318ti.org forum - Rob Siegel's 2002tii (BMW Roundel) for sale in MA

http://boston.craigslist.org/bmw/car/679712887.html

* Taken from his ad on CL Boston *

I'm trying this locally here on CL to gauge interest before I put it on ebay. I'm not likely to budge on the $8500 price. You can reach me at 617-365-8303. I like to talk 2002s as much as the next guy (ok, maybe more than the next guy), but please, if you're really interested in the car, read the entire description below, which I think you'll have to agree is more complete than anything you've ever seen, and then call me and say "I'm pretty interested in your car." Please, no calls after 11:00pm. --Rob

Hi. I’m Rob Siegel. For 20 years, I’ve been writing the monthly column “The Hack Mechanic” for BMW CCA Roundel Magazine (“The Magazine of the BMW Car Club of America”). I’ve owned over two dozen 2002s over the past 25 years. This doesn’t mean that I know everything, or even that I know more than you, but it does mean that you can trust me to tell you everything I know about this car.

Overview

This is a very pretty, nearly rust-free, round tail light ‘tii with just under 100k miles on the odometer, shiny fresh paint, a fair amount of new trim, and a nice-looking interior. It is basically stock except for the highly-desirable addition of a 320i Getrag 245 5-speed overdrive train and a short shift kit, 325i bottlecap alloys, fresh 14” Bridgestone Potenzas, Bilsteins, and big Suspension Techniques sway bars. It starts right up, doesn’t smoke, drives well, and has very few rattles. The time-worn statement “restore or drive as is” applies particularly well to this car.

History

The car is a 1973 2002ii, VIN 2762959. The VIN pegs it as a late ’72 tii, even though it is titled as a 1973. I bought it two and a half years ago from a guy in North Adams MA. The story is that the car was originally a California car that was recently brought east (plausible, as the car is practically rust-free; more on this below). The guy that I purchased it from said he bought it from a guy in Pennsylvania, who was the one who brought it in from California. In the pile of papers that came with the car was a copy of the previous title with the previous previous owner’s name on it. I tracked the guy down and he confirmed that he indeed bought the car in 1995 from a local enthusiast in San Francisco.

The guy I bought it from he took it into a body shop and had it repainted green. He then pulled it out of the body shop, with all the trim and glass still out of the car. He parked it in his garage, started reassembling it, lost interest, and sold it to me. I was in the right place at the right time. I’d just built myself a decent garage, and was looking for a new project. It was my first 2002 in many years. I slowly began putting it back together, thinking I’d keep it for my personal collection (it looks beautiful sitting next to the ’73 3.0CSi I’ve owned for 20 years). But I recently came into a 1999 M Coupe, which is my seventh car. That’s a lot of cars, even for me, and with two kids in college next year… well you understand.

Mileage

The mileage on the car is just a whisker below 100,000 (99,633). I believe that the odometer has not turned over. As I said, I chatted with the guy who brought it from CA. He said that when he bought it, the car was well cared-for, and had about 85,000 miles. Thus I believe that the 99k miles is original, and that the odometer has not rolled over. I have the original owner’s manual for the car, which on the last page lists an oil change on 6/12/1995 at 89850 miles. I also have a copy of the previous title, which shows that, two owners ago, the car was titled in Pennsylvania in 1999 with 93,000 miles, and that the previous owner bought the car in March 2004 with 96,742 miles on it. There are a handful of records from the previous owner, but not much. I bought it with 99,277 miles.

Body

The body of this car is remarkably rust-free for an unrestored 2002. There is rust in the spare tire well, which for some reason has been capped from the inside with a circular aluminum plate (see photo). There is a very small bit of rust forming on the lower inside of the right front fender, behind where the long rocker trim attaches. If you look inside the left fender, toward the firewall, where the fender is screwed to the car with three 10mm hex-head screws, you can see another small bit of rust (and you wouldn’t find it if I didn’t just tell you). And I recently discovered what appears to be a line of perforations on the right side of the nose, parallel with the sway bar. But that’s it. Frame rails, rockers, floors, and shock towers are totally clean, other than a few localized bits of surface oxidation where paint has worn away. The bottoms of the doors are perfect and freshly repainted. If I were keeping it, I’d hit the entire underside of the car with oil undercoating or Rust Extinguisher. Better still, like any old car – especially any old GERMAN car – it should be kept it out of the rain.

