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@Mark92131 Like the bracket solution. Looks slick. Painted the uprights and the areas behind the headlight brackets black. Authentic brush stroke pattern, haha. Also painted the front portion of the radiator with Eastwood’s radiator paint. Test fit the front grill to make nothing visually jumps out from behind. Fun fact, I bought the grill in 2012 when BMW did a batch of them. Price was $107. Glad to finally see it on the car. Got the header back from ceramic coating from the boys at Raw Powdercoating (LongBeach). They do fantastic work, enthusiast owned/operated. Thanks to Jesus at CK for the E9 3.0cs OE spark plug wire loom, another little period touch. Mounted it with some standoffs, but will likely get some more thermal protection for the wires. ….. and it’s finals week! First final is tomorrow morning.

Busy driving back from Mid America 02Fest yesterday so didn't post, but on 3 May 1969 I took delivery of my Nevada sunroof '69, after waiting over three months for it to arrive due to an East Cost dock strike that held it up in Hamburg. Still graces my garage and does its duty. First picture taken outside Bavarian Auto Sales, Woodside NY, 3 May 1969; second picture is at 3 Rivers in Pittsburg, July 2019. mike

I took a wood turning class a few weeks back at my local maker space. I wanted to turn a shift knob and after about 5 practice knobs, I got one that I'm pretty happy with. It's walnut with a piece of baltic birch ply sandwiched in the middle. It made my car a lot cooler.

i finished trunk floor boards. vinyl top (not german vinyl, but good enough for the girls I go with) and speaker carpet remnant on the bottom. the rest of the trunk refresh took me a few weeks...

Replaced the original seats with a pair of E21 Recaros that someone reposted from Craigslist here a few years ago. Finally summoned the courage to do it myself with the help from Dave @ Aardvark BMW for the adapters. Straight forward fit and install. New seat straps as well. I used muscles I haven't called-up in years to get this done! The seats do transform the ride; I was surprised by this. So supportive and I like the look as well. Yet, I do miss the old look of the originals which I need to store properly. The old ones have the original vinyl which I want to keep for future go-back to classic look. Cheers

I go back to the first exposure I had with a 2002. Circa 2008, I was a broke country-kid/ski-bum from Idaho/Montana who somehow thought it would be fun to hop on an airplane and attend an automotive design school in Turin, Italy. The college was in a renovated 19th century four-floor conjoined building. We had our first semester of "History of Design" on the ground level in a big room with herringbone-patterned wood floors and white walls. Our professor was a chief designer at Bertone by day, and lecturer in the evening. His first lecture initially contained the usual power point slides extolling the virtues of swoopy Italian design. The usual beautiful cars you'd expect filled each page. However, mid lecture he stopped dramatically and, with a very stereotypical flourish, stated, "However, it is not just about pretty curves! Also important are good proportions!" , and he clicked again to reveal a picture of a clean early 2002. "Proportions, proportions, proportions!" He yelled, enunciating each syllable in a heavy Italian accent. You could say it made a big impression on me.

I got my custom throttle cable bracket from sendcutsend.com yesterday. Today I drilled the holes for the mounting studs and the throttle cable, shaved a few spots for better access to the acorn nuts, rounded the sharp corners, sprayed a couple of coats of Satin Black paint and mounted it up. Full throttle linkage travel with gas pedal floored. I'll start working on the interior tomorrow with sound deadening installation. Mark92131

spent the afternoon getting our 72 ceylon gold 2002 tii ready to attend the MidAmerican 2002 fest in Eureka Springs, Arkansas last weekend of the month… Hope to see you there.

After many hours of wet-sanding, finally got to the cut/polish step, stage 1. 3M compound and wool pad. I see many hours of hand-compounding the smaller areas... got to be an obsessive love thing....

