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The Roundie - 1973 BMW 2002

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  • #61
    Originally posted by MikeyRa View Post
    The back seat looks great, as for the carpet, just pull it out and dye it black as well!
    I thought about it, but I'm not sure the best way to go about it. For the vinyl, it was a spray on solution that worked brilliantly. The only carpet friendly options I can find (via SEM) note that it works best in small touch up areas. It's something of a carpet paint, and a lot of reviews note that it can get matted and gross fast. Ultimately I want to recut a few pieces to better fit around the pedals and seat mounts as well, so a whole fresh carpet would make that easier. It's not horribly expensive ($350 or so for a kit) and gives me a fresh slate to work from. This red one smells a bit funky too so... all the more reason to ditch it.

    Originally posted by Fruttolo View Post
    A roll bar is a no-no IMO, classic interior with bucket seats is "sporty street car", add a rollbar and you float between "hotboi wannabe racer" and "too racing to be classy". A nice and simple harness bar with black harnesses may be the good medium
    I actually gave this a lot of thought, and I'm still undecided on the issue. I look to cars like Ben Lau's 1600 and see a roll bar working exceptionally well in a classy car. Granted he doesn't have full bucket seats, but all the same the car looks dignified while still being "race car". You can see more of his car at his Instagram (@benlauis). The bigger concern is something you mentioned, which is harnesses. I'd like to run a full harness from a safety perspective. Simple harness bar options don't seem to mount as sturdy as a proper half cage does. Given the 2002's relatively weak B pillar area, I'd be concerned about that holding up properly.

    That said, I'm with you. I'm not sure how to feel about the cage in terms of being a classy street car. The more I drive this car, the more I'm itching to take it to the track. I did that with my E30 a few years back and got the bug, but lacked the funds to see it through. It's a bit of a confusing stage in my project, because as much as this is primarily a street car, the voice in the back of my head is screaming "Take it to the track". For now, this is all a non-issue, budget forces me to spend on things like rust repair and cooling system. However, this is something I'll have to decide in the near future. For now, no roll bar. I can't promise what'll happen in the future though. As we slowly start leaning towards "vintage canyon rat", things may change. I appreciate the input, always helps getting a second opinion on these ideas!

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    • #62
      Dude, this car looks sweet as hell! Wish i could get my hands on one!
      ///Grandalen

      - 2014 BMW 320D F31
      - 1989 BMW 320i E30
      - 1988 BMW 316i E30

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      • #63
        Originally posted by ///Grandalen View Post
        Dude, this car looks sweet as hell! Wish i could get my hands on one!
        Thanks! There are quite a few hitting the market right now, if you join some of the Facebook groups you can definitely find a good deal. Recently a guy was selling his widebodied 2002, super clean in and out for about what I paid for this rusty mess haha. If you need any help, or have questions about the car, feel free to shoot me a message. Always happy to help!

        The Other Seat

        Yesterday the other seat arrived. A small update, but one I wasn't sure would come so soon. Kadin from Car Make Corn's USA got it shipped over right away. Pro-tip for anyone looking to ship large parts, Greyhound is cheap as hell. I paid $49 to have this seat shipped from LA to Phoenix. The next cheapest option (UPS) was $150. I knew this was an option, but had never tried it before. Worked flawlessly and the package arrived in two days with no issues at all.


        A reminder on how small the ST really is. Box barely fit in there.


        Another mock up shot for fun. Helps me visualize it.

        So there it is. A couple of rare JDM parts in an old German bucket. After doing some measuring, I have decided against a rollbar in this car. While I personally like the look, there are some safety concerns with how bolt in solutions fit versus my height. I have to sit way back, which would put me almost under most bolt in solutions. Rather than risking knocking my head into the bar, I'll just run without it. I also (finally) ordered new hex caps for the RSs today via SpinFAB. Hopefully those will be here soon. Then I'm just going to trickle in some bushings, and other misc. bits to get the car sorted. I'm shooting for a Christmas Eve deadline to get all the major work done, as I'd like to take it on the annual cruise my friend's and I do. So hopefully you'll see more rapid posts as time goes on. I'll be at SEMA next week, so nothing will happen before then, but after we'll hit the ground running.

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        • #64
          Seat In and Other Updates

          So first thing is first. I mounted the other seat in the car. I'm about 75% happy with them currently because of the mounting situation. The Corn's seats themselves are fantastic, but I sit too close to the steering wheel still, and the generic Sparco brackets don't fit great in the cabin. It works for now, but I'm looking into revising this ASAP.


