daisy.

paint is done...

Thu, 1 May 2008 00:09:24 -0700

Andy Schank in Richmond finished the body work and paint in record time (less than a month including vacation) and turned out a job I am completely happy with and can confidently recommend him to those looking for an affordable paint job that is done the right way. He made sure to put in the work that is required of restorations, cutting no corners. I could write a novel regarding my disdain and anxieties when it comes to taking a project like this to a body shop. Andy, a one-man shop, gave me minimal orange peel, clean lines, a beautiful even finish of a hard-to-shoot pearl/metallic paint and clean seamless rust repair and shaving. Check out the ‘project gallery’ on the main 02 page for more pics of Daisy in blue primer.

The color, ‘mystic blue”, is a wonderful color - very 3D in it’s highlighting of the body lines (of which Andy had to re-establish on the entire driver side of the car and sunroof), while still being subtle. Indoors, the color is a dark blue, which lightens up considerably in the sun. While it is hard to get a sense of what it will look like as a shell, I believe the removal of the side markers, US license plate lights, and US bumper mountings really clean up the car and take some of the ‘ugly’ out.

Daisy is going to back @ A1 with JP tomorrow, and the motor should be back soon as well. Blunt is sending over all the new window seals and trim from BMW’s Mobile Tradition parts. Now have to decide what to do with the interior...suggestions? Thinking about keeping it tan, but undecided on possibilities concerning audio (none, simple system?), rear seat (or rear seat delete?), front seats (stock rebuild, recaros, other? - like the look of the originals, like the support of an aftermarket seat), roll cage (half, full, none).

m20 to the machine shop.

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 01:32:42 -0700

JP made quick work of dismantling the m20 in the back of the shop - he pulled it out of a customer’s wreck that had 200k on it. Although still running, it was burning oil. Once we opened it up, the head was immaculately clean - the oil must have been changed very regularly. Last Friday I rented a cargo van and drove the m20 over to Terry Tinney to do the machine work. He is also supplying custom forged pistons that will provide a California-safe 9:5;1 compression ratio as well as an s50 crank that will combine to stroke out the m20 to 2.9 liters. Terry will also be doing some porting on the head, and JP will assemble everything at the shop and port match the manifolds.

ready for paint...

Thu, 3 Apr 2008 01:13:14 -0700

JP has made the car a roller again by installing the freshly-painted subframes and some of the essential new suspension bits and throwing on the old wheels. The car is completely stripped as of now, and he cut out the slats for the installation of the earlier chrome bumpers in the front valence. We were able to use an early 02 in the shop to measure the cuts - turned out perfect, as it lined up just right with the frame rail to which the bumper brackets bolt onto.

Once we got the car towed over to Andy Schank, he got a quick start on Daisy - he immediately made quick work of the remaining rust repair (front valence, rear driver side passenger panel, as well as patching up the spare tire well, which had been previously fiberglassed over). He also got a chance to pull out the major dents as well as start to put filler on the car. Andy also found all the small spots of rust and took care of business - one suspicious area of bubbling on the passenger side quarter panel was thanks to loose sound deadening material on the inside of the panel, causing moisture to be trapped. It is times like these that I am glad to have gone to a painter experienced with restorations - if he had not caught the root of the problem the bubbling would have come up on the new paint almost immediately. Andy also cut out the passenger side fender, as the rust where it meets the rocker panel was not worth fixing - JP had a spare fender up in his attic, so that will be hung on there.

Daisy is being painted ‘Mystic Blue’, a newer BMW color that makes the bodywork a particular challenge due to it being a metallic with two pearls in it, giving the paint a very 3D effect that highlights the lines of the car and wheels arches, etc. Speaking of which, Daisy’s lines need some reshaping, so Andy is on that. He also shaved off holes for the old bumpers (including the large holes for the rear bumper shocks) as well as the side reflectors - should help to ‘take some of the ugly out’ and provide a cleaner look. I took Andy’s advice to keep the side molding trim to keep the hassle down and keep the character lines

Click the pics for more pics.

undercoating...

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 21:30:46 -0700

JP finished welding/seam sealing the rust holes in the floors, as well as welding in a plate over a previous owner’s hackjob of the structural sheet metal that separates the trunk and the passenger compartment.

Today I donned a haz-mat suit, made a mini-spray booth with plastic sheeting, and sprayed Second Skin Audio’s Spectrum on the undercarriage and wheel wheels. I put on about 4 or 5 coats throughout the day; hopefully it was put on thick enough, as I am leaving the country next week and the car could be going to paint during my absence. Trying to decide between a blue or an off-white - was afraid of going very light with the late plastic grille, but saw one at JP’s that was done beautifully in Chamonix.

welding and stripping...

