She's Alive!

Today I picked up my car from Peter Salzman's Hobby Shop in Wilsonville. He ended up replacing a part inside the distributor (he said he put in "new points"). When I arrived, the owner of the shop (Peter) showed me exactly what he replaced and how to do the job myself next time it happens. His honesty and the time he always puts into teaching me about the issues my car is having is refreshing. It isn't common that you will find a mechanic that specializes in your car and is reasonable with the wallet. Salzman Motors has been working on 2002's since 1967 and has many aftermarket parts available too. Back to the maintenance; After fixing the part inside the distributor, the car underwent a minor tune up by having the carburetor cleaned and adjusted. The car runs fantastic, and much better than it has previously since I have owned it. I can't wait to take the car on another road trip in the near future when my wife and I attend the Leavenworth Drive! Information on the drive can be found here: http://www.leavenworthdrive.com/

If you are looking for a reputable bmw mechanic, I strongly recommend Salzman's Hobby Shop! I took a picture of his business card to share just in case anyone needs his contact information.



Today was a very good day. My favorite part about the shop is that they have probably six to eight 2002's on their premises at all times and the owner enjoys talking and planning future build ideas with the customers. Overall, I have spent $230 on maintenance the first month I have owned the car. Also, when I got the car home I installed some new Denso Spark plugs to give her some extra pep! Hopefully this will keep the car happy for awhile!

We shall end the day with a picture proving that life is all good and back to normal :)

Breaking Down...

As stated in my post a few days ago, I took the '75 on a long road trip. The car ran great the whole way to my destination, but it started running pretty rough when I arrived in town and it had trouble at idle when stopped (would often die). I couldn't get the car running after parking it for the evening. After calling a 2002 mechanic and asking for guidance, I was told to clean out the idle jet (valve thing? I can't remember) and the car started up. It ran very rough at lower rpm's going through town and would try to die if I took my foot off the accelerator. But, once I was out of town, I found the car ran great at highway speeds. It appears to run good at higher rpm's, and won't run, or run very rough at low rpm's.



I got the car started and then left for my venture back home to Oregon. I stopped once for gas, then the car wouldn't start for two hours :( Once it started, I got it onto the highway and it ran great until I had to come to a stop sign. I was then stranded for five hours until my wife could come with our 4Runner and a trailer to bring me home. She drove 130 miles to come get me, I was very thankful!

A pic of where the car broke down:


Here a picture of us at a gas station on the way back...



I think the issue is fuel related. The car ran really rough at low rpm's, but when the rpm's were up and I was on the highway it ran very smooth. We dropped the car off at the local BMW shop a few miles from our house, which means hopefully Tuesday when it opens back up they will have time to take a look at it. My trip back was going to be a five hour trip, putting me home around 5pm. Unfortunately, after the day was over, I arrived safely at home around 2am and in a separate place than my car :( Looks like Blue will be getting some attention and money put into her in the near future...

Road Trip

Today I drove the BMW 320 miles on a road trip (and I'm doing the same trip back home tomorrow). The car averaged about 24 mpg, which I was very happy with. The car went over three major mountain passes and it did tend to struggle on the bigger hills dropping from the 70 mph speed limit to around 60 mph a few times. But, I learned to get a run at the hills and then I would linger around the 70 mph mark ;)

Here was her top speed today! I didn't really get on it for too long though...


Overall, it was a good trip. I had to listen to my headphones since the stereo does not work, and a few springs are coming through the drivers seat making the trip a little less comfortable. But, I love the car and I'll continue to drive the car even with worn seats until I can afford some newer BMW seats!

Here is a pic of her at a gas station off the highway right after a fuel up.


The car did awesome the whole trip until I arrived at my final destination. When I entered the city, the car did not want to stay alive. She would simply quit in gear and die. The temps were not up, the oil level was great, but for some reason the car did not want to idle well. I also noticed the car would start in second or third gear it seemed which also did not help. After researching this some, there could be a few different adjustments to make, but it also was said to be pretty common after a long road trip with an automatic 2002.

