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About this blog

Blog covering some of my restoration work

Entries in this blog

Rain Gutter Trim Installation

So I received a huge box from Bridgewater BMW last week containing the now back in stock Rain Gutter Trim.  God knows how much it actually cost to ship because they only charged me $18 from CT to San Diego, CA.  The price with shipping was $199, but I think the car looks naked without the full compliment of trim, so money well spent.  Installation was challenging to say the least.  I started with the driver's side, removing the radio antenna mast so I would have room.  I used some silicon grease

Mark92131

Mark92131

Sway Bar Installation

I purchased a set of front and rear sway bars from Ireland Engineering for the cab a while back but never got around to installing them.  Over the Christmas break I decided to pop them on the 1975 to eliminate some of the body roll on my 1975 BMW 2002.   My experience was typical of most owners that have done this modification.  The rear was a pain in the ass.  I ended up sanding the urethane bushings down to get enough clearance to re-install the stock clamps.  Even with the sanding,

Mark92131

Mark92131

Beltline Trim Restoration

So, in order to get my car finished, I needed to address the beltline trim issue... buy new or restore the original pieces.  I had the original set from the car and a spare set that I purchased earlier.  Between the two sets, I had enough pieces for a relatively ding-free complete set, but far from something that was shiny and new.  I looked into having King of Trim restoring these pieces, but at $60 per piece, $600 seemed pretty steep for used trim.  I looked into buying new and the best deal I

Mark92131

Mark92131

New Shoes...

The scope creep continues on the 1975.  I sold some parts from my stash and had a tidy sum in my Paypal account so I splurged on a set of Rota RB's and some new Toyo 195-50-15 Extensa HP tires from atw-tires on eBay.  After they arrived, I test fit the rims and then took them down to Performance Tires for mounting and balancing.  All in, about $800.  I had a new set of lug nuts in my stash that I bought from IE a couple years back, so I used them for this installation.  My original inspiration f

Mark92131

Mark92131

Parts... Lots of Parts

So, for people that are contemplating a "lite" restoration for their BMW 2002, I created a spreadsheet of the parts I needed after a repaint of my 1975 BMW 2002.  It is not a comprehensive list, but covers most of the items needed to re-install trim and seals after a windows out re-spray.  All in all, I spent about $2000.00 in parts including shipping and taxes.  The spreadsheet includes part #'s and sources after some extensive research on trying to find the best price on these items.  I hope y

Mark92131

Mark92131

Junk in the Trunk...

During the Facetime inspection of the car pre-purchase, I did have the owner pull the trunk boards to inspect the tank and spare tire well and everything looked good over the phone.  Now that the car was back, I decided to take a look in person and clean up any issues.  Unfortunately, the carpet pad in the trunk runs under the rear battery brackets and makes it very difficult to remove the trunk boards.  The good news, the trunk boards are flawless.  I'm not sure if the 5 machine screws holding

Mark92131

Mark92131

Bumper Refurbish

The car has been sitting inside at Bavarian Rennsport in Ramona for a couple of Months while Bill works on cleaning out some of the backlog.  The windows are in, front lights, grills, front turn signals, marker lights and seals replaced, but the bumpers needed some attention before re-installation.  I picked them up last Friday, brought them home and was planning on sanding off the annodized finish and re-polishing.  After cleaning them up, they were in remarkably good condition, so I waxed them

Mark92131

Mark92131

Let's try this again...

So, last time, Carlos had sent me some photos of my car in the booth in the process of getting some fresh Mintgrun paint applied. Well, after comparing the photos to my expectations for Mintgrun, I thought the color looked off, too milky/minty. I called Carlos and expressed concerns and asked him if it was going to darken up with more coats. He assured me that the color would look different outside when complete and clear coated, but my gut couldn't shake the bad feeling that this was not going

Mark92131

Mark92131

Final paint color, that looks much better!

So I made one more trek to Carlos' shop in Ramona to check out the corrected paint code for MintGrun. The car was out of paint and getting a final cut and buff. The sections that were complete (roof), had a very nice smooth shine in a color that was a very spot on match to the original paint color. We elected not to paint the trunk interior and blended the top of the engine compartment with the original paint on the sides. The paint in the trunk and the engine compartment blend well with the new

Mark92131

Mark92131

Fresh Mintgrun Paint

The car is in the paint booth getting some fresh coats of Mintgrun paint sprayed on it. Carlos the painter managed to snap a few pictures in the middle of this process. I should get the car back from paint on Wednesday next week. After it cures, I'll start the process of replacing the trim and tucking the rear bumper to match the front. Thanks, Mark92131

Mark92131

Mark92131

Final Entry - Off to a new home

So, a bitter sweet end to my 1975 BMW 2002 Mintgrun Lite Restoration has the car being shipped off to its new owner in Dix Hills, NY.  I really enjoyed the journey and although it is not practical to own 2 2002's with a 3 car garage, I look forward to finding another car to work on.  Just don't tell my wife!   I hope the new owner enjoys this car as much as did and starts a new blog on his journey.   Mark92131

