L0W Tw0 Sr2002 Build

[dumpedDAILY]

So I've finally decided to start my build thread and terrorize my car haha. I bought this 1973 2002 from a 60 year old prior service Army guy from Myrtle Beach SC. He said that he bought this car while being stationed in Germany, making me the 2nd owner!! For some reason thats what sold me. The seller said that he took good care of the car and didn't want to get rid of it. I asked him what kind of rust was on the car and if it has been repainted and of course he swears otherwise. At least he kept all the receipts, books, catalogs, and some extra parts. Funny thing is that the car came with some fugly ass hub caps from his boat trailer. Long story short, I bought a decent and solid car and made it ugly.

I'm only working on some short term goals just to get it on the street for the time being. Hope to do an M2 or M42 Turbo swap.

Here are some of the plans that are definitely changing. For example the rims are for sale *wink wink*

Exterior:

Alpine White Paint or Imola Red- Painting the car myself on post (Ft.Stewart)

Jaymic 2 port Turbo style air dam

M-Tech II E30 Side skirt retrofit

MK1 Golf Wheel Arches

Black Badging all around

LED Tails

Custom Tail light lenses

E46 Xenon projector HID retrofit w/ clear lenses

Euro turn signals

Wheels, Suspension & Brakes:

Diamond Racing Wheels 16x8 et0 all around - for sale!

Falken 512s 205/40/16

MK1 Rabbit Bilstein front struts

GC coilovers

Massive BBK

Here are the pics of the car before I bought it. These were sent to me by the sellers friend who was helping him.

The funky hub caps that stuck out. I had to take it off with the quickness.

It took me awhile to even start messing with the car because it was pretty clean. So the first thing I started to do was mess with the rust under the back window.

The interior was still in good condition.

Door cards.

Front bumper.

Rear shot.

Ordered Diamond Racing Steelies 16x8 et 0 all around. I wanted to see how they looked on the car w/out tires and how far they stuck out.

I wanted to do something to the car and decided to attempt to cut the springs just to set ride height for putting my MK1 wheel arches on but I ended up cutting too much where the wheels wouldn't even turn. I had to leave the car at my friends house over night to figure out how I was going to get it home. I ended up putting spares on the car and it worked out ok. Still rubbed while making sharper turns. A U-Turn was more like a 3 point turn in the middle of the road haha.

The next night when I took the car home which is about 20 minutes away, 1 exit before mine the car suddenly pulled to the right really hard and scared the crap out of me. I pulled over on the side of the dark Georgia Hwy and a whole bunch of white smoke was coming from the right side. I thought something went wrong with the brakes. I drove the car about a mile to the gas station to look at it and it turns out that the wheel bearing totally welded its self to the spindle and cracked. I wish I would have taken pictures of it. My buddy came over to the gas station the next day and fixed it by using a side grinder, hammer, chisel and sanding the spindle back to a more working condition.

The only pic I have of that day was my wife in my car before she followed me back home once my friend was done fixing everything.

This was before we cut the front springs.

Cut 2 coils. YIKES!

Looks cool but it would rub at 1/4 turn.

Day 1

Tearing the car down was pretty unsuccessful. My wife helped me take off the trunk lid and I wanted to try a product by Klean Strip called Aircraft Paint Stripper. It didn't work as good as I thought it would. So I only used it for tight areas

The paint stripper.

Here is the 1st coat of stripper after 5 min.

Let it sit over night and here is the outcome.

Day 2

Sanded the trunk lid down with a 7" buffer/sander from Harbor Freight that I bought for 29 bucks with a coupon. I used a 280 grit that came in the package to sand. We also cut the MK1 wheel arches so we could see what it would look like on the car. The last thing we did was change up the rear shocks with some Bilstein sport shocks that I got from my buddy Pat AKA pwagon (FAQ Username). That concludes day 2.

Here is a pic of my buddy sanding the rest of the trunk lid

The almost final outcome of the trunk lid.

Dairy Queen run pic.

The stock shocks were done for. You compress them and stay compressed.

MK1 Wheel arches cut with a jigsaw. The top one was cut with a little extra space left from the arch bend just in case we messed up. The bottom 2 left uncut are what they would look like when you buy them.

The amount of arch cut.

Arches mounted up.

