RClippa

That is how my place was looking. BMW, Audi, Jeep, and Willys parts everywhere. From old roll cages to fuel systems and transmissions. A couple weeks ago my parents surprised me while I was out of town and cleaned out the entire house and yard. I came home and the place looked great, but all of my stuff was gone. Atleast they put all of the brand new roll cage tubing in the garage. That could have really sucked. Did loose a couple good transmissions, radiators, and misc trim parts in the whole mess though.

I am an inch lower in the front with 210's and a 5mil spacer. After massaging the air damn it doesn't rub. The best way to do if you are concerned with looks is to get a heat gun. Heat up the paint a little and use a rubber mallat or dead blow to gently move the air damn out. The heat will soften up the paint so it won't crack and the soft hammer will help keep you from adding any peaks to the steel. With that said I am going to 195's so that I can drop it lower and stop rubbing the inside of the upper fender. That or I will shorten the lower control arm a 1/4" and keep the 210's off the fender.

Mine did that with the 210 50 15's. I just used a pair of pliers to pull the spoiler back and away so it wouldn't hit.

Well it is up on stands in the garage. Looks like it might be just the slave. Hopefully I can pull the 4 speed on wed and install the 5 speed thursday night. It isn't a 10 minute job, but it is amazing what bolt-in starts to mean when you build a car or two from a pile of steel. I figure the hardest part is the driveshaft but I have both shafts and will just cut down the stock 02 front shaft and weld on the front of the 320 shaft so that the trans output works. Hopefully the balance won't be to bad.

I didn't see any fluid anywhere but I haven't peeled back the slave boot. The resivior was full of fluid and no matter how much I pump the pedal there is no resistance. Hopefully it is the slave cylinder because my 5 speed has one on it and I have just been looking for a reason to take a day to install it. Thanks and I will poke around some more when I get home.

I backed out of my driveway to go to school this morning and when I went to go to first gear the clutch pedal had nothing. It worked perfect to get it into reverse but then when I tried to shift again it had no back pressure. It still returns back out but it doesn't have any pressure to move the clutch. Does anyone know if this would be the master or slave? The clutch still seems good because I can put it in gear and start it. It pulls great but it won't disengage. I have a 5 speed to put in if it is the slave, but if it is the master I have to get parts. Auto Zone doesn't have the rebuild kit in stock anymore so I would need to find one or a new master.

I did the same thing but with the black. I wasn't sure at first but it is much better for my dog. She doesn't mind being back there at all. Next time I am going to add two layers of carpet padding on the bottom so it will be a little better for her.

To refinish mine I just took some 1000grit paper and sanded them down. Then using a 6 inch buffing wheel on the bench grinder and some aluminum compound I polished them out. Reattached using generic trim clips from pepboys and they looked great. Not new but I was basically to lazy to spend that much time polishing. You could get them to a mirror finish if you were patient enough.

Depends on where in NC you are but I am not far. I have the tools and a tubing bender so you could support the vehicle with the rear rollover hoops. I am down in SC but not to far from NC. I eyeballed this on mine but it is still in to good of shape to cut apart. It should be easy enough to do in a day and get all the caps welded in. Then you will have a few weekends of grinding and finish work to do.

Sorry I have been busy getting a 5-speed and starting a tube chassis for another project. For the lenses I took a simple plumbers torch and some lexan. Cut the lexan to match the lens trim. I first made a template out of cardboard because it is easier to bend. Trace the pattern on the lexan and cut out the shape. I used a die grinder with a 3 inch wheel. Then I used the trim ring and some small clamps to hold the lexan in place. Heat gently with the torch to prevent bubbling. Eventually the lense will take the shape of the trim ring. I used my finger to press it in on the tight radius. Then the final product is sand blasted on the inside to fog out the reflective tape and light bulb. Then I put 4 coats of blackout paint and a couple coats of clear. The inside is lined with the aluminum duct tape to help disperse the light. The lense has to be epoxied to the trim ring. I am just using hot glue now while I wait to clean up the trim rings. I still haven't decided between cleaning up all of the chrome and aluminum or having it all powder coated gloss black.

So this lead to a new windshield gasket that I drastically needed. I was having trouble in the rain with water pouring over my feet while I drove. Today I got that installed and began to finish up my turn signal project. This project was spured on when I backed my truck up into the BMW. I broke the drivers lens and wanted euros but the price was too high. I decided to build my own lenses. Now I am stuck and can't decide which I like better. Each lens is made from acrylic and heat formed to the metal trim ring. The white one is sand blasted and the other is sprayed with night shades. Which one do you guys like better? These lenses cost about $1.50 each and go right into the stock housings so I am not missing much if I screw it up bad enough. For the light holder I used a $2.99 holder that I found at AutoZone. This is mounted into the back wall of the signal hole with a 19mm hole. edit: I am currently working on polishing up the aluminum trim and getting ready to reinstall all of the trim and the grill. edit: opps wrong pics

Of course you can see the light fading and there was still lots more to do. I ran off to pick up some more supplies and back to spraying I went. This is a big mistake. Spraying at night attracts all sorts of crap, but I was in a rush to squeeze things in between rain storms. I finally finished up at about 11pm just in time to jump in bed and sleep for a few hours. The next day I came home and pulled the masking tape. Not bad, I should have used some body filler but my goal was cheap and fast. Couldn't have professional results with those two requirements.

