The Short History of an Old BMW (2002 project)

MildSeven

Legacy Member
Suffering from having sold my 2002 Big Turbo Jetta in 2012, which wasn’t really anything special to anyone other than myself. I decided I needed to replace it with something. In 2013 I started looking around for something fun. I started off by researching late 70s 911s (side note: it seems the prices of vintage Porsches have really shot up in the past year or so), it just didn’t make sense to spend that much money on a toy, I then redirected my attention to the Alfa Romeo GTV, but even at that, too costly. The 2002 was only slightly on my radar when my buddy Ernest (aka MR: Bob Jones) sent me a listing of a 2002 for sale in Toronto.

Ernest was originally interested in the 2002 for himself but after weighing his situation (even though money is never an issue for him), he decided to pass. It was September 2013 when I started inquiring about 2002s with a little more sincerity and the 2002 Ernest sent me from Toronto had since undergone a price reduction, it was now listed at $9,500. Ernest and his Armenian entrepreneurial negotiating skills instructed me to go in with a number. I did that, it did not work but I did manage to lower the price to something I was ready to pay.

The next obstacle was getting it to Montreal (during the winter), there’s a whole awesome story about how we built ramps to load it on to a (granite truck) flatbed but I won’t get in to it. In the end I used uship.ca for $329, which was a freakin’ awesome price.


In January 2014, I took possession of the 1976 BMW 2002 from Toronto. It was the first time I got to see the car in “person,” the previous owner had sent me many detailed photos, but regardless of the number of photos, it can never compare to seeing it in person.

Following the inspection there were a few (known and unknown) items I needed to address before I could start driving around town and picking up women.

I should start by mentioning, I had done some work on my own to the Jetta but don’t have much mechanical knowledge, I just like getting my hands dirty and learning new things.

Issues I addressed in 2014... work
  • Both of the front bearings needed to be changed,
  • The transmission (stick) was very sloppy, I traced the issue back to some worn out shift linkage supports, changed those.
  • The transmission was also leaking out of the back, I changed the gear selector rod seal as well as the output shaft seal.
  • The differential was leaking from the back plate and the driver side output, removed it, cleaned it, changed all seals.

Some changes...
  • Replaced the standard NA turn signals for their European counterparts.
  • Sold both sets of wheels and replaced with some BBS RMs
  • ->13” Exim Basketweaves which in retrospect I should have kept as backups
    and
  • ->15” Widened Porsche 356 steelies (with 4x100 adapters) everyone and their mothers loved the look of these (including me), but the fact of the matter was, they weighed a ton, rubbed and had a ridiculous amount of weights to balance them.

Issues I left for future
  • The (patched) hole through floor on driver side
  • Fuel smell in cabin (actually, on the drive back from Oyster Fest last summer the fumes really got to me, an afternoon of drinking and oysters might have contributed)
  • Engine leaking (from potentially, everywhere)
  • Rusted rear shock towers
  • Noisy driver door brake (Kosta! (aka MR: montrealgti))
  • Scratchy/Distortion noise through speakers when at high RPMs (bad ground?)

Summer 2014 photo:
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In the fall, before I put the 2002 away for winter hibernation, I decided to drive it over to a nearby paint shop who had previously done some work for me. I told them I would remove all the trim and bring it to them for bodywork/welding/painting, they inspected the car and provided me a quote of $4,000. Knowing them, I could have probably gotten it down to at least $3,700 but regardless following the estimate, my sensible side kicked in and I said to myself, I don’t need these headaches or an extra $4,000 bill. I listed the car for sale on MR.

After enduring a few days of bashing from Ernest and Kosta, who then pledged their assistance for the disassembly, repair and rebuild of the 2002, I decided not to sell the car. I also managed to get a quote from Scott (aka MR: Scottie2lo) at Strasse (and Dave (aka MR: blingbling)), which made me feel a little better about life. Obviously with the car in pieces now is the perfect time for few upgrades, more on that, if/when they happen.

About 1 month ago Kosta and I started the disassembly, Ernest was conveniently on his “honeymoon” in Asia.



Day 1 Compression Test + prepping the Engine/sub-frame for removal (January 24th)

I wanted to do a compression test before removing the motor to know where I stood with it but I f’ed that up because didn’t know you had to have the throttle fully open while cranking. I realized this after adding oil to do the "wet" part.

Everything went pretty smoothly no bad surprises aside from a few unconnected wires/connectors, which i believe were mostly contributed to the car being previously de-smog'ed.



Day 2 Engine/sub-frame removal + Fuel Tank removal (January 31st)

We jacked the car up nice and high in the front and dropped the subframe with motor and tranny (on a jack), piece of cake. Next we were going to mount the engine stand bracket to the motor but the bolts we had were not long enough. We took to the trunk instead removing the gas tank and getting a little high in the process.



Day 3 Getting the Engine the engine stand without an engine hoist, remove other items from the Engine bay (Feb 8th)

Being the cheap bastard that I am, I wasn't about to rent an engine hoist to be able to mount the motor to the motor stand. We made a temporary contraption to roll the motor up a ramp and jack it up the extra few inches. It went surprisingly smooth, we did good.

We started cleaning up some of the leftover items in the engine bay brake booster, mastercylinder, brake lines, wiring...etc



Day 4 Removing engine bay wiring + Starting on stripping the interior (February 15th)

Ernest was supposed to finally show-up freshly back from vacation but made up a last second excuse, it was very hurtful.

