76 Build - The story of a BMW 2002

[The Norwegian]

you might get the engine temp down if you switch out the oil cooler with an bigger one

[pinkboxxjoshua]

Managed to make a little progress since my last post:

Had to order some parts to help adjust the crazy amount of toe in and camber the lower ride gave me.
So while I was waiting for them to arrive I focused my attentions on some general maintenance on the car, but in doing so I opened up a can of worms!

I thought it would be a good idea to remove the floor mounted pedal box and think about remounting it or cutting into the footwell to get some more leg room. But before I could do any modification, I noticed that the pedal box itself had failed and could fold back on itself any minute...
IMG_3825 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
I assume that joint was supposed to be welded... instead they decided to powder coat it together!
IMG_3827 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Also, the pivot point for the brake pedal was rusting and looked like it was about to go
IMG_3831 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3834 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3835 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
So obviously that would have to be fixed before I went any further.
But rather than just fix it... I thought it best to take the measurements and make a custom pedal box using all of the existing ancillaries? And on top of that - one that was actually welded together!
So thats what I did:

IMG_3837 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3840 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3842 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3846 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3853 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3857 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3861 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

After that I mounted it to the footwell!
Ill have to wait until I've put the seat back in and bleed the brakes before I know for sure. But otherwise, it looks like its going to work!

So during that fix, the new camber and toe adjustment kit arrived and it was time to drop the rear subframe and get working.
IMG_3887 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

IMG_3888 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

IMG_3890 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

It took a while to make sure everything was symmetrical and even (so much measuring and remeasuring!) Once it was i welded it all up, gave it a lick of paint and threw everything back together and put it back under the car.
IMG_3896 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

IMG_3897 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

IMG_3898 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Finally I had a change to roll the car out and have a good look at the new stance and front arches!
But obviously it would never be that easy!
The problem: Exhaust was a little too low before I lowered it... now it was stopping me from rolling the car because it was scraping along the floor... note to self 'build new exhaust'.
After removing the old exhaust, I was able to take advantage of a nice day, roll the car out and have a look at the work I've done:
IMG_3902 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

IMG_3906 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

IMG_3907 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

IMG_3903 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

IMG_3904 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Im pretty stoked with how its looking now.
And I've made a start on the rear arches - I should have some more updates on them soon!

[Jerome89]

Holy crap this is a cool build! Subbed! keep up the good work!!

[pinkboxxjoshua]

So Ive made some progress on the car since my last post.
With the main focus being the new front arches.

I decided that I wanted to fab my own arches and thought that the best way for me to do that was by building up a skeleton of the outer shape.
So I bought some 6mm steel bar and went to work!
To make sure I wouldnt have any rubbing issues, I started with the lower shape of the arch
IMG_3688 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3698 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Once I had the lower shape nailed down (which took ages!) I made a Jig for the opposite side and copied the shape.
Then I moved to the top of the arch, and welded that into place.
IMG_3701 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3702 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3705 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3706 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Once that was done, I and I was happy with the overall shape of the new arch I was abel to start building up the arch itself.
IMG_3709 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3711 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3712 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3716 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3717 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3719 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Its slow work - But it seems to be heading in the right direction and I really like the aggressive stance.

IMG_3773 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3777 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3778 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Finished shaping the front arch
IMG_3788 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3789 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3790 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3791 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3792 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3797 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_3798 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

[storey618]

i love you......

[Raarasutra]

Really awesome work! Loving the switch panel

[vwhatton]

love this build mate keep it up

[MommysLittleMonster]

Shit, dude. I would have tossed the whole car after seeing all the rot it had. But you turned this around in a hurry.

Nice work, I love all the home-brewed fabrication you're doing.

[pinkboxxjoshua]

Made some additions to the 2002 over the summer. First of which was a bash bar and tow hook
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Also bought a LSD to upgrade the last part of the cars driveline.
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Made up some billet calliper mounts for the wilwoods and an air filter shroud
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Managed to get out in the car quite a bit over the summer, and took a few photos of how it looked before the winter set in.

Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr


Thanks to the LSD I managed some skids and my fair share or burnies too...
Made me realise that I didn't really want a show car. Instead I wanted to focus the car down more of a retro racer route.

Thankfully now that the weather is crap! I decided to take stock and have a good look at what I had and what I wanted to re-do/mod further.