Mark92131

Mark92131

Nearing the end of my project

While I was installing my sway bars, I noticed that the lower spring pads were installed improperly, (the notch in the lower pad wasn't lined up with the bump on the lower spring perch).  The flat part of the lower pad was riding on the spring perch bump and it was beginning to crack at that position.  Probably not the end of the world, but it just bothered me knowing that the springs weren't installed properly.  After a few days of stewing, I decided that I would feel better if I fixed this sma

Mark92131

Mark92131

Sprang for New Carpet

It would be hard to install nice new seats and stare down at the tired original carpet, so I splurged and bought this World Upholstery Tan Carpet Kit from Captain Manly on the FAQ.  It arrived today and I think it will look good with the new seats.  When I get the car back from Bavarian Rennsport, I'll strip out the old carpet, remove the tar, lay down some FatMat and install it.  Hopefully, it isn't too different than Esty's Kit.  Thanks Captain Manly!  The scope creep continues...  

Mark92131

Mark92131

In the paint shop

So, when I purchased this car and drove it down from Fresno, CA, I knew it was going to need some fresh paint to get it to a presentable state. The car had a slight encounter with a SUV that had damaged the trunk lid and driver's side tail light. It was also suffering from a rusty patch of missing paint on the roof, of unknown origin. Luckily, the former owner had a replacement pristine trunk lid from a Polaris car that was included in the sale. I had the car up at Bavarian Rennsport in Ram

Mark92131

Mark92131

No More Whining!

The howling from the differential's pinion on deceleration was ruining the driving experience for me, so I decided to address this issue over the Thanksgiving holidays.  I found a used open 3.64 differential on Craigslist from a gentleman in Chula Vista for $100.  He had two, but one was missing the output flanges, so I elected to take the complete one for my car.  After a can of engine degreaser and some vigorous scraping, I was able to get most of the gunk off of it to expose the rusty housing

Mark92131

Mark92131

Seats are in...

After pulling the horrible stock seats, the original carpet didn't look all that bad, a little faded on the transmission hump, but the rest was pretty decent.  So instead of tearing it all out, I bought a can of Woollite carpet cleaner and went to work.  The result was more than acceptable, so in go the seats.  I pulled off the original 320i seat sliders and bolted on the 2002 sliders from my old seats.  One of the inner sliders on the driver's side was cracked in half, but after pricing new ($2

Mark92131

Mark92131

In search of seats...

The tan seats in the 75 are in horrible shape, torn covers, no foam and broken hinge covers, so I have been seeking replacements for as long as I have owned the car. My plan was to find a parts car that had better seats than mine and offer to swap them with mine for a couple hundred bucks. This strategy didn't work very well because most parts cars have seats worse than mine, they are too hard and expensive to ship, and apparently there are a lot of people in need of decent tan front seats. So a

Mark92131

Mark92131

Some more Bling...

The stock steering wheel on the 75 was never one of my favorites, so I pulled out one of my BMW 320IS Sport Steering Wheels from my stash of parts and decided to do the upgrade.  I have done this conversion a couple of times, but refreshed my memory with the excellent write-up on the BayArea02 site.  I decided not to modify (trim) the bottom of the plastic shroud and went with the 1/8 inch spacer instead.  My local home depot didn't have any 1/8 inch aluminum stock, so I used a brass rod and a m

Mark92131

Mark92131

Making Progress...

As the reassembly continues at Bavarian Rennsport, I got a call from Bill that the driver's side window regulator was toast and this was holding up replacing the door cards.  Luckily, CoupeKing had exactly what I needed in his E-Bay store, and $100 later, I received a nice used one in the mail.  I drove up to Ramona today to drop it off and check on the progress.   To my surprise, things are moving along nicely.  All of my nice new trim is on, gaskets installed, bumpers re-installed an

Mark92131

Mark92131

The Clean-up Continues...

So while I search for used differential to replace the whiney one, I decided to continue the clean-up and refresh starting with the engine bay.  First thing, I popped off the dingy valve cover to replace it with one with a little more bling.  Wait a minute, why does this car (1975), have a single row timing chain?  Come to find out that the engine has been replaced with a factory rebuilt unit identified by Steve (Conserv) as a 1974/75 model, #0054, remanufactured in April of 1979, 1989, or 1999.

Mark92131

Mark92131

Homecoming

Got the call yesterday from Bill Holmes that the car reassembly was complete and it was ready for pick-up.  Packed up the family and made the drive out to Ramona.  The car turned out great, nothing like new shiny trim on fresh new paint.  Bill wouldn't let me drive it off without letting him wash the dust off of it, (picture of Bill in action).  The drive home was spirited with a grin from ear to ear.  My next project is to sort out the Pinion bearing whine coming from the Differential.  I have

Mark92131

Mark92131

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