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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

Not Really a Conclusion.

Day 77 – Fully assembled.   Hood   I re-installed the trims on the hood and was ready to install it on the car. The installation/adjustment took longer than expected but it’s done now. I actually prefer the side profile of the car without the hood, more sleek.   Things To Work Out My A/F gauge stopped working, the fuse had blown, I replaced the fuse but the readings are not good, it almost constantly displays 19.0 (which doesn’t make sense)

MildSeven

MildSeven

"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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MildSeven in Restoration

Foggy

Let's light up some moisture.   So, I got some Marchal fog lights from : Schickentanz, thanks again.   When mounting them, I wanted to avoid drilling holes, anywhere. I've seen that a lot of people will mount them to the hood hinge brackets, but that means the lights are close to the center (near the kidney grill). I wanted the lights to be pushed out (near headlights), I also wanted the brackets to be semi-hidden. So, I decided to use the bumper-mount bolt holes to suppo

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MildSeven in Lighting

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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MildSeven in 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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MildSeven in 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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MildSeven in 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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MildSeven in 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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MildSeven in 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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MildSeven in Restoration

Driving my 2002 in 2017.

Gettin' er goin'     The Eurokracy car show takes place the week before the Canadian Formula 1, Grand Prix. Now that I have been invited/accepted in the show in shine, it was time to make sure my car was up for it, and the long drive. I hadn’t yet started the car with the new Spanish DCOEs but with 10 days until the show I was feeling confident. So here’s where the new trouble starts. Show (minus 2 weeks) Documented in my “help” thread (starting on page 5) https://www

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MildSeven in General

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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MildSeven in 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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MildSeven in 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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MildSeven in 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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MildSeven in 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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MildSeven in Restoration

Winter is Coming

Winter is coming. (Day ~69er-76) Braking my heart   It seems that I have 2 leaking fittings on the front calipers, I think the bleeders aren’t seating properly. I managed to stop the leaks but it’s not a permanent fix. I believe I have Tii brakes which were spaced for vented rotors. I might need to get some professional help with those but I will leave that to next year because winter is coming. I’ll try buying some new quality bleeder fittings first. Timing‘n’Tuning   I’

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MildSeven

...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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MildSeven in Restoration

We’ve got some catching up to do.

It's been a while...   The ’02 was stored in my garage during the unpleasantly long winter, here’s a shot prior to putting the cover on.     Winter/Spring   A few semi-exciting off season acquisitions.   New pair of 45DCOEs from Redline (allautomotive) 123Ingition Tune+ distributor, in on the group buy. New rain gutter trims A KMPH speedometer from Netherlands          Also during the winter/spring I took care o

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MildSeven

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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MildSeven in Restoration

Seats’n’storage.

A fellow ‘02-Montrealler (Pierre*) was nice enough to give me the lower portion of his rear bench (he had an extra one). This put me a step closer to finally installing a rear bench... So, now I just needed to acquire the upper portion of the rear bench plus, some new padding/foam and the all-important vinyl upholstery.   I stripped down the rear base, the old “horsehair” padding is pretty gross. I wire-brushed it, degreased it, used a metal etch and gave it a couple of coats of m

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MildSeven in Interior

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