On a better note, putting premium or plus in the car stopped the sputtering that was occurring when I shut the car off! From now on I will continue to use higher quality gas.

Gas Mileage

Today was my first fuel up after fixing the odometer. The three speed automatic transmission really doesn't help the car get the best mpg, and I'm thinking a five speed swap will help the car become more fun and economical too! All said and done, the 37 year old car got 20.4 mpg.



I'm planning on changing the spark plugs tomorrow and possibly swapping in a new fuel filter in the next month in an effort to help as well. Honestly, a new transmission will probably do the most good. Since this will be my commuter, I would really like to get closer to 30 mpg, but if it never does that's ok too. It really is a blast to drive :)

*Also, the car occasionally clunks or sputters after shutting the engine off. Today I filled the car with premium to see if that makes a difference. I will write again in a later post commenting on if the higher octane solves the problem or not.

Rainy Day

Today I did not have the motivation to "tuck" my rear bumper since the rain always makes me feel lazy. So instead, I picked up some RainX and some STP Fuel & Carburetor Treatment. We are taking the car on its longest trip since we have owned it today (should be about an hour each way). I am not sure if the STP treatment will actually help the car or not, but it makes me feel like I'm doing maintenance and hopefully this will help the short sputtering that happens when I shut the car off every once in awhile (more on that later). Using the STP treatment is super easy. All you need to do is pour it into the gas tank...and that's it. If you have never used RainX before, I highly suggest it. All you do is spray the RainX on the windshield, the wipe it around/off with a clothe or paper towel and it does a great job of repelling water!



Even though this doesn't seem like much, I am going to continue updated the blog with every little thing I do so that the car has a complete documentation of every effort and dollar I spend.

No More Diving Board.

After much contemplation and speculation, I was given a nudge by some car buddies over breakfast this morning to do something about the massive bumper on the front of the car. There were a few options such as "tucking" the bumper, by drilling holes in the shocks and pushing the bumper in a little towards the car (this was the most popular alternative). There were a few other tricks to make the bumper not look so long, but they were more complicated and I'm really not that great at fabricating car parts. I decided to completely eliminate the extra foot of space on the front end, and I have read the bumper really doesn't do much for accidents anyway. When I was starting this project today, I figured it would take me an hour to get everything off and cleaned up.

There was one bolt on each shock aborber located in the engine bay that I needed to get access too. The one in the pic below happened to be under the battery. So after searching for the bolts, I removed the battery. You can see the whole where the 21mm bolt use to reside.



After getting those two bolts, I took off the coverings on the sides of the bumper and on top/below the bumper. It was going rather smoothly. I couldn't help but notice how much dirt was in the fenders and around the motor as it continually poured down on me when I was struggling to get bolts out. At one point, there were two bolts on the inside of each fender well and I had to jack up the car and remove the tire just to get to the bolts.

Here is a picture of all the dirt after I was done:



Everything went really smooth until I ran into a snag. If you work on cars, you know that this ALWAYS happens with something stupid. I'm not going to go into detail, but if you have worked on a car or another project you know what this next picture depicts (1.5 hours).



But, when it was all said and done I felt pretty good about having the bumper off. I think tomorrow I'm going to "tuck" the rear bumper and leave it on.

Before Pic:



After today:



I really like it! When the car goes in for paint I'm going to have the body shop fill all of the holes on the front and sides as well as the side markers on the front and back of the car. I do think the car needs a lip or something. I am still debating on exactly which lip, but I really like this one below:

It's called the Kamei Lip...


I'm leaning towards this lip right now, but I might change by the time paint comes around. AND, here are the left over parts and a bag of bolts after today's fiasco.



I think the car is really going to come together with a lip, all the holes filled, and dent removal/fresh paint in the near future! Additionally, I have put 65 miles on the car in the past two days and I feel like every day I drive the '02 she runs better and better! I can't believe how awesome she runs :)

Interior & Cleaning

Today I decided to clean up the interior the best I could so that I would be more comfortable (kinda) while I ponder what to do about upgrading the carpet, seats, ect...

