Grover

Are we talking about on the inside of the tank, or the exterior?

Roughly speaking, what kind of budget are you working with? Sub $10k? $10-20k? $20k or above?

Bill. I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your son, I recall seeing posts of your exploits with him over the years. Please accept my deepest condolences. Sincerely. Tom

I've not worked with Matt but have heard fantastic things about him over the years. I now have another project car, an old Alfa, and while it's not directly relatable to '02's, one thing I've found very helpful is a series of YouTube videos by Vintage Customs, in Washington. The videos can be a little long-winded at times, but they've got some great techy info regarding fabrication, paint, metal repair, etc.. that can translate easily to other marques. Worth a look if you are interested in this type of stuff.

Congrats on the video, pretty cool!

I had a similar photo encounter a few years back when I took my '02 to the local BMW dealer.

Thanks for the kind words Esty. I really enjoy doing upholstery, but don't think I could swing it as a career. I tend to really like doing the detail work, which is inevitably very time consuming, and doubt many folks would be willing to pay that much for my time. I may try to do the odd job here and there for friends, but think it's probably just as well I keep it a hobby.

I use 92 weight nylon thread. I've tried both thinner and thicker, and have found that 92 is most pleasing to my eye. It's an aesthetic choice though. If you are thinking of doing some DIY upholstery, I think one of the first things you'll need to look at is the machine you have available to you. I sewed some covers for my center console side panels a while back with a borrowed home machine. While the machine was JUST capable of doing this, it really struggled to maintain a nice constant stich length as it was not a walking foot machine. Doing much more than a couple of layers of vinyl, or perhaps a layer of vinyl and some foam, and a home machine will really struggle. The machine i have now is easily capable of four layers of vinyl plus two layers of scrim foam, or trimming carpet, or the like. 

Al. I have a Consew walking foot machine. It's like many tools: it's capabilities are way beyond mine.

Yeah, the area around the pedals is really challenging. I've subsequently found a better technique for doing it which still maintains the top stitching so matches the edges better. It can work for many isolated holes of various shapes, even though a bit time consuming. Here you can sort of see it where I was doing a test pattern for a new E-brake boot on my Alfa; both the round hole where the handbrake lever would come out, as well as the trim around the carpet edge where the boot protrudes use the same technique. If I redo my carpet, this is the approach I'd now take.

I too am a fan of having the stitching show on the top side of the binder. However, I've found it's pretty challenging. I've tried a couple of different approach, shown here on some scrap test pieces I did; in both cases the binding is just vinyl trimmed to the appropriate width vs. purpose built binding. On the right sample, I do a first pass with the vinyl face down against the carpet. It is then flipped back on itself (causing the visible folder edge on the inside) on then top-sewn just 1/8" or so from the fold. On the left side, this is done in a single pass, and then whatever trim to the side of your sewn line is trimmed off with a razor blade. This is apparently how folks such as Jaguar and perhaps even BMW did it back in the day. This second approach is MUCH easier when going around bends. The former route is really tricky (at least for an relative newbie amateur such as myself) to feed at the correct speed and tension without the carpet "cupping" in the corners. Good luck!!

Regarding your original question, I never have really loved the original carpet patterns, particularly around the pedal box and firewall, so ended up making my own and then cutting them out of German Square Weave wool. As Esty says, it is not cheap, but I love the look and feel of it. I've subsequently added a custom heal pad for the driver's feet. In retrospect I'd do a couple of things differently if I were to do it over, but it was a great experience and project. 

Ashish. I'm running MS for both fuel and spark, so my situation is a little different, and I'm also running ITB's. My original intention was to run solely on MAP, but then move to the more advanced mode of sort of blending MAP and AlphaN (TPS.) The way I run MAP was to put a little vacuum port into each of the four throttle bodies, then run these to a common tube that supplies a MAP signal to the ECU. By ganging the four like this, apparently the signal is steadier. After running with it like this for some time, and also doing some tuning work on a dyno, I honestly just decided not to pursue the idea of blending in TPS. My understanding is that TPS provides greater granularity at high rpms and WOT, but for "normal" drivability, MAP is actually better. If yours is for the race car, then this may not be the logical approach. In the photo attached you can see the tube I made as a vacuum collector (stainless tube just to this side of the valve cover with little black hoses feeding into it.) This is before I moved to an airbox, but the basic set-up remained the same. 

