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About this blog

Restoring a 1976 BMW 2002... when I didn't know a restoration was in order.

Entries in this blog

Restoration

The Final Summer Push

Day ~63 – 68 I’m trying to get a whole bunch of things done so that I can drive this car before winter comes and as you may know, it comes pretty quick around here.   Weather Stripping/Seals   - Driver/Passenger Doors Seals (Uro) I had read some negative reviews about the Uro door seals but I also read that some weren’t happy with the OEM version. Given the big price difference, I cheaped out and went with the Uro door seals. Installing the door seals, is a slight bitch. Jammi
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Restoration

All Systems Go.

Day ~59 – 62 About 4 days of work   Boring stuff   Tidied up some more wiring and got things sorted out so that the battery was ready to be connected. I also installed the b-pillar gaskets and rear windows, with freshly painted window brackets… boooooring.   Engine/Transmission/Front Sub-Frame Reunion   I didn’t want to put the motor back in only to find out it was leaking from the oil pan because of the cork seal. So, I decided to change the cork seal for
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Restoration

Puttin' Things Together

Day ~55   Floor Pan Sound Deadening/Insulation Flashback: The original tar sound deadening was removed, patches welded in, floor pan interior and underside were grinded and sealed with POR15, rubberized asphalt undercoating was added under the entire shell.   Following the dynamat superlite  install, I finished off the sound deadening by installing what was left of the EZ Cool, I was running out towards the end, so I had to cut some funky shapes in order to cover everything.  
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Restoration

Sound Deadening and Wiring, oh the wiring.

Day ~50-54 I figured the logical first step would be to install the sound deadening. I had purchased a bulk pack of Dynamat ‘Superlite’ on ebay in early 2015, when I grossly miscalculated my project’s timeline. I had decided on ‘Superlite’ to keep some weight off the ‘02. It was very easy to install and took me to about 5 hours in all, but I took my time. The next item on my agenda was to clean up some of the wiring, which included re-taping the old harnesses, removing the smog wiring
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Restoration

Pretty In Pink

Body Shop Update: 2016-03-18 Went to the body shop (Frank's) at lunch since it's a Friday and it's nice & sunny outside. There was a little more progress than I expected but unfortunately the 2002 will be taking a backseat (for a little while). The X6 which came in as an insurance claim, and it will be getting an M body kit. Guess I have more time to clean my garage. I asked him to do that "rocker guard" (bumpy) finish in the trunk. Note: I have a peeve about painting thi
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Restoration

Sub Framin 'n' Sealin

Day ~43-47 – Rear Sub-Frame Refresh, Engine Seals & Headlight Bucket Refresh Rear Sub Frame Reassembly Finally, the rear trailing arm spring perches have been repaired (using some steel tubing + a flat sheet of metal), the entire rear sub frame has been stripped and painted with POR15. I reassembled the sub frame with Energy urethane bushings & bushing inserts (for the carrier mounts). ...with the addition of a 19mm ST Suspensions anti-sway bar. One of t
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Restoration

Just When I Thought I Was Out...

Day ~42 - Rear Sub-Frame Refresh Body Shop Update (January 8th) I dropped off the car for paint on January 4th, since then I haven’t done much 2002 work. On January 8th, I had to drop of my father-in-law’s F150 for some bodywork (while he’s on vacation), I hadn’t expected Frank to start on the 2002 but surprisingly he started some body work on the roof and nose. Rear Sub-Frame Disassembly It was time to start some work on the rear sub-frame which hadn’t been touched si
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General

Load 'em Up, Ship 'em Out.

Day ~41 (about 1 day of work) Seat Rail Renewal, Shipping the carcass to Bodyshop Seat Rail Refresh Soon after I purchased the 02, I discovered the seat rails were a rusty mess, I had looked in to getting another set at the time but Aardvark Racing (who sold the previous owner the Reccaro seats), said he was out of stock and I would be better off ‘de-rusting’ them. Fast forward to the project… I degreased the rails, gave them a bath in the Metal Rescue solution (for ~30hours), wire bru
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Restoration

Almost There (and by 'there' I mean the bodyshop).

