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Shawn Piper

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Blog Entries posted by Shawn Piper

  1. Shawn Piper

    Frosted hub cap restoration

    By Shawn Piper,


    Restoration
    I've been really inspired by Mike Self's 2002.  I really like the original hub caps and driving lights.   Its a look I want to replicate with my car. 
     

     
    Hub caps in 1969 were painted with a matte silver paint and didn't have an independent valve stem hole.  I wanted to restore this detail on my car but the original hubcaps had been lost.  
     
    I wasn't having luck finding restorable hub caps despite posting several 'want' ads and diligent eBay browsing for about 12 months. Sure, dents can be removed, but the stainless on these earlier hubcaps wasn't very good and the hub caps were prone to significant rusting. The retaining clips were also prone to significant rusting and damage too.  
     
    As a last resort, I went to La Jolla Independent in Bird Rock.  I brought with me a particularly beaten example for reference, which Carl Nelson (the owner) immediately recognized as a special item.  He said "I might have a few of those" and then lightly quizzed me to see if I had the right car for the hub caps.  After convincing him of my good intentions, Carl had one of his employees go upstairs to sort through his presumably vast hoard of 2002 parts.  Fortunately for me, Carl had 4 (and only 4!) decent hub caps and we made a deal.
     

     
    The hub caps started like this

     
    Its hard to see in the photo, but someone had previously sprayed them with a clear coat.  I don't believe this was original since other hub caps I found were not painted in this way.  Under the clear coat, and especially on the back, were streaks of rust. 
     
    I started the restoration by stripping the clear coat, then the silver paint, and cleaning the hub caps with degreaser.  Once clean, I sanded out the pitting and then took the hub caps to Polishing Proz in Santee.   I asked them to keep the painted areas in a rough finish so that the paint would adhere better.  This is how they came back:
     

     
    The hub caps themselves were quite dented and Polishing Proz took care of that as evidenced by the marks on the back.  Good luck if you're precious like me and don't want to scratch up the back of your hub caps.  I initially tried a dent pulling service and they wanted an absurd amount of money plus they also wanted to scratch up the back of the hub caps in their process to assure the dent was removed.  
     

    Once polished, I then cleaned the hub caps with acetone to remove any polishing compound (there was quite a bit).  A side effect of polishing the exterior was the removal of the cad plating on the brass rivets.  To be fair, there wasn't much cad plating left (it was mostly tarnish).
     
    Anyway, the brass didn't look quite right so I decided to paint this using a steel colored Eastwood caliper paint.
     

     

     
    Then the hubcaps themselves were painted with a lighter silver.  You can use Eastwood 2K Aerospray Aluma Blast.  This same paint is great for the backside of re-chromed bumpers.  
     

     
    Finally, I installed the emblems. If you're curious, the emblems are the same as the later (70+) hub caps and can be bought new from BMW. The emblem should be oriented so that the M is facing the valve stem hole on all years of hub caps.  
     

     
    Et voila! 
     

     
    And of course, a before / after... 
     

     
    I think these will look nice on my restored wheels (yes I know they are not 69 dated) and new tires 
     
    '
     

     
     
  2. Shawn Piper

    Restoring the correct gauge cluster

    By Shawn Piper,


    Restoration
    My car had a gauge cluster housing from a late-model car. 

     
    The wood grain bugged me so I went to Autobahn Dismantling to find a correct style one worthy of restoring.  Interestingly, the wood panel can be removed but the housing itself is actually quite different. The early style has a clear plastic window on the side, mounting holes in the top, and no provisions for attaching the fake wood panel.  
     

     

     
    The gauges themselves went to The Speedo Shop for rebuilding and recalibration.  The housing went to GCAR and came back looking brand new.
     
     
  3. Shawn Piper

    Quick project update

    By Shawn Piper,


    Restoration
    My new job and moving has slowed progress on the car, but it's still inching closer to completion.  If you followed my previous posts, i said the mission of this project was to have an almost original 1969 BMW 2002... but the car has become something else, something that is more custom.  
     
    Fuel and Carbs  
    Final routing fuel and cable routing is being done around the TI air cleaner that I modified for the DCOEs.  The fuel regulator impinged on the air cleaner so I moved it to the drivers side, which incidentally makes it easier to adjust. The fuel lines are still being adjusted and experimented with. 
     
