Our Picks

In the 80's, my aunt had the seats reupholstered. Unfortunately, the upholstery was done in black when it should have been blue. This was something I wanted to fix.

My car came dealer equipped with a FrigiKing AC unit as a console. However, in the 90s, the whole unit was unfortunately removed and tossed because it had broken.  I wanted to replace the unit with a non-AC variety.  My goal is to have something period correct that allows me to play music from my phone.
 
In my '66 Beetle, I used a RetroSound stereo with a vintage faceplate and knobs.  This time I tried something different.  Inspired by what I've seen on this site, I decided to use a vintage stereo  and wire it to a BT receiver.  
 
The parts gathering process took about 6 months.  First was the short console itself.  Then I acquired a speaker grill, which I straightened, polished/painted, and then added new fabric. Finally the stereo, wiring, and speaker, which came from vintageblau.com.  
 

 

When I received the harness from the body shop, it was clear that most of the electrical components themselves were heavily degraded/broken. I had anticipated that most of the electrical components would need replacing so I began buying NOS pieces on eBay when I embarked on the restoration. Here is my collection of new and refurbished parts:
 

 
The harness itself came to me in a giant tangled ball because the tape had mostly fallen off.  Any of the harness that had been exposed in the trunk and engine compartment was badly over sprayed. My initial intention was to save the harness so I spent about 6hrs carefully cleaning it with acetone and using zip ties to re-bundle the wires. Here's it how it looked afterwards:

I also found these wiring diagrams online, which I used to orient myself with the harness and label the ends and reattach components.


 
Unfortunately, the harness was extremely brittle due to age. After all that work, I decided I would remake it instead of doing a bunch of splices to fix the broken segments. So that's coming next!
 

Ooh shiny! Who does not like new paint?

When the engine came out of the car, it was very tired and it needed a rebuild.  
 

 
But after taking care of the fundamentals, I was left wondering what I should do with it? A lot of the original equipment had been changed over the years so it wasn't practical to return it to stock.  Therefor I decided to strip off the remaining smog equipment and go with a side draft setup.  
 
I started with a new mechanical distributor setup and higher flow fuel pump (13311260677) 

 

 
These would support a single DCOE and on a Lynx manifold (i've changed course on this and i'm now using dual DCOEs, so this setup will be for sale shortly)
 

 
I also found this cool dipstick holder so I could remove the smog pump bracket
 

 
Other parts (new fan, water pump, clutch, seals, belts, etc) came from Ireland Engineering and Blunt.  The end product looked very nice!
 

 

My heater box was gross and inoperable.  I don't have pictures of the before state, but the motor didnt work and the bowden cables were broken.  
 
There were enough parts broken that I had to buy another core at Autobahn Dismantling in Santee.  I highly recommend this business - they have saved me a lot of trouble! 

 
I tore down the cores and sent the metal pieces of zinc plating.  This became a huge problem for me because the zinc plater closed down while they had my parts.  It took about 4 months to get my parts back and have them zinc plated elsewhere.  
 

 

 
I then sent everything to Brandon at prdesignsf.com to have him reassemble the box.  The finished product came out excellent.  
 


 
I ended up changing the valve for the later (wider diameter) style so I know this may cause me issues later when connect the heater box to the engine. The valve was changed because the old style is not rebuildable and not available new.  

During the teardown, I had the suspension disassembled.
 

 

 

All of the parts were media blasted and repainted.  Fasteners were either replaced or zinc plated. 

 
\
 

 

 
At this stage we discovered the rear diff had problems. Thankfully a new set of spider gears (ordered from WN) addressed the problem and everything else was assessed as fine by Pro Gear.  
 

 
Then after much parts ordering, we began reassembly of the suspension.  Anything that was rubber was replaced.  
 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 

At this point, there were many weeks of labor in going over the body and repairing damage to prep the body for smoothing and paint.  Here are some examples of things we fixed.
 
Repairing damage from the AC install (core support, firewall, and trans tunnel)

 

 

 

 

 

 
Repairing rust in the floors, fenders, and anywhere else it was discovered

 

 

 

 

 
 
Reversing the rear speaker install
 

 

 

 
Smoothing all of the repairs
 

 

Once the body was stripped to a shell, the outside was hand sanded to bare metal and the interior was media blasted.  Then the body was coated in primer while it waited for repairs to begin.  Some minor repairs were made during this time.  
 

 
 
My grandfather had installed aftermarket trim in the early 70s, likely to make the car look like a late model variety. Parts of this trim was missing and it wasn't period correct so I had it removed and the holes welded.  
 

