mike472

In the 70's there was a shop in Point Pleasant, NJ that did a Rover V8 conversion using a T50 manual 5 speed and a Jaguar XKE rear suspension and differential. This was done for a gentlemen named John Shelley who worked for IBM. He paid pretty good money for the work. I got a ride in it and it was not very refined and I would not recommend doing it. We went there with the NJ Chapter for a tech session. The shop was owned by a guy named Charles DeFrancesco who was a con man if I ever saw one. He did a couple of BMW engines for members that either blew up or burned oil but the Rover conversion ran well. It just wasn't something that felt right. It revved out too quickly as it was geared way to short and this engine is not a revver. This was originally used in early 60's oldmobiles and the design was sold to Rover who used it in everything from from Rover sedans to MGB specials. They worked better then a 2002. I would love to own the MG version. It was really shoehorned into that 02 and there wasn't much room for it. You are better off with an M20 conversion if you really wan't an upgrade or turbo your M10.

Steve, Thanks for keeping this forum going. It is a lifeline for our pride and joy. There is nowhere else you'll find this much information and experience in one place. Keep on Truckin' Mike

Here are a couple of shots of the work I’ve been doing over the last couple months. I have DeVille Autobody doing the job again and it’s looking good. Just test fitting everything up front. I’ve pretty much rebuilt all the sub-assembly’s and have some more work to do dying my door panels and other interior parts. The seats are sitting on the couch in my office slowly being broken in. Got them from Classic Touring Seats.

I decided to start a restoration on my Inka car to keep the car from going off the deep end of rust repair. Here’s the wash down part. Helps to have a fork truck and a good pair of Dollie’s to roll the car around. Marine cleaning in these shots. More to come

Since your block has been decked and your head has been cut I would take the thicker head gasket. If you take too much off either your head or block surface your cam timing will change and will need to be compensated for with an adjustable cam sprocket and a degree wheel to check it. Use Elring-Dirko gasket sealant for all gasket surfaces. It's what BMW uses. Here's a link to Ireland's site for sealant: Elring Dirko Silicone Sealant – Ireland Engineering | Racing & Performance Parts for BMW & MINI WWW.IEMOTORSPORT.COM Each

Thanks guys. I’m going to take mine apart and see if I can fix it. Depending on what’s wrong it might be fairly easy to fix.

Are these switches available new? In Jim’s last post he alluded to the fact that some new ones were bad right from he supplier. I’m pretty sure the one in my blue car is fried. No switched B+ at my megasquirt relay board. It’s been stranding me once in a while and with a few on and off movements I was able to resuscitate it. It has entered complete failure mode. Putting a meter on it today

One sure way is to take your valve cover off and look at the cam mark. Once that cam mark is lined up with the mark on the head the pointer should be lined up with the notch in the pulley for TDC

Use the mark on crank pulley with an adjustable timing light. Put a dot of yellow paint in the notch cut into the pulley at TDC. There may be a couple of notches so be careful to get the one for TDC. Makes it much easier to see. My Inka car seems happy at 33 Degrees advance at about 3000 RPM. You can see how your advance mechanism is working a lot easier on the crank pulley. You can see the mark moving back and forth as you rev the engine. That ball in the flywheel can get rusty and hard to see, never mind getting a good shot at it with your timing light. Difficult at best.

Really cool video of a Roundie model being built. The detail is amazing and so is the guys patience that's building it. If it were only that easy to get a new Roundie! Relax as This Hyper-Detailed BMW Model Springs to Life WWW.ROADANDTRACK.COM From one simple box, a model maker builds this gorgeous, grimy world.

Was always intrigued by these Lux cars. I remember Joe Chamberlain bringing one to Octoberfest that had a red leather interior with what I think was a Polaris or black exterior. I always had a liking for German corduroy. In fact, I liked it so much I ordered a pair of seats with black leather bolsters with black corduroy center sections. I think it fits with what BMW was doing at the time. These came from classictouringseats.com. I also had the privilege of owning a gray market 1977 728 in Resedagrun that had a completely corduroy and velour interior also in green.

Larry, Thanks for the vote of confidence in CTR. I liked the look of their seats better then GTS. I guess it’s a matter of taste but I did think they looked more like a period correct factory seat then GTS. I looked at Vintage Seats as well, mainly a purveyor of P car seats although some would look at home in your vintage BMW. I also have pretty much decided on the same seats you have chosen. I want them either in the leather bolster/black corduroy option or the All leather with the center section perforated. I think I’m leaning towards the former. I had a 1978 euro market 728 with carbureted 2.8, in Resedagrun with Green fabric and corduroy interior. As someone mentioned BMW had a whole universe of fabrics to choose from in Europe where here in the states we got plain ol’ vinyl or leather. I thought that would be a cool thing to have fabric in there. Especially the corduroy that they use. They claim it is Porsche factory approved material for automotive use. It looks heavy duty as it should. I am getting dark charcoal carpets from Esty and I thought that black corduroy matched the carpets really well. That carpet from her has a square weave look to it that also matches the lines of the black corduroy. I like the contrast in different materials too. Makes it look more interesting. Mike

Andrew, I would not take offense. You know I am not a stickler for originality otherwise I wouldn’t have painted my other car Estorilblau. What you said is important though. Paint has to go everywhere the factory sprayed it.