    Fuel and Carbs  
    I am fabricating a custom battery tray from a TII tray... but mounts lower and using the original bolt locations.  

    Diff
    I switched the diff to a 3.65 LSD, which was made by Dave Varco
     
    Interior
    One big setback has been the dash, which was redone by Just Dashes. Unfortunately it didn't line up to the body after it was reworked and I had to send it back... which has delayed finishing the interior for 4-5mo.  
     
     





     
  4. Shawn Piper
    I apologize for the duplicate post if you've already seen this in the Discussion area. This is a follow-up to my previous post about electrical components.  
     
    A few days ago, I received a very nicely packaged and documented harnesses in the correct colors and tape!

     

     
    My old connectors and grommets, if proprietary, were transferred over.  The old harness was also returned as well.   
     

     
    As for the price... this was the first 6-fuse 2002 harness they had made and it cost quite a bit.  However, relative to the price of restoring a car, it wasn't too bad.  Definitely worth it.  
     
  5. Shawn Piper

    A frustrating mistake

    By Shawn Piper,


    Restoration
    So I found a good deal on a TI air cleaner, which inspired me to go dual DCOE with my engine build.  My goal is to attach it to the shock tower with a custom Alpina-style bracket.  
     

    But in my excitement I didn't test fit anything and took the air cleaner directly to the body shop to have it repainted... 
     

     

     
    Of course it came back looking beautiful, but when I attached the clips, they didn't line up correctly.  So the air cleaner now has to be modified and repainted so that the clips line up right.  I'm guessing that one end is from a different type of air cleaner.  
     

    This whole car has been a long waiting game so its challenging to not get ahead of myself sometimes.  
  6. Shawn Piper
    I don't have a lot of great pictures to include on this particular project but I wanted to share some things I learned through this process.  Hopefully you guys might find it beneficial.  
     
    For reference, my gas tank started out like this -- Lots of overspray and undercoating.  Heavy rust where the foam seal had been. Light rust internally.

     

     
    For the exterior rust, I used Metal Rescue Gel to remove 70% of the rust. After a week of treatment, I pressure washed the tank and then used a rotary tool to remove the remaining rust.  This worked really well.  
     
    For the interior rust, I thought about having the tank professionally cleaned.  The shops I talked with wanted $400+ and were insistent on adding a tank liner.  I thought I could do better on my own, so I bought 2x 5gal and 1x 1gal containers of Metal Rescue. Total cost was $230 shipped (less than what was quoted from shops).
     
    My neighbors probably think I'm running a Meth Lab now because my trash is overflowing with these...

    I leveled & supported the gas tank and then filled it completely with Metal Rescue.  I then taped off the tank and let it sit for 7 days - the end result was a completely rust free gas tank!  After draining the tank, I fogged it with 2-stroke gasoline to prevent flash rust.  
     
    Here is the tank after painting it and re-installing it...

     
    So, now onto the fuel sender.  My sender never worked and I learned why after disassembling it.  There is a small nichrome wire that changes the resistance based on the float position.  Its common for this wire to break and that's what happened to me.  For my sender, I was able to resolder the wire (given the break position) but I also found the wire can purchased new from this vendor:   https://jacobs-online.biz/nichrome_wire.htm I bought a foot of this wire and ended up using it to repair 2 additional senders I bought from the junkyard.  I'll keep these as spares or sell them on.  
     
    When you service the sender, its important you remove all the varnish from the rails that support the float.  This keeps everything moving correctly.  I used acetone to clean the whole sender, inside and out.   
     
    The other thing I learned is that the screen on the fuel sender can survive zinc plating. Mine was rusty, so after soaking it in Metal Rescue for 24 hours, I had it re-plated.  

      
     
  7. Shawn Piper

    Reupholstering my seats

    By Shawn Piper,


    Restoration
    In the 80's, my aunt had the seats reupholstered. Unfortunately, the upholstery was done in black when they should have been blue. This was something I wanted to fix.
     


     
    The first thing I did was tear down the seats. The horse hair padding was basically powder so this process was really messy.
     


     
    Once the seats were dismantled, I pressure washed all the crud from the frames. The rust was removed using Metal Rescue Gel... this stuff works amazingly well and I highly recommend it.   
     
    Some seat parts were damaged, such as the interior plastic dust covers, so I acquired some derelict seats for parts. 

