Fletcher

My “Mint Grun” machine has made the journey out from under tarps in a field to Sonoma Raceway to begin its mechanical restoration! photos!!

Wow. That looks amazing! ?

Got the Hobart out of the box at last and started work on Franken-cart to keep it on. It’s going so well, I may just buy a cart. I’ve never MIG welded before with steel wire & argon/co2. I had an electric welder previously from Harbor Freight and weld with flux wire. That POS always popped a 20amp fuse after a few minutes of continuous use. I also have gas welded a bit before, but this MIGging is new to me. I started off practicing on an old cookie sheet. I must have had the voltage up too high because all I did was burn holes through it. So, I just started on the cart instead. First things first: cut & bend. I think I need to get a metal chop saw. Cutting angle iron on the floor with handheld grinder/cutter is an imprecise and error-prone PITA. Why did I take the gloves off here is a mystery to me, but I was promptly rewarded for my safety error (pic). The resulting cuts weren’t 45s and when I bent for the first corner, the gaps was too wide to weld. So put the cut chunk on top and welded that. The results were FUH-ugly, but it’s SQUARE! (Pic). Now, I have essential tremor and my welds are never perfect, but this is bad even for me. There was lots of popping as I welded. Not sure I have everything set just right: 0.23 steel wire & tip gas at 20CFM* Voltage at 30 wire speed on 1 (any suggestions here?) No further updates from RR on my 02. Bill had some delay with his tow vehicle. Hope to get pics from him as soon as it’s back in the shop and being prepped for reinstall of engine/trans/etc. Thats all the news there is for now. * - I think. 20CFM is what it snaps down to when I pull the trigger anyway

Latest update on the car from Bill: ”Brought the engine and drivetrain components from storage to the shop today. Will begin prepping them tomorrow. Once they're ready we'll fetch Mint Grun, probably this weekend. Tuesday start basic cleaning and prep of the body, later in the week, or early next, begin installation, likely running a few days later. If you haven't joined BMW CCA yet, dive in, along membership in the SIG(special interest group) for '02s. Sounds like you've already joined 2002FAQ. Freude am fahren under construction!” That was a week ago. Should get some progress pics soon to post. Meanwhile back in WA, I continue to stockpile stuff to tackle the rust as soon as it arrives. Installed some shop cabinets this weekend to store stuff in. Here too, in the background, some angle iron and a battered cookie sheet that (combined) will be used to create Frankencart by way of reminding myself how to weld. Also pictured herein is an embarrassing example of the last thing I welded (albeit with gas not mig) ??

What color is my 1976 02? The seller called it Mint Green. Which when I search for BMW color codes seems to be “94”. Yet when I search for available colors by make/model/year, Mint Green isn’t an option and the color that looks close is called Florida Green “66”. Which is correct? Thanks!

This is an old post, but I’m curious about this too. Here in WA, law seems to state I must have one unless ”Bumpers are optional equipment on vehicles defined as street rod vehicles, custom vehicles and kit vehicles.” What - I wonder - determines whether or not my 02 is a “street rod” ? https://app.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=204-10-022

Likewise and it is the original color for mine and my goal

Thanks! Any ones in particular that you recommend?

Excellent advice. I assumed it wasn't non-toxic, but I didn't think of suiting up beyond the respirator. Thanks!

As I progress on surface rust repairs, should I prime as I go with primer from an aerosol can? or leave it bare metal and then sand the whole car and prime with compressor and sprayer? i have a couple job site construction compressors for driving nailguns. Will these work for painting with sprayer? Any recommendations on sprayers, paints and (seem hard to find atm. Thanks, covid) respirators? thanks

Slight ~ Major ? So the original plan was for me to drive to California to get the car essentially in kit form: Engine/Trans/driveshaft all to be installed by me (and i would have been winging that wholesale never having done any of it before). The new plan is for the car to be delivered to me mechanically complete and road worthy, but aesthetically challenged and in need of much love and sweat equity to be returned to a restored state. ETA is mid August to early September. So, in the meantime, I'm getting my side of the garage ready to receive my (mint) green machine and the tools to do the work. The Hobart Handler 140 is on the way thanks to the excellent suggestions & guidance from @MitchaPaLoOza88. Also, I grabbed a Dewalt angle grinder w/ flapdisks for cleaning up surface rust. Finally, I have started working my way down the list of other tools provided in likewise excellent suggestions on the tools and bodywork questions I submitted to the 2002 forum (some of which I won't immediately need given the slight change to the plan): Metric sockets & wrenches Super thin/ground down wrenches for driveshaft work 1) 2002 "blue binder" factory repair manual: It's available as a .pdf here on the FAQ. 2) Bearing Race Kit: From HF or similar. It makes installing bearing races a breeze. 3) Hydraulic Press 4) Plastic trim/fastener removal tools 5) Flare Nut Wrenches (for brake lines) 6) Pop-Rivet Gun and rivets 7) 02 Restoration Guide (by Mike Macartney) 8 Feeler gauge MAP torch for persuading recalcitrant bolts & nuts to loosen Ball-joint separator 1/2” breaker bar Lots of 3/8s extensions Ratcheting wrenches “Ball end” Metric allen wrenches 36mm 3/4” drive socket & humongous cheater bar Allen sockets (8mm for diff end and stub axle end driveshaft bolts) Snap ring pliers for the clutch slave cylinder Multimeter Brass faced 3# hammer and brass drift Tune Box by Pat Allen Lang metric thread taps & retreading taps

additional thought on this: In addition to working on the body panels, I'm going to need to do some repair to the base of the drivers side front pillar and that's sides rocker panel. Sight unseen as I don't have photos at the moment to share, any thoughts on how to go about those repairs? On the pillar, can I just: use a die grinder to clear the base of rust, cut a chunk of steel to stick in the resulting hole and weld it in/grind it smooth? I watched one vid of a rocker panel replacement on a truck, where the guy matched the new one as an overlay, marked out the old one, used a cutting tool cut out where he marked and a drill to take off the tops of the rivets(?), bent & pried it out and then fit and welded the new on in. Is that generally how that's done? Thanks!

