The car I shouldn't have bought (but like anyway)

[deschodt]

This is a little blog about fixing a car I should not have bought in the first place... But I kinda like her... There she sits next to her sis' from that other german automaker.

After looking for 6 months and not finding a single roundie in Florida, I got this thing the day before my wife gave birth, so you could say my head was elsewhere... I then paid $4500, bought it at night, it had rust in some places but I ignored that, no gas pedal - I ignored that too, and as it turned out a cracked head showed up its ugly "head" later...

I promptly sank 100% of the purchase price and then some into the car wit the help of a donor car, just redoing brakes (320), shocks, all brakes and gas lines, exhaust, a new improved radiator, wheels (minilite style), tires, oh yeah, and a 5 speed conversion... And did I mention a new head ? ;-)

That was before I looked too closely at the rust issues which I had been told were non structural, so by then there was no turning back ! Nothing's awful or structural, as advertised, but even cosmetic stuff can get expensive! I wonder why I always do that to myself... I got enough money in this base 2002 to buy a Tii outright ! (around $11K to date, so this for one, is NOT a post about "Look at the deal I got")

Which brings us to today's topic, the little bubble in the fender !

Beware of the little bubble ! Be afraid, verrry afraid !

As it turns out the inner fender, towards the trunk, was gone tooa after poking thru the muck !

Not that bad you say? well, let's keep digging 'til we find goodmetal ! Surely it's gotta be there, close by !

Nope, still not there...

Ah, there, good metal ;-) I thought we were gonna have to go all the way to the door !

View from the trunk, is that...the floor ? But yes, it is !

Magic of the internet->straight to the welded bits (Ok, so I lost the pictures)- the inner fender part was hardest to make. It may not look 100% factory there but it's invisible and functional, and rust free now... The outer bits are BMW parts...

Underneath is closed up too..Yes that is a 356 in the background, we don't have to be exclusive when it comes to german cars, do we ?

With primer! But not that nice up close, wavy and not a perfect lip...

It was clearly not good enough, so it took some more hammering the metal out, another coat of light bondo and now the panel is nice and flat with a nice arch!

more primer, again ! more sanding, and more primer, you know the drill.

Ain't it better ?

Other angle...

Straight enough ?

Flip side...

Another bubble in the longitudinal succumbed to the Dremel! At least the metal behind that is solid and clean !

Yes, 2 spots on this side. The other side is surprisingly clean ! The front one has some rust behind the outer fender, I will clean that up too...

Repaired... With a left over piece of dishwasher metal (what?? it's the same gauge and if it's good enough for a dishwasher, well....)

So far I like the car, but I am NOT impressed with how it's built in terms of propensity to rust... The trunk glues to the fender with it's water retaining channel is sure to be rotting the fender sooner or later. The trim under the door is a collector for mushy leaves and debris... The trim clips are seemingly designed to let water get in behind the outer defenses and rot the longitudinals, dunno, seems to me those things must have started rusting 3 days after they hit the road back in the day !

If not for california cars, they all may be melted ! Mine's an east coast car, ahem ! And I still need a nice dash, and the engine is grungy.. Finally, the car feels like a diesel to me. It' got AWESOME torque down low where the Porsche is unhappy, but past 4200 rpm I'm just making noise. It stops pulling and it takes a lot of work to rev higher faster. I don't have enough BMW experience to know if it's the characteristic of that motor (base 73) or if I need to change things...

Greg.

[HarryPR]

It's a bummer that you found about the issues on the car after you bought it.

But, on the other hand, I believe that the car found a great new home! It looks like you will give it the care it deserves and will save another '02 from eventually going to the crusher due to death by rust.

Looks like you have a great stable. Please give us details!

Best,

[Guest Anonymous]

Well, the rest of the cars are off topic on a BMW board, but there's a 1969 912 and an 83 911 that also was a project recently... We turned it into a 73-look rat rod...

Here's all 3 back when the 911 was being disassembled...

And now it looks like an older car, with fiberglass bumpers and hood, it's also a fair bit lighter...

What I did not expect was for the 1.6L 912 to blow the socks off my 2.0L 2002... So either I have short gearing or the Bimmer need help... Like I said it has gobs of torque down low where the 912 would suck air, but at 4200 rpm the bimmer runs completely out of steam and feels like a diesel... It takes a calendar to measure RPM increase past then in 3rd ger and above (5 speeds)

[deschodt]

Oh, and if it is the 356 you were interested in, it belongs to the friend who is helping me with this... it's a race car... Also made of dishwasher metal in the nose ;-) I had a couple of those in the past but no more.... (356s, not dishwashers) - cute cars, but too dangerous to wreck with !

[dubois]

nice work, I like that white Porsche too, nice companion. The 2002 should pull to 6k rpm and compete with the 1.6 at least until you hit 80mph, then the Porsche becomes more aerodynamic.

Everybody makes mistakes buying cars, except they don't tell. Even new cars are big mistakes, you loose a lot more money on those. The bright side is that your 02 has nowhere to go but up.

