The Roundie - 1973 BMW 2002

[stormtro0perN]

You should fix your signature or just resize the photos to smaller versions so it doesn't look like you're posting your car photos on others threads. Cool ride though.

Now i think its better

[DUTCHswift]

so damn sexy

You should fix your signature or just resize the photos to smaller versions so it doesn't look like you're posting your car photos on others threads. Cool ride though.

[stormtro0perN]

so damn sexy

[DawsonLiri]

Damn, that flange looks like a Banana!

Big up for your boy, let me borrow him for some time

[bwwaaaa]

Good work, happy you chose the EMU Classic. Looks like we bought the same ecu about the same time.
Excited to see the next steps on your 2002

Thanks! I ended up going with that on the recommendation of RHD. I figured since they make the ITB kit, I should probably go with whatever they say works best with it haha. That said, I like a lot of the features that system has at the price point. Kind of hard to beat.

Let me know how you like the EMU classic as it's the same ecu I'm looking to get for mine
Really nice work in the front, your fab dude seems to know what he does for sure

He's doing great work. Shameless plug for him, here's his instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/dauerhaftfab/

I'll keep you posted on the EMU, it'll be a while until I actually get this car running. With discussion of full paint now happening, I probably won't be up and running for at least a year haha.

[Fruttolo]

Let me know how you like the EMU classic as it's the same ecu I'm looking to get for mine
Really nice work in the front, your fab dude seems to know what he does for sure

[gnmzl]

Good work, happy you chose the EMU Classic. Looks like we bought the same ecu about the same time.
Excited to see the next steps on your 2002

[bwwaaaa]

Worse Before Better

It seems like every project meets some sort of random parts wall at some point. That is to say, you end up waiting for ages for parts to arrive, things are difficult to source, or you end up with the wrong parts entirely. That has been the case for the last few weeks for me. I’ll try to tackle things in order and get everyone up to speed.

So you may remember last year I bought a beefier version of the radiator I currently had in the car. This was in an effort to keep the poor 2002 a little cooler in the hot summer months. However once we started going down the rabbit hole of shaved bay, and systems deletes, that radiator became non-viable. I also purchased a Radium Expansion Tank, that is likewise useless. The part itself is great, but for my purposes needlessly complicated.

Purchased, assembled and immediate regret. Not using this wonderful piece anymore.

The solution? Capped radiator. Since I am deleting the heater, the expansion tank loop becomes a bit redundant. Some measuring and scrolling through Summit later, and I found this unit. I couldn’t tell you what car it normally lives on, but I can tell you it fits perfectly between the frame rails of a 2002.

I also ordered an M20 header flange, because we decided to make a header from scratch. Off the shelf options for M20s simply don’t clear the 2002 steering linkage. Problem one, no one in the US seems to still make this flange. Problem two, after finding an international company who makes a flange, it took ages to arrive from Bulgaria. Problem three, it was warped to hell. I don’t want to put the company on blast, but it is frustrating to wait all that time for a fairly ruined piece.

On a more positive note, my wiring harness came back from modifications. At it’s core, it’s mostly my stock E30 wiring harness, however it’s been freshened up, reloomed, and most importantly modified for my standalone. I’ll be running an ECUmasters EMU Classic, and the plugs have been swapped out to accommodate ECUmasters sensors and ECU. I also had a few areas extended to help with the tucking plans.

Now onto the physical car itself. My fabricator has been working on the radiator support. Now that he has the right radiator in, he cut a pretty sizable chunk out of the bottom of the nose to sink the radiator into the chassis. He also finished cutting the shock towers flush and welding the seams.

You may notice a bar peaking in the edge of those photos. Progress has started on the radiator support. When you cut the nose of a 2002, you are cutting a structural piece out. As a result, you have to put some sort of tie in back in. For my car, this will double as the radiator mount, hood mount, oil cooler mount and so on. Additionally, and perhaps needlessly complicating things, it will be removable. I will be able to unbolt this bar from the car if necessary. The fabricator bent it to fit the nose of my car, and cut out some end plates to start the process of fitting it.

Hopefully within the next week or two the radiator support will be all welded up and ready to go. We’ll be adding ducting, and some vanity panels to help hide this all as well. I’m also now looking into just painting the whole car. I realize this is another jump in project scale, but it’s going to be so close to being perfect for me after this stage, that paint would just be the icing on the cake. I’ll have to figure out how that will work exactly, but it’s something I really want to finally tackle.

