Redtail

Crow's foot wrench might help? I just did this last weekend and must have one of the lucky cars because I was able to drop the sway bar and had plenty of access.

Wow that is quite the stable. Very impressive sir!

IMO no reason to replace any metal that is not rusty.

It's also worth the time to make a tight butt weld instead of a lapped patch, though plug welds are ok to replicate factory spot welds.

Where do you guys order the rotors from? I'm having a hard time finding anything for my '73 tii and the few places I've turned up that have them in stock are all pretty expensive.

Rust seems to be the main concern. From my perspective rain by itself isn't so bad, but snow/salt/deicer is awful.

Seattle does use regular salt on bridges, and uses liquid deicer that is a salt brine mixture or a straight MgCl solution on bridges, overpasses, freeways, and primary surface streets. They apparently do not use CMA in King County.

So in the Seattle area you're basically getting corrosive deicer on the road during the freezing season no matter where in town you live, a little different than the situation in Portland.

I'm really not sure why it's necessary at all since they let people who are worried about ice drive with studded tires from November through April.

I live in Portland and drive an '02 through the winter, though I have been considering getting a winter beater for a while.

Portland uses CMA to anti-ice and deice plus MgCl when the temperature goes below 17 degrees. CMA is only sprayed on bridges and highway overpasses and the west hills. MgCl is only used in the west hills (not sprayed on bridges due to the corrosive properties).

They say CMA is only as corrosive as tap water. Not sure I believe that but it is better than salt that's for sure.

So if you drive only surface streets and don't get on the bridges or highways or the west side you don't have to worry. If you use the freeway system, cross bridges, or live on the west side than your car is getting exposure and you'll need to consider that.

https://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/article/376538

I used a discount broker a few months back and it took weeks longer than it should have. I have not used anyone I'd recommend though sorry.

You really shouldn't run tires more than about 6 to 8 years old on a car that is actually driven.

Those 9 year old Avids are getting unsafe and you shouldn't be trying to sell them John_in_VA. They need to be recycled and not put on another vehicle.

I have been reading a lot about this lately as I need a set of tires for my car soon as well.

So far as I can tell there are about 4 or 5 choices available right now unless you want to go with no-name Chinese rubber or spend a grand on Michelin X-series.

If you don't drive in the rain or snow much and want a vintage look the Vredestein Sprint Plus is the tire for you (in 165hr13). 

I agree with JohnS the 185/70-13 is closer in size to the stock tire and a better option - there are 2 tires available in that size: the Toyo Extensa and the Falken Sincera (at $38 per -$152 a set of 4).

The Michelin Defender is a great tire and the 175/75 size will work but it will rev slightly higher on the freeway.

For whatever it's worth I'm probably going with the Falken unless people think the Extensa is a significantly better tire.

Nice, I love these concise explanations for complex systems in the car.

Got one for the K-fish injection?

I have an Inka car, which is less common and some folks love. I hate it, when I paint it, it'll be blue with a black spray canned engine bay. Why not paint it Inka again, have a matching engine bay and a color that leads to better resale ultimately? Simple, I'd enjoy it more being non-inka and worth less, so that's how I'm progressing.

I was under the impression that Inka cars are worth 15-20% more than any other color, or at least that's what it looks like to me on ebay listings. I was going to suggest the OP paint the car Inka or Colorado for that reason, maybe he would break even on the color change.

Does anyone know if there is a leather shift boot available?

Neat! I didn't know the big sedans cost so much more than the '02. Interesting how that is reversed today and the big sedans are worth much less than a nice 2002.

$100k would be right for a perfect concourse car, which this does not appear to be, I would expect closer to $75k.

A decent (not councourse) 3.0CSL is about a hundred thou these days right? I know which one I'd rather have for the same money.

I would blast first - makes it easy to see where exactly you need to repair. Not sure how long you can leave a shell bare before painting though.

I like the color, totally period.

Steve McQueen drove a brown Ferrari so it must be a cool color.

Of course I'm just searching on the wrong terms. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

Hey guys, I searched, but couldn't find a whole lot of info about what optional extras were available on these cars. I know A/C was a dealer installed option, along with alloy wheels and, I assume, the Blaupunkt radio was as well.  I am less clear on the other options - sunroof was one, but was the rear window defogger an option or was that standard equipment? Is there a comprehensive list of optional equipment for the 2002 available somewhere on the web? I'm just curious and any info would be appreciated.

Work shirt for me!

The silver car in the UK looks to be a fair deal at under 15k pounds.

As for reproduction red tips, check out post #90 on this post. 

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/topic/170753-rare-finds/page-5

Thanks for that, I actually have a bag of the 'ceramic christmas tree' red tips sitting beside me right now. They are pretty close to the original, but not exact and I would rather have the 'jewel' type if possible.

I checked the German website again and it turns out shipping for the 10 euro tip would be 52 euro 

Cool! I've been wanting to add one but didn't know if it would be original or not. 
 

Does anyone know where to get reproduction tips? I think there was a guy on here selling them a few years ago, other than that the only place I can find is this classic radio place in Germany.

Does anyone know if Hirschmann made a red 'jewel tip' antenna that would be correct for a '73 with the a-pillar mounted antenna? Or did these only come on earlier cars?

Many thanks

Well maybe a bit flowery on the descriptions yea lol. At least there are plenty of pictures and long descriptions about each part of the car. I think the OP was just pointing out more detailed ads are better these days.