From Lurking to Working

[adamjspooner]

I've been lurking on the FAQ for long enough. It's time to start working.

Some History

I saw the movie Backdraft when I was 9. I'm not sure why my parents let me watch it: sex, violence, arsonists. We weren't even allowed to watch The Simpsons. Anyways, William Baldwin's character drove a 1971 2002:

Even at 9, I knew I wanted one.

Fast forward to 2005. I purchased my first 02; I had just turned 23. It was a 1974 Sahara with dark brown racing "stripes". I won it in an eBay auction for $1877. I was living in High Point, NC, and it was in Lebanon, OR. The seller agreed to pick my friend and me up from PDX. We drove from PDX, to Salinas, CA (where my mom lives), to the Grand Canyon, to Vegas, and then non-stop (except for gas and food) to North Carolina in shifts. I drove the night shift. It was such a great adventure.

Here are a few pictures of the rust bucket:

I was such a noob. I didn't even appreciate all the original decals.

Great seats. Horrible condition.

I sold it in 2007 when I got a job in Manhattan.

The 2002 Project, 2.0

We left New York in 2009, and we moved back to North Carolina in 2010. Finally feeling settled, I had the urge to fulfill my childhood dream. So, the hunt began. I found The One after a few months of searching Craigslist. It was in Chicago. Other than a few pictures from the seller, I purchased it site-unseen. So, my wife and I flew to Chicago for yet another 02 road trip. It was February 8, 2011, and Chicago had just experienced a massive blizzard. I wrote about that trip on my personal site. So, I won't retell it here.

Here are a couple of pictures of the little guy:

Apparently I have a thing for taking pictures of 02s in the snow.

My brother-in-law and I digging it out.

And as the story goes, the 02 sat dormant for a few months. We were living in a rental property with no garage. So, I did the best I could to weather-proof it while we shopped for a house. Luckily, we found a house only a few months later. The best part was the detached garage with heat!

So, I started the teardown. I wish I had taken some pictures before I started, but I was too eager to tear things apart:

Flat Colorado-ish over Malaga. Time to start thinking about colors...

Finding E21 2,0 stamped on the side of the head was a nice surprise.

The mangled nose and air dam holes.

Pulling and labeling the wiring harness. Not as much fun as I thought it'd be.

Uh oh. The first signs of cancer in the turn signal socket.

Holy! I found it behind some aluminum tape...

The worst of the cancer so far. I found this under a 50-pound bag of ice salt.

Forward Thinking

I'm a noob; there's no doubt about that. I'm mechanically inclined, and I used to bother my dad while he tinkered on his Spitfire. I've been reading everything I can find on the FAQ each step of the way, as well as the other well-known resources (Macartney's book, the Bosch EFI book, the Stella project's site, etc.). I'm sure I'll run into problems, but I'm excited about learning each step of the way and, hopefully, only failing a few times.

I started gathering upgrades as soon as I bought the car. Here's my overly-ambitious list of what I intend to do:

• 
  [*:3328f0bbbe]Tear it down to its frame and rustproof it (Is POR-15 the best option?)
  [*:3328f0bbbe]Replace as much sheet metal as possible (NOS nose, front fenders, rocker arm covers, and tail section already acquired. Thanks, Lev!)
  [*:3328f0bbbe]Have it sandblasted and painted (I'm leaning heavily on Fjord and calling him "Harrison". Though Polaris is still an option, and I'd call it "SEGFAULT"; I'm a programmer and a dork.)
  [*:3328f0bbbe]Rebuild the engine (I hope it's only full of good surprises.)
  [*:3328f0bbbe]Upgrade the suspension (It already has some IE springs and Bilsteins. IE kit acquired.)
  [*:3328f0bbbe]Upgrade the transmission and rear diff (5-speed and 3.91 already acquired.)
  [*:3328f0bbbe]Upgrade the interior (Custom leather/fabric interior acquired. Thanks, Frank!)
  [*:3328f0bbbe]Upgrade to EFI and a distributor-less system (I have most of what I need, only lacking a MegaSquirt.)
  [*:3328f0bbbe]Upgrade to 15" wheels (OZ Alpina replicas already acquired.)
  [*:3328f0bbbe]Upgrade taillights to LED (NOS taillights acquired. LDE kit acquired.)
  [*:3328f0bbbe]Upgrade headlights to HID (Kit already acquired.)
  [*:3328f0bbbe]Upgrade to Euro turn signals (NOS signals acquired.)
  [*:3328f0bbbe]Upgrade to IE's aluminum radiator (Already acquired.)
  [*:3328f0bbbe]Upgrade to Wilwood 15" BBKs (Front and rear. Already acquired.)
  [*:3328f0bbbe]Upgrade to Euro bumpers (Already acquired.)
  [*:3328f0bbbe]Refurbish the bits and pieces I can (heater box, pedal box, glass, chrome, etc.)
  [*:3328f0bbbe]Upgrade the bits and pieces I can't
  

[FunElan]

You have a lot of work ahead of you! Can't wait to see where it goes. Great story btw!!

