Hiyo Silver!

[mike472]

I am starting on a restoration I thought would be of interest to the group. I am transplanting the good souped up drivetrain out of my original 76 02 into a rust free shell. I have three cars at my disposal, my original Malaga car, a rust free Malaga shell and a Fjord parts car which I just purchased from a fellow FAQ member Rob Steele. I say parts car because the fjord car is rusted beyond belief but is surprisingly complete. It will be my rolling cheat sheet. Along with my other original car. I am painting the car Silver hence the subject title "Hiyo Silver" Not much imagination to that but whadda ya want fa nuthin!

It really helps to have virtually three of everything. I plan to harvest the best and sell the rest except for some valuable sheet metal and a few other things. The shell is completely gutted except for the wiring harness and subframes with wheels to roll it. I have a couple of beautiful blue Scheel 401's with a perfect blue interior to go in the car along with one of Espy's rug sets and a spoiler by Pierre. I am excited to be doing this as I have been without a BMW car for over a year. Some people think I'm going backwards going from a tweaked 95 E36 M3 back to my old 2002. There is something about this car that speaks to me. This car makes you work for it, whereas the E36 M3 made it like shooting fish in a barrel when you took it to drivers schools. It was fun but not as much fun as taking an 02 and grabbing it by the scruff of the neck and driving the living bejesus out of it. It definitely took more skill to extract the maximum out of this car which is what makes it fun. After 36 years of owning this car it went from being really hip when I first bought it to kind of passe when the 320's came out, to really cool to have back again 36 years later! I can't think of many cars on the road today that really catch your eye like a 2002 if your a knowledgeable german car afficionado. Maybe some early 911's or a 356 or nice SL will fit in here but not their modern counterparts. The 2002 recalls a time when things were simpler and the lines of the cars were done by Michelotti not Bangle. Anyway I have pictures of the guts I'm starting with here. I plan on Marine Cleaning the whole car and then POR15ing the whole pan and trunk floor and certain other key spots like door bottoms and the bottom recesses of the nose panel. I have been wirewheeling any loose rust so far and have pretty much gutted the car. I am giving the car to a local shop to paint while I refurbish the front and rear subframes and add a few bells and whistles. An Odyssey battery set under the rear seat or a slightly larger one in the engine compartment. My hotted up engine with 45DCOE's and 5 speed with various other bits and pieces from the folks here on the FAQ. Thanks for all the great info to all of you out there. I am officially a FAQ zombie now. I can't take my eyes off this thing. It likes looking at a car wreck, you know you shouldn't be staring at it like that, but you can't take your damn eyes off it. I keep thinking I'm going to miss something! Anyway, its good to be getting my hands dirty again.

[mike472]

(nt)

[Guest Anonymous]

Looks like you are going to be busy (fun busy though). Since you have gone to the extent of essentially doing a complete tear down I would seriously consider having it (the shell) either chemically stripped/dipped or soda blasted, especially if your vision is that its a "keeper". It is extra expense for sure but then again the devil is in the details and at the end of the day you will find anything that is hiding under old paint and be able to deal with it rather than have it show its ugly face through your new paint job! Easy for me to spend your money however in the long run would probably be the best way to go. Good luck with your project.

www.alpinabmw2002.com

[mike472]

Mark,

Thanks for the advice on stripping the car. I did consider doing that but this car is so rust free compared to my other cars that it seemed a shame to strip what looks like the factory coating on the floorpan. Any little rust spots on the car were superficial. I am going to lift the front of the car up with my forklift and marine clean and pressure wash the entire car then use POR15's metal ready on any spots that are bare.(I'm going to spray the entire underside with it and the typical rust spots) and then POR 15 each area. I am undecided whether to paint color or more likely either "Chassis Black or POR15's bedliner coating over the POR15. I think this should be a real good protection against future rust. Stripping the car kind of scares me because if you dip it and don't absolutely cover every square inch of bare metal inside and out with some paint, you may create more rust then you prevented. The car had original paint on it for the most part as I could see the layers of original factory primer and paint with only one or two minor body fill jobs that I am going to do over with good filler and less of it.

