The Short History of an Old BMW (2002 project)

Hi Mr. mild seven this is a great build, I can't believe that someone in my backyard is doing something I have been wanting to do for over twenty years. I wish I would have found this build in the beginning and I would have loved to have offered to volunteer to help with your build if you were interested. I have been following so many builds
on rev3 and stanceworks etc. I live in Pierrefonds, I would love to see your car one day and maybe I will pick-up an 02 of my own and work on it. It would have been a
great experience to learn from your build. I hope you will update more on your build. Congrats.

thanks! I hope to get out to Eurokracy with the '02.

Here's an option for the Spanish Weber, from Calgary.
http://www.kijiji.ca/v-engines-and-...rs/1258816438?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

I could take the manifold and linkage, and you end up with $500cnd for two 45's Not bad.

Merci Pierre j'avais acheté un set en Octobre l'annee passé ;)
 
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#EUROKRACYPREP


2017 Work.

This took place over the course of a few months, with the carburetor stuff happening in the last month to today.

Cheapo.
Instead of buying fender protectors, I made my own with an old quilt. I’ll have some leftover vinyl sewn (by my Nonina) in a few areas to make future messes easier to clean-up.

33547148524_fdbaf6eab4.jpg

KMph Speedometer
Nothing fancy, just installed the KMph speedometer but while I was at it, I added some additional ground wires for good measure.



Rocker Panel Trim

I’ve always wanted to use plasti dip on something, and now I finally had a reason. The plan was to spray the rocker panel, I figured it would allow me to see what it looks like in a temporary but not too temporary fashion.

I used the black plastidip on the rocker and then I installed the stainless rocker trim.



Unfortunately, I wasn’t a big fan of the look (Kosta ate a gyro and agreed). It looks cleaner without the lower trim or maybe I was just used to looking at it without the trim. I decided I would re-plastidip the area, and plug the holes with some plastic plugs. I had to re-plastip because I originally masked off the area midway behind the lower trim... and I didn’t do a great job. yay.



Oil change, check.

Started her up just to make sure everything was functioning before pulling the distributor out. Would want to falsely accuse the new distributor.​

Valve Adjustment (aka Valve Job, aka VJ)
I should have done this last year but I just didn’t think about it and then when I did, I would forget again. I was also very anxious to get it running. This time I had the valve cover off (for 123ignition install), so the time was now. #VJ



123Ignition Tune (Blue Tooth) Distributor
I made a little wire-harness because I thought the wires were going to be slightly short to the coil (I didn’t really check to be honest). I prefer the cleanliness and ability to quickly disconnect the wires easily over splicing connectors.







I found TDC on cylinder 1, popped the dizzy in, according to the super thin instruction manual. Turned ignition on and connected with blue tooth from my phone. I programmed the advance specs for the 2002 TI from Haynes book. Reconnected spark plug wires. She fired right up and is already running smoother.

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Using the advance timing light I discovered it was off by 3 degrees by setting it to 18 degrees at 1000RPM (in the 123Tune app), then finding out it was actually firing at 15 degrees @ 1000RPM.

Excitement is building!!!



Removed Italian mismatched Webers


Now that I had confirmation the ignition was firing, I started the fun job of unbolting the Italian DCOEs, the lower nuts which connect to the manifold studs are especially fun. Shorty combination wrenches would be very helpful.



With the carbs out, I emptied the leftover fuel in to my lawnmower and it was time to swap out the venturis/jets.



I popped them back in, the velocity stack on cylinder 3 just touched the brake booster so I will shave down the bottom side of it so it doesn’t scrape the booster when the motor rocks.



They newness makes them look SLICK!


Throttle Linkage

I wasn’t happy with what I currently had, picky, picky... so I ordered a new throttle cable linkage from the UK. The new kit has 2 throttle cables, so I fabricated a bracket (out of a thick piece of aluminum) to support the 2 cables above the pedal lever.



Popped on the brackets above the carbs, made the adjustments...etc

IMG_6381.jpg

Tuning.

I was expecting to spark up the motor, fidget with the carb settings and drive off in to the sunset, but this fn’ car had different plans for me.

