Well, to let you in on the full story...

The 2002 was my very first car. I fell in love with my 2002 in 2002 - I purchased the December '73 build, Feb 74' complianced Polaris silver Automatic from the Trading Post - the one from 'The Castle' and I was over the moon.

It was a very neat car, but the interior needed retrimming and the exterior had rotten blue pinstripes and was missing the lower trim on the LH door. But it had a 5 speed upgrade, a Weber carby and a very clean body that had been resprayed adn it had E30 'bottle caps'.

I did a few upgrades to the car as I drove it - and fixed all the stuff that I broke on it - including Koni Racing Shocks, King Springs, refurbished carby, head work and a nice and cabin friendly exhaust that had a mean note outside. I had it retrimmed in blue to match the factory stuff, added a stereo, rebuilt the tailshaft and centre bearing, had all the shifter mechanisms replaced in the gearbox, etc. etc.

Soon after, I got a job at a design firm - the car went into retirement when I got a brand new 2004 MINI Cooper S company car. My parents told me to sell it as I owed them a few thou, but I couldnt bear to see it go. I advertised it in the Trading Post, people called to tell me "You're dreamin'" and a few came out for a look and insulted me with offers.

I left the car around my place outside and all the chrome work began to pit, a few rust bubbles began to appear and the battery went flat... I would try to drive it every Friday night as a way of winding down from the week, but sometimes chasing chicks and beers with the boys got in the way.

After 12 months with the MINI, I decided to start my own design company. Unfortunately the MINI did not factor into the finances with the start up costs of business and day to living expenses - so I left it with the company I was working for.

Cue the 2002.

So I was back driving my 2002. I had always loved driving the 2002 as it is very raw, makes lots of nice noises and is very rewarding drive, so it was all good.

Because it had been sitting for a while, it had got a bit tired and I decided to get some work done to the front end of the car, including tidying up the headlights, painting all the front, fixing up a hole in the bonnet where there was once an arial. I had it all booked in for the work to start just after Christmas at a friends body shop that is interstate from where I live, he is very highly skilled at old cars and very passionate - only a young bloke too, so I was keen to give him a shot.

Then just before Christmas, I was toodling back from the gym and pulled up at the traffic lights. I had been watching the temperature gauge as it was a hot day and it was edging up. The lights went green and away we went. All of a sudden the traffic came to a grounding hault and I did not realise as I had an eye on the temp. needle...

The women driving the car in front had the biggest tow hitch you have ever come across on the back of her car. My 2002 moulded around it, depressing my front bumper bar into the radiator, cracking a head light, bending the bonnet hinges - which pretty well destroyed the bonnet-
destroyed my brand new OEM grille I put in two weeks earlier and denting my ego.

I was a bit heart broken - whilst in the median strip thinking about where to next, a passerby said how nice my car was, it was a shame, etc. I was really quite down.

I spoke to my dad and he said that I should relax as it wasnt all bad... I have insurance and I will be able to do some of the repairs on the car that I had planned to do under insurance, therefore I could put some of the money I had saved towards other things.

It has been quite a long process with insurance as it all occured around Christmas time and the world seems to stop around that time in these industries... but things are finally happening.

Although not damaged, I decided there was probably a few areas that I could fix up while I was doing the repairs.

Thats when things began spiralling out of control! Hahaha.


We have decided to paint the whole car, Polaris silver again of course!

I purchased a OEM bonnet, two OEM doors, a OEM front panel section, two OEM headlight units, OEM grille, all OEM rubbers for the doors and windows, basically everything I missed out on purchasing in the BLUNT group buy... Some of it is coming in from Germany as I type - things are slowly making their way to my body shop...

Today I delivered the doors and bonnet (oh, sorry that is the hood, to you Americans :-p) to the body shop and began dismantling the car.

We pulled all the front off the car, me getting very hands on, it is amazing what you learn when you are pulling stuff to bits!

Over lunch today, I made the huge decision to delete the lower trims from the car - I didnt want to, but I thought long and hard about it and came to the conclusion this is just another spot to get rust again in the future and I couldnt afford to get the trims right now any way. I will see how I go, If need be, I will get replacements for them down the track when I can afford them and fix them on with double sided tape like they do on modern cars - no rust that way.

When I left this afternoon, we are still waiting on the front nose section of the car, once that is here, it will be full steam ahead.

I removed the radiator and it will be rebuilt with a thicker core. The headlights will be upgraded with relays to put bigger brighter globes - I am resisting adding driving lights as I cant find any classic styled ones for it.

I have decided to add a thermo fan instead of the red fan - hoping to get a bit more power maybe - as well as a more efficent way of cooling the motor than the 'old red'.

The interior, although it has been retrimmed, was never actually the way I had first asked - long story - so after coming across a set of E21 Recaro's - from 'The Trading Post' again.

I plan on trimming the whole car out in charcoal with black inserts, with charcoal carpets. The charcoal is complimentary to the silver as well as something a bit different to the normal black on black... I am not 100% sure wit this yet though.

The motor has always been pretty strong. Recently I found out why... when I first came on 2002faq, I introduced myself to oz_tom, who was exceptionally helpful in answering questions and pointing me in the right direction for all things '02...

He directed me to a very highly regarded BMW expert in the middle of no where basically. I made contact with him and asked him some things about my car that he soon worked out he had done the original install of the Weber carb and a 300 degree cam, the 5 speed and a few little other things... hence why it got along so nicely!

I plan on tidying up the motor - it is a bit grubby and needs a bit of a freshen up. I recently purchased a 45DCOE Weber and a Lynx single side draught manifold to suit and I am looking forward to fitting that when I get the body all sorted.

The exterior will remain standard looking, besides the trim deletion. I was umming and ahhing about flaring the guards, but decided against it as I want to make the car look as original as possible and this is pretty well unreversable...

My plans for rims are a set of 15" BBS RS rims, or a set of Alpina 16" rims, but I am not sure... too many decisions! If I get the Alpina's I will buy an Alpina steering wheel from W'nesch in Germany also.

Other things I would like are a TEP rear strut brace/battery relocaton kit, a brake upgrade and maybe some coil overs in a few years - these a pipe dreams right now - at least Im honest, haha!

I am working on the car right now interstate and I am away from my normal computer, so I have not been able to upload any pictures of the progress.

Keep an eye for pictures.

Thanks for taking the effort to read my story...

Todd