California Roundie Revival - an unusual perspective

[CubbyChowder]

Hello everyone! My name is Mikey, I'm 21 years old, I just bought a 1973 '02 and I couldn't be happier! I fell in love with these cars about a year ago, and have wanted one since. I've been researching them here and there and decided I wanted to buy one and make it a fun, reliable, unique daily driver with a lot of character. I have a lot of plans for this car and can't wait to learn a lot while working on it! I will be honest, a lot of you might not like my plans for it as it involves air suspension, custom made metal fenders, wide wheels, VW interior, and all sorts of other non-purist sin. With that said, I am excited to become part of the community and it seems there are a lot of kind, helpful people on here.

Now a little bit about the car:

In typical young and dumb fashion, I pretty much bought the car sight unseen. After weeks of searching with no luck, I pretty much jumped on the opportunity after seeing it on craigslist. The seller was a good dude and he could tell I was excited about it. I made a 5 hour drive up early yesterday, checked it out for a bit and bought it! It runs good, interior is poo, exterior is pretty rough, rust is minimal, but thats exactly what I wanted. I will be doing a lot of work on this car and plan to completely transform it. It seems to have previously been in some sort of accident as the left quarter panel was obviously replaced with a Colorado orange one and the driver door was replaced with an Agave green one (right color names?). It seems there is a lot of bondo on the car, and I mean a lot, which is the biggest let down to me. I almost got a bit discouraged today when I realized there was a lot more than I initially realized, but I decided I'm not going to let that bother me and I'm going to follow through with my plans anyways. Like I said, it's a learning project, and I'll have to deal with unforeseen obstacles regardless.

I have an awesome spot to work on the car up at my dad's house, he lives on a somewhat abandoned vineyard/winery (he doesn't own it, but is the only one living on the property). Tons of space and tools for me to work, and I just bought a new Lincoln 180HD mig welder, which I will be putting to great use to get this car rust free, on a custom air suspension setup, and for the custom fenders. I want to do as much work myself as humanly possible, and I'm eager to learn. Is anyone even still reading? Here are some pictures I took today as well as a few pics of the small amount of dismantling I did today. Enjoy!

Then I did a little bit of work, took some interior stuff out and removed some trim. Didn't really accomplish too much today, just spent most of the day coming up with a gameplan:

And here's one my girlfriend took of me about an hour after buying it

[CubbyChowder]

3/1/2012:

Got to work on the car a bit more today. Continued to dismantle the interior to see how much rust I am really working with. After getting the interior bare, I was glad to see that the rust really isn't that bad. Mainly surface rust, however I will have to repair a few small spots. I came across some very half-assed fixes, but overall nothing overwhelming. I also found a couple cool little artifacts from the 80's! Let's get onto some pictures:

First off, there are a few spots on the car that have a ridiculous amount of bondo, mainly the rear driver's side fender. Luckily I'm making my own fenders so most of that bondo will be gone. Look how thick it is!

The driver's side door (which has been replaced) had a pretty half-assed door panel solution which included welding it to the door. Got my grinder out and got it off:

Don't really know what happened here, I just need to re-weld it up again:

Passenger side is clean:

Then there's this thing. I'm assuming it's some sort of aftermarket air conditioning unit? Any info on this would be helpful, I'll most likely end up selling it and make my own center console:

The wiring for the stereo was absolutely terrible. My cat could've done a better wiring job than this:

Some before's, during's and after's of the interior dismantling. I removed all of the sound deadening. Hopefully this stuff isn't sought after because I pretty much ruined all of it. Was it stupid of me to tear everything out? I wanted to make sure the floorpans were solid:

As you can see, the rust really isn't that bad. Majority of it is surface rust, but I do need to do little repairs here and there. And here are some of the cool little artifacts I found from the 80's:

JFK matches:

Shell Gas Card expired 1988. Maybe I should try to use it

That's all for today. I can't take too much more apart yet because I still need to drive it one more time before really getting into the build. I am meeting up with Derek from AccuAir suspension, he wants to take a look and see what route I should go to make a custom bag setup. I will be doing the whole install myself, I just need his input on what bags to get. Enjoy!

[Colin]

Are sure you don't want to go static coilovers? Several of us have gotten these cars pretty low on them and you don't have to go through all the trouble of bags.

[CubbyChowder]

Are sure you don't want to go static coilovers? Several of us have gotten these cars pretty low on them and you don't have to go through all the trouble of bags.

I understand where you're coming from, but to be honest air suspension is just something that I really want. Especially with AccuAir e-Level, which is awesome air management. I don't mind going through the trouble of installing air suspension, it's just something I've always wanted.

[Colin]

I hear you. My whole thing is that these cars a huge laugh to drive when you get them low and tightened up. It's a shame to lose some of that with bags especially when you can get it just as low on a static setup.

