The Roundie - 1973 BMW 2002

[bwwaaaa]

Well done mate The only feeling I prefer to the one I get when I finish a project is the rush of starting it

Thanks! If I'm honest it's a little scary to take a car I was driving that same morning, and completely disable it. I always get nervous it's not going to come back together. But I have faith, this isn't a particularly complicated project, just time consuming.

Are you going to dye the door cards or replace them?

At this stage, I think I'm going to leave them Saddle brown. I'm planning on putting black carpet in the car, so I'll have black seats, carpet, dash, and upper door cards, with a little bit of brown to set them off. While I'd prefer an all black interior, door cards are ridiculously expensive. And I've already been chewed out for even thinking about dying saddle door cards in other places, so for now they'll be fine.

[DawsonLiri]

Wish I have that space!

But I'm glad you're doing this, this car need to be saved.

And then driven hard!

[bwwaaaa]

Wish I have that space!

But I'm glad you're doing this, this car need to be saved.

And then driven hard!

Thanks, it'll most certainly be driven hard when it's done!

On a Whole, This is Good

So I did a small amount of grinding to see what we were truly working with. Keep in mind this was done in about 30 minutes just on what was visually the worst areas of the trunk. I learned two things. I do not need a new diff support, and the shock tower is much, MUCH worse than I thought. On a whole, this is good news. to replace the diff support, the body shop would have had to drop the subframe, measure carefully, cut most of the trunk out. It would have be extremely expensive. I took my grinder straight to the visually worst part of the diff support, it had a very thick layer of flaking rust under the paint. What I discovered underneath was solid metal. Perhaps a little pitted, but not rotten through. Underneath the car, the beam is completely clean. I had a few people look at it, to make sure I'm not going crazy, and there simply isn't any cancer on the rear diff beam. This saves me likely thousands on the repair job.

That's a shitty photo of what was visually the worst rust in the trunk since I got the car. Underneath? Seems to be ok. Simply resealing the trunk floor seems to be the go to move here. No need to replace what is otherwise workable sheet metal. I will continue to grind every bit of paint off to make sure it's truly solid, but everything I checked so far has come up clean. Except...

The passenger side shock tower was what prompted all of this. The small grinding we did earlier revealed a hole or two. When I took my new angle grinder to it this time, I discovered some pretty catastrophic rust. This is bad, but not beyond saving. Fortunately I do have that sheet metal for this exact tower. Likewise, I seemed to have lucked out on the drivers side shock tower as well. Zero rust on everything I've brought down to metal.

This weekend I'll finish fully stripping out the trunk and getting the car ready for transport to the body shop. The tow truck comes to get it next Wednesday, and I'm hoping for a quick turn around time. From there it comes home for me to do all bushings and suspension refresh, and makes its last trip to my friend's fab shop for the core support work. We're getting into the thick of it.

I also made the impulsive decision to start stripping the interior. I want to put in that black carpet, so everything is coming out so I can pull the carpet, and when it gets back I'll be swapping that out. "While I'm in there" I'll also tackle some sort of radio solution. That'll at least put the interior in a happy place for me.

[oprahhwinfreyy]

Thanks, it'll most certainly be driven hard when it's done!

On a Whole, This is Good

So I did a small amount of grinding to see what we were truly working with. Keep in mind this was done in about 30 minutes just on what was visually the worst areas of the trunk. I learned two things. I do not need a new diff support, and the shock tower is much, MUCH worse than I thought. On a whole, this is good news. to replace the diff support, the body shop would have had to drop the subframe, measure carefully, cut most of the trunk out. It would have be extremely expensive. I took my grinder straight to the visually worst part of the diff support, it had a very thick layer of flaking rust under the paint. What I discovered underneath was solid metal. Perhaps a little pitted, but not rotten through. Underneath the car, the beam is completely clean. I had a few people look at it, to make sure I'm not going crazy, and there simply isn't any cancer on the rear diff beam. This saves me likely thousands on the repair job.

That's a shitty photo of what was visually the worst rust in the trunk since I got the car. Underneath? Seems to be ok. Simply resealing the trunk floor seems to be the go to move here. No need to replace what is otherwise workable sheet metal. I will continue to grind every bit of paint off to make sure it's truly solid, but everything I checked so far has come up clean. Except...

The passenger side shock tower was what prompted all of this. The small grinding we did earlier revealed a hole or two. When I took my new angle grinder to it this time, I discovered some pretty catastrophic rust. This is bad, but not beyond saving. Fortunately I do have that sheet metal for this exact tower. Likewise, I seemed to have lucked out on the drivers side shock tower as well. Zero rust on everything I've brought down to metal.

This weekend I'll finish fully stripping out the trunk and getting the car ready for transport to the body shop. The tow truck comes to get it next Wednesday, and I'm hoping for a quick turn around time. From there it comes home for me to do all bushings and suspension refresh, and makes its last trip to my friend's fab shop for the core support work. We're getting into the thick of it.

I also made the impulsive decision to start stripping the interior. I want to put in that black carpet, so everything is coming out so I can pull the carpet, and when it gets back I'll be swapping that out. "While I'm in there" I'll also tackle some sort of radio solution. That'll at least put the interior in a happy place for me.

That dyed rear bench looks great. In the process of converting my interior to black and is exactly what I want to do with mine.

[bwwaaaa]

That dyed rear bench looks great. In the process of converting my interior to black and is exactly what I want to do with mine.

Thanks! I used SEM Marine Vinyl Dye and prep. They have a few different shades of black, but I opted for "Ranger Black" which seemed to work well for my application. I included some links below, I'd test it out on sample material first just to make sure you like the finish. For my non-functional rear seat, it works well, but it has a very dry look to it in person. You may want to go with a brighter finish, depending what you are going for. Can't wait to see how it all turns out though!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003QLIW14/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/SEM-38343-Vin...Prep+-+13.3+oz.

