A very special BMW 507 belonging to none other than the legendary Elvis Presley has been found and restored back again to its original glory. The very fact that it is a BMW 507 itself makes it an incredible find, with the Elvis connection only adding to the appeal all the more, Carscoops reported.
The restoration, however, was far from simple, given the long years it has been in disuse coupled with all that it has had to go through. That also includes an unfortunate hot-rodding effort that the car had been subjected to during the late 60s.
Bearing the serial number 70079, the car was owned by a classic car enthusiast named Jack Castor who has been kind enough to hand it over to the BMW Group Classic team. The car, when it was discovered, had its engines removed. Jack himself was keen to have the car restored himself and had collected most of what was need to resurrect it back to life. Jack though wasn't aware of the Elvis connection.
Unfortunately, a thorough assessment of the 507 by the BMW Group Classic teams lead to them declaring it as nothing short of being a 'high-class scrap'. For not only was in a severely dilapidated stage with its engine and gearbox removed, the original rear axle was missing too. Most of the external body was original though.
The car has also undergone change of colors several times with BMW finding no less than eight layer of it - cream, white, red, black, red and then red again.
It is said the King had been so pissed with the red kisses his car would accumulate thanks to his exuberant fans that he ordered it to be painted red.
Thereafter, what followed next is the process of stripping the car to the bare basics followed by the painstaking process of building it up all over again. That includes a fresh layer of paint coupled with a new dashboard and seat layout, new suspension, and body structure improvements where needed, to name just a few as per the 507 specifications.
The most important of it all was to build the engine, A V8 and that too exactly as it was on the original 507.
In the end, the restoration work that spanned two years has been well worth it.
The BMW Group Classic link here also provides a glimpse of all that has gone behind the scenes into providing the spic and shine that the 507 now boasts of sitting at the BMW Classic Museum.
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