Like the title says. Things multiply. The holes were all filled and I now had a lot of bare metal on the car. I taped off the top and primed over the raw metal. This looked like crap. So I took off another chunk. Time to prime the whole thing. So this is some cheap primer because the following day I was going to start my new job. The entire paint job cost $50 and was done with supplies from Lowes. Sure it is nothing that will win a car show, but now the car is one color and the metal is protected. I quickly followed the primer with paint. A good color is hard to find at Lowes so I took the easy way out and bought two quarts of satin black. I thinned the paint and tossed it in an HVLP gun and went back to work. Here I just finished the first good coat. I layed down a scratch coat to give the heavy coat something to hold too.

Like all projects this one took off on me. I couldn't stand the lower rub strip. I ripped it off when I got the car and just now got around to filling the holes left behind. I thought I would share this for others thinking about tackling something like this. This is a simple process. As a disclaimer, I AM NOT A BODY MAN. I have however filled a lot of holes in sheet metal over the last few years. I found that for larger holes they need some backing make the process easier. This is where a roofing nail comes into play. Place the roofing nail through the hole. Tack it in place. Then slowly add tacks until the entire hole is filled. Now you can attack it with a grinder. I use a 4.5 inch grinder with a cutoff wheel to smooth down the welds. Then I follow with a flap disc to smooth it all out. For smaller holes I add a lot of little tacks around the hole to strengthen up the metal. Then I slowly fill the hole with more tacks. Either way take it slow so that you do not warp the sheetmetal. You will probably also notice that the side markers are now gone too. The front reflectors just had two small screw holes. The rear had two screw holes and a large hole for the light. This hole was filled with a piece of sheetmetal cut to fit and then tack welded slowly around the circle alternating sides to reduce warping.

That is sweet. This really helps me push more as I was lossing my intrest and drive to get ready for the southern race. Congrats on the good time.

I would argue with that. Mine sat for 19 years and I put some marvels in the cylinders. Let it sit overnight and then cranked it over with the starter. I don't burn any oil at all. She started in January and I have been driving her everyday since. Except for that short break where I backed my truck into her and had to fix the headlight to not get ticketed. Marvels in the cylinders overnight, Drain the fuel Change oil, coolant, and fuel filter Replace battery with plugs out turn over to get marvels out of cylinders Check for spark while doing this replace plugs turn over with starting fluid -- should fire and get fuel moving should run from here. It will burn off a light of marvels at the first startup. Don't be to scared it happens and helps with the bugs in the neighborhood.

Well I must apologize for slacking off on updates. I have been daily driving the BMW while diesel is high. Unfortunatly I had a small lapse in judgement and I backed the truck into the BMW. Basically punched the trailer hitch through the drivers grill and took out the turn signal. Pretty crappy way to start a day. I am currently building the molds for the new turn signal lenses, the grill is on the floor, and the new sheetmetal is in the garage waiting to be molded to replace the damaged sections. With the turn signals I am going to try to get a euro lens look but with a clear lens and LED lights. Paint is coming up soon. I have started installing megasquirt in my audi project so I should get an open garage bay soon.

It is fairly easy to do yourself. I wouldn't blast it though. Unless you really know what you are doing it is very easy to warp the panels with a blaster. By that I mean really really easy to warp them to a point at which they can't be saved. Buy a paint removing wheel for the grinder and a wire wheel. Use these two to pull the paint away from any surface rust. Put a coat of POR 15 on the surface rust and then body fill to smooth it out. Then scuff up everything and paint. I am going to start this process in a few weeks. I have blasted a car down and warped it and painted several others in the past. I now will only let pro's soda blast the car or get it dipped. There is a chance that you can blast the car with no problems, but there is a higher risk of failure.

I don't have a link or anything, but I shaved the gutters on my '53 wagon and it is a pain. That is definitly the seam where the roof joins the vehicle. What I did was a long process. Choose an end to start at (one you won't see everytime you approach the car). Cut about 1-2 inches of gutter off. Leave a little on the roof side as you will be bending this down and welding it to the vehicle side. Slowly bend and tack the cut portion. Continue tack welding until the section is joined. Now cut another section and repeat. Do this for a couple of nights and you should be done. Now go back with a flap disk and clean up all those little tack welds and smooth. A couple nights later you will be done and can begin the actual body work to smooth everything out. EDIT: Protect the glass, I didn't and now it has to be replaced.

