Learning on the fly 1971 2002 restoration

[dondmar]

I guess a better way of putting might be "what have I gotten myself into?" I sold a well sorted out 1976 2002 that I had owned and upgraded over the course of a year (my first 2002) in order to buy a 1971 roundie project car. Crazy...

I should start by saying that I am not a mechanic, nor do I have a ton of experience fixing cars but I am a little bit mechanically inclined. Over the years I have had cars that required some tinkering, a 1971 VW Superbeetle, a 1977 Jeep CJ7, and I can't forget my choice 1988 Buick Regal! The point is I am going to be learning as I go along, making plenty of mistakes, and trying my best to do it the right way. If anyone chooses to follow along, advice is welcome and so are criticisms. Just realize I am not a professional and sometimes my logic may differ from other peoples.

So, the car..... It's a 1971 sunroofed empty shell....yes, but it came along with a rebuilt bottom end with 9.5:1 pistons, 5 speed, LSD, most of the parts for an EFI conversion, rebuilt front struts, new Billstein HD's all around, front and rear big brake conversions, stainless steel lines and a TON of extra parts. It was purchased from a friend who had some circumstances come up that would not allow him to finish the project so I decided that at the end of the day this car could be something great.

I will be taking way more pictures than is really necessary so I am not going to post them all here. I always like to see these blogs with tons of photos, maybe there will be too many but what the heck. If you want to see them all there will be a link below to the Picasa album with the full set (I will warn you that I am overkilling the photos there). I will do my best to put plenty of valuable pictures here for everyone to see. I know that over my year of 02 ownership and especially now, seeing pictures of things in various stages of repair and assembly has helped me tremendously to understand how things work and hopefully this blog will do the same for other people. I also wanted to have a good documentation of this project so that I can be reminded of all the time (I am hoping a year) and effort that went in to it.

So enjoy, ask questions, and comment freely....I'll need all the help I can get!

Oh, special thanks to Sam at The Shop for letting me take up residence in his shop for the year and to Tim Crocker and Patrick from Midnight Motorsports for the muscle in helping me get this project moved and all the help and advice I am sure they will give me along the way. I couldn't do this otherwise.

Let's Go!!

Here is the link to my VERY comprehensive photo album.

https://picasaweb.google.com/106039550027618834264/1971BMW2002?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCP69rNnhqKKEnwE&feat=directlink

[dondmar]

First a few pictures of what I gave up, feel free to scratch your head a bit.

And a few of the new project the day we picked it up...

In it's new, long term home....

[dondmar]

A few pics of the cool things that came along for the ride with the car..

Engine bay has had all the seams welded and has been professionally stripped down and painted, I am going to keep the engine bay this color.

The bottom end (the head is an E12 which needs to be refurbished, nothing to see there)

15" Enkei 92s. Need a repaint but the chrome will shine up nicely.

Just a small sample of the lineup of awaiting parts...

[dondmar]

So the first few days are all about tearing apart the interior, fixing rust and getting the body ready for paint. After pulling out the interior and all of the glass, I am in the process of removing all of the 40 year old German tar from the floorpans so I can inspect for rust and paint them up. So far the only rust I see is a little behind where the driver's seat would be, none in the rest of the usual spots. Not Bad! The plan is to strip the floors down, treat any rust with POR15, take care of a little sheetmetal cover work and prime/paint the interior. Here's a few pictures, but nothing too exciting.

One of the previous owners of this car was speaker happy, there are holes for 5 6x9 speakers as well as 6" ones in the doors!

Stripping the floors the old fashioned way, hammer and a chisel.

I'll be spending the next few days stripping and prepping the floors, I'll get back to this when that work is done.

[roadhog0]

What type of EFI you gonna use? ITB's or a 318 manifold?

[dondmar]

I guess I left out what my plans for the car are. When all is said and done it is going to be a Nevada car, medium modified but still stockish in appearance. 9.5:1 motor, 292 or 284 cam with plenty of head work, megasquirted with the 318 intake and the typical accessories, EDIS, and plenty of little ideas I have to make the car sort of unique (you'll see those as I go along). I'm still working on interior ideas though, we'll see what works out. It will be low but not slammed. A fun, modern yet old schoolish car. If I can get what's in my head on paper it should work out really well.

