76 Build - The story of a BMW 2002

[extra_slick]

this is casually amazing

[pinkboxxjoshua]

So I realised that if I want to get the car back on the road by April I have to pull my finger out and get a serious move on!

Because I know what I'm doing now with the arches now - I decided to take a little break from them and get some other things done. Specifically the prep for my new exhaust.

Because Ive lowered the car more, there is now no room for the 2.5" pipe to go under the gearbox mount... So i decided to make a tunnel for the exhaust to run along side it.
Problem is, my car is right hand drive and the exhaust side of the engine is on the right... so theres a little less room in the footwell as I would like.. But if thats the price I have to pay for the car to look good - then so be it!!

So I started by cutting out the s*&tty old tunnel and gear box mount
IMG_4164 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4167 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Once the hole was cut, It was just a matter of fabricating the new exhaust tunnel and making sure everything fit really nicely. Once I had done A LOT of measuring and cutting I tacked the new tunnel in:

IMG_4170 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4173 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Here a look of what it will look like when the pedal are in:

IMG_4174 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4175 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4176 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

As I said - not a lot of room for my clutch foot... but I'm sure it will be fine and its better than the exhaust rubbing on the floor!
Once I've pulled the engine I will get in there and weld everything up properly, but that will do for now.

Ive also been slowly amassing some parts for my new short shifter.
This will be my 3rd!

MK1 one was a mixture of 2002 and E30 parts welded together. Needless to say, it ended up snapping... Not ideal! I was in a convoy of cars on the way to a BMW show, with the intent of running the cars on the 1/4mile!
Thankfully we weren't too far from home and my dad bought me the standard E30 shifter. What a HERO! So I managed to fix it on the side of the road and get to the show.
A picture of the breakdown:
IMG_3940 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

MK2 was a quick fix after getting back from the show. It used a rose joint and solid steel threaded bar to avoid snapping. But it wasn't very well executed and I wanted to redo it.

MK3 is a fully stainless steel construction using another rose joint and rally spec nylon shift nob - amongst other things...
I really wanted a sort of "classic/race car" look and Im really pleased with how it came out!
Heres a few pictures of the latest shifter which I will put into the car after the engine and gearbox had been pulled and put back in.

IMG_4155 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4157 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4159 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4160 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4161 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Im 95% sure this one wont snap!
Cant want to get it in the car and give it a go!

[pinkboxxjoshua]

So I think its about time for another update.

Bought a few new bits for the car since my last post. Specifically:

- Baffled 10 Gallon Aluminium fuel tank
- All new hoses for the fuel system
- New fuel filter
- 2x 40mm Hub-centric spacers.
-1" dimple die

I bought the spacers to get the correct spacing and offset to fill the new arches.
Im pretty certain I'm not going to be running them on the car. But I now know that a 0et 9j will fit on the front of the car with a 20mm spacer and fit perfectly without a spacer on the back. Giving me the exact fitment I want.
So they will be on there until I buy my new rims!?

Heres a few pictures on the massive 40mm spacers on the car:
IMG_4184 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4186 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Once they were on the car I was able to put my old 25mm spacers on the back of the car and get the arches pretty much all the way mocked up:
IMG_4198 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4202 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4204 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4208 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4210 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4213 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4216 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4218 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Im soo stoked with how the cars sitting! Looks so much better!!

After the new ride hight was established, I had to address some other issues.
More exhaust issues - Specifically the lack of space for it!
Now that the exhaust tunnel has been made its time to look at how I'm going to solve the next issue.
The mounting brackets on the prop support bearing, in the middle of the 325i prop-shaft was getting in the way and was going to force the exhaust much lower than I wanted. Especially because it was right in the middle of the car, I was going to ground all the time! So that wasn't going to work for me.
After lots of consideration I decided to simply mount the basket upside down. Which meant cutting the 2002's tunnel and making a new mounting plate inside the car and boxing the whole thing in.
Pretty simple and easy fix! which has given me just enough room to fit the 2.5" exhaust pipe.
IMG_4229 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4230 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Now for the new fuel cell.
I bought it thinking I would simply mount it between the rear towers. Didn't end up being that simple!
It was taller than I imagined and it would have meant that the strut brace would have had to go..
Also the angle of the rear seat back pushed the tank back quite a bit so the front of the tank had nothing to mount to.
The final and probably biggest problem was the filler neck - If the tank was mounted where I originally wanted it, i wouldn't have been able to actually get fuel in it. Which might have proven to be a rather large issue...

