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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.

First pics as it’s being stripped. Shiny!

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

@Highnote1 Looking good. I think I’m probably just about a week ahead of you. Staying with Orange or changing colors?

@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.

One of my fun memories of my Mom: I was driving her to some errands in my '69 on a snowy morning (before I did all the welding to repair all that salt rust), and as we were driving through a big, empty, snow-covered parking lot, I turned to her and said, "Wanna have a little fun?" She said sure, so I got up to about 25 mph, cut the wheel and yanked on the parking brake, putting the car into a nice slide. I recovered from the slide and she said, "do that again." I needed no encouragement, so we slid the 02 around for a few minutes; both of us with big smiles on our faces. She was 93 at the time. Mom told me that when she was a girl, her older brother would do the same thing in his Model T in a muddy farm field with her as passenger. mike

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!

Didja check to make sure the shift linkage support bracket is firmly bolted to the tranny, and the metalastic mounts haven't turned into black goo, and therefore are loose? The inertia of the bracket moving around is sufficient to pull the lever out of gear...or make shifting difficult. mike

Thks for the mention but you can see the rear quarter looks terrible. I'll paint it correct color not really a big deal

This was really my original point. @Pablo M is clearly very upset by this, and rightly so. I get it. When you’ve worked on something for a long time, and shit goes sideways it can be demotivating. The best medicine for that is to not F around and just fix it the right way, take the worry of “will it work or not” out of the equation and move on to the next phase of the project. I agree with @Son of Martythat there are considerably better products out there. I’ve used two of the three he mentioned for various things. Admittedly, I am not a fan of JB weld for anything (even household repairs) and I’ll openly admit that it annoys me every time I see a YouTube video pop up of some “fix” a person came up with using the stuff. I’ve seen and done “emergency” repairs on bikes and cars like what’s proposed by @popovm and others. The ones that lasted (particularly on bikes) were generally on machines that didn’t get ridden much. IMO it’s a crap shoot. Sometimes repairs like this last a while, sometimes they don’t.

Sorry to hear about this. Man, you have been doing a lot to get your car back on the road, now this!! Son-of-Marty is right there are a bunch of "space-age"epoxies out there that would work wonders. there's always a give and take, trade-off, and I would be asking myself what if the epoxy holds? that would be the best case.. but what about the worst case? That's something that only you could decide and you would have to pro and con the decision. If you are rushing to get to the car meet, that might not be a good criteria in making that decision. Does that location get oil pressure? or is it a place where gravity is pulling the oil down? if there is no pressure at that point, then the risk level goes way down...and I would say YOLO...Again, sorry to hear about this as we have all spent quality time getting our rigs road worthy.. on the bright-side you discovered the leak before anything catastrophic happened miles away.

Inka for life!! 😂😂

I think JB Weld is becoming a universal name for epoxy and is meant for household use while there are many stronger epoxies that bond better than JB I would look for a epoxy with some metal content like Devcon or Marine Tex or even Redhand. I've seen Redhand used to repair cracked wet liner seats which tend to crack on Cat diesels with great success. I've patched a whole about the size of a deck of playing cards on a Allison v12 with Devcon and had it last for years and a few thousand liters of nitrous.

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 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

Just filled my '73 tank with 100 octane gas. Wondering if it's overkill now that I think about it. Car has 38/38 weber, 264 cam, SuperSprint exhaust but otherwise stock internals. Any benefits of higher octane on non-modern fuel injected engine? It does feel a little more powerful but it could be due to placebo or density altitude as it changes day to day. Cheers

Yes. There are 2 air chambers in the booster. Press the brake pedal and a valve at the pedal shaft end opens and atmospheric air rushes in and the pressure pushes the diaphragm - the boost. Let up on the pedal and the valve closes and a second valve internal to the booster lets the air that entered when the pedal was pushed previously into the 2nd chamber. That's when the air in the second chamber is sucked into the engine (and the a/f goes lean momentarily). A properly operating booster/check valve will supply some boost when the engine is shut down and the pedal is pumped for one or two times. This can be tested with the car on a slight incline so it will roll without the brake applied.

