Finishing my Dad's 2002tii-Legacy Project Story

[danco_]

Would look good on there.

 

If you're up for it, you should acquire a spare hood lock bar and restore that.

 

The oversprayed white one in your car is worth swapping out.

 

GL 

[ray_]

There's no aluminum spacers between the struts and the body, right?

 

Nice pic!

 

Cheers,

[SydneyTii]

19 hours ago, bimmer_b said:

Was able to get one of the limited run Mason Engineering strut braces thanks to my friend Dorian. Current strut top studs were shortened by my dad 😒 so I can't bolt this down until I get the new front struts in. But otherwise I think it will be a good addition. 

Now that’s nice!

I just bought the polished Jaymic one, but yours is really nice, will look great when it’s mounted.

where did you put your battery, did I miss that post🙄 I’m getting old😜

Edited December 4, 2022 by SydneyTii

['76mintgrün'02]

On 12/3/2022 at 6:02 AM, bimmer_b said:

Current strut top studs were shortened by my dad 😒 so I can't bolt this down until I get the new front struts in.

 

You can simply swap out the pressed in studs, as opposed to installing new mounts.  If you're due for new mounts too, they're available with long or short studs, but the short ones weren't long enough for the strut brace that I installed (temporarily-- I removed it in favor of a stock air cleaner) and the long studs are quite long, to accommodate the original aluminum spacers; so you might be cutting those too.  I fiddled around a lot with stud lengths on my car, since I went from thick spacers, to none, to adding a brace, to removing it, to putting the spacers back in.  

 

That brace will make setting the dwell and timing a bit more challenging.  Using Pertronix in place of points will minimize the inconvenience and some people actually prefer to set timing using the front of the engine, as opposed to the flywheel. 

 

(I'm not going back through all twenty-three pages, but I'm going to guess you've eliminated the points already).

[beammmer]

On 12/4/2022 at 9:38 AM, '76mintgrün'02 said:

(I'm not going back through all twenty-three pages, but I'm going to guess you've eliminated the points already).

 

You should, it's an absolutely great story!!

 

Don

['76mintgrün'02]

Agreed.  I've been following along, but don't remember that particular detail.  Do you?

[bimmer_b]

@SydneyTii My dad had relocated it when he was first working on it, so it's in the trunk. @'76mintgrün'02 I have new struts for the front anyways and new strut tops, but I wasn't sure whether the would be long enough either since I think I went for the shorter versions (i'm not sure ill have to check my part number again). So when I have the suspension out I will check length and adjust if needed. Any particular studs you ended up using when you were messing around with it?

And no, I haven't yet upgraded. 

On 12/4/2022 at 10:38 AM, '76mintgrün'02 said:

 

 

(I'm not going back through all twenty-three pages, but I'm going to guess you've eliminated the points already).

 

[bimmer_b]

On 12/3/2022 at 11:25 AM, danco_ said:

Would look good on there.

 

If you're up for it, you should acquire a spare hood lock bar and restore that.

 

The oversprayed white one in your car is worth swapping out.

 

GL 

Yeahhhhhh the bodyshop kind just painted everything since they didn't know anything about these cars and I didn't feel like dealing with since I saw it once it was already in,  it so I've left it. But If I find a spare maybe I will or if I get bored enough over the winter maybe I'll take this out and fix it. 

['76mintgrün'02]

54 minutes ago, bimmer_b said:

Any particular studs you ended up using when you were messing around with it?

And no, I haven't yet upgraded. 

 

It makes me smile, knowing you're still running points/condenser.  Notice I did not use the word "upgrade" when referring to Pertronix?    Now that the strut brace is covering the distributor, Pertronix starts making more sense.  It's also a nice bandaid for worn distributor cam lobes.

 

I wound up buying flange head bolts and cutting the heads off, leaving the flanges and they're no longer a press fit.  I think Blunttech can get you longer studs sold separately.  Then you can trim to fit, if they're too long.

 

Here's one of the posts I made about mine... and an extra photo from a different post, showing a cutting action shot!

 

 

 

 

[bimmer_b]

@'76mintgrün'02 Strut top stud solution update if you're interested.  My friend Dorian suggested using fixed camber plates from @BLUNT so the tops will have the longer studs, I still get some camber, and I don't have to source new studs to fit the tops correctly. 😁

 

Edited December 30, 2022 by bimmer_b

[bimmer_b]

Finally started on the front suspension too. Thankfully, @thehackmechanic had a good thread on this job. Not quite as low as I would've liked once I got it back on so I may mess around with it a bit more until I'm happy with how it sits. 

[ray_]

Let it settle in a bit. But yeah, you may end up needed to remove a coil or so.

 

... You saw the tech article(s) on suspension rehab, right!

 

Happy 2023 to you!

 

Cheers,

[bimmer_b]

@ray_ Any specific article(s)?

[ray_]

Oh like you're incapable of searching!

 

 

https://www.bmw2002faq.com/articles/technical-articles/suspension-and-steering/suspension-rehab-r99/

[bimmer_b]

@ray_, thanks. I also have some bushings I need to put in but hate suspension work so I've been avoiding it haha