[CubbyChowder]

I hear you. My whole thing is that these cars a huge laugh to drive when you get them low and tightened up. It's a shame to lose some of that with bags especially when you can get it just as low on a static setup.

Air suspension is very tunable, and when set up correctly it can handle surprisingly well. There's a common misconception that bags = crappy handling, but a lot of people also associate bags with low rider impala's and what not. I actually worked at AccuAir for a few months and learned a lot about air suspension in that time, but I have yet to bag a car. I'm looking to create something that has a jaw dropping stance while parked, but has the adjustability to dodge crazy dips, speed bumps, driveways, etc. My daily driving height will still be low. I just like the adjustability and it will handle good, I'm sure this whole build won't sit well with a lot of members on here, and I can understand why. It's just a personal preference

[Colin]

I hear you. My whole thing is that these cars a huge laugh to drive when you get them low and tightened up. It's a shame to lose some of that with bags especially when you can get it just as low on a static setup.

Air suspension is very tunable, and when set up correctly it can handle surprisingly well. There's a common misconception that bags = crappy handling, but a lot of people also associate bags with low rider impala's and what not. I actually worked at AccuAir for a few months and learned a lot about air suspension in that time, but I have yet to bag a car. I'm looking to create something that has a jaw dropping stance while parked, but has the adjustability to dodge crazy dips, speed bumps, driveways, etc. My daily driving height will still be low. I just like the adjustability and it will handle good, I'm sure this whole build won't sit well with a lot of members on here, and I can understand why. It's just a personal preference

Fair enough as it is your car and it is exciting for me to see all the different things that people create. I don't think you'll get any negativity here as there are quite a number of people out here that have been customizing these cars for decades so there is no need to feel like you're fighting against anyone.

That's cool if you want to bag it, I was just trying to chime in as someone who daily drives a very low 02 on 16s and have it handling quite well.

[CubbyChowder]

Fair enough as it is your car and it is exciting for me to see all the different things that people create. I don't think you'll get any negativity here as there are quite a number of people out here that have been customizing these cars for decades so there is no need to feel like you're fighting against anyone.

That's cool if you want to bag it, I was just trying to chime in as someone who daily drives a very low 02 on 16s and have it handling quite well.

I appreciate the input. I guess I'm just used to a community that "flames" on any opportunity. I came from MKIV VW's (2000-2005 Golf/GTI's/Jetta's), and those forums are ridiculous, they're very frustrating to be a part of.

I'd be interested in seeing your 02, it sounds pretty cool. Where can I see some pictures?

[Colin]

I've since dropped it more from this height about another 2".

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,50/page,viewtopic/t,364809/highlight,/

[CubbyChowder]

I've since dropped it more from this height about another 2".

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,50/page,viewtopic/t,364809/highlight,/

oh yeah I've totally seen your car, just through searching and whatnot. Love it, definitely one of my favorites that I've seen.

[GoFaSSter]

There should be an 02 meet out at your dad's place. It looks beautiful and more importantly plenty of room. Looks like a neat project.

[carrosene]

Beautiful photos. Good luck with build. I'm curious to see what you do.

[AceAndrew]

Looks like a fun project, looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

You'll find several others already doing/ have done very similar setups to what your shooting for, not so much an 'unusual perspective' any more, but will still be interesting to see your take on it.

[CubbyChowder]

thanks everyone for the interest in my build!

Got a little bit more done today. Met up with my friend Derek who is the main sales guy at AccuAir Suspension, and we talked air suspension on the 2002 for a bit. I have a pretty good idea now of what setup I will be running, but it's going to be a little bit before everything gets ordered. I basically need to find the wheel setup that I will be running and base everything off them.

Brought it back up to my Dad's house and continued on the dismantling process. I got the whole front end taken apart today. Both the front fenders were welded onto the body in one spot which was kind of stupid. As usual, bondo everywhere, it almost seems as if the entire body has a layer of bondo. Kind of a bummer, but oh well, gotta work with what I have! Sorry if some photo's seem unnecessary, I'm just trying to document the build as good as possible

rear driver's side

rear passenger's side

front driver's side

front passenger's side

dirty

OEM hubcaps in good shape, are these worth anything?

front fender welded in above the headlight. You can see on the bottom of the headlight where it separates. Stupid idea in my opinion, just had to get the ol' grinder out. You can see how much bondo there is:

Inner fender, barely any rust!

Passenger fender, ready to be cut

cut

that's it for today. Going back tomorrow morning to start pressure washing everything and taking more stuff apart. Havin' fun!

[Colin]

The fenders are braised from the factory at that spot which is quite nice actually. You can just heat the filler out with a torch. It just takes a few minutes.

If the fenders have been replaced, it is possible that they were welded rather than braised, but this is unlikely.