[Chamonix72]

I'm going to need to come check this bad boy out. I'm really hopeful that you can realize the vision in your head. Nevada with those wheels will look pretty sweet!

I'm really liking that motor. That's what I want for my own car.

[roadhog0]

318 Mani should be fun! I'd love to do ITB Mega squirt setup someday... Good luck!

[dondmar]

So the last few weeks have been pretty busy and there have been too many distractions that are keeping me from working on the car. Mostly I had been fixing rust and stripping down the car. Not much rust at all! Just some surface sports, some of which left some pitting in the metal. I took a wire wheel and ground it down a bit then covered with Por 15. It doesn't look pretty but it will all be covered up by soundproofing anyway.

The new and improved minimalist interior.

It's not pretty, but it bonded well and it will covered up by the soundproofing later. I think i went a little overboard, a lot of the coating is over bare metal I exposed. I also went over the backside of the welds on the firewall where the engine bay seams were.

The spire tire wells had a few holes but after removing all of the paint I bought some fiberglass cloth and used POR15 like resin to patch the holes and coat the well.

Once I get the rubberized coating over the top and paint everything it should look great. The POR cured really hard and feels like it's structurally sound.

[dondmar]

After Pulling the glass, doors and trim, stripping the interior and fixing the rust, I thought I should start the process of sanding the body down to remove the paint. After about an hour of sanding I was ready to call some shops to do the bodywork. I really don't have big money in the budget for professional bodywork but we'll see how bad it hurts.

So I decided the next thing I should do is get the suspensions built so I can roll it a body shop. Since the front was already out of the car, I pulled out the rear assembly.

Not too bad to get out, but it was super crusty. Right now I have been cleaning the trailing arms, subframe and parts for paint. I'll also be assembling the 320i rear drums and getting my urethane bushings installed. After that it's be on the finishing the front. More pics when the rear is done.

[ifayeoh]

Welcome and nice project you have there! I look forward to following this build up!!!

Frank

[dondmar]

So with the time I have had to work on the car this past week I have been concentrating on getting the rear suspension together and I'm almost ready to start assembly. I thought I would put a few pictures up of the steps along the way for people like me that like to see the different parts as the come together. Disassembly of the old rear end went pretty smoothly with almost no surprises except for this.....

I'm not sure how hard you need to hit the stub axle to warp it like this but someone in this car's life did just that. I can't get the Axle nut to thread over this so it looks like I need to find a new stub!

A few progress pics before I put the suspension in the back of the car this weekend...

Not a new idea, but works great for getting the old bushings out of the trailing arms. Just a 8" bolt, some nuts and some pipe pieces.

[eurotrash]

Clippin' right along man. Looks great!

[dondmar]

So today was a good day. (love that line) I put some solid hours in and experienced a first for this project..I put something IN the car! I got the front subframe and steering linkages finished off (po had it 75% done already) and got it mounted in the car. Learned a valuable lesson about pitch thread today, luckily I didn't strip out the holes in the frame where the subframe mounts. I also got the rear trailing arms painted up and pressed in the new urethane. I was going to press in my wheel bearings but when I dismantled everything I accidentally threw away the shim rings for the rear bearings. DUMB MOVE. Now I have to measure up for new ones and hope I get it right. So while I was hoping to get the rear end installed this weekend I moved on and got some other important projects done.

All urethane bushings, new ball joints, idle arm bushings, urethane steering guibo, painted and ready to go!

I got my half shafts done today too! 2002 cv on one end, 320i cv on the other for the LSD I have to install. I stripped them down, scrubbed the boots, painted them up and packed in some fresh grease. Came out pretty well I think.

Since the rear is on hold til I get my bearing situation straightened out, it looks like I will be spending some time getting the front end set-up. I also really need to get some sheetmetal work and a lot of welding done before I find a way to get the bodywork done. but she's one step closer to standing on her own 4 feet!

[Dev02]

I'm in the middle of restoring my '71 roundie and am very much in the same boat as you (not a mech, but mechanically inclined). I am doing mine in stages, get it running (done), get it stopping (done), getting it riding well (in process) and get it pretty (long way off).

My issue, as I'm sure yours is, is that every time I go to do something I uncover something else that needs to be fixed OR I say to myself "well... as long as I'm here..."

I look forward to seeing how things go for you and getting some tips on what to do and/or avoid.

Best of luck!

-Dev