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  • 2008
    • April
      • Steering Install
        04/05/08
        The steering box seems to work fine, so I filled it with Quaker State gear lubricant and reinstalled. The key to this install is to loosen the link on the steering shaft and slide it up towards the firewall. Mark it first so you know where to slide it back. Then bolt the steering box in and slide

      • Five Speed
        04/01/08
        I found a 320i 5 speed on Ebay a while back. Mike Hannigan sent me a shortened drive shaft. I then called Dave Varco for everything else. He sent me the trans mounts, a new 215 clutch, slave cylinder, and various other hardware.

        Kunkel's in Bel Air resurfaced the flywheel.
    • March
      • Front Suspension
        03/09/08
        The front suspension is back together. There are a lot of new parts. As I said back in December, the front subframe and suspension arms were in bad shape. KC set me up with parts from a donor car.

        I then moved on to the struts. They've been cleaned up and painted with black rus

    • January
      • New Seats for the 2002
        01/08/08
        I am not putting a lot of effort into the interior of the 2002 yet, but the stock seats were simply unusable. Many miles and some years parked in the desert had pretty much destroyed them. They were uncomfortable, and probably a dusty, moldy health hazard.



        I picked up a se

  • 2007
    • December
      • Front Subframe Installation
        12/20/07
        There is a lot of debate on the bmw2002faq.com about how to correctly use POR-15. My experience with this front subframe is that POR-15 sticks great to freshly sandblasted metal. We will see how it holds up as the years go by, but here's a picture of the finished product:


      • Front Subframe Removal
        12/11/07
        With the new front subframe painted and ready to go in, I needed to remove the old one. The problem is that the subframe supports the engine. I really did not want to pull the engine so I decided to support it from above. Using a scrap 2x6 and a pair of 500 lb tie down straps, I built a cradle.

    • November
      • New Wheels for the 325is
        11/12/07
        BMW purists are gonna hate me, but I bought a new set of non BMW wheels. The Michelin's were getting bald and dangerous in the rain. I've always wanted to step up to 17s, but could never find the right deal. While shopping on TireRack.com I found this set of Sport Edition (TireRack'

    • October
      • Front Subframe Sandblasting
        10/10/07
        So upon closer inspection of my front subframe, I discovered that it's bent. The front suspension arms are a little tweaked too. There must be a Hazzard County in Arizona I guess, because this car has some frequent flier miles. Luckily a call to local 2002 guy kcdonahue yielded a whole new su

    • August
      • New Rear Shocks and Springs
        08/20/07
        The undercoating in the rear wheel wells was chipping off in some spots. I scraped off all of the loose material with a scraper and then a wire wheel on the die grinder.



        Most of the undercoating was still good.



        I then used steel wool and paint thinner

    • July
      • Rear Subframe Rebuild
        07/23/07
        After many months of having only two wheels, the 2002 is now back on the ground. The rear subframe was removed as I discussed previously. All of the old bushings were pressed out. I cleaned, sandblasted and painted just about everything. I used Gloss Black Rust-Oleum.

        The rear diff mo

    • March
      • Rear Subframe Removal
        03/31/07
        The first step in rebuilding the rear suspension is to drop the entire subframe. We already dropped the drive shaft, removed the axles, and disconnected the rear brakes. The next step was to disconnected the shocks and removed the springs. After lowering the car over a shop cart and supporting th

      • New Wheels
        03/07/07
        My custom made 15" Rota RB wheels arrived today. When you put 15s on a 2002 you usually need spacers or fender flares. Luckily I got in on a group buy of custom ordered 25mm offset wheels on bmw2002faq.com. These wheels should fit perfectly with no modifications. Plus they look like classic

      • Rebuilding Axles
        03/04/07
        I guess axle rebuilds are one of those projects that build character. I feel great that I know how to do it now, but I hope I never have to do it again.

        The axles and boots on this car looked great, but they had to be rebuilt. I have a new (used) 3.91 LSD from a 320i. In order to swap

  • 2006
    • December
      • New Exhaust Hangers for the 325
        12/21/06
        I found that one of my stock exhaust mounts was broken. Since I have an M3 exhaust system, I ordered the heavy duty M3 hangers from Bavarian Auto. They are much more solid that the stock 325 units. Spraying the rusty bolts with "Blaster" the night before made the job easy.

      • Momo steering wheel
        12/21/06
        Installed a new(ish) steering wheel and fixed the horn.

      • Fixing the ground problems
        12/10/06
        This car had a lot of the typical electrical gremlins. The gauges jumped when the turn signal was on. Only a few of the marker lights wanted to work. I added a ground strap from the battery to the body, which helped a little. The thing that really did the trick though was to clean the fuse box with

    • October
      • e30 Alternator Upgrade
        10/21/06
        I have an electric fuel pump. I wanted to add an electric fan and someday I may put a radio in this car. I figured it was time to upgrade the alternator. I decided to follow Zenon's How-To.

        I called up Terry Sayther Auto, and Rhett sent me the E30 alternator and required brackets.
    • September
      • September 2006
        09/30/06
        Engine runs great now. I did not realize that the timing had to be set at 1400 rpm. Smooth idle now.
        I also installed new stainless steel brake hoses from Ireland Engineering to solve what felt like binding as I pulled away from stop signs.

      • August 2006
        09/01/06
        We cleaned up the transmission and found that it was "sealed" with silicon. It must have been taken apart at some point. After talking with local 2002'ers Tim and Casey and local shop owner Mark Raspi, I decided to just try to seal it up again with silicon and save money for a 5 speed

    • August
      • July 2006
        08/01/06
        Installed new plug wires. The old ones were falling apart. Traced a few wires through the engine compartment to solve a gauge problem and to more permanently connect the coil.
        The transmission shakes like crazy. It's a four speed...probably the original. The trans mount is completely split

    • July
      • June 2006
        07/01/06
        The first goal is to get the car running so we can evaluate what the long term plan should be. I pulled off the wheels and had the old tires removed. I cleaned the wheels up and repainted them silver. We put a set of Pep Boy's basic 185/70-13s on for now. I still need to polish the trim rings a

    • June
      • May 2006
        06/01/06
        Our initial inspection of the car showed that it needed some love but there were a lot of pleasant surprises. The interior is in bad shape. The seats, carpet, door panels, and headliner will all have to come out. I would like to change everything over to black leather from a later model. The trim is

  • 2005
    • August
      • The Lift is Installed
        08/10/05
        We designed the whole house around this one tool and now it's finally being installed. Well...OK...maybe not the whole house.

        Before finalizing the design of our new garage, I talked to the guys at Kunkel Service in Abingdon, MD. We decided that Rotary's 10,000 lb two post lif