[oprahhwinfreyy]

Thanks! I used SEM Marine Vinyl Dye and prep. They have a few different shades of black, but I opted for "Ranger Black" which seemed to work well for my application. I included some links below, I'd test it out on sample material first just to make sure you like the finish. For my non-functional rear seat, it works well, but it has a very dry look to it in person. You may want to go with a brighter finish, depending what you are going for. Can't wait to see how it all turns out though!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003QLIW14/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/SEM-38343-Vin...Prep+-+13.3+oz.

I don't use my rear seat either. Thanks for the links!

[bwwaaaa]

And We're Off

Keep in mind, this was supposed to happen after SEMA. Delays and some mistakes brought us to this point. But as of yesterday, the tow truck came to collect to the 2002 and it's at the body shop.

That's about the most low car friendly tow truck I've ever seen in my life. Love it, super easy getting the 2002 on and off. To recap, the 2002 is basically just going in for the passenger side shock tower, and some gas tank surround metal. The diff support was just fine, and frankly why over spend if the car doesn't need it? Hoping for a relatively quick turn around, though I'm not 100% sure what the timeline is. Once it comes back, it'll get a suspension and brake overhaul, and then finally off for a new radiator support and cooling system upgrades. There is light at the end of the tunnel now.

[DawsonLiri]

The shock tower is really bad, glad you find it before doing the job!

Can wait for the return!

[crf1877]

Finally my kind of car build.

[bwwaaaa]

Cut Up

Stopped by Axis the next day, and they already had started chopping up my trunk. It's tough to see with this photo, but if you look below the fuel filler neck, that entire section of floor is cut out. It was rotted enough to warrant just making a new one. Tower was cut, rust treated and will be patched. Since the damage was limited to the one tear, it didn't make sense to completely remove everything.

This whole section will be cut and replaced. It is located under the filler neck in the trunk. Water seeps in through the seal and eventually rots out this portion of floor. Non-structural, but disgusting all the same.

Given the progress he's making, the 2002 will be back pretty soon. I have to prep the gas tank to go back in, which I've been lazy about. I'm shooting to get everything quickly reassembled, but we'll see how it all goes. Word is there is going to be another StanceWorks open house in January/February. It'd be cool to have the car back together by then and take it out for that. But that is only possible with absolutely no delays. So we'll play it by ear.

[bwwaaaa]

Steady Progress

Axis sent me some photos this morning of the progress. Since I have little else to share, I thought I'd post them here. I haven't seen the car yet in person, but the photos being sent to me are promising. Given the speed they are working, I think I'll have the car back very soon.

A small but notable update, I now have black carpet in hand. So the red will finally be removed, and the interior will be one step closer to being complete. I've been complaining about the red carpet since day one, so it is kind of nice to finally know that is going away for good.

[Fruttolo]

Looks like they're doing a nice good quality job!
Hooray on the black carpet, finally LOL

[bwwaaaa]

Paint

What can I say, Axis Paintworks works considerably faster than I can keep up with. Last night they sent me these photos. I've arranged for the tow truck to pick the 2002 up on Friday, so it'll be home and it'll be time for me to rip into the car. Excited to have the car back so fast, I honestly didn't think it would be back for a month or so.

You can see the difference in texture, I figured ultimately it didn't matter since the trunk is closed and I'm the only one who will see it


Some touch up to the other tower just to make them match (and cover the potion I ground down)


A recap on the damage and repair.

Alright so I guess it's full steam ahead on everything else. I've been slacking on prepping the gas tank and all that, but now I don't really have an excuse. I suppose the big objective now is to figure out about how long it will take me to finish everything I have planned. With the car back this Friday, I really want to have the whole car done in about a month. No idea if that's possible or not yet, there tend to be snags with these o

[gnmzl]

Wow that was a quick fix, congrats! I hope for no snags and you get it running in a month, as planned. Good luck!

[bwwaaaa]

Puzzle Solving

Well I brought the 2002 home over the weekend. Opted to use a truck and trailer instead, which proved to be a very lengthy process when getting the 2002 up on the trailer. It took nearly an hour of winching and pushing to get it up there, but eventually it did go. In my effort to save a few dollars, I killed a ton of time. Probably not worth it in retrospect, but what's done is done.

As soon as I got home, the car went up on jack stands, and the tear down process began. I'm starting in the rear of the car, taking care of all the changes I wanted to make there. So I started dropping the subframe. This is normally a fairly easy process, that was made infinitely more complicated by the center exhaust. The biggest problem being, it is one piece from the headers to the muffler tips. Rather than trying to drop the exhaust, I decided to work around it. This meant a lot of creative shuffling of parts, I disconnected the axles from the diff to shuffle around, and then eventually the entire diff from the subframe. I may have left it just suspended on the exhaust, as it is a pain in the ass to remove. It will come out later, but that's a problem for future me to solve.

Safety third.

So here we are. Rear end is disassembled. Not pictured, I did break down the trailing arms and subframe so they're bare, and started scraping and scrubing all of the grime off. I'm not going for powder coated perfection, but there is no harm in giving everything a good scrub down. This isn't a show car by any means, and I try to keep that in mind to prevent myself from going over board in changing things. My instinct is to make everything brand new, but that's money poorly spent. Clean and safe is more important right now.

The goal over New Years is to break down the front end, and start prepping the rear subframe to go back together. I'm waiting on a new diff gasket to arrive in the mail, and will need to order sway bars for the car this week. So that, unfortunately, will be the source of some delay. Otherwise I'd be ready to put the car back together today.