AFAIK the chrome center rear bumper sections for 02s are the same. The only difference is that the modell 71 cars have holes to mount the rubber strips, while the earlier cars don't have 'em. The ends come in long and short styles, the longer ones also having holes for the rubber bump strips, and the bumper guards meant for modell 71 cars have cutouts to accommodate the rubber strips, which are a single piece from end to end, and thus pass under the guards. If you want to use short ends with a rubber-strip equipped center section, you can cut the rubber strip so that it ends at the bumper guard and doesn't extend to the end sections. That's what the factory did for the front bumper. mike

Yes - Brock Yates wants the car back next year and we will be there. Brock suggested a K swap, which we will not entertain. I am thinking a 304 cam and possibly a S14 crank. We will post a full writeup on the adventure after we get the engine torn down.

Replaced the alternator this morning, the old one would illuminate the charge indicator dimly (sometimes) at revs. Charged ok at idle, with an occasional squeal. Brushes likely floating. New one works a charm.

Looks to me like it's ready for Vintage! mike

The update has been completed.

Your meter must be bad. The Innova 5568 timing light has a built in dwell meter (as well as a tach and volt meter) and a variable advance setting to let you read the amount of advance the distributor is giving throughout the rpm range. It is a very useful tool. Tom

What a PITA. Hope you get it figured out soon!

I fill all the cracks with 5 minute epoxy. The foam soaks it in like water and it seeps and strengths the whole area. Because it seeps, the crack will still have a low spot, that i come back and fill with super glue and sand. Bondo would work fine as well.

Oh ok yes, totally thats a couple hours work at most. I agree! I was thinking you wanted to bring it to bare metal... Back story - I used to go to the palo alto 02 meet back when it was actually in Palo Alto off of el camino. One of my favorite things was that all cars, even the ones that weren't perfect (perhaps b/c they weren't perfect) got as much attention as the line of 10 perfect turbos, etc. Something about an amazing car that isn't perfect tugs at my heart - Nice work bringing this one back to life. Jason

No it hasn’t arrived yet, wouldn’t recommend ordering form RM European this is the third time I have and the parts never show up on time lol. Also sometimes they don’t send order confirmation or shipping info. I am pretty convinced it’s not the pump though, I tested the flow rate and the dead head pump pressure and both were good, so maybe it’s a bit of a problem but I think there’s something else going on. I removed the injection pump and injectors last night and am having it rechecked.

Car looks fantastic as is - don't worry about making it better, just get out and drive it! I'm hopeful to drive mine this year after 10 years off the road. Paint/body/rebuild stuff takes a ton of time.

Nice V Dub! I think you will be very pleased with the results after machine polishing and foam pad. If I had to revert back in time I might have been wise to go with a single stage... I used PPG base/clear, shot outside the shop under the overhang in not the best temp and humidity conditions, resulting in some orange peel and nits. And a dragonfly that landed on the roof and proceeded to drag his leg across the final clearcoat! Correction of the clear has added hours with wet-sanding (many stages), cutting and polishing with a 7" rotary and a 3" da, and hand finishing. In the end, the results are immensely satisfying. Your efforts show your care, kudos on the work!

That makes (4) more cents than a penny. A cleaner option is to find a hex plug after removing the threaded bushing from the manifold. There are three of these on the '76 49-state manifold.

Knowing what part of Atlanta would help, but there is a Facebook page: BMW Classics of Georgia, with lots of expertise. Don

Maybe here... Mark92131 Long Clutch Line for 5-Speed Conversion – Ireland Engineering | Racing & Performance Parts for BMW & MINI WWW.IEMOTORSPORT.COM Each

My counterpoint is that I have seen JB Weld “temporary” trail fixes on dual sport motorcycle cases last for years. I am on team “give it a shot”. Yes, probably should start planning for a real fix. I’d also call up the machine shop. Maybe the machine shop will hook you up with a free/discounted fix but would prefer it without the JB Weld in there. That would change my opinion on whether or not to attempt the JB Weld.

when i retire soon this is what i'm going to do

Use only genuine parts from BMW ... not a Lincoln.