Thanks for the guidance, I'm sure I'll need more. I took an metal arts class some years ago where we touched briefly on all the welding, cutting, bending, etc and I own one of those crappy harbor freight welders that blew a 20amp fuse every time I used it for more than a few minutes causing me to give up on it more or less by the third attempt. Hoping the Hobart will be better in that regard, so I can actually gain some skill

Great answers all ?? in fifty some odd years of walking the earth, I’ve yet to name a car, but I’ve yet to love one either. I’ve named my children, my pets and even one house plant... but never a car that I can recall. My youngest - as an adolescent years ago - named a battered old ford truck I bought once to move with “The Man Machine”. Found On Road Dead was how I mostly thought of that one. It/he was the source of most of the automotive tools I now own and the majority of my forays into more complex repairs. (1aauto parts & videos). I was very fond of both of my FJs & my Tundra and thought of them more or less as male if I considered it at all. I hope to love my 02 and wanted to start that association off on the right foot by giving it/her/him/they a name. Currently Bill (the guy providing the car) and I have been referring It as Mint Green (or ‘Lime Sherbet’ as BW sees the color), but that’s not a name.. I keep thinking of M’pudi in The Gods Must Be Crazy referring to the Land Rover as the Antichrist and hoping for a more respectful & collaborative footing with my new project than that ? Thanks for all the input and perspective!

✅ Ordered. Thanks.

Is the 02 He, She or It? Or is it variable?

That’s where I started, but see my Tire Test thread to see how that went thanks though! ??

Went and got a tow hitch put on my wife’s 2020 Subaru Ascent Limited which has a tow capacity of up to 5000lbs & max tongue weight of 500lbs. My route is straight down and back up the i-5 corridor between Washington state and North California which includes some steep grades in the California mountains and Grants Pass in Oregon. The trailer empty weighs 2210lbs. The internet says the Kerb (curb?) weight of a 76 02 is 2317lbs. I was all good until I read the warnings and disclaimers. ? The Subaru’s manual has some alarming stuff to say about towing trailers up grades (air conditioning auto shut off cuz car is imminently overheating) and down them (steering & braking issues). The U-Haul site has some stuff to say about towing the trailer empty and the tongue being too light causing the trailer to jump and sway. Thoughts on any or all of this? Is this a bad idea or fine? Thanks! ? [Sadly, I traded my Tundra in to get her this car. If I still had that, I would have grabbed two 02s (one in bed and one on trailer) without a 2nd thought]

transmission will be in the trunk, but no worries.. definitely coming home on a flatbed ?

Thanks, guys. I'm well convinced. "Just say no to Dolly!" ? It's coming home on a flatbed. Glad I asked both for the guidance of flatbed and for the price of the flatbed! U-Haul as posted herein, is indeed a mere ~$55 a day if rented locally. Bizarrely, I can rent the thing for a week and a half for what they wanted to rent one and drive it point to point.

I gotta look again but when I looked last week it was 600. But I quoted pickup there and drop off here. Maybe I should rent it locally and drive it down empty...

Need to go grab my 76 02 from a field in Northern California where it’s been sitting up on plywood wrapped in tarps for several years. Trying to decide between a budget-friendly car dolly and less-friendly flatbed car trailer. Visually the tires look good with good tread, but sitting as they have I wonder if they’re up to 800ish miles of tow. Is there a simple way to test their viability?

When I created the blog, I thought the following would be the first entry and not the about info. Apologies for the duplication. My probable starting point is this 1976 BMW 2002 Mint Green (or Lime Sherbet as its owner described it to me) currently parked in a field in Northern California wine country. It is a shell sans engine/trans/driveshaft. Interior is mostly complete and intact. Front seats and headliner need to be replaced. As does the instrument cluster. I've seen the interiors spaces as well as under the hood, in trunk and some of the underbelly by video call with the owner: With exception of drivers side rocker panel and drivers side front pillar, the majority of the rust is surface only from having lived most of its life a block from the beach in San Francisco. It's part of a "kit" that I hope to soon make the trip to California (from Federal Way, WA) to bring home. Also included in the kit are donor parts from the owners shop in Sonoma inclusive of engine, transmission, driveshaft and miscellany. I'd be lying if I said that first sight of the car didn't give me pause and cause to wonder if I even begin to possess the skills or resources to do this, but the seller in question is well known within the community and highly regarded. He's a good friend to my brother and one of my sons - who worked for him briefly one summer - speaks highly of him. So, I'm putting my faith in him, his enthusiasm and repeating my mantra "I think I can" I've never been a blogger, but I seems like a reasonable way to document the journey. So, giving this a shot. Input, suggestions, warnings, disclaimers, encouragement, jokes, wisecracks, any and all are appreciated. Thanks ?