          I feel like 90% of this thread has been seat updates, but I guess it is what it is. I'm looking into seat belt solutions right now, as the stock ones don't play so nice with these seats. You guys were right, and I've decided no roll bar is the way to go. But I'll likely still need to go with some kind of harness bar, if I can't make a normal seatbelt system work. So I'm trying to find a solution that is reversible for that. As always, I need to complain about the carpet color. I'm going to source some new black carpet. I test dyed a scrap piece of carpet I cut (per your suggestions), and it did not work well at all. It comes out crusty, and nasty looking. Perhaps a dye solution where I submerged the carpet would be fine, but spray on does not work well at all.


          I also keep getting this reoccuring vacuum leak. This hose keeps popping off, no matter how I clamp it down. I had a similar issue on my E30 back in the day, but replacing the clamp solved the issue. Not so much here. Maybe I just need to tighten it down like a man




          Otherwise progress has been slow. I was at SEMA for a full week. I ended up seeing a few cars that may look familiar around here. Nothing is as motivating for your own car like seeing creations like these two. It's hard not to be inspired to build something crazy when you get home. But the crushing reality that you can barely spin a wrench sets in pretty quickly afterwards . Props to Riley and Mike for building such insane cars, I loved them both.

          Last but not least, a bit of shameless self-promotion. Another reason the 2002 hasn't gotten as much attention as I would like, is I've been in the process of launching a new business. I wouldn't mention it if it wasn't relevant to my car. We're selling Christmas ornaments, key chains, shirts and so on. But it's all based on the cars we are passionate about. This is the only mention I'll make of it here, because my build thread isn't going to become an advert for my products, but we worked hard and I wanted to share the final results with you all.






          It goes without saying the 2002 is my favorite of the bunch. All the reference artwork was based on my car, which makes it that much more special to me. We're starting with these 5 cars, and have plans to expand next year. If it does well, I'll have that much more in the budget for the Roundie . You can find this stuff and more at Speed Limitless.

          And now back to our regularly scheduled programming. I'm waiting for Black Friday to order in all my bushings. Restoration Design is still making my new diff cross member, so I haven't been able to take the car to the body shop yet. And my fabricator is still finishing other projects and hasn't been able to make my new core support yet. So there has been a whole lot of waiting going on. I may attempt the brakes again this weekend, as I finally have all the parts on the shelf for those. I hope.

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          • #65
            I know it's not the correct way and they should be attached level with the shoulders, but to not ruin the style I'd try to run the harnesses between the back and the bench of the rear seat and bolt them out of sight. That way you don't habe an harness bar looking odd in such an old car

            FB: @DumbassCarCrew - IG: @fruttolo_dumbasscrew

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            • #66
              Originally posted by Fruttolo View Post
              I know it's not the correct way and they should be attached level with the shoulders, but to not ruin the style I'd try to run the harnesses between the back and the bench of the rear seat and bolt them out of sight. That way you don't habe an harness bar looking odd in such an old car
              The problem with that is the danger involved. Since it's a street car, if I get hit it amplifies the chance of snapping my spine. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to make a version of the normal seatbelt layout work right. I'm thinking a combination of lap belt and Mk2 (or any brand) of pull up diagonals would work well. The key is to make sure it isn't sitting too high, or else you run into the same spine snapping issue. While I don't want to ruin the visuals of the car too much, I also don't want to make the car exponentially more dangerous than it already is haha.

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              • #67
                Originally posted by bwwaaaa View Post
                The problem with that is the danger involved. Since it's a street car, if I get hit it amplifies the chance of snapping my spine. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to make a version of the normal seatbelt layout work right. I'm thinking a combination of lap belt and Mk2 (or any brand) of pull up diagonals would work well. The key is to make sure it isn't sitting too high, or else you run into the same spine snapping issue. While I don't want to ruin the visuals of the car too much, I also don't want to make the car exponentially more dangerous than it already is haha.
                I want e36 cool stuff lmao. Love the look of the interior now. The carpet paint needs to be brushed while wet to keep it soft.
                2 328i e36's
                Saabaru linear 2.5na
                Various projects.
                sigpic
                Intro;
                http://www.stanceworks.com/forums/sh...19#post1598619

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                • #68
                  Originally posted by Quillhill36 View Post
                  I want e36 cool stuff lmao. Love the look of the interior now. The carpet paint needs to be brushed while wet to keep it soft.
                  There's E36 stuff on the horizon

                  I tried a combination of things, with the thick loop in the carpet the spray dye builds up top and doesn't really trickle down. Even working it in with a brush leaves a lot of red visible. Plus, even with cleaning the scraps before hand, the end result was a little crusty. Ultimately carpet kits for 2002s aren't that expensive, so it'll be worth just buying something already the right color. Sucks, but it is what it is.