There are some minor imperfections in the body. You can see from the photos where the nose has been slightly marred at the kidneys, probably from a bumper-overriding incident. Why someone would paint a car without repairing this is beyond me, but hey we all make the decisions we make. If you look at it in the light, you can find a couple of very minor door dings.

Paint and Trim

The new paint looks very pretty, but it is not a multi-thousand-dollar hand-sanded job. There’s just a hint of orange peel to the paint, and there’s one truly unforgivable paint run on the right rear quarter. This could be wet-sanded out, but I have not done so, nor have I solicited quotes from a shop to do so. The car was originally Sahara (tan). The engine compartment and trunk were not repainted, and as such are still Sahara.

When I bought it, it came with most of the trim, but some of it was beat up to the point of being unusable when laid on top of shiny new paint. I combined what was usable with what I had accumulated through 25 years of BMW collecting and repairing, and purchased new what was missing. The long pieces of rocker panel trim tend to pop off some of the brand-new clips; this is common when the trim is old and the clips are new. Squeezing the trim with pliers slightly will probably solve the problem but I have not yet done so. All of the BMW Roundels are new. The net effect is pretty darned nice; when you see the car and walk around it, it is very attractive. This is somewhere between a “five-foot car” and a “two-foot car.”

Note that in the photos, one windshield wiper is silver and the other is black anodized. That has been changed; they're both now the correct original silver (though the wiper blades are black). Also in the photos, the windshield rubbers front and rear are missing the center chrome strip. These have since been installed.

Interior

The front vinyl seats are in excellent condition. They look like they were recovered at some point during the car’s history, but I do not know for sure. The bench part of the back seat was very torn, so I had it reupholstered. It does not exactly match the vertical part of the back seat, but you’d have to look closely to notice. The driver’s seat has two odd embossed flaws, like someone touched it with something hot, but they’re not too glaring. The door panels are in very good condition. I installed a new rug from World Upholstery and Trim. The total effect is that you open the door, look at the interior, and say “oooooooh.” The headliner has a few small tears, and there is the traditional dashboard crack that plagues most 2002s. I have a later model single-piece uncracked dashboard that I will include with the purchase of the car. The console is installed, but it is loose and slightly askew. There is no radio.

Engine

The engine has the E12 head with the Kugelfisher injection fully intact. The previous owner had a receipt showing that the injection belt was recently changed (there’s also a receipt for a new fuel pump). It has a new Pertronix electronic ignition. It’s got plenty of compression (165 160 170 165). It starts right up, even on cold days. It does not smoke. It does not do the classic 2002 take-your-foot-off-the-throttle-and-see-the-oil-get-sucked-past-the-valve-guides thing. The car runs rich until it is warmed up. During the cold weather, it did an odd thing where, once it was warmed up, if you shut it off and start it again soon, it ran horribly, very rich, not idling. If you toughed it out and keep driving it the problem went away. I have not tried to diagnose the problem. The warmer the weather has gotten and the more that I have driven the car, the less it has done this.

Transmission

Because I was planning on keeping this car, after I bought it, I installed a 5-speed overdrive Getrag 245 transmission out of a 320i. I resealed the transmission, and used a new clutch disk, plate, slave, center support bearing, pilot bearing, and guibo. Also, it has a short shift kit sourced from Nelson Jones, former owner of 2002AD. With the 5-speed, short shift kit, and new bushings, shifting is quick and tight, and of course the 5-speed is a joy, lowering highway revs considerably. The original 4-speed trani is yours if you want it; it has the beginnings of the obligatory 2002 2nd gear synchro munch (unlike the 5-speed which shifts perfectly).

Brakes

The car was pulling to one side, so I installed a set of newly rebuilt calipers, also sourced from Nelson Jones. It now stops nice and straight.

Wheels and Tires

The car has a set of E30 bottlecaps that are in pretty nice shape unless you look at them very closely and can see they’ve lost most of the clear coat. The tires are brand new 195/60 14 Bridgestone RE950 Potenzas, and they’re great. I also have a set of 320i 5x13.5 spoked alloys with Kelly 165 13 tires, as well as the car’s original steel wheels. I always envisioned the car with a set of Panasports on it, but never quite got there.