Day 3

Got down to sanding a majority of the car in about 4 hours. I've never sanded a car down like this before and didn't know what to expect. I think we got done with a lot in good time. My buddy bought the same sander/buffer I have and we both took down a side of the car.

Looked like Afghanistan in my garage haha.

You could see how thick the dust was with these 2 pics.

Decided to clean up and call it quits. The cleaning process took about an hour or so using a shop vac to blow all the dust out of the garage.

Last pic of the night.

Some day pics of the sanded car and more shots of the wheel arches.

Decided to use some of the paint striper.

Some rust.

The tail light lenses were melted and warped. The bulbs used were too big and made a nice indent.

Thats about all I have for now. I feel like I'm missing something. Up next will be gutting the interior and cutting the fender to put the MK1 wheel arches on.

More to follow. Thanks for looking!!

Edited September 21, 2013 by L0W TW0

[AndyS]

Where did you get the mark 1 arches? They would be way too cool on my M 42 turbo car.

[dumpedDAILY]

Where did you get the mark 1 arches? They would be way too cool on my M 42 turbo car.

If I tell you, I'd have to kill you haha jk. I got them from a company called klokkerholm. The link is http://www.klokkerholmusa.com/servlet/the-13/1975-dsh-1984-volkswagen-rabbit-2/Detail

You got a diy on the M42 swap??

[AndyS]

Naw, I'm a payer not a player! Jake b did the swap for me. He has a thread on it in the project page and he currently is doing his LS swap into an E 28. Thread there on that one as well.

Thanks for the link!

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,0/page,viewtopic/t,361897/

[dumpedDAILY]

Naw, I'm a payer not a player! Jake b did the swap for me. He has a thread on it in the project page and he currently is doing his LS swap into an E 28. Thread there on that one as well.

Thanks for the link!

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,0/page,viewtopic/t,361897/

No prob on the link. I thought more FAQers would have gone with MK1 arches. LOL I was thinking about paying also on my swap but since im tearin my whole car down I figured I'd attempt it. Still debating on what swap I'm going with. How do you like your M42 Turbo?

[roadhog0]

Looks like you're doing good! And stock 2002 shocks arent suppose to rebound, they arent gas charged. They work amazingly well on stock springs! I'll definitely be following, looks like some fun!

[AndyS]

Haven't driven it yet. reports from MI tend to the tire burning sphincter clutchin' s14 side of speed. When I owned my M2 it was the fastest car I had ever driven except for my S38 chipped powered 535, if this thing is close I might be in trouble as I am old and feeble now.

[dumpedDAILY]

Looks like you're doing good! And stock 2002 shocks arent suppose to rebound, they arent gas charged. They work amazingly well on stock springs! I'll definitely be following, looks like some fun!

Thanks! Hopefully I can really get some work done soon. I only get to work on the car on Saturdays. So far so good. Also will be getting some new shoes! BBS RS.

[Guest]

If you've still got more to strip, try this stuff. It strips well, smells like oranges, and can be used inside. http://www.citristrip.com/

I'd also suggest an M10 turbo. Sure DOHC is more impressive under the hood but an M10 is cheaper to build, cheaper to replace when you blow something up, lighter, easier to fit.

[dumpedDAILY]

If you've still got more to strip, try this stuff. It strips well, smells like oranges, and can be used inside. http://www.citristrip.com/

I'd also suggest an M10 turbo. Sure DOHC is more impressive under the hood but an M10 is cheaper to build, cheaper to replace when you blow something up, lighter, easier to fit.

That citristrip stuff works good on cars? I might try an m10 out for now and possibly an M2 later.

[Guest]

I actually haven't used it on a car yet, I used it to strip a set of wheels and an electric guitar. I have a panel I could test it out on though, I'll try that and let you know.

[dumpedDAILY]

Sweet. Let me know how that works out. That aircraft paint stripper works ok if you sand down the clear coat.

[heist]

looking good! keep it up!

[dumpedDAILY]

Haha. Thanks bro. I just hope mine will look as good as yours does. I won't be able to do a swap any time soon for the right price. I could do an M42 swap. Found the motor+tranny for 700 bucks. All that is up in the air just like the rims.

Thinking about rockin these bad boys. Not sure yet...

BBS RS 16x8 Rear 16x7 Front et0

Before.

After

[carrosene]

Don't know who's cars these are but I'm assuming they have the same arches you are using. It's a good look.