We she took her first trip today (I have been daily driving her though). I went up to Clemson SC, around 90 miles round trip with no problems. Earlier in the day I removed the AC since I don't have a compressor and the heater core in an attempt to rebuild it. Unfortunatly the fan is toast. The brushes had heated up and melted out of place. I priced the new motor and it looks like I will have to retrofit something. Possible just replace with a better box since mine is cracked in several places. I might even try and mill out something that will let me use some of those harbor frieght grinder brushes that I have in the tool box. I did get the rear bumper french up closer. I will get some pics of that when I finish it. I basically cut 2 inches out of the bumper itself to match the curves of the body and then pushed it up 1/8 inch from the sheetmetal. The weim in the pic is totally nuts. She is a rescue and has huge problems with seperation anxiety. I am working on that to, but she is more stubborn than me. She does sleep while I wrench. The only thing that is hard to remember is to kick her out of the garage while I grind and weld. She is so quiet in the coner on her bed that I tend to forget until I strike the first arc. I would love to get her a boyfriend but I am going to be heading to Germany soon and shipping one will be tough enough.[/i]

I have driven worse things around my block. I actually live on a really dead street so after 7pm there is no one outside. I drive my jeep around it all the time and it is no where near safe for the street but I don't want to tow it for several hours just to realize that I missed a bolt or something. Plus everything was so rusted from sitting for 19 years that I could let off the gas and it would come to a stop pretty quickly, just not under my control. MS is on my desk and being tested. Next time I am ordering it put together. I have two turbos at the house and an intercooler. I just haven't decided which one I want to run. Then I have to add the intake and throttle body but I am not sure what to do yet.

Well she got some new shoes this weekend. I found a set of 15" 6 spokes wrapped in yokahama tires for a great deal so they are now on there. They rub a little on the speed bumps but I should be able to sort that out when I roll the fenders. I was also hunting a limited slip but every 320i diff kept comming up open. Currently I am driving her everyday to make sure the reliability is there before I sink in too much money. I am slowing filling in the rub stip holes with some weld and patching rust in an effort to get ready for paint. I was really shooting for painting at the end of the month, but I got a new transmission for my other toy so I want to get that installed right away. Plus I can't make up my mind on paint. Deep metallic green or bright metallic orange? I am sure that one will keep me busy up until they start mixing the paint at the store. The wiem is crazy. Her eyes glow like that with even a faint light. But she also changes color throughout the day. Starts out brown in the morning and fades to a grey in the afternoon. It is really weird.

Up next is some tires that aren't R compound racing tires. Lots of rust repair, and of course rebuilding the interior. It is slowing down the other three project vehicles I have, but with school the budget is slowing down everything the most. Let me know what you think and what else there is. I am thinking about a nice bright metallic orange for paint. Ditch all the aluminum trim and rub strips. Loose the front bumper. Shave the rear and tuck it up nice and tight. Black interior. Then over the summer add a turbo, electric fuel injection, and a limited slip.

Well I have been eyeballing an '02 for years now. Every chance I had to buy one fell through. Last year a friend mentioned a free BMW that he found online and without knowing what it was I told him to set it up. Well after a couple headaches, the people backing out, and some persistance he got the deal worked out. We drove up into the mountains of NC and loaded a 1974 BMW onto my trailer with the intentions of a frame off rebuild. Since I have a 1953 willys wagon on my rotisery in the garage and an audi on jack stands in the other bay I decided we should try to get it running and see what it needed. We started by testing the electronics while some marvel's mystery oil soaked in the cylinders. Everything except the ignition seemed to be in working order. Did I mention that she hadn't been started in over 18 years!! The following morning I couldn't wait to get started. The engine turned free. With some bleeding the clutch worked but the pedal box was locked up so it had to be rebuilt. But that would come later. Well after lunch it was time to jumper the starter and see what happened. The motor spun up without any problems. It didn't fire but that turned out to be a bad coil and I just happened to have an Acel super coil in the garage. So with a crappy clutch, no brakes, and a strong desire for a cold beer I took a leap and drove around the block. My roommate and my dog came along for the ride. Neither knew about the lack of brakes. Here I am very happy with that cold one I was looking for. Notice that I already lost the front bumper. I am not sure it will stay that way but I couldn't help myself. So she drove around the block but the brakes were done. With some pricing and research I found that the big brake upgrade was much cheaper than rebuilding the stock system. So we took a trip to the local pull a part and got the brake parts. Finally today I found a set of wheels that I could borrow to try the new system. I also finished all the paperwork with the DMV and got her legal. Well if you stuck with me this far, I commend you. Total spent so far. -- $430 Not bad for a working, driving, '02 1974 BMW 2002 ---$40 of diesel Big Brake Upgrade -- $200 Pedal Box Rebuild -- Free Driveshaft Rebuild -- $40 Rebuilt the entire rear subframe -- $10 New Coil -- Free Racing wheels and Tires -- free for now. Misc crap from the parts store -- $40 DMV Paperwork -- $100

Yea, we picked up a 3/4 breaker bar and got the nuts loose. Then pulled out the 6 ton hub puller I built and they came off with just a few pumps of the jack handle. I thought it would only be usefull for getting the '02 hubs off but it was a life saver at the yard. The brakes are now on the 02 and I am just waiting to get wheels and the driveshaft rebuilt.