Your right about the climbing in. I’m not leaning towards the rally seats for that reason. I like the Sport S from GTS and the LeManS from CTS. Both very similar. Nothing like first hand experience though. I mentioned delivery because CTS is quoting two months. I haven’t gotten in touch with GTS yet. Planning to this week. I really like the basket weave/vinyl combo on all the seats. The really look nice even though they’re vinyl but the siren song of leather keeps calling…..

I was wondering what experiences anyone has had with these two companies as far as quality, delivery and looks. Price is important too but I’ll put the others first. CTR has a seat called the LeMansR that the owner Roger told me many 02 owners opt for. Both have very attractive seats and capture the period correct look for our cars. I’m giving my Inca car the full treatment on this resto and figured a new set of seats would be a great thing to add to it. I have a set of Scheel 501’s in my other car but truthfully they don’t look like they belong in a way. Too big. I think they went better in an E9 coupe. I may sell them and get a proper set of seats in their place if whoever I get these from delivers a quality set of seats. The photos below are from CTS and last one is the Blue Scheel seats from my other car. Just below is an Inca car with their more aggressive seat. CCR has a model which looks really nice and both have a wide choice of finishes and cloth, vinyl or leather. Makes it even harder. Vinyl is probably the correct choice for our cars and they have a beautiful vinyl/basket weave combo that really looks nice. They can even use your original headrest for a more original look.

Try taking an oiling can and fill it with brake fluid. Connect a piece of appropriate sized tubing and pump fluid backwards through the bleeder screw of the slave cylinder until it has backed up into the clutch master cylinder. Then try pumping the pedal. Sounds like you have an air pocket that won't go away. Especially when you've disconnected stuff. This will purge it from the other direction. I've had this happen to me and I think this was the solution.

Stupid question but did you use a clutch pilot alignment tool to make sure the clutch disc was centered? If you didn't have the clutch off this would be unnecessary but if you did and you didn't do this then you need to.

This definitely serves up some food for thought. I'm doing a restoration on my "74 that's painted Inca. Does this mean I should bring my '74 back to its original Sahara? After seeing this I'm tempted even though I'm changing from US bumpers to stainless from Blunt and a bunch of blingy stuff from IE. I have gotten to like Inca over the past 10 years I've been driving this one. It would be hard to go back to it but in a way I think Sahara might be more trendy then Inca. That color is definitely unloved by most. So was Malaga. I owned one of those and liked it too. I have a receipt for $2000 from 2007 when my car received a "quicky" Inca paint job for it's role in the movie "American Gangster". I guess the director thought it would pop on screen in that color and it was one of the quintessential BMW colors of the 70's. Do you think the person who bought that Sahara car would have paid this much for a non original color? This makes me wonder. I think I might just go back to Sahara if an Inca repaint will torpedo the value of my car. I am doing a complete restoration of this car with pretty much everything done. The car is a rolling shell at the moment ready for the color of my choice. I have a Gobi interior that came with it that I was going to paint black to go with the Inca. That will be one thing I won't have to do. Mechanically it's far from original with a 5 speed instead of an Automatic, rear disc brakes, header, 38/38 and a few other usual tweaks for the period, but it's not original. What to do. I think I'm still going for the Inca. I guess being from the "if it feel's good do it" generation I should just go with what makes me happy. I think the Hack Mechanic said it best when he said something like, "you want a car that when you walk away from it, you can't help but turn around to look at it because it's so cool". That's the way I feel about Inca with those Alpina wheels baby!

I'm not just saying this but Steve is a great guy. There, I said it. But all kidding aside he has a great knowledge of what you really need and all the variables of part numbers from one year to the next and what's right and what's wrong. If anything does go wrong he makes good on it. All I have to do is give him a brief description of what I need and after a brief Q&A with him we zero in on what I need. That's really important if you're doing a restoration and you're not intimately familiar with all the little bits and pieces you're going to need. I didn't know about the free ice cream.

Me too!

Blue caps are for shipping. Assuming you tugged on track rod joints and they were still tight. Check your idler arm bushing once you have track rod off of it. Grab it and see if you can flex it up and down. That might cause your shimmy too and if you haven't replaced it in your forays into your front end you should. Also make sure you have the heat shield that went over it to keep the rubber bushing from getting cooked by your exhaust manifold. This shield is missing from many cars I see and it makes those bushing go bad quick. Easy to make something if you dont have it. Bolts to motor mount I believe. Stainless is nice if you have a piece it out of. Paint burns off quick and rust starts.