 

 

 

 
As the car came apart, more rust was discovered.  
 

 

 

 
Here you can see evidence of past body work on the fender. This was previously hidden under bondo.
 

 
Its at this point that I made my first "customization" -- I had the reflectors on the front and back removed by welding up the holes.
 
  

Although the car is good at 20ft, a closer inspection revealed some expected rust and a lot of deferred maintenance.  The car's last paint job had many drips and tons of overspray.  Every piece of trim had dents and scratches. Given the car's condition (which is actually remarkable at 190k miles and 50 years) and my project goals, I decided to proceed with a full restoration. The first step was tearing it down.  
 
I removed the interior at home and scraped out the sound deadening material. Then had the car transported to So Cal Paintworks for complete mechanical disassembly.  
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Given the car's multiple owners and many modifications, I was surprised by how many holes and cuts were made to the body. Example being this notch made for the AC installation or this hole drilled in the headlight bucket for the car alarm switch.  
 
 

 

As long as I can remember, the BMW 2002 has been a fixture of my family. 
 
In 1968, my father bought a 1600 as his first car.  My grandfather took delivery of the car and drove it to my father, who was living in Oregon at the time.  On that drive between California and Oregon, my grandfather fell in love with the car and went on to buy himself a 2002 in 1969. My grandfathers car was bought from Schneider BMW in Anaheim (now 2002AD). It was delivered as Chamonix with a marine blue interior.   A Frigiking AC and stereo was installed, a long with a single speaker on the rear parcel shelf. At some point in the next years the car was also repainted to Fjord blue.  
 

 

 

 
 
My grandfather owned the car until 1974, when he died of lung cancer.  After his death, my aunt inherited the 2002. She drove it during college and then daily to her job as a veterinarian until the mid-90s. Its at this point, the car was pretty worn out and had been relegated to a barn.  The car was then passed to another family member who refurbished it mechanically and repainted the car to arctic white.  
 
In 2019, the car was inherited by me.   Below are some pictures of me taking delivery of the car and the condition of the car as I received it:
 



 

 
The car came with a tremendous amount of documentation going back to its purchase
 

Its been fun looking at who and when certain changes were made to the car. In the 1970s, a car alarm was installed. In the 1980s, the seats were changed to black.  I'm not sure when the grills were painted, and the gauge cluster and wheels were updated.  
 
My goal is to return the car to its 1969 appearance with some tasteful modifications to enhance the driving experience.  I want the car preserved such that my children and extended family can enjoy it too.  
 
 
 

If you found some rust on the body of your car, and want to both make your car look fabulous again AND prevent the rust from spreading like the cancer it is....Here ya go

Got both bumpers back from the shop. Front bumper came out nicely.
 
Side parts on the rear bumper were rusted as hell only chrome was holding them together so after removing chrome there were several holes.  Also I noticed the center piece bumper had several dents which were not seen before chroming. I had the centerpiece dechromed again to sort out dents before another chrome job.

Since making & having the side panels upholstered two years ago, the spare tire side didn't fit flat & flush with the fuel tank panel.
 
To tackle this job, I removed one staple & measured it at 1/4 of an inch. I just happen to have two boxes of these staples.
So I was good to go with my upholstery adhesive & an ultimate set of tools. 
 
The short story, remove staples, peel back the 'elephant skin', scribe to other panel, cut, test fit, glue, staple, trim & done.
 
Such a satisfying job.
 
 

Since making & having the side panels upholstered two years ago, the spare tire side didn't fit flat & flush with the fuel tank panel.
 
To tackle this job, I removed one staple & measured it at 1/4 of an inch. I just happen to have two boxes of these staples.
So I was good to go with my upholstery adhesive & an ultimate set of tools. 
 
The short story, remove staples, peel back the 'elephant skin', scribe to other panel, cut, test fit, glue, staple, trim & done.
 
Such a satisfying job.
 
 

Everything is in and running. Picking up from my last entry, I had to chop up a DSSR I had sitting around to add an extra inch to the length. I purchased a small length of the stainless rod in the same diameter from McMaster along with some electrodes to match from another supplier. It was impossible to find them locally, and difficult to find anyone online that would sell me less than 10 pounds of them, but I prevailed.

Not much to say, but you can see part of what it takes in the front to use the e30m3 subframe.
 
