'76 2002

[Poon]

Gapworks yo! :p .

Here's my '76 2002. Owned it for about 3 years, and it's getting a full mechanical and interior restoration.

Spent the last four Tuesdays getting the car a bit further along. Finally had the shock tower rust delt with by a professional, and I've been working to get the fresh metal in the towers and floors painted, coated with rocker guard, dynomat on the inside, and trying to get the interior together.









Mmmm. Rust free shock towers, and new billy sports and eibach springs.


Trunk painting done, with new strut bar.


Also had a chance to mount a pair of Hella 500's I had today






Front and rear seats in. Carpet needs a good clean, before it's ready to go in.




Moooooar goodies!


Car's come a long way, and even though it still has a long way to go (most of the goodies and new parts I have aren't even on the car yet!) , it's to the point now were it's ready to be driven again. I'll try and get her to aircare next weekend.

E21 I'm sure is pissed that Minty has been getting all sorts of love and all it gets is a fugly bike rack


6'er was just chillin'


After the '02 is done, I NEEEED to focus my attention on the garage and get it cleaned out before the fall. I need the sunny weather so I can move things outside during the cleanup.





That's it for now. Enjoy you picture whores.

[M.Burroughs]

I want it.

[Bracknaphobia]

Mint

Well, Avocado...Still awesome.

[Poon]

Nah you were right on the first guess. Official colour is Mintgrun

[skrapez]

oh my

[Matth3w]

i can't wait to see this thing finished, the interior is so fresh. i've always wanted a 2002.

[Tman]

OOO another 02 owner on here, me rikey!! lower it!

[AMoRT]

has some serious potential, cant wait to see where this ends up

[vdubkid]

wowzers, that's sex in the 1st degree

wheels and color are wonderful, and THAT INTERIOR! wow that's brand freaking new

[TheNeek]

The interior is mint (and not talking about color).

[Jedidiah]

Zinggggg...



I too am a fan... more so when it's a wee bit closer to pavement.

[Deltron]

low or not, the cars you own are amazing.

[schroedin]

I waaaaaaanttttttt yyyyooouuurrrrr E21

I miss mine

[e36rjbmw]

I love me some 2002, put it on the ground

[Poon]

I guess I should have updated this a bit:

MARCH_____________________________________________ ____
Today I put a permit on her for the first time in over a year. It was nice outside, I had the day off, and figured it would be a good time to take her to the shop, since there wasn't anything else occupying the hoist.

It put such a grin on my face to drive her. The new billy sport shocks, eibach springs, strut bearings, control arms, ball joint, and bushings went in nicely without any real fuss, other than Kirin having one ball joint in upside down, it went as smoothly as could be.

No super rusty bolts, nothing broke, didn't even use any penetrating oil or heat.

Yes, my "unicorn" does exist. Al even put a window in his 630 today too. Crazy that both our cars that nobody believes exist got work today.

Rear suspension I did at home, but front was a little more involved so I wanted to do it on the hoist.


Front (stock) sits so high compared to rear




Thanks to Kirin, I had a whole bunch of newly POR-15'ed pieces ready to go in.



Getting work done. Also did a Motul oil change while it was up


Was dark out when I finished. Man, I love this car. Soooo much.


JUNE______________________________________________ __

Sooo....the car has successfully passed aircare and is fully insured for the summer. I'm still plugging away at things bit by bit, but it's getting closer to having all the new parts I've been hoarding finally put on.

Today I finally installed the brake upgrade I've been sitting on for a while. It includes:

-New wheel bearings
-E21 Late model 320i hubs (80-83)
-Volvo 240 4piston calipers for vented rotors
-E21 1977 Vented Rotors
-Dan Block pads

Fought to get the calipers on and had to trim the backing plate to make more room for them. Then I realized that the '02 dust caps are to short and won't clear the spindle. Fortunately (unfortunately?) I had one extra E21 cap, but still leaves me without the car until I get one tomorrow.

Also while I was getting ready to bleed the system one of bleeding screws broke of the right rear wheel cylinder before I could even start. This bugs me because I have to buy a new cylinder to drive the car, even though the whole rear end is getting ripped out for a custom rear disk conversion in the near future.

Anyways, I'm one step closer (and a few back?), but it's still progress..

