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To paraphrase Bob Dylan, Bill Watson had forgotten more than I’ll ever know about BMW 2002s. Bill, an avid bicyclist, sadly passed away on February 29 after a tragic bike accident. I was beyond fortunate to have him as a friend. We had met in the late 1980s when I was a San Francisco newbie and he was heading up Phaedrus, the City’s premiere BMW shop along with his partner Spencer. I was driving a $500 2002, and later a $1,000 1600, and Bill was kind enough to fix what I couldn't. After Bill had run his course with Phaedrus, he set up shop at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA with plans to build efficient and powerful classic BMW race motors with a focus on CSLs. As a graphic designer, I traded time-for-time with Bill, exchanging branding design for his new Road Rockets endeavor for an artful engine rebuild. Bill got some hard-working branding with the right gestalt, and I got a motor that could joyfully pin my shoulder blades against houndstooth at the punch of a pedal. Superb parts went in, but Bill’s real artistry was matching, polishing and blending all carburetor/intake manifold/cylinder head faces for maximum flow and efficiency. He was enthralled with the science of engine building. Beyond the master mechanic persona, Bill was brilliant, funny, eccentric, empathic, kind, and beyond willing to share his vast BMW knowledge and experience. Bill’s healthy motor still resides in the Baur Targa. And every time I turn the key, Bill lives on. There is a memorial service for Bill on April 20 @ 2:00pm at Stafford Lake, Novato, CA. RIP, my friend.

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...

Diamond quilting continues. I’m working my way toward the drivers door, I’ll leave it for last and hopefully best since I’ll look at it the most. Today was the passenger door. The french seams are getting easier with practice, same with the diamond quilting. I wasn’t expecting the big curve at the front to be so difficult, but it gave me fits. With the sew foam it gets bulky and doesn’t want to bend around backwards for that hidden stitch. Took me a few tries to get that figured out. I’m really happy with the end result, though. The whole passenger side is finished, now I need to push to car over and do it all again on the drivers side. Drawback of a narrow garage…

Today was a day of sanding... guide coating... more sanding, and some more. Just when you think you may be done, another spot missed rears its head and away you go again! It's a battle to attain a goal that shifts ever further away. Fun! I did get the trunk and hood wet-sanded in prep for the base coat though. And no, that's not gloss black finish coat... just freshly sanded black primer, wet!

The jig and software have Been passed on to the new owner. He will be keeping the bracket name and making a good quality bracket for our community. Thank you all for your support over the years. I was close to 400 brackets sold. Dosn't seem like that many unless you think of if I had not made the first one. What started out as just a bracket for my car. Turned into something for the whole community. Thank you Dave

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.

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.

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

Will Rogers State Beach 71’ 02

Did my own valve adjustment for the first time. And I got a surprise! And an education! And no one got hurt!!! Our regional 2002Forever group had a tech session recently at Eastside European in Lawrence, Kansas, hosted by Scott Trettel and Eastside's owner, Marco (I'm terrible with names). We learned how to do our own valve adjustments that night, and I got enough hands on experience to want to tackle my own car's valves. By way of background, my engine has been ticking pretty heavily for about a year now, and my full-time auto tech/BMW guru did a valve adjustment last summer. He said the valves were not the cause of my tick, and said he thought it was somewhere in the bottom end. And I've spent a year contemplating engine builds -- accruing parts, etc. Anyway, I decide to do my own valve adjustment, intending to set everything to the Wegweiser Recommended James Bond gap -- .007. It gives me a chance to exercise my new knowledge, AND try out my new tool from Hal at 2002s Only. No. 1 is very tight. Nos. 2-6 are loose, but I'm cruising. At that early rate, I will finish the job in a half hour. Then comes valve No. 7. It is ... WAY loose. The hole in the eccentric is facing up (!) instead of toward the side of the cylinder head. After several attempts, I conclude that I cannot get the valve to within spec. It feels as if there is no cam on the eccentric. So I pull the eccentric, Peter Beren close at hand with a magnet, in case I drop something. Blake Henrich cheering us on from a safe distance. I extract the eccentric safely and discover ... it is completely normal and fine. What I also discover is, the eccentric lobe and the little hole for your adjuster tool are clocked a specific way. So the eccentric can be installed two ways. If they're done right, you have to roll the eccentric toward the outer edge of the cylinder head to tighten the valve lash. If you install them the other way, you have to roll the eccentric in toward the cam. But the rockers (well, my rockers) prevent you from rolling the eccentric enough to engage the lobe. So I flipped the eccentric over, reinstalled, adjusted that valve to .007 with no issues. And finished up, feeling jubilant. And yes, that "fixed" my car's pronounced ticking. YAY!