Shakedown run! First long drive, and working well, since I bought it 18 months ago. Finally figured out my hard cold starting issue. It was…uh, user error. I forgot there was a manual button to activate the cold start valve. Once I tried starting with that it started right up even cold. 🤫 So I took it out into the canyons. Went on the freeway, up Pacific Coast Highway, across Mulholland, back PCH, about 65 miles in total. (IYKYK) A few observations: -Steering feels very light at center, with a little play, but more effort turning, or away from center. May be due the offset roll center spacers I installed under the struts for neg camber. May be it needs an alignment. Except for the outer tie rods, which don’t have any discernible play, the other suspension parts, center link, bushings, big sway bar, are all new. -Oil leak. I know it’s leaking from back of engine/trans mating joint. I assume that’s the rear main seal. On hard turns I get a whiff of burnt oil. Also shifting at high rpm (between 5-6k rpm). Probably leaking on the exhaust. -Huge knocking noise when turning is gone. Thought it might be diff. I now suspect the noise was the old janky exhaust. New IE exhaust seems to have fixed it. -Suspension feels good! Bilstein B8 and H&R/IEstage2 springs feel nice and taut. All new bushings front and back help too. -Trip-ometer does not work. Didn’t turn at all. -Odometer works too much. Logged about 350 miles when I only did 65. I’ll have to research that. -Feels very peppy! 4-speed isn’t so bad. I do have a 5-speed to swap in but that can wait. I need a driveshaft anyway. -I had 3 people make comments. Two gave me thumbs up, one Tesla driver chased me down to ask me questions at a light. He had a 69 in the past and loved seeing mine out. -So fun to drive!

The wet sanding continued today in preparation for cutting/buffing. Labor intensive... gotta be a love thing, no other reason to expend this much energy on something.

Ever since @zinz showed me a picture of his beautiful 2000cs knob, I wanted one. Luckily @bmwguy323 had one for sale. Refinished to match the Nardi. Haven't done much wood refinishing, so this was subject to a steep learning curve and limited tools (a la' drill-turned-lathe). Have a lot more respect for you wood workers now. Making list to keep as reference for when I inevitably forget again: -disassembled knob -Sanded down with 80 grit and back up to 2000 grit, stained. -Applied starbond CA glue (1 coat thin, 5 coats medium, 2 coats thin). -Sanded w/ 320 up to 2000 grit. -Polished w/ EEE wood polish -Finish polish w/ fine scratch polish

Since it's a long holiday weekend over here in Belgium, I was able to make a new die to form the differential brackets. I must say, I'm very proud on how well the plates turned out. the reinforcement ribs are very crisp. Using the smaller 5 axis mill at work, I milled two forming plates that locate the plates and form them. It's been over two years since I used the machine as I have not much time to also mill at work. In the end I was able to remember most of the stuff luckily Shared bracket for sedan and touring Touring specific bracket And a little comparison between new and old I'm going to make the full panel for the sedan and touring - which should be available from Walloth & Nesch in the near future. Let me know if you also are interested in just the brackets, that way I can always make some more separately!

The party is getting started…

Refitted my light bar to work with the new turbo airdam. Flipped it so the spots are high this time and not low like they were before. Also made a center console insert to incorporate my Brantz computer, usb, hazard switch, radio and headset amp. It’s much more solid now and one modular piece instead of generations of cobbled together inserts.

I'm in the process of color correction on the paint that somewhere in 48years it was painted with unknown quality/quantity of paint. I buffed a sample of all the panels to see how it would look and take the process.It seemed to be ok and matched what I painted(sunroof,lower right door and right wing. Color sanded with 3000 grit by hand(I would use DA if it was my paint but since it was a bit unknown I did it by hand) . Then it was buffed with lambswool pad and Mequiars 105 compound. I will use finishing compound once I'm done with the whole car. Pretty pleased so far. You can see in pic 2 where the hood and the wing match at least reasonably well. I use TCP single stage urethane which is really pretty reasonably priced. I've used it on all the cars I've painted as well as cheap ass Harbor Freight gun painted exactly where you see it sitting-outside. Unfortunately because it's looking this good its forced me to have to paint the rfight rear quarter since someone painted it the wrong color orange.It might be Colorado Orange I'm just not sure.Anyway now that the car is starting look good I think it deserves a respray there the correct orange even though I really want to be out there driving.

