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Ernie's resto-mod
Let there be (driving) lights!

Let there be (driving) lights!

This past week Patrick and I installed the last item on the Phase 1 list: driving lights. Which was way easier said than done.   If you recall I bought an IE light bar and Patrick had to make some minor modifications to it so it would mount correctly.    But the more I thought about it and the more I looked at the picture of the test fit, it just looked really busy between the bar, lights, and bumper guards.      So I decided to ditch the guards and
Teelinger

Teelinger

1
Andrew Wilson's Vern & Veronika Restorations & Adventures
Nor'East '02ers Social Distancing Drive 5/16/2020

Nor'East '02ers Social Distancing Drive 5/16/2020

In honor of the original date for The Vintage in Asheville NC. The Nor'East '02ers had a Social Distancing Lunch & Drive along the New Hampshire Seacoast and wrapping up at the old Bavarian Autosport parking lot.    Only issue was Vern's starter crapped out, with the help of 3 friends, push started him twice. The starter gear is not extending, it just spins in the housing.       
Putting the pieces back together
 

Grilles and Doors

The chrome work around the outside really helps bring out the personality of the car, the grille being the centre piece. The T-bolts holding the chrome pieces at the end points were so rusted that they were no longer usable so I had to make them up by welding little bolts to pieces of drilled metal plates. There are also 2 hooks on the side of the grilles next to the headlights which pull the grille flush, one of these was missing and the other was broken so more fabrication. The spares car is a
InkaSam

InkaSam

0
This should be fun! A 1975 2002 restoration diary.
 

It only took a year, but Polaris is back from paint!

When it rains, it pours....   I close on a house down in South Carolina on Friday so things are hectic here in Pennsylvania as I prepare to renovate that house, sell this house and move over a dozen cars to someplace where I will be able to drive them more than a few months a year.   Out of the blue, my paint guy calls me. After 10 months at the paint shop, Polaris is DONE!  Holy crap!  I don't even have a space for it right now!  I shuffled some things around and we loaded it into a warehouse s
The Frog, or a newbie BMW owner finds a truffle.
 

Just getting started

I've had 2002s on my radar for a while, but they never seem to be around in my circle of BMW pals. This one turned up for sale near me. It's a low mileage, zero rust, 1976 that was driven by a little old lady to the golf course and back. It's been parked since 2002. I'll get it up and running and see where it goes from there.   Photo of the as-found condition.
Andrew Wilson's Vern & Veronika Restorations & Adventures
2 Photoshoots in 2 Days

2 Photoshoots in 2 Days

As Many of you know we live in a beautiful area of Maine with picturesque vistas and excellent locations. Across the street is lovely Thomas Point Beach, 85 manicured acres on the New Meadows River. I shot Vern here in the Fall of 2010 and still use those photos. The other great locations are down Route 24 to Great Island, Orrs Island & Bailey Island. it's 17 miles of quintessential Maine with the only Cribstone Bridge in the US. It's a latticework of granite blocks to allow free flow of the
Doug's 1974 BMW
Pierre's Air Dam Installation

Pierre's Air Dam Installation

I recently installed one of Pierre's Kamei repro air dams. I bought it a couple of years ago, and finally got my car on the road. Pierre suggested using rivnuts to install it, so I bought a tool on line. This was my first experience with rivnuts, and they worked very well. I ended up using 9 rivnuts in 6mm size. My 1974 2002 has cutouts for the big bumper brackets up front. It was suggested the air dam could cover those openings, but installing it that high made the ends come up short of the fen
Andrew Wilson's Vern & Veronika Restorations & Adventures
Door Handle Gasket Replacement

Door Handle Gasket Replacement

Replaced the door handle gaskets which were mostly missing. In the process I cleaned the old wax stuck under the old ones and cleaned the greasy gunk from outside of the door handles. The driver side door card didn't want to release at the top, took some prying and was successful. Driver side was easy to replace the gaskets. Passenger side door card was easy to remove the but the 10 mm handle bolt was the most difficult part.   The next & ultimately last 2 projects are replacing th
adawil2002

adawil2002

1
VOLITION / 1968 1600-2
Battery Management

Battery Management

While the battery shown below looks identical to the other I posted, it is, in fact, a newly built battery.  As a reminder, I need 4 of these in the car to get to my full pack and roughly 32kWh of capacity, which should be good for over 100 miles of real-world driving range.  They will be configured with 2 in series and 2 in parallel to reach the desired voltage and capacity.  Lithium-ion batteries are amazing in a lot of ways, but require careful management to ensure the best performance, safet
WisDesign

WisDesign

2
Putting the pieces back together
Bonnet and Bumpers

Bonnet and Bumpers

Some of the tasks that I thought would be easy bolt-on tasks turned out to be much more involved than I thought. The bumpers being one of them. I found that all the t bolts holding the rubber to the chrome bumper were all rusted and they would almost fall off at the sight of my spanner, of course it's really hard to find these special T-bolts where I am so I decided to make them by welding threaded rod to a cut off end of a electrical half saddle which is used for holding 20mm conduit. It was ju
InkaSam

InkaSam

0
Putting the pieces back together
It runs!

It runs!

