engine and drivetrain Intro to me and my '02

[HarryPR]

Great story and great car! Hope you enjoy it for many years to come.

I see that you're in MSP. Watch out for that Blunt guy, our resident parts pusher, who lives in Wayzata. He'll make you spend a fortune with his great prices and excellent service. And, after you see his cars, you'll start scheming to buy two or six more of these little cars to mod the hell out of them.

Welcome to the cult!

[BillWilliams]

We hope to see you sometime at one of our events. Tag along with BLUNT/Steve/Butch to the Vintage at the Vineyards over Memorial Day.

Bring the wife, most of them like this event more than some of our others.

[mcaden]

I think life is cyclical and good things come to good people... so you must be doing something right. Your story is a dream to most of us and it sounds like the good doctor realized you would be the perfect steward for the cherished 02 he bought for his wife. Welcome aboard.

-Marc

[Gordon]

Great story and welcome to the insane asylum. I've been driving an 02 since 81, my first 02 was a 75 Euro spec 1802 (sahara). I'm now driving a 74 2002tii sahara. You either like sahara or you don't, I like it.

Since you said your new 02 will be your daily driver, hopefully you won't be driving it in the MN winter, it will be parked and stored over the winter months, right? Keep us updated on the progress of your car, you may want to start a blog page on the forum.

http://www.2002haus.com/gmantii.htm

G-Man

74 2002tii

70 2800 (Euro spec)

81 528i (Euro spec)

85 525e (Euro spec)

86 325

91 318i

[craaaazzy]

i had fun reading ur experience. welcome to the board and have fun w/ the car.

[dubois]

Welcome, what a nice story, worth publishing in the Roundel.

[02for2]

Great story and great car! Hope you enjoy it for many years to come.

I see that you're in MSP. Watch out for that Blunt guy, our resident parts pusher, who lives in Wayzata. He'll make you spend a fortune with his great prices and excellent service. And, after you see his cars, you'll start scheming to buy two or six more of these little cars to mod the hell out of them.

Welcome to the cult!

Yea, you're right about Steve. I was just at his home on Thu. to pickup a new Tii manifold for the car.

Cheers!

[02for2]

Great story and welcome to the insane asylum. I've been driving an 02 since 81, my first 02 was a 75 Euro spec 1802 (sahara). I'm now driving a 74 2002tii sahara. You either like sahara or you don't, I like it.

Since you said your new 02 will be your daily driver, hopefully you won't be driving it in the MN winter, it will be parked and stored over the winter months, right? Keep us updated on the progress of your car, you may want to start a blog page on the forum.

http://www.2002haus.com/gmantii.htm

G-Man

74 2002tii

70 2800 (Euro spec)

81 528i (Euro spec)

85 525e (Euro spec)

86 325

91 318i

I agree with you about Sahara. If I had the choice, it might not be my first pick of color, but as you read, I'd didn't have too much say in the matter. It has definitely grown on me these past 6 weeks to the point where now I like it alot.

Actually, I will be using it as my daily driver through the winter months. But, if you read my other posts, you'll see that I do not commute daily and can pretty much set my schedule to avoid the worst days when the slush and salt are prevalent. I figured this car was made for Bavaria and their winters are extremely similar to ours.

Also, one thing I spent alot of time on these past 6 weeks was preparing the car for winter. I went to all the critical areas underneath and keyed the paint, followed by a coat of POR15, followed by 2 coats of rubberized undercoating. This was followed up by having Ziebart apply their undercoating.

I replaced the rotors and shoes and each of these was powdercoated (hats on rotors in/out and exterior of shoes.), also, all underbody members were painted and then given two thick coats of paste wax. Any exposed bolts/nuts were given a liberal coating of copper anti-sieze where exposed.

I also have a good friend who owns a gas station just 4 blks. from my house. I am the principle wrench in teaching him and helping maintain his outstanding Jaguar XJ12 Cabriolet, and in gratitude, he has given me free and unlimited access to the car wash at the station - I can wash the car 3 times a day if I wish.

