to the real world.

Again - Simon isn't taking a nice low miler to the paint shop for a laugh. It is a total restoration and if done to a virtual concours standard, won't be £7500.

Diamond black - will look nice like every other black E30.

Alpina blue - when did you last see one? Which colour is more desirable in Germany?

[Meister_Munch]

If Simon paints it Blue fate did intend it to be Blue, thats what fate is 'an event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future'!

The beauty of fate or destiny is that it happens, it can't be stopped, if you believe in it of course!

I think you will find the poll now favours Blue also.

Also worth mentioning alot of lurkers must have voted because there arn't normally that many regular posters on the zone as have voted in this poll. Seems the debate has engaged everyone.

That's a good point - unless you consider he has altered the car's destiny with potentially catastrophic consequences.

regarding the V5, I guess you can change it. regarding Alpine=a stripping cars and changing the colour - it will be registered at first sale as the Alpina colour not the BMW colour.

This car cam into the UK as a Black car.

The blue will also change your interior colour options as Black in a Blue car is a serious no no - no poll needed there!

[pacerpete]

If Simon paints it Blue fate did intend it to be Blue, thats what fate is 'an event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future'!

The beauty of fate or destiny is that it happens, it can't be stopped, if you believe in it of course!

I think you will find the poll now favours Blue also.

Also worth mentioning alot of lurkers must have voted because there arn't normally that many regular posters on the zone as have voted in this poll. Seems the debate has engaged everyone.

That's a good point - unless you consider he has altered the car's destiny with potentially catastrophic consequences.

regarding the V5, I guess you can change it. regarding Alpine=a stripping cars and changing the colour - it will be registered at first sale as the Alpina colour not the BMW colour.

This car cam into the UK as a Black car.

The blue will also change your interior colour options as Black in a Blue car is a serious no no - no poll needed there!

Simon has already changed his trim, he has deleted the rather ordinary anthracite cloth sports trim for a very nice black leather interior.
Alpina blue looks stunning with black. I had a biturbo a few years ago,alpina blue with black and it looked amazing,indeed black is probably the most common interior colour on older alpina blue cars.
As stated before, Simon will be over 15 bags into this turd before it is a car again . That is a lot of till for a diamond black 325 !

[march109]

In summary:

Blue is for winners and leaders

Black for runners up and sheep.

[madaboutthe30]

Hey mate, I voted for blue as lately all the alpinas I have seen are all black, that colour is way too popular.

If however your original colour was black, stick to black and keep it original.

[Meister_Munch]

My cars are both Blue FYI.

Alpina would look far better with a nice grey leather. Black interiors are even more sheep-like.

[hubble]

Simon this looks the business, but I like the black too. Keep it factory I think.

[march109]

I want that one ^^^^^

[pacerpete]

My cars are both Blue FYI.

Alpina would look far better with a nice grey leather. Black interiors are even more sheep-like.

Come on Ratch, there is no such thing as a nice hush puppy grey interior !

[dips346]

i voted blue

[Speedtouch]

Vote Blue, go Green!

[maxfield]

I voted blue.

[mick_318is]

Has to be Black

One of the reasons for having an "Original" Alpina is surely that, that's it is in original condition.

Changing the colour would be a little like making a make a copy of an Alpina that would not be the same.

My 2 pence worth.

Mick

[Meister_Munch]

Blue is best by far.


But keep it Black.

[dom-1984-320i]

As already said by many people, you are doing a fully documented rebuild, as long as the colour change is documented correctly and its a change that will benefit the car, such as Alpina blue, with all correct paper work in place i really can not see any problem. Even regarding the resale (if ever) i know i would feel very happy to buy such a car with a well documented rebuild, colour change or not. End of the day Si the choice is yours, well or your good lady's

[Jhonno]

Has to be Black

One of the reasons for having an "Original" Alpina is surely that, that's it is in original condition.

Changing the colour would be a little like making a make a copy of an Alpina that would not be the same.

My 2 pence worth.

Mick

hardly.. its a period colour, the restoration means its no longer in original condition. He's already swapped the cloth out for leather, dropped it etc

[Meister_Munch]

The case for Blue is strong.

In light of all that maybe you could go Blue.

Have you got an original set of decals? Are they hard to get - that may be the defining point.

[dom-1984-320i]

Have you got an original set of decals? Are they hard to get - that may be the defining point.

I was just thinking that, that could be a big factor in your end choice!

[Meister_Munch]

Slightly off topic - but look at this Japanese Alpina Specialist! The stuff they have!

http://www.poleposition.co.jp/stokcar/pageSoldout.html

[Meister_Munch]

You know what would look sick - Off White / Cream with Red decals.

[pacerpete]

Decals are readily available so not a problem. Personally i would only put the decals on the front spoiler ,i think the body ones are a bit OTT. I currently have a Biturbo in macau with gold stripes and i can't help thinking they look a bit garish, not that macau with champagne leather isn't !

PS can of worms opened, if it was mine i would also go with chrome gutter trim etc !

[Theo]

I voted black, leaning towards the originality side of things. But in reality, it will look amazing in either colour.