VWJake

Great work!

poking around the 2 cars revealed a few things. The white car is a first series 2002- chassis# 1661550. The vin plate is stamped 1968 and running the chassis number through a decoder shows it was built in '68 and was indeed polaris silver. The car has the long neck diff, left side half shaft with a U-joint, single line 2 piston front brakes, and an old master cylinder with the res. mounted directly to the top of it. The engine is rebuilt. The head is an '84 121 casting. The car has a 002 dist. and an Interco 32/36 carb on it. Most of the brake system, suspension, and cooling system have been replaced. The car had a 320i rad installed that was damaged in the accident. The red car is a second series '02 Chassis#1664819. While this car is a total rust bucket it doesn't appear to have ever been in a major accident. It still possesses it's original engine block. First order of business was to get the red car moved to the backyard and get the white one in the garage. Every hydraulic item I touched on the red car revealed another failed part. I finally decided just to pull the front pads and dial back the drum adjusters/disconnect the parking brakes. I managed to free the lightly stuck original engine block in the red car. The starter tested ok. The timing chain doesn't have a master link so I rigged up a few chunks of 2x6, a serp. belt idler, and a small piece of hose(to divert the oil that would normally travel to the head back into the timing cover). These items allowed me to operate the starter motor and effortlessly move the car into the backyard. After a few hundred feet of driving in 1st gear the starter was still as cool as the other side of the pillow. Hahaha I never thought I'd ride around in an electric '02. I moved on to the white car next. To start with I disconnected the fuel tank feed line from the pump, filed the points, fogged the cylinders, pulled the valve cover and fogged the valve train. I spun the engine over by hand through 2 full rotations. With no binding found I pulled the power wire to the coil, checked the oil level and cranked the engine until I got oil pressure. Then I poured a splash of fuel down the bowl vent and reconnected the coil wire. I never tire of hearing an engine for the first time. Imagine my surprise when it fired right up with no spoke or rattles of any kind. Awesome! The clutch hydraulic system had air in it so winched the car into the garage. I swapped in the rad from the red car, added coolant, and bled the clutch. The car fired up again and ran off of a bottle of fuel for about 15min. The clutch and trans seem to be fully functional. It'll be nice to move this car around under its own power now. As I mentioned previously the white car has been hammered on pretty badly in its 48yrs. The nose has taken a hard shot. Hard enough to damage the rain tray... The rockers are in exceptional condition with the only rust through being in the pass rear. All of the fenders and doors have putty in them. Digging around with a screwdriver only found wrinkled metal and large quantities of putty. I'm not finding any rust to speak of aside from the pass rocker. The floors are basically clean with only scars from running over something good sized. My loose plan currently is to build a frame table/jig under the red car to give me hard points to pull the white car to. With the number of impacts that the white car has taken I'm not confident that more than 1 point will match up at first. As it is I put the car on jack stands today and it's really only supported on 3 stands. I can pull the 4th out if I wanted to. Once the jig is made and the white car is bolted to it I'll drill spot welds and swap in the needed metal from the red car to make the white car whole again. It's going to be a long process. It won't be easy... Yes, there are better tubs out there for 5-6k, but my time is 'free to me' and I'm looking forward to stretching my metal working abilities.

The white car was originally Polaris. It has taken a good shot in the nose some time ago. The right apron is wrinkled and all of the front sheet metal had been replaced before painting it white. A year before it was T-Boned the white car received a completely re-manufactured engine. new upholstery, and some maintenance items. The car traveled 3k miles before the accident in '92. It was towed to the owner's house where it has sat until this past weekend. The red car is an original Granada Red car that ended up with a junk title for some reason or another. The owner intended to use the red car for metal needed to make the white car right again. Since the owner and his son are both in declining health he decided it was time to move them on. I'm not fooling myself. I know this project will be time consuming and most likely expensive. First priority is make both cars mobile. Then I'll measure up the white car to see how bad it really is and decide what the next step is.

When I was knee high to a grasshopper my Dad- Ralph Potter was "The" BMW mechanic in central IL. In fact, you had anything odd my Dad was the guy to go see. Ferraris, Alfas, BMWs, and assorted other vehicles were expertly cared for by my father. In the sleepy little town of Broadlands, IL my father had managed to acquire 12 BMWs behind the garage. 1600s, 1800s, and '02s were in his collection. As the story went all of these cars ran. Fit for the road... only some but they all ran. This was in the late 70's. All of those cars were sold/scrapped when we "moved into town" when gas prices and interest rates skyrocketed. All I can personally remember of that collection of cars was them being hauled out on a low boy stacked like cord wood. I don't remember when it showed up, but Dad brought home an Agave/Tobacco '73 sunroof '02 in the early 80's. That car served as my mother's daily driver for several years. My most vivid memories of the earlier years with that car included having to hold the doors shut in the winter because the latches froze open. The fire from depths of hell spot on my lower leg from the heater vent in the center console, and the sheepskin seat covers. 'Round about '87 my Mom was teaching my sister to drive on the way to our grandparents house. My sister didn't understand that cars don't steer well on gravel especially not over 30mph. The three of us left the embankment of the overpass flying through the air and crash landing just short of the bottom of the embankment then sliding through a farmers barbed wire fence. That was a long ride to Monticello- The three of us and the driver in a single cab tow truck. My Dad spent over 2yrs piecing that car back together. The car was pulled straight on a frame machine. It got a new nose, and fenders, new rockers, late model steelies, Eibach springs, Bilstein HDs and Sports, Big swaybars, Stahl header, new exhaust, a Weber 32/36, Cibie H4s, Hella 550s, power 320i mirrors, cocoa mats, and a host of fresh trim/seals. My Dad and I both loved that car.I eagerly awaited the arrival of every Roundel pouring through the pages dreaming of what I'd do to my own '02 some day. The '73 sat in the garage only driven occasionally until I turned 16. About a year after I started driving it the green car met its demise. I was rear ended by a a guy in a full sized van. The accident report said he was admiring the car and didn't see the brake lights. He shoved me 5ft into the truck in front of me. I remember looking at the headliner as the seat laid out flat and then looking back out the windshield in time to see the hood wrinkle and buckle up in front of me. After a year of scouring the want ads I stumbled onto a '71 1600 that had rear ended a MoDOT truck. With BFH, a birch tree, a few chains, and a drill I managed to pull the nose out far enough to replace the rad, fan, timing cover, and lights. A twisty country road and dry rotted tires contributed to this 1600's final ride. The RF tire blew out in a left hander. The car slid into the ditch and struck the one tree that was jutting out of the tree line. The car pivoted sideways and rolled over onto its roof. I unlatched the seatbelt and fell to the ceiling... damn! Another one bites the dust. In the decades that followed that last BMW I watched the prices of these little gems rise and rise. In the meantime I had lots of fun with VW GTIs, GLIs, and TDIs. All the while vowing to own another pocket rocket someday. My Dad passed away in 2013. I never got to fulfill my dream of replacing my Dad's '73. Time marched on. The day that I had hoped for finally came this past Saturday. A few weeks ago I saw a CL for 2 '69 '02s and another ad for a 3rd car- a '71. Prices seemed reasonable. Thought I'd buy all three, build two, sell one, and keep one. Well the 2 were way rougher than the ad let on and the 3rd was gone in short order. Even though they were basically scrap I couldn't get the two '69s out of my head. After much back and forth I finally talked with the CFO. She reluctantly approved and I made an offer on the pair. A few days later and I made two trips to haul the cars home.