     
    Other parts I sourced on eBay Germany, such as the fasteners. I bought new fasteners because mine were stripped from the previous upholstery job (I know the Philips style isnt correct for a 69, but it was better than what I was working with).  



    The hinges and seat rails came apart and I sent the pieces out to have them re-chromed and zinc plated. It was at this point that I knew I could never reassemble these things (the huge hinge spring looked like it required a special tool that I didn't have). 
     

     
    Fortunately, there is a local shop called Autobahn Interiors that specializes in vintage Porches. They had the right tools to re-assemble the seats and were also able to recover them using the correct German vinyl.  
     

     
    In this process, we discovered that my seats were a rare, wide-backed variety.
     


    And here are the completed seats.  The rear seats don't have the basket weave pattern across the whole thing because the upholstery shop didn't have an iron big enough.  Overall, I'm very pleased with them and I think they are a huge improvement over what I had.  
     

     
  8. Shawn Piper
    Lots been going on relative to the 2002!
     
    The entire exhaust went out for ceracoating.  The heater box and parking brake were installed.  
     
    The Lynx manifold and single DCOE 45 was swapped for a dual DCOE 40 setup.  I bought a stainless steel fuel line from IE that will be swapped in.  I'm still looking for a non-plastic brake booster outlet.
     

     
    The pedal box and steering column started coming back together...
     


     
    And the trim was put on and the bumpers were assembled.  The headliner installation and glass started this week and will finish next week.  The original emblems were repainted and will get installed soon.
     

     
    More pics coming soon... 
  9. Shawn Piper

    Building a center console

    By Shawn Piper,


    Restoration
    My car came dealer equipped with a FrigiKing AC unit as a console. However, in the 90s, the whole unit was unfortunately removed and tossed because it had broken.  I wanted to replace the unit with a non-AC variety.  My goal is to have something period correct that allows me to play music from my phone.
     
    In my '66 Beetle, I used a RetroSound stereo with a vintage faceplate and knobs.  This time I tried something different.  Inspired by what I've seen on this site, I decided to use a vintage stereo  and wire it to a BT receiver.  
     
    The parts gathering process took about 6 months.  First was the short console itself.  Then I acquired a speaker grill, which I straightened, polished/painted, and then added new fabric. Finally the stereo, wiring, and speaker, which came from vintageblau.com.  
     

     

  10. Shawn Piper

    Early Klippan seatbelt restoration

    By Shawn Piper,


    Restoration
    A goal of my restoration is to keep certain model-year specific details.  In 1969, the 2002s came primarily with an airplane-style Klippan seat belt and in 1970 switched a clasp-style that hooked a bar over the transmission style. I have seen one example of a 1969 clasp-style seatbelt (inferring the transition might have happened in late 1969)  but its condition was unrestorable.  Anyways, the clasp-style was used up to 1972, which is when the Autoflug retracting belts became more popular.  
     
    Here you can see the airplane-style (bottom) and the clasp-style (top);

     
    If you're searching for either style, the model numbers are as follows:
     
    Clasp - Mod 222 & 221 (rear), 225 (long front)
    Airplane - Mod 407 &, 407C & 407P (rear & short front), 517 (long front)
     
    I knew my car came with the airplane-style seatbelts because those were still attached in the rear when it received it.  The front seatbelts had been upgrade to some generic 80s style, and the retractors were broken. The issue with the airplane-style belts is that they were used on Dino Ferraris and Porsche 356s (here is a Dino restoration blog that shows how to refurbish the seatbelts).  Because you are competing with these collectors, good sets can cost a lot - upwards of $300-500 a pair.  
     
    I didn't want to spend that much money so I went to Autobahn Dismantling and hunted around their spare parts bins until I found a wad of various super greasy seatbelts.   That score, plus a lucky find on eBay, helped me piece together a complete seatbelt set.  I soaked the seatbelts with Simple Green and Laundry Soap and laid them out to dry. 
     

     
    I then dismantled the mechanism and sent the internal parts out for zinc plating.   


    The parts that couldn't be removed due to the webbing were gently scraped at using a dull kitchen knife.  This removed the oxidation. Here is a before/after. 

     
    The chrome parts were soaked in Metal Rescue and then polished with White Diamond.  Here is that before/after:

     
    Another challenge was the rivets. They were rusty.  I removed the rust using Metal Rescue Gel and then repainted the rivets using Eastwood's 2K Underhood Black.  The masking process for every rivet was incredibly time consuming but the end result was worth it! 
     