After 12 years of the engine being dormant, I was so surprised to hear the familiar sound of the M10 engine again!  Starting your first rebuilt engine is one of those one off feelings! I wasn't sure if it would work because of the poor state of the pistons although the engine still has a bit of a hiccup which I am not sure what is causing it, I tried a different distributor but it's still there.   The car is not registered so I haven't taken it out of the driveway so I'm not
InkaSam

InkaSam

0
Twothousandeww
Rear Subframe Mounts

Rear Subframe Mounts

This is a bit out of order in terms of what's been worked on but worth a post.  The second-worst rust on the car is the rear passenger side's subframe mount.  The upper plate is mostly still in tact, but the lower one doesn't exist at all.  And the sill is hot garbage.  Inner sill is flat 16ga but it gets a bit more complicated as you work your way outwards.  Car came with replacement outer sills suggesting it was bad for a long time.     Digging through this site over the wi
nnywg

nnywg

0
Andrew Wilson's Vern & Veronika Restorations & Adventures
Replacing an E-Brake Button

Replacing an E-Brake Button

Success with very little cussing. The push buttons unscrew. Due to the spring tension & the old button was very damaged, I used my medium size adjustable “channel lock” pliers. There is a mailable washer behind the button, I replaced this with a thin metal washer that covered the end of the spring coil. This keeps the button from twisting the spring when threading the new button on the rod.  There’s no need to remove the emergency brake lever or the rubber grip. 
adawil2002

adawil2002

0
Ernie's resto-mod
 

Update: seats and driving lights

I stopped by Midnight Motorsports today to install the seat adapters Patrick fabricated for me.    As you can see, the stock Procar hardware cause the seat to sit really high.      Patrick made some simple adapters using thick gauge flat steel. This allows me to use the factory seat rails.      Now the seats sit about an 1" lower. Not quite as low as factory seats or e21 Recaros, maybe 3/4" taller, but much, much better
Teelinger

Teelinger

1
Twothousandeww
Intro to the TwoThousandEww

Intro to the TwoThousandEww

To start, a little backstory.  I grew up in a Canadian prairie city called Calgary.  While it's the biggest place between Vancouver and Toronto, even 20 years ago it wasn't quite big enough to attract much other than the big three and Japanese manufacturers.  Things have changed a lot since then; a boom in oil during the 2000's and some good years in the 2010s brought a lot of people and wealth to the area.  The sole BMW dealership in the whole city back then is now the Aston Martin, something I
nnywg

nnywg

4
Ernie's resto-mod
New seats are installed

New seats are installed

If you recall, Patrick installed a set of loaner stock seats when I picked up Ernie because the new ones weren't ready yet.     I'll be the first to admit that seats are one of those things that I got a little obsessive about, and I've been through several different sets over the years between Kermit and Ernie. I've had e21 Recaros, e30 sports, vintage Scheel-Mann/ASS, Procar Rally, stock seats, and most recently, NOS Flo-fit seats. But the ones I kept coming back to for fit
Teelinger

Teelinger

3
Dig's 76 sahara
Floor pan progress, efi stuff

Floor pan progress, efi stuff

Since this whole pandemic has started the shop I work at has been pretty slow, with recent days off I’ve got back in the groove of making some progress on my 02. It’s been a while since I posted any updates, my 85 318i has been stealing my attention in recent months as I acquired a 3.91 lsd and replaced the clutches, before putting it in. Anyway, I’ve got most of the grinding and pin holes filled in now on the floor pans. I still have to weld the frame rails to the pans but wanted to get the per
twinnr1523

twinnr1523

1
76 Chamonix Siennabraun/Chamonix
Subframe and Suspension paint DIY

Subframe and Suspension paint DIY

Another one that I  went back and forth on, searched, read, called SCR, got quotes for powdercoating, etc.  Finally settled on this because its quick, and relatively cheap and painless.  I found a local place to sandblast the parts, then found this 2K Epoxy spray that was hella expensive but super convenient.  I followed that with the 2K Aerospray satin black from Eastwood. Both of these products have an inner chamber that gets activated/broken to release hardener.  We'll see how they do. 
johnny02

johnny02

3
76 Chamonix Siennabraun/Chamonix
 

A winter challenge of my own creation - Rear hub removal

So I stared at these for years before I finally figured out what to do with them. I have two complete subframes so I did it four times in the end just for fun.   First I had to get the drums off, which was a nightmare that I didn't document.  Heat with a MAP torch, a mallet, those royal oil sticks that Rob Siegel recommends, and pry bar and eventually i got them off.   Then I got this handy little puller from Autozone. The assembly was off the car so I had to stick the big adjustable w
johnny02

johnny02

1


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