I finally tried to start it 2 weeks ago. No dice. And fuel leaks out of the velocity stacks. I re adjusted the floats, fuel still leaks out.

After messing around with the carburetors, I got it to start and idle horribly (still with fuel leak). I had to turn in the idle screw a fair amount (which opens butterflies). The idle is not stable, when I try to synchronize the carburetors, the engine speeds up, and is sucking way too much air for the low RPMs.


I’ve been trying to pinpoint the issue, and have received (and continue to receive) a lot of advice from the folks on BMW2002Faq

So far I’ve...
- played with the timing.
- changed the spark plugs and re-gapped them to .025.
- tested spark on all 4 cylinders with timing light.
- double checked spark plug wire order.
- bought a vacuum gauge to test vacuum signal. The signal is super erratic at idle (which goes in to pressure), then stabilizes with revs.
- re-checked/did the valve job, in case I messed up something, no issues there.
- removed the carburetors to replace the intake manifold soft mounts in favour of some paper gaskets... no change :( was hoping this was a source of vacuum leak or something.
- finally I put the unmatched Italian DCOEs back in. The motor idles nicely, but does not perform well

I have emailed RedLine for some support because I don't understand why the new 45DCOEs behave like that.


Popped on the IE Strut brace I purchased to see if it helps with the carbs ;)



I've been trying to get all this shit sorted out so I can attend Eurokracy. The 2002 hasn't been on a highway yet and has only 17kms since I finished the resto mod. I will make the final call in a couple of days... if I go solo or with the 2002.
 
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Congratulate this prick for winning Best of something at Eurokracy (No one's sure what he actually won)
We want pics of the trophy and the car at the show. Also a pic of the special sticker that looks like a plaque you have made...

Pics bitch PICS!!!

And pls someone tell us what he won exactly
 
As a results of peer pressure, I entered the 2002 in the Eurokracy Show & Shine.


I didn’t enter because I think my 2002 is an amazing car, I mean it’s nice but the cars who show up are much more built-up and crazy. Mine is simple, well done and understated, like my penis.

I figured if they would consider the amount of effort I (and we) put in to every detail of the car, restoring it from B to Z, in addition to our lack of mechanical experience... maybe we’d have a chance at something, like a pity-prize.

So I worked on the car Wednesday night to get the old carbs a little more dialed in, then took it out for its first spirited drive since the rebuild (and since the summer of 2014).


You may remember, during the restore, I repaired and reset the broken odometer to 0 miles. Last year I drove the 02 only slightly over 10miles. This year I swapped the mph for a kmph, and reset this odometer to the 17km from last year. Both speedometers/odometers read 12% higher (because of my transmission and differential). So you have an idea of the mileage I’ve put on the car since rebuilding it.

On Wednesday night, I tripled the total mileage and took the car up to 90kmph, but still no highway. Fear, I wanted to stay in areas where I can easily work on or get the car home if in trouble.

Here’s a quick clip, I find that the exhaust note sounds better in the clip then reality.

Doin’ Some Stuff on Thursday

I installed some rear 3 point seatbelts using the unused/covered mounting point in the c-pillar. This was important because the plan was Kosta would be riding up front and Ernest in the back (more on this later) on the way up to Eurokracy. I still need a rear bench.



I then tackled some other small things which needed work before going to a car show.

- Lack of windshield wipers. I gave them a 2 coats of mat black and a coat of clear. Installed them.
- Added a big blob of grease on the frame-rails, where water could accumulate and sit under the car.
- Covered the pedal box opening under the car
- Since I’m not putting the rocker panel trim on I ordered some plugs and painted them with the same plastidip.​


I took Friday afternoon off work to do some cleaning, detailing and #eurokracyprep.



This was the first time I washed the 2002 since reassembling it (or even since October 2014). I used my recently purchased Chemical Guys’ Torq Foam Canon with their honeydew wash. Not sure if the stuff actually reduces swirl marks and everything (yet) but it’s pretty fun and cool to use.

I washed it up in between rain showers.


Ernest suddenly realized (via text message) that he had to work in the morning and wouldn’t be coming with us to the show. Classique Ernest, I wasn’t impressed.​

Before soccer...