Before: (Note the stupid design where you MUST remove the hub and bearings every time you want to pull the rotor off).


After:...Hell yeah! Hoses are already new so I didn't bother changing them.


Finally got around to installing a new door brake on the passenger side, servicing the window sliders/regulator and putting in new vapor barrier as well as the new door panels that match the rest of my interior. The new panels delete the door handles/arm rests, and while they're mildly less functional (for the passenger to rest their arm), they look way cleaner. Anyways, 99% of the time this car gets driven, windows are down anyways, arm chills out on the sill.





Oh yeah, pictures from the last bit of brake mayhem. I had some new drums in the box that I forgot about, so when I replaced the rear wheel cylinder I changed out the drums too. Can't really adjust the rear brakes though because all the drum adjusters are seized/stripped. Oh well, my disc set up is sitting in Blaine right now waiting for me to pick it up.



Next step on interior is carpet and center console

August____________________________________________ ________________Ok, I was fairly busy today with other stuff but I managed to get the subframe out (was even able to leave the exhaust in!) and get the underside POR-15 treated and undercoated with some good old German Wurth undercoating.

PICS

Nasty old subframe. The subframe bushings appear original (I don't even know how that's possible) , diff mounts are effed, trailing arm bushings are effed,sway bar bushings are effed, and everything is disgusting and old.




aaaand Voila! Aside from some absurdly tight driveshaft to diff bolts, and a lack of room (stupid early subframe design) everything came apart nicely. I didn't even have to wiggle the subframe mounts from the body, they weren't seized at all!




I was scared before I pulled it, because I figured the subframe mount area would be rusted in to oblivion. This is what killed Kirin's '02, and you can't judge it properly until the subframe is out. That's why I was totally stoked to find mine were just seasoned in surface rust. So fucking happy my car didn't have a sunroof or I'd probably have the welder out at this point.

Btw, check out the corrosion on the subframe stud! Gonna smother that mofo in anti-seize.




If you check out the subframe I was able to leave the exhaust in (which routes over the subframe, but under the axle) by removing the CV axle. Cleared the diff no prob.


Got some POR15 on all the surface rusted areas




At this point it was around noon, and I had left for the day to run errands and let the POR-15 dry and do its thing


Came back and hit the underside with some Wurth undercoating. This stuff is really mild compared to the north american undercoat/gravel guard shit you buy from crappy tire or lordco. You can easily scratch it off with a screwdriver or even your nail if you want to, but it makes the underside clean up nicely, without being the disgusting mess most undrcoats seem to do.


Got kind crazy on the muffler there


Big day ahead of me tomorrow


In all this rear end rebuilding the car will be getting:
-Subframe mounts (with Ireland Engineering poly inserts)
-Trailing arm bushings
-Ireland poly diff mounts (couldn't get rubber locally)
-Poly sway bar bushings and MUCH larger anti sway bars
-Rear wheel bearings and seals
-Rebuild CV axles with new boots and clamps
-3.91LSD with ireland E21 diff flange adapters
-POR15'd driveshaft support/tranny mount bracket/diff mount bracket/subframe support brackets
-Rear disc conversion including VW calipers with built in winder E-brake (no more adjustments, no more drums, yay!), including machined hubs to mate to some VW rotors,custom caliper brackets,ate pads, and most likely more super blue fluid

I also forgot to mention that yesterday I modified the Euro signals so that they DO have running lights. In Europe their headlights have city lights, so the turn signals come wired simply as that, turn signals. Using some Uhaul tapalites I now have dual filament bulbs that work like they should.

I hope I can get this all done tomorrow...
__________________________________________
Some photo's my friend Cyrus took:

My friend Cyrus stopped by the shop today with his E30 and snapped a few shots of Minty with his fancy shmancy camera while I was checking his car out on the hoist.



















_____________________________________________

Still got lots more work to do like get a sewing machine so I can finish off the carpet, put the new Weber carb on, do the exhaust, and replace the transmission with a 5speed I have (currently 4speed).

I'm also looking to get some camber plates to give the front end a bit of negative, as well as down the road I'll probably get some Ireland Engineering stage 2's for a bit more drop. I'm not happy with the Eibach's as they're a little soft to be mated with the billy sports, and they sit pretty high still.