     
     
    The last part to restore were the larger plastic pieces.  These were oxidized and had a gray/white tinge to them that looked really bad.

     
    I tried multiple things to restore the plastic.  Here are the things that DIDNT work:
    - I tried remove the oxidation with Meguiar's PlastX -- since this removed oxidation from plastic headlights, I figured it might work on these pieces as well.  Unfortunately, it didn't do anything other than remove some really stuck on dirt that I hadn't previously noticed.  
    - I tried soaking the pieces in Meguiar's Back to Black for several days. They looked awesome at first but returned to their original state within a few days.  
    - I tried spray painting a test piece with Krylon ColorMax Satin Black.  The color was right but the paint is too thick and obscured the texture of the plastic... it looked obviously painted.  
     
    So finally I found this Vinyl Paint, which alleges to be super thin.  A test piece looked perfect so I painted all the pieces, including the adjuster knobs, and reassembled the seatbelts.  Note, DONT try to remove the sliding adjuster knobs ... they are glued in place and will break immediately if you try to remove them.  These should be painted in place.
     

     
    Here are the final belts.  I think they look awesome and I cant wait to install them.  

     
  11. Shawn Piper

    Ground strap for steering column joint

    By Shawn Piper,


    Restoration
    My steering column joint was very rusty when I removed it.   It looked like this
     

     
    Here's what I did to restore it..
    - Disassemble 
    - Soak in Evaporust
    - Wire wheel the parts
    - Zinc plate
    - Then mask the parts and paint them with Eastwood 2k Epoxy Primer and 2K Underhood Black
     
    But I got stuck on the ground strap.  Mine was pretty degraded... 

     
    The hole size is M6, and I figured I could make one myself if I found the right eyelets... but I've been working extra hours recently (very tired) and preferred to buy something premade to save time.  Also I didn't know if this was actually needed for my car since its missing on about 50% of the cars I've seen... so less effort the better.   
     
    Never the less, I recall the VW guys have a similar strap on their cars so I went to Wolfsburg West and bought this for $7:
     

     
    The strap is longer than the one it replaced, but it ended up working nicely... 
     


  12. Shawn Piper

    Restoring trunk pinch weld

    By Shawn Piper,


    Restoration
    This was a successful weekend project that I wanted to share. 
     
    Since the pinch welds from my car were really dirty and rusty, I decided to try restoring them.  I started out by cleaning them with Simple Green and then soaking them in Evaporust.  Afterwards, I tried gently wiping them down with acetone to remove overspray (note that acetone, paint thinner, or any other solvent will easily melt the pinch weld).  This is the end product:
     

    Its OK, but you can still see some significant staining and discoloration.  The ends were also looking unsightly:
     


    Next, I filed the ends down with a needle file and finished scraping off the remaining overspray with a plastic spudger. 
     

     
    To deal with the staining, I decided to try a fabric and vinyl paint.  I had a can of White Duplicolor Vinyl and Fabric paint.  I tried a test spray and it was a very bright white, while the original color of the pinch weld is off white.
     
    I found this offering from SEM when searching locally for a better matching paint-- literally "off white":
     

     
    To paint the pieces, I made an "apparatus" out of cardboard and rested it on a jerry can: 
     

     
    The paint dried very quickly and had a nice, flexible finish.  Here are some before and after shots:
     


     
    And then I packaged everything up for when I assemble my interior... 
     

  13. Shawn Piper
    I'm getting pickier since seeing my car's new paint. My previously OK radiator is now starting to look cosmetically unacceptable. I tried to clean it up and spent considerable time straightening the smashed fins with a plastic spudger.  Even though I achieved decent results (better with a repaint I'm sure) , I decided to go with a new radiator and keep the old one as a spare. 
     
    Here's what the old radiator looks like after cleaning.  This clearly isn't the radiator that came with my car (due to the fan shroud provisions) but its a genuine BMW part.


     
    I originally started down the path of reconditioning my existing radiator but local radiator shops  wanted a lot of money to rebuild my core- I figured there is no point spending lots of money rebuilding something that isn't original to the car.   As a result, I decided to find a new BMW radiator (part # 17111115755).  
     


    I placed my order online and waited about 6 weeks for the part to presumably arrive from Germany.  When I first opened the box, I was immediately tipped off by the radiator cap that it wasn't the same as the photo.