So I decided to side the entire thing back, making new mounting plates and use my new dimple die to strengthen everything up

One side of the new mount mocked up
IMG_4236 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4238 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
And a few pictures of where the tank will be mounted.
IMG_4236 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4232 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Once the right hand side was mocked up. it was time to make the left side and try out my new dimple die
IMG_4243 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4244 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4246 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
I bloody love dimple dies!
IMG_4252 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Once both mounts were mocked up, it was time to test fit the tank.
IMG_4255 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4257 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
Im quite pleased with how its turned out. Just need to paint up all of the new mounts and plum in the new tank.

Moving back to the interior;
Ive never been happy with my seat mounts or the seating position. I never had enough leg room and i felt like i was sitting really high in the car! which simply will not do!
So i cut out the old mounts and started again...
The new goal was to sit lower and further back in the car.
I wont bore you will all of steps it took to get the mount all measured up and fitting properly. because it took F&*king ages!
So ill skip to the new mount being tacked together and in position:
IMG_4265 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4267 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Now that was done it was time to test fit the seat and try the new position!

Initial reaction - it doesnt fit... The harness bar is going to have to go! No big deal!
10 minuets later -That is so much better, the seat fits great!
2 seconds later - my head is resting on something pretty hard
Realisation - Oh thats the roll cage..... GREAT!

IMG_4268 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4270 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4273 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

So as well as seat mount modification - I have to play with the roll cage as well...
To be honest, I've never been that pleased with my harness bar so cutting that out really didn't bother me. and I've been considering building my own cage at some point in the future anyway. So this could be a good chance for me to play around with the one I already have!

So I decided to cut out the cross brace and use that as my new harness bar.
After watching a few videos on how to do notch tubes. I got out my measuring tape and grinder and got cracking.
There was lots of fitting and test fitting, but I'm pretty pleased with how it came out.
Plus I have 100% more confidence in this new harness bar, and it looks so much better!
IMG_4279 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4281 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4283 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4285 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4288 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

I will be buying some more CDS tube to finish off the cage, but for now I just stuck in an old door bar to get the feel for it. and I think once the new cross brace is welded in, It will look really good!
Might even get another chance to use my dimple die and make some gussets!
IMG_4293 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4294 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

After all that was done, I fully welded in the new seat mount and harness bar and gave it all a lick of paint!

With the seat and Harness in place it was time to fit my new short shifter.
While I was at it, i thought it would be a good idea to relocate my hydraulic handbrake to a more convenient location.

So once I had figure out where everything was going, I made a series of cuts that look sort of weird, but I promise they are all deliberate and they all start making sense once it starts going back together!
IMG_4332 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4333 by Josh Parker, on Flickr


Turns out that I have a lot of space between the bottom of the transmission tunnel and top of the gearbox. So I decided to mount the handbrake below the top of the tunnel and made a small cradle for it.
IMG_4334 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4339 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4341 by Josh Parker, on Flickr
IMG_4343 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Once that was in and I was happy with the placement of the handbrake, I decided that the shifter could be mounted lower than it was before. So I made a new panel for that, tacked it all in and mounted the shifter in place.
IMG_4347 by Josh Parker, on Flickr

Im happy with how the car is coming together now. Everything seems to be so much cleaner and more simple than it was before.
Its surprising how much of a difference a little experience can make!


All I have to do now is:

- Pull the engine,
- Strip, prep and paint the engine bay,
- Remount the engine and trans
- rewire most of the car
- finish the arches
- build the new exhaust
- plum the fuel system

Its fine... I have a month!?!?
Wish me luck!

[e30polak]

Truly impressive build! This thing deserves a better set of wheels! Keep up the great work!