[DawsonLiri]

Side note, I'm hunting for some new wheels. Thinking of going way more aggressive, and way lower. If you have a lead on any Weds Bavaria (Albino Fins), H&Bs, or somehow a set of 4x100 Star Sharks, let me know.

My man!
Find some Star Sharks in 4x100 I think is almost to impossible, but I may have found you some Albino, I'll shoot you a DM.

[bwwaaaa]

True Progress

I finally have real progress photos to share. First I start with more parts collecting however, as that seems to be tradition for this build thread. I picked up AKG Motorsport's shifter and DSSR. Ultimately this may seem like an unnecessary step at this stage, but we're going to be adding some captive nuts under the shifter opening so the shifter can easily be removed from the cabin of the car. As a result, I had to order it in so my fabricator could work on that part. I have to say, this is a serious piece of hardware, I'm so impressed with the quality. I also picked up a Wilwood reservoir for my clutch fluid, as the plastic bottle was faded, ugly and frankly not cutting it. Again, I needed this so we could find an appropriate place to mount it.

Now for the really fun part, cutting and welding has finally started on the 2002. This is a small example of what is going on. I've talked a lot about how this car felt rushed or just slapped together, and it's details like this that drive that point home. When they cut out the radiator support to fit the M20, they left a large piece of jagged metal in the bay. This was finally cut flush, and the seam is getting welded shut. Likewise bracket shaving began with the poorly designed AFM carrier. You can see what a world of difference it makes in the before and after below.

Before


After

This is the general approach that I'm taking the the whole engine bay. Does the engine need to float in place? No, not at all. But realistically I don't want to be embarrassed to pop my hood and show the M20 off. Plus it makes it a lot safer to work on, I cut my arm pretty badly on that jagged metal once before. So win-win I suppose. This progress will continue over the next couple of weeks. He's going to keep cutting, welding, filling and so on, until it's ready to send off to paint. But just seeing this one little bit done makes me excited for the next stages.

[bwwaaaa]

Going heaterless and 13s then?

Unfortunately 13s are a no go with the 2002 haha. My big brakes wouldn't clear them. I had found some SSR EX-Cs for sale locally that would have put me on the bleeding edge of what you can fit under a stock body 2002, but the redrill was pretty poorly done and the seller was firm on his price. I'm just shooting for more low, and better fitment for now haha.

[Fruttolo]

Going heaterless and 13s then?

[bwwaaaa]

Off to Fab



First time in the sun in months

This happened while the forums were down, haven't gotten around to posting until now. Not a lot to say really, it's a small update other than I got the chassis rolling recently, and this weekend sent it off to my friend's shop for some fab work. The current work list includes:

• Revised trans brace
• Custom headers
• Radiator support
• Radiator lines
• Heater core delete plate
• Engine bay shaving (filling unused holes/removing brackets)

I'll update as progress continues. I'll try to be over there once a week to get new photos until it's done.

Side note, I'm hunting for some new wheels. Thinking of going way more aggressive, and way lower. If you have a lead on any Weds Bavaria (Albino Fins), H&Bs, or somehow a set of 4x100 Star Sharks, let me know.

[bwwaaaa]

Delete, delete, delete

After some consideration, I decided to take things even further. Originally I was going to retain my factory brake booster, the idea being that I wanted to... you know... stop. But I had a number of gripes about the setup as usual. Primarily it was horribly ugly. While technically I had no clearence issues with the ITBs, it does take up a significant amount of room in terms of accessing the steering box, and other subframe bits. Plus it really is just awful to look at. After speaking to a friend, I decided to contact Chase Bays to see what their product could do in my setup. You may remember I'm planning on running Volvo 240 front brakes, and Mk4 VW Jetta rear brakes. They said that as long as I run a bias adjuster valve and some good pads, I should have a near stock braking experience up to 80% pedal travel. So I ordered the kit.

That is very loosely mocked up in the car. You can see it saves significant space, and frankly just looks nicer. I'm leaving the whole setup reversible. If I **** manual brakes, then I can go back to the stock booster setup. I have faith this will work however.

Finally I got the rear subframe back together. I couldn't put it in myself, so I'm hoping to get that all squared away this weekend. With any luck it will be rolling again soon, so I can drop it off for more fab work. Then engine bay paint, and it all goes back together.

[duct-tape]

I really need to get my shit together. I 3d printed an adapter to use the s34 ITBs on my M30 motor. I should cast them in aluminum and start selling them.