Finally, my wife travels 50% of the year, throughout the year - home 2 weeks, gone 2 weeks. So 50% of the time, I will have her Jaguar S-Type available to me to use as well. I think the car will weather winters just fine. In spring, I'll closely inspect the car and reassess.

Cheers!

[nesky45]

Great story. I personally really like Sahara. Low key and easy to maintain.

[BarryA]

Actually, I will be using it as my daily driver through the winter months. But, if you read my other posts, you'll see that I do not commute daily and can pretty much set my schedule to avoid the worst days when the slush and salt are prevalent. I figured this car was made for Bavaria and their winters are extremely similar to ours.

won't be the only one to say this, but even with all of your careful bad weather prep, it seems like a pity to subject such a low milage, original car to winter conditions - '02's DO rust, and there are numerous pockets in the body shell that trap moisture, even if they're not directly exposed to what a friend refers to as "road salsa".

If you do decide to drive it in the winter months (or in inclement weather) watch for material packing up around the turn signal buckets at the top of the front fenders, at the trailing edges of the front fenders, and inside the rear shock towers - all three locations are common spots for rust to get started. In addition, if the car has a sunroof, consider rerouting the rear sunroof drains - one of the factory's less well thought out decisions routed the drains directly into the rocker panel area below the rear quarter windows......

[SactoDave]

First, welcome to the wonderful world of 2002's! You may wish someday that you ate the red pill because now you're IN the matrix!

Next, and more important, please offer us your sage advice on how to get semi-retired and marry a substantially younger wife who travels 50% of the time allowing us to "tinker" in the garage!

That's good living!

Dave

'75 2002 Chamonix

'87 325is

'00 528i

[Gordon]

Actually, I will be using it as my daily driver through the winter months. But, if you read my other posts, you'll see that I do not commute daily and can pretty much set my schedule to avoid the worst days when the slush and salt are prevalent. I figured this car was made for Bavaria and their winters are extremely similar to ours.

But if you've been to Germany lately, you'll notice no old school cars on the road. They've all rusted away. You rarely see a 2002 in Germany on the road. The ones that are left, enthusiasts have them and they drive them in the summer. Highly recommend that you try to drive a beater in the winter. Just my .02 cents worth.

G-Man

[Jim_75Sahara]

Fascinating tale. And the best part? -- it's Sahara!! Don't go painting it Inka, OK? Treat BLUNT right, he's a good friend to have!

[02for2]

First, welcome to the wonderful world of 2002's! You may wish someday that you ate the red pill because now you're IN the matrix!

Next, and more important, please offer us your sage advice on how to get semi-retired and marry a substantially younger wife who travels 50% of the time allowing us to "tinker" in the garage!

That's good living!

Dave

'75 2002 Chamonix

'87 325is

'00 528i

Well, sorry for the long post, but you did ask, and there is really no simple answer.

I'd be lying if I didn't say that the 'Luck of the Irish' played a large part in my good fortune, because it did. Several times in my life I have been in the right place at the right time.

But, a lot of credit goes to my parents who moved the family to europe when I was 2. My late father headed the Int'l. div. of a fortune 500 co. (think sandpaper and Scotchguard to name a few). This was before Sputnik flew and at the time companies were having trouble enticing execs to move overseas. As a consequence the perks were tremendous. One of which was that my dad's co. would pay to send your kids to whatever school you wanted and could get into. That meant I attended some of the finest schools in the world - something my parents could have never afforded.

We returned to the states when I was 16 and I finished school here and went to college. Between college and grad school I started working in a local hotel and found I enjoyed it and had a knack, so I never went to law school as planned and started as a low level dept. mgr. for Holiday Inns - no franchises - all corporate owned. My 1st salary was $8k/yr. - all the money in the world I thought. But much to the disappointment of my father, who saw me as the family's first lawyer.

Early on I made a pledge to retire at 50 so I watched my money wisely and started getting it to work for me.

As I rose through the ranks, I caught the eye of a guy who went on to become the Chaiman of Holiday Corp. and as he rose the ladder, he brought me along with him. At that time, Holiday Inn had very nice Cloisonné and 18k gold nametags which took about 3 mos. to order, produce and deliver, and at one point I was 3 steps ahead of my current nametag.

