engine and drivetrain Dewey the '02's Christmas Journey (long)

[CutteRug]

I will tell this tale from the beginning, and without abridgment. It is not a short tale, and I may ramble, but in the end I think you might agree; the wait was worth it.

A few months ago, in early October of 2009, I was obsessively scanning the SF Bay Area Craigslist ads for all-things-BMW, and came across a listing for a 1976 2002 that was being offered for a mere $500. Since I'm in the process of restoring my '75, I'm always in the market for a good cheap parts car...

So I made the drive up to Petaluma for a look-see. The car wore a faded Fjord re-spray, and had some good points and some bad points... Among the good: A pretty nice dash, a non-leaky sunroof, functioning doors, a running engine, some decent trim bits, a sweet Italian dual-tone air horn, and a particularly nice blue interior, redone in blue velour. Nothing fancy, but very passable for an interim daily driver.

Some of the car's shortcomings made its low price seem more reasonable: A flood-happy Weber, 13-inch turbines on ancient tires, leaking brakes in need of a bleeding, and a floorpan that was not only rusty, but looked as if someone had driven the car up and over a mountain of boulders. There was literally a two-foot by 1/8 inch GASH from the driver's rear drain plug to the front.

Along with the car's physical challenges, came a troubled pedigree. It was a California '76, with all the smog equipment removed (and with a tii exhaust manifold, yay!), and because it was non-smoggable, someone had let the registration lapse for SEVEN years! The guy trying to sell it had let it sit in his back yard for a year since buying it, and was just fed up. He wanted it gone.

So I offered him $380, and he accepted. My plan was to get the car running and stopping okay and drive it around for about a year while finishing my '75. (CAUTION - ILLEGAL CONTENT BELOW - POLICE, DMV EMPLOYEES, AND VIN-NAZI TROLLS, READ NO FURTHER!)

Since the car had what I considered a "fatal vin", I took the plates and vin plate from my registered-and-insured, but off-the-road '75, and put them on the Fjord. I promptly named the car "Dewey" after Dewey Finn (Jack Black's character from "School of Rock"). Since Dewey Finn was an *impostor teacher* in "School of Rock", and my new Fjord was a vin-postor, it only seemed apropos.

I spent the next few months sorting out Dewey's issues. Promptly bled the brakes, then swapped out the car's destroyed guibo, and threw on a working Weber 32/36 I had from another parts car (ironically, also a '76 Fjord). Dewey also ended up getting some fresh front calipers and pads, and I slapped on my 15-inch Alpina clones with some new tires. No need to wait to wear the new shoes, right??

And for those Flinstone floorboards? Fiberglass. I know! A sacrilege!! But I needed Dewey to be watertight for the winter, and just didn't have the time to rip out all the interior to weld patches into the floor... So, fiberglass it was... Remember - *interim driver*. Dewey's fate was to be a parts car in a year or so when I got my project back on the road. He would sacrifice his good stuff and the rest would go to the steel man.....

But that was not to be so.

On Friday morning, I ended up in my local Starbucks at a totally random time. I wasn't supposed to be there. A friend had locked her keys in her car AND forgotten her wallet, so she couldn't even use AAA. I was dragged from home to go rescue her, and further delayed with rainy-morning AAA wait times. So I shouldn't have been there. But I was. And Dewey was out in the lot, being Dewey. ;-)

Some guy walks in the front door and calls out, "Does anyone own the blue BMW 2002 outside?" Half of me is thinking, Cool, now the ladies in here know it's ME with the coolest car outside, and the other half is thinking, oh shit--he hit it!.

He obviously saw the trepidation in my face, because he assured me, "Nothing's wrong with it!"

Whew. And then he hit me with the zinger......

"I bought that car new and owned it for 12 years! My brother owned it after me! It was in our family for 20 years! Nice to meet you!" (his name was Greg).

So I went outside with Greg, and met his three brothers - Rob (who owned the car after him), Brian, and Chris.

As it turned out, the brothers aren't all still living locally, but they're in town and were all together because their mother just passed away and they're dealing with the funeral arrangements and whatnot. A trip to Staples (next to the Starbucks) to get Funeral invitations was what brought them right past Dewey.

