The Toffee Apple

[ShakeyC]

Hello 2002FAQ’s This isn’t my first 2002 regretfully I never managed keep records/blogs of my own cars so this is a first for me; blue turd on record. I decided to make a project thread ‘from across the pond’ and hope you all enjoy the restoration. I may have missed many photo opportunities during the resto please feel free to ask question, comment or whatever it may still be rattling around in my memory banks somewhere.

I decided few years back I needed a classic daily to smoke about in because the un-assisted nature of the pre 80’s period helps mask my disabilities. In fact the idea worked so well I continued racing in well past my sell by date lol.

Anyway enough of that lets get onto the turd I ended up with, this 2002 came up for sale through UK realms described as minter (fresh, clean, solid, working ect...) so decided to trundle up in the snow to have a look. I was cold very ill and just wanted a straight forward deal and get home but the owner wanted to keep loads of stuff off the car so made an offer and did the deal. Over the following few days I travelled up north to work outside in the snow sleet and rain to swap the bits over he wanted to keep (suspension and crap) and get it started and running with some reliability. With a set of brake pads in the previous owners amazement how well it actually stopped with some pad material in there. Sign of bad things I should have recognised and instantly walked away from if my faculties where in order lol.

In mean-time I wanted to fix the starting and running problems with that plan in mind I took it over to a BMW independent specialist to sort out the misc running problems and give it a once over…car was thoroughly condemned to the scrap heap, another example of polished shiney scrapper as so many cars over here are. Leaving the garage early with reports of more bad weather heading in I just joining the motorway and car lost power stalled in the freezing fog which was so dense couldn’t see 10 meters ahead somehow managed to coast to lay-by/hard shoulder around 3pm.

Being a self-sufficient sole spanners and crocodile clips in hand lifted the bonnet and tried everything to get the engine to turn over but the bugger refused. Jiggling wires to the coil and distributor brought back some electrical life and got hazard light flashing and with specialist words ringing in my ear I quickly gave up and called for recovery truck. The fog was pretty intense with cars and lorries drawn to my hazards lights fire flies steering straight towards me, several near misses later ventured up the bank behind the barriers for safety.

No sign of recovery and conditions were getting worse the freezing temps were getting to me and called the police who turned up around 7pm and pretty much unhelpful arseholes told me to wait for recovery. Batteries finally dwindled down to nothing in both car and phone as the fog started to lift around 10pm so I took refuge in the 02, finally past 11pm recovery trundles up with more excuses than I willing to listen too just take me home.

[ShakeyC]

At this point turd became its name because in my dyslexic head the first three digits XRO from license plate read excrement to me so Turd by number turd by name and total turd of a car.

With car recovered back to garages I decided to patch it up and use as daily run around we decided best plan of action it needed engine replacement along with wiring loom and tackle the structural rust which the previous MOT station must have been blind and dodgy letting this death trap out on the roads year after year. The independent garage is MOT trained and pointed all the problems out and we made a schedule of works to make the car safe at least.

Both front floor pan not attached to sill or bulkhead from underneath looks like been patched up before but after cutting the rot out discovered someone just plated over the rot and under seal with stones and crap sandwiched together some places 4 plates thick with 1-2cm of crap in between then welded poorly along edges to make it look like a proper job. Welding so bad it didn’t even penetrate the repairs only think that must have kept it in place was melted layers of under seal and glue.

Bulkhead was falling apart to extent the pedal box was only hanging off the steering column for dear life along with frame rails underneath. The real shock was A pillars totally rotten out a miracle the windscreen hasn’t cracked or fallen out along with the floppy front end falling off along with the doors engine and entire front clip. The sills were poorly done in the past too no castle section or anything inside no wonder the car felt floppy even on ice and snow.

Rear wheel inner arches had been welded poorly but the muppet grinded the welds back so much it was baking foil thick and split leaving a bigger gaping hole.

The steering wheel had wrong boss mashing up the steering column spline and jammed up tight against the steering column shrouds making the steering feel good and tight when in fact it was worn out loose and hanging.

There’s much more of this shoddy crap ignoring any aesthetic faults, I let some pics to the talking.

More metal fungus to follow

[ShakeyC]

Started to order new parts for the resto from UK BMW 2002 specialists Jaymic in the mean time started to cut out the grot.