With new 3D printed cable ends, cables tracks and housings cleaned and lubed, and a new W spring for the winder, the suroof is fully operational again. Last item... BMW sunroof seals. The lid is done.

I spent the day cracking into the E30 1.8L engine that's going into my 1602, and man oh man what a beautiful thing this is. No idea what the mileage is, but it's 42 years old and it honestly looks like it was just driven out of the factory in Munich straight into a time capsule. When I got down to the rod and bearing caps I was just cracking the torque with a half turn of my ratchet and turning every nut and bolt out the rest of the way with my fingers. Carbon buildup on the piston crowns and combustion chambers is the only evidence I have anyone ever drove this thing 😂

Micro-LED front running light mod

Great day, a 50 2002 caravan to lunch a 40 mile trip thur the twisties from Eureka Springs, Arkansas to Rogers, Arkansas for lunch… and then a wonderful dinner at the host hotel.

After 20 years of motorcycle commuting, my 02 feels delightfully present in traffic. You get used to being invisible on a bike, but you’re always aware of what that could mean. It’s nice to not feel that way in my 02. You can bet your grandma’s panties I still drive defensively though. I have no desire to test out the airbags in this car. 😂 edit: who can name the car in this pic?

Had Jack Fahuna tweak the mixture and idle adjustments on the Inka this morning. Then we followed Bo on a fun drive out in the twisties. The car ran great. Lots of rain last night but woke to clear skies. Lots of cars here and everyone is helping others with their cars. Ed

Got a cap from a gallon jug of water, washer, o-ring and wing nut. Thank you for the suggestions. Also has a loose spark plug wire which was adding the the bad running. We found a replacement part in Cincinnati that we will pick up on tonight's transit to Pittsburgh. I really appreciate everyone's suggestions and support. So far we have done about 3500 miles. We drove from Virginia to the start in South Bend and have done/will do the below legs: May 4: South Bend, IN to Motorsports Park - Hastings, NE May 5: High Plains - Dear Tail, CO May 6: Hedge Hollow - Adrian, MO May 7: National Corvette Museum - Bowling Green, KY May 8: Pitt Race - Wampum PA May 9: Putnam Park - Greencastle, IN May 10: Tire Rack HQ - South Bend, IN

Took it out of hibernation.

A cheap and cheerful refinish of some tired old E21 turbines: An old can of bog turned out to be EXACTLY the right size to mask off the inner section! New rubber, and we're one step closer to getting the old girl back on the road.

Finally got one of my Recaro seats recovered. I bought these seats for about $300 from a wrecking yard in Minnesota. They were in bad shape. I still have to weld some new (rust free) metal on the passenger seat back frame. I got the Seat covers from Lseat.com. Seat covers are genuine leather outers and suede inners (no sweaty back and butt for me). The quality is very good. Install was pretty straight forward, but I wouldn't say it was easy. There was a lot of tugging, heating, pulling, stretching, etc. I think some of my challenges were due to the very early production of these seats. They were from a 1977 320i. I am very happy with the way it turned out. Unfortunately the passenger seat needs welding, otherwise I would have started with that one, leaving the driver seat for last. Still, I'm happy with it.

Heading there today spending the night in Arkadelphia…

As I promised myself, today I started installing the sound deadener. Before I painted the car, I removed all the tar sheets using the dry ice method that was very successful on all the horizontal surfaces. The two tar sheets on the vertical panels under the rear windows are thinner and I couldn't keep the dry ice on long enough to freeze them off, so they remained during the painting process. In theory, I could have just left them there, or just laid the new Kilmat over them, but I need to sleep at night so removing them was my only option. Harbor Freight heat gun and a scrapper made short work of them which allowed me to cover the vertical panels in the back seat area. It's a start. Mark92131

