New 1975 Project, looking for a few pointers

[merek22]

Hi, I'm Merek, and I recently bought a 1975 BMW 2002, non tii or any of that. I am very new to working on cars, and get pointers for a friend in the rally business, although I am not actually making my car into a race car. So far I have installed Eibach Springs and KYB Shocks, and have bought 40 DCOE mikuni side-draft carbs, a performance header, and more parts for touch-ups.. ie window seals and e30 M3 sports seats etc.

Regarding the engine, it runs, just not smoothly, and has a lot of trouble starting, with lots of help from starter fluid. Testing it out, it got up to above 60 with no problem, but I haven't pushed it past that.

At the moment, to pass inspection, it just needs the exhaust system to be replaced, and some work on the lights, but wiring is simple, and worst comes to worst, I simply have to buy a new bulb.

The car has some rust in the floor pan, which I am about to work on, however there is a lot of rust on the frame rails... has anyone replaced frame rails before, and have any tips about the procedure?

Unfortunately my budget is quite limited, cause I am still in high school, and I bought this car to work on after school as a hobby and so I could have a car to drive.

After these changes, I plan to replace most of the interior and buy turbo flares and a fiberglass turbo spoiler, although I know polythelyne (or however you spell that) is better, there are only fiberglass "turbo" spoilers, which in my opinion, look way more awesome.

Thanks for the help.

[bluedevils]

Frame rails will be a challenge. There are two ways of doing it. Simplest and cheapest is to cover them from outside by steel patches. The expensive way is to replace them but you need a body shop who knows what they are doing, otherwise they may screw up the alignment.

[bluedevils]

Frame rails will be a challenge. There are two ways of doing it. Simplest and cheapest is to cover them from outside by steel patches. The expensive way is to replace them but you need a body shop who knows what they are doing, otherwise they may screw up the alignment.

[bianchini]

that thing looks just like my 02 i just picked up.

[merek22]

Thanks, and would you suggest making a whole metal frame to fold and weld at once, or just do it in patches, because I have seem some pics of people who cut out metal and bent it into another frame rail..

Also, what's the first engine part to look to on an old car like a 2002 for problems, other than a dead battery or carb? My 2002 can run, and once its warmed up, its fine, but it was a lot of trouble starting, with a lot of starter fluid.

[merek22]

Haven't had time for more work, but I did buy some M3 E30 seats for my 2002, but Mike Hannigan who I have read countless good reports about, seems yet again to be caught up in a project or backlogged with work, and hasn't even replied to an email in 2-3 weeks, and doesn't respond to phone calls. Not bitching, but trying to appreciate his work ethic.

[merek22]

Today I got around to starting my side-draft mikuni solex 38 DCOE carbs that I bought a little while back. Unfortunately I got stuck on one of the bottom nuts on the intake manifold, and ran out of time, so I'll have to continue that next weekend.

[DanOKC]

As far as what to look at on the motor, that's a loaded question, could be a number of things causing hard start. I'd suggest the obvious tune up stuff 1st, point's, plugs, dist cap & rotor. I would also recommend get a compression gauge, they can be had fairly cheap, run a compression test & record the #'s for later reference. Many 02 owners ditch the points & get a pertronix or better yet get an XR700 or similar, helps with worn out distributors too. But make it run good on points 1st. Is that the original paint or color ? I had an amazon green 74 the paint seemed to last forever on. I also need to do a frame rail repair on a couple of squaries I have now. I'm gonna try a patch job as posted on the Faq's here, mine aren't rusted as much as they are dented in.

[merek22]

Thanks Dan, I appreciate it. Yeah, as far as I can tell, the paint is original, but unfortunately, my frame rail rust is very bad on the passenger side. I think I will have to make an entirely new frame rail, rather than just making a template and welding it over.

[merek22]

Today I got a little more done, and thankfully now that the school year is over I have some time on my hands to really get this project on its way. Today I cut out a lot of rust in the floor pan, and I'm going to weld patches in on the drivers side but I need to buy a new passenger side floor pan, which I posted in the WTB section. I also removed the water outlet and because I don't have the right welder, gave it to a friend to modify so that my new dual carb setup would fit. No pics yet, nothing really worth showing.