69 BMW Euro Trash

[hackrtanman]

To each his own!

I may not be the wisest here being only 16, but I really like this. I dont necessarily like it because a classic BMW is being... hmmm... What word. Anyways, the point is I like this car because it's unique. Heads will turn, that's for sure. But honestly, this is much better than having it sit and rot in a junk yard, or slowly being parted out. I live on an island in the Puget Sound near Seattle, Washington. A while back, there was a 2002 for sale from an old gas station/service station, and I went to look at it. Frozen engine, at least 1 square foot of rust on every panel. Didn't sell, and after a while, it just disappeared from their shop. You wouldn't believe how many of these cars are just sitting in yards, rusting away (I dislike people). Anyways, my point is that this is much better than seeing a car sit and rot away slowly. Just my 2 cents.

[jrcanes55]

i love that exhaust. also quick question. Is 93 on that bowser refering to the octane rating? just wondering because here in australia super premium is 98 octane

Yes the octane ratings in the US only go to 93 most of the time. You can occasionally find some 100 octane but it's rare.

[kevinc]

I would be afraid of getting body parts sliced off driving this thing...

That's all part of the fun.

[Raarasutra]

I would be afraid of getting body parts sliced off driving this thing...

[jlaffo91]

i love that exhaust. also quick question. Is 93 on that bowser refering to the octane rating? just wondering because here in australia super premium is 98 octane

[tricha02]

ok so my side of today's stories

i used the youtube machine to learn how to gap points, since i couldnt get new points in time i just sanded the corrosion off of the contact point on the old one and used that, i gapped it to .016 which is what is recommended for this car


i really like the font/ general look of this feeler gauge


as i did the points alex fixed one of the wires that had pulled out of its connection
we went to start it and the starter wasnt turning or even making a sound
so we hit it with a piece of wood this solved that issue and it started right up
it was running as well as it had been before so we decided to go put some more gas in it
we went on a little 8 mile drive to the station and back, and besides being cold from having no windows, and rattely from having no seals or anything it drove great

we put in 2 gallons of super premium and we were on out way



also yesterday i got to see my neighbor's 1977 911 race car, yes it is a 911 it just has 933 fenders and wing

[DumpAndFlush]

So awesome. This is the perfect car to mess around with and not really give a fuck. Love the shifter. I think it looks better without the hood on

[jrcanes55]

Thomas gaped the points on the distributor and and we finally got it to draw fuel and bang! It started and we drove it to the gas station. I followed just in case

[Trif0rce]

Trust me i'm not new to rotted cars, I live in the good ol' northeast where salt coats the roads from november to may. Solid floors are a myth here. It can be done, it just takes a little more patience than you're putting into it. I've made these same mistakes before, and it always, always pays out to do it at least somewhat right.

[tricha02]

your grandfather owns a club ? that's so cool !

just the land, but yea the guy is sweet, except he hates german cars

I think the biggest thing that will help you and this car is to just slow down and think things through, and do some research before you jump into something. Your car would be 90% better if you did that. examples:

paint: Yes its rattlecanned, but ive seen some pretty awesome rattlecan jobs, my last car was and im gonna be honest it looked good. However, everything that you have painted on this car so far (the car itself and the hood) you have done so before it rained.... Thats like plain stupid. It takes no time at all to check the weather and see i it is going to rain. a minute of your time and you have a good looking (rattlecan) paint job vs. what you have now which I am scared to even call paint... I can also tell that your putting WAY too much paint on at a time and not letting it dry before the next coat. Take half an hour and research the proper way to paint and how people have done it before (even just a simple rattle can job).

Welding: Others have already given you enough advice here, but again, just slow down. I had as much experience welding as you do at the moment one month ago: none. I spent hours watching videos on youtube and looking up proper welding techniques and everything that you need to get a good weld. Your welder is much nicer than mine, and I dont have any gas, and while my welds dont look great, for making my floors one solid object they are more than enough. Again, just think before you do something, youll be happier with the result for sure.

Last thing: Even if this ENTIRE car is just to fool around with and learn on, that is not an excuse to not learn from others mistakes. Its so easy to look up what other people have done and avoid their mistakes, your shooting yourself in the foot if you fall into every single hole that everyone else has before you. The reason I do so much research before I touch anything on my car is because I dont have a practice car! If I screw something up im screwed myself! So even if this is a practice car and your just fooling around with it, thats fine, make mistakes, learn, it was going to the junker anyway, but there is a difference between gaining experience in doing something and just wasting time making pointless mistakes.

