What did you do to your 2002 today !

[ECL]

10 hours ago, OldRoller said:

As the New Year approaches I find myself anxiously hoping for a little more sanity, a lot less drama, and resurrection of the patience I once had. We will see.

Today continues the tedious process of cleaning, straightening and un-denting 47 year old trim for the 76. It's a pleasurable task! A wooden profile, small punches made of soft wood, light hammer. Then polishing in stages. It's a zen thing, watching the hands work...

Took a break and mounted the Panasports. 

 

Tail light lenses are repo's, and the turn signal section sucks. Too orange, they're coming off. 

 

Redirected energies to the 74, worked on the brakes. New hoses and rotors/calipers from a FAQ member. Booster and master cylinder, bleeding, etc. The tasks continue. 

 

Beat wishes to all in the New Year! Cheers, make it one to remember!

She's looking really sweet!

 

I agree about the tail iight lenses.  I bought a set on eBay and they are very orange.

Having a bit of wheel envy on my end (mine came with bottle caps) and those Panasports look terrific!  What size are they and what rubber are you running?  Where did you source the rims?
 

Happy New Year!

[OldRoller]

25 minutes ago, ECL said:

What size are they and what rubber are you running?  Where did you source the rims?

Panasports came directly from the manufacturer, 15x6. Running 195/50x15 Hancooks. Has IE 22mm sway bars front and rear, and HR springs... but still sitting higher than expected. I will have to work on that. 

Edited December 29, 2023 by OldRoller

[D.martijn]

After finishing up the rocker panel and quarter panel repair/replacement the 02 got rotated on to it's side and the backside of the inner sill got cleaned up.

In the meantime I stitch welded the plate of the rear subframe point to the floor.

 

Also the flange of the rear wheel housing and little section of boot floor got ground flush

 

And covered in Corroless anti rust paint

 

 

Next up we leveled the car again on by putting some blocks of wood under the welded frame where the body sits on top of. As well as putting on the brace again that connects both subframe points and supported it by some jackstands.

Then I got started on removing the brace between the two rear wheel housings. This part is pretty much unobtanium but I luckily managed to find a good donor parts in Germany.

 

Some of the rust that was present between the brace and boot floor. I'm happy that we decided to remove this panel!

 

 

And the rust that's between to sheets, I decided to use just grind the spotwelds out with the little die grinder. Made quick work of them.

 

Rust on the floor section cleaned up with the strip and clean disc and some more work with a metal wire brush on the drill. However there was still quite a bit of rust deep in the pits of the sheet metal.

 

I had heard of a product called "Rustyco" before online and I remembered we had a small test bottle at work but I had never used it before. This floor section was the perfect test piece to see if it truly removed rust as advertised.

The instructions tell you to put a layer of product onto the rust, let it sit for a while (minimum 30min)  and also agitate it with a steel brush to loosen up the rust more/faster.

 

And some after pictures, all of the rust has been removed. Very happy with the result, I bought myself a 1L container

 

 

 

 

While the product was doing it's thing, I got started on repairing one of the sides of the new reinforcement brace.

Luckily we were able to save this section of our original panel and added it to the new one.

I did have to add a new flange section since I cut that one off from the original panel

 

 

 

I also enlarged the opening for the wiring loom since this was quite a bit of difference between both panels

 

Also the seat bracket got welded on to this panel, while I was at my work today I also sandblasted it.

Next step will be drilling some holes to plug weld it into the car

 

[0257]

Finally got all the parts together to install my newly refurbed LSD — a 3.64 e36 core inside a 1975 case.  As always, there were surprises.  One was a double surprise: Zouave has been running a 1977 e21 open diff and the new diff’s case was cast in 1975.  So not only did I not know there’d be a 1/4” gap between the output flange faces of the diff and the CVs (currently shopping for spacers), but I had previously understood that all the shortie diffs before around ‘79 were the same width.  Though I didn’t measure the case before installing, I did measure the distance from the flange collar to the flange case, and the difference does not appear to be there.  Thus, I was really surprised to see a ‘75 case narrower than a ‘77 case. Anyone seen that one?

 

The other surprise?  The driveshaft is now about 1/32” too long to get on the diff input flange.  Diff is hammered all the way back on the mount, so no room for adjustment.  That I probably should have foreseen as a possibility.  Bound to have been some differences in the dimensions in there somewhere when you stick a big gear in that case.

 

Ah, progress! 

[tarheelbob]

Started the front subframe removal on my '76. Engine braced, transmission supported. Motor mount bolts pulled. Steering shaft pinch bolts removed (Note to self: remove brake booster and master cylinder next time! THAT was tedious...). Barring any setbacks, subframe should be pulled free tomorrow!

 

- Bob

[David Layton]

Got the tii Cold Start working!!! Thanks Jason P for teaching me how to fish (for missing wires)!

 

[M3This]

Got the taillights back in since the trim rings came back from polishing as well as installed the 2002 emblem and mvp tail trim. Now just needs the trunk lock and and SOC bumper installed. 

[Son of Marty]

M3 better hurry you might need that snow shovel next week. Your car is really looking nice.

[M3This]

2 minutes ago, Son of Marty said:

M3 better hurry you might need that snow shovel next week. Your car is really looking nice.

hahaha. Been so warm and dry up here this year. Don’t even have one day on the mountain yet this year. 
 

and thanks for the kind words. 

[Bibm5]

Car is still in the shop but finally just put the puzzle together my wife gave me for Christmas (two years ago). Time to glue up and frame it. 

[Shiparino]

The Eastwood Chassis Black paint is always so satisfying when it goes on…

[popovm]

@D.martijn, great post as always. That Rustyco stuff looks great but it doesn’t look like it would be easy to get in the U.S.  Any idea what the active ingredients are? I’m wondering if it’s similar to evaporust or something else we can get here. 

[D.martijn]

15 hours ago, popovm said:

@D.martijn, great post as always. That Rustyco stuff looks great but it doesn’t look like it would be easy to get in the U.S.  Any idea what the active ingredients are? I’m wondering if it’s similar to evaporust or something else we can get here. 

 

Thanks!

 

Yeah it's really good. Didn't want to sandblast inside the workshop so it's a good alternative and a lot cleaner.

 

Unfortunately I have no idea, also can't seem to find anymore info about it as well.

 

Does the evaporust also exist in a gel form?

[autokunst]

2 hours ago, D.martijn said:

Does the evaporust also exist in a gel form?

Yes, Evaporust does come in a gel version.  Do you think the Rustyco is a similar formulation (a chelating agent)?

[tarheelbob]

Dropped front subframe and pulled the whole m/c - booster assembly. Lots of new stuff going in. All brackets, frames, mount boxes, etc. getting cleaned, blasted, primed and painted.