CubbyChowder finally got a BMW 2002 - it's project time

[Queef|Chief]

Great job! Cant wait till this hits the streets

[BMW BRAD]

your freaggin skillz are beyond belief............

[cheeky dog]

First time seeing this build thread, spent 2 hours going through every page...

Dont know where to start... Your work and dedication is inspiring and amazing. Your first location to work on your car, your dads 30 acre vineyard in Cali was truely envyable. All your cars along the way thru this build from the Merc to the e30 seemed like quite an adventure, and now your own work place.... Awesome work there good sir.

Love your build, looking forward to updates.

ps, I may have missed the update on the dirkhead who sold you and 2 other people phantom wheels, was that issue resolved in the end?

[eethirty]

absolutely love this car. forgive me, but whats going in it for a engine?

[Dylanhat]

beautiful, you should paint it that OEM cream beige color.

Yeah, keep it Sahara

[CubbyChowder]

great job dude

Spent my morning reading through this build, loving the work dude, awesome.

Impressive as always

nice looking welds! build is a great read so far. keep up the awesome work.

All of this looks so amazing. Sheesh.

Thanks dudes!

beautiful, you should paint it that OEM cream beige color.

For some reason I can't stand the original Sahara beige color, sorry

Really like how you boxed the mounts.

Thanks friend, miniscule things like that just satisfy me haha.

Great work! Is the rear toe going to be adjustable as well? Probably could weld in the same adjustment brackets to the other trailing arm mounts for toe adjustability. Maybe I'm wrong though...

You are correct, there are toe adjustment tabs which are to be welded on the outer trailing arm mounts. I didn't purchase them though, I was more concerned about the camber. It probably would've been best if I did both, but oh well.

[Mr. Pedobear]

Great work! Is the rear toe going to be adjustable as well? Probably could weld in the same adjustment brackets to the other trailing arm mounts for toe adjustability. Maybe I'm wrong though...

[montgomery]

Really like how you boxed the mounts.

[Bronzit]

All of this looks so amazing. Sheesh.

[C.Johnston]

nice looking welds! build is a great read so far. keep up the awesome work.

[skiierman]

beautiful, you should paint it that OEM cream beige color.

[The Simps]

Impressive as always

[Miles.]

Spent my morning reading through this build, loving the work dude, awesome.

[RihardsR]

great job dude

[CubbyChowder]

Progress.

So I was in a bit of a dilemma about the rear fitment. In order to get it to sit where I wanted when aired out, I had to run a 20mm spacer. This meant I would have to run extended wheel studs as well. Extended studs and a pair of 20mm spacers would run me about $100 total. This got me thinking. The negative camber while aired out was pretty extreme, more than suits my taste. Instead of going that route, I decided it might be a better idea to kill two birds with one stone. I thought it would be a good idea to pull the rear subframe again and put that $100 towards weld-on camber adjustment tabs so I could add some positive camber back. This would theoretically eliminate my need for extended studs and spacers and bring some functionality back and give my tires some more life at the same time. Seemed like the better option, so that's exactly what I did.

So once my mind was set, I ordered the tabs and pulled the rear subframe again:



I notched out the original trailing arm mounting points in preparation for the new tabs:



Lined everything up and started welding:



As you can see with the new tabs welded in, the top half is not reinforced at all, so I thought it would be a good idea to box them in. To do so, I created 4 of these:



These filled the empty space, as shown in this picture. Notice that I purposely set the new camber tabs so that the lowest mounting point is about 1/4" higher than the original mounting point. I did this because it didn't seem like these camber tabs provide too much adjustment, so I wanted to make sure I could add enough positive camber to straighten things out:



Welded them up and then prepped/painted the whole rear subframe:





Once that was all done, I removed the bottom spring perch on the trailing arms by drilling out the spot welds with a spot weld cutter drill bit. This is where the bottom of the rear bags will mount:




And then ground everything smooth. You can see I drilled a little too far with the cutter on most of them. I've never done this before so it was a learning thing for me. I don't think it'll be an issue, I'll most likely reinforce that whole area anyways:



Got the whole rear subframe/trailing arm/differential assembly back together and ready to install (I temporarily bolted the spring perches back on so I could install the stock springs again because I need to get the '02 off the lift to work on a friends car this weekend):



Once everything was bolted up, I had the opportunity to see if all that work was worth it. To be honest, I thought it was going to make a bigger difference, but I am still happy with the end result. Here are a few pictures showing the differences between full negative camber (left) and full positive camber (right) at the aired out height:




As you can see, it's not a world of difference, but it definitely helps. I think I will still run a 5mm spacer to get the lip out a tiny bit more, and I won't have to run extended studs that way, so that's a plus! Hopefully my tires last a little longer this way as well. Keep in mind, these pictures are when the car is aired out, not at the height I will be driving.

With that squared away, I could focus on the fronts again. My replacement shock which I ordered from BagRiders arrived (ruined shock on left, new shock on right):



Was super nervous welding it the whole time but everything worked out fine:




Lastly, I welded on new tabs for the brake caliper line bracket to bolt to and then prepped/painted those. Super happy to see both fronts completed and painted up





So that's where I'm at now. I just ordered new brake rotors and calipers for the front, so those will get installed as soon as they show up. Once I'm done working on my friend's car and a "customer's" Jeep I will get at it again and get the brackets for rear bags fabricated and get those mounted up! Stay tuned!