-Matt

[adamjspooner]

I attended my first welder's class last night at my local community college in preparation for repairing and replacing my sheet metal. It's a 225-hour course, but it focuses on SMAW (stick). I'll be using GMAW (MIG) on my car. Is this course worth my time? Will the techniques and artistry learned in the class be applicable to MIG?

[roadhog0]

Closes thing to MIG from stick in my opinion is the welding pattern (going in circles, c's, etc) other than that the technique is different, the speed is different, etc.

[jonjank]

Other than wearing gloves and a hood and using electricity they are totally different. I would talk to the instructor and see if you can spend your lab time working on mig... if you can't already switch to a mig class. It is worth your while to get as much time welding as possible. With some over the shoulder instruction and lots of practice anybody can mig weld...

p.s. welding is awesome.

[oz_tom]

Keep us updated as you go - Was orange the original colour it came from BM?

[07GTIMYFAST]

Agree, Mig is way different, although the principal is the same. For the money you spend on the class you could probably pick up a little 110 mig welder and a bottle of gas and start practicing on scrap metal. You could use flux wire in substitute for the gas but I don't recommend it having done it and switched to gas. Most of your work is going to be tack welding. sheet metal does not dissipate heat well so focus on doing little tack welds lasting no longer than a second or two. When you practice you will burn through a lot so use scrap metal for awhile. Adjust your current and wire speed for a specific thickness.

[stricht8]

Stick welding is fairly irrelevant to your task. Learn MIG and pick up some metal fabrication skills.

[adamjspooner]

Thanks for the advice everyone. It sounds like learning stick is a waste of my time. Given there are no MIG welding classes nearby, how should I learn? Should I pick up some sheet metal, a DVD and book or two, and just wing it on scraps until I'm comfortable? I don't want to learn on the car, and I don't want to suck.

@oz_tom, the original color was Malaga, as far as I can tell, which isn't one of my favorites. This car won't be stock. So, I'm not concerned with keeping the original color. Is there a way to know the factory color for sure? I've seen people post a message from BMW about their car's history. How can I find that out? I've used the VIN decoder which doesn't really tell a lot.

[stricht8]

Yes, just buy a MIG welder but get one with the shielding gas setup. Don't buy a cheap Harbor Freight variety. Get a decent one such as Lincoln, Hobart, etc. Practice on some scrap and remember when butt welding sheetmetal you want to make a series of tacks about 3/4" apart and then weld between the tacks skipping around the panel so as not to concentrate to much heat in one spot. You will fool around with your heat and wire feed settings to get the optimum settings for your application. You'll figure it out after a good day or two of practice.

[stymee]

This is all I needed to reconstruct my rust bucket.

I had a little MIG/stick welding experience prior to starting my project. It didn't help at ALL with welding sheet metal. Laying big, pretty beads on 1/2" thick I beams is easy. Butt welding 20 gauge sheet metal is what's hard! I just practiced on some scrap metal until I was comfortable. Unless you can find a class specific to sheet metal/auto body work, I don't know how much it would help. Good luck!

[adamjspooner]

Thanks for the advice. I dropped the welding class based on everyone's feedback, and I'm ordering all my welding equipment tonight. Now I just need to find some scrap sheet metal...

@stymee, I've been following your rebuild and trying to learn from your welding. It's looking good. Keep it up! Also, you're only an hour and a half from me. I should just come over there and bug you while you're welding.

This weekend's project is to clean and organize the garage. Car parts are everywhere; I'm having to tiptoe around to not crush things. I bought the same shelving unit H_Krix mentioned in his The Road to Phoenix project so I can start storing things vertically instead of horizontally. I'll post before and after pictures. Trust me, it's pretty bad.

Oh, and I need to replace the universal joints in my Disco.

[adamjspooner]

I was afraid I wouldn't be able to clean and organize the garage today; there was a 90% chance of rain. I needed to put the shelves together in the driveway. So, I started first thing at 8 a.m. The rain started at 9 a.m., and I was about 15 minutes away from completion. So, the shelves got a little wet, but they're together and holding plenty of goodies. Without further ado, before and after shots...

I told you it was bad.

Glory. Look at all that space.

And one more from a different angle.

Next week, the engine comes out.

[07GTIMYFAST]

My best tip for you when you start welding: prep work is very important before you weld make sure the surface is as clean as you can get it. And a auto-darkening helmet makes a huuuuge difference when you are doing hundreds of little tack welds trust me. Also keep the angle grinder handy, you are going to need it.

[adamjspooner]

So, I've been bouncing back and forth on what welding equipment to buy (between two Hobarts, really), and I'm not sure what to get. Will this Auto Arc (by Hobart) have enough power http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002VECKTM/ or should I look at the Hobart 140? The Auto Arc kit is definitely cheaper, and it comes with a lot of the equipment I'd buy if I went with the 140.