Day ~35-40 (about 5 days of work) Some Surface Rust Removal + Rubberized Asphalt Application + Fender & Door Installation + Body Filler Surface Rust Clean-up I decided to clean up some areas which had surface rust; - Driver + Passenger gutter rails - Driver + Passenger ledges under the rear windows - Driver + Passenger welds where we installed the short sill / lower quarter panel patches (in front of rear wheel) - Driver + Passenger spot welds along the new rocker p
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Restoration

Whipping out the Por15 ...again

Day ~30-34 (about 4 day of work), More Grinding and prepping + Por15, September 12th, 2015 - November 3rd, 2015 I was hoping to have the grinding + the Por15 finished before leaving on Vacation to Florida (September 25th), unfortunately, there was way more grinding (in tough places + under the car) than I had anticipated. "More work than anticipated," is really the story of this project. Grinding complete, shot of the floor pan. Then on to the degreasing... Since I would be
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Restoration

Grinding 'n' Scrapping

Day ~29 (about 1 day of work), Let's Grind - August 30th, 2015 - September 12th, 2015 I was finally able to remove the temporary square tubing we had put in to reinforce the shell while replacing the rocker panels. Despite the actual work of removing those 6 pieces of metal didn't take much time or even effort, it felt like huge progress was made. I think it was because it meant the days of welding were numbered. Support out mother f'ers! My plan was to grind down the floor
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General

More patch work.

Day ~25 to 28 (~3 days of work), Driver Rocker Panel Install + Por15 - July 10th, 2015 As I previously mentioned, at the end of the last post, my buddy Kosta was going to be swinging by following the resignation of my welder (Benjamin). At that point I thought his referral wouldn’t amount to anything but luckily he came through and his friend (Justin) showed up to start some welding on July 29th. I guess I should have given him more credit than I did, Benjamin does have a lot of work (farm
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Restoration

Whipping out the Por15

Day ~22 to 24 (~2 days of work), Sheet metal work + Por15 - June 10th, 2015 I had to fabricate some metal panels at the bottom of the A-pillar and in-front of the rear fender (behind rocker) because of the rust (plus some horrible bondo work by PO). Given the bends on the pieces I was replacing and the fact that I’m a beginner working with only a mallet and a cinder block... It’s freakin time consuming and not fun. I gave that a rest as I went as far as I could go without the welder pu
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Restoration

Nice Progress & Nasty Surprises

Day 14 and beyond (like ~7 full days total work) – Getting some welding and other things done (Gas Tank + Metal work) – May 2nd to June 7th I found a welder (student) to come do work at my place, he’s not too expensive but the project is getting very expensive. If i would have known about all this i wouldn't have started but now I'm a never quit kinda guy. My buddy Ernest came by to give me a hand with some stuff, so while the welder was working on the floor pan patches, Ernest
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Restoration

...and it just drags on.

Day 11 to 13 and a little beyond (~3 days total work) – Getting some welding and other things done (steering box, carbs, tail lights) - March 28th - April 24th, 2015 Well, things are starting to feel really dragged-on, I want to get the car out and to paint but there’s not much I can do, I can’t weld. I figured while I’m waiting for someone to come help with welding, I would start working on some things which I’d like to tackle before reassembling the car. I’m really good at “while I’m here
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Restoration

Some Fixins'

Day 9 (continued) - Repairing driver side floor pan (March 20th, 2015) Kosta and Ernest showed up as I was finishing the pans, they gave me a hand to push the shell back in to the previously warm garage. Before the welder arrived (as a precaution), we decided to reinforce the shell by welding temporary bars between the A & B pillars. We also tried our hands at repairing a patch behind the driver seat, I think it went pretty well given our lack of experience and Mastercraft welder. Ernes
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General

Introduction - Joining the 2002 family.

Suffering from the departure (sale) of my 2002 Big Turbo Jetta in 2012, which wasn’t really anything special to anyone other than myself. I decided I needed to replace it with something.   In 2013 I started looking around for something fun. I started off by researching late 70s 911s (side note: it seems the prices of vintage Porsches have really shot up in the past year or so), it just didn’t make sense to spend that much money on a toy, I then redirected my attention to the Alfa
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Restoration

Disassembly starts - The easy part

About 2 months ago my buddy Kosta and I started the disassembly, Ernest was conveniently on his “honeymoon” in Asia. Day 1 Compression Test + prepping the Engine/sub-frame for removal (January 24th) I wanted to do a compression test before removing the motor to know where I stood with it but I f’ed that up because didn’t know you had to have the throttle fully open while cranking. I realized this after adding oil to do the "wet" part. Everything went pretty smoothly no bad surpris
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Restoration

"Minor Rust"

There was some rust I knew about before purchasing the car, driver floor and a little around the shock towers. I discovered more than expected during the disassembly. Had I known what I was getting myself in to, I think I would have just driven the car this summer and put it for sale. Unfortunately now that I'm in to it, I'm in for the long haul. Here are photos of the worst parts which require welding. I hope they make you feel better about your 2002, because i feel pretty shitty.
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