     
    Not a big deal because I had already bought a BMW radiator cap (that I attached right away!), but I was curious what that meant for the radiator. 

     
    Here's what I got:


    The radiator looks really nice and came well packed (double boxed!). 

    At first glance, the new radiator is missing any BMW or LR stamping. At second glance, the fin density is higher on the new radiator so I wonder if the cooling properties are better than the old radiator. At third glace, the stamped metal at the top and bottom have different patterns.  

    That being said, the drain plug is there (white flecks are from styofoam packing) and the dimensions are identical.  
     

     
    As for maker's marks, I found this sticker for TUV Nord:

     
    Doing some research online, TUV Nord seems to be one of these large German companies that does a bit of everything. One of their offerings is safety inspections of automotive parts.   There is no indication who made the radiator, but I presume BMW changed their supplier from LR.  
     
    Later, I got suspicious that I was shipped the cheaper Wallothnesch radiator for the higher BMW price.  However, the Wallothnesch radiator actually looks more like the radiator I just replaced than the one I bought, so the purists might want to use that over the new "BMW" part.  

     

    On a side note, my hoses, clamps, and thermostat arrived.  I'm getting excited to start reassembling the car in the next months. 


     
  14. Shawn Piper

    Getting into electrical

    By Shawn Piper,


    Restoration
    When I received the harness from the body shop, it was clear that most of the electrical components themselves were heavily degraded/broken. I had anticipated that most of the electrical components would need replacing so I began buying NOS pieces on eBay when I embarked on the restoration. Here is my collection of new and refurbished parts:
     

     
    The harness itself came to me in a giant tangled ball because the tape had mostly fallen off.  Any of the harness that had been exposed in the trunk and engine compartment was badly over sprayed. My initial intention was to save the harness so I spent about 6hrs carefully cleaning it with acetone and using zip ties to re-bundle the wires. Here's it how it looked afterwards:


    I also found these wiring diagrams online, which I used to orient myself with the harness and label the ends and reattach components.



     
    Unfortunately, the harness was extremely brittle due to age. After all that work, I decided I would remake it instead of doing a bunch of splices to fix the broken segments. So that's coming next!
     
  15. Shawn Piper

    Before restoration

    By Shawn Piper,


    History
    As long as I can remember, the BMW 2002 has been a fixture of my family. 
     
    In 1968, my father bought a 1600 as his first car.  My grandfather took delivery of the car and drove it to my father, who was living in Oregon at the time.  On that drive between California and Oregon, my grandfather fell in love with the car and went on to buy himself a 2002 in 1969. My grandfathers car was bought from Schneider BMW in Anaheim (now 2002AD). It was delivered as Chamonix with a marine blue interior.   A Frigiking AC and stereo was installed, a long with a single speaker on the rear parcel shelf. At some point in the next years the car was also repainted to Fjord blue.  
     

     

     

     
     
    My grandfather owned the car until 1974, when he died of lung cancer.  After his death, my aunt inherited the 2002. She drove it during college and then daily to her job as a veterinarian until the mid-90s. Its at this point, the car was pretty worn out and had been relegated to a barn.  The car was then passed to another family member who refurbished it mechanically and repainted the car to arctic white.  
     
    In 2019, the car was inherited by me.   Below are some pictures of me taking delivery of the car and the condition of the car as I received it:
     



     

     
    The car came with a tremendous amount of documentation going back to its purchase
     

    Its been fun looking at who and when certain changes were made to the car. In the 1970s, a car alarm was installed. In the 1980s, the seats were changed to black.  I'm not sure when the grills were painted, and the gauge cluster and wheels were updated.  
     
    My goal is to return the car to its 1969 appearance with some tasteful modifications to enhance the driving experience.  I want the car preserved such that my children and extended family can enjoy it too.  
     
     
     
  16. Shawn Piper

    Final paint!

    By Shawn Piper,


    Restoration
    After all of the repairs, the car was sealed...
     

     
    Then primered and sanded
     

     

     
    Then final paint!
     




     

     
    Next will be black out work on the dash and core support. We decided to do a silver fuel-resistant epoxy on the fuel filler neck since it wasnt removable during repaint.  
  17. Shawn Piper

    Starting on engine stuff

    By Shawn Piper,


    Restoration
    When the engine came out of the car, it was very tired and it needed a rebuild.  
     