So I went to the car wash to use their vacuum for $1



While I was there, a random guy in a black truck stopped and parked next to me. He got out with a big smile on his face and said, "I love your car!" It goes without saying (but I'm going to say it anyway), we were immediately friends. He went on to tell me that he owns a '72 BMW 2002, a '72 BMW CS, and a 2003 BMW M5. He walked around my car admiring it, and would randomly give me pointers here and there about touching things up. He said he and many of his friends have extra parts laying around (such as oem black leather recaro seats) that they would be interested in selling if I was ever in the market. After talking for 10 minutes, he gave me his email address and left.

After vacuuming the car out, I went home and washed the car and gave the engine bay a good scrubbing! I took many pictures and I have posted them below so that when I do get the interior done I can look back at what it use to be and laugh ;)

Interior Pictures:







If you read my last post you will understand why this shot makes me happy :)


Here are a couple more driveway shots of her good side of course...



I would never post a picture of what the engine bay used to look like. But, now that it has all the parts that were missing and with me being able to clean it up some, this is how she currently sits!



It might look dirty to some of you, but I think she looks fantastic for a 37 year old car (with the owners before me neglecting her). That's all for today!

Broken Odometer? Oh yeah, Custom Plates Coming Too!

I noticed shortly after purchasing this car that the speedometer worked awesome, but the car was not recording the miles I was driving. I looked around to see if this was a common problem, and fortunately it was! I found a write up, had a friend come over (Chris), and help me because it's always good to have an extra set of eyes and hands when working with small, fragile parts. The write up for fixing the issue can be found here: http://www.bmw2002faq.com/content/view/72/32/

Here are a few pictures of the procedure:

After I removed the cluster from the car...


With the speedo removed...


Here is the back side of the speedo...


I didn't take any pictures, but we ended up measuring a pin that holds/turns the numbers and used a chisel to make a very minute notch that would catch the gear it was meant to.

Here are a few other pictures...





In the end...WE FIXED IT!!! The odometer and trip-o-dometer both work like they should and now the car can be honest again! Furthermore, my favorite part about having the miles work means I can track my gas mileage. I use this app called "Fuelly." I have attached a pic from my phone of my "Fuelly" profile below:



Can't wait to see what kind of mileage the three speed automatic transmission gets, haha.

Finally, I drove to the gas station and filled up, reset the trip-o-dometer and brought her home. I'll update next time I fill up and calculate what mileage this 37 year old car is currently getting!



I'm still throwing around ideas on what to do next with the car. I'm thinking that I'll get the interior redone before the exterior, because it would be really nice to not be afraid of what's under the seat and it would also be nice to go bare feet while driving once in awhile...

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I forgot to mention, on Tuesday (5-15) I drove the car through DEQ and it passed the emissions test! I couldn't believe that the car passed so easily too. I attached a picture of the slip below:



I ordered custom plates too! I have a temporary tag on the back window now since the custom plate will take two or three months to arrive. The plates are going to say "75 BMW." I'm pretty excited about it!

Maintenance Day

Today I took the '75 down to Salzman Motors in Wilsonville. It's a local BMW "hobby" shop that has been in business since 1975 and has serviced 2002's for 37 years. They were very nice and let me stand under the car while they were doing the oil change and showed me around the car, which I appreciated very much. Furthermore, my car was missing the air intake and an oil return line coming off the valve cover that recirculates into the intake. They found an extra one in the shop and installed it with a brand new oil hose for $25 which was really nice and helpful since I searched for days online without finding the part myself. Before I left, I mentioned that my blinkers worked sometimes, yet other times they would not. I was then informed that the hazard switch had to be perfectly centered when pushed in for the blinkers to work if it was faulty. Sure enough, the owner of the shop walked up, stuck a pin just to the side of the switch holding it perfectly in place and my blinkers started working again (looks like a new hazard switch will be ordered someday). The owner of the shop pointed out a few rust/rotted spots on the under side of the car and suggested having steel plates welded to reinforce the area when I have body work and paint done. Overall, I was very impressed with the care and help the owner and workers took with the car. A few other customers in the area (very old men) each told me that they had been coming to Salzman Motors for over 20 years and they trust them too.

