If someone asked you to pinpoint a hotbed for affordable early E10-body BMWs, would you think of one of the wetter parts of the country? With the recent feature of a 1967 BMW 1600, perhaps a better question is whether two cars constitute a hotbed, but in any case, these are fairly rare vehicles. Being nearly fifty years old – yes, really – the early E10s that haven’t been restored yet have been subject to all sorts of treatment, including quick fill-n-shoot jobs, brush painting, and in some cases, unusual two-tone and pinstripe color schemes. So let’s take a look at this 1968 BMW 1600 for sale for $2250 in Vancouver, WA.
Ouch. Hopefully this and the previous car are not indicative of some trend for punching old BMWs in the nose. From here you can see the unusual paint job, surface rust around the hit, and bumper nerf bars that probably came from JC Whitney back in about 1969. Assuming the dent doesn’t impose on the cooling system, it might be fun to drive around among all the shiny 02s that are out there nowadays, at least while you finish the mechanical sorting. Said to have come out of 15 years of indoor storage, it’s had a full cooling system service including new radiator, water pump, hoses, and thermostat.
The engine is also said to pull strongly, but the car needs new brakes to keep that power under control. The body is said to be fairly solid, with no rust in the spare tire well. Accepting the caveat of poor lighting, the early short console is present, seats don’t look too bad in original basket-weave upholstery, and that might even be a period radio in there. Can you smell the combination of horsehair, German vinyl, and burning oil?
Short bumpers, the 1600 script and blue/yellow Oregon plates are highlights on the car’s tail. The metal around the rear window and the trailing edges of the trunk lid don’t seem to have major rust, so that’s a bullet dodged. The more popular round tail lights will help you sell this car on when the time comes. The title is said to be missing, so depending on the attitude of your DMV, that may be a harder fight than getting the car road-worthy. Would you take on that battle in the name of getting a rare version of an iconic German on the road?
Rusty But Trusty 
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