Aashish. I'm running an older MS system and have been quite satisfied with it. Originally it was tied to the stock Escort coils, but I subsequently moved to the Accel coils as they give a much wider variety of plug wire choices. I pulled the coil bracket from an Escort and modified it (cut off a bunch of unnecessary heavy steel) before mounting it to my firewall. Good luck!! Tom

True Gary, you did not say what you think the car is worth. However, if you post a request for comments with zero info other than an asking price, don't you think it's reasonable to expect that helpful folks like us will provide input on the price? Or was your post intended as rhetorical, perhaps?

$28k seems over-priced based on the sparse info and photos. No pictures or photos of the engine bay and underside? Worth looking at? Sure, but don't bring $28k with you, for sure. It needs a very thorough inspection and the owner needs to be realistic about what she has.

I'm considering trying to sew covers for my E21 Recaro's. My driver's side seat has a rip in the bottom seat and I've never truly loved the tobacco-ish cover. However, they are still nice very much nice enough that I'm not willing to rip them up to make patterns. Does anybody have some old covers that I could take apart to make patterns with? Thanks a bunch.

That is very cool. There aren't too many TV personalities that I'd like to bump into and shoot the breeze with over a beer. Ed and Mike are two of the few, they seem like very down to earth and legit car guys.

I got the same email. I'm guessing his email account got hacked. I wouldn't click on the link if I were you, just delete it.

TobyB: The second coming of CD Eisel perhaps? Although your price is still way too high for his standards.

Oh my god. Is it done????

1. Early style Heater Fan: This one need cosmetic freshening but works perfectly well with no wobbles or squeaks: $60

2. This is a fuel pump from an '89-91 318is. This is the ideal fuel pump when doing an EFI conversion as it has the built in return line as well as the correct depth sending unit for a 2002 gas tank so you get the correct fuel gauge reading. To my knowledge, this is the only stock fuel pump that has these attributes hence its desirability when doing an EFI swap. I do not have a spare set of the pig tail connectors. $100

3. Pair of green glass vent windows. Glass is clean and with very minimal scratching. Chrome is decent but not show quality with some fading on the outside metal. $60 for the pair

4. Brand new, never used, 2002 ignition switch. $60

5. Brand new, never used, non-locking gas cap $10

6. VDO round washer fluid reservoir. No leaks or cracks, but some yellowing to plastic. $15

All prices are excluding shipping. Will she via UPS ground in the US at buyer's expense. Alternately, can be picked up from the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area.

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Location: El Cerrito, CA

No idea what happened to Otis, but this Isetta on Petrolicious just reminding me of his freewheeling spirit and the party trailer he built for his orange '02. Good times..

http://www.petrolicious.com/mf-business-in-the-front-party-in-the-back

Maybe I'm an anomaly here, but.... If a vendor has an established track record of lying, deception, and (in one form or another), theft, shouldn't this be grounds for banning them from the forum?

Eiremon. I am contemplating selling my '02 and it may suit your shopping list. If interested, drop me an email. trichardson AT clifbar DOT com

FWIW. I've only done one dyno session, but like you did it with a car with MS and ITB's. I had done quite a lot of tuning prior to the session so most of the "around town" drivability was already pretty close to dialed in. However, what I was less comfortable with was the WOT settings, and I'm really glad we tuned these on the dyno as I found I was running lean in a few areas. We also spent a bit of time literally just driving around the neighborhood with the dyno guy driving the car and testing certain things, and me in the passenger seat with the lap top making adjustments. From what I could tell, true drivability is better done on the road, vs. on a dyno. Good luck.

Congrats, the car is looking good. Appears you pulled the rear fenders a bit? Car looks a lot like mine, so no great surprise I like it.