I'm #4227595 and was built on May 7th, 1974 and delivered on May 11th to Hoffman Motors Corp. My first owner found me at Robert L. Tuggle BMW in Jacksonville, Fla. I had some of those '74 engine issues and got some rust infection living near the beach. I ended up traded in at Peter Gregg BMW/Mercedes Benz in Jacksonville and on November 24, 1978 was introduced to my new Dad! We've had lots of fun together over the years. We met my Mom. And we've taken lots of trips. My engine was replaced with a factory rebuild in 1981. That rust infection was fixed in 1982. I got a 5 speed in 1983! And I got to rest in a garage to keep me from having to deal with that rust infection again. In 2016, Dad decided that I needed repainting and some other updates. The planned 6 month repaint turned into a 5 1/2 year full restoration. He gave me some nice upgrades from lots of the great suppliers on FAQ. We are having so much fun driving around the upstate of South Carolina where I live now. And in a couple of weeks I get to go be with lots of friends at The Vintage! What a great life!

Cleaned up my valve cover and oil fill cap ... inspired by what I saw at 02 Fest.

While at MidAmerica 02 Fest, I noticed how fantastic everyone's door gaps looked. Well, everyone's except MINE! Sorry, no "before" shot to show you how bad they looked. Yesterday, in a fit of "Why the hell not?", I adjusted my doors. Finally. I'm pretty darn happy with the improvement. Never again will some kind soul cry out, "Your door isn't closed all the way!"

The Dayton karavan made it in fine fettle. Excellect weather on Sunday; an overnight car wash in Paragould AR washed the bugs off our cars, then smooth sailing the rest of the way to Eureka Springs. As always Bo and Keith have organized a low key, fun event with lots of information exchanged, fun drives in the twisties, and camaraderie--an in-person FAQ. mike

While working on the idle issues with the S14, I noticed that the fan belt would sometimes slip on hard revs. On further inspection, it appeared that the alternator pivot bushing was loose. I pulled the alternator and pressed out the bushing, what a mess. The rubber bushing had turned to black goo. I replaced it with poly and now the alternator is rock solid. Back to tuning my idle. Mark92131

The point with these tyres on your cars is they dont 'BREAK' they gentley start to move under neath you as the contact point rolls around the shoulder of the tyre as the car leans. A modern tyre on an old car breaks loose. ( see the hightly technical diagram attached.) this is another example of progressive handling is when you have next to no grip and a sold bar of steel for a back axle driven by chains instead of one of those sissy differential thingies. <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Flongstonetyres%2Fposts%2Fpfbid0ECULVJkWypjiW44rb6vo1e6DyqYdPD3k91QxbGrRrE4aePAcTdZqsm1ZAuuYELRul&show_text=true&width=500&is_preview=true" width="500" height="347" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share"></iframe> Mine is the bare alluminium boat tail one with the cheakey up the inside overtaking manouver 40 seconds in. I have Longstone Tyres written on the back of my racing overalls.

Pulled the 50mm bolt-on stacks with uni-filters from the Webers and installed the EuroCarb 26mm slide-in stacks with SS filters. Also got the Opel Kadett wheels glass bead blasted and will send them off for powder coating soon.

I got up early this morning and decided it was time to put the new Tii engine and transmission into place. The recommendations from the forum were invaluable. Mostly using pilot screws to bring the subframe up to the chassis. Not sure if it would have worked without them. Now it’s on to the wiring of the engine compartment putting on the new fuel lines and getting the dizzy set up correctly. A lift made the job easy.

Started mounting up my turbo spoiler today. I put two 5mm nutserts, one on each end centered in the arc. Not really sure but I think I’ll make a few aluminum tabs to almost “French cleat” it along the leading edge. When it goes on after paint I’ll use a panel bond/sealer to seal the flange.