When looking at the work Id done. I came to the conclusion that I rushed most of the build and A LOT needed to be refined or done better!
First and most importantly, the car wasn't low enough and I didn't love the MK1 golf arches...
So a major stance overall is happening!

I decided that the best thing to do was to cut off all four arches get the car sitting how I wanted and make arches to fit afterwards. So thats what I'm doing!

One really annoying thing about the 2002 is that it really seems to sit on top of its wheels... Where as a lot of other cars of the era like the Datsuns and Toyotas etc seem to have the wheels and tyres much higher up in the body. So to me, they immediately look better and wayyyy lower!

Unfortunately he 2002 isn't one of those cars. Which means getting that low retro race car look that I'm looking for isn't easy!
On top of everything else, I dont want a garage queen - I want to be able to drive the car pretty hard!

So the brief;
I need useable static stance...
But it must be lower and wider (better)

To achieve this, Im taking most of my inspiration from Paul Harrisons rad Corolla drift car.
If I can get anywhere close to that stance, I will be a very happy boy!

IMG_3508 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

So thats my goal!

Problem I have is that I'm using GAZ racing coilovers... The struts are pretty long and I was getting close to the the lowest adjustment of the adjustable spring perch before...
I think the car needs to be at least 1.5 - 2 inches lower...
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr

So I had no choice but to raise the strut towers!

Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Figuring our where I want the wheel to sit

Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/CGiHqq

Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr


Now to figure out how to mount the coilovers and camber plates.
New top mount design
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Preposed top mount height and new top mount
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr

I didn't want the raised strut towers to look like an afterthought but at the same time I wanted people to notice them... So I decided to shape them similar to the stock towers but with more room for camber adjustment

Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Welding
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr


Figuring out the new position
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Welding into place
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr

The back of the car was a little easier because the coilovers have way more adjustment.
First I hacked off the old arch, opened up the original arch as high as I could and tacked everything in place
The back of the car might have to go a little lower which I can do by extending the rear strut mounts and getting rid of the original 2002 spring perch. but I'm going to sit it on the floor as is before going to those lengths.

This is how it looks now:
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Untitled by Josh Parker, on Flickr

I Will probably do something about the negative camber in the back and toe in a later date. but that can wait until Ive seen it sitting on the floor.

[pinkboxxjoshua]

So the 02 had its first breakdown.
Turns out that the gearbox and prop were slightly out of line and the flex joint bought the brunt of that. ended up with me trying to limp the car home with a serious amount of vibration..
Safe to say I had to give up and wait for 4 hours to be recovered 4 miles back home... not fun!
Flex joint post breakdown

So I had to re-aline the gearbox and prop. wasn't too much trouble. But because of the change in geometry, the exhaust was hanging down at a really weird angle and got rid of the little ground clearance I had.


So I had to make some tweaks to the exhaust to get some ground clearance back.

While the prop was out and I had some room in the tunnel. I thought id try my hand at making a custom short shifter as the shifter was a little too far away in its current position.
Wasn't too difficult, use the original 2002 shift mechanism and moved the fulcrum point to allow for a lot less throw between gears.
I love the original 2002 lux "wood effect" gear knob so that had to stay!



Here's a link to the new short throw in action.
http://instagram.com/p/4Cz8jWrL3q/?taken-by=76build

Once everything was buttoned up the car drove better than ever! but was getting a little warm in traffic - Which has made daily driving a nightmare!

I think I've tried everything under the sun to fix the problem, but its still getting a little too warm despite my best efforts.

So I decided to focus my efforts on building a radiator fan shroud. to accommodate a twin fan set up.









The fan shroud definitely helped! but still didn't solve the problem...
Then I noticed that when I unplugged one of the fans, the remaining one span faster. So I had to rewire the new set up.
While I was at it, I thought it would be a good idea to redo the switch panel.
Because of the 4 point harnesses in the car, the existing switch panel was a little too far away.
(sorry for the terrible photo)

So I came up with this.









Also in an effort to reduce engine bay temps I wrapped the exhaust. Shame to hide the stainless manifold, but its made such huge difference!

Any suggestions to try and get the car to run cooler in traffic are welcome! I'm running out of ideas!
The only thing left that I can thing of is to install a bigger rad.. but there is no room in the engine bay. Which means it would have to be a rear mount rad - which I'm not apposed to doing... but I'm not if that would fair any better in traffic?

