Correct Grills for U.S. 1973.

[AJK1976]

Hoping someone can give us a definitive answer on which grills should be in a U.S. 1973 .  Deep or Shallow? I've searched the forms and couldn't find anything that made sense to me.  TIA.

[esty]

late 72 and all 73 had the shallow headlight dishes...prior to late '72 the dishes were deep

[Mike Self]

Changeover was at VIN 2580165 on carbureted 02s and 2760504 on tii's.

 

mike

[AJK1976]

23 minutes ago, Mike Self said:

Changeover was at VIN 2580165 on carbureted 02s and 2760504 on tii's.

 

mike

Change over from deep to Shallow?

[esty]

12 minutes ago, AJK1976 said:

Change over from deep to Shallow?

see what Mike said....change over was at VIN 2580165 on carbureted 02s and 2760504 on tii's

[Conserv]

1 hour ago, AJK1976 said:

Change over from deep to Shallow?

Yes, so relatively early in the 1972 model year (January 1972) — September 1971 marks the beginning of the 1972 model year although U.S.-spec tii production began feebly in October 1971, with only approximately 422 tii’s manufactured by December 31, 1971.

The VIN decoder offered by the BMW 2002 Car Club of Columbia, generally very accurate, although not date specific, shows VIN 2580114 as the first U.S.-spec 2002 manufactured in the 1972 calendar year, and VIN 2760423 as the first U.S.-spec tii manufactured in the 1972 calendar year (there is a 1971 vs. 1972 build-date difference between that decoder and BMW Group Archives with respect to a few cars built on or around January 1, 1972). If, however, the first U.S.-spec 2002 with shallow grilles was more-or-less the 50th built in the 1972 calendar year and the first U.S.-spec tii with shallow grilles was more-or-less the 82nd built in the calendar year, the changeover from deep to shallow grilles was, indeed, an early January 1972 event.

 

We believe the changeover to shallow grilles, which occurred solely with respect to U.S. models, was driven by revised U.S. lighting standards. I’d have to guess that January 1, 1972 was the effective date for those standards — largely because January 1 was an effective date for most new automotive standards of that era — and that, for whatever reason, BMW was unable to meet the January 1 date, but implemented the change as soon as they were able.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

[Mike Self]

2 hours ago, Conserv said:

largely because January 1 was an effective date for most new automotive standards of that era — and that, for whatever reason, BMW was unable to meet the January 1 date, but implemented the change as soon as they were able.

This seems to be the way BMW operated WRT 1 January-mandated Federal changes.  Example--per the parts book, my '69 was the 40th car assembled with the 1 Jan '69-mandated Federal changes--the so-called "second series '69."  However the car wasn't assembled until 4 Feb 1969; I'd be surprised if BMW assembled fewer than 40 US market cars between 1 Jan and 4 Feb.  I do know that the factory assembled sunroof cars in batches (my car and the one whose VIN is one away from mine are both sunroofs--that's not a coincidence), but I don't know how large a sunroof batch came down the line sequentially.

 

Does anyone know the first VIN after 1 Jan '69?  I'll bet it's above 1664760, the last "first series" '69.

 

mike

[02Les]

17 minutes ago, Mike Self said:

 

 

Does anyone know the first VIN after 1 Jan '69?  I'll bet it's above 1664760, the last "first series" '69.

 

mike

 

1664492 was the first in Jan 1969.

1664565 was built 10 Jan '69.

No clue what would have been the first VIN of the '2nd series '69'

[Conserv]

36 minutes ago, Mike Self said:

This seems to be the way BMW operated WRT 1 January-mandated Federal changes.  Example--per the parts book, my '69 was the 40th car assembled with the 1 Jan '69-mandated Federal changes--the so-called "second series '69."  However the car wasn't assembled until 4 Feb 1969; I'd be surprised if BMW assembled fewer than 40 US market cars between 1 Jan and 4 Feb.  I do know that the factory assembled sunroof cars in batches (my car and the one whose VIN is one away from mine are both sunroofs--that's not a coincidence), but I don't know how large a sunroof batch came down the line sequentially.

 

Does anyone know the first VIN after 1 Jan '69?  I'll bet it's above 1664760, the last "first series" '69.

 

mike

 Mike,

 

According to the VIN decoder offered by the BMW 2002 Car Club of Columbia, VIN 1664492 is the first U.S.-spec 2002 manufactured in the 1969 calendar year. This is consistent with a manufacturing date of January 10, 1969 for VIN 1664565.

 

The end of the “first series” ‘69’s, VIN 1664760, by which I believe you mean long-neck differentials, etc., occurred in the last half of January 1969. This is consistent with a manufacturing date of February 5, 1969 for VIN 1664819. Could those changes be more driven by the bean counters and less by U.S. regulations?

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

Oops. Les got here first!

 

 

[Mike Self]

4 hours ago, Conserv said:

The end of the “first series” ‘69’s, VIN 1664760, by which I believe you mean long-neck differentials, etc., occurred in the last half of January 1969. This is consistent with a manufacturing date of February 5, 1969 for VIN 1664819. Could those changes be more driven by the bean counters and less by U.S. regulations?

So...it looks as if BMW were still assembling cars (several hundred, actually, from 1664492 to 4760) that didn't comply with the Federal requirements that began on 1 Jan '69, as the first one of those was 1664761.   And a 5 Feb assembly date for 1664819 is consistent with my car's 1664801 assembly date of 4 Feb.  

 

Sneaky folks...

 

mike

[AJK1976]

Thanks for responses. Without this site and its members, restorations would very difficult.