1971 BMW 1600 Project

[B@BluntTech]

love this thing! awesome find

[CorvallisBMW]

Awesome, love it! At least if the motor is fubar'd you can swap in a 2.0 real easy :)

[Mirek E.]

02 is my favorite BMW. Love to see if anyone saving another one.

[jhaurimn]

Nice find. Love how the front looks after you cleaned up the grilles. Keep up the progress.

Bullet hole is a nice touch ;)

[E30beemer]

Classic! Have fun with it :)

[freeride53]

We play all down the coast. I play in Torrey Pines a lot myself. black's beach is always a fun spot.

I stay mostly in Orange County, being as I live in Huntington Beach.

Life is good. We should do water sports some time. I love water sports.

yes. blacks beach is literally my backyard. lj shores beach sucks cack tho.
BTW - a goal of mine in 2014 is come and see the us open in HB.

[phreshkid]

yes. blacks beach is literally my backyard. lj shores beach sucks cack tho.
BTW - a goal of mine in 2014 is come and see the us open in HB.

US Open of Surfing in HB is pretty cool the first time, but that's about all I could handle.

I live a few streets in from the Pier. As a resident, you begin to hate the people that come for the festivities. The streets and beach become too congested, never any parking, assholes everywhere who think they are entitled to things, riots, drunk bros looking for fights (mostly the 909ers from Riverside), kooks who think they own the wave, middle to high school girls who no longer respect their bodies and flaunt to much older men, etc. It's a shit show and not in a good way.

I usually get out of there. Last summer's US Open, I hung out in Torrey Pines for 5 days. Rad hotel room on the coast (I think it was the Hyatt), beautiful babe in one hand, brew in another, soaking up Mother Nature's finest rays. It was bliss.

[SoundByte]

Lookin' good. My '02 just made it back to daily status, even if it's kinda rough around the edges. I also didn't realize that the seats I replaced with E21 recaros were tii seats... The driver's one was completely toast anyway.

[Nick_S]

AWESOME car. I love the bullet hole to, I wouldn't fix it.

US Open of Surfing in HB is pretty cool the first time, but that's about all I could handle.

I live a few streets in from the Pier. As a resident, you begin to hate the people that come for the festivities. The streets and beach become too congested, never any parking, assholes everywhere who think they are entitled to things, riots, drunk bros looking for fights (mostly the 909ers from Riverside), kooks who think they own the wave, middle to high school girls who no longer respect their bodies and flaunt to much older men, etc. It's a shit show and not in a good way.

I usually get out of there. Last summer's US Open, I hung out in Torrey Pines for 5 days. Rad hotel room on the coast (I think it was the Hyatt), beautiful babe in one hand, brew in another, soaking up Mother Nature's finest rays. It was bliss.

Two summers ago I stumbled upon the US open. Was out in Costa Mesa for work and was told to check out the Sugar Shack down in HB. Had no idea why it was so crowded, we parked like two miles away and rode our bikes down. There was like a 3 hour wait so we got subway and headed to the beach. I was blown away by 1. how hot the girls are out there and 2. how rude and stuck up people are. Maybe being from the Midwest I stuck out like a sore thumb but damn, people wouldn't even smile at you.

[sapurvis]

Perfect SoCal surf car! Best of luck with it and keep us posted on your progress.

[phreshkid]

A little progress today!

Yesterday I made a quick stop by Mesa Performance in Costa Mesa/Newport for some parts. Ended up buying new spark plug wires, new spark plugs, and an impulse purchase of a new shift knob for the ol' girl.

I got to the warehouse this morning after class and ripped into the car. Started with a coolant flush followed by a new thermostat. I made the biggest mess and it took me an hour. I tidied everything up, then got to work on the spark plugs.

Spark plugs were very easy, so were the spark plug wires.

I turn the car on for the first time after today's work and it runs pretty rough (it's a cold start idling issue). After warming the car up, it runs noticeably quieter and smoother at idle and under load. This is a good sign. I take her around the block a few times and really get her going. God this thing is slow. I love it.

The engine runs good but the carb will need some cleaning. I suspect an issue with the fuel/air mixture.

Problem: The blue smoke on acceleration and deceleration is still present. This leads me to believe that the piston rings are gone and need replacing.


Another thing to note: When I pulled the old spark plugs, there was noticeable traces of oil on the tips and threads. I suspect that the valve seals may also be in questionable condition.

This engine will need a rebuild. The only question is if it's possible. Many 1600 parts are NLA, including engine parts. Things are going to get trickier from here on out.


The only real photo I have is of the shift knob replacement. The new knob is on the left. When did shift knobs this small become $72.00?
Here:




I also found evidence of a past repray on the lower rocker panels. Looks like a single stage respray, which is correct for the car. As much as I don't want to paint the car, I can't deny that fresh paint would look good. Something to thing about.


Til next time.

AWESOME car. I love the bullet hole to, I wouldn't fix it.



Two summers ago I stumbled upon the US open. Was out in Costa Mesa for work and was told to check out the Sugar Shack down in HB. Had no idea why it was so crowded, we parked like two miles away and rode our bikes down. There was like a 3 hour wait so we got subway and headed to the beach. I was blown away by 1. how hot the girls are out there and 2. how rude and stuck up people are. Maybe being from the Midwest I stuck out like a sore thumb but damn, people wouldn't even smile at you.

Welcome to Huntington Beach.

[Slow4Door]

What's gonna happen to that wood knob?

Such a great project, this what I want someday to play with. Good work!

[delatlanta1281]

Dude.
This is so awesome.

[freeride53]

This thing is looking sicker by the day. Do you think you'll be touching the suspension/wheels? Call me mad, but I think that 02's actually pull off bottlecaps really well. Those and Basketweaves. I think 14 is the magic number for '02's.

BTW that's hilarious. And that Hyatt is super dank - my family would always stay there when they were visiting me down the road at school.

[Wild Ride]

Im willing to bet there will be no updates this weekend with the swell of the winter rolling in. Really enjoy your approach towards restoration as mine is similar. Its fun to bring a car back to roadworthy and make big changes in appearance with some elbow grease and tenacity.

When you want to escape the circus and come down to SD hit me up for a surf.