[Guest Anonymous]

nice work, I like that white Porsche too, nice companion. The 2002 should pull to 6k rpm and compete with the 1.6 at least until you hit 80mph, then the Porsche becomes more aerodynamic.

Everybody makes mistakes buying cars, except they don't tell. Even new cars are big mistakes, you loose a lot more money on those. The bright side is that your 02 has nowhere to go but up.

I pretty much agree with everything you said... I'm sure there are more people like me who bought cars online to be upside down 5 minutes later, but you mostly hear about the good deals ;-)

Good to hear on the motor, but that means I've got somethign else to investigate now... ;-( It really feels like a diesel and out of breath by 4200 rpm. It'll rev higher, but slower, and it's pointless (more noise than actual kick in the back) - especially in 3rd gear, where you have time to watch it happen...

Timing ? It's on the ball (literally)... any recomendations from anyone ? New distributor maybe ? it's just torquey down low and lazy past 4K... If that motor is supposed to spin freely till 6K, I'm missing out for sure !

[Scott Sislane]

did you set the timing at 1500 rpm or 3500? did you set it at 0 degrees TDC? Do you have an adjustable timing light...? Electronic Ignition or points? Good reading in the general forum about this. Maybe that could help you. My neighbor's '76 swings-up to 6k like butter, w/ a 32/36.

Inka looks great!

Scott

[dubois]

did you set the timing at 1500 rpm or 3500? did you set it at 0 degrees TDC? Do you have an adjustable timing light...? Electronic Ignition or points? Good reading in the general forum about this. Maybe that could help you. My neighbor's '76 swings-up to 6k like butter, w/ a 32/36.

Inka looks great!

Scott

I agree, you are missing out big time, the best part of these cars come in after 4k rpm's. It is often the little things that are missed. Start with a compression test, timing, electrical first, then carburation (usually not a problem), points, condenser, plugs, valve adjusting, do the easy thing first. The M10 motor is built to scream past 4 and get to 6k, beyond that it would need help with some stage 2 mods.

[deschodt]

Does this look good to you guys ? Looks like 1/2 a carb being used to me...

And yeah, compression was checked when I put a new head on it last month or so, timing is right and plugs new... Valves adjusted... I think it's the carb... I think that, just like on the Porsche, I hate Solexes and should go Weber ;-)

[Scott Sislane]

the 1st thing almost everyone does, is pull that SOLEX carb off & put a WEBER or EMPI (weber clone) 32/36 carb on. It will change everything.

Scott

[Hamburgers]

Good for you on the bodywork! I wish I had that sort of talent (and time).

I, myself swapped those solexes for webers in my '02, and haven't looked back. I used to have an old 190SL that had double solexes and they were complete crap; they always needed adjustment and they (supposedly) lacked power compared to cars that had been converted to webers.

[Hamburgers]

Good for you on the bodywork! I wish I had that sort of talent (and time).

I, myself swapped those solexes for webers in my '02, and haven't looked back. I used to have an old 190SL that had double solexes and they were complete crap; they always needed adjustment and they (supposedly) lacked power compared to cars that had been converted to webers.

[deschodt]

My talents are limited to sanding and breathing crap, unbolting stuff, applying ospho (rust inhibitor), and picking at rust scabs till they are clean, be it with a pick, a dremel cut off wheel or a wire brush... My friend Glen is helping with the actual welding and painting!

Here's some more progress... Don't ask why the trim is there, it's a private joke.. it came off later...

yes, that was more dishwasher metal ;-)

Ready for paint ! We'll see how good the match is - I have a bad record with matching so far, ask my 911... That will officially leave us with rust in the trunk lid (getting completely replaced), a spot that looks like a seagull took a $hit on the roof (go figure, that one is definitely just surface, bad prep maybe) and one bubble in the engine lid near the trim... now that I've seen what a bubble can become, I will just go out and buy an engine lid... it's expensive, but more cost effective.

I am also excited you all concur about the carbs, looks like I've been driving for a year without a secondary (and without a clue) - lots of fun left on the table !

[deschodt]

now ready for paint, the inside of the trunk with fresh shutz, similar texture, etc.... Painton Friday, if all goes well..

I'm dreading drilling the new trunk for trim though... it's so nice without holes ;-)

[deschodt]

Well, there you have it.... The paint match kinda sucks...

But you go ahead and succesfully match a fading "x-years old" paint and let me know how that works for you ;-)

You can see the front fender is a little darker - shoulda gone all the way maybe but hindsight and all that... As the eagle eyes among you can tell, we did the rear quarter +the door, under the trim line. And a spot on the bottom onf the front fender... It's shinier and a tad lighter !

Still need to do the trunk lid, and a touch up spot on the roof of all places... And the hell with it... Next time it's getting a full paint will be a color change anyway - my wife hates inka and it is in my best interest to let her pick a color every once in a while ;-)