Thats all. Im not dissing your build, or you as a person, I just want to see this car be all it can be because honestly im jealous that you have an 02, I want one sooo bad

Keep going!
Eric

well its actually not rattle canned, i used a gun and compressor for the body of the car, i didnt even want to paint it until i had done some more/ better body work, but the town was legit going to tow it if i didnt get it looking "less ugly" that weekend so planning around rain would have lost me the car

as for welding i watched plenty of videos, and i have a shit welder too, i put the front end back on my honda with a pos flux core that i bought, that decided it was one time use though and crapped out, anyways the welds may not look the best because they are basically big lumpy tacks mashed together and covered in flux, but they are welds and do hold, these floors are also plenty sturdy as far as throwing a floor in, no one said that they were permanent although in the end it may just have to end up with a street sign floor just with bracing under it just in spite of all you

lastly i dont think anything i have done yet has been a mistake, except maybe bleeding the first set of brakes and making them seize

Builds like this remind me of how badly I butchered my first Impreza. Not that that's a bad thing, and i've definitely seen worse. But really, welding a floor in is easy shit. just cut some steel to fit the hole, stick it over the hole, and use the ol' electric glue to weld it in. Shitty looking welds still look better than riveted signs...

only issue there is most of the places would weld the floor to are also entirely rust, if i sand blasted this car i would only be left with the strut towers (thank god) and the roof, everything else would need to be replaced if this was to be a perfect resto

[Trif0rce]

Builds like this remind me of how badly I butchered my first Impreza. Not that that's a bad thing, and i've definitely seen worse. But really, welding a floor in is easy shit. just cut some steel to fit the hole, stick it over the hole, and use the ol' electric glue to weld it in. Shitty looking welds still look better than riveted signs...

[jacbo]

DECENT, bro.

Decent with no S.

If I were in NC I would gladly help you work on this car. I think it's cool as shit, but you guys would probably think I was a prick because I would undo everything you did and redo it my way.

[absentee]

I think the biggest thing that will help you and this car is to just slow down and think things through, and do some research before you jump into something. Your car would be 90% better if you did that. examples:

paint: Yes its rattlecanned, but ive seen some pretty awesome rattlecan jobs, my last car was and im gonna be honest it looked good. However, everything that you have painted on this car so far (the car itself and the hood) you have done so before it rained.... Thats like plain stupid. It takes no time at all to check the weather and see i it is going to rain. a minute of your time and you have a good looking (rattlecan) paint job vs. what you have now which I am scared to even call paint... I can also tell that your putting WAY too much paint on at a time and not letting it dry before the next coat. Take half an hour and research the proper way to paint and how people have done it before (even just a simple rattle can job).

Welding: Others have already given you enough advice here, but again, just slow down. I had as much experience welding as you do at the moment one month ago: none. I spent hours watching videos on youtube and looking up proper welding techniques and everything that you need to get a good weld. Your welder is much nicer than mine, and I dont have any gas, and while my welds dont look great, for making my floors one solid object they are more than enough. Again, just think before you do something, youll be happier with the result for sure.

Last thing: Even if this ENTIRE car is just to fool around with and learn on, that is not an excuse to not learn from others mistakes. Its so easy to look up what other people have done and avoid their mistakes, your shooting yourself in the foot if you fall into every single hole that everyone else has before you. The reason I do so much research before I touch anything on my car is because I dont have a practice car! If I screw something up im screwed myself! So even if this is a practice car and your just fooling around with it, thats fine, make mistakes, learn, it was going to the junker anyway, but there is a difference between gaining experience in doing something and just wasting time making pointless mistakes.

Thats all. Im not dissing your build, or you as a person, I just want to see this car be all it can be because honestly im jealous that you have an 02, I want one sooo bad

Keep going!
Eric

[Belvader]

your grandfather owns a club ? that's so cool !

[tricha02]

thanks for the welding tips everyone, if alex is down to practice i will tomorrow (its his welder), i only have till monday to work on this before i go on vacation so i kinda need to get it running by then

So... You tell everyone to shut up(Including Mike, and a few other people who actually put thought into their comments, then start asking for help? Nice.

shut up

no but really when did i tell mike or anyone saying thoughtful stuff to shut up? i may have said that im gonna do stuff my way, but only people with zero real insight were told to shut up

I want to like it... And in theory I do... Just stop with some of the silly crap. I'm assuming that wire is an exhaust hanger? Why didn't you just weld some scrap metal up under the car and solid mount that crap? Keep giving it hell, just try a little harder please and thank you.

yea thats the hanger, once we weld in a floor it will get a real hanger, but you cant weld to sign, and the stock hanger on the body is for when the exhaust is run out of the center, and it wouldnt work, it will get a real hanger when it gets a real floor.

love the progress, just noticed on your license tag that you were in NC. I'm suprised I haven't seen you around I'm in durham and I go to chaple hill alot when I go to Cats Cradle =) do you go to any meetups or anything ?

yea you probably havnt seen this around, although for the first year it was parked in the old gas station that is now a pottery shop beside cats cradle, my grandpa owns that and the cradle, im also in school most of the time, but im back in carrboro/ chapel hill in my mk2 a lot