Vera - My 1972 Tii urban refit

[Chi-Tii]

Heya Folks,

Thought I would share the long overdo mild refit of my Verona '72 Tii.

Year: 1972

VIN: 2761256

A bit about my 2002 history

In college I got a part time job and slaved away after seeing a neglected '62 Land Rover Series IIa 109 safari issue sitting in a barn begging for my attention. I spent the next 2 years restoring her to "highway safe" in between classes. What a beast. She had a PTO unit front and rear, levers and knobs everywhere, bunk in the back and a lot of issues. A massive Chevy Tornado engine replaced the undersized British 4 cylinder. She was a kind and forgiving car for an 19 year old and the Hippy New England chicks loved riding in it. It took forever for parts to reach me and was very expensive to work on. Never the less, my fondness for cars that predated my birth stuck ever since. Once I moved back to Chicago the Landy just wasnt practical as a daily driver. She actually took up 1 and a half parking spaces, so I would get two tickets if parked on the street. So, I gave her away to a older gentleman from the country that brought his two hunting dogs along to see her.

A friend from Germany turned me on to 02s and after a winter ride in his '75 Atlantic I was hooked. A few months later Bob Hart, although a bit concerned with my youthful city demeanor, let me drive home with an absolutely perfect '73 Inka. It was on a sunny Friday in June some 2 years later, when she was devastated by a red-light-running cab in downtown Chicago. I was at a stop light when the cabbie made a left turn on a red trying to get a fare and swerved into my front end trying to avoid his demise from oncoming traffic. I was very attached to that Inka and thought that was it for me '02 wise, it was like losing a child, but Bob reluctantly swapped a Tii with me and did the front end repairs on the Inka on his own I think back in Ohio.

My '72 Tii, Vera, wasnt perfect by any means, but with some elbow grease I knew at some point I could give her the attention she needed. I put Vera in heated storage until I had the time to tend to her due to intense work related travel. Now that I am back in Chicago, after many years of her waiting, this summer seems to be the right time for that exactly. There was some surface rust when I got her and the winters here are very salt heavy so there she sat in a sealed garage awaiting my return.

It is nearly impossible to find a garage you can "work in" here in the City and the long term garage's landlord stipulated that exactly with these firm words, "1 drop of oil on the floor and youre outta here..." So, last year I dragged her to the legendary Ben Thongsai to put her on jacks and take a look and see if there were any serious engine issues so she could at least limp back to her Urban home.

Vera's History

I am from what I have found, to be the 3rd owner I believe, possibly 4th. She was Malaga when she rolled out of the factory, but painted Verona at some point and turned into a "track car" of some kind during her stay in the south. She was also according the BMW registry, apparently on the Cover of Roundel in the late 80s, I have yet to find the exact issue though.

The current issues (From Memory)

Note: Actual list is 2 pages in Excel.

Slipping Clutch

Cracked Plastic Runners

Pedal Box rust disaster complete with "Mashed Potatoes" pedal syndrome

Brake fluid disappears as you pour it

Missing chrome trim all over the car

Engine Burps at low RPM

Water Pump leaking

Rich plugs on 3rd and 4th Cylinder

A LOT of poorly done DIY wiring jobs

Half installed AC rusted beyond repair

Inoperative heater core and controls

DIY Ancient Car Alarm spliced into console harness with cheap cut-ins

Mismatching bulbs everywhere (Even in the console)

Melted roundie lenses to match

Hazard button sticks in on position

"What gear am I in?" linkage syndrome

Very Loose shifting platform

Handbrake bent, a mess and loose cables trimmed all the way

Worn Belts

Very Loud Rattle in Tii belt box

Unbalanced Crankshaft Pulley

Fan with chipped blades

Missing rear Roundel and Emblem

Oil temp sensor shot

Fuel sender stuck at FULL

Rattle in the Speedo cable and wont register past 40MPH

Tii Cold start doesnt squirt right

Turn Signals don't stick (Have to hold stick up or down to get em to go)

Momo Wheel horn pressure switch mangled

Leaking Sunroof

Clutch pedal pops out and sticks at the worst of times

DIY bolt jobs all over the engine, some extending out 2-3 inches.

Various other PO DIY jobs gone wrong

Here she is coming home

Here is her interior

[Chi-Tii]

Rear Trim

A PO at some point during the repaint, decided to lose the Chrome trim. Specifically the lens to lens piece.

Steve Blunt set me right up for this job with not only a sparkling new chrome piece but the correct brackets and plastic "nuts".

Here are my guides, painters tape in the general area and a pencil for the mockups with the trim itself.

First task though is to remove the tap welds over the existing holes made by the PO .

Nothing a Dremel cant solve.

Some rust prevention and the proper nuts makes for a perfect snug fit.

And.. we have trim!

It actually took me a bit to find place for the extra bracket for this piece, its hidden under the trunk lock support.

