I keep coming back and keep going older

[99sil-teg]

So once again this winter I decided it was time for me to get out of the car scene to focus on being a responsible adult... well it just didn't sick . This is my 3rd bimmer, first was an e30, then an e21 and then I had the chance to pick up this 2002. The previous two had been daily drivers and I seemed to spend every weekend fixing something. I finally have a daily-driver so the 2002 can be slowly built which means that there will be balance of family and cars.

Mod List (Will be updating as I go)

Exterior:

Interior:

Suspension/Brakes:

Performance:
Weber Carb
Long Tube Header
MSD Ignition

Woke up at 6 this morning to make the normally 4 hr drive down to pick the car up... but then we had to deal with this most of the way down which turned 4 hours into 6... it sucked lol.



Finally we made it though, the body is rough but the frame rails, floor boards and towers are all solid. The interior was stripped out but luckily my buddy had a full set of tan interior which I'll be throwing in it.






Plans:
Lots of body work (finally a chance to learn how to weld and paint)
MK1 Fender flares, Love how they look on Cubbychowder's 2002
Clean up the bay of all the randomly running around wires
who knows what else lol.

Basically first up will be getting it road worth, then probably will do body work over the winter.

Finally the reason I went older... my dad's (someday mine after a buy a bigger house to please the wife) 72 2002.

[Jroc]

woot woot

[rhoderacer]

Welcome to the 2002 community. Sub'd

[99sil-teg]

So today it was finally not freezing balls cold out so I cleaned out the '02 some but then... it rained... gotta love Missouri weather.

After pulling out everything which included the door cards and 3 sets of buckets (yeah 3 sets lol) this is what I was left with. Once it warms up some more some major clean up will happen, right now just seeing what I have pretty much.




Then I popped the hood, car fires right up which is nice but it could use some cleaning up under the hood. MSD ignition, Weber carb, and long tube header are the highlights.

[99sil-teg]

Well since it was like 60 when I got off work, I shot up to my parents where the '02 is calling home for now and messed with it briefly. Finally put some extra e21 wheels I had one so I have tires that no longer go flat after an hour. Previous owner cut the springs so it sits nicely... only time will tell how well it rides lol.



So the sunvisors and mirror look poor on this car so I've decided to run my wink mirror. I actually love these functionality wise so I embrace my former jdm days lol. Was going to install it but to my surprise the roof is actually wider than pretty much every car this as been in (Integras, E30 and even an s10) so I'll have to make some custom brackets to see if I can make it work.



Cleaned the dash up to see how bad it is and I think it will stay, gauge cluster isn't working plus the speedo no longer has a needle... thinking custom cluster... more on that later. Also the center console looks like crap so I'm going to ditch all of it and hack up a e21 console and make something custom and maybe run an e28 console around the ebrake. Nothing to exciting, still in clean up mode. Probably going to be upgrading the rear brakes with e21 brakes since I have them laying around and maybe swap in the ebrake set up from an e21 as well.




Also was sorting through the trunk to see how bad the spare area was... lets just say thats getting cut out. Thinking about going the fuel cell route. Other than that the trunk is actually pretty good.

[FunfGang]

Good stuff! Keep up the work, looking forward to seeing how this goes.

[Queef|Chief]

Looks awesome man! Great pick up!!!

[CubbyChowder]

Glad to see you finally picked up a 2002. Good luck on the build, you got lotsssss of work ahead of you!

[99sil-teg]

Glad to see you finally picked up a 2002. Good luck on the build, you got lotsssss of work ahead of you!

Yes... yes I do haha. Probably won't tackle the body till winter since it won't be driven then anyways. First step is just getting it road worth, car actually fires right up so just need to get some brakes. Thinking about doing the e21 upgrade in the rear, have you done anything brake wise? Also fair warning because I'm loving your car so far... stealing your headlight idea lol.

[99sil-teg]

Well last night did a little more work along with some this morning. First up is removing the A/C, all thats left on it is removing the condenser which will require taking out the radiator. Then I tried to fit some e21 carpet in that I had laying around but it didn't fit to my liking so I'm going to see if I can find some carpet locally but if not then I'll make it work. Next up was putting in the seats and rear door cards, since I'm replacing the doors I decided not to mess with the front ones.

[CubbyChowder]

haha honestly I think those seats are badass. I could cruise around in those things all day

[99sil-teg]

Things have been slowly going. Been slowly cleaning the bay up of the a/c, door popper set up, and random brackets not holding anything. Also ditched the whole a/c system. Since I had to pull the radiator to get the condenser out, I decided to freshen it up and also flush it.

Before and after




Nothing crazy but it's a little better. I know exciting lol

Then this past weekend I took out the 72 for a 10 hr round trip as the pre-sowo trip... Didnt go well. Cooling issues came up, so has me thinking that I'm going to do overkill on the 76 and also has me thinking M42 swap... But we'll see.

[Withers]

they just don't make them like they used to. old cars are where it's at.

[Chuckdee]

I've always wanted to see an m42 in an 02....Great stuff OP!

[99sil-teg]

Jacked with the '02 a little more today, ran out of daylight so not too much was done. First up was finally getting the brakes going, tons of air in the lines and the rear isn't back together as I'm waiting on a wheel cylinder but its getting there.

Today I just did a little more clean up, figure if I keep going little by little it will eventually get where I want it lol. First up was hacking up the original license plate frame as it looked terrible. cut the lights off since they were broke and repainted the whole thing.

Little before and after action



Since the car has tons of over spray and is showing a previous gold paint job I'm slowly repainting things. Today was the headlight buckets so I can get the front back together. Also put the driver side together and have a good condition kidney set on the way. Still have to locate a passenger grill and also a headlight since I can't find one locally that is the right size.



Then I fab up some brackets for my wink mirror, need to cut some off the bottom still but atleast its installed.


Lastly, went to the antique mall with the wife and found this sweet Mine ammo box which I brought straight home and cleaned up and it was a perfect fit for the trunk. Eventually it will hold tools, oil and whatever else I might need incase of issues on the road. Old car problems lol.