The Roundie - 1973 BMW 2002

[bwwaaaa]

New Caps

So after losing one hex cap on the road a while back, I've been trying to get a matching fourth or source a new set. When you're picky, it's the biggest pain in the ass. I couldn't come up with a single V1 SpinFab small thread cap, although I'm keeping an eye out for one still. I contacted SpinFab directly, and they said they have moved on to the V2 design. If you look at the base of the hex, it has a slant to it as opposed to the flat base of the V1 cap. It looks fine, but I couldn't buy just one and have it be mismatched. So I ordered a full set in raw finish, and took it to a friend of mine to get polished. It was a pain to replace the whole set, but I guess these things happen. And it'll be nice to run waffles again, I prefer covering the lugs on RSs personally.

Blurry awful photo, but there it is in the raw finish.


Before and after


Sent to me in process.


Final

First and foremost, a huge thanks to my friend Nick (@nhammon) for polishing these. I've mentioned this before, but he's in the process of building a wild show Miata, and has been polishing brake lines for weeks now. So he was familiar with the process of getting the shine out of these caps. I probably would have mucked it up somehow, so it's great to have friends willing to help make sure things turn out perfect. So, definitely go give him a follow. I've tried to get him to start a build thread here, but that's been in vain .

For those of you that follow me on Instagram, I teased another car coming soon. In short, I traded one car I have in the garage (non-op), for another car that runs and drives, which will free up the garage. That means my Roundie can move into the garage, and I can put it up on jack stands for an extended amount of time and actually get some real work done. I'm getting close, and I'm really excited.

[Quillhill36]

Excite. Doesn't really suck, you'lln have a brand new carpet instead of a repainted old one lol.

[bwwaaaa]

I want e36 cool stuff lmao. Love the look of the interior now. The carpet paint needs to be brushed while wet to keep it soft.

There's E36 stuff on the horizon

I tried a combination of things, with the thick loop in the carpet the spray dye builds up top and doesn't really trickle down. Even working it in with a brush leaves a lot of red visible. Plus, even with cleaning the scraps before hand, the end result was a little crusty. Ultimately carpet kits for 2002s aren't that expensive, so it'll be worth just buying something already the right color. Sucks, but it is what it is.

[Quillhill36]

The problem with that is the danger involved. Since it's a street car, if I get hit it amplifies the chance of snapping my spine. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to make a version of the normal seatbelt layout work right. I'm thinking a combination of lap belt and Mk2 (or any brand) of pull up diagonals would work well. The key is to make sure it isn't sitting too high, or else you run into the same spine snapping issue. While I don't want to ruin the visuals of the car too much, I also don't want to make the car exponentially more dangerous than it already is haha.

I want e36 cool stuff lmao. Love the look of the interior now. The carpet paint needs to be brushed while wet to keep it soft.

[bwwaaaa]

I know it's not the correct way and they should be attached level with the shoulders, but to not ruin the style I'd try to run the harnesses between the back and the bench of the rear seat and bolt them out of sight. That way you don't habe an harness bar looking odd in such an old car

The problem with that is the danger involved. Since it's a street car, if I get hit it amplifies the chance of snapping my spine. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to make a version of the normal seatbelt layout work right. I'm thinking a combination of lap belt and Mk2 (or any brand) of pull up diagonals would work well. The key is to make sure it isn't sitting too high, or else you run into the same spine snapping issue. While I don't want to ruin the visuals of the car too much, I also don't want to make the car exponentially more dangerous than it already is haha.

[Fruttolo]

I know it's not the correct way and they should be attached level with the shoulders, but to not ruin the style I'd try to run the harnesses between the back and the bench of the rear seat and bolt them out of sight. That way you don't habe an harness bar looking odd in such an old car

[bwwaaaa]

Seat In and Other Updates

So first thing is first. I mounted the other seat in the car. I'm about 75% happy with them currently because of the mounting situation. The Corn's seats themselves are fantastic, but I sit too close to the steering wheel still, and the generic Sparco brackets don't fit great in the cabin. It works for now, but I'm looking into revising this ASAP.

I feel like 90% of this thread has been seat updates, but I guess it is what it is. I'm looking into seat belt solutions right now, as the stock ones don't play so nice with these seats. You guys were right, and I've decided no roll bar is the way to go. But I'll likely still need to go with some kind of harness bar, if I can't make a normal seatbelt system work. So I'm trying to find a solution that is reversible for that. As always, I need to complain about the carpet color. I'm going to source some new black carpet. I test dyed a scrap piece of carpet I cut (per your suggestions), and it did not work well at all. It comes out crusty, and nasty looking. Perhaps a dye solution where I submerged the carpet would be fine, but spray on does not work well at all.

