jerry

Yes. My '71 vin is 2574026, built 5/19/71.

Funny, I tried running a vin through that site and got an error message as well.

i've got VIN 2576240, built 7/19/71, late model

and VIN 2570440, built 3/5/71, early model

looks like they were pushing out about 1000+/month from the factory

Nice looking car. is that the genuine article? if so i'd love to see a picture of the dash. i've heard they have a chrome strip that wasn't on regular 02's. any other visible differences? also, i believe they had a clock with chrome ring rather than matte-black ala tii.

outstanding presentation Martin. always a pleasure to review your work and it's a great asset to the 02 community.

use your left over fenders and door for patch panels. there's plenty of flat stock available and it's the proper gauge and material too.

get a $30 Craftsman angle grinder/cutter and earplugs, a sharpie pen, mill cut or bastard file, a vice and have at it.

mark area to cut out and use the removed piece as your pattern to make the replacement part with. the thickness of the sharpie pen is approximately the thickness of the metal blade. make your patch slightly oversize and use the file and grinding wheel to shape it to proper size.

i actually went and bought another cheapo grinder so that one has the cutoff wheel (buy plenty extras) and one has the grinding wheel. no changing hassles.

my project blog (page 2) has a couple examples of my hack work. towards the end i got pretty good. i had rust in same places you described. i used the banged up fender for some of my patches.

these cars will EAT YOU ALIVE if you pay shops to do work you really should learn to do yourself.

even though you might drive a 20th century car, you WILL pay 21st century prices.

i made the mistake of asking a mechanic to merely remove the extraneous smog wiring harness 'while he was in there' and ended up with a bill nearly the cost of the car. my bad. i could of done the work myself but was pressed for time and wanted it done yesterday...

having said that, these are GREAT tinkerer's cars and a simple set of wrenches, sockets etc will go a long way.

i did my own headliner outside in the dead of an atlanta winter (yea, it gets cold there too). i used a hair dryer to help stretch it and paper clamps to hold it in place after gluing. it was a bit of effort if i remember but not the worst job on an 02. i recall installing the rear quarter window gaskets were much more difficult for me at the time.

it's a doable job, with patience.

for a rust free tii shell sans original engine and a non-driveable project, i'd guess $1000-$1200.

if you still had the original tii engine, buy the shell and reinstall. save the M20 swaps for standard 02s.

i have a free hood for you if you want it. not perfect, but MUCH MUCH better than what you have now. i work by the oakland airport.

i feel sooooooo inadequate.

if only i could source a means to strip my 02s and then dip them in epoxy like that, locally, and at an affordable price for us mere peons.

a lot of helpful photos in that collection.

ya think that car will ever see a gravel road on its own power?

if that car actually get's anything near that price, it's only a matter of time before these cars are sitting next to the 356's in the stain-free garages across america, SIGH. a recent thread noted how even in the bay area, 02 sightings are decreasing. while driving home last night it occurred to me that there was a time in the late 80's early 90's that i could drive from SFO to marin and invariably see a 356 on the road. i for one am not counting on 02 price increases to fund my retirement. i'm grateful mobile tradition is remaking parts for us. as for the PA tii, suppose they command higher prices in the rust-belt.

folks,

i could be all wet on this. disregard my post until further notice...

i learned something new today. upon closer inspection i did notice in my hubs that the outer race was indeed pressed into the hub and not part of the hub as i had assumed all along. i pulled out a new bearing in my parts stash and realized that it did indeed have both inner and outer races.

mea culpa....

ok so forgive me because im a little slow....

so youre saying if i order new front wheel bearing kits the races will accompany them correct???

that is correct

folks,

i could be all wet on this. disregard my post until further notice...

i learned something new today. upon closer inspection i did notice in my hubs that the outer race was indeed pressed into the hub and not part of the hub as i had assumed all along. i pulled out a new bearing in my parts stash and realized that it did indeed have both inner and outer races.

mea culpa....

folks,

i could be all wet on this. disregard my post until further notice...

speaking from memory right now....

the rear bearings have an inner and outer race as part of the bearing and they are snug into the bore and onto the shaft.

this is different from the front bearings, specifically, the conical bearing. it does not have an inner race, per se, but rather rolls against the spindle. can't recall the configuration of the inboard bearing as to whether it does or does not have an inner race, however, i do recall seeing a slight wear groove on a set of used struts which suggests that they too roll against the spindle (without the inner race).