Kosta showed up to reattach the loose section of the driver door seal, he also did the interior detailing.

I got to do the polish/sealant.

After soccer and a couple of beers. I finished up the waxing, polished the BBS lips and the steering center.... I also did another quick pass on the dash. It was 2:45am, I was tired.
The next morning, I put some tire shine on and headed out at 9:30am.​

Saturday

I live in Dorval, Kosta lives in Blainville and Eurokracy was in Mirabel. Ernest ditched us and said he would meet us there.
I took off on the 20 and then the 13, stopping at Ultramar on the 13 for some gas. When you’re doing 110km in this car it feels like you’re doing 140km. Everything was going smoooooooooth until I got back on the highway from the gas station. The accelerator pedal came off, I managed to avoid pulling over and just used the rod behind the pedal to drive to Kosta’s. The gas pedal snaps on to 2 knobs on the floor and the pedal snaps in to it, it popped off. I’ll work something out to solve this.

~35kms down with a bit of rain.

Photo in front of Kosta’s place, taken by Kosta.

Next stop eurokracy!

We headed back to the highway for iCar, after another ~22kms we arrived at the eurokracy traffic jam.... waited an hour and 15 minutes to make it past the entrance and park in the show and shine section. The whole drive went smoother than I could have hoped.

Photo of us arriving taken by @flatbroke_

Kosta suggested I lock the doors before leaving the car to chat with old friends. I locked the driver door, trunk and then the key got stuck in the fn’ passenger door. Something which had never happened before. After 20 minutes of trying different things, the key had, had enough and snapped. Luckily Ernest who was probably not going to come to the show, went to a spare at my place and showed up... AND TOTALLY REDEEMED HIMSELF!




broken key :(


Photo taken by Pri


Met some old friends and chatted with some good people. It’s a cool show, the setup and location and the crowd. The eurokracy boys do a great job and help “put Montreal on the map,” we’re fortunate to have such an event. I got some free merch for being invited to the show and shine which was pretty cool and unexpected.

I had to take off at 3:15pm because of some family obligations (which I was late for, anyway).

Photos of us leaving taken by JPL Photography

Photo taken by Ernest who may have gotten a photo radar ticket on the 15.


Losers can be Winners!

I unfortunately couldn’t make it back for Sunday, where we apparently won “Best Euro,” which I assume is like a the best of the rest, like if you don’t win best of your category you have a chance going up against the other 2nd places. I still need to pick-up the trophy from Rick... and also pay him off for the award ;).

Sidenote...

I designed a little "plaque" (sticker) to commemorate the restoration of my BMW, 1976-2016.
Still need to get the serial number plate because the decal I had printed to go over the vin plate came out too small. It will be riveted below the restoration plaque (in the 2 holes).

thanks for readin'
Anthony
 
The sticker plaque is Awesome! Surely the best part of the car (cause it's got my name on it).
Moral of the story: never listen to Kosta
 
some new hardware on my garage wall.



the photo wasn't close enough so took another :p


Eurokracy Finest Euro 2017 :)
 
Seats’n’storage.

A fellow ‘02-Montrealler (Pierre*) was nice enough to give me the lower portion of his rear bench (he had an extra one). This put me a step closer to finally installing a rear bench.

His vinyl was actually in good condition but did not match my e21 reccarros. So, now I just needed to acquire the upper portion of the rear bench plus, some new padding/foam and the all-important vinyl upholstery.

I stripped down the rear base, the old “horsehair” padding is pretty gross. I wire-brushed it, degreased it, used a metal etch and gave it a couple of coats of matt black.



I ordered the under-pad, foam and vinyl from aardvark racing.

Unfortunately, I did not take any photos of process/install but it’s pretty straight forward. I installed the under-pad, letting it hang over the edge of the seat frame, then I sowed it in place with a few loops every 3-4 inches around the entire circumference. I cut the foam pad to size and held it in place with about 8 tie wraps so it wouldn’t move while I wrestled the vinyl upholstery on.

The brackets which held the top of the backing in place were remove I fabricated some new brackets for the upper portion with some l-brackets from Home Depot.

On Friday, I finally installed the rear bench. I’ll need to fix that wrinkle in next spring.