As a distraction I made some time to play with the exhaust a bit.
Now let me start by saying I love a loud car! but not that loud!
the back box I bought was supposed to have twin 3" tips... It arrived with twin 3.5" tips. They were huge and stupidly boomy.


I had some spare 2.5" pipe hanging around and decided to weld it on to see if it would quite the car down a little.
Doesn't look quite as good but was a drastic improvement.

[Dylanhat]

wow this insane

[CHLTRTL]

Mmmm yes, always loved 02s
Great job on restoring it

[pinkboxxjoshua]

Thanks guys.

While I've got some time I thought id try and catch the build up to present.

So after I found the engine was a large greasy paperweight. I considered going in another direction. Possibly trying to find an engine and gearbox from an S2K, doing a 2JZ swap. But I really liked the idea of being loyal to BMW. and because of all of the work i had already done to get the M20 into place. I decided to try again and find another M20 to replace it.

Considering I was going to have to spend money on a new engine anyway. I decided to spend a little more on something special.
I managed to find a guy that was selling a recently rebuilt M20 2.7l stroker that Rally prep had done for his track car. the engine was completely stripped down and rebuilt by Rally prep to get as close as they could to the Alpina B3 engine as they could.
Complete with: Competition cam, Magnecor leads and Alpina B3 chip, the thing was a bit of a beast and only had 500miles on it since the rebuild!

While the old engine was out I decided to take the gearbox off and change upgrade the clutch.
So I upgrade to a stage 1 clutch to better deal with the additionally power the new engine would have.
So with that done, I went and picked it up and dropped it into the 2002.
Unfortunately, I don't have any pics on the install, just the finished article.





Now that the power plant was in and running like a dream. I needed to get the car back on the road ASAP!
So time for some Brakes!

The whole system was shot! Reservoir, masters, brake boosters, all the lines, callipers and drums...
Wasn't going to be cheap to restore, even more to replace.
Time to throw it all away and upgrade to something better!
Found a guy selling a 2002 ti disc brake upgrade and thought I could make that work. Despite mine being a tii.
So I bought them off him and got the kit shipped to my house.
Didn't arrive in the best of shape...


Kit included a full disc brake upgrade for the rear.
custom calliper carriers, Mk4 golf rear aluminium calliper and MK1 gti front discs (drilled)


So the guy sent me Wilwood front break upgrade for a ti. Came with E21 front hubs, E21 323 vented and drilled front discs and a calliper carrier for a ti.
As expected, the calliper carrier ended up being useless so I had to get a custom one made. other than that, it all went together really easy.

A shot of the original 2002 front disc. Seen better days!


E21 big bearing hubs

E21 323 discs


Now that all the brakes were on, It was time to focus on the pedal set up.
Because of the exhaust manifold I had to make. The original Brake and clutch mater cylinder were almost touching. considering they were in need of a refurb anyway. I decided it would be best to remove them completely.
Bought a OBP rally ready hydraulic pedal box with a brake ballast adjuster and had to somehow make it fit...
Not an easy task. as they pedals were now super close to the driver!
Opted to build a platform. that allowed me a push the pedals back and get a much more comfortable driving position.
Ended up looking like this



Now that the brakes and clutch all worked I was able to drive the car for the first time since owning it!
A big day!!
because the car was now sort of "usable" I moved on to all of the other things that needed to be done for it to be deemed "roadworthy"

Because the original headlights were about as effective as a candle. I decided to go for a HID projector headlight upgrade


Didn't like how they looked in black when they were on the car. So I changed them to silver later on.

Now for some aesthetics..
Loved the custom front airdam that Rob Daehn made for his car and Ive always had a soft spot for a classic car with a duckbill. So rather than just buy a 2002 Turbo airdam. I decided to make my own..







Built not bought


Once that was done, the back of the car was missing something... So I wanted to add something a bit different.
Found some sheet metal hanging around and built a drag spoiler




Apologies for the filters. Went thought a weird Instagram phase!

Thats pretty much all up to date.
So heres a few more shots of it at the moment.

[kneums]

This looks like it will be a really cool build. Great work so far!

[m.butcher]

great works! it's a pleasure to see this!