Willy's 72' 2002

[ThatOneEuroE30]

This thing is so cool I love roundies I hope to have my own one day... Good work keep it up!

[Big Willy]

I managed to get the car driving on the road last weekend for our local cars and coffee. The car is a lot of fun to drive which has really motivated me to get it in better running condition. I did find that the brake desperately need a rebuild which I will be addressing shortly, and that the engine has some trouble starting back up after warming up to temperature which I believe can be fixed with some better timing adjustments on the contact point gap, dwell angle, and a valve adjustment. Here are a few pictures taken from some people running around with cameras at the event, unfortunately my camera had some issues.


Photo Credit: Greg Myers


Photo Credit: themeec

Backing up from that event I replaced the de-funked windshield washer/turn signal stalk with a working used one that was included with the original 2002 purchase:



What was left of the old stalk:



I also designed some seat brackets for the 2002, and had an extremely generous friend let me use his professional laser cutter to make the brackets into reality:





Decided to get some spacer cut out as well:





And here’s the finished product with the tabs bended to fit the stock 2002 seat bracket:



As you can see I made some extra holes when I decide to mount some recaro seats one day:








I’ve got a slew of parts coming in: brake pads, brake discs, brake drums, urethane engine and transmission mounts, urethane steering coupler, front bumper, and new tires for the basketweaves.

[ST1G]

Wow that's amazing. Great work Willy. Good to see it on the road. I wasn't able to make it to cars and coffee and now I really regret it.

[delatlanta1281]

great build so far. love my '02, you will as well.

[Big Willy]

Here's an update that should have been posted last June, refreshing the brakes:

I first removed the rear drums and cleaned the housings for the pads.



Old pads and cylinder vs. New Pads and cylinder



New pads and brake cylinders on.



Then came the front brakes. Shortly after removing them I realized that my poor braking was caused by 3 of the 4 pistons being completely seized.



I took care of that with some rebuilt calipers by Ireland Engineering.



Getting the hard lines connected to the caliper were a pain to line up.



I didn't remember that the hub is mounted over the brake discs, so i held off on replacing the disc with the new ones I bought until I dealt with the suspension refresh.



Then I pulled off the front grills to try and straighten them out a little.



The kidney was the most of out shape.



But I managed to remove some of the dents.



I forgot to grab an after picture with the grills back on the car.



I've done very little work on this car the past few months, but all of that will be changing here shortly as I have found a great parts car that I will be stealing body metal from to replace the rusty areas in the floor board and the spare tire well.

[Farbin Kaiber]

Yay! I'm watching, and we need to get an Idaho event together, I promise, I'll come out in a BMW. And I'll be there, I swear.

Somebody there needs to plan it though, I can't figure out an event from 200+ miles away, and maybe I'll have some EI folks to bring along too.

[ArtFoodBMW]

More updates now!

[mbonder]

Awesome, always loved orange on an '02. Glad you are willing to do the work to bring her back.

[TimeMachinE30]

Good work.

[gte175x]

Awesome job....very nice.

[ST1G]

I was thinking bottle caps don't look too bad on the 2002.




I think those other wheels you acquired will look better though.

[2002jm]

nice project

I had a 73 roundie, hence the 2002jm, was one of the best bmws I have owned.
Looking forward to seeing it at the next meet!
jm

[Big Willy]

Update time! First I bought a parts car, I'll be using it for the rust repair on my car, floor pan, spare tire well, and front windshield. Everything else is up for grabs, no drivetrain.







Then I installed a front bumper





Removed the rear bumper



And installed an early model rear bumper



Installed an early model trapezoidal side mirror





Then I found some wheels and seats courtesy of ST1G!



I'm excited about how these will look on the car

[rturbo 930]

The damage on the parts car doesn't look that bad. If the chassis isn't tweaked, I think I'd use that chassis instead. Might actually be easier to just fix that one since it looks overall much nicer without much in the way of rust.

[Big Willy]

The damage on the parts car doesn't look that bad. If the chassis isn't tweaked, I think I'd use that chassis instead. Might actually be easier to just fix that one since it looks overall much nicer without much in the way of rust.

That was an idea until I found that the chassis is tweaked. I could bring it to a frame shop and get everything pulled out, but I think I may be spending more than what I'd want to and still need to replace the entire front end of the car.