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                  • #69
                    Excite. Doesn't really suck, you'lln have a brand new carpet instead of a repainted old one lol.
                    2 328i e36's
                    Saabaru linear 2.5na
                    Various projects.
                    sigpic
                    Intro;
                    http://www.stanceworks.com/forums/sh...19#post1598619

                    Comment


                    • #70
                      New Caps

                      So after losing one hex cap on the road a while back, I've been trying to get a matching fourth or source a new set. When you're picky, it's the biggest pain in the ass. I couldn't come up with a single V1 SpinFab small thread cap, although I'm keeping an eye out for one still. I contacted SpinFab directly, and they said they have moved on to the V2 design. If you look at the base of the hex, it has a slant to it as opposed to the flat base of the V1 cap. It looks fine, but I couldn't buy just one and have it be mismatched. So I ordered a full set in raw finish, and took it to a friend of mine to get polished. It was a pain to replace the whole set, but I guess these things happen. And it'll be nice to run waffles again, I prefer covering the lugs on RSs personally.


                      Blurry awful photo, but there it is in the raw finish.


                      Before and after


                      Sent to me in process.


                      Final

                      First and foremost, a huge thanks to my friend Nick (@nhammon) for polishing these. I've mentioned this before, but he's in the process of building a wild show Miata, and has been polishing brake lines for weeks now. So he was familiar with the process of getting the shine out of these caps. I probably would have mucked it up somehow, so it's great to have friends willing to help make sure things turn out perfect. So, definitely go give him a follow. I've tried to get him to start a build thread here, but that's been in vain .

                      For those of you that follow me on Instagram, I teased another car coming soon. In short, I traded one car I have in the garage (non-op), for another car that runs and drives, which will free up the garage. That means my Roundie can move into the garage, and I can put it up on jack stands for an extended amount of time and actually get some real work done. I'm getting close, and I'm really excited.

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                      • #71
                        Doesnt get much better than an 02 on RS'

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                        • #72
                          Winter Build

                          So the time has finally come to tear the car apart. I started the process yesterday after one last cruise. That was mostly to get as much gas out of the tank as possible, but it seemed like a fitting conclusion to chapter one of the 2002. At this point the car won't be back on the road for a few months I imagine. I started tearing apart the 2002 in my garage, and then it'll be towed over to a body shop for rust repair in the trunk. From there, it's off to my fabricator to build the tube core support, and get all the radiator upgrades taken care of. Then back to my garage for bushings, ball joints, etc. I'll also be finishing what I can of the interior at that time.


                          I don't have a ton of space, but it's more than I have had in the past. So I'm stoked on that.


                          Starting point. Dirty, rusty, not so hot.


                          I started by removing the tank. The debris there is actually mostly dirt and a foam seal under the tank. But there is a fair but of rust too.


                          Reminder that this shock tower is the main reason we are doing this.


                          My stopping point. Suspension, strut brace, battery and fuel tank out.

                          After some creative shuffling, the 2002 now has a garage spot, and I can wrench in peace for the next few months. So far everything has gone smoothly, but I anticipate a few hiccups in the repair process. I'm actually very encouraged by my tear down. Originally I thought my differential support was toast, there was a thick layer of rust under the bubbling paint. I took a wire brush to it, and a layer of rust came off and it was solid underneath. The bottom side of the car is likewise totally clean. I will be taking everything down to bare metal this week to ensure that it is as solid as it appears, but it is very encouraging that my diff support seems to be totally ok.

                          On the flip side, I did find a totally rotten section underneath the fuel tank. Fortunately this is significantly easier to repair then the diff support, so in terms of trade off, I came out way ahead. I'm hoping for a speedy turn around. After this round of build, the car will still be ratty, but have a strong chassis and nice interior. Hard to complain about that. If all goes to plan, the car will be ready for some longer road trips this coming Summer.

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                          • #73
                            Well done mate The only feeling I prefer to the one I get when I finish a project is the rush of starting it

                            FB: @DumbassCarCrew - IG: @fruttolo_dumbasscrew

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                            • #74
                              Just read this. Very cool. Front seats look great.

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                              • #75
                                Are you going to dye the door cards or replace them?

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