are you referring to the separator (or bearing cage) being mangled?

thanks for all the help guys. honestly, when i took off the intake manifold crap and realized that the fuel pump wasn't drilled out (what was i thinking, it is FI after all) i should have stopped there. of course that was AFTER i spent time on my back removing the guibo bolts and a ton of other stuff and the fact that i took a half day off work too. but i persisted for another hour or so thinking that this whole engine was nearly pristine only to realize the wonders of steam cleaning. the only new thing on this is the E21 head. i shudda stopped there but i had so much time invested at that point.

now i'm thinking i might just salvage the parts from this head for whenever i rebuild one on my own (got a 121 and E12 to choose from). the whole exercise cost me $162 and it included the alternator, flywheel and distributor. i kept the distributor cuz it had brightly colored fancy-schmantzy sparkplug wires.

just take the wiper arms off, and let the motor "park" itself wherever it is going to be, then put the arms back on in the parked position!

dang....

sometimes the most obvious solutions escape me. i had difficulty with that method but ultimately, that is likely the best, easiest solution.

i am not worthy.....

I'm not sure, but I think the place the motor parks is by design and I don't think it is adjustable in the motor. I think the adjustment is in the position of the crank arm off the motor.

John

crank-arm, swing-arm, i think john and i are saying the same thing. got to adjust the crank/swing arm relative to its position on the motor spindle/arbor...

i've got the same issue after rehabbing my wiper motor. here's my intended plan. mark current location of clocking of swing-arm on motor shaft using 'white-out' or scribed line. loosen nut and reclock swing-arm and test. readjust to the left or right of original scribed mark accordingly.

as they say on the shampoo bottles: lather, rinse, and repeat

Note: this is my intended method to try to rectify. i must admit, though, it's been 5 months since i discovered the problem and i've been driving w/o wipers since. not a priority for me as i have a 'rainy day grocery getter'.

Where exactly did you visit? You pose an interesting question in the meantime: how many on this forum are using their Northern California 2002s as daily drivers? Put me down as one (more 2000 than 2002).

i drive a '75 02 daily between marin and oakland when it's not raining (i've got an 18 yr old Accura legend grocery-getter for rain). i've put 8000 miles on it since last year. love it. i've probably seen half a dozen 02s on the freeways in that time.

well, sunshine has a way of exposing a lot of truths. in my case it appears that my nearly new motor (as mentioned in a recent post) was in all probability merely steam cleaned. however, the E21 head still appears to be a recent rebuild so i went ahead and bought the motor. if all else fails i'll use it as a learning tool to tear apart.

anyhow my quandary is that the head is NOT drilled for a mechanical fuel pump. i'm loathe to introduce more electrical gadgets to my car. i know some folks swear by Carter fuel pumps and other alternatives, but,

is it feasible to have the fuel pump mount drilled out? of course the head will be removed. does it need to be disassembled for this? or should i just buckle down and install an electrical fuel pump?

thanks guys. i was a bit fuzzy on that issue and only vaguely recalled previous discussion on the subject of dizzies.

while perusing the archives i noticed that the stock E21 equiped engines used flat top pistons resulting in lower CR. was this for some sort of fuel octane or emission reason?

i have an opportunity to acquire a very fresh-looking M10 engine from a 1978 320i. the head is an E21 casting. i'm hoping to put this into a '73 02 with automatic transmission.

to keep costs down i was just going to purchase the block and head.

is there a reason to buy the distributor too?

was wondering if there's any engine-specific issues with distributors?

i suppose the flywheel/clutch would match up with the 74-76 model 02's IIRC.

the intake manifold is the tii-looking type. any reason to acquire it?

my experience in the boneyard suggests that those rubber thingys were used on MANY BMW cars, not just the 02's. i'm thinking bavarias, 320i's, 5 series, maybe even 6 and 7 series. they're very abundant used.

fantastic find. i'm all for finding good alternatives. heck, i have absolutely nothing against 3rd world alternatives IF they work. half the BMW stuff is made all over the world anyways.

give us an update after half a year or so of sun exposure etc...

those are some serious testosterone-laden thumpers. i'll bet there a joy to drive.