I was supposed to un-register the car for winter storage for October 31st, but I messed up.
At the beginning of October, I started the online process but didn’t complete it because I didn’t have my registration certificate with me. My memory sucked and I had thought I completed the process… then I woke up on November 1st realizing I messed up, so I had the 2002 available until Nov 30th.

Yesterday, I went through my short winterize checklist before pushing the car to the back of the garage.

see you next spring...
 
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Hey, how’s it going? we should let’s catch-up.


I picked up a few items during the off-season.

Last summer at Eurokracy (you may remember), I broke my (original) key in the car door. It was stuck, with the barrel turned so after enough messing around it snapped. So, in order to mitigate that risk and make my life a little easier because it was annoying walking around the car to lock the passenger door with the key all the time… I made a controversial purchase.

Mixed Emotions


A ricer, universal door lock kit. It was only $40, I figured I didn’t have much to loose. I took a lot of heat from Ernest and Kosta but they haven’t lived with an old car, they don’t know the struggles…yet.
I also ordered a new OEM key (and 02 key chain for me + Ernest, because I’m nice) from BluntTech. I didn’t really need the OEM key but I’m stupid like that.

Rice




The same applied to my trunk, although, I didn’t break anything in that barrel, I would just generally drive around with the trunk unlocked but by installing an automatic opener, I could leave it locked all the timea and still open it with the opener. It was a kit from calw (on BMW2002FAQ), it also has a light…it’s very well put together and many FAQers have picked it up.

Trunk lock actuator + light.



Les pieces de resistance.
I’ve always wanted some vintage driving/fog lights, Cibbies or Marchal. They’re really pricey when compared to generic brands (or even Hella) but I wanted the real og deal. I managed to find some Marchals, I’m not sure how they’ll look on the car, so, I will need to fabricate a bracket to support them. Then I’ll decide :p. I had already prewired a switch in the center console during the build, anticipating this very moment :p.

Vintage Marchal Lights

Another thing I always found cool, was halo fishnet headrests. Back when I had my MK4 Jetta, I remember an MK2 with some halos, I was sold! It’s a while I’ve been on the hunt for a pair which would fit my e21 Reccaros and finally I found some from a dude who recovers seats in Thailand (for a decent price). It took almost 4 months for them to arrive but I’m happy now :)

Vintage Headrests

My recent trip to Champlain wasn’t only for Ernest’s ’02, I piggybacked on his order to get a new downpipe and stainless exhaust from Ireland Engineering + a couple of small bits from ECS + tools from harbour freight. I got the downpipe ceramic coated because I’m not a fan of rust and the exhaust is stainless. There was just 1 coupler which is out of steal .

Downpipe + exhaust... awaiting installation


Easy Bake: Steal coupler paint curing in the oven.


Now to talk about some boring work….

Auto Door lock/Trunk Opener Install

No big deal here, I installed the module under the back seat, I used a relay to trigger the trunk opener and I installed a push switch under the dash.



Possible useful to others passing wires in doors: To pass the wire from the car to the door, I drilled two ¾” holes, I used a rubber grommet, plastic grommet and a rubber hose.

The rubber grommet on the car (a-pillar) is smaller, so the rubber hose is snug (held in place), the plastic grommet on the door is larger so the rubber hose will be fed in to the door. Less wear on the wires and it looks not pad.



I removed the passenger handle to get the piece of broken key out of the barrel. Since I had the door cards off, I also removed the driver side. I degreased them both, tested the keys and filed down any pins which were slightly raised, not a big deal but will help the key turn “smoother.” I used some powdered graphite to lubricate them before re-installing.



Couple of potentially viral videos:

Door lock test:

Trunk lock test (fyi, the trunk has tension bars which open it, that's not new)






Next up...
- Re-installing rear-bench
- Door cards.
- First (2018) start.
- Downpipe + Exhaust install.
- Driving lights bracket.
- Custom duckbill



...see you later
Anthony
 
Didn't log here since lots of years.

Best thread I've read on mtl racing. Keep it up. The passion in this build is palpable. Admiring all this dedication.
 
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A few things, done.


Fishnet Halos.