Mike Katsoris

[Guest Anonymous]

I probably shouldn't be commenting much on body and paint as their are more than a few on this board that have a hell of alot of experienc with this sort of stuff and what you suggest does have merit (as far as the original undercoating etc., and for that fact the original paint/primer layers). Since pressure washing/cleaning is pretty aggressive anyway I suppose you will have a pretty good idea what things are looking like once you finish that process and can make a better decision as to whether you need to "go all the way" or if what you have done is enough. The images made everything look a little "crusty" therefor my thought on the total stip. It is a lot of extra work and expense and you are definitely right about having to get every nook/cranny. Look forward to seeing your updates.

www.alpinabmw2002.com

[mike472]

Here is the latest work done today. Still cleaning. All that beautiful color coming through all the road grime of 36 years. That marine clean really works. Not without plenty of elbow grease. You didn't think that shit crusted on the bottom was going to give up that easy did you? It's amazing how the original color painted in the wheel wells came up so clean. I mean that paint almost had a shine to it under there. The trans tunnel was almost antiseptic when I got done. It was a cream color under the heat shielding which also cleaned up nicely.

Some other shots of the original car and parts car in fjord rust. Have a roll bar that was in the original. Not sure if I want to put it back it. Threaded holes for angled brace are not in the back of this car. Maybe I'm missing something. They are in my original car. In cleaning the outside of the car, I notice a respray over the original malaga. That should come off easy. Time for the DA sander.

http://s485.photobucket.com/albums/rr216/mike472_bucket/BMW2002malaga76/Cleanup%20with%20Marine%20Clean/

[mike472]

Time for an update. I have been pretty busy getting the shell ready for the painter who will get it on 4/11. Everything is ready to go and have some pics of progress on that and removing the drivetrain from the bottom as outlined by Bill AKA big rigger. Thanks Bill. It worked great and I did it by my lonesome. Just cleaned everything up and I'm ready to tear into rebuilding the front and rear suspension. I'm replacing all the rubber and tie rods everywhere and resealing the engine and trans and part of my rehab. Engine still ran like a dream with only 8K on it after its last complete HiPo rebuild. I have a large parts order coming up. Can you hear me Blunt? Making good progress and with warmer weather coming I can get more done. It sucks when its freezing even inside with nothing but a kerosene torpedo pointed at you to warm up.

Mike

[mike472]

A few more pics:

[mike472]

Wrestled with this OZ wheel cover lock which I lost the key to. Finally got it off with a carefully ground screwdriver. Ground about half the straight blade off until the small part just fit in the inner hole. Once I got the tip of the blade into the small hole the rest of the blade jammed itself against the edge of the larger hole enabling me to turn it out. One of them would not come out and I had to drill it. A drill bit that just fit the large hole took the head of the bolt off cleanly.

[mike472]

Just got back into the project again and starting to reassemble the motor and all the front subframe bits and pieces. Heres are some new pics. Just got a load of parts from Ireland.

[mike472]

Here's a couple more:

[mike472]

Long overdue update: Got the engine back together and on the subframe with most of the major stuff done on the engine and transmission front. Car is still in the body shop undergoing full bare shell paint job. After much hard thought about painting the car silver I have decided to pick a different color, Estoril Blue. I want it different and I have seen one car here on the FAQ in that color and it speaks to me. The quarters on my car needed a little straightening from some previous damage but all metal is sound and all non-essential trim and light openings are sealed shut. Getting there slowly but surely.

[mike472]

more....

[mike472]

The car was shot with a primer/filler that takes the place of body putty to fill in small imperfections. Car will be sanded down again before real primer goes on. Getting close to paint....

[Ian]

Great work! I love the color choice, I can't wait to see pics.