They recognized the car because of the air horns in the grill, and because of the interior (which Rob put in in 1987-- and it still looks great!). We all stood around gushing and reminiscing. We popped the hood, I let them sit in it, and I even got to hear the story of how the bottom of the car got ruined....

Greg had been using the car to ferry supplies from a cabin, down a winding little road to a boat they were loading... He was backing up and saw a GORGEOUS woman... While distracted, he backed the car up onto a huge mound of boulders!! (funny - that's just what it looked like someone had done). He said he'd had to get the entire rear suspension re-done after that, but I guess they didn't notice the floor... Anyway....

It comes out during this little '02 pow-wow that Chris's son 'Nick' is fourteen and is tremendously interested in cars. After much research and thinking about it, he's informed his dad that he'd really like to fix up a BMW 2002.. When Chris heard that a few months ago, he'd said, "Oh yeah, like your uncles used to own back in the day."

Well, how about the EXACT one your uncles used to own back in the day?

Long story short (yeah right), they offer to buy it from me on the spot. At first I was reluctant. I mean, for all his faults, I really LIKE Dewey. I mean, he IS a 2002, right? So, I'm hemming and hawing, and every few minutes during our fun little parking lot chat, Chris says, "Seriously - how much would you sell it for??"

Finally on like the third time, I said, "I dunno, probably between 2 and 3 grand?".

"We'll give you three--" he says. "No, thirty five hundred!"

Honestly, I still wanted to think about it... So I asked if I could sleep on it. They said that wasn't a problem and we all went back to oooohing and ahhhhing about '02 goodness and the serendipity of family heirlooms and loved ones who pass on and then meddle in the lives of the living...

Finally, I'm (frankly) so touched by the whole thing that I blurt out, "Ahh hell with it. Let's do it. I gotta keep my wheels, but for $3500, I'll even throw in the Momo I put on there."

They were overjoyed. So am I. I just picked up a deposit today on the sale. I'll have about a week to swap the wheels back to the 13's and get the car cleaned up... We'll move it to Chris's warehouse and his plan is to bring his son Nick to the warehouse Christmas afternoon and present him with his "Christmas gift".

They've even got the two years needed to restore it before Nick is driving age. And this isn't any kid. This is the kind of kid that knows the difference between a roundie and a squarie and that you can run chrome bumpers on a squarie to get that "Euro look"....

In closing, I thought the only sad note to this story would be Dewey's poor heritage... Being a '76 with all those back fees due... It was almost Dickensonian in its tragicness... But Chris doesn't seem worried. Says he knows PD folks and DMV folks and all will be well. Heck, the pink I showed him today even still has his brother Rob's name on it.

Merry Christmas to all involved.

[jmon0261]

Great story. Cool that it is going full circle back to a family member of the original owner.

I just saw my Old 1970 Nevada that my buddies wife has been driving daily for over 10 years. He just repainted it again. This time Tampico.

Picture from when it was sahara.

About a month ago I reconnected with the guy that I had bought it from in 1995.

Not too many cars stay on the road that long like our 2002s.

[jerry]

great story. you did VERY well on that car. i'm glad it will be saved and loved.

the 76's are really nice 02's. they just seem more secure and quieter. pity about the smog thing.

[Mike Self]

Dewey and his original owners together...

I ran across the original owner of my '73 18 years after I bought it when I noticed his name in a magazine article--in a magazine I rarely read...and I was able to return a gold charm to his wife that she had lost back when they owned the car. I found it while cleaning up the car years later and kept it...just in case.

cheers

mike

[ProjectMayhem]

HAHA, its not the same, but i wonder where the owner(s) of my car is/are. I get the ole "i had one like that back in the day" all the time... cracks me up!!

[Gonzo]

What a great story. The 2002 a cult car? Not much.

[FunElan]

I'm curious as to who did my motor swap.....

[CutteRug]

I'm curious as to who did my motor swap.....

Huh?

Are you sure you didn't mean to post in another thread?

;-)

[FunElan]

well I probably should've added some context. I bought my car from a seller who knew none of it's history. It's had a motor swap with the engine number ground off, and the mileage is completely unknown.

But I forgot to add, very cool story!! The same thing happened with my dad's lotus, except the original owner was very old and did not buy it back haha.