2002 Resto-Mod

[jwill214]

Hey All,

I thought I would start a project thread to keep track of the work I've done on the car. This is the first build I've done and am learning a ton. I would also like the communities input so I know when I'm doing things wrong.

After searching far and wide for a Volvo 142 I settled with the BMW 2002. Similar styles and much more in my price range. I found what I thought was a good clean car on Craigslist about two hours from me and pulled the trigger. Hey it came with a parts car so it couldn't be too bad right?





Short Term plans for the car:

Remove rust (I found a lot)
Fresh paint
Suspension refresh
Complete engine rebuild

Long Term Plans:
Custom Suspension
Maybe Engine Swap (Purist Cringing Everywhere)

Stay Tuned for Updates

[squidmaster]

Haha I love buying cars with a free parts car. Looking forward to seeing what you do!

[bostonvert]

Glad to see more 02 content on this forum!

Good luck and looking forward to the build

[SkiFree]

Welcome! Good luck on the project. 2002's are fantastic cars for hot rodding.

I think you are mistaken on "purists cringing", since the 2002 was born as a 1600 with a 2.0L swapped in it. Where people will cringe is when guys "put lipstick on a pig" rather than taking the time to do it right. If you take the time and effort to make a fun car, then you will have lots of friends far beyond the instagram set.

[jwill214]

Since I've had the car for a while now I should be able to update this thread pretty regularly. My first job was to strip all the paint of the car to see what I was dealing with.

Rear Quarter View



Front Fender







Rocker Near Rear Subframe Mount



Driver's Side Frame Rail



And of course both the floor pans were rusted through



Tons of cutting, welding and grinding was in my future. It was a huge learning experience for me.

Will be posting results in the next few days. Still trying to organize all the pictures I have.

[jwill214]

On to the boring stuff, rust repair The worst of it was in the floor boards and frame rail, but I also patched the rocker and other small stuff around the body. This was the first major amount of welding I had ever done and I'm pretty happy with it. It's definitely not going to win any awards but it gets the job done. For reference, I made the frame rail and floor boards out of 16 gauge steel. A sheet metal brake would have been nice but nothing a BAH and vise couldn't handle.

I was relieved to see that the passenger side frame rail had only surface rust after I cut out the floor. After wire wheeling it and coating it with some POR-15 it was good to go.



Not so lucky with the drivers side



I'm cheap so rather than buying a press fab'ed rail I decided to make my own. Same with the floors.





Finished product bent, welded and painted with POR15



The first test fit





After some minor tweaks it was welded in with the new floor welded over top.



Same for the passenger side



The trunk was pretty nasty so I tackled that next. Had to make room for my fuel cell. That will be in a future post.

[jwill214]

The next major hurdle was the truck. The gas tank was rusted through and a new one will run you about $500. In the spirit of being cheap I decided to just put a cheap summit fuel cell in. This also helped solve the rusty spare tire well.

Cut the whole floor out.



Mocked up where I wanted the cell to be. I wanted to keep it as low as possible to help center of gravity and what not.



Bent up some sheet metal for the housing.





Perfect fit



Welded in the frame and the rest of the sheet metal floor for the final product





Rest assured that more hacking will ensue.

[MrBurgundy]

Sub'ed.

Love how you did the gas tank. Can't wait to see how this one turns out.

[jwill214]

Thanks for feedback. I'm a little concerned I may have made it too low, but I guess I'll find out once it gets on the ground... if that ever happens haha

[bostonvert]

Amazing job on the bodywork, did you weld up a brace before cutting the frame rail?

[jwill214]

Amazing job on the bodywork, did you weld up a brace before cutting the frame rail?

I had the front sub-frame bolted to the frame rails before I hacked anything off. I only cut the back half of the drives side rail off so the mounting points for the sub-frame didn't change. I also welded in a brace that spanned the two strut mounting points. At that point I had the whole front face of the car cut off (I can't find any of the pictures I took). If I was going to do it again, I would have done more bracing just to be safe but I think what I did was enough.

[Anthony B]

You have perked my interest Sir, sub'd for more

[bobaflesh]

Sub'd, always love a good 2002 revival project.

[jwill214]

More boring rust repair tonight. I guess the previous owner thought it was cool to cover rust with bondo. Based on what I've found so far he was quite the artist.



Cut the whole section out



Cleaned up the inside a little with some rust inhibitor



Made a little patch panel and welded it in. Spot welds for days trying to keep the panel from warping.



Also had to fix the wheel well. Couple pieces of scrap and I was good to go.



I also polished this turd into something worth mounting a rear sub-frame to



After cleaning it up the best I could, I welded in new metal to support the sub-frame stud.





Turns out you can, in fact, polish a turn.

[MrBurgundy]

You're doing this so right.


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