Not much to write here. I popped out the old headrests and slid in the 'new' halos. You may also notice, I installed some 3-way retractable seat belts in the back.

Retro.




IE Downpipe and Exhaust


I needed a new muffler and when I had requested a loose quote last year (from local muffler shop), it was ~$500 for stainless, installed. So, like I mentioned I piggybacked on Ernest’s IE order to benefit from reduced pricing. While I was at it, I threw in a Tri-Y downpipe ;).


Ready for work

Last Saturday, I started installing my new IE downpipe and stainless exhaust. Things went pretty smooth, it was actually a little worrisome because nothing ever goes smoothly with this car.

I noticed, there was about 1” of space between the resonator and a center bearing securing bolt. I shook the exhaust to see if it would hit, it did not.

The shiny curves.


Finally, last Tuesday night, I lowered the car and took it for a test drive. Sure enough, the resonator would hit under a hard shift/acceleration.

Jacked it back up to see what I could do. I ended up flipping the center portion (piping with the resonator) 180’. There’s now a fair amount of space but it’s closer to the ground, so when I go over a bump, there’s a chance it scrapes the ground :( . Ideally it should be raised about 1” up but that's not an option.

Before flipping 180’

One thing I was worried about was that it wasn’t going to sound good. I enjoyed the sound of my previous exhaust. Luckily, it sounds similar.


Now, I’m gotta start working on fabricating some brackets to support my fog lights.

see you soon.
 
Foggy.
Remember how I bought some Marchal fog lights, and remember how I don’t know how to weld. Well, put those two together and you have my next project.



I wanted to avoid drilling holes, anywhere. A lot of people mount them to the hood hinge mount, brackets, but that means the lights are close to the center (near the kidney grill). But, I wanted the lights to be pushed out (near headlights). I also wanted the brackets to be semi-hidden.

So, I decided to use the bumper-mount bolt holes to support the bracket… I doubt I’m the first to do this, but I hadn’t previously read about it.

I started by making a (mock up) bracket with a left over 3/8” MDF sheet. I would cut out the pieces with a jig and glue them using wood glue. I found this step to be super helpful with the overall design, it’s much easier to cut and glue MDF, then cut and weld Metal. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos of it and I threw it out already.

These are the 3 pieces I used to make the base of the bracket.
  • The piece with the 2 holes bolts to the bumper support nuts.
  • The square’ish piece is welded to the front of the piece mentioned above, at a 90’.
  • The additional (thinner) angled piece reinforces the structure to keep it from bending.


In addition to the above, I added a trapezoid shaped piece at a 90’ from the vertical part of the bracket, this piece also has a triangle shaped piece welded below it to reinforce the 90’ from bending.

The trapezoid piece will stick-out of the grill, through the 2nd opening from the bottom of the grill.

The bracket must be made in 2 pieces, if not the grill would need to be cut. I drilled the trapezoid to install a bolt near the end, the portion which sticks out of the grill.

For the 2nd portion of the bracket, where the actual light will be bolted. I wanted them to be angled towards the car, to keep the lights as close to the body as possible.

I used 4 pieces.
  • The front piece, where the light bolts.
  • I drilled 3 holes to adjust the mounting height of the lights, but then I ended up joining the 2 lowest holes so that I could slide the light up and down for more adjustability.
  • I drilled 2 smaller holes, so that I could tie-wrap the wire behind the bracket.
  • 2 sides to reinforce the metal.
  • And a flat top which bolts under the grill bracket.



I painted the pieces black and added grommet to pass the wire and I test mounted them again.



Here’s the final product, installed with the grill on.


POWER. The first time I flipped the switch, the fuse blew and I'd be lying, if i didn't say I tried it a 2nd time with a new fuse :p. So, I ended up having to take apart my center console. It turns out I mislabelled 2 wires, the ground and the load (wire which feeds the lights). So flicking the switch would connect the negative to the positive :s. Wasn't cool. I thought I was all finished and then I had to find an issue. luckily it wasn't a huge thing and I was able to sort it out within 30-45mins.

Lights


Out for a drive to mom and dad's


What do you guys think?


Next project: Custom fibreglass duckbill.
 
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