How to NOT plate over rust, clean off the under seals or cut the rust out completely. Never just plate over the top because it traps water in between the layers accelerating rust from inside out, surely they must have realised this plating the same rust year on year? Worse still the plate repairs were never attached to metal of any sort.

[ShakeyC]

The following day replacement sheet metal panels arrived from Jaymic, thoroughly impressed with the service in fact my local BMW dealers at best has 5 working day wait for any model whatever the build date pre 70’s 80’s 90’s all the way through to current models its lucky to find anything on the shelf inc typical service parts post 2000 models!

Trial fitting the floor pans

You can also see the extent bottom A-pillars had rusted behind the black waxoyl smothered over everything. The rust goes all the way up around the windscreen and bulkhead.

I presume people use this waxoyl stuff over bad metal in blind hope it turn it back to solid metal again. In many circles over here the general perception now waxoyl devalues cars considerably because previous owners are trying to hide something under thick coating of black sticky under seal. It should only be used on fairly clean dry rust or cutting out the rust and used on new dry metal. Firm believer that Waxoyl branded products is more hindrance than help.

[ShakeyC]

(nt)

[ShakeyC]

Whilst preparing to remove the engine we discovered why it failed, the oil that came out the sump was a strange blue colour a sure sign whoever put the engine together smothered everything with gasket sealant. Pulled out the distributor again solid sealant down the holes inside the cylinder head oil galleries and so on… it suffered from oil starvation and seized itself. Along with several parts of burnt out wiring loom there was no hope of getting it running again.

Luckily have several m10’s in stock to choose from so we plucked one from early E30 chromie M10B18 with EFI in hope it be easier to live with everyday. Being a firm believer the best way to buy an engine is to see it running which I did without a single issue and pulled that instead of using one of my race engines. I wanted a quick fix that would drop right in with minimal hassle.

The original 4 speed gearbox was in similar bad shape as rest of the car, as for daily use intended our motorway cruising speeds an over drive 5 speed was essential for reasonable economy (our fuel pretty damn expensive). After spending weeks searching for a half sensible priced Getrag 245 I started machining up some uprated gearbox internals ready to overhaul the gearbox with all new heavy duty race spec cogs shafts bearings and seals whilst I was out of action to physically work on the car.

Then finally from Croatia I think a gearbox was advertised and I took a punt because over here things like this are horrendously over priced worn out junk. We struck a deal well below his asking price because I had no idea what condition the gearbox was truly like nor person I was dealing with. To my surprise turned up within a few days and was in reasonable good condition so I sent the nice fella a paypal gift over his asking price, there is some honest people out there and I’m always compelled to reward them.

Gearbox was promptly rebuilt and awaited fitting until I regained some mobility eager to attack more rust.

[ShakeyC]

Rust removal and treatment resumed weeks of cutting, grinding scraping and cleaning…

More layers of rust plated over ggrrr

Striping the wings and paint

Finally filling in holes in the floor seam welding the edges in before tackling elsewhere to start putting some strength back into the car. With access to A pillars from inside and out we started to rebuild A pillar from inside working out wards because repair panels available only replace the very outer skin not the 4 or so parts behind it where other panels meet and fold over.

[ShakeyC]

Now with some strength put back into the floppy shell I could properly attack the rust and start stripping it back to bare metal ready to treat and protect with some stuff from a company called Rustbuster. I used their products previously on a few cars and rust hasn’t come back in 10 yrs+ unlike waxoyl which just traps moisture against the metal which starts rusting from inside out.

I started with AS10 Aircraft paint stripper which is highly corrosive bubbles off paint and primer into dry waste which is far easier to handle. If I were doing a full resto I would media blast the entire car with nut shells because its far less labour intensive more coverage and faster. But the point was to patch it up to smoke about in so only attacked here the fungus lived.

With areas thoroughly stripped and rust cut out I treated the paint stripped areas with Phos-Kleen A which is a heavy rust removal you just wipe over and watch rust disappear. Then washed it with anti-flash rust to clean it off before phosphating with Phos-Kleen B which turns the treated areas into a light blue solid metal which can be welded primed or painted. The best thing about using separate staged you can see and make sure each step works and cheap 500ml bottle of each product is enough to do entire car.