But back to the subject. I was an early convert to 02-dom--when I saw my first 1600 back in November 1967 (at Ralph Schomp Imports in Denver). Even more so after the 02 came out and I read David E Davis' paean to the car. But I never thought of an 02 as handsome (Silver Cloud RR), dashing (Pagoda roof 230/50/80 Mercedes Benz) or impossibly sexy (XKE). It was what was underneath: a sedan that handled (actually out-handled) a sports car (or at least most of 'em). I wrote a column comparing a 1600ti and a Porsche 356C (last July's Roundel if you're a CCA member) and was astonished as to the similarity in performance and handling--with the ti coming out ahead on almost everything--and wearing a sedan body. The original Q-Ship. Q-ships were used by the British during WW II--an apparently unarmed freighter that was actually heavily armed with hidden guns, sailing alone to lure unsuspecting U-boat into surfacing to attack with their deck gun, thus saving torpedoes for use against escorted convoys. The Q ship would stop when the submarine surfaced, crew members would be seen panicking and lowering lifeboats, while the gun servers waited 'till the sub's deck crew was manning their 88, then they'd drop the covers and start blasting away at the U boat. Sunk a bunch of'em that way. So--a 2002 is an attractive, well proportioned, no nonsense (obviously German) sedan but with large caliber guns hidden under that innocent sedan body. And I have to say that the early, unadorned cars--no knee molding, round tail lights etc, just as Georg Bertram penned it in 1965, are the most attractive...but that's me. mike

Spring cleaning completed, four 2002s clean and ready for driving. Turkis automatic has not been getting much attention lately…tely …

Damn, cleaning up two cars to attend MidAmerica. Has started spring cleaning over here this morning I pulled the Inka tii into the shop and spent the better part of 4 hours cleaning it up.

Starting to get our Baur ready for attending Mid-America 2002 fest, my grandson Breyden is coming to visit from Sedona, Arizona and driving the Baur to Eureka Springs, Arkansas to attend…

They are Beige. I wiped down my original door panel from my 74 tii (sand beige) and put it next to the seats. It's a decent match, but not exact. The seats are definitely a little darker. I bought a whole hide from lseat.com for the door panels. They need to be redone anyway, so I figured matching leather would be best.

1463 round trip miles on the Inka car. I drove The Pig Trail out of Eureka this morning. There was no one else on it… that was fun. Home and de-bugged.. Ed Z

I’ve been busy the last few days! New center console, hood lifters, trunk boards, clear corner lights, and headlight bay covers! Got a lot more to do!

This is an easy-to-make tool that I use.

Got the Tii motor to start on the fifth or sixth turn of the key this morning. (I realized I wasn’t filming the start-up) Not to say there weren’t many attempts last night. After I got everything ready for the start-up the K-Fish pump was leaking gas through the o-rings on top. UPS had a trail derailment in California that had my package of new O-rings so the hunt was on to find some correct non-OEM O-rings. I found some at a local Ace Hardware and the result was a successful startup. Now it’s time to set the timing. A whole new to-do list is now in front me. A special thanks to @Allen Lane , if it wasn’t for him and all his help with the project I would not be doing this. . @John76 for all of the wiring diagrams and all of the forum members who answered all of my questions. @JsnPpp for the cold start relay board @BMW 1600-2for the cold start relay harness (I don’t think it would have started without those items) @Kaifor the Tii engine and varied accessories. Here is a new question, what’s the best way to set the timing looking through the viewing port on the transmission? Seems almost impossible to see down there with a timing light. IMG_3942.mov

What an amazing time!

The under seat battery box I designed arrived from sendcutsend.com yesterday! I'm particularly pleased that the lid snugly fits as designed. I have to weld it up. (Oh, and paint the car and install the engine and just under a million other things ...) I was going to go with a 51R battery, but instead, buy @Pdxguy's two Braille B2015s There should be some room for relays, too. Also from sendcutsend.com - a set of sheet metal circles, big bumper rectangular holes, and floor plugs. If anyone is interested in them, DM me and I can send you the .dxf file so you can order your own. 5DBF9A62-C3F6-4F15-8AE4-9C4D15D1DEA3.heic

Wednesday is pictures and a car show…plus a Steve and Sean siting.

Installed the grills on my car. First time the exterior is looking complete since i took her apart 2.5 years ago.