     
    But after taking care of the fundamentals, I was left wondering what I should do with it? A lot of the original equipment had been changed over the years so it wasn't practical to return it to stock.  Therefor I decided to strip off the remaining smog equipment and go with a side draft setup.  
     
    I started with a new mechanical distributor setup and higher flow fuel pump (13311260677) 

     

     
    These would support a single DCOE and on a Lynx manifold (i've changed course on this and i'm now using dual DCOEs, so this setup will be for sale shortly)
     

     
    I also found this cool dipstick holder so I could remove the smog pump bracket
     

     
    Other parts (new fan, water pump, clutch, seals, belts, etc) came from Ireland Engineering and Blunt.  The end product looked very nice!
     

     
  18. Shawn Piper

    Rebuilding the suspension

    By Shawn Piper,


    Restoration
    During the teardown, I had the suspension disassembled.
     

     

     

    All of the parts were media blasted and repainted.  Fasteners were either replaced or zinc plated. 

     
    \
     

     

     
    At this stage we discovered the rear diff had problems. Thankfully a new set of spider gears (ordered from WN) addressed the problem and everything else was assessed as fine by Pro Gear.  
     

     
    Then after much parts ordering, we began reassembly of the suspension.  Anything that was rubber was replaced.  
     
     

     

     

     
     
     
     
  19. Shawn Piper

    Lots of repairs

    By Shawn Piper,


    Restoration
    At this point, there were many weeks of labor in going over the body and repairing damage to prep the body for smoothing and paint.  Here are some examples of things we fixed.
     
    Repairing damage from the AC install (core support, firewall, and trans tunnel)

     

     

     

     

     

     
    Repairing rust in the floors, fenders, and anywhere else it was discovered

     

     

     

     

     
     
    Reversing the rear speaker install
     

     

     

     
    Smoothing all of the repairs
     

     

  20. Shawn Piper

    Starting on body work

    By Shawn Piper,


    Restoration
    Once the body was stripped to a shell, the outside was hand sanded to bare metal and the interior was media blasted.  Then the body was coated in primer while it waited for repairs to begin.  Some minor repairs were made during this time.  
     

     
     
    My grandfather had installed aftermarket trim in the early 70s, likely to make the car look like a late model variety. Parts of this trim was missing and it wasn't period correct so I had it removed and the holes welded.  
     

     

     

     

     
    As the car came apart, more rust was discovered.  
     

     

     

     
    Here you can see evidence of past body work on the fender. This was previously hidden under bondo.
     

     
    Its at this point that I made my first "customization" -- I had the reflectors on the front and back removed by welding up the holes.
     
      
  21. Shawn Piper

    Teardown

    By Shawn Piper,


    Restoration
    Although the car is good at 20ft, a closer inspection revealed some expected rust and a lot of deferred maintenance.  The car's last paint job had many drips and tons of overspray.  Every piece of trim had dents and scratches. Given the car's condition (which is actually remarkable at 190k miles and 50 years) and my project goals, I decided to proceed with a full restoration. The first step was tearing it down.  
     
    I removed the interior at home and scraped out the sound deadening material. Then had the car transported to So Cal Paintworks for complete mechanical disassembly.  
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    Given the car's multiple owners and many modifications, I was surprised by how many holes and cuts were made to the body. Example being this notch made for the AC installation or this hole drilled in the headlight bucket for the car alarm switch.  
     
     

     

  22. Shawn Piper

    Rebuilding the heater box

    By Shawn Piper,


    Restoration
    My heater box was gross and inoperable.  I don't have pictures of the before state, but the motor didnt work and the bowden cables were broken.  
     
    There were enough parts broken that I had to buy another core at Autobahn Dismantling in Santee.  I highly recommend this business - they have saved me a lot of trouble! 

     
    I tore down the cores and sent the metal pieces of zinc plating.  This became a huge problem for me because the zinc plater closed down while they had my parts.  It took about 4 months to get my parts back and have them zinc plated elsewhere.  
     

     

     
    I then sent everything to Brandon at prdesignsf.com to have him reassemble the box.  The finished product came out excellent.  
     


     
    I ended up changing the valve for the later (wider diameter) style so I know this may cause me issues later when connect the heater box to the engine. The valve was changed because the old style is not rebuildable and not available new.  
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