Now the rust has been thoroughly removed and light surface rusts treated I sprayed Epoxy Mastic 121 over everything inside and out to ensure it stays protected from the elements

Man that was a lot of hard work

[ShakeyC]

Now for stone chip everything exposed to the elements underneath

I used ROBERLO stonechip because it was best product available it doesn't peel off easily has good sound deadening properties with good coverage, but i wanted to paint the underside body colour and this was only one compatible with paint and being the cheapest was a bonus too. 6 cans later

[zippy500]

Hi ShakeyC

Nice job there

I have a 2002 that needs the same common repairs that you are doing, did you lap weld the floor pans in.

How are your chassis rails are they rusted out?

[ShakeyC]

My front end was hanging, it was so bad up on the ramps the entire front end nose dived as you can see from pics above. By welding the inside A-pillers restored the proper structure keeping the windscreen in place, this allowed me to tackle the chassis rails from inside out making a box section inside the exposed channel. From outside I could safely cut old ones out then box over from outside effectively double skinned, we used zinctec sheet steel (which less prone to rust with high zinc content)

Then floors went in by tack welding it in position. With two of us one with heavy hammer/dolly inside the car helping to close the panel gaps whilst the other welded from underneath ensuring good penetration. Procedure was welding 1” leaving a 1” gap then welding another 1” then stop, move to opposite corner then do the same gradually completing the perimeter. Then moved to inside and did the same again then linished the welds back a little which admit I could done better if I could hold the angle grinder.

Few weeks after chassis rails became available from Wallotsch and Nesch… balls and were cheap too double balls

[ShakeyC]

Next up front wings, a test fit on the car showed it needed some work so out came dolly and hammer to beat them into shape and take out any minor flaws.

With this being new panels I wiped them down with Phos-Kleen to take of any micro surface rust followed by Epoxy Mastic 121 on both sides. Then sprayed stonechip on the inside too.

[ShakeyC]

Considering my original plan to make it safe and solid I had no intention of paint the entire car so I used this site to find out the colour which is Riveria Blue. By sheer luck I found paint shop which stocked original Glasruit paints, a litre of riveria please!

Once back at the workshop the paint was much darker more like navy blue, actually a horrible shade of blue. Without anything to take with me because everything was either rusted through or stripped clean i had nothing to hand to bring along to attempt colour matching the aged paint.

The guys at paint shop were really nice and let me mix up my own paint so started with 1litre base pigment Renault Leguna Blue which looked closest to my old 2002. Then added pigment of black, red, yellow, more black, more yellow, white, green mmm more green until it matched my imagination.

Back to workshop and I couldn’t tell if the match was ok with poor light conditions inside and outside with diggers excavating going less than 10m away the dust, smoke and debris blowing around. With little opportunity to clean or seal out the workshop it's time to get some paint on in the worst conditions possible to paint windy, dust, debris, insects, damp and cold not forgetting the crap lighting and oil water spitting compressor… ohh well just got to do with the best available.

Having a lot of trouble getting used to spray painting again my arms ached like hell and struggle to keep steady so I decided to paint in small stages engine bay, cabin, undersides, wings

Several coats later and couple weeks to dry the sun finally came out so took the oppertunity wheeled the 2002 outside to see how my colour match was...

How’s the colour match for a colour blind fool?

[ShakeyC]

Now all the repairs have been thoroughly attended too and painted it’s time to start fitting the mechanicals and interior back, where to start I asked myself hmmm

Started with the biggest lump the engine, considering it came from E30 a dummy fit and the sump clashed with subframe which I already knew it would so that was a wasted effort lol. E30 s14 style sump off and tried original 2002 sump which also clashed with oil pump and pickup again knew it wouldn’t fit but tried it anyway because couple moments to double check costs nothing.

Hybrid E30, M30, M10 oil pump coming right up

The rotor from E30 oil pump s14 sprocket with M30 pressure relief modified with 02 pickup to improve flow ready for future n/a tuning or turbo (both already I have from previous race cars). I must restrain myself and not waste time tinkering and tuning just get the turd running.

[ShakeyC]

Due to the sheer lack of any positive response I have renamed the British saying polished turd to your American phrase toffee apple both of which nobody seems to get?

Oh well I carry on with a more family friendly title the Toffee Apple, when I brought it was shiny on the outside and soft and crunchy on the inside …aka a toffee apple.

I give up…it’s a turd lol