I also keep getting this reoccuring vacuum leak. This hose keeps popping off, no matter how I clamp it down. I had a similar issue on my E30 back in the day, but replacing the clamp solved the issue. Not so much here. Maybe I just need to tighten it down like a man

Otherwise progress has been slow. I was at SEMA for a full week. I ended up seeing a few cars that may look familiar around here. Nothing is as motivating for your own car like seeing creations like these two. It's hard not to be inspired to build something crazy when you get home. But the crushing reality that you can barely spin a wrench sets in pretty quickly afterwards . Props to Riley and Mike for building such insane cars, I loved them both.

Last but not least, a bit of shameless self-promotion. Another reason the 2002 hasn't gotten as much attention as I would like, is I've been in the process of launching a new business. I wouldn't mention it if it wasn't relevant to my car. We're selling Christmas ornaments, key chains, shirts and so on. But it's all based on the cars we are passionate about. This is the only mention I'll make of it here, because my build thread isn't going to become an advert for my products, but we worked hard and I wanted to share the final results with you all.

It goes without saying the 2002 is my favorite of the bunch. All the reference artwork was based on my car, which makes it that much more special to me. We're starting with these 5 cars, and have plans to expand next year. If it does well, I'll have that much more in the budget for the Roundie . You can find this stuff and more at Speed Limitless.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming. I'm waiting for Black Friday to order in all my bushings. Restoration Design is still making my new diff cross member, so I haven't been able to take the car to the body shop yet. And my fabricator is still finishing other projects and hasn't been able to make my new core support yet. So there has been a whole lot of waiting going on. I may attempt the brakes again this weekend, as I finally have all the parts on the shelf for those. I hope.

[bwwaaaa]

Dude, this car looks sweet as hell! Wish i could get my hands on one!

Thanks! There are quite a few hitting the market right now, if you join some of the Facebook groups you can definitely find a good deal. Recently a guy was selling his widebodied 2002, super clean in and out for about what I paid for this rusty mess haha. If you need any help, or have questions about the car, feel free to shoot me a message. Always happy to help!

The Other Seat

Yesterday the other seat arrived. A small update, but one I wasn't sure would come so soon. Kadin from Car Make Corn's USA got it shipped over right away. Pro-tip for anyone looking to ship large parts, Greyhound is cheap as hell. I paid $49 to have this seat shipped from LA to Phoenix. The next cheapest option (UPS) was $150. I knew this was an option, but had never tried it before. Worked flawlessly and the package arrived in two days with no issues at all.

A reminder on how small the ST really is. Box barely fit in there.


Another mock up shot for fun. Helps me visualize it.

So there it is. A couple of rare JDM parts in an old German bucket. After doing some measuring, I have decided against a rollbar in this car. While I personally like the look, there are some safety concerns with how bolt in solutions fit versus my height. I have to sit way back, which would put me almost under most bolt in solutions. Rather than risking knocking my head into the bar, I'll just run without it. I also (finally) ordered new hex caps for the RSs today via SpinFAB. Hopefully those will be here soon. Then I'm just going to trickle in some bushings, and other misc. bits to get the car sorted. I'm shooting for a Christmas Eve deadline to get all the major work done, as I'd like to take it on the annual cruise my friend's and I do. So hopefully you'll see more rapid posts as time goes on. I'll be at SEMA next week, so nothing will happen before then, but after we'll hit the ground running.

[///Grandalen]

Dude, this car looks sweet as hell! Wish i could get my hands on one!

[bwwaaaa]

The back seat looks great, as for the carpet, just pull it out and dye it black as well!

I thought about it, but I'm not sure the best way to go about it. For the vinyl, it was a spray on solution that worked brilliantly. The only carpet friendly options I can find (via SEM) note that it works best in small touch up areas. It's something of a carpet paint, and a lot of reviews note that it can get matted and gross fast. Ultimately I want to recut a few pieces to better fit around the pedals and seat mounts as well, so a whole fresh carpet would make that easier. It's not horribly expensive ($350 or so for a kit) and gives me a fresh slate to work from. This red one smells a bit funky too so... all the more reason to ditch it.