Thank you all for your kind words. Bill was my grandfather ( that's me when I was 16 or 17 in the green shirt in the original post) , and it fills me with joy to see that he's had a positive affect on so many. I cherish the time I spent working for him at road rockets, and though I've been a bit of a lurker on here, I now have no-one in my family to go to with questions about my 02. I suppose I'll have to become more active from here on out... but I digress- every time I converse with someone who knew him I get to hear more stories about him and all of his adventures. If anyone reading this thread has any more of those stories I would love to hear them, either on this thread or in a dm (if that's how it works, still not very familiar with the innerworkings of this site). Hopefully I'll carve out some time to say a few words on the 20th, and I'd love to include some stories from those who may not be able to attend, so that their voices may be heard as well. I always felt that bill had a way of turning engine building into an art, and it thrills me to know that others feel the same. Thank you all again, Jack.

I finally got my engine bay wiring complete. Just need an alternator and starter installed and I'll be ready to drop the 1974 Tii on the subframe, then some Tii accelerator linkage. Then on to interior wiring for the dome light and door switches. Thanks to @John76 for all the wiring drawings and @BMW 1600-2 for Tii wiring information.

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.

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.

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…

Good visit with fellow 02r Mike at Barney’s shop. Ed’s 02 on the lift getting a 5 speed swap.

Cameron Highlands tour with local car club.

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.

Leftover leather from when I reupholstered the seats. I'd say this is a big improvement.

My son gave me these framed old ads and photos years ago but they only recently got hung up. My old 76 is among the photos in the collage.

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

Got the 5 speed swap mostly done. Took it for a test drive and it shifts great for an unknown box. I need to get the exhaust looked at (downpipe wouldn’t clear the bracket without some…massaging). Gotta wire up the SpeedHut GPS speedometer, too. I’m looking forward to the MidAm trip in it next weekend. Thanks again to Barney for the use of his place. Couldn’t have done it without your help. Ed Z

It's been a little death over here. Things slowed down quite a bit since the purchase of a house with my girlfriend (no worries there is a old workshop on the property so in the future, the touring will be very close at hand!) Hopefully things progress a bit faster then. In the meantime I received the test panel from the lasercutting/bending service. Very pleased with the quality of the panel, it's cut and bended very nice and crisp. Only thing left is to punch the reinforcement ribs into the mounting tabs. I was a little worried about these small mounting tabs for the touring as they are quite short in height.

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

All around great guy, Barney Toler let me back in his shop for a 5 speed swap on the ‘72 Inka car. All in prep for MidAmerica in 2 weeks. Right off the bat the angry wrench had to be deployed when the brand new stainless hardware on the exhaust pipe galled and wouldn’t come off. Cutting wheel made short work of those bastards… 4 speed is out. I’ll drop the driveshaft off in the morning for shortening and modifying. Hoping for easy things on the install. Using Blunt’s bracket for the Getrag 240 and some other parts he sells; thank you very much. Clutch and pressure plate are new, and the FW has been slightly lightened. Thanks again Barney for the shop space and time and good company. Ed Z

Hey everyone. Been lurking and devouring the tech articles (seriously so happy those are there, I’ve fixed so much in the last few months lol) so I figure it’s finally time to say hi. I’m up in the Seattle area, but until the bimmer is up to snuff you can see me in 1 of the quarter million Subaru outbacks up here. picked up my 2nd 2002, a 74 blue 4 speed, a few months back. I believe it was originally a gorgeous Malaga, but hey I’m probably owner number 17 by now. It needs some love, and has some rust holes in the rear floor boards, under the rear seat, the rear seats themselves (found out how bad when I pulled them for an Esty rear seat delete and they uh… came out in several more pieces than usual) rockers and rear inner wheel wells. But besides that it’s sound! I’ve also had (have) a nice golf yellow that’s in pieces back in Missouri. The blue one is lowered on bilsteins and has a Weber 32/36 carb. Aside from that it looks like it’s pretty original and complete. I’ve done a full tune up and fluid change, but that’s it so far. It’ll soon be getting new corbeau seats, and will be getting some serious body tlc after that. I’ll still probably mostly lurk but if anyone in the Seattle area can recommend a good welder or body shop let me know! Hopefully I’ll see some of yall around when I’m up and running. Bonus pic of my cat Killdozer because the internet loves cats. -kibs

No real work on this Friday other than removing the tape off the parts I painted yesterday and getting them set up on trays for assembly…

Here's the car in the flesh at the SoCal Vintage BMW show last November:

