My 2002's resurrection - 56k go die

[2002maniac]

woot! I love 2002's!!

[Justin B]

Bad ass looking project! Makes me really want to get back on my 2002 project. That exhaust looks strangely familiar, did you buy that from someone on 2002faq? I made/assembled, then sold something extremely similar a couple years ago when I decided to go turbo with my m20.

Yeah, I did. Considering your location, I it's definately your old setup, BobinOKC, right? :) I've still yet to weld in a bung for the o2 sensor and ceramic coat the down pipe, but I'm waiting on that till I can mock it up and tuck it away since I want it to be somewhere after the 2-1 collector but not interfering with under the body. I've been slacking!

As far as pictures go of the car, I'll be posting some up in a few hours I hope. I'm busy using up daylight trying to finish up the rack inside the race car trailer. It's at about 70% right now.

[DarkWing6]

Forget the cabbie. Finish that and bring it to the picnic.

[Justin B]

That's what my plan is, and it probably would have happened if I didnt find bondo on my quarter panels. If there wasnt any, they would already have been cut and welded for my turbo flares and bodywork on the rear panel almost done. Instead, I have to worry about getting the metal on my quarters straight enough to put my flares on, and the car is filled with misc. crap so I can't just go outside in any time window I have to work on tearing out my seat rails and fabbing up new ones. Believe me, if I was concerned at all about working on the cabby, I'd actually have my plastic bumpers on, but I dont ;P. I'm still shooting for it, but it'll be REALLY close, even if I work on the car every day. Crossing my fingers!

[jw 325ic]

damn looks like a fun project. ive always wanted an 02

[Spiff325iS]

Pungently amazing.

[Justin B]

Yes, it is rough. Dont gouge your eyes out ;)

Well, here's a few quickie pics of what the 02 looks like now, or at least close to. It currently doesnt have the trunk lid on it anymore (it is covered with plastic sheet taped tight and a junky car cover, so it's not getting wet), rear side windows are out, but the hood actually IS sat on top where it would be. Once I can get it in the garage I'm building a dolly for it ASAP, tearing off all the original suspension and probably selling it off cheap, and going at the body work, including removing all the road grime and crap from the bottom to bare metal to paint it again and put down some WURTH undercoating, then paint it black. The M10 and tranny need to go still, that's one thing I've been seriously slacking on, that is getting rid of all my spare M10 stuff. Anybody locally need a cheap running M10? I also have lots of other stuff that could be used as cores to rebuild :)

The trim holes are currently plugged up with some bondo junk, but they'll be either welded or leaded shut.

The rear panel is a little worse for wear so I may have to swap it out for a better one I have, or new if I don't get it close enough for a really light skim coat of filler to block down.

Also down a few pics will be a few of the bondo frenzy I found on my quarter panels. I'm not too particularly excited about this archaeological dig I've found, who knows how long its been there, and how deep it is. I get to find that out when I can strip it to metal in the dry garage too! Too bad its not a climate controlled garage, but at least it cant get rained on...Besides that, when it got smacked in the rear to put some waves in my rear panel, it put the slightest dimple in the quarters, I could have sworn I saw something on the pass side but certainly on the driver side I'll have to shrink some metal in order to get it perfectly straight.

One more thing, my nose piece has been thwacked once or twice, so the drivers side headlight bucket bracket is pushed in a little bit, so I get to figure out how to straighten it out and tack it back in place where it should be. A small tear at the bottom, which I'll just goober up with weld and grind down. It wont be seen anyway behind the air dam. I'm sure some tweaking and pulling here and there will be required to help it line up just right with the new fenders, but it's all about the adventure................right? =/

Sentimental value sucks, but I love this car!

So here it is, in all its not so good lookin' glory. Soon to change! -


The rear, its not so bad, but plenty of tedious work to get straight. If I can save it myself, I'll do it. Ive spent enough as it is-

Some rust that came through, I've cut it out and have a patch for it. It originally came from the trunk floor so I need to build that out some to match the quarter, then weld the patch for the quarter on and I'll be good. Not much work, just once again, tedious.



There are a couple pin holes I can weld up, otherwise screw it, cover the rest of it in POR15!

Somewhat screwed up, but I think I can save it-

Little bit of a tear like I mentioned, it's nothing at all-

Driver side bondo, probably a quarter inch thick in places. ugh.-

Passenger side-

Depth, at least in that small area. Quarter inch or so. Just more banging away to be done-


Now all of you can see why I really want this thing somewhere dry and lit. Then I can work on it whenever I feel like it, hopefully all the damn time. Its certainly rough but it's got awesome parts, it'll just take time and effort, and probably plenty more of that money stuff! I could probably get a cleaner shell but all the work I've done to it already would go to waste, and I have an extreme attachment and loyalty to this car. Kthx!

I hope you'll all enjoy the progress I'll post along the way here, and thanks for all the encouragement. Doesn't look so hot now, does it? But it will! That's the whole idea behind a "proooojjeeecct".

[Justin B]

Oh by the way, I finished the welding required for the rack in the trailer. Woot!

Now I need to get a couple more winches, paint the pieces I welded up today, mock it up in the trailer (may require some tweaking of some tabs that sucked in a little bit after I welded them on, but not much). Then mark some spots on it, TAKE the whole thing BACK OUT, weld some straps on to tie into the vertical 2x2 posts to resist fore/aft movement a little better, put it back in, and assemble it and bam, room for two cars. A big step in getting room in the garage.

[backtrail69]

Holy cow. That car is ROUGH. Mine is compeltely rust free and pretty straight body, just lacquer checked paint.

[Justin B]

Yeah. I just ask don't begin to start talking down about it, I'm not so happy with the work I have ahead, and all the more it'll be turned around and the better I'll feel when it's done. It's a lot better than some others I've seen restored. I know how rough it is right now. But that's not the point of this thread, it's what it will be after it's done with hard work. I just found the problem with the quarters recently, but it should be doable.

[blunttech]

looks great justin. with that impressive pile of parts you have that will be one badass 02 when done. dont let a little rust get you down. ive seen way way worse shells. keep up the good work

[blunttech]

I am extremely impressed!

would you mind listing a vendor for the fiberglass parts?

i have 2 complete OE turbo kits in my basement if youre looking febi

[golde30]

J, post pics of yer fresh m20 and those baller wheels dammit! hehe

[Justin B]

Surprisingly, I never took pictures of my wheels. Now they're piled in a sparco seat box. Theyre BBS RS'. Whoptee? Maybe I'll ask the seller if he can send me some pictures of them again. I have to email him anyway to show him some pics of the alpina flares that I need gone, he said he might be interested in them.

Here's the only real picture of the M20 I have.

It's an M20! How exciting. lol

Oh and thanks Blunt! The mass production on the project is edging closer.

[Justin B]

Oh I just found some on my camera-
BBS RS 15x8 with cheapish tires which are just about brand new. 215 50 15 IIRC. I dont think theyre 225's.