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:23:50 -0700

Progress on the build has been a bit slow as of late, as alot of time has been spent just trying to figure out the logistics of getting the motor to a machine shop and when/how we are getting the body to paint - on dollies, or putting up the newly-painted suspension and making it a roller.
Regardless, we are on the way to finishing the undercarriage - JP welded and seam sealed the driver side rear floorpan with no drama - the front passenger side was more of a challenge, as the new pan did not have all the factory bends in it around the transmission tunnel. At one point I believe my shoe was on fire as i was standing on the pan to keep it in position as he welded. Welds, then grinding the welds, and seam sealer - which takes a few days to completely dry - will make it possible for me to shoot the spectrum sound deadening on the undercarriage on Saturday. Have to go and pick up some tarps and plastic to rig up a mini-spray booth.
This week has seen the slowly-stripping down of the car as well, taking off all trim, windshield and rear window, grills, lights, bumper, etc. for paint.

motor plans change...

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:23:37 -0700

Daisy is getting a heart transplant, the old m10 now delegated to a cart in the back of the shop.
Once you get knee deep in a project as extensive as Daisy, plans change. After briefly driving Davin’s m20 powered 02, I was sold on the idea of a silky-smooth inline 6 with relative gobs of torque in the light 02 chasis. JP has an m20 in the back, awaiting tearing down and sending it off to machining. We are going to stroke the motor to a 2.9 via a crank/piston kit from Ireland Engineering. We have sourced another 5 speed transmission that has already been machined with a bellhousing to fit on up to the baby six. From what I have heard, my current Suspension Techniques sway bars will not clear the m20 oil pan, but the Ireland Engineering ones probably will. Currently up in the air are the exact way we are going to tackle the radiator/oil cooler (ireland engineering prototype vs custom) and fuel pump (rigging up some sort of in-tank pump and running a new copper feed line through the interior). JP has some interesting stuff cooked up for the engine management - more on that at a later date.

Floorpans and more asphalt...

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:48:41 -0800

Today we received the new floorpans from Germany for the passenger front and driver-side rear floor pans. Believe it or not, this was exciting news, as this allowed us to continue forward with the project as JP cut out the driver side rear floorpan and test-fitted the new pan (it fit!). New parts in also include 80 square feet of Damplifier Pro, 5 gallons of Spectrum and 4 sheets of Luxury Liner Pro from Second Skin Audio for the new sound deadening. The Damplifier Pro is Dynamat Extreme-style butyl-based sheets topped with foil that reduce vibrations and keep out exhaust and road noise and will be laid down on the interior floorpan and rear deck over a coat of Por-15. On top of the Damplifier will be, in select spots, Luxury Liner Pro, which also reduces ambient noise, though of a higher frequency. Spectrum is a strong curing-polymer liquid that will be sprayed as an undercoating, effectively sandwiching the floorpans with sound deadening material as well as providing a rust-resistant environment (fingers crossed).
On a different note, perhaps a previous owner needed to transport skis (this was pre-’ski passthrough’) or wanted to mount 3 12’s subwoofers behind the back seats and decided the most convenient way to do such was to cut a large hole in the structural sheet metal that separates the ‘boot’ from the passenger compartment. Today I spent most of the day contorting myself inside the ’02, chiseling off more asphalt so JP could weld in some new sheet-metal in said trapezoidal void.
Finally, Cris came by Saturday to drop off the wheels and tires. Unfortunately, I was not able to be there as I was out of town. The wheels look great though!

a week of scraping 30 year old asphalt...

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 23:57:36 -0800

Upon first inspection on the rack, Daisy showed minimal rust, including some surface bubbling and a couple of isolated holes in the floorpans. To prepare welding up said holes and putting on some fresh undercoating, I have spent a good deal of time scraping off old undercoating and oil/grease from the undercarriage, and getting the interior floorpans down to metal.
It was clear that a previous owner had attempted to cut corners to patch up the rust - employing seam-sealer and bondo. The factory basically used sheets of asphalt for sound dampening. On top of this, a pervious owner laid a bright-green foam. The mildew-ey smell of the interior gave me enough reason to rip out and chuck the ragged carpet, tear out the stained and torn headliner, and take out all the factory foam in various places throughout the interior. The source of most of the moisture was the passenger side footwell, which was soaked with water. Knowing that one of the holes was in the passenger side floor pan, I knew my scraping would not end well. The cause of the wetness could be a few things, shot weatherstripping or a leaking heater box being two.
The asphalt would not go into the dark night without a fight. I’ve heard that dry ice does the trick nice, but I wouldn’t know where to get dry ice and I guess I just love punishing myself, so I did it the old fashion way with a scraper and hammer. Tried an air powered wire wheel, which worked wonders for the undercarriage - useless for the asphalt. Also tried warming it up with a heat gun, but that just made a mess and gave me a headache.
Alas, the scraping ended badly, and I am now in the process of looking for a new passenger side floorpan to weld in. Found another locally, only to find that the donor car was sitting outside rusting itself away. I am leaning towards new metal, assuming I can get one relatively soon. A german company makes them, and hopefully 2002haus has them in stock.