Kosta and I made some good progress on the interior, unfortunately there were a few nasty surprises hiding under the carpet. The driver side floor was worse than anticipated with a lot of rust/rot. The passenger side had a few holes along the transmission tunnel and a huge patch which was glued and screwed in, a little unsettling.



This prompted me to search for some used floor pans which included part of the transmission tunnel (and sides), the new aftermarket floor pans which are sold are really only the flat part of the floor, so my transmission tunnel issues would still be visible.


Day 5 (half day) Continuing the interior stripping, dash removal + other trim removal (February 21st)

This was Ernest's first day on the job. After we finished breakfast we took to the garage to get the dash out, Ernest started work in the trunk removing tails/trim, etc. #mimosamechanics

The dash was a pain in the ass, and removing the heat/blower box was probably the most time consuming single item of the teardown.


Day 6 Removing remaining wires + removing windows + removing trims (February 27th)

It's amazing how simple these cars are put together.

While I documented and removed the remaining wires from the wire harness, Kosta and Ernest were working hard removing the driver/passenger windows/vent windows plus their regulators. The 1st one proved to be difficult but they learnt a few things for the other side. Following that we took to removing the trim, then called it a night.




I must say, when we started, I wasn't expecting all this. I figured I would get the floor fixed, remove the motor and remove the exterior trim but once we started we just kept going because at every step there's only a few more things to do, and we keep saying "as long as we're here might as well..."

...to be continued.
 
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Looking forward to the progress pics!
I'm happy you kept it, she seems in good hands
 
Friday evening we put in a few more hours...

Ernest was supposed to show up but choked at the last minute (again). He's 2 for 4, said he show up 4 times, actually showed up 2 times. Kosta is 7 for 7

Generally, Friday nights are reserved for "Boys Nite," unfortunately “the "boys" include a couple of guys who don't really care about working on my car (or any car for that matter), including my brother. We started at 5pm'ish my brother's primary objective was to go for a bite, so at 6:30pm he showed up and started chirping about what are we going to eat, I'm hungry... bla bla bla. The extent of his help was to bag & tag 4x bolts and like 2x nuts, while wearing a shirt, pants and having a beer. At 7:45ish Tony showed up, so we had 2 spectators having a beer waiting on us. The pressure to close up shop and go to Village Grecque was strong. At 9pm I was eating a boner pita, um, I mean doner pita.

Day 7 (half day) - Removed fenders, wiper motor, hood latch (bar), rear bumper and started removing rear sub-frame. (March 6th, 2014)

After struggling with the parking brake, we called it a night at 8:30ish.

I was told the front fenders had been replaced in 2006, so I didn’t expect them to be in bad condition, for once I was right.



On Saturday after soccer I tried figure out how to remove the parking brake cables from the rear-drums. Success, I got those mf’ers out. (FYI, the diff is red because I removed and re-sealed it last summer... I had some red spray paint so gave it a coat)



Then on Sunday I re-removed the front sub-frame, originally I planned on sending it off to paint as a “rolling-chassis” but now I think I going to just make a crappy rolling stand.

 
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my garage is a detached building in the back of my shop, I haven't seen many home garage over 3k sq ft , on two floors ;)


I'd love to have a garage at home, honestly!

keep up the progress, love how your document your build (you should keep the pita bills, too!)
 
Ok, update.

I did a little bit of work on a couple of evenings, building a "dolly" out of wood (because I don't know any better) for the frame to wheel it around.

On Saturday, after soccer I took a few hours removing the soundproofing on the back seat/floor, it's tar with a cardboard-like cover. People recommended using dry-ice (or the harder route a heat gun). I figured since the back seat was at an angle dry-ice wouldn't be able to "sit on it," I gave it a go with the heat gun. It went well after 2.5 hours I had all the rear soundproofing removed. The section (driver rear shock) where you can still see "black" is because the previous owner must have tried to spay the rust with black paint.




Day 8 (half day), Doors + Trunk removal and removal of a few stupid things we missed (March 15)

For the first time Kosta choked, so it was Ernest and I. Following a brief yet intense make-out session we started by removing the doors, then the trunk. Fun things first, right. We then had a few little stupid things to take care of, the seat rail adjusters which were super rusted in and a crazy large patch which was screwed and glued to the passenger floor pan, some really crappy repair by a previous owner. Ernest decided he wanted to make that patch his bitch, an hour of heat gun, WD40, a crowbar and a lot of torque (+ a coffee), it was out and in the snow, receiving an Armenian drop-kick.



The floor pan sound proofing uses a much thicker tar and the heat gun did not do much to help removing it, so while Ernest worked on the patch, I brought my 2 donor floor pans outside to see if Montreal weather would have a similar effect as the dry-ice. It did, I was able to chisel away all the tar soundproofing. Unfortunately the removal of the sound proofing made me discover the passenger floor pan had some rust holes in it.I contacted seller for partial refund.



...so this is what she looks like now following Sunday's work.



On Friday night, Ernest & Kosta are coming over we're going to start prepping for the welder, who should also make an appearance Friday night (if we're lucky). It's been fun trying to find a welder but seems Ernest has come through. Pete, if you want to swing by to bench-press the shell, you're welcome to come.
 
Nice project!

If you want to clean all the remaining tar, use brake cleaner and a rag and you will be able to clean everything down to sheet metal. I did it a few time on different project cars and it look really clean after.
 
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