Conserv

Old Kugelfischer pump belts make me nervous. A nearly-50-year-old belt can disintegrate at any time. My ‘73 — it might have 125K-ish miles on it, unless it’s 225K-ish or the odometer is entirely meaningless — ran a couple months before I took the car off for its engine rebuild in October. The Kugelfischer seals were leaking gas profusely at that last engine start, so I decided not to start the car before trailering it to the shop in October. When my guys pulled out the belt, it disintegrated in their hands (below). I’m not certain, however, that a disintegrated pump belt leads to additional damage. Regards, Steve

Yes, Damien, you’ve posted in the wrong section; but you’re neither the first nor last to do that! 😉 You can read through lots of commentary on fitting rims in multiple threads — all in the “other”, general forum. And you will come away with a simple answer: a 7 x 15 rim — far from the original 4 1/2 x 13 and 5 x 13 rims — might fit on your car without rubbing, or modifications.” There were variations from car to car when they were new. Fifty years later, some combination of use, damage, repair, replacement parts (including OEM and aftermarket, new and used), and willful modification (e.g., lowering, negative camber plates), mean that variations from car to car are considerably greater today. Unless you’ve owned your car from new — and even then there were a couple months that passed between manufacture and delivery when the original owner was not present — you really don’t know its history (Yes, I recognize that every car owned by its third owner is labeled as “never been hit”. Yeah, right!). Add the fact that every make and model of tire has a different profile: some more “square-shouldered”, some more “rounded”, and it’s impossible to predict. Recall, you are attempting to fit a rim and tire no factory engineer would suggest in 1972. ‘02’s came with 165/80-13 tires. Period. Full stop. And that’s all that will fit in the spare tire well. No accident, part of the plan! Your best bet in a 7 x 15 rim has an offset of ET28 to ET25. You may find that the fronts are OK, but the rear fender lips require rolling the lips. You may find that the fronts rub a bit at hard lock, or at hard-lock-while-entering-a-driveway. Or maybe they won’t. Or maybe they will and you won’t hear it. So... lots of owners run 7 x 15 rims on ‘02’s. You wouldn’t be the first or the last! Those threads on the correct “forum” will provide the best guidance as to which tire sizes, and which tire brands and models, are most likely to work best. Regards, Steve

George, A lot of guys drop off a whole car’s worth of nuts, bolts, screws, and brackets for re-plating at once. I’m not that efficient, plus I like to put these fasteners back from whence they came. I would find a car’s-worth of re-plating simply overwhelming. So I do batches of re-plating, each representing a number of “project areas”, e.g., “fuel injection”, “emissions controls”, “rear subframe”, etc. If you mix a lot of very different “projects”, e.g., front subframe and lights, it’s easier to distinguish the parts. Plus, I take lots of photos of the fasteners coming off each project. Below, for instance, are the items coming off an injection pump, before the pump itself goes off for rebuilding. Some of these components, the aluminum gear and the triangular bracket, will not go to re-plating: aluminum doesn’t lend itself to re-plating and the bracket will be powdercoated. But I lay out the hardware and use the photos to identity the parts after re-plating, powdercoating, or other restoration. These injection pump parts are currently in a much larger batch with brake booster fasteners, airbox fasteners, etc. But the batch isn’t yet large enough to get “my money’s worth”, so I’ll keep building it with these sub-projects. It’s tedious, but fun, I suppose! 😉 Regards, Steve

Here’s another viewpoint, Mike: The two re-platers I used in Atlanta said that to best replicate the parts’ original sheen when re-plating, don’t media blast or mechanically clean the parts to be plated: it produces a duller finish. Simply remove any paint or overspray on the parts. The acid bath that precedes re-plating takes care of most filth. Yes, I agree: parts caked in grease and dirt are not something I wish to hand to anyone! Chemical cleaners such as Simple Green are fine, and that’s what I use to wipe off the lion’s share of filth. I usually chase the threads on nuts, bolts, and screws before and after re-plating. This might be considered mechanical cleaning, but I really don’t care about the sheen on threads. Sorry! 😊 I don’t have control tests to verify what these platers said, but the results impressed me time and again, so I’m not switching “recipes”! And, yes, I had to remove the Inka overspray from the headlight buckets below before my plater would accept them! The brown areas underlying the Inka are not paint, so I left them un-touched. And, indeed, those rusty-metal areas became bright and shiny when re-plated. Best regards, Steve

13 x 6 Borrani’s came in two offsets: ET17 and ET30. Although the ET30 is better from a fender lip perspective, I’d guess 205/60-13 on those would be getting somewhat close to the strut. Best regards, Steve

The optional factory alloys, 13 x 6, as you note, are (were?) ET13, same as an e21 6” alloy. And they were mounted with 185/70-13 tires. That combo shouldn’t pose a problem, but we need someone like Byron or Tom Jones to comment on what they’ve seen. Best regards, Steve

Thank you, Paul, But have you noticed how often I say “hopefully, Mike will jump in”, “Mike will know more”, “Mike discussed this topic previously”, or “I think we need to go to Mike on this”? I am a disciple, not The Man! 😋 Best regards, Steve

We used to call that “Candy Apple Red”! And it wasn’t on the car when the car left the factory. 😉 As the photo illustrates, it works nicely with purple dinosaurs... 😋 Regards, Steve

My dog wears a GPS tracker called a Whistle (1/2” x 1” x 1 1/2”). It costs about $100 and annual monitoring is about $100. In addition to telling you where your dog (I mean ‘02) is, it will tell you how often it is scratching, licking, and sleeping... 😋 The ideal ‘02 version would tell you how fast it is rusting... 😂 Just puttin’ it out there! Regards, Steve

Hmm... buying another rusty ‘02... What could possibly go wrong? The cheapest to buy is often not the cheapest to own. Regards, Steve

Umm... I’m wondering if this might have dampened some sellers’ enthusiasm! Just saying... 😉 Regards, Steve

I think they’re still available from BMW, Barrett, but they’re $836 each. I don’t see BMW looking to lower the price. Between the used market, injection rebuilding shops, and Paul Winterton’s cleaning, pintle-grinding, and pressure-testing, however, you can still assemble a clean tested set, fully to original spec, for well under the new price. Best regards, Steve

If I recall, this Webasto steel sliding roof — as distinguished from their canvas sliding roofs — was larger in both dimensions than the factory sunroof. It was a generic sunroof for aftermarket installation. I believe the Golde aftermarket version to which Mike (@Mike Self) refers — I’m hoping Mike will chime in — may share the dimensions of the factory sunroof. Regards, Steve