25mm master cylinder on the m3 booster. Bracketry in front of the master cylinder is / was fur the ABS pump. I'll be able to simplify the hard line routing and tuck it out of the way. I'll cut the ABS brackets out.
 
Massive amounts of reinforcement everywhere, the front end feels really solid, even with the 16x8's and the GC suspension with 350 pound springs.
 
Oh, and the conical welded in bits are where the center bolt on the control arm goes through the chassis, not just the subframe...
 
And a shot of where the lollipop bolts in with all that welding.
 
Did I mention there are 700 documented hours working on this before I ever laid eyes on it? The level of fabrication is amazing.
 
And you can see where I need to notch the frame more to make room for the header. The engine is very low in the car.

Engine:
Standard 1976 2.0 block and rebuilt head with a 292 camshaft. 
38/38 Weber 
Vintage Alpina spaghetti headers 
Ansa Sport Exhaust
Suspension:
Ground Control coil-overs
IE sway-bars
Blunttech Full rebuild kit
Exterior:
Rough Looking
Classic Alpina paint Inka/Black 
shaved all trim and side marker lights
Vintage looking roof rack
Interior:
New low back front seats 
New black early style carpet 
Full dynomat and insulation 
New short center console with gauges
Coco floor mats black/orange
Orange LED accent lights
MOMO wood steering wheel 
 
https://photos.app.goo.gl/sM9nCrMu4F9tPSYW8

From BMW Group Classic "The BMW 2002 tii rhd VIN 2752024 was manufactured on May 16th, 1973 and delivered on the same day to the UK. The original colour was Black, paint code 086."
 
UK Delivery, first owner was MD of BMW Concessionaires (UK) Ltd
 
Electric Sunroof
Limited Slip Differential
CR 5 speed
Alpina Steel Wheels
Alpina alloy air dam
Alpina 'Quarter bumpers'
Mota Lita Steering Wheel
 
All parts believed fitted when new.
 

 

Neue Klasse and Kaffee is a monthly gathering of BMW Neue Klasse and other Vintage Cars cars in San Francisco Area. Los Gatos events are on the third Saturday of every month.
 
We will gather downtown Los Gatos in Parking Lot 3 behind Loma Coffee Bar. We will stay in Los Gatos for 90 minutes prior to embarking on a drive through some fun roads of San Benito and Monterey Counties.
 
BMW 2002 FAQ will be there from 8am to 9:30am. Coffee will be available at Loma Coffee Bar.
 
Drive will start at 9:30AM and will go through San Juan Bautista (10:30AM), King City (12:30PM), and final destination at Laguna Seca (2:30PM). You do not have to be with us the entire time. There will be plenty of opportunities to leave the drive and resume your day.
 
Under current circumstances we would ask you to be respectful to others: 
Properly worn asks are required at all times you are not in your car. Please, stay 6 feet away from people There will not be a group lunch, so please plan accordingly.  
http://neueklasseundkaffee.com
 
 
 

I would have never guessed that when the car was finally ready to drive it would coincide with the outbreak of an infectious disease pandemic.  I’m in Seattle where the streets are normally clogged with traffic.  It’s been liberating to cruise unimpeded by the usual congestion that plagues these streets, at the same time, it’s strange not having a destination other than the grocery store.  

Well, the Backlog of 02's slowed me down a bit but now the shop is making it happen.
The subframe and Transmission tunnel were pre-cut so the motor could go up and get positioned.
The first lift showed that the Intake had to come off for a rough location, once that was done we installed the Intake to get the position dialed with the dimensions bianchini provided.

This has taken me a full DECADE of trial-and-error-and-refinement but I have FINALLY cracked this awful nut: how to properly make a good throttle linkage for an EFI conversion!  Note that you'll still need to tailor this to your particular manifold/throttle body/mounting points/etc., but I PROMISE this will get you 90% of the way there no matter what setup you are running and I also GUARANTEE that's it's better than what you've already managed to cobble together!  So let's get started! As always, first step is to disconnect the battery, and then understand what we're trying to do and the challenges involved:

The Neue Klasse BMW 1500 made its official debut at the 1961 Frankfurt Auto Show, and it hit showrooms in October, 1962. U.S. list price, $3,350. Curb weight, 2,390 pounds. 

There is a major version update coming to the software running FAQ. I have not picked the time or date for the update yet, but, please, be aware. 
 
Some downtime will be required and some features might not work after the update.  I will be working in the few days after the update in restoring the features if they are down. 
 
The look and feel will change as well as some functionality updates. 
 
I will post a notice with dat and time when know.
 
Steve K.