A roll bar is a no-no IMO, classic interior with bucket seats is "sporty street car", add a rollbar and you float between "hotboi wannabe racer" and "too racing to be classy". A nice and simple harness bar with black harnesses may be the good medium

I actually gave this a lot of thought, and I'm still undecided on the issue. I look to cars like Ben Lau's 1600 and see a roll bar working exceptionally well in a classy car. Granted he doesn't have full bucket seats, but all the same the car looks dignified while still being "race car". You can see more of his car at his Instagram (@benlauis). The bigger concern is something you mentioned, which is harnesses. I'd like to run a full harness from a safety perspective. Simple harness bar options don't seem to mount as sturdy as a proper half cage does. Given the 2002's relatively weak B pillar area, I'd be concerned about that holding up properly.

That said, I'm with you. I'm not sure how to feel about the cage in terms of being a classy street car. The more I drive this car, the more I'm itching to take it to the track. I did that with my E30 a few years back and got the bug, but lacked the funds to see it through. It's a bit of a confusing stage in my project, because as much as this is primarily a street car, the voice in the back of my head is screaming "Take it to the track". For now, this is all a non-issue, budget forces me to spend on things like rust repair and cooling system. However, this is something I'll have to decide in the near future. For now, no roll bar. I can't promise what'll happen in the future though. As we slowly start leaning towards "vintage canyon rat", things may change. I appreciate the input, always helps getting a second opinion on these ideas!

[Fruttolo]

A roll bar is a no-no IMO, classic interior with bucket seats is "sporty street car", add a rollbar and you float between "hotboi wannabe racer" and "too racing to be classy". A nice and simple harness bar with black harnesses may be the good medium

[MikeyRa]

The back seat looks great, as for the carpet, just pull it out and dye it black as well!

[bwwaaaa]

Race Car AF

So excuse the shitty pictures. I'd do better, but I'm spread thin between school, work and a new business I'm starting. So shitty photos off of my phone will just have to do. But! I did install the back seat. In the photo below you'll notice it's not quite sitting right. I've since fixed that. Regardless, I'm really pleased with how the black turned out. The green and brown eyesore is gone, for considerably less money than it would have cost to reupholster. Now I just need a black carpet and black door cards.

I also installed the driver's side bucket seat. Further adjustment is needed, as I'm still a little close to the pedals. I have rather long legs, so I'm cramped in. I have the seat set as far back as these fixed rails will allow with the stock mounting location, which means I'll be needing to drill a few holes and rethink the fastener situation. If I can move the seat back about 2 inches, I think it'll be perfect.

You have to admit the interior is starting to look 100x better then it did when I purchased the car. I'm hoping the other bucket seat will arrive in the next week or so, I'm still working out shipping detailed with CMC, but once that gets in I'll order the brackets and get that mounted as well. This does make the back seat functionally useless, but I'm alright with that. I'm already too low for more than one passenger, and rear leg room is non-existent anyways.

I am rather rapidly heading down the "race car" route. Something I've been vocal against, but starting to come back around on. I'm looking at roll bar options right now, and I'd very much like to do a track day with the car when everything is sorted. Up until installing this bucket seat, I've kind of struggled with how the car handled. Even with the Recaros I would kind of flop around, in this bucket I could feel the chassis and how it was working considerably better. The biggest weakness right now is the steering, I can feel the steering box has a lot of slop in it, and the bushings are completely spent. I think tightening these up will go a long way to making it a great canyon rat. That coupled with the big brakes I have on the shelf should make for an enjoyable weekend toy.

I guess if I ever get sick of the car being too race car, I can always go back to the Recaro seats and soften the car up a little bit. Nothing is decided, but it's a line of thought I'm having a hard time shaking. Plus it gives me an excuse to buy a classic Mini for a comfortable street car, something I've always wanted anyway. We'll see, hopefully more updates soon!

[Quillhill36]

Yes! Buckets make anything feel like a racecar. Plus they have a good look.

[bwwaaaa]

Don't ever apologize for making your car more comfortable for you, dude. We can all give you shit but at the end of the day, none of us are driving your car. I for one ***** the seats as they were. Much cleaner now.

Thanks! I figure at the end of the day, I have to look at it, so may as well make it pleasant haha.

Yeah the rear bench was a total eyesore, can't see why anyone would want you to keep it green/brown. Much much better now.

Also I think that seat is really nice and that you should reconsider buying the second one and keeping them on (and only carry skinny passengers LOL)

The argument was that the green/brown was very 70s, in a so bad it's good way. Personally, I felt it was just bad. Also, I may have mocked up the bucket in the car last night. I also may have contacted CMC USA about buying a second seat. The Recaros will end up back in the car someday, but for now these buckets are way nicer.