Here is a picture of my car next to a few other 2002's outside the shop after the oil change :)





It was nice to have working blinkers on the way home since my tabs are expired...

Cleaning & Ideas

I have not driven the car in two days since bringing it home and today I really wanted to take her out on the road and see what she could do. I quickly learned that having a car with a carburetor means that you need to let it warm up or it will continually die on you until it gets warm (lesson learned). After driving the car around for five miles this morning I found myself enjoying it more and more even though it's by far the slowest car I've ever owned. When I returned home and safely put her away in the garage, I sat down and made a list of what I wanted to accomplish with the car. The list contained the following:

*Have all dents and dings taken out.
*Take out side markers and have the spots filled and painted (shave side markers). The European models did not come with these.
*Car resprayed factory color.
*Work on electrical issues (sometimes blinkers work, sometimes they don't).
*Tuck bumpers (or maybe leave front bumper off).
*New sunroof seal so it can go up and down, new windshield seal so the windshield doesn't always get foggy.
*Swap out seats or rebuild interior with similar style containing black leather instead of the cloth.
*Purchase and install full black carpet in cabin and trunk (currently has tan carpet in cabin and no carpet in trunk).
*Install new cd player and speakers (I know I know it won't look old school, but I like my music).
*Lower the car!

Since I did not accomplish anything with the car today, I snapped four pictures (one including the new tires) to show progression from the awful picture the night I picked her up, and where she is now after being in my care for a few days.

New Tires (Falken Sincera tires 185/70/13):


Three different shots at the car in the sun light:





Today I received a present for the car in the mail. New valve stem caps from ebay (haha)! They are now on the car, but here is a picture of them still in the box:



I really like that the back windows push out! This car sure does have a long way to go, but I can't help but grin as people consistently give me the thumbs up when I'm driving her and I get compliments every time I park! I am still trying to come up with a nickname for the car, AND ideas for a custom plate...

The Beginning of My New Obsession

Tonight (May 5th 2012), I picked up my first classic car. The car would not start upon the turn of the key, which then the owner informed me that she had not driven the car in almost two years and it was most likely out of gas. After going to the gas station, buying a gas tank, filling it with gas, and then putting the gas in the car, she started right up after a few punches to the gas pedal. I also noticed that the car was missing a breather hose off the valve cover and the air filter on top of the carburetor was completely missing as well (but she will be taken care of, don't you worry). She is a 1975 BMW 2002 in Fjord Blue Metallic. When I began the hunt for an old BMW, I was somewhat worried about reliability, maintenance, and other factors that come with restoring and maintaining and old automobile. But after further research and getting behind the steering wheel of this '75, I instantly fell in love. The car came with a large pile of receipts and made it 22 miles home at 65 mph the whole way. Many of the dash components do not light up, and she did die once a few blocks away from the house, but I am determined and very excited about making her run and look as good as new in the future.

Her is a picture of her at the local gas station filling up to make the trip home since she was bone dry and had not been driven in over one year!



Although she looks very rough, I have high hopes that she will one day be parade and car show material!


The quick run down on the car:
*1975 BMW 2002
*96k Miles
*Automatic Transmission
*Original everything (including radio!)



The next day I dedicated six hours on spraying moss, leaves, and sticks off the car and giving her exterior a full detail. After getting the car somewhat clean with a thorough wash, I used clay bar, compound, polish, and finally wax on her 37 year old paint. She looks much better (although the shade sure does help)!



When I finished washing the car I continued to my last step in the detailing process which includes applying tire wet to the tires. I quickly realized that the tires were very bald (didn't notice this the day before when I purchased the car because I test drove/bought her at night. There was even steel coming out of the front left tire! So the following day (Monday the 7th of May) I went on over to America's Tire and purchased four new Falken Sincera tires 185/70/13 so that she would be acceptable to drive without the fear of a blow out! They look very nice on the car and fit her body well.