I met Curt Carlson one day, the founder of Radisson Hotels, who offered me a spot in the 1st class of their Corporate Training Program - a sure path to senior management. I did very well with Radisson transferring to the Radisson Chgo. as the asst. mgr.

A year later, the hotel was bought by Intercontinental Hotels and they retained me through the changeover. A month later, their installed, euro-trained, GM suffered a heart attack and was forced to leave the co. They put me in as interim GM and within 6 mos. offered me the position permanently. At that time, the GM of a major hotel (1000+ rooms) was required to live on the property and as part of the compensation pkg. has what was termed 'Full Maintenance'. This meant that ALL my expenses were picked up by the company - I had a 3 BR apartment, no rent, no phone or utility bills, free dry cleaning, maid service, free Room Service, a generous clothing allowance, full health and dental coverage, life ins., a free car whenever I wanted one - we had a rental car kiosk in the hotel and part of the deal (which I wrote) entitled me to a free car.

My salary was in the $85k range (w/ a 50% bonus structure). I was single, 28 yrs. old, living on Mich. Ave. in downtown Chgo. and no monthly expenses, and this was during the Reagan yrs. I invested all that I could, made some, lost some (I bought Microsoft @ $0.27 - unfortunately I sold it at $0.95 - dumb move there but who knew?). I left Intercontinental 6 yrs. later as a result of turning down a promotion which involved a year's training in London - at Intercontinental you don't turn down promotions - you move Up or you move Out. London is VERY expensive and would have been no net gain for me. The GM in Las Vegas was their 2nd pick and after training, he was installed at the Intercontinental in Kuwait City where 5 yrs. later, he was shot dead in the Lobby by advancing Iraqi troops - I told you luck played a part!

A small independent co. w/ 28 hotels of varying brands in 17 states recruited me to be their president. Part of the deal was that if the company was sold within the first 3 yrs. I was with them, I would receive 3% of the sale price as part of my parachute - I mean I was leaving the Big pond where I had established great contacts and a good reputation to move to a much smaller pond, and I needed a safety net. The two owners agreed because they never foresaw a dissolution of the company, especially in the coming 3 yrs.. Well, 2 yrs., 8 mos. after I came to work for them, one of the Partners wives sued him for divorce forcing a sale of the company... Cha Ching!

Anyway, during that time, I interviewed and hired a lovely young lady to manage one of our Holiday Inn Express properties in Mpls. She was bright, energetic and well schooled. I hired her away from one of the largest Country Clubs in the area which she was managing. Anyway, I left the company in the sale and a yr. later I was in an airport bar in DFW when this woman came up to me. She was still managing the hotel and we sat and chatted. During the conversation, this woman said that she had enjoyed working for me, but that it had been difficult working for me too - something I rarely heard. She went on to say that she had always had strong feelings for me and we decided to continue the conversation over dinner at some point back in Mpls. I asked her out and we chatted til the restaurant owner finally asked us to leave. She moved in with me 3 weeks later, 2 yrs. later we were engaged, and we've been happily married for the past 10 yrs.

In our first year of marriage, my wife was recruited by a large local catering co. who was interested in starting a Golf Div. to produce the catering for major golf tournaments. They hired my wife as an account exec to service the 2 major tournaments they had contracts to produce. Today, this company produces 47 major tournaments a year and my wife, now Senior Vice-President, personally runs all the FedEx Cup tournaments, The Players, the Tour Championship, the past 4 President's Cups in additon to snagging the Volvo Ocean Race in Boston and the US Open Tennis Tournament. The salary and perks are very good and as they say in the MasterCard commercials: "Wife who loves her job... PRICELESS!"

The time apart isn't always the best, but the homecomings are good. And, with my schedule, I can often slip away and join her at the end of the tournament. We accumulate more airmiles than we can use, but it's been a great ride.

That's how I did it. Hard work, planning, and Lady Luck. The best part of the journey has of course been my lovely wife Brenda, all the rest is good, but I'd give it all up in a heartbeat to find what I have with her.

Cheers!

[ArdenK]

Awesome story about your 02.

Sounds like the bug is nibbling at you.

Have fun!