My '75 2002 Sleeper

[tinkwithanr]

pornographic engine mounts are pornographic.

aw man - after seeing all the work put into this car, I feel bad admitting I'd rather see an s14, or a hopped up m42, or a stupidly turbo'd m10 in it. Something about a sixer in an 02 seems weird to me. Respect earned on the ITB/m20 though.. just thinking out loud.

carry on..

Hey, to each his own. I can definitely see your point. That being said I had the same discussion on another forum:

"While I do see your point, I respectfully disagree. Personally, pretty much any bmw should have a straight 6 engine (aside from the newer, big sedans and the isetta). And considering the 2002's big brother the 3.0 have the M30 straight 6, if the M20 had been in production back then I'm sure they would have stuck one in there. No, it's not a buzzy little 4 cylinder, but it should still carry the same spirit and feel as a vintage bmw."

Wow, nice work... Maybe following this build can help get me and the team motivated to put the turbo m20 back in our e30/2002 Frankenstein car... We have a full e30 front and rear suspension swap.

Do it. (Insert Starsky voice).

[tinkwithanr]

Taking a break from the rear of the car for now. Hopefully I'll get the coils on order for the rear in the next couple of days, so that should let me figure out the suspension pickups back there which I'd like to do before finishing out the trunk floor and fender cuts.


So moving onto the front I decided to re-assemble the front end so I can start to figure out things like radiator mounts, and the rest of the engine accessories. I also wanted to throw the front of the turbo body kit on to see how she would look:




There's a surprising amount of room in there with the M20 in place:




Driver Side Engine Mount:




Passenger Side Mount:





Then I threw the hood and grills on to make it almost look like a real car.





The rest of the night was spent taking some measurements for the radiator supports and trying to plan out the removable front clip. I'm going to try and make the nose removable without having to disconnect the radiator to make other engine maintenance easier, but it depends on how much room I end up with. I still need to trim the nose panel a bit to cut out rust and make room for the oil cooler hoses running back to the block.

Thanks for looking :D

[A Sucked Orange]

Subscribed!

I wish I had your metal working skills. I shall have to learn.

[e30Bmwflyer]

wow thank you for the inspiration damn that m20 is going to be so raw with itbs and i didnt see anything about you joking with that m90 sc but please do that too. also how do you have that shop space. how did you go about renting it, what are the terms, price etc.?

[Simon S]

also how do you have that shop space. how did you go about renting it, what are the terms, price etc.?

It's a small manufacturing company I've worked at for a few years. We make sand processing equipment for the foundry industry. We had a spare room in the back so I took over it and started acquiring the stuff I needed to do this project.

I have dreams about that shop space..
hella jelly..

[tinkwithanr]

Yup, I'm incredibly lucky. That sad part is I'll have to give it up when I move to the bay area in the next few months.

Just have to get the car done before then lol.

[downforce22]

Looking good man, I 'm loving the turbo fender flares. Will you do any type of turbo stripes?

[tinkwithanr]

Probably not. That's pretty much where I draw the line between a turbo clone or not. While the body kit alone is close, this isn't a true Turbo, so using the decals would seem a little false to me.

I have a couple of ideas on what I want to do for paint and colors, but nothing is set in stone yet.

[asuj158]

sick

[Imperial88]

there isn't much i can say that hasn't already been said... You are gifted. When it comes time to drive it let me and a couple others know, i'll drive ahead of you and signal any on coming cars off the road hahaha! brilliant work thanks for sharing.

[richardb]

Beautiful work. Kudos for saving a 2002 that very few could save. What color paint are you thinking?

[deutschman]

I saw a thread on the FAQ a fewk tha back where a guy had made a nice removable front clip. Maybe you can find it. I want to say he had done an m20 as well.
If you cut the frame rails flush with the fenders, and make a rad support that fits right behind the hood hinges and is fastened to the fenders behind the head lights, you could bolt the clip onto both of those...

[tinkwithanr]

I think I've seen the thread you were talking about. The downside is my hood mount bars are already cut out, so I can't really use those to locate things.

Ideally I want to make it look somewhat OEM, so I'm planning to use the same type of fasteners that hold the fenders on. Looks like I know what I'm doing the weekend lol (aside from watching the Buckeye's beat down Nebraska!)

[deutschman]

Excited to see how it fits together. Ones I get my own work space I am going to build another m20 02, and take my time with it. I learned so much with the last one I sold, the next one will be 1000x better and more thought out. I can't wait to see yours rolling around!

[deutschman]

This is madnes!

Ones you move to the Bay Area make sure you take part in the 2002 Bay Area club events like the picnic we have every spring. I'll be back in a year after I'm done with school. I look forward to seeing you and the car at drives and other events.