The loom standoffs are a great touch, looks killer!

Been there done that, JB anything is very temporary. Waste of time, money and energy. You can try but not going to work. Sorry.

I would think about replacing that shifter seal as well, looks like it is leaking quite a bit You have a 76 so it is the fine splined shaft which is not so prone to wearing out the splines but it can happen. I would also think about replacing the output shaft seal as well Thanks, Rick

Getting it clean enough for the epoxy to get a good grip is the tricky part. Multiple rounds of brake cleaner and an air compressor/blower tip seem like your best bet. I don't think the bolt will be clean enough for the epoxy to get a good grip on it. Epoxy benefits from a rough surface. The inside of the crack seems ideal, aside from the oil contamination. I'd scuff up the area on both sides of the crack and spread the epoxy out over that too, leaving it a good 1/16" thick. It won't look as pretty as if you just put it inside the crack, but that Band-Aid over the top stands a good chance of gripping, since you can ensure that it's clean 'new' metal. Leave it rough to have some tooth for it to grip. This is such a cheap/easy fix that you might as well try it. The welder will be grinding material out of the crack anyway. TIG welding requires cleanliness too. Tom

I like to goof around and post stupid crap on this board for laughs, but not this tine. You’re clearly really upset by this (rightly so). Soooo, goodf ball mode off/serious mode on… Man, don’t waste your time screwing around with trying to JB weld the crack up. It’s not going to work. At least not for very long anyway, and that’s if you get extremely lucky. That’s a difficult place to clean, you’ll never get it “clean enough” and even if you do, the likelihood of the JB Weld holding up is extremely low. Use the time to remove the head, and get it to the shop for assessment/repair. If for some reason it’s not repairable, go ahead and start getting yourself in the headspace of having to pony up for a new head. No offense to anyone who posted for trying it.

It’s either running roughly on all four cylinders or only on three, hard to say. Are the spark plug wires on the correct order? here’s my 123 curve if the screws in your tuna can made no change something is really wrong, I can make my idle zing all over with them. Here’s my favorite simple adjustment guide you said the clank goes away after a few minutes, does the idle smooth out once the engine is warm?

Are you sure they’re rubbing the flares and not the firewall? What size tires/wheel offset?

Rear adjustment and brake bleeding did wonders.. the rear shoes could still stand to be replaced (2 different suppliers have sent me the wrong ones 😡) but they are working pretty well now.. the “fluid” that was in there looked more akin to mud and bleeding/flushing them today was rewarding and a great daddy/daughter project. thanks everyone for your help! Now on to suspension… but thats for a new thread!!

After the nut is torqued down the lock plate surrounds the nut and you'll see a small divot on the flange, in your picture it looks like it's at the 12 o'clock position, with a punch bend the edge of the lock plate into the divot.

We were running a mechanical tensioner. Spoke with Paul at length, for what we are doing we will use a stock tensioner going forward.

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

Beautiful collection, in 1970 I bought my first NK. It was a 1800 in Bristol. And in 1978 I got a 2002. In 2021 I had my second O2 restored. In February 2023 I purchased an 1800 in Tampico. The picture below is me and my son. The young man that’s sitting on the front bumper is now 46 years old. The restored 72 ‘02 is Malaga, the picture above is just prime. I looked for you on Facebook but was unable to locate you. I’m in need of the windshield insert clips for the 1800. in my 15 month search I’ve been unable to locate them anywhere. Would you happen to have them or have a suggestion on where I might look? I’ve been told that that weatherstripping for the windshield could be replaced with the O2 style rubber. And then I would be able to use the O2 size clips. Can you confirm that?

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Sharing some photos of the 2023 Rally LA-Paso!