[Chi-Tii]

Rear Emblem

I have had really bad luck with rear emblems. On my Inka it was ripped off the car while I was at the movie theater. I was parked in a busy area too which pissed me off even more.

This time around I aimed at avoiding sneaky hands getting away with my Tii Emblem. The secret to a theft proof Emblem? A Metric tap set!!

02' Emblems have this really shotty rubber nut system and the Emblem itself is unthreaded. My plan was to screw that sucker down real good this time around.

Here is the stock emblem studs, notice no threads here.

Here is my solution

I ended up doing this with the Roundel too. On the trunk side I used rubber washers, some clear silicone, Blue Loctite and good nuts.

[Koblenz]

I like the idea of threading the emblem. Nice 02!

[moses2002]

I kept getting the batches ripped off of my old E21 years ago but made the decision not to make them too hard to get off due to the fact that I'll just get my paint work ruined with a screwdriver or something.

[jgerock]

That looks like a very nice tii - even has custom steering wheel and that 3-gauge cluster on the dash.

Curious to know your VIN - please share so we can look it up in the registry.

Jim

[Chi-Tii]

Pedal Box

My brake fluid was disappearing half way into the reservoir, chances are there are two possible reasons.

First possibility, its disappearing into brake booster, second, its leaking directly into my pedal box via the Clutch Master Cylinder. The later was my case. To the point that when I poured in new fluid I could pop my head through the drivers side window and watch it flow out of my clutch master boot into a gooey ooze resting in my pedal box. Yikes!

The next reality I had to face was that not only did I have to remove the pedal box, because it is most likely rusted to hell, but replace the Clutch Master and Slave at the same time. Doing just one is bad form as the new unit will most likely force the other to fail.

There are some fantastic threads here on the FAQ regarding missing brake fluid aka "Yeah, you're gonna end up pulling your pedal box".

One of my favorites is Pedal box rebuilding leads to intro to hydraulic system.

The topic title alone is spot on. It set in quickly that if I was going to pull my pedal box, I would learn about the 2002's hydraulic system in the process.

When researching this project, one of the common themes is that its one of the most gruesome 02 projects to undertake. Nothing can be closer to the truth here. However, if you read the FAQ section you can avoid a lot of headaches with the simple fact that you can drop the pedal box without removing the brake booster. It doesnt make it easy, but it does avoid the "Screw this Im buying a Prius!" tantrum while removing the brake booster.

My pedal box was a combination of rust, bird feathers, brake fluid, wet noodle springs, missing plastic bushings, mud, sand, various lost washers and even gravel.

My plan was not to do a powder coat full on restoration of the box and pedals, but at least refurbish the damn thing to look better than a movie prop from "It came form the swamp...."

First thing first, I inspected the foam protection outside of the box. I reached into it thinking it was one piece that could jimmy loose. This was the result.

Next was pulling the box itself, this went just about as described in the FAQ, except I will note a few things to keep in mind next time.

Take good notes before you pull the box

Mark everything with a sharpie and take pictures of everything. This includes your throttle linkage on both ends, the washer, nut and bolt order, the spring positions and absolutely the throttle pedal arm position on the right side of box. The majority of my time was spent trying to get the throttle linkage back to where it was after my reinstall.

Here is the pulled box:

A mess for sure, but luckily I got to it just before it was going to go south.

I painted using a POR15 knock off with a bit of thinner and used Steve Blunts rebuild kit to great effect. No more mashed potatoes for my pedals. However, because I didnt note my clutch MC arm distance or the throttle setup exactly before removal, I am still tweaking it to get it perfect.

Here is the new box installed without the pedals that were still drying:

More pics to come of my shiny new pedal box this week!

My next update will be the clutch rebuild, which will show one of the most ready-to-fail clutch slave cylinders you have ever seen. Its quite a sight!

[Chi-Tii]

That looks like a very nice tii - even has custom steering wheel and that 3-gauge cluster on the dash.

Curious to know your VIN - please share so we can look it up in the registry.

Jim

Updated OP with VIN. Was very happy to see the engine matched as well.

[Koblenz]

What fasteners/mounting brackets did you use for the rear trim piece?

[Chi-Tii]

What fasteners/mounting brackets did you use for the rear trim piece?

I was really tempted to just jury rig it, but Steve blunt sent me the proper mounting brackets and "rubber nuts" to use. Was a bit surprised by how they did that setup.

The brackets look like this:

Cap nuts look like this, you do not use washers with them according to the manual at least.

[Koblenz]

That's interesting.

I have what appears to be the same bracket. I'm wondering if they come in various sizes. My trim piece is dwarfed on comparison to the bracket.

Do u have a pic of the install? I must be missing something obvious.

[02Les]

FYI:

2761256 was for sale in the Roundel mag Mar 1987 by Dan Bower, Winterville, GA.

In 2003, it was owned by the famous/infamous!!, Andy Stuckey in NC (at that time).