I called him and set up an appointment for a roof install, dropped off the car and picked it back up a few days later as scheduled, NO drama it’s hard to beat that. At events I go to people are amazed by my carbon roof 3 of my other friends have had similar experiences

I had Diff temp of 137°C (280°F) on that drive

Maybe we should create a forum and establish a support group for the vastly growing population of "Widows of Former FAQ members" 🙃😄

BEAUTY COMES IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES. SMALL, LARGE, ROUNDIE, SQUARE, THIN CRUST, THICK CRUST, STUFFED CRUST, EXTRA TOPPINGS… BEAUTY ISN'T A SHAPE - IT’S HOW SOMETHING BEHAVES TO INSPIRE PASSION.. THE 02s BEAUTY IIS HOW IT WORKS. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, BEAUTY IS IN THE HAND OF THE BEER HOLDER..

Wait a minnit… I know I’ve got the world’s tiniest violin around here somewhere!😂

Had one hour off this morning before a doctors appointment and got the dash off. Another piece not taken off since 1974 for sure. Paint soon!!

Acquired my first ‘02 about a month ago and it’s been sitting in my parents’ driveway (gotta love apartment living) while I get it sorted. First order of business was bleeding the brakes and upgrading to braided lines while I was in there. Managed to swap everything out, including the clutch line, but the driver side rear was a no go. Lines looked like they’d never been changed and the rears had been painted over when they sprayed the bottom of the car. The nut hasn’t stripped yet, but I’ve thrown the kitchen sink at it (snap-on line wrench, drenched in both PB Blaster and acetone / ATF mixture, applied heat with a torch, V-shaped Irwin vise grips, etc). while I wait for new hardliners from Blunttech I figured I’d overhaul the sad and tired throttle linkages with the gorgeous pieces from @halboyles. Install was straightforward and easy.

I drove it for its first shake down. My ‘02 has been tucked away waiting for spring (or saltless roads) since the CCA raffle. After 3 days of rain, today was a sunny 65 degrees - and both my and my car’s shared birthday (my ‘02 rolled off the line on my 02!)…I got it out for my first drive! I’ll have permagrin for days…

Three days off, its almost like I’m retired… I’ve been nursing a sore ankle for two days so today I took it easy, and re-wrapped the wiring harnesses… before pictures. after pictures…

Hello Gentlemen: I'm brand new to the 2002FAQ forum and BMW CCCA. Recently purchased a 1971 2002 in the Detroit area and after some post-purchase servicing, plan an adventure trip 2700 miles to my home in Washington State. Traveling with lots of tools but my 2002 experience goes back over 50 years when I owned a series of delightful '02s (1969, '73 '76). I'm hoping for a drama-free trip but may need some advice/assistance along the way. Thanks in advance for your support. Lee Harman 425 422-5406 "RedRV8tor"

This is heartbreaking news. I knew Bill since the early 90s, when he was one of the principals at Phaedrus in San Francisco. I worked af Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma in the early 2000s where his business, Road Rockets, was set up. I had many conversations with Bill and he was incredibly smart and knowledgeable about all things BMW-performance related. He was also always very kind and generous with his time. He had a tranquil, peaceful aura about him and he was always warm and smiling. I also recall that he was a serious cyclist, with several bikes hanging on his shop wall. It’s awful to hear that he was killed, I can’t help but wonder how this happened…although I suppose it’s immaterial at this point. Bill was a very nice man and a true O.G. in the BMW performance world. RIP Bill, and my deepest condolences to your family and friends.

Like new stickers, special alternator non-interference model. *THIS IS FOR ENTERTAINKENT PURPOSES ONLY REMAIN CALM AND MOVE ALONG

Wednesday work not my favorite, it seems impossible to do it without getting greasy… new rubber in differential hanger…

Well not sure what day it is, but received my Baur back from painting after three days and I started assembly yesterday….

I've found the build quality of SOC's 2002 parts to be superb. (note: my experience is with 'bagged' fiberglass, I'd venture to say the carbon fiber parts are equally impressive.) Data point: Paul has the ability to design custom parts, as we did for the vintage race car rear flares below (these are narrower than the flares on Paul's car, and with different wheel opening shape than the typical "Alpina" flares). The process: 3D scan + design + build mold + build parts = 'your own' fender flares. -KB

Lay the car upside down across your lap and give 3-4 hard raps between the two front wheels, that should do it. Sorry, couldn't resist. Easiest way is to park on an incline (rear wheels lower than front wheels) with the engine running and the radiator cap off. Let the engine come up to temp and let it idle for a few minutes. Then throw the cap back on and go give it a drive.