Willy's 72' 2002

[Big Willy]

Another weekend with more progress. After giving the pedal box a few days for the paint to dry I started to reassemble the components:





It felt nice putting something clean and solid in the car. It also reminded me how much metal work that I have ahead of me:



After a few hours of making sure all of the pedals worked and functioned properly I bleed the clutch. Then I attempted to bleed the brakes. Both brake bleeder valves sheared clean off from corrosion, looks like rear disc upgrades are in the future. The front brakes partially bled, but could definitely use a rebuild.



Then all of a sudden, my garage was empty:



I managed to get the car to move under its own power for who knows how long. Now I just need to save up for a suspension overhaul. The next things on the list are bolting in a bucket seat I had laying around with a custom adapter plate, replace the engine mounts to prevent the engine looking like it's rocking out to Black Sabbath, and give the rest of the car a much deserved wash.

[e30m3s54turbo]

Sub'd. I look forward up dates.

[Roysneon]

Much love for this build.

[wark]

Sub'd!!

[zumjosh]

Hmmm. Liking it so far but from what I've seen so far, you may want to consider borrowing, buying or building a rotisserie.

[ST1G]

Great progress Willy! I've seen the car in person and I can't wait to see a fresh orange paint job. Good to see that you got the box fixed up. Looks like you aren't too shabby at welding ;) I can't wait to see where this goes.

Let me know if you need a hand with anything.

[N2MYE30]

I will aways tune in for a 2002 build thread. Nice find!

[Big Willy]

After a productive weekend, I managed to repair my pedal box. After a few hours wrestling with rusted bolts and deteriorating metal, I managed to remove the box with minimal damage to the already rotted floorboard:



As you can see it was it pretty poor shape and would have been an excellent air conditioner for my feet during the winter months.



So I broke out my air compressor and cutting wheel and went at it:



I had to be careful of what I cut away as I did not want to have to replace the metal that holds one of the brackets for the brake and clutch pedals.



With the hole prepped and all of the rust removed, I made a template out of paper bag first then transferred the outline to a metal piece. I even managed to break something on my compressor towards the end, so I had to break out the metal shears for the last few cuts.



Then with a friend’s all electric Harbor Freight special I welded a piece of metal for the second time of my life, I’m sure you can tell:





My stone cutting wheel proved to be extremely useful in smoothing out the excess metal:



Eventually I got it to a point that I was satisfied with and did have any remaining holes after grinding:



So I gave it a quick shot of primer and plan on assembling the box next weekend and attempting to get the car on the road to a friend’s place to help tackle the major rust issues in the floorboards.

[E30NJ]

Nice!

[Big Willy]

This is so cool. Please keep the orange.

To be honest, I loved the original dirty grimy look like it was how you found it. Im not normally into that kinda thing either...

I need to find myself a roundie!

Nice work! I'm looking forward to see where go with this! And +1 on keeping the orange

I definitely plan to keep the same Colorado orange, its such an iconic color for these cars. The current plans are to clean off the grim, but keep the paint in its current state for a while as I get the mechanics and suspension refreshed over time. Thus car has some really awesome patina.

[ArtFoodBMW]

Nice work! I'm looking forward to see where go with this! And +1 on keeping the orange

[jhaurimn]

To be honest, I loved the original dirty grimy look like it was how you found it. Im not normally into that kinda thing either...

I need to find myself a roundie!

[Farbin Kaiber]

Diggin it! Can't wait to see where it goes!

[MokinWeet]

This is so cool. Please keep the orange.

[Big Willy]

Who doesn't like a 2002 build on here? After the few years of enjoying my E30 so much I decided to expand my arsenal with a vintage BMW, a 2002 only seems logical. I was able to get this one for a good deal from Trucidatio in 2013. It's been in my possession for over a year, and is finally getting the attention it deserves.

Here are the pictures from the forsale ad:





Rough but nothing a little massaging and paint can't fix, right? It had been sitting in a farmer's field since 1999, with apparently a newly rebuilt engine just waiting to be fired up. Sounds great, I just need to figure out why it hasn't been running...

Here it is being loaded up on the flatbed for the trip to Bellingham WA, where I resided at the time:



There's a picture of it with my E30 in the background.



Here's where it sat for the next few months as I gathered my life together, deciding to move back to Boise, ID:



Towed back to Idaho, here it is in the garage, where it had been sitting for another few months as I worked on other projects and reorganizing myself at a new school. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I really dove into this old BMW.



My first goal was to figure out why it wouldn't turn over. A new battery fixed that and the starter sounded strong soon after. Replacing the 15 year old fluids, the oil didn't look to be in terrible shape. No coolant was needed to be changed, just added luckily.



Took off the carburetor and gave it a quick rebuild, cleaning it and removing all the old gas left inside. It's a solex 38/40 which came on the 2000 models from what I've been able to find. Nonetheless I threw it back on the M10 with hopes it would be sufficient enough for the time being. Never owning or messing around with a carbureted engine before, it was a new experience dealing with one.



A refilled fuel tank with new fuel, a new fuel filter, the carb cleaned up, and the manual choke working properly now I gave the engine an attempt to start up. No such luck after numerous attempts of feather the choke, throttle, and some spurts of carb starter.

So off to refresh and review the ignition system. After some investigation with a multimeter and being unable to produce a spark from the plug wires, I went off to the junk yard to pick up some newer wires, distributor cap, and ignition coil to see if they made any difference. Again, no such luck, so I succumbed to purchasing a Haynes manual and doing some more research on 2002faq to see what else could be wrong.



With a more educated guess, I bought new spark plugs, ignition condenser (capacitor) and a contact point for the distributor. BINGO, the car started right up without any hesitation. I ran it at idle for a few minutes, not a single problem aside from a little white smoke at the start from what I would assume to be the generous amounts of carb starter.



With engine working properly, I went ahead to tackle the clutch and brakes. Here is where I now reside. I replaced the clutch slave yesterday without too much difficulty, and then decided to start bleeding the system to take it for a test drive.



Removing the old foam cover for the pedal box helped explain why the clutch pedal had so much travel:



What I can assume to be brake fluid erupting from the clutch master cylinder for the past decade plus had eaten away at quite a bit of metal. I've got a new master cylinder on its way and have started disassembling the pedal box to weld on some new metal and clean off the eroding mess that remains.

Aside from that area of the car, the rest of it seems mostly rust free expect for these few places under the hood:







The rest of the body seems to be in fairly good shape for its age and location (Mount Vernon, WA). And the looking at the car in some angles reminds me of why I got the car in the first place. Even under all of the grim lies some of the original Colorado orange paint.



Before and after some light wet sanding





The front end however is a little rough: